Two wintertime hydrographic crossings of the shelf break current in the Middle Atlantic Bight are analyzed. Separated by 3 days, the two sections sampled opposite phases of a meander of the current. The shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) data reveal a strong, convergent jet during the first crossing, transporting 0.32 Sv of water equatorward. During the second crossing the transport is the same but the jet is weak and divergent. The measured Rossby numbers imply that the jet is significantly nonlinear in the convergent state. The associated potential vorticity Q distributions differ substantially; the core of the weak jet is characterized by a region of uniform Q, whereas the strong jet contains no such feature. Surface thermal imagery indicates that the leading edge of a steep meander trough was sampled during the first crossing, followed by a broad crest during the second crossing. This is consistent with the convergent versus divergent nature of the flow in the two sections. A nearby Gulf Stream ring likely caused the steepening of the trough. After integrating the spatially low-passed thermal wind shear, the resulting geostrophic sections are compared to the similarly low- passed ADCP fields. This, together with the scales of the meander deduced from the surface imagery, indicates that the trough was in gradient wind balance, whereas the crest was predominantly geostrophic. These observations are consistent with the structure and dynamics of modeled baroclinic jets.


PurposeThis paper aims to examine the effect of shared leadership on student project team processes and outcomes. The authors focused on shared leadership and its association with team processes (coordination, goal commitment and knowledge sharing) and team performance.Design/methodology/approachTo examine the shared leadership, team processes and performance model, the authors conducted two separate surveys of 158 graduate and undergraduate students working in project teams at a large southwestern university.FindingsResults showed that shared leadership positively affected coordination activities, goal commitment and knowledge sharing, which in turn positively affect team performance. Each team process factor had a mediation effect, although shared leadership had no direct effect on team performance.Research limitations/implicationsThis research adds to the knowledge of important team process factors through which shared leadership indirectly affects team performance.Practical implicationsBased on the findings, the authors provided implications for students and instructors that shared leadership can facilitate team performance by enabling team members to coordinate activities, commit to goals and share knowledge effectively.Originality/valueThis study presents an initial understanding of the shared leadership-team performance relationship by introducing influential variables, such as coordination activities, goal commitment and knowledge sharing in a team.


A method for the production of chronic uraemia in mice is described. Production of humoral antibody has been studied in uraemic mice in response to a primary and secondary challenge with sheep red cells and in response to intraperitoneal and subcutaneous bovine serum albumin (BSA) in complete Freund's adjuvant. In uraemic animals the response to sheep red cells was slightly reduced compared with controls in both the primary and secondary responses. Similarly, the responses to intraperitoneal BSA and subcutaneous BSA in adjuvant was slightly reduced in the uraemic group. The catabolic rate of purified [125I] mouse IgG was normal in uraemic animals, indicating that the lower titre of humoral antibody was not due to increased catabolism of immunoglobulin in uraemia.


We compared the administration of sodium bicarbonate via a catheter inserted in the external jugular and extending to the junction with the subclavian vein (group 1) and a peripheral hindpaw vein (group 2) in puppies. During spontaneous cardiac activity, the increases in pH (0.12 +/- 0.04 in group 1 vs. 0.08 +/- 0.04 in group 2) and PCO2 (11 +/- 2.8 torr in group 1 vs. 6 +/- 3.2 torr in group 2) in blood from the right atrium 10 sec after the injection of bicarbonate differed significantly. However, the increases in pH (0.31 +/- 0.07 in group 1 vs. 0.30 +/- 0.15 in group 2) and PCO2 (86 +/- 33 torr in group 1 vs. 72 +/- 35 torr in group 2) in blood from the right atrium during closed chest CPR were similar in the two groups. We found that the sodium bicarbonate reached the central circulation more rapidly when administered in the external jugular vein as compared to a peripheral site, but this difference was small and did not reach the level of significance during CPR. Our findings do not provide evidence of any advantage to obtaining central venous access (a potentially complicated procedure) in children with cardiac arrest in regard to the delivery of medications to the heart.


The radiographic manifestations of rheumatic disease are varied. Proper interpretation of the observed roentgen abnormalities requires knowledge of the underlying pathogenesis and characteristic distribution of the disease. With this knowledge the physician may provide accurate and early diagnosis in many patients with arthritis.


Laser engraving is the fastest and most versatile process for gravure cylinder fabrication. New experiments with high power fiber lasers (cw lasers and pulsed MOPA systems) resulted in improved cell precision, screen resolution and efficiency.


Global and regional energy markets are increasingly influenced by policies aimed at climate change mitigation, with possible grave implications for major producers and exporters of fossil fuels – including Russia, which is planning further increases. This article examines the evolution of Russian official thinking on the role of climate change as a strategic factor in policymaking as expressed in key documents on security and in strategic statements made by Presidents Putin and Medvedev (2000–2020). The set of strategic statements examined in this article show surprisingly little attention to this important matter.


With the number of solutions proposed to provide an adequate protection against overflow attacks, integer overflow still pose a significant threat to security and availability of today's computing environments. Most of the existing solutions terminate the vulnerable program when the overflow occurs, rendering the program unavailable and leading to denial of service. The impact on system availability is a serious problem on service orientated platforms. We will provide a solution that will automatically diagnose and patch any suspicious integer input that will lead to overflowing the values and causing further threats to possible buffer overflow in the system. The key idea of our solution is to virtualized memory accesses and moves the vulnerable buffer into protected memory regions, which provides a fundamental and effective protection against recurrence of the same attack without stopping the normal system execution.


The compounds Ca14AlP11, Ca14MnP11, and Eu14MnP11 have been synthesized and are isostructural to the Zintl compound, Ca14AlSb11. Eu14MnP11 is a ferromagnet showing colossal magnetoresistance at TC ) 52 K, Ca14MnP11 shows paramagnetic behavior down to 5 K, and Ca14AlP11 is nonmagnetic. The formula unit for these Zintl compounds is A14MPn11 and comprises 14 A cations, a MPn4 tetrahedron, four isolated Pn anions, and a Pn3 linear unit. The central Pn of the Pn3 unit is believed to be positionally disordered, and it has been speculated that the disorder is static rather than dynamic. To address this issue, 31P solidstate NMR was applied to these new compounds to provide insight into the magnetic ordering and structural changes. The NMR chemical shift anisotropy and the dipolar coupling for the 31P nuclei as well as the quadrupolar coupling for the 27Al nucleus in the diamagnetic compound Ca14AlP11 provide structural details consistent with the Zintl structure. Wideline 31P NMR and EPR were applied to the paramagnetic compounds Ca14MnP11 and Eu14MnP11 to obtain similar structural information. The lack of any EPR spectra for the Eu-substituted compound below 50 K confirms the assigned paramagnetic-to-ferromagnetic transition temperature of 52 K. Hyperfine couplings in the Eu-substituted compound suggests localization of the electron density above 50 K.


Direct electron transfer between an electrode and the redox active centre of glucose oxidase, flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), is probed using carbon nanotube modified gold electrodes. Gold electrodes are first modified with a self-assembled monolayer of cysteamine and then shortened single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) are aligned normal to the electrode surface by self-assembly. The electrochemistry of these aligned nanotube electrode arrays is initially investigated using potassium ferricyanide which showed SWNT act as nanoelectrodes with the ends of the tubes more electrochemically active than the walls. Subsequently the nanotubes are plugged into the enzymes in one of two ways. In the first method, native glucose oxidase is covalently attached to the ends of the aligned tubes which allowed close approach to FAD and direct electron transfer to be observed with a rate constant of 0.3 s−1. In the second strategy, FAD was attached to the ends of the tubes and the enzyme reconstituted around the surface immobilized FAD. This latter approach allowed more efficient electron transfer to the FAD with a rate constant of 9 s−1.


The potential for the use of a laboratory gas exchange system to estimate of mercury emissions from naturally and anthropogenically mercury-enriched areas was assessed by comparison of mercury fluxes measured from the same substrate in situ and in the laboratory. In general, mercury emissions measured with the laboratory chamber for daytime conditions were of the same magnitude as mean mercury emissions measured in situ with field chambers. Mercury emissions measured with both the field chamber and laboratory chamber were lower than those measured with micrometeorological methods. Within the controlled experimental regime of the laboratory chamber, data were developed that demonstrated that substrate mercury concentrations and light are important parameters in controlling mercury emissions. However, with light and other parameters interacting with the soil, the correlation between mercury fluxes and substrate mercury concentrations declined. Mercury emissions from a variety of substrates in the dark were ∼25% of those emissions measured in the light at the same soil surface temperature.


The question of the relationship between monetary and fiscal authorities seems to be more complex than the recent debate on central bank independence would suggest. In the simple framework inspired by Sargent and Wallace (1976), the recipe for establishing an untarnished confidence in central bank money consisted in severing all links between governments and central bankers. In reality, however, monetary and fiscal authorities can hardly be separated at all: in fact, they are the two sides of the same coin – which is, the modern state. The idea that monetary and fiscal authorities can live their lives oblivious of each other does not seem to be validated by historical evidence.


Institute of Modern Russian Culture Newsletters 1979-2018. The newsletter is distributed biannually and provides information and events connected to the IMRC. The newsletter contains lists of book...


The bvg locus of Bordetella pertussis is required for coordinate regulation of several factors associated with virulence. The control system is modulated by various environmental signals, including low temperature, MgSO4, and nicotinic acid. The nucleotide sequence of the bvg region has been determined and three open reading frames, bvgA, bvgB, and bvgC, are present. Twelve-base-pair linker insertion mutations in any of these open reading frames result in a Bvg- phenotype. The predicted protein products of bvgA and bvgC share homology with a family of prokaryotic regulatory proteins that respond to environmental stimuli and are members of two-component sensory transduction systems. We propose a model in which BvgB and the N-terminal portion of BvgC are localized in the periplasm. Environmental signals are recognized, transduced to the cytoplasmic portion of BvgC, and then transmitted to BvgA, a positive regulator of transcription.


Introduction Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) showed efficacy in migraine prevention. The aim of this study was to check if baseline clinical parameters and cerebral blood flow (CBF) measured by transcranial Doppler (TCD) may help predict mAbs efficacy. Methods Electronic charts of migraineurs treated with erenumab or fremanezumab, with baseline TCD evaluations were collected, including data on migraine type, pain localization, monthly migraine days (MMD), medication overuse headache (MOH), mean blood flow velocity (Vm), and pulsatility index (PI) in cerebral arteries. Results A total of 123 patients were enrolled, mean age 38, 75 years, 87 with chronic migraine, 61 with MOH, 72 were good responders (GR), and reported ≥50% reduction in MMD, 43 ≥75% reduction in MMD. Baseline Vm values in MCAs were significantly lower in GR as compared with non-responders. MAbs responsiveness ≥50% was positively associated with unilateral pain localization (OR: 6.53, 95% CI: 2.01–23.93; p = 0.003) and HIT-6 score (OR: 1.14, 95% CI: 1.01–1.30; p = 0.036) whereas negatively associated with Vm in right MCA (OR: 0.96, 95% CI: 0.92–0.99; p = 0.012), and having no relatives with migraine (OR: 0.40, 95% CI: 0.16–0.95; p = 0.040). Conclusions Baseline Vm in MCA is lower in mAbs GR as compared with non-responders which may reflect increased secretion of CGRP with further vasodilation in GR. Simple clinical features and baseline CBF in anterior circulation might help to predict the patient's responsiveness.


mHealth apps use is rapidly increasing and has high potential value for people with chronic conditions, supporting behaviour change for self-management and improving patient-provider communication. To build a well-functioning app development environment, we need to examine the range of available apps according to their variability and content. A review of Google Play apps revealed limited availability for chronic self-management in France among substantial unrelated content. Most apps' content was difficult to understand and act upon.


Systematic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is one of the autoimmune diseases which, if it occurs at reproductive age, can cause problems during Pregnancy. Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha (TNF-α) is a proinflammatory cytokine that develops follicles during ovulation, corpus luteum formation, and endometrial function. Therefore, if the Pregnancy increases, it will affect the output results. This study aims to determine the relationship between TNF-α placenta levels with blood pressure, urinary albumin, and fetal body weight in mice of the BALB/c strain of the lupus bunting model. This study was a true experimental (actual experimental) conducted in vivo using balb/c mice experimental animals. The treatment group was given an intraperitoneal injection of 0.5 ml pristane.TNF-α levels were measured using the ELISA method, blood pressure mice with a tail-cuff computerized system tool, and weighing fetal body weight with analytical scales. this study was that there was a significant difference between TNF-α levels between the control and treatment groups. There were significant differences in pregnancy outcomes in the form of blood pressure and urinary albumin in the control and treatment groups. TNF- α levels were associated with increased urine albumin (p=0.01<  ). It can be concluded that there is a relationship between the levels of TNF- α in the placenta to the increase in urinary albumin.


THE INDONESIAN SUGARCANE industry in Java is affected by a number of moth borers that very substantially reduce the productivity of commercial crops and sugarcane streak mosaic virus has recently been identified in the Indonesian sugarcane industry. The Australian sugarcane industry is currently free of major moth borer species, though on a world stage moth borers are extremely destructive and difficult to control. During the last four years, BSES scientists have been collaborating with Indonesian experts to research Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies to provide more effective moth borer control. The research has principally focussed on specific parasitoids (mainly Trichogramma species) and mass-release strategies for control of species of Scirpophaga and Chilo. Recent work has enabled more effective treatments to be identified. Other research has investigated sugarcane streak mosaic and canegrub management. A vector for sugarcane streak mosaic virus (brown aphid) has been identified and other forms of transmission investigated. The paper outlines a broad range of activities encompassed in this work and complements a paper focusing on extension outcomes in the Indonesian industry.


Nowadays, commercial music has extreme loudness and heavily compressed dynamic range compared to the past. Yet, in music source separation, these characteristics have not been thoroughly considered, resulting in the domain mismatch between the laboratory and the real world. In this paper, we confirmed that this domain mismatch negatively affect the performance of the music source separation networks. To this end, we first created the out-of-domain evaluation datasets, musdb-L and XL, by mimicking the music mastering process. Then, we quantitatively verify that the performance of the state-of-the-art algorithms significantly deteriorated in our datasets. Lastly, we proposed LimitAug data augmentation method to reduce the domain mismatch, which utilizes an online limiter during the training data sampling process. We confirmed that it not only alleviates the performance degradation on our out-of-domain datasets, but also results in higher performance on in-domain data.


Traditional course deadline policies uphold the myth of the "normal" student, assuming students face few and equal barriers to completing work on time. In contrast, flexible deadline policies acknowledge that students face unequal barriers and seek to mitigate them. Flexible deadline policies maintain structure while transferring some decision-making power from the instructor into the hands of the student. These practices align with current pedagogical movements in higher education that seek to empower all students to meet learning goals. This study explores student perspectives on, and use of, proactive extensions built into a recent university course. We compare extension use in low-stake, high-stake, individual, and team assignments; observe how extension use changed over the term; and examine student self-reported responses about the policy. Students unanimously agreed that the proactive extension policy was valuable to their learning. They reported that the proactive extensions enabled them to improve the quality of their work and to better manage their academic workloads, acting as self-regulated learners. They also frequently described reduced stress as a benefit. Extensions generally appeared to be used as needed rather than encouraging procrastination. Students also identified that the need to request extensions in other courses was a barrier. The instructor of this course also benefitted from implementing this policy. Faculty should consider implementing flexible deadline policies to improve student learning experiences and to contribute to a more equitable and inclusive learning environment.


Radio planning is designing of network structure and elements under various design requirements. With the increasing shortage of frequencies, radio planning has become more and more complex. Hence, to maintain accuracy and optimization computerized planning tools are needed. This thesis focuses on developing a simplified and economical solution on web for radio planning tool using WRAP- the software for spectrum management and radio planning developed by WRAP International AB, Linkoping, Sweden. In order to make WRAP calculations available for remote users it had developed APIs. The web-based WRAP needs to communicate with WRAP API server, for exchanging API messages in order to perform calculation. To make the system user friendly and interactive, latest web technologies are implemented. In this thesis, we started development process right from requirements gathering to find out required components that need to be analyzed to find suitable web-based conversion. Further, we designed and implemented a software solution. The final part is evaluation to discover if requirements are fully implemented or not as well as to gather the performance result of the new system. It is found, the performance of web based WRAP is equally fast as desktop version for smaller coverage areas whereas, for larger coverage areas, web-based WRAP is slower than desktop version


In spite of the great importance attached by social capital theory to the role of social trust in maintaining stable and effective democracy, research has produced rather weak and mixed support for the idea that the socially trusting individuals tend to be politically trusting, and the weight of evidence suggests either a weak or insignificant relationship between social and political trust. The present work, however, reports robust and statistically significant correlations between generalized social trust, on the one hand, and confidence in political institutions and satisfaction with democracy, on the other. The associations are significant in 23 European countries and in the United States. This article argues that its findings are more accurate and more reliable than much of the previous work because they are based on better and more sensitive measures. The results pose a dilemma for future survey work, while reopening possibilities for social capital research.


The use of design within government institutions is a rapidly accelerating trend of global dimensions. The emergent nature of these design practices, and cultures, raises questions about what exactly is happening in the interactions between design and political institutions, and how that might be understood in broader socio-economic and political terms. This paper reports on a series of interviews with senior level civil servants working in UK central government, all of whom have had some exposure to design methods and techniques through interaction with the UK Policy Lab. The paper sets out the ways in which the epistemology and practices of design, as introduced through Policy Lab, both expose and challenge those of the political institutions and policy professionals they seek to change.


This article examines the relations between religiousness, spirituality, and generativity (concern for the welfare of future generations) in late adulthood using longitudinal life-course data. Religiousness and spirituality were operationalized as distinct but overlapping dimensions of individual difference measuring involvement in traditional and nontraditional religious practices, respectively. In late adulthood, both religiousness and spirituality correlated positively with overall scores on self-report and observer-based measures of generativity. However, whereas religiousness was significantly related to the communal facets of generativity, spirituality was significantly related to its self-expanding aspects. These differences were more pronounced after gender, cohort, social class, and the overlap between religiousness and spirituality were controlled. The respective relations among religiousness, spirituality, and generativity in late adulthood were also observed using religiousness scored in early, and spirituality scored in late-middle, adulthood.


Data from factor analysis of rating scale evaluations of teachers as a basis for classifying the patterns of emotional and behavioral problems found in EMR students in the public schools were presented. These factors permitted a contrast between EMR elementary- and secondary-school-level boys and girls and a comparison group of nonretarded students. Implications for an understanding of the emotional and behavioral characteristics of students identified as EMR and for related programming needs were discussed.


Abstract Background Between 20 and 50% of antibiotic therapy in hospitalized patients is considered inappropriate. Inappropriate antibiotic therapy is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The aim of our study was to evaluate the ratio of appropriate antibiotic therapy among adult patients admitted to a secondary hospital and treated with at least one systemic antibiotic therapy, and to compare different methods for evaluation of appropriateness. Methods This was a point-prevalence study, in which all adult patients admitted to a secondary hospital and treated with systemic antibiotic therapy (orally or intravenous) were included. Appropriateness was evaluated by experts (infectious diseases specialist and a clinical pharmacist specializing in antibiotic therapy), and by ranking 11 quality indicators based on literature recommendations. Agreement between all methods was analyzed. Results 106 patients were included in the study; most of them were treated empirically (78%). Almost half of the patients were treated for urogenital and abdominal infections (44%). Appropriateness ranged from 20-75%, depending on method of evaluation. We found a very low agreement between the more strict definition and experts' opinion (kappa=0.068), and a medium agreement between the less strict definition and experts' opinion (kappa=0.45). Respiratory tract infections were treated inappropriately most of the time, according to all evaluation methods. Appropriate blood cultures were taken before starting antibiotic therapy only in 22% of the cases. Conclusion We found a high rate of inappropriate antibiotic therapy in different indications for therapy, both by objective definitions, and by experts' opinions (although to a lesser amount in the latter). We need to use strict and uniform parameters in order to optimize antibiotic therapy in the hospital. Immediate interventions must be made regarding appropriate blood cultures' collection, and to improve empiric treatment for respiratory tract infections. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.


The authors report the case of a 17 year old boy with anorexia nervosa and bone marrow hypoplasia. After a 14 kg weight loss, the patient had pancytopenia, morphological abnormalities of the red cells (acanthocytes, schizocytes), without hemolysis, and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. Bone marrow biopsy showed a marked reduction of hematopoietic cells with striking diffuse interstitial oedema. Clinical recovery, during the next 6 months, was associated with a return of the haematological changes to normal and to a disappearance of hypogonadism. Anorexia nervosa is a rare entity in boys. In all probability, bone marrow hypoplasia is not a well known feature of this disorder. The haematological changes are reversible with improvement of nutritional status.


What are the new challenges facing political science research at the beginning of the twenty-first century? Political
Science in Motion, edited by Ramona Coman and Jean-Frederic Morin, explores this question through a
collection of essays that traces the major trends in contemporary political science research since the end of the Cold
War. Focusing on eight different academic journals, this book stimulates new questions about the changing role that
peer-reviewed journals play in academic life, writes Wyn Grant.


The architecture of a computer communication system has evolved with advances in technology. Changes to satisfy telecommunication needs within the technical community have surfaced gradually through the efforts of international computer standards organizations, technical panels, and guidance committees. The design of a secure computer communications architecture to protect the integrity of information exchange is pursued by the aerospace industry, the commercial and financial sectors, and at all levels of government agencies. Banking institutions, the insurance and medical professions, goods and commodity exchanges, the airline industry, and local, state, and federal government agencies have all sought increased computer security and confidence in their computer communications. * Computer security techniques, defense methodologies, and security appliances are discussed and analyzed. These discussions will center on various computer and network security devices. With these devices, the foundations for a rigorous security policy can be created. Security policies are important in preventing compromises of network security and threats affecting secure computer communications. Vulnerabilities in computer networks are identified in terms of exploits. The deployment of scanning technologies can discover these exploits and their affects on the integrity of the information exchanged. These same technologies can assign risk factors and pose suggestions for corrective actions in the computer environment. A firewall system installation is deployed on the network of the enterprise to protect and secure a computer communications architecture. Intrusion detection techniques include signature identification of the intruder to locate and respond to network and host-based intruder attacks. Some of these same techniques will uncover the forensic evidence and explain how the computer or network system was compromised. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are another example of a security appliance. This network device employs security mechanisms such as tunneling, Internet protocol (IP) security protocols and cryptography. Insecure computer communications can have devastating consequences on national security, which would affect every aspect of daily life. To address the issue a secure computer communications architecture will be offered as an example to demonstrate the precautions that can be taken, display the benefits from a systems engineering viewpoint and present an economic feasibility with a view towards the future


ABSTRACT Digital twin (DT) technology aims to create a virtual model of a physical entity and efficiently analyze the intelligent manufacturing system. Based on the DT, human-machine interaction (HMI) is a typical application. Deep learning technology is employed in the digital twin to realize and strengthen HMI while analyzing the physical and virtual data. The convolutional neural network (CNN) is used for analyzing visual information. For dealing with the HMI task in DT, two CNN models, Visual Geometry Group Network (VGG) and Residual Network (ResNet), are adopted. Modified 3D-VGG and 3D-ResNet models are proposed in this paper, which is an improvement over existing VGG and ResNet models. The models focus on humans' information in videos that are captured with the HMI system's sensors. The information, which can be regarded as the digital twin data, includes the action and the position of the human skeleton. Additionally, the proposed models are end-to-end. The experiments show that both models perform well on the human motion recognition task. The model can effectively generate skeletal data from video data. With the generated information, the human and the machine can interact well with the aid of the digital twin data analysis.


Title: Democratic dialogues in early childhood education? Abstract: We examine what democracy-promoting practices may be in early childhood education. From an understanding of democracy as multifaceted we have studied how teachers lead planned conversations which enable children to present themselves and their interests. The issue discussed being: How can the teacher create conditions for conversations that are characterized by democracy promoting practices? The research is based on theoretical studies of democracy and conversations and video observations of conversations between teachers and children in two early childhood education institutions. The results are presented four themes: The preschool teachers' emphasis on common experiences, their ability to make different voices distinct, show a listening participation and their daring when encountering the unexpected. Analysis shows that conversations in connections with projects can have a potential to promote practices characterized by democracy, but this seems demanding.


This article seeks to elucidate over time changes and cross-national variations in the status of art forms through a comprehensive content analysis of the coverage given to arts and culture in elite newspapers of four different countries – France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States – in the period 1955-2005. The authors explore how cultural hierarchy is affected by specific features of these societies and their respective journalistic and cultural production fields. The four countries show significant differences in journalistic attention to high and popular arts. Throughout the period of study, the American newspapers and to a slightly lesser extent, French elite newspapers generally devote more attention to popular art forms than their Dutch and German counterparts. In accounting for cross-national differences in the coverage given to popular culture, field level factors like the structure of the newspaper market and the position and size of local cultural industries seem more important than remote societal factors such as national cultural repertoires and the level of social mobility.


Most texts on project governance and project management portrays the organization as populated by anonymous people in abstract roles like 'project manager', 'sponsor', 'team member'. This paper takes the contrasting position that the project organization is developed by individuals with a specter of competences, strong and weak sides and relations to other people and organizations. The storyline presents a case study from a real-life project developing a new culture institution in Norway over a period of 10 years. Data was gathered ex-post by two researchers through interviews and document studies. The paper first defines key concepts and then presents an analytical framework for the purpose of analyzing the roles in this case story. It gives new insight to the roles as project manager and project executive. The story illustrates the importance of continuity and persistence in the role as project executive. These issues are relevant in future projects given the growing size and complexity seen in projects and the focus on stakeholder value that is prominent in project literature.


CHILDREN with bleeding esophaegeal varices secondary to an extrahepatic block of the portal vein present a particularly difficult problem to the surgeon. A splenorenal shunt generally will not provide adequate portal decompression because of the small diameter of the splenic vein. A conventional portacaval shunt cannot be constructed because of portal vein thrombosis with cavernous transformation and multiple small periportal collateral vessels. Our experience with a retropancreatic anastomosis of the portal vein to the left renal vein or to the vena cava in six children has been encouraging. This experience is presented since it appears that in certain instances this may provide the most satisfactory method of portal decompression. It can be employed successfully following previous splenectomy or following previous unsuccessful shunt surgery of other types. Report of Cases Case 1 (97599). —This 7-year-old white boy was admitted to the Cincinnati Children's Hospital on March 20, 1962 because of massive


Corporate support is a significant revenue stream for non-profit organisations, yet little is known of the actual decision paths companies take when making these decisions and what characterises these paths. This study seeks to develop a greater understanding of decision processes for companies considering sponsorship of the arts. A multiple-case study approach was taken, with participants from arts organisations and paired sponsoring companies, resulting in the finding of three decision paths: one characterised as high-level and intuitive, one as driven at a lower-level, and a third initially instigated by a third party. Analysis of these paths highlights the importance of existing relationships as well as a 'fit' between both parties. In addition, the company's orientation towards more commercial or philanthropic goals is found to be a key element determining the path taken, and the role of individual informed intuition is highlighted as crucial in moving decisions forward. This study extends knowledge in sponsorship and corporate philanthropy, into a decision making and arts sponsorship context. The findings also offer a useful perspective for non-profit arts managers as they pitch their event to the business sector.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In the constant updates of the product dialogue systems, we need to retrain the natural language understanding (NLU) model as new data from the real users would be merged into the existent data accumulated in the last updates. Within the newly added data, new intents would emerge and might have semantic entanglement with the existing intents, e.g. new intents that are semantically too specific or generic are actually subset or superset of some existing intents in the semantic space, thus impairing the robustness of the NLU model. As the first attempt to solve this problem, we setup a new benchmark consisting of 4 Dialogue Version Control dataSets (DialogVCS). We formulate the intent detection with imperfect data in the system update as a multi-label classification task with positive but unlabeled intents, which asks the models to recognize all the proper intents, including the ones with semantic entanglement, in the inference. We also propose comprehensive baseline models and conduct in-depth analyses for the benchmark, showing that the semantically entangled intents can be effectively recognized with an automatic workflow.


This essay establishes similarities between control over Black bodies' movement under chattel slavery and social distancing measures employed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its primary concern is how protecting public health necessitates undesired movement on the part of marginalized, historically disenfranchised populations to secure supply chains and ensure access to basic goods, foodstuffs, and medicines for those sheltering at home. Structuring its claims within the critical race theories of Saidiya V. Hartman, Achille Mbembe, and Elizabeth Maddock Dillon, it draws attention to how an enslaved condition in which one lacked the right to choose to move or hold still is now being extended to a class of workers deemed essential.


Multiple instance learning (MIL) is a widely researched learning paradigm that allows a machine learning algorithm to learn target concepts from data with uncertain class labels. The random set framework for multiple instance learning (RSF-MIL) makes use of the random set to learn in this scenario of uncertainty. Previous models used assumptions that imposed a disjunctive relationship between the simple concepts learned (which compose the target concept). In the following, a conjunctive formulation of RSF-MIL is proposed and investigated. Results illustrate the utility of the conjunctive and disjunctive formulations of RSF-MIL and the scenarios when each is applicable.


Dental radiographic images are one of the most popular biometrics used in the process of forensic human identification. This led to the creation of the Automatic Dental Identification System with the goal of decreasing the time it takes to perform a single search in a large database of dental records. A fully automated system identifying people based on dental X-ray images requires a prior segmentation of the radiogram into sections containing a single tooth. In this paper, a novel method for such segmentation is presented, developed for the dental radiographic images depicting the full dentition pantomograms. The described method utilizes the locations of areas between necks of teeth to determine the separating lines and does not depend on the articulation of gaps between adjacent teeth, thus improving the results achieved in the situation of severe occlusions.


Purpose The combined administration of 18F-NaF and 18F-FDG in a single PET/CT scan has the potential to improve patient convenience and cancer detection. Here we report the use of this approach for patients with sarcomas. Patients and Methods This is a retrospective review of 21 patients (12 men, 9 women; age, 19–66 years) with biopsy-proven sarcomas who had separate 18F-NaF PET/CT, 18F-FDG PET/CT, and combined 18F-NaF/18F-FDG PET/CT scans for evaluation of malignancy. Two board-certified nuclear medicine physicians and 1 board-certified musculoskeletal radiologist were randomly assigned to review the scans. Results were analyzed for sensitivity and specificity, using linear regression and receiver operating characteristics. Results A total of 13 patients had metastatic disease on 18F-NaF PET/CT, 18F-FDG PET/CT, and combined 18F-NaF/18F-FDG PET/CT. Skeletal disease was more extensive on the 18F-NaF PET/CT scan than on the 18F-FDG PET/CT in 3 patients, whereas in 1 patient, 18F-FDG PET/CT showed skeletal disease and the 18F-NaF PET/CT was negative. Extraskeletal lesions were detected on both 18F-FDG and combined 18F-NaF/18F-FDG PET/CT in 20 patients, with 1 discordant finding in the lung. Conclusions The combined 18F-NaF/18F-FDG PET/CT scan allows for accurate evaluation of sarcoma patients. Further evaluation of this proposed imaging modality is warranted to identify the most suitable clinical scenarios, including initial treatment strategy and evaluation of response to therapy.


The aqueous chemistry of Ti(III) and Ti(IV) in two different chemical environments is investigated given its relevance to environmental, materials, and biological chemistry. Complexes of titanium with the carboxylate ligands citrate and oxalate, found ubiquitously in Nature, were synthesized. The redox properties were studied by using cyclic voltammetry. All the titanium citrate redox couples are quasi-reversible. Electrospray mass spectrometry of the Ti(III) citrate solution shows the presence of a 1:2 Ti/cit complex in solution, in contrast to the predominant 1:3 Ti/cit complex with Ti(IV). The change in the coordination of the ligand to the metal on reduction may explain the quasi-reversible behavior of the electrochemistry. The redox potentials for Ti(IV) citrate in water vary with pH. At pH 7, the approximate E(1/2) is less than -800 mV. This stated change in redox properties is considered in light of the previously reported Ti(IV) citrate solution speciation. Analogous speciation behavior is suggested from the EPR spectroscopy of Ti(III) citrate aqueous solutions. The g tensors are deduced for several pH-dependent species from the simulated data. The X-ray crystal structure of a Ti(III)(2) oxalate dimer Ti(2)(mu-C(2)O(4))(C(2)O(4))(2)(H(2)O)(6).2H(2)O (3), which crystallizes from water below pH 2, is reported. Complex 3 crystallizes in a monoclinic P2(1)/c space group with a = 9.5088(19) Angstroms, b = 6.2382(12) Angstroms, c = 13.494(3) Angstroms, V = 797.8(3) Angstroms(3), and Z = 2. The infrared spectroscopy, EPR spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry on complex 3 are reported. The cyclic voltammetry shows an irreversible redox couple approximately -196 mV which likely corresponds to the Ti(IV)(2)/Ti(III)Ti(IV) couple. The EPR spectroscopy on solid complex 3 shows a typical S = 1 triplet-state spectrum. The solid follows non-Curie behavior, and the antiferromagnetic coupling between the two metal centers is determined to be -37.2 cm(-1). However, in solution the complex follows Curie behavior and supports a Ti(III)Ti(IV) oxidation state for the dimer.


Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST) focuses on second language development (SLD) as opposed to second language acquisition (SLA). Emphasising internal complexity of the language system as well as dynamic and non-linear nature of language development, it represents a new approach to the role of variability which is rooted in developmental psychology. This approach agrees with research findings from the 1980s which identified different types and causes of variability, but it treats variability as the main factor responsible for language development and not as a peripheral phenomenon. Intra-individual variability, defined as differences in the level of a developmental variable within individuals and between repeated measurements, is said to have a positive influence on language development at various levels of proficiency. The present paper describes the third part of the case study whose aim is to analyse intra-individual variability in the emergence of lexical complexity in speaking English as a foreign language at secondary school in the case of a good, average, and poor language learner. The first part of the case study examined this phenomenon with respect to general measures of complexity, accuracy, and fluency, whereas the second part—with respect to specific measures of syntactic complexity. The results of the third part of the case study show some significant differences between the learners in terms of lexical variation as opposed to density, sophistication, and frequency but hardly any such differences in intra-individual variability, pointing at the same time to a weak positive relationship between this type of variability and the rate of development.


A set of generic forms handling capabilities oriented to telecommunications operating company applications is presented. The approach provides for efficient electronic form processing, routing, and tracking with built-in flexibility to adapt to change. This is provided through a set of tools for online configuration of forms and processes, designed to be accessible by operating company personnel. Also discussed are networking requirements, including the need to interwork with existing administration systems. Trouble management is used as a sample application to illustrate these concepts.<<ETX>>


Social Security is arguably the most successful social program ever adopted in the United States. Providing income protection for workers and their families in retirement, disability, and death, Social Security has significantly reduced financial insecurity, especially the elderly's poverty rate.1 Nonetheless, the Social Security program itself now faces financial insecurity, largely because of various demographic factors. The Frances Lewis Law Center and Washington and Lee University, in a long tradition of promoting an opportunity for positive dialogue about a subject of national importance, devoted its Spring 2001 symposium to the question of Social Security reform, its necessity, and how it might best be effected. Social Security: Can the Promise Be Kept? considers the demographic factors prompting our concern with Social Security's long-term viability and, equally importantly, the implications of any reform for twenty-first-century America's economic and legal structure. The symposium offered ten leading individuals, including economists, government policymakers, practitioners, and members of the legal academy, the opportunity to inform the debate concerning Social Security reform with a wider perspective. By examining in context the program that is available to all working Americans, cognizant of other existing programs, especially employer-provided, tax-qualified plans, the manifold implications of Social Security reform can be better addressed. The complexity of any Social Security reform should not serve as an impediment to necessary reform. Rather, any reform adopted should be better able to meet Social Security's needs because it would recognize related systems and other national priorities. The baby boom generation's relationship to the economy, as C. Eugene Steuerle reminded us, has been likened to a pig that was swallowed by a python and has been moving inexorably through the system.2 The baby boom generation has moved through the economy and is now close to retirement, thus explaining some level of our attention to the baby boom generation's retirement security. The desirability of increasing our national savings rate, always an issue of great concern for economists and policymakers, also explains some of our concerns as well as some of the proposed solutions.3 In addressing the immediate problem faced by the Social Security program nationally, we also have engaged in a re-examination, often without realizing it, of the principal tenets and competing goals of social insurance - social adequacy and individual equity. Somewhat surprisingly, individual accounts, which are comprised of the diversion of some portion of current workers' Social Security taxes to private accounts, have become the sine qua non of its proponents or the cum qua non of its opponents in the reform debate.4 This resulting narrow focus, while appearing to address both savings rates and individual equity concerns, turns out not to be entirely helpful. Whatever reform we adopt must answer not only the demographic challenges and capital formation needs of our society; it must do it in a world where the current system of employer-provided, taxqualified pensions is shaped by and predicated on the current Social Security system.5 The impact of reform for the existing employer-based system, in which only half of all employers currently participate,6 needs consideration. If participating employers are now responding to economic trends by shifting to employees the increased risk and responsibility for providing their own adequate retirement and health care, we must examine our fundamental commitment to the element of social insurance inherent in the current Social Security program lest we institute changes that could constitute a rejection of one of the program's basic goals - social adequacy. …


A full-duplex transceiver with on-chip self-inter-ference-cancellation (SIC) is presented. The achieved SIC is 110 dB, and it is realized in three stages: RF front-end hybrid, baseband analog, and baseband digital. An integrated hybrid is used in the RF front-end which employs an adaptive tuning impedance network (TIN) to track the antenna impedance variations, achieving over 50 dB of SIC. $N$ -path mixer-first architecture is used for the receiver to improve the linearity and to provide out of band blocker cancellation. The self-interference is further attenuated in the analog domain using the down-converted sample of the transmit signal. The analog transmit interference canceler (TIC) receives the sampled copy of the transmitted signal of the power amplifier and offers adaptive amplitude and phase adjustment for the cancellation signal, obtaining more than 20 dB on-chip cancellation in the analog domain. The last step of SIC is realized in the digital domain using a nonlinear system with memory to cancel the remnant of self-interference and distortions, resulting in 43 dB of SIC. The front-end hybrid, mixer-first receiver, and analog TIC are implemented in a CMOS 65-nm technology. Thanks to adaptive gradient decent algorithm employed in the system, the total SIC of the hybrid and TIC is more than 70 dB, which is one of the highest cancellation values achieved on the chip. The die area is 4 mm2, and the fabricated chip consumes 80 mW dc power. The average transmit power is 23 dBm, and the noise figure of the receiver in the full-duplex mode is 11 dB.


In spite of the considerable progress made in the domain of the sciences of materials, cutting tools subjected to an intense abrasive wear and a very high temperature of edge. They record during their use an reduced working life. The operations of machining on lathe are regularly stopped for replacing these tools, which influences enormously the production process. Indeed, the search the new materials of substitution, remain a domain very coveted, owing to the fact, it belongs to one stake very significant industrial, in particular, in the mechanical domain and its varied sectors. The recourse to the thermal treatments traditional, limiting in an interval, reduces the wear and the excessive consumption of these cutting tools, but the principal concern of the experts and researchers, in the domain of the mechanical engineering, remain posed. The goal of this study is the introduction of the technique of plasmas, as physical phenomenon, for making material of coating at base of titanium nitrides doped at iron, at the different concentrations. To this objective, one magnetron sputtering with plasma was used for the realization of the coatings deposed on the active parts of the cutting tools. During the experimentation, it was noted that the cutting tools which are treated by plasma, subjected to the machining operations on lathe and the hardness tests, presents one improvement of their hardness and a remarkable increase in their lifespan.


Reinforcement learning techniques can provide substantial insights into the desired behaviors of future autonomous driving systems. By optimizing for societal metrics of traffic such as increased throughput and reduced energy consumption, such methods can derive maneuvers that, if adopted by even a small portion of vehicles, may significantly improve the state of traffic for all vehicles involved. These methods, however, are hindered in practice by the difficulty of designing efficient and accurate models of traffic, as well as the challenges associated with optimizing for the behaviors of dozens of interacting agents. In response to these challenges, this paper tackles the problem of learning generalizable traffic control strategies in simple representations of vehicle driving dynamics. In particular, we look to mixed-autonomy ring roads as depictions of instabilities that result in the formation of congestion. Within this problem, we design a curriculum learning paradigm that exploits the natural extendability of the network to effectively learn behaviors that reduce congestion over long horizons. Next, we study the implications of modeling lane changing on the transferability of policies. Our findings suggest that introducing lane change behaviors that even approximately match trends in more complex systems can significantly improve the generalizability of subsequent learned models to more accurate multi-lane models of traffic.


This study aims to identify the factors that should determine turnaround strategies for declining, large, high-technology companies. Goswami (2022) indicates that many high-tech organizations have been declining recently due to an external crisis triggered by inflation and high interest rates, with many implementing turnaround strategies. This study offers an evidence-based approach to identify the factors that should be considered when selecting a turnaround strategy at declining, large, high-technology companies. An evidence-based approach was used since Pfeffer and Sutton (2006) suggested that using data to drive decisions improved management decisions. The qualitative Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) methodology suggested by Barends et al. (2017) was used to find 14 articles (quantitative, qualitative), critically appraise, and code to synthesize the evidence and provide findings and recommendations for the turnaround of high-technology companies. The main findings of this research are that a) the selection of the turnaround strategy should differ based on whether the crisis is externally or internally triggered and should consider stakeholder management, in addition to strategic and operational factors b) An external crisis requires managerial cognition of the crisis, flexibility to adapt to the current market, aligning of the strategy of the organization with the environment and pursuing new sales markets which have not been impacted by the external crisis, focus on innovation, increased R&D spending, and increased sales/marketing. c) An internal crisis requires managerial cognition of the crisis, along with employee incentives, customer focus, communication with all stakeholders, retrenchment, restructuring, new product introduction, quality, process focus, decentralizing decision-making, and engaging in external relationships such as acquisitions/mergers/joint ventures.


Shunt active power filters (SAPF) allow power system disturbances associated to the current consumption of non-linear and/or unbalanced loads to be compensated. Diverse control algorithms have been proposed in literature in order to obtain accurate and fast compensation results under steady-state and transient conditions. The FBD method considers the averaged load conductance in order to obtain an accurate reference signal for compensation purposes, as a drawback, a whole period at the fundamental grid frequency is required in the most general case for evaluation of the averaged load conductance. This paper proposes the application of wavelet transforms in order to obtain an accurate and fast estimation of the averaged load conductance.


The battle to soften the labour market impact of the pandemic has thrown up some unlikely bedfellows, with trade union leaders competing with business chiefs over who can most fulsomely praise the government's economic response. But does this entente really presage a new era of 'Covid‐corporatism'? Crises like Covid‐19 can provide opportunities for temporary social pacts, even in countries lacking the labour market institutions needed to sustain these in normal times, and the 'social partners' have shown an unusual willingness to be bold and constructive. But cracks are already appearing over how and when the state should begin its withdrawal from the economy. Unions face structural weaknesses and recruitment problems that will hamper their ability to take full advantage of what will likely prove to be only a temporary lull in hostilities.


The neurological mechanism involved in biphasic effects of thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) on exploratory behavior was studied in mice. Intraperitoneal injection of TRH (2.5 mg/kg) induced an increase of ambulation which was followed by subsequent decrease. Pretreatment with nialamide (20 mg/kg i.p.) potentiated the hyperactivity elicited by TRH but failed to affect the subsequent hypoactivity. Tetrabenazine (3 mg/kg i.p.) administered after nialamide markedly increased and sequentially decreased the ambulation, whereas tetrabenazine injected after TRH decreased ambulation as did tetrabenazine alone. TRH administered in combination with and tetrabenazine elicited a pronounced excitation followed by depression, as compared with those elicited by TRH alone or nialamide plus tetrabenazine. The results suggest that TRH induces a biphasic action in exploratory behavior and that this action may involve facilitation of dopamine release which results in an activation of post- and presynaptic dopamine receptors.


The rational solutions of the Painleve-II equation appear in several applications and are known to have many remarkable algebraic and analytic properties. They also have several different representations, useful in different ways for establishing these properties. In particular, Riemann-Hilbert representations have proven to be useful for extracting the asymptotic behavior of the rational solutions in the limit of large degree (equivalently the large-parameter limit). We review the elementary properties of the rational Painleve-II functions, and then we describe three different Riemann-Hilbert representations of them that have appeared in the literature: a representation by means of the isomonodromy theory of the Flaschka-Newell Lax pair, a second representation by means of the isomonodromy theory of the Jimbo-Miwa Lax pair, and a third representation found by Bertola and Bothner related to pseudo-orthogonal polynomials. We prove that the Flaschka-Newell and Bertola-Bothner Riemann-Hilbert representations of the rational Painleve-II functions are explicitly connected to each other. Finally, we review recent results describing the asymptotic behavior of the rational Painleve-II functions obtained from these Riemann-Hilbert representations by means of the steepest descent method.


Thin-walled structural elements made from rolled metal usually demonstrate anisotropic creep behavior. Very often the model of transversally-isotropic material is suitable for its description. Due to the difficulties in direct numerical integration the case of cyclic loading demands the development of suitable method of the creep problem's solution when the material behavior isn't isotropic. The general problem statement as well as the constitutive equations for two-dimensional creep problem are presented. Transversally-isotropic creep material model developed by O.Morachkovsky is used. The case of substantial stress values which are greater than yield limit is studied. Addition of cyclic loading, which is essentially varying the creep response, is analyzed. Deriving of resolving system of creep equations was performed by use of the method of asymptotic expansions jointly with the method of averaging in a period of stress cycle. This system allows simulation of only the problem of static loading with constitutive equations of special type, in which the values of cyclic parts of loading are included in so-called influence functions. These equations are derived from the general form by use of asymptotic expansions of creep strain functions with further averaging in a period of oscillations. Developed method is realized as an applied C++ software. The Finite Element Method is used for solution of boundary-value problem jointly with Finite Difference Scheme for initial one. The results of experimental investigations of creep in specimens and plates with holes made from rolled steel are discussed. The anisotropic creep curves in three directions were obtained and constants for creep flow rule were determined. Additional number of experiments was performed for the case of cyclic loading. The comparison between experimental and numerical data shows the satisfactory agreement. Due to this a number of numerical examples for cyclic creep simulation in thin plates were performed and their results are discussed.


imperial policies. The author holds the various strands firmly together and succeeds admirably in presenting a clear, vivid, and consistent account of the intricate pattern of the history of this period. Anyone who reads the story thoughtfully will come away with a new appreciation of this man Herod, who in spite of his savage cruelty, especially in his later years, well deserves the title bestowed upon him. He was a political realist, who saw clearly that the prosperity of his people was dependent on their ability to adjust themselves to the larger environment of the empire. Some of the later Herods, too, showed signs of political insight and leadership, but none of them exercised the control and the influence, or had the political sagacity of the founder. These books are an admirable survey of the development of an important period in biblical history. There were many factors which influenced the development of Judaism and Christianity, and not least of these was the political activity of the Herods.


A non-invasive method for the monitoring of heart activity can help to reduce the deaths caused by heart disorders such as stroke, arrhythmia and heart attack. Human voice can be considered as a biometric data that can be used for estimation of heart rate. In this paper, we propose a method for estimating the heart rate from human speech dynamically using voice signal analysis and by development of a empirical linear predictor model. The correlation between voice signal and heart rate are established by classifiers and prediction of the heart rates with or without emotions are done using linear models. The prediction accuracy was tested using the data collected from 15 subjects, it is about 4050 samples of speech signals and corresponding electrocardiogram samples. The proposed approach can use for early non-invasive detection of heart rate changes that can be correlated to emotional state of the individual and also can be used as tool for diagnosis of heart conditions in real-time situations.


Although neural machine translation has made significant progress recently, how to integrate multiple overlapping, arbitrary prior knowledge sources remains a challenge. In this work, we propose to use posterior regularization to provide a general framework for integrating prior knowledge into neural machine translation. We represent prior knowledge sources as features in a log-linear model, which guides the learning processing of the neural translation model. Experiments on Chinese-English dataset show that our approach leads to significant improvements.


Abstract Purpose Progressive, irreversible radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis (RIPF) is a clinically significant intermediate- to a late-occurring side effect of radiotherapy. Known mechanisms of RIPF include oxidative stress-induced activation of TGF-β with activation of SMAD signaling, TNF-α elaboration, and activation of the Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) mediated production of angiotensin II with resulting activation of profibrotic cytokine signaling and vasoconstriction. The pioneering work of John Moulder, to whom this paper is dedicated, and several of his colleagues demonstrated that inhibiting the conversion of ACE with drugs such as Captopril, Enalapril, and Losartan can ameliorate radiation fibrosis in various tissues. While this work led several groups to probe mechanism-based pharmacological mitigation of RIPF, in this article, we explore and discuss the roles of microRNAs (miRNA) and therapy-induced senescence (TIS) in the pathogenesis of and potential biomarkers for RIPF. Conclusion Our analysis of the published literature in the last decade on RIPF, miRNA, and TIS identifies TIS as a mechanism in the onset and progression of RIPF, which is regulated through several miRNAs. This work may lead to the discovery and development of the next generation of miRNA therapeutics and/or the repurposing of approved pharmaceutical agents and the development of early biomarker panels to predict RIPF.


After double deprotonation, 2,6-diaryl-p-benzoquinonodiimidazoles (aryl=4-tolyl (I) or 2-pyridyl (II)) were shown to bridge two [Ru(bpy)2 ]2+ (bpy=2,2'-bipyridine) complex fragments through the imidazolate N and p-quinone O (I→12+ ) or through the imidazolate N and pyridyl N donor atoms (II→22+ ). Characterization by crystal structure analysis, 1 H/13 C NMR spectroscopy, cyclic and differential pulse voltammetry, and spectroelectrochemistry (UV/Vis/NIR, IR, EPR) in combination with TD-DFT calculations revealed surprisingly different electronic structures for redox systems 1n and 2n . Whereas 12+ is reduced to a radical complex with considerable semiquinone character, the reduction of 22+ with its exclusive N coordination exhibits little spin on the now redox-innocent quinone moiety, compared with the electron uptake by the pyridyl-imidazolate chelating site. The first of two close-lying oxidation processes occurs at the bridging heteroquinone ligand, whereas the second oxidation is partly (14+ ) or predominantly (24+ ) centered on the metal atoms.


The two previous chapters focused mainly on what is the essential policy objective surrounding many of the measures and discussions in the sector of audio-visual services: culture. This chapterwill focus on the means used to convey and receive audio-visual products (whether content or services). It will examine whether WTO law provides an appropriate framework for the regulation of those means and to what extent culture is an issue in this area. After this introduction, the second part of the chapter will address the current application of WTO rules to the provision of and access to networks. The third part of this chapter will discuss the current principles and regulations concerning the allocation of scarce resources, such as frequencies and satellite orbits. The fourth part of this chapter will present the rules applicable to terminal equipment. The fifth and final part of this chapter will contain a small conclusion. Throughout this analysis, the consequences of convergence in the application of these rules will be addressed as well as the place that it left to cultural policies. Traditionally, audio-visual services have been conveyed either by air, through reserved frequency bands, or by cable. The latter generally provided a one-way communications path and could therefore be used only by broadcasting services. Presently, technological developments enable the fast conveyance of large quantities of sound, image and data in both one-way and two-way communication paths, through broadband infrastructure. Broadband networks thus support both telecommunications and audio-visual services. They enable their provision in an integrated manner. Broadband technology also facilitates the multiplication of such networks, generating new competitive relations in converged services.


Background Inflammation is a known contributor to osteoarthritis (OA) pain in animals and humans. While translation of human treatments to companion dogs is common, translation from companion dogs to humans is less frequent. We present results of a clinical study, in client-owned canines with moderate OA pain, which evaluated the efficacy of 2 molecules targeting the actions of prostaglandin E, either by modulating its production (mPGES1 inhibitor; LYA), or subsequent pharmacology through 1 of its 4 receptors (EP4 antagonist, LYB). Objectives To provide translational and comparative data to inform the potential utility of each of these mechanisms for treatment of chronic OA pain in humans and dogs. Methods A multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo (PBO)- and active-controlled trial in client-owned canine patients with moderate OA pain in ≥1 hindlimb/forelimb joint. Dogs ≥2 years of age with Liverpool Osteoarthritis in Dogs (LOAD) Mobility total score ≥13 to <46 were randomized (1:1:1:1) to 2 weeks of LYA (1.5 mg/kg/day), LYB (25 mg/kg/day), carprofen (4.4 mg/kg/day), or PBO. Efficacy versus PBO was assessed by mean change from baseline (CFB) to Week 2 in the Canine Brief Pain Inventory (CBPI) Pain Interference (PI) Score (primary endpoint), and for secondary endpoints: CBPI Pain Severity (PS) and Overall Impression (OI) subscores, and LOAD Mobility score. Data were analyzed by mixed-effect model for repeated measures with treatment, time, and interaction of treatment and time as fixed effects, and with baseline score, site, and weight as covariates. Posterior probability of treatments being superior to PBO was calculated with Bayesian methods. Results Of 163 dogs randomized, 158 (96.9%) completed the study. Treatment arms were well-balanced for baseline characteristics (mean [standard deviation] age: 9.3 [3.0] years, weight: 54.6% 15–32 kg, 45.4% >32–50 kg, CBPI PI: 5.1 [2.1]; CBPI PS: 4.2 [1.9]; LOAD Mobility: 24.1 [5.6]). Improvements (CFB) in CBPI PI were observed in all treatment groups after 2 weeks (Table). For LYA, the probablility of superiority to PBO was 80% for CBPI PI and 89% to 96% for secondary endpoints. LYB showed inconsistent separation from PBO across the endpoints, with probablilty of superiority to PBO 54% to 89%. The separation of carprofen and PBO arms demonstrated assay sensitivity. The incidence of adverse events for LYA (35.9%) was comparable to that of carprofen (25.6%) and PBO (32.6%). For LYB, the incidence was significantly higher versus PBO (59.5%, P=.017). Conclusions The study results support an efficacy proof-of-concept signal for the mPGES1 inhibitor mechanism for treatment of chronic OA pain in canine patients. Acknowledgements We also thank Leijun Hu, Alain Frix, and Claire Smith of Eli Lilly and Company for their contributions to the study. Disclosure of Interest C. Robertson-Plouch Shareholder of: Eli Lilly and Company, Employee of: Eli Lilly and Company, J. Stille Shareholder of: Eli Lilly and Company, Employee of: Eli Lilly and Company, P. Liu Shareholder of: Eli Lilly and Company, Employee of: Eli Lilly and Company, S. Malcolm Shareholder of: Eli Lilly and Company, Employee of: Eli Lilly and Company, D. Brown Grant/research support from: AlcheraBio, Centrexion Corporation, Enceladus, Integrated Chinese Medicine Holdings, and Regeneus, M. Warner Shareholder of: Eli Lilly and Company, Employee of: Eli Lilly and Company, M. Fisher Shareholder of: Eli Lilly and Company, Employee of: Eli Lilly and Company


Hemostatics are agents used in surgery to control the bleeding. To make the right choice is a challenge to the dentist because he should weigh the benefits of these agents against its effect on bone healing. These agents act by different mechanism of action which effect wound healing. It is important to compare these mechanisms to make the right choice when we select these agents during surgery. Objectives: To evaluate the effects of topical hemostatic agents on healing of bone after endodontic microsurgical procedures using experimental animals model. Materials and method: The study was involving 300 patients (160) male, (140) female (10-45y) come to the Department of maxillofacial surgery/College of dentistry/University of Anbar (2000-2018) endodontic microsurgery. Local anesthesia was used (2% Lidocaine with 1:80.000 adrenalines). Alustat, Collagen sponge and adrenalin were tested for their hemostatic effect and tissue reactions, and were compared with untreated control. 60 New Zealand white rabbits were involved in the study, used for examination the tissue reaction to these agents. The animal were anesthetized by i.p ketamine 10mg with XYL-M2 xylazine 20mg.The bone defects were made using standardized aseptic technique. Three sided flap were made in the anterior mandible of the rabbits using scalpel. The bone defects (5 mm) were made using straight surgical hand piece and burs with constant irrigation by normal saline. The effect of the above agents (bleeding time and tissue reaction) was examined visually then compared with control. The biopsy were taken after 3 and 4 weeks then sent for histopathological examination. Results: Statistical analysis in Table 1 & Figure 5 indicate that the highest healing % was in collagen group (81.000%). While the lowest healing % was in Alustat group (72.2500%). The healing % for Adrenalin was (75.000%). The mean difference in healing % is significant at 0.01 &0.05 level. Conclusion: Hemostasis in experimental bone defects is most effectively accomplished by using collagen. Understanding such mechanism is important for successful results.


Author(s): Yoder, Christian | Advisor(s): Reid, Scott | Abstract: Online information pools such as Wikipedia, Youtube, and Reddit, rely on contributions from members to succeed. These venues operate as public goods, being non-excludable and non-rival, and they typically do not compensate contributors. As such, contributions appear to be altruistic, and the enterprise subject to collective action problems, such as free riding. Despite this, the internet is replete with examples of successful information pools. A potential but un-tested explanation for altruism in this context is found in costly signaling theory. Costly signaling theory assumes that altruism is apparent rather than real; signals are in fact genetically self-interested acts that are compensated by receivers. If costly signaling theory is correct, contributions to online information pools must contain signals of some kind, signaling should be more intense under conditions where signalers are potentially rewarded by receivers, and receivers should be able to reliably infer signal content from contributions. This thesis tested whether contributions to ostensible wiki-style encyclopedias signal intelligence, group commitment, introversion-extraversion, or conscientiousness. To induce motivation, participants made their wiki-style contributions under conditions where they believed themselves to be either identifiable to receivers (i.e., and motivated to signal) or not. Contribution quality increased with participant intelligence, and, consistent with costly signaling theory, this was true only when participants believed they were identifiable to receivers. Further, receivers reliably inferred contributor intelligence from judgments of contribution quality, but only in when participants were identifiable. There was no evidence for signaling of other qualities. The findings suggest that contributions to online information pools are not examples of altruism, but are in fact signals of intelligence that are reliably inferred by receivers from contribution quality. Recommendations for future research and practical implications are discussed.


: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has embarked on an ambitious plan of nation-building transforming the landscape of the country. Whereas Abu Dhabi and Dubai with their modern architecture promote an international urban lifestyle, the third largest city in UAE, Al-Ain offers a relaxed, Oasis/villa experience a form of revival to Andrea Palladio's mansions during the Renaissance era. Recent housing developments segregate around the city's mountain, and consist of about 11,000 large Mediterranean-styled villas with extensive green landscaping and an artificial canal in the desert. Although these developments are not culturally foreign, since they emulate decisions of Islamic/Arab palatial complexes such as Alhambra in Spain the scarcity of water resources and the growing interest in Western/Renaissance-styled landscaping question the notion of sustainability of a city in a desert environment. We examine urban expansion of Al Ain city in light of the constraints imposed by scarce water resources. As a case study, we investigate the water requirements for the central oasis area in Al Ain and simulate the flow condition in the falaj complex channel system using the 2D-hydrodynamic Finite Element Surface Water Modelling System (FESWMS). Today reviving ideas such as integration of nature into cities, green infrastructure constitutes the fundamentals of sustainable urbanism. the falaj irrigation system offers a hybridization between societal needs for upscale Mediterranean styled villas and retention of Emirati cultural values and traditions. Our study offers alternative landscapes to open lawns irrigated by sprinkler systems and recommendations in line with the Estidama guidelines—the UAE's Sustainability Design and Construction regulations guidelines.


I review recent progress in 3D numerical relativity, focusing on simulations involving black holes evolved with singularity avoiding slicings. After a long series of axisymmetric and perturbative studies of distorted black holes and black hole collisions, similar studies were carried out with full 3D codes. The results show that such black hole simulations can be carried out extremely accurately, although instabilities plague the simulation at uncom-fortably early times. However, new formulations of Einstein's equations allow much more stable 3D evolutions than ever before, enabling the first studies of 3D gravitational collapse to a black hole. With these new formulations, for example, it has become possible to perform the first detailed simulations of 3D grazing collisions of black holes with unequal mass and spin, and with orbital angular momentum. I discuss the 3D black hole physics that can now be studied, and prospects for the future. Such studies may be able to provide information about the final plunge of two black holes, which is relevant to gravitational wave astronomy, and will be very useful as a foundation for future studies when advanced techniques like black hole excision mature to the point that they permit full orbital coalescence simulations.


Let $\Sigma_g$ be a closed hyperbolic surface of genus $g$ and let $Ham(\Sigma_g)$ be the group of Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of $\Sigma_g$. The most natural word metric on this group is the autonomous metric. It has many interesting properties, most important of which is the bi-invariance of this metric. In this work we show that $Ham(\Sigma_g)$ is unbounded with respect to this metric.


Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate clinical availability and advantage of autogenous cancellous bone graft from proximal tibia metaphysis. Materials and Methods: A retrospective review was conducted of 58 cases of foot and ankle surgeries using bone graft from the ipsilateral proximal tibia from August 2008 to March 2012 in Konkuk University Medical Center (Seoul, Korea). The group included patients with isolated reconstructions as well as trauma in the foot and ankle area. Results: The mean volume of cancellous bone harvested from the proximal tibia was 14 ml (range, 5 to 28 ml) and allograft was added to the autogenous bone graft in order to fill the large bone defect for six cases. The bone graft was performed for 41 arthrodesises, seven supramalleolar tibial osteotomies, eight open reduction and internal fixation procedures, and two curettage and bone grafts of bone tumor. At final follow-up, one case (1.7%) showed mild pain on the donor site and the mean visual analogue scale score for pain was 0.1 (range, 0 to 2). There was no occurrence of major post-operative complication at the donor site. Solid union at final follow-up was observed in 97% of cases. Conclusion: Proximal tibial bone graft was found to be a viable alternative to the iliac crest bone graft in the aspect of cancellous bone graft with relatively sufficient quantity and minimal donor site morbidity.


Objective Decrease of pain and inflammation, maintenance articular mobility, muscular power and prevention of tendons rupture. Material We conducted a prospective study in 530 rheumatoid arthritis female patients suffering from bilateral hand sinovitis with an average of 45 years old (range 25–69 years old). Method The following treatment was used during 2–3 sessions/week for six months. Acute phase: cryotherapy and rest with orthesis in functional position. Chronic phase: thermotherapy; paraffin bath and passive and active exercise alternating with rest; ring orthesis; articular saveness and healthy education. We have measured the results through followings items: Pain: visual analogic scalee (VAS) Hand grip strength: mm. Hg Functional capacity: health assessment questionary (HAQ) Results Table 1.Abstract HP0004 Table 1 Baseline 1 month 6 month Pain 7/8 5/6 3/4 Grip strength 30/40 40/50 40/60 Functional capacity 1,5/2 0,9/1,2 0,5/0,8 Conclusions Rheumatoid arthritis hand's physiotherapy increase quality of life and articular movility, and decrease of pain. This treatment in not able to stop the progression of the illness.


In this paper, the numerical manifold method (NMM) is extended to study wave propagation across rock masses. First, improvements to the system equations, contact treatment, and boundary conditions of the NMM are performed, where new system equations are derived based on the Newmark assumption of the space–time relationship, the edge‐to‐edge contact treatment is further developed for the NMM to handle stress wave propagation across discontinuities, and the viscous non‐reflection boundary condition is derived based on the energy minimisation principle. After the modification, numerical comparisons between the original and improved NMM are presented. The results show that the original system equations result in artificial numerical damping, which can be overcome by the Newmark system equations. Meanwhile, the original contact scheme suffers some calculation problems when modelling stress wave propagation across a discontinuity, which can be solved by the proposed edge‐to‐edge contact scheme. Subsequently, the influence of the mesh size and time step on the improved NMM for stress wave propagation is studied. Finally, 2D wave propagation is modelled, and the model's results are in good agreement with the analytical solution. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The existing freezing and thawing test method of structural concrete leaves much room for improvement from the viewpoint of materials science research; that is, the concrete specimen is too large and heavy and the testing procedure is so time-consuming that the test itself cannot be practically used for evaluation of durability. Thus, the authors have reported that the standard cylindrical specimen (∅10×20cm)is the best type for the quality control of concrete and that the accelerative test method using the exposure temperature of ±5°C has been developed. The surface defect ratio has been defined on the basis of the fact that the gradual process of surface deterioration, namely, the popping-out, is fundamentally related to the internal destruction of concrete. This paper deals with the relationship between the relative dynamic modulus of elasticity, the number of freezing and thawing cycles, and the surface defect ratio. Thus it proposes a practical evaluation method of the compressive strength of structural concrete, which uses a new durability index of the surface defect ratio.


A fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled monoclonal cytomegalovirus antibody reagent incorporating Evans blue (Syva/Genetic Systems, Palo Alto, Calif.) was compared to a fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled polyclonal antibody (Dynatech Diagnostics, Inc., South Windham, Maine) for identification of cytomegalovirus in tissue culture. A total of 191 cultures, 86 positive and 105 negative for cytomegalovirus by cytopathic effect in WI38 cells, were stained in parallel and examined by fluorescent microscopy. No false-negative results were noted with either reagent; however, the polyclonal antibody-stained slides required the use of a separate counterstain to decrease nonspecific fluorescence. The polyclonal reagent gave a false-positive reaction with one varicella-zoster virus isolate and four simian cytomegalovirus isolates. No false-positive results were noted with the monoclonal reagent.


 Abstract— In this research an automobile license plate recognizer is developed in a mobile device based on the android platform to be used as an alternative solution to record roadside transactions, such as parking and fine. The license plate recognition is implemented using artificial neural network, where training of the neural network is carried out in a desktop computer instead of mobile device to speed up the training using back propagation algorithm. Result of the training is the artificial neural network along with their weight is implemented in the mobile device to recognize characters in license plate. The training result showed that the neural network is able to recognize 88.2% characters in sample images outside the training set. The image processing and neural network implemented in the mobile device managed to recognize an average of 71% characters in sample license plate images which are categorized as having good image quality. Automobile license plate information is also saved in database inside the mobile device.


Child malnutrition is common in developing countries. one of the major contributing factor of the wide-spread problems of malnutrition among infants and children is the use of cereal-based foods, including maize meal porridge that are characterized by low protein content and micronutrients deficiency. This calls for action to develop home based enrichment of traditional foods by exploiting the nutritious foods like mushrooms that are rich in protein and micronutrients content. Nutritional and physical attributes of the maize meal porridges fortified with mushroom (Agaricus bisporus and Pleurotus ostreatus) flours were investigated. The maize flour was replaced with mushroom flours at different levels; a control sample (0%), 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% of mushroom flour. Increasing both A. bisporus and P. ostreatus flour content resulted in increasing of protein, in vitro-protein digestibility, micronutrients (zinc and iron) and fiber. Furthermore, increasing mushroom content resulted in decreasing of fat, carbohydrates, energy and viscosity. However, adding P. ostreatus flour resulted in increasing of the pH and decreasing of the Total titratable acidity (TTA). On the other hand, increasing the A. bisporus flour resulted in decreasing of the pH and increasing of the TTA. A strong significant (p<0.05) linear correlation (-0.73) was observed between the in vitro-protein digestibility and the viscosity in maize-mushroom porridges. Considering the protein content, micronutrients content, the in vitro-protein digestibility and the decreased viscosity, these fortified porridges can highly contribute to reduce the protein malnutrition and micronutrients deficiency.


OBJECTIVES
Emotional and interpersonal dysfunction appears central to nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), yet research examining the interplay of these factors among individuals with NSSI is limited. This study aimed to specify such associations before and after daily stressful events among individuals with (vs. without) NSSI.

METHODS
Young adult participants (Mage  = 20.4) with past-year (n = 56) or no history (n = 47) of NSSI completed daily diary assessments over a 2-week period.

RESULTS
No differences in rates of positive or negative interpersonal experiences before or after stressful events were identified. NSSI participants, however, reported greater negative emotion following stressful events compared with non-NSSI participants. The presence (vs. absence) of a positive interpersonal experience following a stressful event was related to lower negative emotional responses only in the NSSI group.

CONCLUSION
Positive interpersonal experiences may downregulate negative emotions following stressful events among individuals with NSSI, highlighting the potential relevance of interpersonal emotion regulation to this population.


Combination immunotherapy can overcome the limited objective response rates of PD-1 blockade. Interferon alpha (IFN-α) has been proven to be effective in modulating immune responses and may enhance the clinical responses to PD-1 blockade. According to clinical practice guidelines, IFN-α was recommended as adjuvant therapy for stage IIB/C melanoma patients. However, the impact of prior IFN-α therapy on the efficacy of subsequent PD-1 blockade in melanoma has not been previously reported. Therefore, we performed a retrospective analysis for melanoma patients and addressed whether prior IFN-α therapy enhanced adjuvant pembrolizumab as later-line treatment. Fifty-six patients with resectable stage III/IV melanoma who received adjuvant therapy with pembrolizumab were retrospectively enrolled in this study. Notably, 25 patients received adjuvant pegylated IFN-α (PEG-IFN-α) in the prior line of treatment while 31 patients did not receive prior PEG-IFN-α therapy. Cox regression analysis showed that prior PEG-IFN-α therapy was associated with the efficacy of later-line adjuvant pembrolizumab (hazard ratio=0.37, 95% CI 0.16-0.89; P = 0.026). The recurrence rates after treatment with adjuvant pembrolizumab were significantly reduced in the prior PEG-IFN-α group (P < 0.001). The Kaplan-Meier analysis also showed that recurrence-free survival (RFS) after adjuvant pembrolizumab therapy was prolonged by prior PEG-IFN-α treatment (median RFSPem 8.5 months vs. 4.5 months; P = 0.0372). These findings indicated that prior PEG-IFN-α could enhance the efficacy of adjuvant pembrolizumab. The long-lasting effects of PEG-IFN-α provide a new rationale for designing combination or sequential immunotherapy.


Model studies have been advanced to suggest both that a siphon does and does not support cerebral blood flow in an upright position. If a siphon is established with the head raised, it would mean that internal jugular pressure reflects right atrium pressure minus the hydrostatic difference from the brain. This study measured spinal fluid pressure in the upright position, the pressure and the ultrasound-determined size of the internal jugular vein in the supine and sitting positions, and the internal jugular venous pressure during seated exercise. When the head was elevated approximately 25 cm above the level of the heart, internal jugular venous pressure decreased from 9.5 (SD 2.8) to 0.2 (SD 1.0) mmHg [n = 15; values are means (SD); P < 0.01]. Similarly, central venous pressure decreased from 6.2 (SD 1.8) to 0.6 (SD 2.6) mmHg (P < 0.05). No apparent lumen was detected in any of the 31 left or right internal veins imaged at 40 degrees head-up tilt, and submaximal (n = 7) and maximal exercise (n = 4) did not significantly affect internal jugular venous pressure. While seven subjects were sitting up, spinal fluid pressure at the lumbar level was 26 (SD 4) mmHg corresponding to 0.1 (SD 4.1) mmHg at the base of the brain. These results demonstrate that both for venous outflow from the brain and for spinal fluid, the prevailing pressure approaches zero at the base of the brain when humans are upright, which negates that a siphon supports cerebral blood flow.


Using general practices of management is management philosophy; many organizations practice these tools that endeavor to improve their efficiency and competitiveness in the business markets. It is an integrated approach to reaching and maintaining high-quality production and services focusing on the maintenance and continuous improvement of operations in order to satisfy or exceed the customer satisfaction. Many researchers have done a lot of work on other management practices; total quality management is an important one of them in this competitive era, which has rarely studied especially in small and medium size entrepreneurial companies in Pakistan. This quantitative research study tried to determine the impact of Total Quality Management practices on job satisfaction level of the employees of those small and medium size companies based on new and creative ideas in the capital city. The conducted survey among 550 employees of small and medium size entrepreneurial companies in the capital of Pakistan got 200 employees response properly in filling out the questionnaire. The collected data was analyzed after applying software (version 20) Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Multiple regression was applied to test the proposed model, which was found satisfied. Leadership and top management support were founded the most dominant practice among the selected Total Quality Management practices which has a significant effect on employee job satisfaction. The findings of this study prove that the implementation of Total Quality Management practices can help in increasing employees' job satisfaction which intern would increase Productivity of small and medium size entrepreneurial companies.


The purpose of this study is finding the easy way of 4 categories activity level confirmation for estimated energy requirement calculation. Total of 386, 5th and 6th grade primary school students participated. The time spent on 7 kinds of activity were collected for 1 day by the internet program developed. Judged by the activity coefficient, sedentary were 6.7% and 5.1%, low active 33.2% and 40.4%, active 43.8%, and45.5%, and very active 16.3% and 9.0% for boy and girl, respectively. The highest and significant correlation coefficient between activity coefficient and time spent on activities shown were 0.339 in commute activity for boys, and 0.466 in leisure for girls. The sensitivity of the sedentary conformation by commute hour for boys was 0.79, and that of very active was 0.56. The sensitivity of the sedentary conformation by leisure hour for girls was 0.67, and that of very active was 0.63. The sensitivity of low active and active by 7 different types of activity was quite low, 0.04~0.37. The exact agreement of activity level conformed by easy way developed was 30.8% and 33.7%, for boys and girls, respectively. More accurate way to identify 4 categories activity level needs to be developed, especially sensitive to conformation of low active and active levels. (Korean J Community Nutr 16(3) : 307~314, 2011)


A two-phase backscattering model with nonsymmetrical inclusions is applied to calculate radar backscatter from a half-space of wet snow using strong fluctuation theory. Wet snow is assumed to consist of dry snow (host) and liquid water (inclusions). The shape and size of water inclusions are considered using an anisotropic and azimuth symmetric correlation function. The relationship between correlation lengths and snow wetness is presented by comparing strong fluctuation theory with the experimental data at 1.2, 8.6, 17, and 35.6 GHz. In the comparisons, correlation lengths are used as free fitting parameters. The effect of snow wetness on the backscattering coefficient is investigated. Numerical results of comparison between the two-phase backscattering model with nonsymmetrical inclusions and the experimental data are illustrated at 1.2, 8.6, 17, and 35.6 GHz. The effect of size and shape of water inclusions at different snow wetness values to backscatter level is shown. The comparison of angular response of backscattering coefficient (decibels) to wet snow between the model and the experimental data is presented at 2.6, 8.6, 17, and 35.6 GHz.


Due to the continuous demand for higher bit rates, the management of the spatio-temporal intersymbol interference in frequency-selective multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channels becomes increasingly important. For single-input single-output channels, equalized precoded partial-response signaling is capable of handling a large amount of intersymbol interference, but, to date, no equalization scheme with general partial-response signaling has been presented for the frequency-selective MIMO channel. Not only does this contribution extend partial-response signaling to the MIMO channel by proposing a general spatio-temporal partial-response precoder, but it also develops a minimum mean-squared-error optimization framework in which the equalization coefficients and the spatio-temporal target response are jointly optimized. Three iterative optimization algorithms are discussed, which update (part of) a row of the target impulse response matrix in each iteration. In particular, the third algorithm reformulates this row optimization as a lattice decoding problem. Numerical simulations confirm that the general partial-response signaling clearly outperforms the traditional full-response signaling in terms of the mean squared error and the bit error rate. The third optimization algorithm has a better performance but a higher complexity, compared to the first and the second algorithm.