There are very less way of communicating between a differently abled person i.e. deaf and dumb also called as hearing impaired and normal people. Communications from deaf and dumb to normal people are done in many ways but from normal people to hearing impaired people have not been much. What we say cannot be understood by the deaf and dumb people so a system should be made so that a deaf and dumb person can understand the voice of normal people. The voice will be converted to sign language so that deaf and dumb people can easily understand. Machine learning techniques will be used to implement this with the help of Google API for voice recognition and then the Natural Language Processing is used. The voice will be broken into sentences or words and then the context of natural language processing will come into picture. The text will be compared with the gifs generated, if found the gifs will be shown as output or else letter by letter mapping will be done so the hearing impaired people can understand the voice through sign language. This is very important for the hearing impaired people. This helps hearing impaired people a lot because they can easily understand what the normal people are telling and for their daily life it will be very helpful. The system is tested with the number of data samples. As data samples increases, the accuracy of the model is said to have gone up as well.


To the Editor:-Pulmonary edema occurs because of excessive negative intrathoracic pressure caused by acute airway obstruction (e.g., laryngospasm, vocal cord paralysis) in spontaneously breathing patients. l -* During anesthesia and sedation, airway obstruction can occur at the pharynx and larynx level^.^^" Even in patients who are awake, alteration in the ability to change the breathing route from nasal t o oral may affect breathing against the airway obstruction, thereby causing this catastrophic event.' We experienced a case in which acute pulmonary edema occurred because of acute airway obstruction triggered by the patient's inability to switch the breathing route from nasal to oral during emergence from propofol anesthesia. A 27-yr-old man (170 cm, 60 kg) with chronic tonsillitis scheduled for bilateral tonsillectomy was medicated with hydroxyzine and atropine 30 min before anesthesia. Air passage through the nose was normal. After placement of the electrocardiograph, pulse oxymeter (oxygen saturation measured by pulse oximetry, Sp,,,), and blood pressure cuff, general anesthesia was induced with 2 mg/kg intravenous propofol and was maintained with continuous intravenous propofol, nitrous oxide, and oxygen supplemented with fentanyl. The patient's trachea was intubated with a 7.5-mm endotracheal tube with the aid of vecronium for muscle relaxation; the lungs were mechanically ventilated. A bilateral tonsillectomy was performed uneventfully, using 13 ml local-infiltration epinephrine 0.0005%. Because bleeding persisted, the surgeon replaced a mouth gag several times for hemostasis; thus, the procedure was accomplished in 180 min, during which time 2 mg . kg-' * h-' propofol supplemented with 0.2% isoflurane was maintained. The patient began controlled mechanical ventilation, and his vital signs were stable until tracheal extubation after full recovery from neuromuscle blockade. He could raise his head, and he responded well to our commands. The patient then fell asleep, and his airway was obstructed. When the patient awoke to our verbal commands, he was able to breathe orally without difficulty; however, when he slept, he could only breathe through the nasal route. The nasal breathing was accompanied by signs of complete ainvay obstruction, such as sternal retraction and use o f the accessory muscles. With each awakening, he breathed through the oral route, and the obstructive breathing disappeared. After several such episodes S P , ~ decreased to less than 90%, and finally to 8496, despite oxygen supplement through a face mask. A chest roentgenogram showed diffuse interstitial edema in his lungs. The patient had a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) mask with oxygen on overnight. The next morning, his lungs became clear, and there was neither a significant decrease in SP, ,~ associated with spontaneous breathing nor an episode of upper airway obstruction during sleep. The patient's recovery was uneventful. Pulmonary edema in the postoperative period often is caused by excessive negative intrathordcic pressure generated during inspiratory efforts against acute upper ainvay obstruction,'-' mainly caused by laryngospasm in healthy male patients." However. laryngospasm did Caused by Impaired Switching from in the Emergence from Anesthesia


This participants' kit comprises short summaries of the background materials of the training course on Harmonisation, Decentralisation and Local Governance, which has been designed for the informal Donor Partners Working Group on Local Governance and Decentralisation. The participants' kit has been prepared to give participants an overview of the state-of-the-art knowledge on harmonisation, decentralisation and local governance. Among other things, it includes case studies that are based on the work of the various partners of the DPWG-LGD and the guiding principles that have been defined in this group.


Skilled workers' performance is one of the crucial aspects of labour productivity that requires proper attention for effective projects delivery in the construction industry. The level of skilled workers' low performance has been seen to be a major factor which contributes toward inefficient construction projects productivity. Therefore, the objective of this research is to identify the causes of low-skilled workers' performance in construction projects in the Nigeria. The objective was achieved through a structured quantitative method of questionnaire distributed to 150 respondents that comprise of active stakeholders in the Nigerian construction industry. 111 responses representing 74 % were retrieved. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The finding shows that; low wages of skilled, lack of sufficient skill acquisition centres and lack of incentive schemes for skilled workers were the most significant causes of low-skilled workers' performance in the Nigerian construction industry. The homogenous analysis indicates that there are significant differences in perception of respondents on few variables whereas majority of respondents have similarities in most of the variables. The research findings indicate the need for stakeholders in the Nigerian construction industry to provide incentives and motivate skilled workers, provide training and retraining, conducive working condition, supply of quality materials and equipment, and proper site management in order improve low-skilled workers' performance in Nigerian construction industry towards optimal performance.


The purpose of this study was to provide a review of the literature reflecting parent involvement in the education of the young handicapped child. The impetus for the study resulted from the need to develop and test programs involving parents in the education of their children who were enrolled in a preschool program for handicapped children. This study provides a baseline of information for persons planning, developing, or evaluating programs in this area.


SOON after the classification of the chemical elements by Lavoisier, and the decomposition of the alkalis by Davy, the latter, in 1812, suggested that the "undecompounded substances" may be composed of hydrogen "with another principle yet unknown in the separate form". If we identify this principle with the electron, we have in this speculation (not mentioned in the present Alembic Club Reprint) an anticipation of the modern theory of atomic structure as striking as the prediction of isotopes by Crookes in 1886, and of the packing effect by Marignac in 1860. The logical development of Davy's idea was found in the papers of Prout (1815–1816), which are reprinted in the present volume, suggesting that atomic weights are whole multiples of that of hydrogen, and that "we may almost consider the πρώτη ϋλη of the ancients to be realised in hydrogen".Prout's Hypothesis. Papers by Dr. William Prout (1815–16), J. S. Stas (1860) and C. Marignac (1860). (Alembic Club Reprints, No. 20.) Pp. 58. (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd; London: Gurney and Jackson, 1932.) 2s. 6d. net.


The pH dependences of kcat/Km, kcat and Km of thermolysin-catalyzed hydrolysis of N-furylacryloylglycyl-L-leucinamide (Fua-Gly-LeuNH2) and N-furylacryloylglycyl-L-phenylalaninamide (Fua-Gly-PheNH2) were investigated. Taking the buffer dependences into account, the kcat/Km profile was explained by a simple bell-shaped curve with pKa1 = 5.0 and pKa2 = 8.25, at 25 degrees C. Both kcat and Km increased with pH at lower pH and took larger values for Fua-Gly-LeuNH2 than for Fua-Gly-PheNH2 at 25 degrees C. The pH dependence of inhibitory actions by amino acids and dipeptides, such as carbobenzyloxy-L-phenylalanine and L-phenylalanyl-L-leucinamide, showed characteristic features depending on their charge states: anionic or neutral ones inhibited the enzyme more strongly at lower pH while cationic ones did so at neutral pH. Temperature dependences of kcat/Km, Ki and the two pKa values in the kcat/Km profile were measured. The kcat/Km showed non-linear dependence while Ki increased linearly with temperature on a logarithmic scale. The calculated delta H values of deprotonation for pKa1 and pKa2 were 33.4 kJ/mol and 35.1 kJ/mol, respectively. The value for pKa1 is too large to be assigned to the carboxylic group of Glu-143, in contrast to the generally accepted view. A mechanism for thermolysin catalysis is presented with particular emphasis on the binding specificity and the catalytic role of zinc-coordinated water.


The purpose of this study was to assess the fluoride concentration in water supplies of Mexico City. Since Lerma-Cutzamala and Acuifero del Valle de Mexico Water Supply Systems distribute water to the Mexico City's Metropolitan Area (MCMA) we have analyzed their water fluoride concentration using 44 different sampling wells from the four geographical zones of the MCMA during 2002. The water sampling was monthly made during one year. All collected data showed a mean fluoride concentration of 0.70 ± 0.20 mg/L. Our results showed minor variability of fluoride concentrations in the water available in Mexico City. The fluoride content of the different analyzed zones showed statistical differences. Although Mexican Health authorities have defined that fluoride concentration in water should be from 0.70 to 1.50 mg/L, cases of dental fluorosis have been reported in Mexico City (Juarez-Lopez et al. 2003). It is important to have a reliable evaluation of fluoride concentration in Mexico City's natural water supplies prior to implementing any caries-prevention program and to avoid novel cases of dental fluorosis.


While prior research has extensively explored outcomes of family to-work conflict (FWC), our understanding of how FWC may impact employees' negative interpersonal behaviours at work such as workplace incivility is limited. Given the serious implications of workplace incivility, the current study seeks to understand the relationship between FWC and instigated incivility via the mediating role of negative affect. The moderating role of family supportive supervisor behaviours (FSSB) is also investigated. We collected data from 129 full-time employees over three waves with six weeks in between. Results revealed that FWC positively predicted instigated incivility, and negative affect mediated this relationship. In addition, the positive effect of FWC on negative affect as well as the indirect effect of FWC on instigated incivility through negative affect were weaker for individuals experiencing more FSSB, suggesting that family related support from supervisors may attenuate the effect of FWC on employees' negative affect and its indirect effect on instigated incivility via negative affect. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.


E-recruitment has been the focus both of research and commercial use in the past decade, with the addition of social media recruitment in the recent years. Public profiles and information on potential candidate have exploded with the emergence of profiles on social network web-sites, which is highly utilized by companies and recruiters in the employment process. Despite different ethical and practical issues, there are also legal ramifications for using personal data of candidates in the recruitment process. The paper focuses on the legal aspects of screening candidates, as part of the recruitment process, more specifically on the screening via social media.
Our research examines the introduction of the new GDPR Law which is in effect in EU countries since May 2018, and comparisons are made with the existing laws for data protection of candidates in the Republic of Macedonia, as a candidate member state for the EU. The research shows that screening through social media for reasons other than job performance is considered as a breach in principles through GDPR, as well as considered as discriminatory and illegal in the Macedonian Labor Law. The comparison between GDPR and Macedonian Labor Law shows strong points such as clear lines for direct and indirect discrimination, as well as weak points such as not enough guidelines for transparency, protection and control over candidate data in the Macedonian law. Companies are subject to GDPR regardless of whether they reside in an EU country, making the law of tremendous importance to Macedonian companies which employ or recruit candidates who are permanent residents of the EU. Recommendations are made to engage technology changes in a timely manner, as well as to introduce regular checks on companies for their process of screening candidates through social media.


The goal of this study is to analyze how the aeropropulsive benefits of an over-the-wing distributed-propulsion (OTWDP) system at the component level translate into an aeropropulsive benefit at the aircraft level, as well as to determine whether this enhancement is sufficient to lead to a reduction in overall energy consumption. For this, the preliminary sizing of a partial-turboelectric regional passenger aircraft is performed, and its performance metrics are compared to a conventional twin-turboprop reference for the 2035 timeframe. The changes in lift, drag, and propulsive efficiency due to the OTWDP system are estimated for a simplified unducted geometry using a lower-order numerical method, which is validated with experimental data. For a typical cruise condition and the baseline geometry evaluated in the experiment, the numerical method estimates a 45% increase in the local sectional lift-to-drag ratio of the wing, at the expense of a 12% reduction in propeller efficiency. For an aircraft with 53% of the wingspan covered by the OTWDP system, this aerodynamic coupling is found to increase the average aeropropulsive efficiency of the aircraft by 9% for a 1500 n mile mission. Approximately 4% of this benefit is required to offset the losses in the electrical drivetrain. The reduction in fuel weight compensates for the increase in powertrain weight, leading to a takeoff mass comparable to the reference aircraft. Overall, a 5% reduction in energy consumption is found, albeit with a [Formula: see text] uncertainty due to uncertainty in the aerodynamic modeling alone.


"We teach who we are" (Palmer, 2007) is an important self-revelation. Given the current culture in America, there is much unrest in our classrooms and schools. As teacher educators, we need to be aware of the various cultures influencing not only our classrooms, but also the classrooms of our students and the society at large. This article discusses how cultural awareness and culturally proficient teaching can impact individual instructors and learning environments of their classrooms. As future teachers experience culture in our university classrooms, they are becoming aware of their own cultural identity and its effects on their future students.


Received July 7, 2000 Abstract Transient hypothyroxinaemia of prematurity (THOP) is common. The preponderance of evidence indicates that at the very least THOP is a marker of elevated risk of neurodevelopmental adversity. Existing observational and experimental studies could neither support nor dispute the use of thyroid hormones in preterm infants. The experimental studies done so far had major limitations because of the small number of infants enrolled in the trials. For future large multicenter randomized trials, energies should be focused on assessing neurodevelopment objectively in survivors and consider enrolling only those infants most likely to benefit from thyroid hormones replacement therapy. Moreover, the addition of triiodothyronine (T3) to the treatment schedule needs to be seriously considered. Furthermore, since local pilot study revealed iodine deficiency in 35.8% of the studied healthy pregnant women and the effect of iodine deficiency may probably be more significant in preterms, one will probably choose to treat.


Pin pullers are used to hold, lock or secure deployable or moving parts on spacecrafts during their launching. These 'one shot' actuators used to be based on explosive charges. Pin pullers important characteristics are their retraction force that needs to be sufficient to pull the pin out of the locking mechanism, their maximum radial force, which limits the size of the secured system, and their dimensions and weight. The possibility of resetting the mechanism is also an appreciated advantage. Upon request of CNES, the French National Space Agency, CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES has designed a resettable electromagnetic actuated pin puller, called BRUCE (Broche Retractable Utilisant une Commande Electromagnetique – Figure 1).


Interpolation filters are widely used in symbol timing recovery systems to interpolate new sample values at arbitrary points between the existing discrete-time samples. This paper presents an efficient way to implement polynomial interpolation filters based on the analysis of constraints which are used for optimization. The proposed technique does not require two sub-filters in the well-known Farrow structure, which leads to a very efficient interpolator. Implementation examples are included illustrating the efficiency of the proposed method.


Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L.) leaves are purple in color due to anthocyanin accumulation and have nutritional and aesthetic value, as well as antioxidant properties. Here, we identified the R3 MYB transcription factor BrMYBL2.1 as a key negative regulator of anthocyanin biosynthesis. A Chinese cabbage cultivar with green leaves harbored a functional BrMYBL2.1 protein, designated BrMYBL2.1-G, with transcriptional repressor activity of anthocyanin biosynthetic genes. By contrast, BrMYBL2.1 from a Chinese cabbage cultivar with purple leaves carried a poly(A) insertion in the third exon of the gene, resulting in the insertion of multiple lysine residues in the predicted protein, designated BrMYBL2.1-P. Although both BrMYBL2.1 variants localized to the nucleus, only BrMYBL2.1-G interacted with its cognate partner BrTT8. Transient infiltration assays in tobacco leaves revealed that BrMYBL2.1-G, but not BrMYBL2.1-P, actively represses pigment accumulation by inhibiting the transcription of anthocyanin biosynthetic genes. Transient promoter activation assay in Arabidopsis protoplasts verified that BrMYBL2.1-G, but not BrMYBL2.1-P, can repress transcriptional activation of BrCHS and BrDFR, which was activated by co-expression with BrPAP1 and BrTT8. We determined that BrMYBL2.1-P may be more prone to degradation than BrMYBL2.1-G via ubiquitination. Taken together, these results demonstrate that BrMYBL2.1-G blocks the activity of the MBW complex and thus represses anthocyanin biosynthesis, whereas the variant BrMYBL2.1-P from purple Chinese cabbage cannot, thus leading to higher anthocyanin accumulation.


Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia. It increases the risk of stroke, dementia, and death; therefore, its timely diagnosis at an initial stage is crucial. Often wearable mobile devices are recommended for the primary detection of this life-threatening arrhythmia. Irregularity of the heartbeat duration, often measured through R-R intervals (RRI), has been intensively investigated during the past four decades for automatic detection of AF. However, little improvement has been made when the input signal (RRI tachogram) contains different types of arrhythmic rhythms. In this paper, we propose a neighborhood component analysis (NCA) based linear transformation of a window of RRI tachogram to improve the robustness of AF detection. Several state-of-the-art classification models are trained and tested using transformed signals, and AF detection performance are evaluated using the challenging MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database containing various types of arrhythmic rhythms. The experimental results show significant improvement in AF detection performance using the transformed signals compared to those for signals in the original space and after linear-discriminant-analysis-based transformation. In particular, for the Naïve Bayesian classification of the transformed signals, we obtained 98.59% sensitivity, 99.91% specificity, 99.16% positive predictive value, and 99.79% accuracy. The proposed AF detection method outperforms the existing methods reported in the past four decades. Owing to the use of a short window of RRI tachogram (15 consecutive RRIs), the proposed method can be incorporated into a deployable mobile screening device for robust detection of AF.


A preceding quantum and electronic theory of the metal-semiconductor interface is used to compute several physical quantities of contacts between silicon and various metals. The parameters of the contacts, such as the energy barrier heights, the electric field at the interface, the abscissa of the energy barrier peak, the depletion layer width, the interfacial dipole contribution to the energy barrier, the capacitance built-in-voltage and so on, are computed as functions of the metal work-function, of the silicon Fermi level and of the voltage biasing the contact. The theoretical values obtained prove to be in agreement with the published experimental results.


The research investigates the management of customer experience by Zimbabwean commercial banks. Most of the products being offered by the banks have become standardised therefore banks are being forced to orient their strategies towards customers instead of products making customer experiences a very key factor in strategic management. The research used the descriptive survey research design and non-probability sampling was used to select participants from the study population. Research instruments used were questionnaires and interviews. Data analysis was done using SPSS computer package. The study findings revealed that Zimbabwean commercial banks seem to be failing to realign their service offering to meet customer expectations. Therefore it can be concluded that the service offering in Zimbabwean Banks does not meet customer expectations. The study also reveals that employees in the Zimbabwean commercial banking sector are not adequately motivated to have customer centric values. The study results divulge that customers are satisfied with the physical environment and managers conveyed that they used the Physical Environment as a package and a facilitator. Finally managers mentioned that they face challenges when they are trying to manage customer experiences, 39% of management showed that lack of support from senior management which can be closely linked to the lack of resources contributed significantly to the challenges they faced in trying to manage customer experiences. Management also brought to fore the point that they were no clearly defined customer experience strategies in the organizations therefore it becomes very difficult to execute such strategies. The researchers recommended the need for Zimbabwean commercial banks to begin to actively involve their customers during product development and to put in place customer experience management strategies in their strategic plans. Keywords: Customer experience management, Customer expectations, Customer perceptions and Commercial banks.


This paper reviews the final two volumes of Kalecki's Collected Works. It first dis cusses, based on the papers in Vol. VI, his contributions on cartels, on Nazi Germany, the development of indices of business fluctuations and of national income accounts, and the movement of prices and costs over the business cycle. Drawing on the papers reproduced in Vol. VII, this paper continues by discussing Kalecki's writings on rationing, inflation, imperfect competition and unemployment, money and finance, the national debt and the welfare state, international economic arrangements, the post-war American economy and econometrics and methodology.


Background Cervical cancer burden and prevalence of precursor lesions is unknown among young women living with HIV in high prevalence settings. Current cervical cancer screening guidelines in resource-limited settings with high HIV prevalence typically exclude adolescents and young women. After observing two cases of advanced cervical cancer among young women with perinatally acquired HIV, a pilot screening programme was established in Botswana. Objectives To compare the prevalence of cervical abnormalities in young women with perinatally acquired HIV with women aged 30–49 years, regardless of HIV status. Method We conducted a cross-sectional study of 30–49-year-old women who had visual inspection with acetic acid screening through the Botswana public sector programme, and youth (aged 15–24 years) with perinatally acquired HIV, at a single referral site between 2016 and 2018. We describe the prevalence of cervical abnormalities in each group as well as the crude prevalence ratio. Results The prevalence of cervical abnormalities in women 30–49 years of age was 10.9% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 10.4, 11.4), and 10.1% (95% CI: 4.7, 18.3) for youth. The crude prevalence ratio was 1.07 (95% CI: 0.58, 2.01). Conclusion Inclusion of youth living with HIV in cervical cancer screening services should be considered in settings with a high prevalence of HIV and cervical cancer.


Yun Zhu (  firstname.lastname@example.com ) Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9382-8592 Fei Sun Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0351-5144 Xiangxi Wang Institute of Biophysics https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0635-278X Linhua Tai https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8435-9683 Guoliang Zhu Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences Minnan Yang Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences Lei Cao CAS Key Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, National Laboratory of Macromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. Xiaorui Xing CAS Key Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences Guoliang Yin Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences Chun Chan Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, The Ohio State University Cheng-Feng Qin Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology Rao Zihe Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies, School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University


Mobile phones play an essential role in enhancing personal, social, and professional life in many ways, including to access to communication, information, and entertainment. However, mobile phones also come in contact with environments containing high densities of microorganisms, such as hospitals, schools, restrooms, and kitchens, suggesting that mobile phones could also act as carriers of disease. Commercial disinfectants are highly effective against potential human pathogens found on mobile phones, yet these disinfectants also contain chemicals that are toxic to both human health and the environment. In addition, there is evidence that modern microorganisms are becoming resistant to commercially available disinfectants. We hypothesized that household spices and minerals, such as garlic, mint, zinc, and iron, could act as alternate solutions for disinfecting mobile phones after daily use. Our results demonstrate that garlic, iron, and zinc are just as effective at suppressing microorganisms compared to commercially available cleaners, Clorox and Pine-Sol. These results could help guide further research aimed at producing more environmentally friendly cleaners and reducing the need for toxic chemicals in household disinfectants.


We report on the development and performance of a monolithic, all-fiber, polarization maintaining (PM), Yb-doped photonic crystal fiber (PCF) type fiber amplifier. The key components of the amplifier are a novel multi fiber-coupled laser diode stack and a monolithic 6+1x1 fiber pump/signal multiplexer. The precisely aligned 2-D laser diode emitter array found in laser diode stacks is utilized by way of a simple in-line imaging process with no mirror reflections to process a 2-D array of 450 elements into 3 400/440μm 0.22NA pump delivery fibers. The amplifier in this work utilizes two laser diode stacks, one at 915 nm and the other at 976 nm for six total delivery fibers, three per stack, with an aggregate available pump power of 1.65 kW. The fiber combiner is an etched air taper design that transforms low numerical aperture (NA), large diameter pump radiation into a high NA, small diameter format for pump injection into an air-clad large mode area PCF, while maintaining a constant core size through the taper for efficient signal coupling and throughput. The fiber combiner has 6 400/440/0.22 core/clad/NA pump delivery fibers and a 20/440 PM step-index signal delivery fiber on the input side and a 40/500 PM Yb doped PCF on the output side. The etched air taper transforms the six 400/440 μm 0.22 NA pump fibers to the 500 μm 0.55 NA core of the PCF fiber with a measured pump combining efficiency of 92% with zero brightness drop. The combiner also operates as a stepwise mode converter via a 30 μm intermediate core region in the combiner between the 20 μm core of the input fiber and the 40 μm fiber core of the PCF with a measured signal efficiency of 90% while maintaining polarization with a measured PER of 20 dB. A seed laser was formed using one of the 915 nm pump legs to end pump a PLMA 20/400 Yb-doped fiber laser which provided 80W of seed power at 1085nm. This seed signal was then fed through the fiber pump/signal combiner with the remaining 5 pump legs into the large Yb-doped PCF fiber. In this configuration a total power of 967 W was observed with a slope efficiency of over 75%. We report the signal coupling efficiency and power handling capability as well.


Volume carving is a well-known technique for reconstructing a 3D scene from a set of 2D images, using features detected in individual cameras, and camera parameters. Spatial calibration of the cameras is well understood, but the resulting carved volume is very sensitive to temporal offsets between the cameras. Automatic synchronization between the cameras is therefore desirable. In this paper, we present a highly efficient implementation of volume carving and synchronization on a heterogeneous system fitted with commodity GPUs using an improved version of the algorithm in [1]. An online, real-time synchronization system is described and evaluated on surveillance video of an indoor scene. Improvements to the state of the art CPU-based algorithms are described.


In recent decades, global warming has driven significant mass losses across the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS). Global warming of 1.5◦C and 2◦C is expected to beexceeded in the coming decades, which will trigger further AIS instabilities (Pattyn et al., 2018; Pörtner et al., 2022). The AIS has the potential to be the largest contributor to global sea level rise; thus, it is essential to understand the dynamics of the AIS in a warming world to aid governmental policies. The most significant mass losses in the AIS are driven by ocean-forced basal melting reducing the buttressing ability of ice shelves. The Ross Ice Shelf (RIS) is the largest cold water ice shelf on the AIS and buttresses the West and East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Understanding the current dynamics of the RIS in a warming world is important as the ice shelf has a large control over the mass balance of the AIS. Seasonal changes in sea ice cover have recently been found to elevate basal melt rates at the calving front of the RIS (Stewart et al., 2019). This thesis sets out to understand the influence of short-term environmental variability on RIS flow dynamics. This will be achieved through observing the RIS flow rates over seasonal and interannual timescales using GNSS and remote sensing methods. Exploration of environmental drivers of the observed flow variability is carried out using the Ice-sheet and Sea-level System Model (ISSM). Furthermore, ISSM is used to quantify sensitive areas of the RIS to changes in glaciology and environmental controls. The results showed that the RIS flow rates do not vary significantly on seasonal or interannual timescales, suggesting that the RIS dynamics are insensitive to external forcings at seasonal and interannual frequencies. However, basal melting was found to drive seasonal variations in ice flow dynamics with similar patterns to the GNSS velocities. The sensitivity maps highlighted that changes in basal melt in sensitive areas (i.e., grounding lines and shear margins) would impact the mass balance substantially and should be monitored in a warming world. The simulations could not replicate the observed velocity variations suggesting that some other environmental forcing not considered is driving these variations. Projections of the RIS and AIS using a range of climate models and present-day basal melt conditions were also performed in ISSM to understand whether short-term basal melt variability should be included in projections and the influence basal melt parameterisation inputs have on the final projected sea level contribution. The results showed that including short-term basal melt variability was not needed to project the mass changes of the RIS, with variability in surface mass balance driving larger changes in the mass balance over a 100 year timescale. However, using high spatio-temporal resolution datasets within the basal melt parameterisation projected larger basal melt rates, mass loss and sea level contributions for the AIS. Thus, uncertainties still exist in ice sheet modelled projections of sea level rise estimates, and policymakers should use multiple model simulations when planning adaptive strategies.


A phase space description of the fractional Talbot effect, occurring in a one--dimensional Fresnel diffraction from a periodic grating, is presented. Using the phase space formalism a compact summation formula for the Wigner function at rational multiples of the Talbot distance is derived. The summation formula shows that the fractional Talbot image in the phase space is generated by a finite sum of spatially displaced Wigner functions of the source field.


On 21 May 1997, at the UN General Assembly, an overwhelming majority of States voted for the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses – a global overarching framework governing the rights and duties of States sharing freshwater systems. To date, the Convention counts 17 Contracting States – 18 short of the number required for entry into force. This article examines whether and why States should support the Convention towards ensuring its entry into force. We first look at the governance of international watercourses in order to illustrate the relevance of the Convention. The article also examines the Convention's drafting and negotiation process, the subsequent practice of States, some possible reasons slowing down ratifications and the likelihood of entry into force in the foreseeable future. Noting the widespread State support for the Convention in 1997, we conclude that, while various reasons have possibly prevented that support from translating into entry into force, the need for an effective UN Watercourses Convention has not diminished. In view of current human and environmental threats to the world's water resources, coupled with the poor governance of transboundary watersheds, the potential role that the Convention could play, once in force and widely ratified, as discussed, may in fact be more critical than ever.


Background: Lenvatinib is an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting VEGFR1-3, FGFR1-4, RET, KIT and PDGFRβ. Anti-tumor activity has been observed in melanoma patients in Phase I studies. We applied an integrative supercomputer-driven analysis approach to identify biomarkers of lenvatinib treatment response in melanoma patients. Methods: Clinical data sets including tumor response data (RECIST), progression free survival (PFS), pharmacokinetic parameters (PK) and molecular data sets including baseline tumor gene expression (Affymetrix U133Plus2) and BRAF and NRAS mutational status, were collected from 18 patients with metastatic melanoma who received lenvatinib 10 mg orally twice daily in 28-day cycles. These clinical and molecular data sets were used to generate computational models developed using REFS (Reverse Engineering and Forward Simulation) modeling platform, which utilizes Bayesian network inference and simulations. Simulations were performed to identify biomarkers of lenvatinib treatment response. These potential predictive biomarkers were then tested for their ability to predict response to lenvatinib in preclinical models. Results: Using a model comprising gene expression, mutational status and PK data, REFS identified a panel of 18 potential predictive biomarkers of lenvatinib treatment response. Identified biomarkers were able to predict up to 89% of the observed variance in the tumor response data. A total of 32 identified genes including 6 candidate predictive biomarkers (TARBP2, CACNA1, C7ORF, RAP2A, SHMT1, IL22RA2) were further validated in a preclinical melanoma model system (n=12) and tissue bank samples with matched normal adjacent tissue (n=21). Expression of 14 genes correlated with relative tumor volume (r>0.35 or r 2). Conclusions: Potential predictive biomarkers of lenvatinib treatment response in melanoma patients were identified by computational modeling and validated in a preclinical model system and tumor tissue bank samples. The identified biomarkers will be tested for their predictive value in an ongoing Phase 2 trial. Citation Format: Tadashi Kadowaki, Yasuhiro Funahashi, Junji Matsui, Kumar Pavan, Pallavi Sachdev, Jim O9Brien, Heming Xing, Paul D. McDonagh, Iya Khalil, Razelle Kurzrock, David S. Hong, John Nemunaitis. Data-driven computational modeling to identify biomarkers of response to lenvatinib (E7080) in melanoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4025. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-4025


This article addresses the question of how to systematically determine the degree of subjectivity expressed in a text, more specifically, the degree of subjectivity expressed in causal coherence relations. The main hypothesis is that the distribution of Dutch backward causal connectives (want, omdat, aangezien, and doordat) can be explained by the degree of subjectivity of the participant primarily involved in the causal relation (the causally primary participant or CP). The notion of subjectivity is defined on the basis of 2 different conceptions of subjectivity: speaker subjectivity and perspective. On the basis of this notion, a set of 8 text features is established, namely the CP's role in the causality, his or her nature, the mode in which his or her words or thoughts are represented, referential choice (presence and type of referential expression), and predicate features (tense, voice, polarity). This set of features is subsequently applied to an analysis of backward causal connectives in Dutch. The results of a series of corpus analyses are reported. The results show that the distribution of these connectives can successfully be explained in terms of the concept of subjectivity as developed in this article, and they underline the importance of investigating the expression of the self in text.


Stereologic study of the in vitro release reaction from unstirred washed platelets provided quantitative information on the contractile wave induced by thrombin. Contraction was estimated from the reduction in the volume of both the granular compartment and the vacuoles of the surface connected canalicular system. Dibutyryl cyclic-AMP (10(-4) M) and dipyridamole (10(-3) M) inhibited degranulation, but they had no effect on the contraction produced by thrombin at high concentrations (0.1 UI/ml). Aspirin (10(-4) M) inhibited contraction induced by thrombin at concentration of 0.1 and 0.02 UI/ml (p less than 0.01 at each concentration). In two patients with hereditary cyclo-oxygenase deficiency, contraction produced by thrombin at low concentration (0.02 UI/ml) failed to induce contraction.


The purpose of this
study was to evaluate the functionality, accuracy, and usability of a novel
smart exercise application (SEA). The functionality
such as counting lunges, providing task-related auditory feedback, and testing
short-term memory was examined while thirteen young adults (six men, age
25.4 ± 8.3 years) performed the lunge exercise with the
SEA. The accuracy of logged motion data including angles and accelerations were
also tested. Another twenty-five participants (11 men, age
23.2 ± 5.7 years) evaluated the usability of the SEA interest,
motivation, convenience, and strength/cognitive benefit via
a questionnaire. The SEA assessed the lunge motion correctly, provided auditory
feedback, and tested users' short-term memory as required. High correlations (r
= 0.90 to 0.99) with low RMSE (4.85˚ for direction angle, 0.13 to 0.22 m/s2
for acceleration) were observed between the sensor output and the
reference output. Bland-Altman plot also showed a low discrepancy between each
of the two measures. Most participants positively answered all questions about interest
(60%), motivation (40%), convenience (80%), strength benefits (92%), and
cognitive benefits (88%) of the SEA. The SEA demonstrated accurate kinematic
assessment of accelerations and directions, assessed the lunge motion
correctly, and created the appropriate auditory feedback on the short-term
memory task. The high rate of positive responses suggested the potential of the
application in future use.


Abstract Ideally, every laboratory should derive their own reference intervals for all analytes, but this is difficult in practice. A survey, by questionnaire, of UK laboratories using the Chiron Diagnostics ACS:180 (Chiron Diagnostics Limited, Halstead, Essex, UK), for thyroid function tests, showed that 10% of laboratories derived their own reference intervals, 60% quoted values "adapted" from intervals for previous methods, whilst the remaining 40% quoted (often incorrectly) reference intervals supplied by the manufacturer. In addition only 13% of respondent laboratories derived their own reference intervals for testosterone. As a result of this survey, a study was devised to enable the users of the Chiron Diagnostics ACS:180 immunoassay system to develop and use within-method, between-laboratory reference intervals for thyroid hormones and testosterone. Laboratory collaboration provided the recommended minimum number of data points by establishing a reference sample group. This sample group was used for the calculation of appropriate reference intervals for each hormone according to the guidelines published by the IFCC. We propose this approach as a model for laboratories using identical instrumentation to produce, through collaboration, within-method, between laboratory reference intervals.


The "new vacuum technology" began in 1950 with the development of the Bayard–Alpert gauge which ended the limitation on the lowest measurable pressure that had existed for more than two decades. This led to the development of ultrahigh vacuum technology and the conversion of vacuum methodology from an art to a science. The Committee on Vacuum Technology, which was the precursor to the American Vacuum Society (AVS), was born three years later. This article considers the history, and possible future, of vacuum science and technology, and serves to introduce the following five articles which review the major advances in vacuum science and technology during the 50 years of the lifetime of the AVS.


Consider any network of n identical Kuramoto oscillators in which each oscillator is coupled bidirectionally with unit strength to at least μ(n-1) other oscillators. Then, there is a critical value of μ above which the system is guaranteed to converge to the in-phase synchronous state for almost all initial conditions. The precise value of μ remains unknown. In 2018, Ling, Xu, and Bandeira proved that if each oscillator is coupled to at least 79.29% of all the others, global synchrony is ensured. In 2019, Lu and Steinerberger improved this bound to 78.89%. Here, we find clues that the critical connectivity may be exactly 75%. Our methods yield a slight improvement on the best known lower bound on the critical connectivity from 68.18% to 68.28%. We also consider the opposite end of the connectivity spectrum, where the networks are sparse rather than dense. In this regime, we ask how few edges one needs to add to a ring of n oscillators to turn it into a globally synchronizing network. We prove a partial result: all the twisted states in a ring of size n=2m can be destabilized by adding just O(nlog2n) edges. To finish the proof, one needs to rule out all other candidate attractors. We have done this for n≤8 but the problem remains open for larger n. Thus, even for systems as simple as Kuramoto oscillators, much remains to be learned about dense networks that do not globally synchronize and sparse ones that do.


Despite the increasing numbers of ankle arthroplasties, there are limited studies on their survival and comparisons between different implants. The primary aim of this study was to determine the failure rates of primary ankle arthroplasties commonly used in the UK. A data linkage study combined National Joint Registry (NJR) data and NHS Digital data. The primary outcome of failure was defined as the removal or exchange of any components of the implanted device. Life tables and Kaplan-Meier survival charts were used to illustrate survivorship. Cox proportional hazards regression models were fitted to compare failure rates between 1 April 2010 and 31 December 2018. Overall, 5,562 primary ankle arthroplasties were recorded in the NJR. Linked data show a one-year survivorship of 98.8% (95% confidence interval (CI) 98.4% to 99.0%), five-year survival in 2,725 patients of 90.2% (95% CI 89.2% to 91.1%), and ten-year survival in 199 patients of 86.2% (95% CI 84.6% to 87.6%). The five-year survival for fixed-bearing implants was 94.3% (95% CI 91.3% to 96.3%) compared to 89.4% (95% CI 88.3% to 90.4%) for mobile-bearing implants. A Cox regression model for all implants with over 100 implantations using the implant with the best survivorship (Infinity) as the reference, only the STAR (hazard ratio (HR) 1.60 (95% CI 0.87 to 2.96)) and INBONE (HR 0.38 (95% CI 0.05 to 2.84)) did not demonstrate worse survival at three and five years. Ankle arthroplasties in the UK have a five-year survival rate of 90.2%, which is lower than recorded on the NJR, because we have shown that approximately one-third of ankle arthroplasty failures are not reported to the NJR. There are statistically significant differences in survival between different implants. Fixed-bearing implants appear to demonstrate higher survivorship than mobile-bearing implants.


Poor nutritional status show physical, mental and health wise consequences such as diarrhoea, stunting, wasting and underweight and often times lead to death, depending on their severity. This study evaluated the nutritional status of diarrhoeic children under five years in Kaduna State, Nigeria, using standard isolation methods, VTEC-ELISA tests, latex agglutination tests, Chi-square (SPSS Version 19) and World Health Organisation Antro (Version 3.2.2). Random sampling was used to select 350 children presenting with diarrhoea in six government hospitals within the three senatorial zones of Kaduna State. The nutritional status assessment showed 34.3, 24.3 and 13.1% of the children were stunted, wasted and underweight, respectively and Kaduna South senatorial zone also recorded the highest prevalence of undernutrition, indicating poor nutrition and poor health accumulated overtime. The study therefore recommends the implementation of programmes geared towards good hygiene, good nutrition and good health.


ABSTRACT: Soil data comprise a basic input of SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) for a watershed application. For watersheds where site specific soil data are unavailable, the two U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) soil databases, the State Soil Geographic (STATSGO) and Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) databases, may be the best alternatives. Although it has been noted that SWAT models using the STATSGO and SSURGO data may give different simulation results for water, sediment, and agricultural chemical yields, information is scarce on the effects of using these two databases in predicting streamflows that are predominantly generated from melting snow in spring. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of using STATSGO versus SSURGO as an input for the SWAT model's simulation of the streamflows in the upper 45 percent of the Elm River watershed in eastern North Dakota. Designating the model as SWAT‐STATSGO when the STATSGO data were used and SWAT‐SSURGO when the SSURGO data were used, SWAT‐STATSGO and SWAT‐SSURGO were separately calibrated and validated using the observed daily streamflows. The results indicated that SWAT‐SSURGO provided an overall better prediction of the discharges than SWAT‐STATSGO, although both did a good and comparable job of predicting the high streamflows. However, SWAT‐STATSGO predicted the low streamflows more accurately and had a slightly better performance during the validation period. In addition, the discrepancies between the discharges predicted by these two SWAT models tended to be larger at upstream locations than at those farther downstream within the study area.


: We aim to discuss factors especially age affecting the effectiveness of decompressive craniectomy in traumatic brain injury in the light of current literatüre. 44 patients who experienced decompressive craniectomy were analyzed, according to the Glasgow coma scale (GCS), midline shift, age, and outcome scores retrospectively. There were 44 patients, 26 males and 18 females, with a mean age of 54,72 years (range 20-78 years). Glasgow coma scale (GCS) scores ranged from 5 to 11 preoperatively. The midline shift was 10 mm (range 4-27 mm) on brain computed tomography (CT). Increased age (>55 years), preoperative midline shift >9 mm, low preoperative GCS (<8), preoperative findings of herniation, early clinical deterioration (within the first three days of traumatic brain injury), and delayed surgical intervention were predictors of a poor outcome. Decompressive craniectomy can be life-saving in young patients if it is done in patients and timely, but the effectiveness of surgery on morbidity and mortality is related to several other factors.


The image quality of optical remote sensing satellite is affected by the atmosphere, thus the image needs to be corrected. Due to the spatial and temporal variability of atmospheric conditions, correction by using synchronous atmospheric parameters can effectively improve the remote sensing image quality. For this reason, a small light spaceborne instrument, the atmospheric synchronous correction device (airborne prototype), is developed by AIOFM of CAS(Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics of Chinese Academy of Sciences). With this instrument, of which the detection mode is timing synchronization and spatial coverage, the atmospheric parameters consistent with the images to be corrected in time and space can be obtained, and then the correction is achieved by radiative transfer model. To verify the technical process and treatment effect of spaceborne atmospheric correction system, the first airborne experiment is designed and completed. The experiment is implemented by the "satellite-airborne-ground" synchronous measuring method. A high resolution(0.4 m) camera and the atmospheric correction device are equipped on the aircraft, which photograph the ground with the satellite observation over the top simultaneously. And aerosol optical depth (AOD) and columnar water vapor (CWV) in the imagery area are also acquired, which are used for the atmospheric correction for satellite and aerial images. Experimental results show that using the AOD and CWV of imagery area retrieved by the data obtained by the device to correct aviation and satellite images, can improve image definition and contrast by more than 30%, and increase MTF by more than 1 time, which means atmospheric correction for satellite images by using the data of spaceborne atmospheric synchronous correction device is accurate and effective.


Sunitinib is multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor, and this drug was approved for use to treat gastrointestinal stromal tumor and advanced renal cell carcinoma. It has also been shown to be efficacious in treating neuroendocrine, colon and breast cancer. Sunitinib therapy is often complicated by cutaneous adverse effects such as hand-foot syndrome, hair depigmentation, subungal splinter hemorrhage, xerosis, alopecia and seborrheic dermatitis-like reactions. But there have been no reports on patients presenting with a bullous fixed drug eruption associated with sunitinib administration. We report here on a case of a bullous fixed drug eruption and hand-foot syndrome, and these maladies were caused by this agent. (Korean J Dermatol 2009;47(6):739∼742)


The ability to produce more secure software or to improve the security of existing software is a growing concern and a real challenge for the field of software engineering. Among the various existing types of software vulnerabilities, command injections are particularly common. It is a difficult problem to address, having seemingly endless variations. We present here a unified, formal definition of command injections that, is not based on a particular technology and captures not only the existing variations but also the future instances of the problem. We then propose a simple, yet effective strategy to deal with the problem in existing large applications, focusing on the cost effectiveness of the method. We also report on successful experiments applying our solution to large commercial applications.


Describes a methodology for visual navigation of dirigibles based on tracking and pose estimation of visual beacons-artificial landmarks with known geometrical and visual properties. Fast pose estimation for the dirigible is necessary since the 3D position and orientation data may be used for attitude control. Robust tracking of the beacons is also an important feature. The methodology is validated through different experiments. Results on precision of position and velocity parameters, robustness in tracking the beacon in unstructured environments and time performance of the system are discussed. Finally, future improvements and applications to external airships are discussed.


In the previous four decades, the two-coil mutual inductance (MI) technique has been widely employed in characterizing magnetic penetration depth, λ , of superconducting films. However, the conventional methods used to obtain λ are not applicable to small-sized films with common shapes, which limits the application of the MI technique in superconductivity research. Here, we first employed the fast wavelet collocation (FWC) method to a two-coil system and then proposed the possibility of directly obtaining the absolute λ of polygonal superconducting films with arbitrary sizes. To verify its accuracy and advantages, we extracted the λ values of square NbN films with different sizes using the FWC and conventional flux leakage subtraction (FLS) methods. Notably, the FLS method fails for a 5×5mm2 film, which is attributed to the significant current peak at the film edge. In contrast, the absolute λ extracted using the FWC method was independent of the film size. Finally, we established the applicability of the FWC method to large coil spacings, which may pave the way for integrating high-accuracy λ measurements with the ionic liquid gating technique.


Radiolabeling methods with the heavy halogens bromine, iodine and astatine are reviewed. The methods are evaluated on the basis of their underlying chemical principles and their usefulness for the no-carrier-added labeling of biologically-useful compounds. Special emphasis is placed on the stability, specific activity, and quality control of radiohalogenation products using the shortlived, neutron-deficient nuclides 7 s ' 7 ' B r , ' " I , and 2 " A t in view of their importance as radiopharmaceuticals.


RATIONALE
In COPD, inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) are associated with pneumonia highlighting the importance of investigating subgroups of patients who may benefit from prolonged ICS use. Despite this, the WISDOM trial found a greater decline in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) in COPD patients who withdrew from inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) compared to patients who remained on triple therapy (TT).

OBJECTIVES
We investigated the association between ICS withdrawal and rate of FEV1 decline in COPD patients using routinely collected electronic healthcare records.

METHODS
Using Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) Aurum and Hospital episode statistics we included COPD patients who had been on TT for at least four months. Patients were categorised into those who withdrew from ICS and those who remained on TT during follow-up. Three cohorts were created: i) patients meeting the WISDOM trial eligibility criteria; ii) patients with COPD not restricted by the WISDOM trial eligibility criteria; and iii) patients who would have been excluded from the WISDOM trial based on their comorbidities. Mixed linear regression was used to model the association between ICS withdrawal and rate of FEV1 decline (ml/year) adjusted for baseline characteristics.

RESULTS
6,008 COPD patients met the WISDOM eligibility criteria, of which 9.0% withdrew from ICS. Mean rates of FEV1 decline -7.8 ml/year (95% CI -19.7 to +4.1) for withdrawers and -15.2 ml/year (95% CI -18.7 to -11.8) for those who remained on TT (difference p=0.264). 60,645 COPD patients were not restricted by the WISDOM eligibility criteria. Mean rate of FEV1 decline was -32.6ml/year (-33.6 to -31.5) for withdrawers and -36.4ml/year (-39.4 to -33.4) for those who remained on TT. 32,882 COPD patients were included in the last population representing those would have been excluded from the WISDOM trial due to their comorbidities. Mean rate of FEV1 decline was -29.4ml/year in withdrawers and -31.3ml/year in those who remained on TT.

CONCLUSIONS
Rate of FEV1 decline was similar between patients on TT and patients who withdrew from ICS regardless of the specific COPD population studied. In routine clinical practice, few COPD patients meet WISDOM eligibility criteria and few patients are withdrawn from ICS.


Non-erosive reflux disease (NERD) is a relatively new entity, the definition of which has been evolving and involves the use of symptoms, endoscopy, and objective evidence of reflux or reflux-related damage. The closest entity to NERD that is examined by available epidemiologic studies is defined by the presence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms in the absence of esophageal erosions or Barrett's esophagus. In this review, I identified two population-based studies, one non-community study, and several endoscopy-based studies that provided information on several aspects of NERD. Most of GERD is NERD (50–85%), and therefore one can estimate 11–12% of the general population and considerably higher proportions of patients presenting to endoscopy (37–87%) may have NERD. Risk factors for NERD including absence of hiatus hernia, low BMI, and presence of Helicobacter pylori indicate that it is a 'milder' part of the GERD spectrum. Other associations of NERD include younger age, female sex, and psychological comorbidities that resemble those of functional gut disorders. The temporal trends in NERD are unclear, and are probably increasing because GERD symptom prevalence has increased.


Abstract This report presents findings from recent systematic surveys and excavations at the site of Finley's Pond (9CH204) to evaluate craft production (e.g., shell beads) and settlement expansion on Ossabaw Island, Georgia, within the context of larger social, political, and economic changes that occurred along the Georgia coast over the last millennia. Shovel tests and excavation units were conducted at Finley's Pond as part of the University of Georgia's 2016 Field School. The spatial distribution and density of Woodland and Late Mississippian period Irene ceramics at Finley's Pond suggests settlement expansion and an increase in population size during the Mississippian period. The presence of beads in various forms of production, as well as raw materials and tools, such as whelk shells, abraders, and a microdrill, support the interpretation that Finley's Pond was a location of craft production, specifically shell beads. These data suggest that the economic pursuits of Indigenous communities on the Georgia Coast was far more varied than archaeologists once thought. Our report underscores the need for further research into how non-subsistence based economic pursuits articulated with the timing of settlement expansion and the shift from foraging to farming along the Georgia Coast.


Balancing Domain Decomposition by Constraints (BDDC) belongs to the class of primal substructuring Domain Decomposition (DD) methods. DD methods are iterative methods successfully used in engineering to parallelize solution of large linear systems arising from discretization of second order elliptic problems. Substructuring DD methods represent an important class of DD methods. Their main idea is to divide the underlying domain into nonoverlapping subdomains and solve many relatively small, local problems on subdomains instead of one large problem on the whole domain. In primal methods, it has to be specified how to distribute interface residuals among subdomains and how to obtain global, interface values of solution from local values on adjacent subdomains. Usually a weighted average is used with some simple choice of weights. In our paper we present numerical comparison of three different choices of interface weights on test problem of 2D Poisson equation, with and without jumps in coefficients.


The design strategy for a successful oxide anode for use in photoelectrolysis cells is reviewed. Conduction bands based on Ti4+ and Nb5+ can be made to possess sufficiently small electron affinities to allow the cell to operate without external bias. For example, data on SrTi0.75Zr0.25O3 are presented to show that the Ti4+ conduction band can be fine-tuned to the required electron affinity using Zr4+ as dopant. The Zr4+ dopant also enhances remarkably oxygen evolution in the dark, and a mechanism for this observation is advanced. In order to reduce the bandgap in oxide titanates, incorporation of a second metal-ion sublattice appears to be essential. Three types of substituent cation that can, in principle, give rise to a valence band at the right energy are discussed: (i) transition metals giving rise to ndm bands, (ii) lanthanides giving rise to 4fm bands and (iii) reduced B-metals giving rise to ns2 bands. Optical absorption studies of MnTiO3 and NaCeTi2O6 indicate that the bulk Mn2+ 3d5 and Ce3+ 4f1 levels are at about the right energy, but holes photogenerated in these levels become trapped in surface–polaron sites, as they only oxidise water slowly. Analysis of the transient photocurrents for MnTiO3 shows that holes arrive at the surface in both the O2–:2p6 band and the Mn2+:3d5 levels and the former oxidise water rapidly.


Abstract. In the field of 3D heritage documentation, point cloud registration is a relatively common issue. With rising needs for Historic Building Information Models (HBIMs), this issue has become more important as it determines the quality of the data to be used for HBIM modelling. Furthermore, in the context of historical buildings, it is often interesting to document both the exterior façades as well as the interior. This paper will discuss two approaches of the registration and georeferencing of building exterior and interior point clouds coming from different sensors, namely the independent georeferencing method and the free-network registration and georeferencing. Building openings (mainly windows) were used to establish common points between the systems. These two methods will be compared in terms of geometrical quality, while technical problems in performing them will also be discussed. Furthermore, an attempt to automate some parts of the workflow using automatic 3D keypoints and features detection and matching will also be described in the paper. Results show that while both approaches give similar results, the independent approach requires less work to perform. However, the free-network method has the advantage of being able to compensate for any systematic georeferencing error on either system. As regards to the automation attempt, the use of 3D keypoints and features may reduce processing time; however correct tie point correspondence filtering remains difficult in the presence of heavy point cloud noise.


【Purpose : This study was to identify the effect of cognitive reaction following inactive electrode placement when applying anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the primary motor cortex. Methods : For this study a total of 28 stroke patients participated. Before applying transcranial direct current stimulation, cognitive reaction was measured (P300 of event related potential, cognitive reaction time), and subjects were randomly assigned to two group. Transcranial direct current stimulation was applied to the scalp with an intensity of $0.04mA/cm^2$ for 15 minutes. All subjects were given an anode transcranial direct current stimulation over the primary motor area and inactive electrodes over the deltoid muscle (group I) and supra-orbital area (group II). Cognitive reactions were measured after applying transcranial direct current stimulation. Results : For this study a total of 28 stroke patients participated. Before applying transcranial direct current stimulation, cognitive reaction was measured (P300 of event related potential, cognitive reaction time), and subjects were randomly assigned to two group. Transcranial direct current stimulation was applied to the scalp with an intensity of $0.04mA/cm^2$ for 15 minutes. All subjects were given an anode transcranial direct current stimulation over the primary motor area and inactive electrodes over the deltoid muscle (group I) and supra-orbital area (group II). Cognitive reactions were measured after applying transcranial direct current stimulation. Conclusion : Thus transcranial direct current stimulation on the primary motor area may help cognitive reaction regardless of inactive electrode placement.】


Ingestion of the mushroom containing Amanita phalloides can induce fulminant liver failure and death. There are no specific antidotes. Blood purifications, such as molecular adsorbent recirculating system (MARS) and therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE), are potential therapies. However, the extent to which these technologies avert the deleterious effects of amatoxins remains controversial; the optimal intensity, duration, and initiation criteria have not been determined yet. This study aimed to retrospectively observe the effects of MARS and TPE on nine patients with A. phalloides–induced fulminant liver failure. The survival rate for the nine patients was 66.7%. Both TPE and MARS might remove toxins and improve liver functions. However, a single session of TPE produced immediately greater improvements in alanine aminotransferase (−60% vs. −16.3%), aspartate aminotransferase (−47.6% vs. −15.4%), and total bilirubin (−37.3% vs. −17.1%) (compared with the values of pretreatment, all p < 0.05) than MARS compared with MARS. Early intervention may be more effective than delayed therapy. Additionally, the presence of severe liver failure and renal failure indicated worse outcome. Although these findings are promising, additional case-controlled, randomized studies are required to confirm our results.


A 62-year-old man with no pertinent medical history presented with lower extremity weakness and worsening distal fingertips and toe cyanosis/gangrene. In the outpatient setting, he was initially being treated for Raynaud's phenomenon with a calcium channel blocker. On presentation, the patient had elevated inflammatory markers and white blood cell count. Serum vasculitis panel (proteinase-3 antibody) supported the diagnosis of granulomatosis with polyangiitis. His hospital course was complicated by ischaemic stroke and a diagnosis of mononeuritis multiplex in his lower extremities. After initiating therapy with intravenous steroid and rituximab, his symptoms overall improved including cyanotic fingertips/toes. His inflammatory markers and leucocytosis also improved. Outpatient follow-up consisted of further rituximab infusions and unrelated umbilical hernia incarceration which required surgery. He was found incidentally to have subsegmental pulmonary emboli which most likely occurred during the initial presentation prior to his diagnosis. The patient moved out of state and was lost to follow-up.


Multi-temporal satellite images exhibit high amount of correlation in spatial, spectral and temporal domain. This high redundancies provide a high potential and a good opportunity to explore the entropy as a funtion of natural diversity. From the information-theory point of view, the potential gain from exploiting the temporal domain correlation can be estimated by quantifying the entropy relationship between two temporally dependent images. As conditioning reduces uncertainty, knowing one of the variables reduces the average uncertainty about the others in two dependent events. So the multi-temporal images is best distributed sequentially where current images can be forecasted from previous reference image. Thus, multiple dates' remote sensed images treated as a sequential data set varies in relative distributions of the brightness values depending on the reflectivity of various features. This paper mainly reflects the fact of how various geographical features influence the temporal dependency. The initial issue treated by multi-temporal image transmission lay in the areas of data reduction that in turn depend on the quantities such as entropy and mutual information, which are functions of the probability distributions that underlie the process of communication. This paper mainly exploits the energy deviation in temporal characteristics for diverse geographical features. Mainly features for urban, forestry, desert and coastal areas have been investigated. The key measure of data compaction entropy will be exploited in this case to better understand the features dependency. General Terms Image Processing.


Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were measured when 24 Chinese subjects performed the classical Stroop task. All of subjects had experienced the great Sichuan earthquake (5/12), with 12 people in each of the Far (Chengdu city) and the Close (Deyang city) earthquake experience groups. The behavioral data showed that the Stroop task yielded a robust Stroop interference effect as indexed by longer RT for incongruent than congruent color words in both the Chengdu and Deyang groups. Scalp ERP data showed that incongruent stimuli elicited a more negative ERP deflection (N400-600; Stroop interference effect) than did congruent stimuli between 400-600 ms in the Chengdu group, while the Stroop interference ERP effect was not found in the Deyang group. Dipole source analysis localized the generator of the N400-600 in the right prefrontal cortex (PFC) and was possibly related to conflict monitoring and cognitive control.


In the United States criminal justice system, female sexual offenders are among the most unrepresented groups of individuals, and they have evaded detection and/or prosecution for many reasons. This chapter explores the characteristics and patterns of female sexual offenders based on the collection of available literature. We will discuss how personal trauma histories, mental health, substance abuse, and motivations of female sexual offenders differ from their male counterparts. Additionally, we cover how social perception presents female sexual offenders in a light that adversely impacts their interactions with the social systems and explore empirically validated myths, risks, and interventions for this population.


We report the results of high-pressure, angular-dispersive, x-ray diffraction measurements performed on ${\text{NpCoGa}}_{5}$, a magnetic isostructural analog of the ${\text{PuCoGa}}_{5}$ superconductor. No crystallographic transitions or discontinuous volume collapses have been observed by increasing pressure $p$ up to 39 GPa. A fit to the Birch-Murnaghan equation of state gives values of the isothermal bulk modulus and its pressure derivative ${B}_{0}=130\text{ }\text{GPa}$ and ${B}_{0}^{\ensuremath{'}}=4.8$, respectively. The volume compressibility curve is in excellent agreement with the results of ab initio fully relativistic, full potential local spin-density-functional calculations. A comparison to experimental and ab initio calculated compressibility data of ${\text{PuCoGa}}_{5}$ and ${\text{PuRhGa}}_{5}$ is also made.


China's spectacular economic growth has been spatially uneven, with much development occurring in eastern coastal areas. In particular, three metropolitan 'super-regions' have become China's most competitive knowledge-based economies, consisting of the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Bohai Gulf Region. This paper benchmarks the competitiveness of these regions, with a view to exploring which region is best positioned to become the most dominant knowledge-based economy over time. Through the theoretical lens of dynamic comparative advantage, it is shown that each region has hugely increased its competitiveness through improvements in the capacity to absorb and diffuse knowledge. It is further shown that due to multi-dimensional advantages the Yangtze River Delta, incorporating the Shanghai metropolis, is best positioned to become the dominant hub of China's future knowledge economy. It is concluded that China's leading regions will require further economic policy adjustments in order to secure their future competitiveness.


Th e aim of the study is determination of the BHV 1 incidence among the bovine population in Bulgaria by using various ELISA tests for antibody detection and diff erent methods for proving viral antigen. Commercial diagnostic ELISA kits were used for screening as well as for confi rmation of the antibodies. Serological examination encompassed 2973 serum samples from bovine population in Bulgaria (cattle, calves and bulls) originating from 21 country regions. Total 408 cattle and 150 bulls' samples originating from artifi cial insemination centers (AIC), commune and private farms from 21 country regions were subjected to virology testing. Identifi cation of isolated viruses was performed using conventional and nested PCRs for BHV 1 gB gene detection. Th e percentage of positively reacting cattle sera were signifi cantly (p < 0.001) higher (38.3%) then that of bulls (29.3%) aft er ELISA testing of 2240 cattle serum samples and 733 bulls' sera. Seven strains with BHV 1 characteristics were isolated from Dobrich, Lovech – 2 strains, Plovdiv, Targovishte, Pazardjik and Svishtov regions aft er cultivation 408 samples from cattle and calves (buff y coats, nasal, eyes, vaginal swabs, tissues and organs) on cell cultures. Th ree BHV 1 strains were isolated from Sliven, Shumen and Blagoevgrad regions aft er examining 150 bulls' samples (nasal, eyes, preputial, semen samples and buff y coats). Confi rmation of virus isolation was accomplished using PCR gB gene based primers (amplifi ed 478 bp) Th e amplicons from 3 bulls isolated strains with the same size and location as the referent Oxford strain were observed. Aft er performance of nested PCR for gB gen, products with size of 385 bp were obtained in all samples as well as in the referent Oxford strain.


Over the past three decades, China's fast economic growth and its increasing economic integration with the world have led to a significant increase in its influence in the world economy. During the Asian financial crisis of 1997–98, China was praised as a responsible country, because of its efforts in maintaining the stability of the renminbi while many other countries in the region had devaluated their currencies. It was the first time that China itself, as well its Asian neighbours, started realising China's emerging influence. Like it or not, China is no longer an outsider in global financial events. This is not only because China is now the world's third largest economy and second largest trading nation, but also because it holds the largest amount of foreign reserves in the world.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the concentration range and penetration depth of methylene blue near-infrared fluorescence imaging, and to clarify the role of methylene blue in oral lymphatic drainage and sentinel lymph node localization, so as to lay a foundation for the potential research and application of sentinel lymph node in oral cancer.

METHODS
10% (mass fraction) methylene blue injection was diluted into 29 different concentrations with 0.9% (mass fraction) normal saline, and the concentration range of methylene blue near-infrared fluorescence imaging was determined by near-infrared fluorescence imager. The maximum penetration depth of methylene blue near-infrared fluorescence was determined by covering pigskin with different thicknesses (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 mm) in methylene blue solution. 0.2 mL methylene blue solution was injected into the submucosal 0.5 cm at the lateral margin of tongue on one side of the rats. The near-infrared fluorescence imager was used for continuously monitoring for 3 hours. The first near-infrared fluorescence hotspot was identified as sentinel lymph node and labeled by percutaneous observation. The rats were then sacrificed and dissected in the head and neck. Near-infrared fluorescence imaging was performed again to observe whether the fluorescent tissue was consistent with the labeled fluorescent hotspot in vitro, and the presence of lymphoid tissue was confirmed by pathological examination after resection.

RESULTS
Except that no fluorescence signals were detected in the blank control groups, the fluorescence intensity of methylene blue increased first and then decreased with its solution concentration decreased. When the concentration of methylene blue was diluted to the picomole level, the fluorescence signal could still be detected. The maximum penetration depth of methylene blue fluorescence was 4 mm. Methylene blue near-infrared fluorescence could be localized in oral lymphatic drainage and sentinel lymph node. The fluorescence was sustained for more than 3 hours after methylene blue injection. Methylene blue solution concentrations of 3.34 mmol/L, 6.68 mmol/L, 13.37 mmol/L and 26.74 mmol/L were selected in the rats to map sentinel lymph node by near-infrared fluorescence.

CONCLUSION
Methylene blue near-infrared fluorescence has a certain penetrating ability and can transcuta-neously map the sentinel lymph node and their associated lymphatic vessels in rats, which is expected to be further applied in the study of sentinel lymph node in oral cancer.


The pathogenicity of Escherichia coli strains is partially related to the expression of virulence factors genes, present in genetic elements called plasmids. APEC strains responsible for diseases in birds may present the iss gene which increases the resistance of E. coli strains to the lityc effect of the host's serum, besides resistance to several antimicrobials. This study was conduced in order to detect E. coli in tracheae of meat-type quails and to evaluate, by the presence of the iss gene and the profile of antimicrobial susceptibility, the pathogenic potential of the isolated samples for birds and humans. One hundred and eighty tracheae of quails were collected for detection of E. coli, antimicrobial sensitivity tests, and for polymerase chain reaction (PCR), for detection of iss gene. From the examined quails, 8.9 % (16/180) were positive for E. coli, from which 20 strains of this bacterium were obtained. Most of them were resistant to Tetracycline (16/20), followed by Ceftadizime (13/20) and Nalidixic-acid (12/20) and only one isolate was resistant to Amoxicillin. The detection of iss gene occurred in 55% (11/20) of the isolates, indicating that these strains had the potential to be pathogenic not only for quails, but also for other kinds of birds, other animals and even human beings that would be in contact with these E. coli isolates.


A bicategory of concurrent games, where nondeterministic strategies are formalized as certain maps of event structures, was introduced recently. This paper studies an extension of concurrent games by winning conditions, specifying players' objectives. The introduction of winning conditions raises the question of whether such games are determined, that is, if one of the players has a winning strategy. This paper gives a positive answer to this question when the games are well-founded and satisfy a structural property, race-freedom, which prevents one player from interfering with the moves available to the other. Uncovering the conditions under which concurrent games with winning conditions are determined opens up the possibility of further applications of concurrent games in areas such as logic and verification, where both winning conditions and determinacy are most needed. A concurrent-game semantics for predicate calculus is provided as an illustration.


Many separate-sexed organisms have sex chromosomes controlling sex determination. Sex chromosomes often have reduced recombination, specialized (frequently sex-specific) gene content, dosage compensation and heteromorphic size. Research on sex determination and sex chromosome evolution has increased over the past decade and is today a very active field. However, some areas within the field have not received as much attention as others. We therefore believe that a historic overview of key findings and empirical discoveries will put current thinking into context and help us better understand where to go next. Here, we present a timeline of important conceptual and analytical models, as well as empirical studies that have advanced the field and changed our understanding of the evolution of sex chromosomes. Finally, we highlight gaps in our knowledge so far and propose some specific areas within the field that we recommend a greater focus on in the future, including the role of ecology in sex chromosome evolution and new multilocus models of sex chromosome divergence.


Religious belief plays an important role in how people behave, influencing how they form preferences, interpret events around them, and develop relationships with others. Traditionally, the religion labels of user population are obtained by conducting a large scale census study. Such an approach is both high cost and time consuming. In this paper, we study the problem of predicting users' religion labels using their microblogging data. We formulate religion label prediction as a classification task, and identify content, structure and aggregate features considering their self and social variants for representing a user. We introduce the notion of representative user to identify users who are important in the religious user community. We further define features using representative users. We show that SVM classifiers using our proposed features can accurately assign Christian and Muslim labels to a set of Twitter users with known religion labels.


OBJECTIVES
To present a methodology for identifying specific medications for which pill splitting is clinically appropriate and cost saving, to present data from a commercial managed care population on current pill-splitting practices, and to estimate additional cost savings from extended use of this strategy.

STUDY DESIGN
Retrospective pharmacy claims analysis.

METHODS
Pharmacy claims data from a commercial managed care health plan covering 19,000 lives and national drug data were used to compile a list of frequently prescribed medications. Excluding medications in which packaging, formulation, and potential adverse pharmacologic outcomes prohibited splitting, we performed a cost analysis of medications amenable to splitting.

RESULTS
Eleven medications amenable to pill splitting were identified based on potential cost savings and clinical appropriateness: clonazepam, doxazosin, atorvastatin, pravastatin, citalopram, sertraline, paroxetine, lisinopril, nefazadone, olanzapine, and sildenafil. For these medications, pill splitting is currently infrequent, accounting for annual savings of $6200 (or $0.03 per member per month), just 2% of the potential $259,500 (or $1.14 per member per month) that more comprehensive pill-splitting practices could save annually.

CONCLUSIONS
Pill splitting can be a cost-saving practice when implemented judiciously using drug- and patient-specific criteria aimed at clinical safety, although this strategy is used infrequently.


Background Alcohol-impaired driving crashes claim about 13 000 lives each year in the United States. Objective We estimated the prevalence of alcohol-impaired driving (AID) among adults using 2006 and 2008 data from the Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Methods AID was assessed by asking, during the past 30 days, that is since ____, how many times have you driven when you perhaps had too much to drink? Annualised weighted estimates and rates of AID episodes were calculated for the United States and by state. Results Of the 754 539 BRFSS respondents in 2006 and 2008, 1.1% of women and 3.4% of men reported at least one AID episode in the past 30 days. The annualised national rate of AID episodes was 646 per 1000 population. Men aged 18–24 years, who make up 7% of the total adult population, accounted for 27% of all AID episodes. Annualised AID rates varied more than sevenfold across states, from 165 per 1000 population in Utah to 1242 per 1000 population in Iowa. States in midsection generally had higher AID rates than those in the south and northeast. Conclusions Alcohol-impaired driving remains prevalent. These results can aid states in monitoring trends in AID and intervening with groups at greater risk for AID.


Having worked in nephrology for more than 20 years, and never encountering this condition before, we came across three patients who had been diagnosed with calciphylaxis in the space of 12 months. This condition is also known as calcific uraemic arteriolopathy and is a syndrome of medical calcification of the small arteries, which leads to painful ischaemia of the surrounding subcubitis and skin (1). Prevalence of 1-4% has been estimated in various haemodialysis populations. Also 1% per year in dialysis patients has also been suggested (3). The mortality rate for distal lesions is 23%, whilst the mortality for proximal lesions is 63% (4). The pathogenesis of this condition remains uncertain. However, vascular calcium deposition is thought to be important, and raised serum phosphate levels were associated with a substantially increased risk of calciphylaxis. Although PTH levels were high, plasma PTH was not consistently higher in patients with calciphylaxis than controls (5). The important aspect of the condition for the patients is the sheer pain and distress suffered, as well as the high mortality rate. Therefore, the implications for nurses are early detection, to allow speedy treatment to take place and involvement of the multidisciplinary team to enhance care and provide as much support as possible, thus facilitating optimal outcome and comfort.


A Filed experiment was carried out at the center of the guiding and training agriculture AL-Mahnawia – Babylon during spring season 2015 and autumn season at the same year  growing  six lines (OH40،ZP707،ZP670،IK8،R153 and Dk(to study and evaluation these lines and its hybrids at autumn season 2015 for traits : leaf area ,number of ears ,number of grain .ears-1 , grain yield ,total grain yield, by plating  at (20,25,30)cm .by using RCBD design for three replicates.
    The results showed that significant difference among the genotypes, plant density and the interaction among them. The fifth inbred was superior for all study traits leaf area, number of ears, number of grains.ear-1 , grain yield, total grain yield it gives  3466 cm2, 1.10 ear.plant-1. 393.36 grans .ear-1 ,125.45 . gr, plant -1 ,10.6ton.ha-1 at 25 cm it was superior on all the study inbreds by giving a high value of these traits .on another hand the hybrid (R153× IK8 )gave a high range of all study traits 5439 cm2,1.25 aer.plant-1.635.30 gr. Plant-1 10.6 ton. ha-1. The line R153 and the hybrid( R153× IK8 (gave the best interaction.


Photograph of the Agora and Theseum in the Acropolis of Athens, Greece. The Theseum is visible in the right foreground. The vegetation on the hiillside is visible in the foreground. The Agora and the Acropolis are visible in the background.


Understanding client needs, knowledge and practices offers a means of ensuring research outputs match intended audience requirements. This paper shows the initial impact of context evaluation on the development of a suite of decision support tools and information to help irrigators better manage their water resources under different climatic conditions. The context evaluation study involved a survey of ~170 irrigators in the northern MurrayÐDarling Basin in Australia. It sought to clarify how they make cropping area and water management decisions and their levels of understanding and use of climate information. We found irrigators consult widely on cropping decisions and those with large areas commonly apply the Southern Oscillation Index to property decisions. Respondents demonstrated a reasonably good understanding of climate phenomena in an Southern Oscillation Index knowledge test. Two-thirds use seasonal climate outlook information, but only 20% are very confident to apply climate information to decisions. More than half would find a decision support system (comprising tools and information) useful for cropping decisions. Almost 75% would change their crop area, and 43% their crop type, if given advance information about water availability up to 4 months ahead of irrigation season. About 70% have access to a computer and half to the internet, but two-thirds consider their personal computing skill is only nil or basic. Twenty-three percent of respondents expressed interest in working directly with the research team to interact regarding their requirements, indicating the potential for future participative research activities such as collaborative, on-farm research. The context evaluation facilitated formation of a focus group that cooperated to assess research findings and incorporate improvements to the projectOs set of decision support tools. The evaluation was a new experience for the researchers and, albeit an arms-length consultation process, it has broadened our knowledge about our target audience and their preferred ways to access research findings.


Background: Stroke is a neurological disorder characterized by blockage of blood vessels. The effects of stroke cause problems with motor, sensory and cognitive functions. These problems result in patients often complaining and feeling useless, so patients experience a decrease in self-efficacy. Low self-efficacy will cause a low level of self-acceptance and motivation that affects the patient's confidence in performing functional activities and self-management related to the healing process in stroke patients. Objective: This study aimed to analyze the relationship between self-efficacy and self-management in stroke patients. Methods: The research design used a cross-sectional study method conducted in December 2022 with a population of all stroke patients at Home Stroke Rehabilitation Malang who met the criteria to become participants in this study. Measurement of self-efficacy using The Stroke Self Efficacy Quetionnaire (SSEQ) and self-management using The Southampton Stroke Self Management Quetionnaire (SSSMQ). Rank Spearman was used to determining the relationship between the two variables showed that out of 49 respondents, there was a relationship between self-efficacy and self-management using the Rank Spearman test. Results: The study's result (p = 0.000, r = 0.949) shows a very strong correlation. It can be concluded that there is a very strong relationship between self-efficacy and self-management in stroke patients because high confidence is very influential on the actions or attitudes of patients so that patients can move and prevent recurrent strokes and carry out rehabilitation programs properly. Conclusion: The higher the self-efficacy, the higher the self-management in post-stroke patients and vice versa. These two crucial components will affect the rehabilitation phase of post-stroke patients.


A data warehouse can be summarized as a collection of data from various sources that will be used in the management's decision-making process. Due to the demand of information for decision making process, the data warehouse concept is getting popular and widely implemented especially in libraries after Nicholson introduce the concept of data mining for libraries. Furthermore, the growth of Internet users and information in digital format had justified the need of e-library data warehouse to improve the e-library service. Hence, a framework of building e-library data warehouse is proposed in this dissertation. The major steps in developing the e-library data warehouse were discussed especially the extraction, transformation, loading and scheduling. The challenges of building this e-library data warehouse was to deal with unstructured and semi-structured data such as web sources. This proposed framework will be able to handle this type of data source during extraction and transformation part. As the data source will be growing and evolving, this framework also deal will these issues as to meet the configurable and evolution requirement. The result of using this framework to develop e-library data warehouse is presented as a web based system. The evaluation on using the web based system was performed in this dissertation.


The crystallographic nature of pyrite framboids, self-assembled multicrystalline pyrite, was investigated by single crystal
X-ray diffraction. The results show that even morphologically well-organised framboids are not extreme examples of single crystals
but are microcrystalline aggregates. Two dimensional diffraction patterns obtained from well-organised framboids composed of
relatively few (~1000) microcrystals, are single-crystal like but detailed analysis shows that they are actually produced by the
superimposition of XRD reflections from similarly, but not identically, oriented microcrystals. The number of coherent
crystallographic orientations of pyrite crystals estimated from a complete Ewald sphere data set obtained from a larger single
framboid, were found to be approximately four to five times fewer than the number of the microcrystals that are actually contained
in the framboid. The result shows the presence of multiple single crystal-like domains that are arranged in similar crystallographic
orientations. The results show that framboids are not formed by a process in which crystallographic control is a primary factor.
Framboid self-assembly is probably caused by the aggregation of a large number of similarly sized and shaped pyrite microcrystals
that are nucleated in a limited volume. Self-organisation occurs as these microcrystals adopt a minimum energy configuration.


Although bio-inspired designs for cybersecurity have yielded many elegant solutions to challenging problems, the vast majority of these efforts have been ad hoc analogies between the natural and human-designed systems. We propose to improve on the current approach of searching through the vast diversity of existing natural algorithms for one most closely resembling each new cybersecurity challenge, and then trying to replicate it in a designed cyber setting. Instead, we suggest that researchers should follow a protocol of functional abstraction, considering which features of the natural algorithm provide the efficiency/effectiveness in the real world, and then use those abstracted features as design components to build purposeful, tailored (perhaps even optimized) solutions. Here, we demonstrate how this can work by considering a case study employing this method. We design an extension of an existing (and ad hoc-created) algorithm, DIAMoND, for application beyond its originally intended solution space (detection of Distributed Denial of Service attacks in simple networks) to function on multilayer networks. We show how this protocol provides insights that might be harder or take longer to discover by direct analogy-building alone; in this case, we see that differential weighting of shared information by the providing network layer is likely to be effective.