Hybrid nanostructures are a class of promising functional materials with a broad range of applications. Structural control has been proven to be versatile to optimize the functions and properties of the nanomaterials. Although polymer/inorganic hybrid nanoparticles have been achieved through self-assembly of block copolymers, synthesis of hybrid nanoparticles of small size (≤20 nm) remains challenging. Herein, we developed a conceptually new approach for the efficient and scalable synthesis of polymer/inorganic hybrid nanoparticles with well-defined shape and tiny size through the direct disassembly-assisted synthesis (DDAS) strategy. Incorporating cyanoferrate into polypeptides led to disassembly of large hexagonally-packed structures of polypeptide α-helices into small aggregates. Subsequent coordination polymerization of the cyanoferrate groups with Fe3+ in aqueous media afforded polypeptide/Prussian blue (PB) hybrid nanoparticles with well-defined core–shell structures. Hybrid nanoparticles were thoroughly characterized. Morphological and microstructural analyses showed that the hybrid nanoparticles had a small size of approximately 18 nm and crystalline PB phase. Taking advantage of the tiny size and crystalline PB phase, the hybrid nanoparticles showed excellent electrocatalytic activity toward the reduction of hydrogen peroxide. Such a direct disassembly-assisted synthesis of polymer/inorganic tiny nanoparticles provides a family of functional nanomaterials useful for biosensing and nanodevice applications.


We present a novel power-aware yield enhancement design methodology and reconfiguration scheme for deep submicron SRAM designs. We show that with the continued trend of raising array supply to counter process variations, it is more effective to use a per-element selectable virtual power-supply scenario as opposed to single array supply with traditional redundancy schemes. The element can be a bank, a sub-array, or an independent row/column, and the element's virtual supply value is determined based on fail bitmaps. The technique can also be used in conjunction with traditional redundancy schemes to further improve the efficiency. The supply and redundancy assignments can be obtained by relying on memory reconfiguration algorithms. For this, we propose a greedy yet accurate algorithm that runs in O(nlogn) as opposed to average case O(n2) traditional algorithms. The methodology leads to significant power savings ranging from 20% to 50% for 65 nm technology. We expect the savings to increase in future technologies as leakage powers dominate. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time such a methodology is applied to SRAM designs.


Guided by critical discourse analysis, commercially available exercise DVDs are described in terms of the instructor and model characteristics, and the motivational content being verbally conveyed by the instructors on the DVDs. Ten commercially available, contemporary, single instructor lead exercise DVDs were obtained from multiple sources. Instructor and model characteristics, emergent relationship patterns, and the motivational content of the primary instructor were analyzed. Most instructors and models were female, Caucasian, slim, and dressed in revealing attire. Motivational statements comprised 26.9% (SD = 11.31) of the transcripts. One in seven motivational statements were negative. With body capital clearly on display and some of the motivational language being suspect in terms of building potential participants' psychological capital, the value of commercial exercise DVDs is brought into question.


Background 2011 the ACR and EULAR proposed new remission criteria for Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) [1]. According to this publication from now on wording of the question about patient's global assessment should be as follows: "Considering all of the ways your arthritis has affected you, how do you feel your arthritis is today?" In the past general health was not explicitly connected to arthritis but to the general health condition. Objectives It was of interest if the use of the new wording influences the agreement of composite scores to patient centred disease activity assessment tools like for example the Rheumatoid Arthritis Disease Activity Index comprising 5 questions (RADAI-5) which has shown significant correlation to the commonly used composite indices [2,3]. Methods 177 consecutive outclinic RA patients (74% female, mean age 63,6 years, 55.9% RF pos, mean disease duration 110 months) were asked to answer both questions ("How is your general health today?" and "Considering all of the ways your arthritis has affected you, how do you feel your arthritis is today?") on a 100 mm visual analogue scale (VAS-old and VAS-new). Moreover DAS28, SDAI and CDAI were calculated twice using both questions. Furthermore patients were asked to complete the RADAI-5 to correlate this questionnaire to the other composite scores. Cohen's kappa was calculated to show the agreement of both results. Results The mean RADAI-5 was 3.17 (95%CI 2.85 - 3.49). Agreement of VAS-old and VAS-new was moderate (kappa =0.41). The RADAI-5 agrees better to SDAI and CDAI using VAS-new than VAS-old (kappa =0.68 vs. 0.27 and 0.76 vs. 0.27 respectively). No substantial difference was found for the agreement between RADAI-5 and DAS28 using both wordings (kappa =0.20 vs. 0.26). Conclusions VAS-old and VAS-new showed a moderate agreement. No difference in agreement of the DAS28 and the RADAI-5 was seen using both wordings. By introducing the new wording the SDAI and the CDAI become much more congruent with the RADAI-5 and probably other patient related outcomes. References Felson DT, Smolen JS, Wells G et al. Ann Rheum Dis. 2011 Mar;70(3):404-132. Leeb BF, Haindl PM, Maktari A et al. J Rheumatol. 2008 Jul;35(7):1294-9. Bossert M, Prati C, Vidal C et al. Joint Bone Spine. 2012 Jan;79(1):57-62. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Harold Hill's lunar portfolio is a unique collection of drawings now published for the first time. Each illustration is supplemented with notes made at the time of observation. Astronomical drawing still has an important place alongside photography in the same way that photography has not supplanted the artist in the fields of botany and ornithology, for example. Indeed, since astronomical images tend to shimmer because of turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere, drawings constructed by an artist who takes advantage of the fleeting moments of perfect vision are often more detailed than photographs. No one can fail to be impressed by the beauty and artistry of this work and, to the initiated, the accuracy and attention to detail is remarkable. This is a book for astronomers, amateur and professional alike, and for those who would simply like to know more about the moon.


Purpose

Within the operations management literature, quality management (QM) has been one of the most popular research areas over the last few decades. The impact of QM systems on firm performance has been the subject of constant interest and challenge among researchers. Last such review was done in 2002 based on QM-related articles published between 1994 and 1999 and these were primarily on Total Quality Management (TQM). In the last 18 years, a large number of empirical studies have been attempted to investigate QM system-performance relationships in different contexts, covering not only TQM but also other QM systems such as ISO 9001, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Lean Manufacturing, Theory of Constraints (TOC), and Six Sigma Continuous Improvement projects. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on an extensive review of 263 papers published in 17 reputed journals during the period 2000 to 2017, this paper shows the reflections of QM systems with respect to study of different QM systems, type of research designs being used, performance categories and metrics being used, and application of tools/techniques.

Findings

The literature review has revealed several gaps in research in the area of QM and calls for research on: empirical longitudinal case studies; implementation of multiple QM systems; identification of leading indicators of firm's performance; standardization of performance measures; safety, environment and health-related performance measures; the differences in the QM systems on firm's performance for manufacturing vs service organizations; application of QM systems in developing countries including Asian countries; and impact of ISO 9001 QM system on firm's performance.

Originality/value

The literature reviews in the past had considered only the TQM-related articles published in reputed journals and did not cover other QM systems such as TPM, TOC, Toyota Production System, Six Sigma, ISO 9001 QMS, etc., which have also been widely used in many organizations, more so in the last 15 years.


As part of our radial velocity planet-search survey performed with SARG at TNG, we monitored the components of HD 132563 for ten years. It is a binary system formed by two rather similar solar type stars with a projected separation of 4.1 arcsec, which corresponds to 400 AU at the distance of 96 pc. The two components are moderately metal-poor ([Fe/H]=–0.19), and the age of the system is about 5 Gyr. We detected RV variations of HD 132563B with period of 1544 days and semi-amplitude of 26 m/s. From the star characteristics and line profile measurements, we infer their Keplerian origin. Therefore HD 132563B turns out to host a planet with a projected mass msini = 1.49 MJ at 2.6 AU with a moderately eccentric orbit (e = 0.22). The planet around HD 132563B is one of the few that are known in triple stellar systems, as we found that the primary HD 132563A is itself a spectroscopic binary with a period longer than 15 years and an eccentricity higher than 0.65. The spectroscopic component was not detected in adaptive-optics images taken with AdOpt@TNG, since it expected at a projected separation that was smaller than 0.2 arcsec at the time of our observations. A small excess in K band difference between the components with respect to the difference in V band is compatible with a companion of about 0.55 M⊙. A preliminary statistical analysis of when planets occur in triple systems indicate a similar frequency of planets around the isolated component in a triple system, components of wide binaries and single stars. There is no significant iron abundance difference between the components (�[Fe/H]=0.012 ± 0.013 dex). The lack of stars in binary systems and open clusters showing strong enhancements of iron abundance, which are comparable to the typical metallicity difference between stars with and without giant planets, agrees with the idea that accretion of planetary material producing iron abundance anomalies over 0.1 dex is rare.


Charge transfer cross sections of the ground state O+(4S) ions with H2, CO, CO2, CH4, C2H2, C2H6 and C3H8 molecules have been measured using an initial growth rate method in the energy range 0.2-4.5 keV. In the present experiment, the ground state O+(4S) ions have been produced by carefully energy-controlled electron impact to avoid the influence of the metastable O+*(2D, 2P) state ions. The observed cross sections are compared with calculations based on a formula developed by Olson. The energy dependence of the present cross sections for H2 molecules shows a minimum at around 2 keV. The present experimental results for CO and CO2 molecules are slightly different from previous measurements. For hydrocarbon molecules, where no experimental data are available so far, both the present experimental and calculated results are in good agreement with each other, if product molecular ions are assumed to be in some vibrationally excited states.


Summary

1. In the UK, Phase 1 survey is a standard method of habitat mapping that has been used widely for environmental assessment and management planning. In this paper we make the first rigorous test of the precision with which environmental consultants apply the technique.

2. Six ecologists surveyed independently the same upland site in northern England. In pairwise comparisons between maps, spatial agreement was found to average 25·6% (with a range of 17·3–38·8%) of the area of the study site. The numbers of land cover types that were identified ranged from 13 to 21. Four or more surveyors agreed on the classification of 19% of the study site, while the area of land upon which all six agreed was only 7·9% of the study site. Spatial errors in the positioning of habitat boundaries occurred, but were a relatively minor source of the differences between maps. The majority of differences between maps were due to classification errors. Land cover types with similar species compositions were most frequently confused.

3. Spatially referenced field 'target notes' giving additional information on the vegetation mapped in each survey varied in number between 18 and 56. The contents of target notes were inadequate to allow a retrospective assessment of mapping decisions. The total numbers of species listed in target notes varied between surveys from 25 to 145. Sorenson's similarity for species lists derived from pairs of surveys ranged from 18·8% to 63·7%, and was not related to spatial agreement between surveys.

4. Time spent at the field site was not a correlate of any aspect of the results or cost of the survey. Three surveys conducted by members of a professional institute for ecologists were the most expensive, and also recorded larger numbers of target notes and species than the other surveys. However, their maps were no more similar than other pairs of maps.

5. Analysis of the survey results and comparisons with other methods of vegetation mapping suggest that mapping precision could be increased by (i) placing a greater emphasis on use of aerial photographs and other extant map data prior to (and during) field work; (ii) making greater provision for mapping of mosaics and increasing the level of floristic information in habitat definitions; (iii) recording a greater number of more detailed target notes in the field; and (iv) providing office-based support to assist in the interpretation of aerial photographs, and the cross-checking of field surveyors' preliminary classifications against the contents of target notes and habitat definitions. The current application of the Phase 1 approach by environmental consultants places too great a reliance on decision-making by the (frequently) unsupported lone surveyor whilst in the field.


The PMIPv6 (proxy mobile IPv6) protocol provides local mobility to a mobile node without requiring any modification of the mobile node. A PMIPv6 domain contains multiple MAGs (mobility access gateway), and they advertise the same prefix to the mobile node so that the mobile node feels like it is always on the same link. However, horizontal/vertical handover still happens while the mobile node moves among MAGs in the PMIPv6 domain, and this handover could cause undesirable delay to the mobile nodes running real time applications like VoIP. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a fast handover scheme for the PMIPv6 based on 802.11 networks. This scheme uses IAPP (inter-access point protocol) to transfer context information such as the mobile node's authentication information and HNP (home network prefix).


Ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) are a promising subclass of composite materials suitable for high temperature applications. CMCs exhibit multiple damage mechanisms such as matrix cracking, interphase debonding, fiber sliding, fiber pullout, delaminations etc. Additionally, process induced defects such as matrix porosity exists at multiple length scales and has a considerable influence on the mechanical and failure behavior of CMCs. In the current work, the effect of intra-tow porosity, which exist at the micro-scale, on the mechanical behavior of CMCs has been investigated by numerical homogenization. Micro-scale response of 3 phase CMCs with intra tow pores has been obtained by finite element analysis based homogenization. Pores have been modeled as non-intersecting ellipsoids in a square unit cell representative of matrix material. The effective mechanical properties of porous matrix at the micro scale has been obtained from numerical homogenization, which are in good agreement with Mori-Tanaka mean field theory. The obtained matrix elastic properties have then been included in a three phase unit cell consisting of fiber, interphase and matrix representative of CMC microstructure. The effect of porosity volume fraction and aspect ratio on the effective elastic properties of the composite have been reported. Homogenization approach to model statistical distribution of pore size obtained from Xray computed tomography of CMC minicomposite has been proposed.


Bank Mini is an accounting lab that used as a student financial payments and saving for students and employees of SMK Negeri 1 Sumenep. Bank Mini managing public savings, special savings, and general payment. Problems exist in Bank Mini is the process of recording transactions and financial reporting using a manual process using the books and records of other transactions, which potentially cause recording and accounting calculations errors. The school wants a Bank Mini information systems, but the schools didn't know and can't determine the appropriate system needs to be applied to the Bank Mini. The solution offered is to make the analysis and design of Bank Mini information systems that can generate the analysis and design of recording transaction processes, preparing reports accounting, and reporting of transactions. The process of analysis and design of this research includes the step of collecting data through interview and observation, analysis, system design, and evaluation of system design. The results showed that the analysis and system design can explain design of the transaction recording process, the reporting accounting process, and reporting processes used computing based processing, so it can be used as guidelines for implementation of Bank Mini information systems in the future.


Technology transfer is a critical issue for any corporate or academic research institution. Benefits to the customer are only derived when the research "product" is disseminated out of the research lab and into the commercial environment. At the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), such technology transfer is essential to the success of its cooperative research program. However, universities and semiconductor manufacturing companies have their own distinct cultures, interests and reward systems. This paper identifies some of the major barriers that currently exist in SRC's realm of technology transfer, both technically and managerially. It will also address current and alternative methods for overcoming such barriers and management issues. Additionally, some examples of successes and failures in technology transfer as documented by the SRC are presented. The key role of technology transfer champion/mentor in various phases of technology development and transfer is described. Differences in the methods for transferring technical knowledge, process recipes, software and hardware are highlighted. It is shown that the transfer of semiconductor technology is becoming a new discipline which intertwines engineering with management science.


The complex adaptive systems (CAS) is a new theory with the goal to study how complex behaviors emerge in systems of relatively simple interacting individuals. The CAS is also a multi-agent system, and learning ability is a crucial characteristic of adaptive agents. This paper explores the learning agent model with Petri nets by considering both the macrostructure and microstructure for complex adaptive systems simulation.


We present the first fully variational Bayesian inference scheme for continuous Gaussian-process-modulated Poisson processes. Such point processes are used in a variety of domains, including neuroscience, geo-statistics and astronomy, but their use is hindered by the computational cost of existing inference schemes. Our scheme: requires no discretisation of the domain; scales linearly in the number of observed events; and is many orders of magnitude faster than previous sampling based approaches. The resulting algorithm is shown to outperform standard methods on synthetic examples, coal mining disaster data and in the prediction of Malaria incidences in Kenya.


An existing throughflow method for axial compressors, which accounts for the effects of spanwise mixing using a turbulent diffusion model, has been extended to include the viscous shear force on the endwall. The use of a shear force, consistent with a no-slip condition, on the annulus walls in the throughflow calculations allows realistic predictions of the velocity and flow angle profiles near the endwalls. The annulus wall boundary layers are therefore incorporated directly into the throughflow prediction. This eliminates the need for empirical blockage factors or independent annulus boundary layer calculations. The axisymmetric prediction can be further refined by specifying realistic spanwise variations of loss coefficient and deviation to model the three-dimensional endwall effects. The resulting throughflow calculation gives realistic predictions of flow properties across the whole span of a compressor. This is confirmed by comparison with measured data from both low and high-speed multistage machines. The viscous throughflow method has been incorporated into an axial compressor design system. The method predicts the meridional velocity defects in the endwall region and consequently blading can be designed that allows for the increased incidence, and low dynamic head, near the annulus walls.


Na+K(+)-ATPase activity in the liver and muscle microsomal membranes have been determined by different doses (0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 2 micrograms/gm of body weight) of L-triiodothyronine and L-thyroxine in the toad, Bufo melanostictus. The minimum effective dose of T3 was 0.5 microgram/g in case of both liver and muscle to stimulate the enzyme activity and there was dose dependent rise between T3 at the doses of 0.5 and 1 microgram/g. T3 at the doses of 1 and 2 micrograms/g produced more or less the same level of activity. T4 showed an increased activity at 1 and 2 micrograms/g without any dose dependent fashion in the two organs. The doses 0.1 and 0.25 microgram/gm body weight of T3 and 0.1, 0.25 and 0.5 microgram/gm body weight of T4 remained ineffective to elicit any response in both organs. The grain showed no significant change in the enzyme activity at any of the applied doses of T3 and T4. Cycloheximide inhibited T3 induced rise in Na+K(+)-ATPase activity of liver and muscle. Treatment with propylthiouracil caused a significant fall in Na+K(+)-ATPase activity of liver and muscle and the normal value was restored in the two organs after three consecutive injections of T4 at the dose of 1 microgram/g.


Exploring nonprecious, efficient and stable electrocatalysts for overall water splitting is of great importance, but it is also challenging. In this study, N-doped carbon@ CoN/Cu3N/copper foam (namely, NC@CoN/Cu3N/CF) nanoarrays with a hollow tubular structure have been successfully synthesized through a facile method. The as-produced NC@CoN/Cu3N/CF with a 3D hierarchical structure was highly beneficial for electrocatalysis; it displayed improved electrical conductivity, abundant exposed active catalytic sites, numerous "highways" for charge transport and synergistic effect of each component. The enhanced characteristics resulted in largely improved kinetics and activity for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The NC@CoN/Cu3N/CF electrode exhibited low overpotentials of 303 mV to reach a current density of 50 mA cm−2 for OER and 134 mV to reach a current density of 10 mA cm−2 for HER in an alkaline solution. Furthermore, as an electrocatalyst for overall water splitting, NC@CoN/Cu3N/CF served as both the anode and cathode, delivering a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at a quite low cell voltage of 1.62 V, and it displayed excellent long-term stability (15 h at 20 mA cm−2). This study provides a rational strategy and approach to fabricate transition metal nitrides with 3D hierarchical structures as efficient electrocatalysts in renewable energy applications.


Objective: Despite adequate glycemic and blood pressure (BP) control, diabetic hypertensives remain at increased cardiovascular (CV) risk. Aortic stiffness and pulse pressure (PP) amplification may provide complementary information to correct CV risk. We aim to determine whether these hemodynamic parameters are interrelated or not and to explore the factors related to pressure pulsatility. Figure. No caption available. Design and method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 351 patients, involving controls, hypertensives without diabetes and diabetic patients with or without hypertension. Hemodynamic parameters were determined by applanation tonometry. Multivariate regression analyses evaluated the interest of therapeutic strategies. The study cohort was composed of 351 patients, 205 men (43% with diabetes) and 146 women (47% with diabetes). Previous CV events were present in 76 patients, involving at least one vascular site: coronary heart disease in 52 (15%) patients, peripheral vascular disease in 21 (6%) patients and cerebro-vascular disease in 12 (3%) patients. Results: Although disproportionately increased aortic stiffness in diabetic hypertensives (p < 0.001), no difference was found for PP amplification (Figure 1). The present dissociation between these two hemodynamic parameters may be related to the effect of increased heart rate (p < 0.001) in the presence of diabetes, in men and women. In diabetic hypertensives, aortic stiffness was correlated with glycated hemoglobin level (p = 0.04), but not with blood pressure or heart rate. Aortic stiffness and PP amplification were not interrelated (p = 0.32) in multivariate-adjusted analysis and were both independently associated with previous CV events. Antihypertensive and statin treatments were correlated with PP amplification but not with aortic stiffness. Conclusions: Aortic stiffness and PP amplification were not interrelated, suggesting that these markers may provide complementary information for CV risk. New therapeutic strategies targeting pressure pulsatility should take into account the impact of hyperglycemia and increased heart rate in diabetic hypertensives. Gender influence on the role of autonomic nervous system in attenuating pressure wave reflections remains to be further established.


These the problem of product distribution has to be overcome by concerning on economic value in it. The determination of 3 kg LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) distribution route which is only based on the experience of driver and kernet of delivery vehicle will give impact improper route determination. Thus, it causes waste of time, energy and costs. The determination strategy of distribution route plays an important role to achieve the aim of time effectiveness and cost efficiency. The methods of nearest neighbor and local search can become the alternative to solve the problem of 3 kg LPG route determination. This mehod used the approach of distribution location determination which has the nearest distance. Distribution route based on analysis result showed in 1 week period, there was minimization of mileage of 146.04 Km. The completon time was 230.31 minutes faster and cost savings of IDR 118.657,-. The application of nearest neighbor and local search methods are good alternative from economic aspect in determining the determination strategy of 3 Kg LPG route.


The collapse of perinatal healthcare is inevitable considering demographic factors and factors associated with medical resources due to the rapid decrease in the fertility rate in South Korea. In order to maintain the perinatal healthcare system, an appropriate healthcare delivery system must be established, but even the regional hospitals are facing a situation in which medical care is disabled due to a shortage of workforce. Government support is required to prevent the collapse of perinatal healthcare as public healthcare, emergency healthcare, and national essential healthcare system. In reality, it is necessary to strengthen perinatal healthcare through regionalization and to establish a maternal and child transport system. However, there are no guidelines for the perinatal transport system in South Korea, which also lacks professionalism, with a focus on the simple transportation of patients. Therefore, by integrating the transport systems of advanced countries and domestic efforts to improve transport systems, a realistic perinatal transport system establishment plan is proposed as follows. In order to strengthen the perinatal healthcare center under legal and institutional support, a professional workforce equivalent to that of the emergency healthcare center is ensured to organize a specialized perinatal transport team, and a perinatal emergency information center is established to form a safe transport linkage system. The perinatal emergency information center, which provides information on perinatal healthcare, linking and evaluating transportation between hospitals, should be incorporated into the emergency healthcare system, playing a pivotal role in the perinatal emergency healthcare management system. In addition, a dedicated transport team for perinatal healthcare should be formed for each region, transport guidelines for transport vehicles and equipment should be established, and legal and financial support should be provided to ensure safe perinatal healthcare transport. The prehospitalization level perinatal transport is configured as an integrated model of the 119 paramedics, aiming at quick transport. A team of perinatal special paramedics should be organized for each base to transport patients by special vehicles, and information from the perinatal emergency information center should be used to select a transfer hospital and to receive medical guidance from a perinatal care physician during transport between hospitals. Transport between hospitals aims at safe transport with triangular transport. A perinatal transport team is in charge of transport between hospitals, and a specialist is on board in a special ambulance to provide medical care during transport between hospitals. Support from the government and local governments is absolutely necessary to strengthen the perinatal healthcare center and establish a perinatal transfer system, which must be realized through a pilot project with fee support.


In recent months, much of the world's attention has turned to Anonymous, the rhizomatic, digitally based protest movement, and WikiLeaks, the tightly controlled organization famous for facilitating whistleblowing and publishing classified and secret materials. Although it is too early to assess the longterm impact of either of these, their interventions have already proved to be significant and notable. For instance, Anonymous has catalyzed debates as to whether distributed denialofservice attacks are a legitimate protest tactic, while WikiLeaks has spurred often heated reflections on the changing face of journalism. These two examples of digitally based politics warrant sustained attention to provide an analysis that should also exceed, even if it draws from, the materials, such as manifestos and memoirs produced by these technological actors. One way to start building a deeper analytic of these political forms is by comparing their different faces. On the surface, the two examples I opened with are strikingly different: WikiLeaks is associated, almost entirely, with one figure, Julian Assange, whose personality is as much the subject of news as is the exclusive organization he helped build. In contrast, Anonymous is premised on a robust antileader, anticelebrity ethic, and its operations are open to all who care to contribute. Despite these and other differences, Anonymous and WikiLeaks still belong to the same family. This association is not only because Anonymous supported WikiLeaks by launching distributed denialofservice attacks against PayPal and MasterCard after they terminated services for WikiLeaks in December 2010; more fundamentally, they are but two examples of a much broader set of political interventions orchestrated by geeks and hackers. Although these types of politics have grown in visibility in the previous two decades, commentators tend to lack an adequate terminology by which to grasp their source and their significance.


Obesity leads to ovarian dysfunction and the establishment of local leptin resistance. The aim of our study was to characterise levels of Nod-Like Receptor Protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation during obesity progression in the mouse ovaries and liver and test the putative role of leptin on its regulation. C57BL/6J mice were treated with equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG) or human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) for oestrous cycle synchronisation and ovaries collection. In diet-induced obesity (DIO) model, mice were fed chow diet (CD) or high fat diet (HFD) for 4 or 16 weeks (wk), whereas in hyperleptinemic model (LEPT), mice were injected with leptin for 16 days (16L) or saline (16C) and in the genetic obese leptin-deficient ob/ob (+/? and -/-) animals were fed CD for 4wk. Either ovaries and liver were collected, as well as cumulus cells (CCs) after superovulation from DIO and LEPT. In DIO protocol, protein expression of NLRP3 inflammasome components was increased in 4wk HFD, but decreased in 16wk HFD. Moreover LEPT and ob/ob models revealed NLRP3 and IL-1β upregulation in 16L and downregulation in ob/ob. Transcriptome analysis of CC showed common genes between LEPT and 4wk HFD modulating NLRP3 inflammasome. Moreover analysis in the liver showed upregulation of NLRP3 protein only after 16wk HFD, but also the downregulation of NLRP3 protein in ob/ob-/-. We showed the link between leptin signalling and NLRP3 inflammasome activation in the ovary throughout obesity progression in mice, elucidating the molecular mechanisms underpinning ovarian failure in maternal obesity.


Objective: Early postnatal life is considered as a critical time window for the determination of long-term metabolic states and organ functions. Extrauterine growth restriction (EUGR) causes the development of adult-onset chronic diseases, including pulmonary hypertension. However, the effects of nutritional disadvantages during the early postnatal period on pulmonary vascular consequences in later life are not fully understood. Our study was designed to test whether epigenetics dysregulation mediates the cellular memory of this early postnatal event. Methods and results: To test this hypothesis, we isolated pulmonary vascular endothelial cells by magnetic-activated cell sorting from EUGR and control rats. A postnatal insult, nutritional restriction-induced EUGR caused development of an increased pulmonary artery pressure at 9 weeks of age in male Sprague–Dawley rats. Methyl-DNA immune precipitation chip, genome-scale mapping studies to search for differentially methylated loci between control and EUGR rats, revealed significant difference in cytosine methylation between EUGR and control rats. EUGR changes the cytosine methylation at approximately 500 loci in male rats at 9 weeks of age, preceding the development of pulmonary hypertension and these represent the candidate loci for mediating the pathogenesis of pulmonary vascular disease that occurs later in life. Gene ontology analysis on differentially methylated genes showed that hypermethylated genes in EUGR are vascular development-associated genes and hypomethylated genes in EUGR are late-differentiation-associated and signal transduction genes. We validated candidate dysregulated loci with the quantitative assays of cytosine methylation and gene expressions. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that epigenetics dysregulation is a strong mechanism for propagating the cellular memory of early postnatal events, causing changes in the expression of genes and long-term susceptibility to pulmonary hypertension, and further providing a new insight into the prevention and treatment of EUGR-related pulmonary hypertension.


We present an explicit fourth-order compact finite difference scheme for approximating the three-dimensional convection diffusion equation with variable coefficients. This 19-point formula is defined on a uniform cubic grid. We compare the advantages and implementation costs of the new scheme with the standard 7-point scheme in the context of basic iterative methods. Numerical examples are used to verify the fourth-order convergence rate of the scheme and to show that the Gauss Seidel iterative method converges for large values of the convection coefficients. Some algebraic properties of the coefficient matrices arising from different discretization schemes are compared. We also comment on the potential use of the fourth-order compact scheme with multilevel iterative methods


Lipomas constitute 0.1% of all intracranial tumors. 1 Very rarely they are located in the cerebellopontine angle (CPA) or the internal auditory canal, and even less frequently cerebellopontine angle (CPA) or the internal auditory canal, and even less frequently they have been described in an intravestibular location. 2-4 These lipomas should not be treated surgically because their adherence to nerves and surrounding brain structures often leads to neurological deficits when surgical removal of the lesion is attempted. 1 Therefore, it is important to distinguish inner ear and CPA lipomas from more common tumors in the cerebellopontine region, such as acoustic neuromas, which are often treated surgically. Thus, noninvasive diagnosis by radiological imaging is crucial. We report herein a case of intravestibular lipoma that is associated with CPA lipoma and cystic cochleovestibular malformation (incomplete partition type 1) of the inner ear. Diagnostic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomographic (CT) characteristics of lipomas are discussed in detail. Furthermore, this unique combination of intravestibular lipoma with cystic cochleovestibular malformation provides more understanding of the pathophysiologic characteristics of these rare tumors.


Stars' chemical signatures provide invaluable insights into stellar cluster formation. This study utilized the Weisfeiler-Lehman (WL) Graph Kernel to examine a 15-dimensional elemental abundance space. Through simulating chemical distributions using normalizing flows, the effectiveness of our algorithm was affirmed. The results highlight the capability of the WL algorithm, coupled with Gaussian Process Regression, to identify patterns within elemental abundance point clouds correlated with various cluster mass functions. Notably, the WL algorithm exhibits superior interpretability, efficacy and robustness compared to deep sets and graph convolutional neural networks and enables optimal training with significantly fewer simulations (O(10)), a reduction of at least two orders of magnitude relative to graph neural networks.


Abstract The paper describes the possibilities of bevel gears kinematics design on the basis of the motion graph and improving modifications to cut the pinion teeth flanks. The result is the ability to increase the accuracy of the kinematic transmission. The issue of changing the geometry of the pinion gear is considered in respect of a gear intended for the use in aviation, which requires the cooperation of high quality meshing. The basic geometric features that have been modified include the profile angle, the angle of tooth line, crowning trans-verse and longitudinal and lateral surface twist angle of the tooth. The modification of each of the selected geometrical parameters has had a different effect on the chart of transmission. It has been shown that the effect of the intended changes in the geometry of the pinion may reduce the deviation of motion delays gear and an improve the gear transmission chart.


An Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) application requires vehicles to be connected to each other and to roadside units to share information, thus reducing fatalities and improving traffic congestion. Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) is one of the main forms of network designed for ITS in which information is broadcasted amongst vehicular nodes. However, the broadcast reliability in VANETs face a number of challenges - dynamic routing being one of the major issues. Clustering, a technique used to group nodes based on certain criteria, has been suggested as a solution to this problem. This paper gives a summary of the core criteria of some of the clustering algorithms issues along with a performance comparison and a development evolution roadmap, in an attempt to understand and differentiate different aspects of the current research and suggest future research insights.


The rapidly evolving telecommunications market has led to the need for advanced RF circuits. Complex multi-band/multi-mode RF designs require accurate prediction early in the design schedule and time-to-market pressures require that design iterations be kept to a minimum. This paper presents a layout-level, multi-domain DFM methodology and yield optimization technique for embedded RF circuits for SiP-based wireless applications. The proposed concept consists of layout- level statistical diagnosis and yield optimization. The statistical analysis takes into account the effect of the thermo-mechanical stress and the process variations that are incurred in batch fabrication. The results show good correlation with measurement/electromagnetic (EM) data.


This paper analyzes the pattern and the main determinants of export diversification in Bangladesh. A large data set of Bangladesh export during the period of 1980-81 to 2006-07 has been used for this purpose. Three main indexes have been used to explore the trend of export concentration and these three indicators of export diversification were calculated to determine the trend of export from Bangladesh. The Hirschman Index, the Ogive Index and the Entropy Coefficient were used to analyze the diversification pattern of export from Bangladesh. From the analyses, robust evidence has been found across the specifications and indicators that the export basket of Bangladesh has continued to remain relatively undiversified and the country has not been able to translate its comparative advantage into competitive advantage. Further, this study reveals that the export growth and overall economic growth are highly correlated and a robust restructuring in trade policy is needed for gaining momentum in diversification of export in Bangladesh. The analyses show that exports at the intensive margin account for the most important share of overall trade growth. At the extensive margin, geographic diversification is more important than product diversification, especially for developing countries. Taking part in free trade agreements, thereby reducing trade barrier and costs, development of infrastructure and communication, extensive financing for export and policies emphasizing the development of human capital is now the need of time for improving diversification of export.


In order to characterize and compare the chemical composition of diesel particulate matter and ambient air samples collected on filters, different extraction procedures were tested and their extraction efficiencies and recoveries determined. This study is an evaluation of extraction methods using the standard 16 EPA PAHs with HPLC fluorescence analysis. Including LC analysis also GC and MS methods for the determination of PAHs can be used. Soxhlet extraction was compared with ultrasonic agitation and pressurized fluid extraction (PFE) using three solvents to extract PAHs from diesel exhaust and urban air particulates. The selected PAH compounds of soluble organic fractions were analyzed by HPLC with a multiple wavelength shift fluorescence detector. The EPA standard mixture of 16 PAH compounds was used as a standard to identify and quantify diesel exhaust-derived PAHs. The most effective extraction method of those tested was pressurized fluid extraction using dichloromethane as a solvent.


Objective: Arginine vasopressin (ADH) is released from the neurohypophysis and regulates intravascular volume status. ADH activity is reflected by copeptin, the C-terminal peptide of pro-vasopressin. Elevated copeptin levels are associated with increased cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. The aim of this study is to compare copeptin levels in patients with different cardiovascular diseases. Design and method: In this cross-sectional analysis we measured copeptin concentrations in 69 patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM), 30 patients with primary hypertension stage 1 or 2 (HT1–2), 34 patients with treatment resistant hypertension (TRH) (21 of them with T2DM), and 28 healthy individuals, who participated in clinical trials. In 2 study groups we analyzed changes after therapeutic interventions. Patients with T2DM received 6 weeks of treatment with 25 mg empagliflozin or placebo. Patients with TRH underwent full four quadrant renal denervation (RDN) by an experienced interventionalist. Copeptin concentrations were measured before and after treatment using Time Resolved Amplified Cryptate Emision method. Results: Patients with TRH showed higher copeptin levels than patients with HT1-2 (median 8.4 [interquartile range 3.6-14] vs. 4.2 [2.8–6.3]pmol/l, p = 0.039), patients with T2DM (4.5 [3.3–7.2]pmol/l, p = 0.020) and healthy individuals (5.7 [2.9–9.2]pmol/l, p = 0.024). There was no significant change in copeptin levels in patients with TRH before and 6 month after RDN (8.4 [3.6–14] vs 8.5 [4.5–13]pmol/l, p = 0.334), even though 24 h ambulatory blood pressure decreased from 154 ± 15/ 87 ± 12 mmHg (p = 0.001) to 146 ± 13/ 83 ± 7.9 mmHg (p = 0.034). In patients with T2DM (double blind randomized cross-over trial), no significant change in copeptin levels was observed in the placebo group compared to baseline (5.08 ± 2.83 vs 5.76 ± 4.05 pmol/l, p = 0.09), whereas treatment with empagliflozin increased copeptin levels compared to baseline (6.87 ± 3.89 pmol/l, p = 0.001). Patients receiving empagliflozin showed higher copeptin levels (p < 0.001) compared to placebo. Conclusions: Patients with TRH showed higher copeptin levels than patients with HT1-2, T2DM and healthy individuals. RDN did not lead to any change of copeptin levels in patients with TRH, but empagliflozin, as expected induced an increase in copeptin levels due to volume contraction in patients with T2DM. Copeptin emerged as a valuable research marker in cardiovascular disease.


A serious problem for the operation of track vehicles, especially trams, is the uneven wear of the wheels caused by a discontinuous driving regime. To maintain the safety and comfort the diameter of the wheels should be closely matched. For this reason the diameter of the wheels must be periodically measured. The measurement has to be carried out automatically when the vehicle is moving slowly across the measurement system. The measurement system is based on triangulation, therefore a laser line is projected onto the wheel's rolling surface orthogonal to the axle, such that an arc of about 400 mm length is marked. The arc is registered using a medium resolution, high speed CMOS image sensor featuring high dynamic range. A two step circle approximation using the minimum squared error criterion is performed. In the first step the circle is approximated including all points of the arc. In the second step points having a larger distance from the estimated circle are discarded, then the approximation is repeated. Initial simulations and tests with a standard CCD image sensor showed a potential measurement accuracy of about 0.1 mm with common wheel diameters.


Author(s): Jenkins, Alec | Advisor(s): Jayich, Ania | Abstract: The development of new scientific instruments often leads to the observation of new physical phenomena. In this thesis, I will describe a new imaging instrument aimed at uncovering and understanding electronic and magnetic phenomena arising on the nanometer length scale. In recent years, the nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond (NV) has emerged as a unique tool for sensing magnetic fields with high spatial resolution. We have extended these sensing capabilities to a wide temperature range and harnessed this temperature control to probe the emergence of nanoscale collective order in condensed matter systems. The NV center has properties that make it an ideal tool for this purpose: it is an atomic-sized defect with a spin that can be optically initialized and read-out, it is noninvasive, and it retains quantum coherence from cryogenic to room temperature. In this thesis, I will describe the design and construction of a variable temperature scanning microscope built around the sensing capabilities of single NV centers. I will also describe the design and fabrication of the NV sensors themselves. The scanning microscope consists of a confocal microscope for addressing NVs, an atomic force microscope housed in a closed-cycle optical cryostat, and single-crystal diamond probes containing NV centers. Scanning NV magnetometry excels in probing systems that require good magnetic field sensitivity and high spatial resolution. I will describe how we have applied this measurement technique to several condensed matter systems that display magnetic or electronic structure on the nanometer to micrometer scale. I will focus on our measurements of magnetic skyrmions, where we show that NV magnetometry can be used to simultaneously probe the structure and dynamics of chiral domain walls. And I will describe our measurements exploring different regimes of electron transport in graphene, where the NV is used as local probe of current density, in search for signatures of electron hydrodynamic behavior.


Coevolutionary minimal substrates are simple and abstract models that allow studying the relationships and codynamics between objective and subjective fitness. Using these models an approach is presented for defining and analyzing fitness landscapes of coevolutionary problems. We devise similarity measures of codynamic fitness landscapes and experimentally study minimal substrates of test-based and compositional problems for both cooperative and competitive interaction.


French academic Eric Fassin is interviewed about his work in the field of public sociology, particularly around race and sexuality, over the last two decades. He explains the background and context of intellectuals in France before moving on to the specifics of addressing firstly 'race', and secondly sexuality. He argues that 1989 and 2005 are the key turning points in public discourse on 'race'. Prior to 1989, which saw the first of the 'Headscarf crises', 'race' was not dealt with explicitly, either in French colonial history or its postcolonial present. The headscarf crisis clarified the tensions within the republican tradition (in which people are formally divided only into French citizens and foreigners, rather than recognised as classes or ethnic groups). The discourse surrounding the riots of 2005 made this the other key year. The framing of debate was along the lines of discrimination (between French citizens) rather than integration (of foreigners into Frenchness), marking a shift towards an acceptance that racism was a social issue. Fassin coins the term 'sexual democracy' to encapsulate the distinction between characteristics that are immanent rather than transcendent, and argues that discourse about sexuality and families represents a conflict between those who see them as governed by the social, and those who see them as outside these norms, beyond the social.


The need for countering Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) attacks has led to the solutions that ubiquitously monitor system activities in each host, and perform timely attack investigation over the monitoring data for analyzing attack provenance. However, existing query systems based on relational databases and graph databases lack language constructs to express key properties of major attack behaviors, and often execute queries inefficiently since their semantics-agnostic design cannot exploit the properties of system monitoring data to speed up query execution.
To address this problem, we propose a novel query system built on top of existing monitoring tools and databases, which is designed with novel types of optimizations to support timely attack investigation. Our system provides (1) domain-specific data model and storage for scaling the storage, (2) a domain-specific query language, Attack Investigation Query Language (AIQL) that integrates critical primitives for attack investigation, and (3) an optimized query engine based on the characteristics of the data and the semantics of the queries to efficiently schedule the query execution. We deployed our system in NEC Labs America comprising 150 hosts and evaluated it using 857 GB of real system monitoring data (containing 2.5 billion events). Our evaluations on a real-world APT attack and a broad set of attack behaviors show that our system surpasses existing systems in both efficiency (124x over PostgreSQL, 157x over Neo4j, and 16x over Greenplum) and conciseness (SQL, Neo4j Cypher, and Splunk SPL contain at least 2.4x more constraints than AIQL).


Background: Medical training is a stressing situation, making medical students vulnerable to psychiatric disorders, such as depression and anxiety. Objective: The study aimed to assess the prevalence of stress and coping in students of a public medical school in Brazil, comparing the groups from the first and sixth years of training. Methods: Through a cross-sectional, observational study, a sample of 232 first and sixth-year regularly registered medical students has been evaluated. Students filled a socio-demographic questionnaire, the Lipp Inventory of Stress Symptoms (ISSL), and the Coping Strategies Inventory (CSI). Results: From the total sample of 232 students, 110 were first-year students and 122 sixth-year students. Stress symptoms were significantly higher in first-year students (49.1%) than in the sixth-year group (33.6%; p = 0.018). Variables significantly associated with stress were: year of the training (1 st year > 6th year), income (lower > higher income), satisfaction with the training (dissatisfied > satisfied) and the use of escape/avoidance copying strategy (positive association). Discussion: Considering the higher stress symptoms among first-year medical students and the positive association of the escape/avoidance copying strategy with stress, strategies must be developed to enable students starting medical school to be better at coping with this stressful situations.


An efficient plant regeneration system from embryogenic callus of two elite indica rice ( Oryza sativa spp. indica ) varieties of Northeast India, Ketokijoha and Monoharsali is established. The effect of auxin, 2,4-dicholorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D) on callus induction was optimized. Friable, nodular and creamish-white embryogenic calli were induced from mature seeds on NB medium supplemented with 2.5 mg/l 2,4-D. Plants were regenerated from 40-50 days old embryogenic callus on NB medium containing 0.5 mg/l BAP (6-benzylaminopurine) and 0.25 mg/l ABA (abscisic acid). Regenerated plants with multiple tillers were rooted on half strength MS medium and rooted plants were acclimatized with 94% survival rate. Higher frequency of callus induction as well as plant regeneration was recorded in Ketokijoha as compared to Monoharsali. The calli of both the varieties were found amenable to Agrobacterium- mediated transformation as evident from strong GUS (β-glucuronidase) expression. The results may find wide application for genetic improvement for valuable traits these elite indica rice varieties of Northeast India.  Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol 3(4): 680-686


Aim Meiofaunal communities that inhabit the marine benthos offer unique opportunities to simultaneously study the macroecology of numerous phyla that exhibit different life-history strategies. Here, we ask: (1) if the macroecology of meiobenthic communities is explained mainly by dispersal constraints or by environmental conditions; and (2) if levels of meiofaunal diversity surpass existing estimates based on morphological taxonomy. Location UK and mainland European coast. Methods Next-generation sequencing techniques (NGS; Roche 454 FLX platform) using 18S nuclear small subunit ribosomal DNA (rDNA) gene. Pyrosequences were analysed using AmpliconNoise followed by chimera removal using Perseus. Results Rarefaction curves revealed that sampling saturation was only reached at 15% of sites, highlighting that the bulk of meiofaunal diversity is yet to be discovered. Overall, 1353 OTUs were recovered and assigned to 23 different phyla. The majority of sampled sites had c. 60–70 unique operational taxonomic units (OTUs) per site, indicating high levels of beta diversity. The environmental parameters that best explained community structure were seawater temperature, geographical distance and sediment size, but most of the variability (R 2 = 70%–80%) remains unexplained. Main conclusions High percentages of endemic OTUs suggest that meiobenthic community composition is partly niche-driven, as observed in larger organisms, but also shares macroecological features of microorganisms by showing high levels of cosmopolitanism (albeit on a much smaller scale). Meiobenthic communities exhibited patterns of isolation by distance as well as associations between niche, latitude and temperature, indicating that meiobenthic communities result from a combination of niche assembly and dispersal processes. Conversely, isolation-bydistance patterns were not identified in the featured protists, suggesting that animals and protists adhere to radically different macroecological processes, linked to life-history strategies.


The reproducibility of a validated analytical method may require reassessment because of various reasons, such as the transfer between laboratories or companies, changes in the instruments or software platforms (or both), or changes in critical reagents, among others. This paper is a demonstration of an assay bridging study in evaluating reproducibility. The approach is simple but very informative and offers many advantages over existing approaches.


From the purely practical aspect, based on clinical events, this assumption of validity appears to be supported by the present findings. It is considered that the value of the P.T.T. could be more widely appreciated in this particular application, and that the few extra minutes expended daily in the preparation of working reagent would be more than compensated by the higher validity of the test results.


Abstract The Dayton Peace Accords signed in 1995 have up until now proved ineffective. They completed their mission – to stop the hostilities and stabilize the situation. However, they failed to create a viable state. Centrifugal tendencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina are compounded by the conflicting interests of major international players: the European Union and the United States, Russia, and Turkey. The strategy chosen by international forces in Bosnia is inefficient and fraught with outbreaks of violence in the region. This article analyzes the discrepancy of the policy pursued in Bosnia and Herzegovina compared with reality. The author of the article proposes a potential plan for the harmonious development of the state.


Previous photogeologic classification of lunar craters have differentiated them into various morphologic types. In an attempt to identify the physical factors responsible for these morphologic variations, this study examined 44 fresh, simple lunar craters between 1.1 and 14 km in diameter on the maria. Photogeologic analysis was performed using Apollo stereo panoramic photography, while a quantitative analysis of cross-sectional shape was done using Fourier analysis. These analyses showed that the sample could not be split into two distinct types (flat- and round-floored) as had been done previously. The two crater types at best represent end-members of a distribution of morphologies. Some correlation was found between the degree of relative degradation and floor roundness, implying that flat floors are primary and round floors are degradational features. No difference was found between the average depth-to-diameter ratio of flat- and round-floored craters, indicating that the factor of two variation in depth-to-diameter ratio in this sample of fresh craters is a primary morphologic feature and that minor degradation of fresh craters has no significant effect on average crater depth.


Multi-dimensional gas flow with shock waves can be highly complex and the mathematical theory for such flows is still far from being complete. This is so because such a theory should resolve some of the most difficult issues in thetheory of partial differential equations; among them are the free boundaries and the nonlinear equations of mixed types. These difficulties were recognized early on. We illustrate the richness of the subject with certain historical perspectives on the basic question of shock reflections.


Objectives: Oxygen and water are the two primary nutrients of life. Without these two, there can be no life as we know it. With this in mind, this article will be on the concepts and implementation of oxygen and its energized form ozone therapy in dentistry.

Methods: The basic search process included a systematic review of articles contained in the PubMed/Medline database, dating between 2000 and January 2010, using single or combined key words to obtain the most comprehensive list of references.

Results: During the last seven years, a number of therapeutic protocols were developed to battle common dental infections associated with periodontal disease, root canal therapy, and caries using ozone therapy. But before we delve any further into these treatments, we`ll review its history, mechanism of its action, toxicity and side effects, methods of administration, evidence of medical benefits of ozone therapy. Then we discuss its indications and safety in battling with multi-factorial oral infections, especially Dental Caries.

Conclusion: Ozone therapy is a very easy to use treatment modality for multifactorial infective states within the oral cavity which has a wide range of use and is ideally suited to the treatment of children and phobic patients with a scientifically proven effectiveness.


The study identifies Portuguese nursing research, produced in the period 2000 - 2010, published via Master's dissertations and doctoral theses, analyzed according to the following variables: institution training masters and doctors, studies' distribution by institution, study supervisors and co-supervisors with their respective titles, supervisors' productions, keywords/descriptors, topics studied, theoretical framework, methodological framework, subjects, data collection and data analysis. In this exploratory, descriptive and bibliometric study, dissertations from the Catholic University of Portugal and the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of the University of Porto were collected, as were doctoral theses from both these institutions and the University of Lisbon, totalling 41 theses and 273 dissertations. The results describe the theoretical, methodological and bibliometric aspects of the strictu sensu scientific production of Portuguese nursing. It is concluded that nurse researchers, in having knowledge of the specific areas of the studies, can improve them to achieve quality and excellence of the training of Master's and doctoral students.


Statistical generative model based image annotation propagates the semantic labels of the training images to the unlabeled ones according to their visual generative probabilities. However, it suffers from the problem of "semantic gap", that is, sometimes visual similarity does not reflect semantic similarity. In order to alleviate this problem, we propose a novel image annotation approach which combines the advantages of the generative model and discriminative classification. Based on generative model, we exploit the local discriminants of the visual similar training images (neighborhood) of the unlabeled image. The semantic similar images in the neighborhood are grouped as topics by singular value decomposition (SVD). The discriminative information between different topics is exploited to obtain the semantic relevant topic, which reduces the influence of the images with high visual similarity but irrelevant semantics. Thus, the joint probability of the semantic keyword and the unlabeled image estimated on the obtained relevant topic is more accurate. The experimental results on the ECCV2002 benchmark (P. Duygulu et al., 2002) show that our method outperforms state-of-the-art annotation models MBRM and ASVM-MIL.


Portland cement is based on calcium silicates with lesser amounts.of calcium aluminates. Its reaction with water, which is responsible for strength development, is a complex process involving the precipitation of hydration products in colloidal gel and crystalline forms. This paper describes the microstructural development of the hydrates the structure of colloidal C—S—H gel, which is the main hydration product, the kinetics of hydration and the aqueous solution chemistry of cement pastes and pastes made with pure C3S. Theories relating to the mechanism of cement hydration are examined and these are discussed in terms of studies of the effect of accelerating and retarding admixtures for cement.


The perturbations of atmospheric processes by anthropogenic activities of man have been of great concern these days. The deposition of trace and major elements from the atmosphere to the ground is an important factor for animal and plant health, and it is of major consideration in studies on the cycling of elements that may function in the atmosphere as nutrients or potentially toxic pollutants. When assessing the input of materials in natural waters and land, the sources and composition of atmosphere need to be determined. Geological and anthropogenic contributions to air pollution were monitored by analyzing aerosol particulates present in the atmosphere of Lahore. Various sorts of experiments were performed for studying total suspended particulate matter (TSPs) using gravimetric techniques. The average value of TSPs was found 450 ug/m 2 in working days and 240 ug/m 2 in holidays. Their size distribution and trace elemental composition and their wet removal through precipitation in the atmosphere of Lahore was studied by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) respectively. Eighteen elements were analyzed. Geological nature of the land was attributed the presence of Yb, Cs, Sc, Rb, Co, Eu, La, Ba, Zn and Hf s in the aerosol particulates. The presence of Cr, Fe, Ce, Pb and Cd could be linked to anthropogenic activities. Their amount was two times higher than the limits reccomended by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the urban environment, mostly during working days and at various day and night time.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of the present study was to build population pharmacokinetic models for the clearance of valproate (VPA) in 2 separate populations of Serbian patients with epilepsy, children and adults.

METHODS
Analysis was performed using 65 and 63 steady-state concentrations of VPA collected from 58 children and 60 adult epileptic patients, respectively. Mean values for total body weight and age were 27.07 ± 13.08 kg and 7.21 ± 3.63 years in the pediatric population, and 69.67 ± 15.60 kg and 33.97 ± 16.41 years in the adult population. The one-compartment model with first order elimination and without absorption was used from the PREDPP (Prediction for Observation Population Pharmacokinetics) library of NONMEM software.

RESULTS
The derived final models show that VPA clearance increased with total body weight of patients in both populations. However, the carbamazepine comedication was the main determinant of the final model in children whereas phenobarbitone comedication was the most important factor in the adult population. The magnitudes of these effects were +0.159 lh-1 and +0.539 lh-1 for carbamazepine and phenobarbitone, respectively. A significant decrease in interindividual and intraindividual variability was observed in the target populations. The pharmacokinetic models obtained were validated in groups of 15 epileptic patients, each showing good predictive performance of the model.

CONCLUSIONS
The derived models describe well VPA clearance in terms of characteristics of Serbian pediatric and adult epileptic patients, offering a basis for rational individualization of VPA dosage regimens.


Twenty-two patients with continued, undiagnosed symptoms of low back and sciatic pain for an average of 14 months were assessed. Patients studied had prior negative evaluations, including EMG, CT scanning, and/or metrizamide myelography. Three-level, posterolateral, extradural discography was performed on the side opposite the sciatica. One to 6-hours after discography, CT scanning was performed on all injected discs: 91% demonstrated abnormal discograms at one/more levels. CT imaging demonstrated contrast tracking to the periphery of the disc in 82%. Discography reproduced the patient's symptoms in 77%. The direction of contrast tracking seen on scanning correlated with clinical symptoms in 73% and with symptoms at discography in 82%. CT scanning was thought to be a useful adjunct to lumbar discography in patients with prior negative evaluations.


Situating itself in histories of cinema and installation art, William Kentridge's Black Box/Chambre Noire (2005) raises questions about screens, exhibition space, site-specificity and spectatorship. Through his timely intervention in a debate on Germany's colonial past, Kentridge's postcolonial art has contributed to the recognition and remembrance of a forgotten, colonial genocide. This article argues that, by transposing his signature technique of drawings for projection onto a new set of media, Kentridge explores how and what we can know through cinematic projection in the white cube. In particular, his metaphor of the illuminated shadow enables him to animate archival fragments as shadows and silhouettes. By creating a multi-directional archive, Black Box enables an affective engagement with the spectres of colonialism and provides a forum for the calibration of moral questions around reparation, reconciliation and forgiveness.


The rapid rise in the price of crude oil, the decrease in oil reserves, security concerns and greater recognition of the environmental impacts of fossil fuels have generated considerable interest in biofuels as an alternative energy source. The revolution in transportation that occurred at the beginning of the last century created dependence of Western economies on the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels. The invention of the electric light bulb by T.A. Edison led to the installation of the first energy distribution plant in 1883 (in Roselle, New Jersey) and subsequently the electric grid came to the world. Because of the high rate (typically >90%) and ease of alternative to constant voltage conversion or vice versa, as well as mechanical conversion of electricity, the electric grid became the nervous system of our civilization. During the 20th century, humanity created a foundation in which electric applications are used in all segments of society. This revolution is now creating a system of pervasive computing and is preparing society for the era of nanotechnologies and robotics. However, the electric grid is dangerously dependent on the availability of carbon-based resources such as coal and natural gas (Song, 2006). Human civilization is now challenged with finding renewable and environmentally friendly energy sources for feeding both our electric grid and our economic growth. For the next two decades, fossil fuels will continue to be the most cost-effective energy resource. However, despite their higher costs, alternative energies have begun to be seriously investigated. It is the purpose of the present work to provide an overview of this issue. Existing fossil fuels are believed to have originated over the course of millions (M) of years (yrs) from biochemical and geochemical transformations of organic substances that were present on the earth's surface. The geological storage of carbon in the form of fossil fuels can be viewed as one alternative route to the reduction/oxidation cycle of carbon that is occurring at the earth's surface. Numerous studies have shown that coal is formed from biochemical degradation and geochemical maturation of higher-plant materials that were originally generated via photosynthesis. Crude oil also shows fingerprint molecules such as phytane that testify to its plant origin (Johnston et al., 2007). Crude oil contains various hydrocarbons that range from light gases (e.g., C1-C5) to heavy residues (Fialkov et al., 2008). These hydrocarbons are separated via distillation into three main products, namely naphtha, middle distillate and a residual fraction. Naphtha (boiling range 90-190oC) is mainly used for motor gasoline (C3-C12) and comprises approximately 20% of the total crude oil. The middle distillate can be separated into two categories


Purpose

The Olympic Games is the largest sporting mega event of its type, with deep cultural and historical roots. The event is short lived compared to the lifespan of the infrastructure required in host cities. The purpose of this paper is to examine models of adaptability in Olympic construction, using case studies in previous Olympic host cities of the Summer Olympic Games (Rome 1960, London 2012), to assess the impact of adaptability on future legacy.

Design/methodology/approach

A mixed methods approach (archival research, direct observation), was used in two case studies: Rome (Palazzetto dello Sport, Palazzo dello Sport), and London (London Olympic Velodrome, London Aquatics Centre). The case studies examined how adaptability was used in design to secure legacy.

Findings

In the selected case studies (Rome 1960, London 2012), adaptability has had a positive impact on the post-Games use of venues, all four of which remain in use today. However, there are multiple factors that contribute to post-Games legacy, and further research is necessary.

Research limitations/implications

Whilst some positive results were observed in this study, more research is necessary across a broader spectrum of sites and venues to make conclusive recommendations for architects designing for Mega Sporting events.

Social implications

The significance of this study to architectural practice, academia, and society is its potential to benefit future Olympic Games, International Olympic Committee policy, and be extended to other Mega Sporting events.

Originality/value

The originality of this research lies within its analysis of Olympic infrastructures and sustainability, of which there is a current lack of comparative studies in academic research.


In 2017, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched the Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) program that aims to create a suite of new AI techniques that enable end users to understand, appropriately trust, and effectively manage the emerging generation of AI systems. In this paper, inspired by DARPA's XAI program, we propose a new paradigm in security research: Explainable Security (XSec). We discuss the "Six Ws" of XSec (Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How?) and argue that XSec has unique and complex characteristics: XSec involves several different stakeholders (i.e., the system's developers, analysts, users and attackers) and is multi-faceted by nature (as it requires reasoning about system model, threat model and properties of security, privacy and trust as well as concrete attacks, vulnerabilities and countermeasures). We define a roadmap for XSec that identifies several possible research directions.


Hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) shows progressive dyspnea resulting from intrapulmonary atrioventricular shunts in liver cirrhosis. The comorbidity of chronic lung disease often hampers the diagnosis of progressive dyspnea in patients with HPS. Therefore, a comprehensive approach to the determination of dyspnea is required. Here, this case report shows that a patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and alcoholic liver cirrhosis was diagnosed with HPS after admission due to worsening dyspnea. Although COPD exacerbation was initially suspected because of the long history of smoking, physical examinations, laboratory findings, and imaging data, dyspnea remained after recovery from worsening respiratory failure. HPS was suspected due to the absence of increased CO2 levels and the presence of platypnea-orthodeoxia. We diagnosed the intrapulmonary arteriovenous shunt with microbubble-contrast echocardiography and technetium-99m macroaggregated albumin scintigraphy. Therefore, this case highlighted that HPS rather than COPD was suspected of hypoxemia associated with repositioning for the differential diagnosis of dyspnea.


INTRODUCTION Our conception of a satisfactory anatomical classification of thyroid changes is a scheme, composed of the major types of changes observed, arranged in the order of their manifestation and in which all separate or individual observations may find proper grouping. It is universally admitted that such a classification does not exist. It is, however, in connection with that group of anatomical changes embraced under the general term ``goiter'' that the greatest confusion exists. Studies based on large series of thyroids from the lower animals are still too few, though fortunately they are increasing because observers are realizing that human material is too complicated, and that the cataloguing of the almost infinite variety of possible histological variations has not simplified existing classifications or established the sequential relations of these changes. The multiplicity of terms now in use for each type of thyroid change is merely the result of


HLA antigen‐loss mutants and class I gene transferents were used to analyze the influence of class I expression on natural killer (NK) cell‐mediated lysis. Only HLA antigen‐loss mutants that had lost expression of either HLA‐A and HLA‐B antigens (mutant .184) or of HLA‐A, B and C antigens (mutant .221) were distinctly susceptible to NK‐mediated lysis. Mutants with reduced expression of class II antigens but unaltered expression of class I antigens remained resistant to NK lysis. A direct demonstration of the effect of class I antigen expression on human cells was made by analyzing a variety of gene transferents of the HLA‐A, B, C null mutant .221 expressing only one transferred HLA‐A, B or C gene. These results specifically show that expression of class I antigens, with a possible preferential effect of HLA‐B expression, reduces the susceptibility of mutant .221 to NK‐mediated lysis.


Accurately monitoring heavy metal stress in crops is vital for food security and agricultural production. The assimilation of remote sensing images into the World Food Studies (WOFOST) model provides an efficient way to solve this problem. In this study, we aimed at investigating the key periods of the assimilation framework for continuous monitoring of heavy metal stress in rice. The Harris algorithm was used for the leaf area index (LAI) curves to select the key period for an optimized assimilation. To obtain accurate LAI values, the measured dry weight of rice roots (WRT), which have been proven to be the most stress-sensitive indicator of heavy metal stress, were incorporated into the improved WOFOST model. Finally, the key periods, which contain four dominant time points, were used to select remote sensing images for the RS-WOFOST model for continuous monitoring of heavy metal stress. Compared with the key period which contains all the available remote sensing images, the results showed that the optimal key period can significantly improve the time efficiency of the assimilation framework by shortening the model operation time by more than 50%, while maintaining its accuracy. This result is highly significant when monitoring heavy metals in rice on a large-scale. Furthermore, it can also offer a reference for the timing of field measurements in monitoring heavy metal stress in rice.


The three most common and most successful methods for controlling fruit-fly pest species (particularly Ceratitis capitata) are the sterile-insect technique, insecticide use, and biological control. Yet while innovative research in the first two have meant significant improvement in the efficiency of these techniques over the past two decades, by comparison, improvements in the efficiency of biological-control techniques have lagged. It is asserted that such will continue to be the case until more researchers systematically address how to overcome, evade, deactivate the immune systems of target host species, in particular the cellular encapsulation response. The encapsulation response to wasp parasitization in both Drosophila and Ceratitis are reviewed. It is suggested that the past four decades of cellular, molecular and genetic research in Drosophila immunity and defense against parasitoid wasps can serve as a springboard for rapid significant improvement of our present, nearly non-existent model of Ceratitis immunity.


a Department of Essential Health Technologies, World Health Organization, 20 avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland. Correspondence to Luc Noël (e-mail: email@example.com). doi: 10.2471/BLT.07.049734 As long as the global supply of tissues, cells and organs for transplant does not meet needs, desperate patients are easy prey for unscrupulous individuals. Yet countries including Spain and the United States of America have shown that it is possible to make progress towards self sufficiency in transplants by meeting these needs with altruistic donations. Achieving national self-sufficiency is not easy. It requires a level of commitment from society that very few countries have been able to garner, but building this commitment arguably costs much less in the long term than relying on the payment of "volunteers"– inevitably the poor and vulnerable. In contrast to organs, most human tissues and cells destined for transplantation can be processed, preserved and stored, often for long periods. Their transportation can be very easy and shipping across national boundaries is sometimes necessary to best meet patients' needs. Risks of ethical breaches arise at all stages; from consent to donation through to the allocation of transplants, and the clinical care of donors and receipients. Recent cases of cadaveric tissue theft have shown how unethical behaviour in tissue procurement bypasses the safety barriers designed to decrease the risk of transmitting infectious diseases to receipents.1,2 The international circulation of human cells and tissues may also be an opportunity for hefty profit. Those who wish to profit from this trade do so by taking advantage of both poor people and their need for income, and of wealthy patients' needs and their ability to pay. The international organ trade is widely referred to as "transplant tourism". This entails cross-border travel by any participant in transplantation (recipients and/or surgeons and/or live donors) for the purpose of obtaining an organ in exchange for cash or goods. The profit motive predominates in this trade, more than the interest of the patients, and care for the live organ donor is secondary or non-existent. This issue of the Bulletin contains two papers on transplantation: the first is dedicated to the ethical aspects of cell and tissue transplantation,3 the second is an attempt to produce a picture of the international organ trade.4 Both papers are outputs of WHO's consultation process in response to Resolution 57.18 of the 2004 World Health Assembly on updating the 1991 Guiding Principles for Human Organ Transplantation. Resolution 57.18 requested WHO's Director-General to collect global data on all aspects of transplantation – including ethical issues. With the support of the Spanish government, WHO has contributed to a global knowledge base on transplantation designed to document the global situation of legitimate transplantation from official sources in most Member States.5 However, there is no such official source of data on transplant tourism. This trade is illegal wherever relevant laws exist. Measuring the extent of this illicit trade is impossible, and Shimazono's paper4 takes the necessary, but limited, first step of gathering available information in order to form a first estimate. This paper is further limited by its identification of transplant activities from publications and in only two languages. It does not attempt to quantify the activity of concealed organizations and undercover networks which are known to exist. The paper thus underestimates activity while providing an important basis for future work. It confirms that transplant tourism is a global issue deserving a global response. It stresses the importance of drafting and implementing legislative frameworks for transplantation. Indeed, the legislative frameworks banning commercial transplantation that China and Pakistan adopted in 2007 have already resulted in the closure of web sites advertising commercial transplantation services in these countries, and foreign candidate recipients have been sent back to their own countries. The global consultation process that WHO undertook in order to update the Guiding Principles reinforced the spirit of these principles as they were originally drafted in 1991.6 Cells, tissues and organs should only be donated freely without monetary payment or other rewards of monetary value. Purchasing – or offering to purchase – cells, tissues and organs for transplantation or their sale by living persons or by the next of kin for deceased persons should be banned. WHO's draft update of the Guiding Principles stresses the importance of tracing transplants from donor to recipient and vice versa. This is a quality and safety requirement necessary both for investigations of disease transmission and the recall of sub-standard human cell and tissue products. Traceability also indicates the origin of the transplant and contributes to maintaining ethical practices in transplantation. WHO is advocating for global coding standards to facilitate trans-national tracing. Guiding Principle 11 addresses transparency as an essential prerequisite to building public trust and fostering the will to donate. Transparency should encompass all transplantation organizations, activities, and outcomes, while maintaining the necessary anonymity and privacy of donors and recipients. ■


Background/Aims Several rescue therapies have been recommended to eradicate Helicobacter pylori infection in patients with a failure of first-line eradication therapy, but they still fail in more than 20% of cases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of levofloxacin, metronidazole, and lansoprazole (LML) triple therapy relative to quadruple therapy as a second-line treatment. Methods In total, 113 patients who failed first-line triple therapy for H. pylori infection were randomly assigned to two groups: LML for 7 days and tetracycline, bismuth subcitrate, metronidazole and lansoprazole (quadruple) for 7 days. Results According to intention-to-treat analysis, the infection was eradicated in 38 of 56 patients (67.9%) in the LML group and 48 of 57 (84.2%) in the quadruple group (p=0.042). Per-protocol analysis showed successful eradication in 38 of 52 patients (73.1%) from the LML group and 48 of 52 (92.3%) from the quadruple group (p=0.010). There were no significant differences in the adverse effects in either treatment group. Conclusions LML therapy is less effective than quadruple therapy as a second-line treatment for H. pylori infection. Therefore, quadruple therapy should be considered as the primary second-line strategy for patients experiencing a failure of first-line H. pylori therapy in Korea.


Leiomyomas represent about 3.8% of all benign soft tissue tumors. Vulvar localization is very rare. We present a case of a vulvar leiomyoma and discuss diagnostic and therapeutic features of this disease. A 30-year-old female patient with no medical history, had a 5cm mass located in the left large lip causing a discomfort at the perineum especially in sitting and walking. She underwent a complete surgical excision of the mass. The pathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of a leiomyoma. There was no recurrence after 24-months' follow-up. The vulvar leiomyoma is a rare benign tumor. The diagnosis is made only postoperatively after resection of the mass. The treatment is essentially based on total excision of the mass with a good prognosis.


This paper describes a computational study of the mixed metal fluorides LiCaAlF6 and LiSrAlF6, which have potential technological applications when doped with a range of elements, especially those from the rare earth series. Potentials are derived to represent the structure and properties of the undoped materials, then defect properties are calculated, and finally solution energies for rare earth elements are calculated, enabling preferred dopant sites and charge compensation mechanisms to be predicted.


This study illustrates how the cognitive interviewing (CI) method can provide qualitative evidence of item, construct, and method bias in cross-cultural research. CI was conducted with participants from the Netherlands and Spain, who responded to quality-of-life (QoL) items included in international survey research projects. Qualitative findings indicate that, at the construct level, Spanish participants were more affected by the particular wording of the item stems, which made them modify their understanding of the intended constructs while answering, whereas Dutch participants were more focused on being consistent in their responses. At the item level, differences in the interpretation of key terms in QoL items were mainly related to translation and cultural issues. Method bias was manifested in the differential use of response options and anchor labels. Results of the study support the contribution and usefulness of CI to informing about the three types of bias from a qualitative approach.


The pseudogap regime of the cuprate high-temperature superconductors is characterized by a variety of competing orders, the nature of which are still widely debated. Recent experiments have provided evidence for electron nematic order, in which the electron fluid breaks rotational symmetry while preserving translational invariance. Raman spectroscopy, with its ability to symmetry resolve low energy excitations, is a unique tool that can be used to assess nematic fluctuations and nematic ordering tendencies. Here, we compare results from determinant quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the Hubbard model to experimental results from Raman spectroscopy in $\text{La}_{2-x}\text{Sr}_{x}\text{CuO}_{4}$, which show a prominent increase in the $B_{1g}$ response around 10% hole doping as the temperature decreases, indicative of a rise in nematic fluctuations at low energy. Our results support a picture of nematic fluctuations with $B_{1g}$ symmetry occurring in underdoped cuprates, which may arise from melted stripes at elevated temperatures.


Recent advances in genetic engineering technologies has made it possible to construct artificial genetic circuits and use them to control how cells respond to their surroundings. This has been used to generate spatial patterns of differential gene expression. In addition to the spatial arrangement of different cell types, another important aspect of spatial structure lies in the overall shape of the group of cells. However, the question of how cells can be programmed, and how complex the rules need to be, to achieve a desired tissue morphology has received less attention. In this paper, we attempt to address these questions by developing a mathematical model to study how cells can use diffusion-mediated local rules to grow into clusters with different shapes. Within our model, cells are allowed to secrete diffusible chemicals which can either directly regulate the growth rate of cells ('growth regulator'), or indirectly affect growth by changing the secretion rate or the effect of other growth regulators. We find that (1) a single growth inhibitor can be used to grow a rod-like structure, (2) multiple growth regulators are required to grow multiple protrusions, and (3) the length and shape of each protrusion can be controlled using growth-threshold regulators. Based on these regulatory schemes, we also postulate how the range of achievable structures scales with the number of signals: (A) the maximum possible number of protrusions increases exponentially with the number of growth inhibitors involved, and (B) to control the growth of each set of protrusions, it is necessary to have an independent threshold regulator. Together, these experimentally-testable findings illustrate how our approach can be used to guide the design of regulatory circuits for achieving a desired target structure.


The creation and use of unnatural molecules to control cellular function is a long standing goal of the chemical community, but in general, these efforts have been directed at finding molecules to inhibit or activate a particular molecular target or function, or to elicit a particular phenotype. Here we show that multiple unnatural molecules (orthogonal ribosomes) can be used combinatorially, in a single cell, to program Boolean logic functions. These experiments show how attention to the molecular specificity of noncovalent interactions between unnatural macromolecules allows the synthesis of complex function from the "bottom-up" in living matter.


Mojosari Village, Puger Sub-district, is the largest watermelon center in Jember Regency. In 2017, the total harvested area reached 900 Ha and productivity reached 290.72 kW / Ha. The problem that often arises in watermelon cultivation is the attack of plant pests. Pests that often attack watermelons include caterpillars, whitefly, fruit flies, and thrips. Pest control that is often used by farmers is sprayed with chemical pesticides. The spraying of chemical pesticides began to be complained about by farmers because they were not able to control pests, this was probably because the pests were already resistant to pesticides. The decline in watermelon quality is also caused by soil conditions that have begun to decrease in nutrient content, due to the use of excessive chemical fertilizers. Farmers become dependent on chemical pesticides and chemical fertilizers in watermelon cultivation. Therefore, it is necessary to educate farmers to reduce the use of excessive chemical pesticides and fertilizers. One alternative is to use environmentally friendly biological control agents. The result of this activity is that farmers can reproduce biological agents, namely the fungus Metarhizium anisopliae, Beauveria bassiana, Trichoderma, entomopathogenic nematodes, and make organic fertilizers. Farmers can produce biological agents and apply them to watermelon fields. The resulting watermelon is more durable to store and does not rot easily after harvest.


: Method of highly effective liquid chromatography investigates change of qualitative and quantitative structure of amino acids quickly frozen (minus 30 degrees C) fruits-berry pastes during three and nine-monthly storage (minus 18 degrees C). It was ascertained that there to took place changes no of amino acids complex.


Remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) based physiological measurement is an emerging yet crucial vision task, whose challenge lies in exploring accurate rPPG prediction from facial videos accompanied by noises of illumination variations, facial occlusions, head movements, \etc, in a non-contact manner. Existing mainstream CNN-based models make efforts to detect physiological signals by capturing subtle color changes in facial regions of interest (ROI) caused by heartbeats. However, such models are constrained by the limited local spatial or temporal receptive fields in the neural units. Unlike them, a native Transformer-based framework called Dual-path TokenLearner (Dual-TL) is proposed in this paper, which utilizes the concept of learnable tokens to integrate both spatial and temporal informative contexts from the global perspective of the video. Specifically, the proposed Dual-TL uses a Spatial TokenLearner (S-TL) to explore associations in different facial ROIs, which promises the rPPG prediction far away from noisy ROI disturbances. Complementarily, a Temporal TokenLearner (T-TL) is designed to infer the quasi-periodic pattern of heartbeats, which eliminates temporal disturbances such as head movements. The two TokenLearners, S-TL and T-TL, are executed in a dual-path mode. This enables the model to reduce noise disturbances for final rPPG signal prediction. Extensive experiments on four physiological measurement benchmark datasets are conducted. The Dual-TL achieves state-of-the-art performances in both intra- and cross-dataset testings, demonstrating its immense potential as a basic backbone for rPPG measurement. The source code is available at \href{https://github.com/VUT-HFUT/Dual-TL}{https://github.com/VUT-HFUT/Dual-TL}