The Ito equation (a coupled nonlinear wave equation which generalizes the KdV equation) has previously been shown to admit a reduction to a single nonlinear Casimir equation governing the wave solutions. Some analytical properties of the solutions to this equation in certain parameter regimes have been studied recently. However, for general parameter regimes where the analytical approach is not so useful, a numerical method would be desirable. Therefore, in this paper, we proceed to show that the Casimir equation for the Ito system can be solved numerically by use of the shifted Jacobi-Gauss collocation (SJC) spectral method. First, we present the general solution method, which is follows by implementation of the method for specific parameter values. The presented r esults in this article demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the metho d. In particular, we demonstrate that relatively few notes p ermit very low residual errors in the approximate numerical solutions. We are also able to show that the coefficients of the higher order terms in the shifted Jacobi polynomials decrease exponentially, meaning that accurate solutions can be obtained after relatively few terms are used. With this, we have a numerical method which can accurately and efficiently capture the behavior of nonlinear waves in the I to equation.


Successful and effective e-governance development is impossible without adequate civil servants' qualification. E-Governance development in Commonwealth of Independent State (CIS) countries faces a lot of common hurdles, and the problem of insufficient civil servants' skills in the field of egovernance is among the top of these issues. The article represents the results of several researches dedicated to identification of actual and required civil servants skills for the successful integration of e-government in Russia and CIS countries. In the studies the authors used the following methods: gap-analysis, documents and projects evaluation, testing, expert poll. The authors propose a set of recommendations to solve the problem of insufficient qualification.


Abstract Turkey becomes more dependent on the external countries in energy production every year. As an average of the period 1994–2002 the total primary energy production has been 27.9 Mtoe, and consumption has been 73.06 Mtoe, so Turkey is dependent on external countries in petroleum, natural gas, and hard coal consumption. The external dependency rate of these fuels has been at levels of 89.3%, 96.6%, and 82%, respectively. In the projections of Turkey for 2020, the primary energy consumption is estimated to be 298 Mtoe, production is estimated to be 70 Mtoe, the ratio of production to consumption will be reduced to 23.5%, and this situation will cause serious risks for sustainable development. In other words, Turkey will have to import 76.5% of the energy that it consumes in the 2020s.


It is widely assumed that candidate issue convergence or "dialogue" is beneficial for voters in campaigns. Using a lagged weekly measure of issue convergence in political advertising about specific campaign issues from the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns, I show that dialogue, as it is currently defined by campaigns and elections scholars, is as likely to harm voters as it is to help them. These findings require scholars to think more deeply about what role, if any, issue convergence plays in deliberative campaigns.


Influence on the organizations of external factors causes the need for a set of new management methods. According to the authors, self-management can be considered an effective management technique. The article considers the essence and structure of self-management. The authors analyze self-management as a complex phenomenon that contains a set of actions and processes. Self-management has been defined as a specialist's self-realization technology in the professional and personal space. The main components of self-management are time management skills, the ability to set priorities in work, professional and personal self-development, skills to control stressful situations, motivation to learn and professional advancement, the development of emotional intelligence. The necessity of forming self-management skills in social workers has been substantiated. In the principles of self-management, staff training has been characterized as one of the main tasks of the organization manager. The authors offer a list of management tools that can ensure the development of social workers' skills and qualities. These include training as an active method of teaching; supervision as a mechanism of learning from the experience of others; professional training, internship, exchange of experiences, professional communication; organization of effective feedback as a mechanism for involving employees in management and increasing the level of loyalty to the organization. Organizational and managerial techniques are complemented by medical and psychological. The article concludes that social workers'  self-management skills will promote the specialist's development. They will have a positive impact on his/her work quality. And they will be a means of preventing stress, professional ills and risks.  Perspective areas of research have been outlined.


Abstract The phylogenetic position of the "Upper yungas inca hocicudo" Oxymycterus juliacae, one of the lesser-known species of the genus Oxymycterus, is still unresolved. Several authors considered it a subspecies or synonym of Oxymycterus inca, but more recently, it was recognized as a valid species based on morphometric analysis and morphological traits. The objectives of this study were then to substantiate the morphological distinction of O. juliacae and evaluate its phylogenetic position using cytochrome b sequences. We evaluated the morphology of O. juliacae and compared it with congeneric species. In addition, a Cytochrome b gene matrix was subjected to analyses of maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference. Our results support the morphometric and morphological distinction of O. juliacae and found that this species is more closely related to Oxymycterus willkaurco than to O. inca. Therefore, the recognition of O. juliacae as a full species is supported and a rediagnosis is provided. In addition, we found O. inca is more related to other lowland species from Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, than to central Andean species. More efforts are needed to secure genetic material of Oxymycterus species, mainly the Andean species, for a better understanding of their phylogenetic relationship.


The present study has attempted to highlight the avifaunal diversity in two contrasting seasons (pre and post monsoons) from a protected tropical mixed deciduous forest (Kuldiha Wildlife Sanctuary, KWS) in the state of Odisha, India. Through modified line transect method, a total of 107 species of birds belonging to 49 families under 15 orders have been reported. Among them, 12 are winter visitors, 3 are summer visitors, 1 is near threatened and 1 is vulnerable species. Insectivores and frugivores constitute major foraging guilds. Closed canopy forests, forest edges, woodland areas and wetlands provide suitable habitats to all those avifauna. Lower canopy level was found to act as the major microhabitat for several species for meeting major ecobiological attributes of avifauna. The premonsoon and monsoon periods have appeared to be the ideal nesting seasons for most of the avian members. Canopy foliage and tree holes were seen to offer the most suitable nesting sites. Significant differences in respect of species richness have been observed among different habitats in different seasons (F5.91 ,p ≤ 0 in premonsoon, F6.53, p ≤ 0 in post monsoon). The highest Shannon Weiner diversity index (H′) was recorded from the forest edge (3.8) during premonsoon and that of lowest in orchard or plantation areas (2.96) during post monsoon. Species Dominance value (D) was observed to World Scientific News 103 (2018) 32-64 -33be highest both for grassland and orchards and plantation areas (0.06). The field based study attempts to assess avian diversity (qualitative and quantitative) in the light of global conservation programme. Though this area is prone to varying levels of anthropogenic interventions particularly the tourism activities, an overall healthy bird diversity has been found to exist, the knowledge on which is expected to be utilized for the holistic eco-management of forest ecosystem in general and Kuldiha wildlife sanctuary in particular. A number of hypothesis have been proposed in respect of avifaunal habitat selection, diversity and acclimation with wildlife friendly human association for their successful coexistence.


Experiments and large eddy simulation (LES) were performed to study the development of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability into the saturated, nonlinear regime, produced between two gases accelerated by a rarefaction wave. Single-mode two-dimensional, and single-mode three-dimensional initial perturbations were introduced on the diffuse interface between the two gases prior to acceleration. The rarefaction wave imparts a non-constant acceleration, and a time decreasing Atwood number, $A=(\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{2}-\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{1})/(\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{2}+\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{1})$ , where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{2}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{1}$ are the densities of the heavy and light gas, respectively. Experiments and simulations are presented for initial Atwood numbers of $A=0.49$ , $A=0.63$ , $A=0.82$ and $A=0.94$ . Nominally two-dimensional (2-D) experiments (initiated with nearly 2-D perturbations) and 2-D simulations are observed to approach an intermediate-time velocity plateau that is in disagreement with the late-time velocity obtained from the incompressible model of Goncharov (Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 88, 2002, 134502). Reacceleration from an intermediate velocity is observed for 2-D bubbles in large wavenumber, $k=2\unicode[STIX]{x03C0}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}=0.247~\text{mm}^{-1}$ , experiments and simulations, where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}$ is the wavelength of the initial perturbation. At moderate Atwood numbers, the bubble and spike velocities approach larger values than those predicted by Goncharov's model. These late-time velocity trends are predicted well by numerical simulations using the LLNL Miranda code, and by the 2009 model of Mikaelian (Phys. Fluids., vol. 21, 2009, 024103) that extends Layzer type models to variable acceleration and density. Large Atwood number experiments show a delayed roll up, and exhibit a free-fall like behaviour. Finally, experiments initiated with three-dimensional perturbations tend to agree better with models and a simulation using the LLNL Ares code initiated with an axisymmetric rather than Cartesian symmetry.


Magnetic adatoms in the honeycomb lattice have received tremendous attention due to the interplay between Ruderman–Kittel–Kasuya–Yosida interaction and Kondo coupling leading to very rich physics. Here we study the competition between the antiferromagnetism and Kondo screening of local moments by the conduction electrons on the honeycomb lattice using the determinant quantum Monte Carlo method. While changing the interband hybridization V, we systematically investigate the antiferromagnetic-order state and the Kondo singlet state transition, which is characterized by the behavior of the local moment, antiferromagnetic structure factor, and the short range spin-spin correlation. The evolution of the single particle spectrum are also calculated as a function of hybridization V, we find that the system presents a small gap in the antiferromagnetic-order region and a large gap in the Kondo singlet region in the Fermi level. We also find that the localized and itinerant electrons coupling leads to the midgap states in the conduction band in the Fermi level at very small V. Moreover, the formation of antiferromagnetic order and Kondo singlet are studied as on-site interaction U or temperature T increasing, we have derived the phase diagrams at on-site interaction U (or temperature T) and hybridization V plane.


Solar activity refers to any natural phenomenon
occurring on the sun such as sunspots, solar flare and coronal mass ejection
etc. Such phenomena have their roots deep inside the sun, where the dynamo
mechanism operates and fluid motions occur in a turbulent way. It is mainly
driven by the variability of the sun's magnetic field. The present paper
studies the relation between various solar features during January 2009 to
December 2011. A good correlation between various parameters indicates similar
origin.


Platypnea–orthodeoxia syndrome is a rare and poorly understood condition related to the development of a right-to-left intracardiac shunt at the atrial level through a benign and silent patent foramen ovale. It is usually recognized after major lung resection, recurrent pulmonary embolism or chronic lung disease. Orthostatic dyspnea and cyanosis is the prominent clinical presentation. Symptoms increase in the upright position and are relieved by recumbency. Our report describes the clinical course of a patient with severe hypoxemia after left pneumonectomy attributable to a right-to-left shunting through an atrial septal defect.


This paper is a report of the impact of an externally funded, multiyear systemic reform project on students' science achievement on a modified version of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) test in 33 small, rural school districts in two Midwest states. The systemic reform effort utilized a cascading leadership strategy of professional development delivered at summer workshops and through distance technologies and local leadership groups that focused on helping teachers work in communities of practice to adapt science inquiry lessons to teach and reinforce strategies and skills in language arts in the lessons. Science achievement scores of Grade 3 and Grade 6 student cohorts on the two forms of the TIMSS administered at the beginning, middle, and end of the professional development effort revealed a V-shaped pattern of scores, suggesting that teachers struggled with the newly adapted science inquiries at first but then became more effective in their use. The impact of the adaptation strategy on the students' achievement, questions about the time needed for new instructional strategies to be embraced by teachers, and the wisdom of using "low stakes" achievement tests in studies are discussed.


This paper brings a critical awareness to the interrelations between epistemic injustice and knowledge hierarchies, through an insufficient attention to the Other as epistemically harmed. Because of the dominant empirical and theoretical authority Others are subjected to in research practices and dissemination, our paper explores how marginalised voices possess less epistemic agency due to their disciplining, neglect and subjugation as knowers through testimonial and hermeneutical injustice. We contribute two new categories of epistemic injustice in marketing; Silencing and Ignorance; areas, which reproduce and reify knowledge hierarchies but equally provide scholars with an opportunity to contest epistemic dominance. Through an explicit acknowledgement of the relationship between difference, power and knowledge in meaning-making, we argue for Other consciousness which entails (i) privileging Othered knowledge, (ii) highlighting structural epistemic in/justice within Marketing academe and (iii) advocating for artistic-inclusive processes, to alter how we theorise knowing Others, and Other knowers, in marketing scholarship.


The experiment was laid out in a split plot design with three dates of transplanting (D1, D2 and D3) as main plot treatment, three genotypes (V1, V2 and V3) and two nitrogen levels (N1 and N2) as sub-plot treatment with three replications. The results obtained during the track of study, discovered that the weather had played, significant role in deciding the yield of rice. However, the weather variables affected the crop growth, development and yield differently in different phenophases during its growth period. The results, regarding different phenophases as well as yield attributing characters of rice genotypes as influenced by different treatments.


Nevertheless campos rupestres are considered species rich and diverse vegetation formations, phytosociological surveys from the Itacolomi State Park, Minas Gerais, Brazil, are lacking in scientific literature. To close this gap, we compared floristic composition, species richness and diversity from two sites, Lagoa Seca and Calais, both situated within the park. Calais is moderately impacted by extensive pasture, fire, and settling activities. Both surveys contained 15 plots of 10 x 10 m, cardinality of each species was estimated. Beside species richness, the indexes of Shannon-Wiener, Fisher's ?, the community richness estimator Jackknife 1 and the numbers of endemic, endangered and invasive species were compared. With 107 species, the moderately impacted Calais showed higher species richness than Lagoa Seca (76 species). The indices of Shannon-Wiener and Fisher's ?, the community richness estimator, as well as point diversity and spatial turnover derived from the species-area relationship (SAR) indicated higher diversity for Calais. From Lagoa Seca, 30% of all species are endemic to the Atlantic Rainforest or to Cerrado, and four species are endangered, not any species found in Lagoa Seca is described as an invasive one. On the other hand, 23 species found in Calais are invasive species, only one from all 107 species is endangered. Only 19% of all species found in Calais are endemic. Nevertheless species richness and diversity differ between both study sites, they are exceptionally high compared to similar vegetation formations from further regions. This justifies the declaration of the park as a local hotspot of biodiversity. Furthermore, our results show that species richness or diversity measures are inappropriate criteria to evaluate the intactness of campo rupestre vegetation. More weight should be put on criteria like numbers of invasive, endemic or endangered species.


An enzymatic production method for synthesizing L-alanyl-L-glutamine (Ala-Gln) from L-alanine methyl ester hydrochloride (AlaOMe) and L-glutamine (Gln) was developed in this study. The cultivation conditions for an Escherichia coli strain overexpressing α-amino acid ester acyltransferase from Sphingobacterium siyangensis AJ 2458 (SAET) and reaction conditions for Ala-Gln production were optimized. A high cell density culture broth prepared by fed-batch cultivation showed 440 units/mL of Ala-Gln-producing activity. In addition, an Ala-Gln-producing reaction using intact E. coli cells overexpressing SAET under optimum conditions was conducted. A total Ala-Gln yield of 69.7 g/L was produced in 40 min. The molar yield was 67% against both AlaOMe and Gln.


In the literature, many studies have sought to assess through a quantitative approach the principle relationships between quantitative variables correlated to rurality. The impediment to such studies arises from the impossibility of quantitatively assessing cause-effect relationships between variables. The core purpose of this research was to assess by a quantitative approach the main cause-effect relationships in counties of Romania over the years 2007 to 2016, in order to identify variables affecting the rurality index. The study used Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling following the bootstrap methodology. The research outcomes highlighted the notable and positive role of financial subsidies allocated by the second pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy and specifically, the payments in favour of disadvantaged rural areas in relation to the rurality index across all regions of Romania. Some decoupled payments allocated within the framework of the first pillar of the CAP were found to have had no effect on crop farming. Drawing conclusions from this research, the financial support disbursed by the rural development programme is a fundamental stimulus to the reduction of socioeconomic marginalisation in Romanian farms and farming areas.


The moso o Aedes aeupti, its increasing spread, and difficulties involved in its control, togethc pose one of the most serious public healt problems facing the Americas today. That problem is compounded by the long-term presence of two dengue virus serotypes (dengue-2, isolated in Trinidad in 1952, and dengue-3, isolated in Puerto Rico in 1963) and by the recent arrival of dengue serotypes 1 and 4, which were respectively introduced into the Caribbean in 1977 and 1981. Aedes aeupti is the vector of several arboviral diseases, two of which are important to man and usually occur in epidemic form. These diseases are yellow fever, which is fatal to a significant proportion of its victims, and dengue fever, which is not fatal to most victims, but which sometimes causes hemorrhagic symptoms, shock, and death. The urban-dwelling aegypti, which was introduced into the Americas around the time of the Spanish Conquest by ships coming from Africa, has been responsible for all urban epidemics of these diseases. Over the past five years, the incidence of these aegypti-transmitted diseases in the Amer-


In this paper, the process of Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) in a vertical impinging reactor is simulated and optimised using the reliability-based performance measure approach for the deposition of a thin film of silicon from silane. The key focus is on the rate of deposition and on the quality of the thin film produced. Proper control of the governing transport processes results in large area film thickness and composition uniformity. The effect of important design parameters and operating conditions are studied using numerical simulations. Response surfaces are generated for deposition rate and uniformity of the deposited film using compromise response surface method for the range of design variables considered. The resulting response surfaces are used to optimise the CVD system by considering the uncertainty in the design variables.


Michael W. Smith, a professor in Temple University's College of Education, focuses his research on how experienced readers read and talk about texts as well as what motivates adolescents' reading and writing in and out of school. He sees the recent research on adolescents' out-of-school literacies as a challenge to literacy educators to look at what kids do, what kids can do, and what educators ought to do in new ways. He would like to see more research that speaks to those outside the adolescent literacy specialization. One implication of the research on students' out-of-school literacies for classroom teachers is that students might be more engaged in school if it presented the conditions that foster engagement outside of school. As a teacher and teacher educator, Smith is coming to regard new literacies as important ends in themselves and not just as bridges to more conventionally academic literacies.


A series of nucleobases guanine (G) and cytosine (C) pairing configurations have been fabricated on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surface by controlling the molar ratio of G and C in water solution. Watson-Crick (WC) base pairing governs the association of C and G nucleobases when the molar ratio of C/G is adjusted to 1:1. Nucleobase-rich is preferentially hydrogen-bonded to the sites exposed around WC motifs with the adjustment of the C/G molar ratio. At a higher C/G molar ratio imbalance, the pairing configurations depend on the combination of interspace and sites of hydrogen binding between G and C bases. The systematic analysis of the high-resolution STM images and DFT calculations reveal that hydrogen bonding plays a dominant role in the formation of these pairing configurations and that the competition between the priority and diversity of hydrogen-bonded configurations bonding between G and C is the key for the pairing structural polymorphism.


Christian eschatology provides a compelling mystical-political framework both for unmasking the historical visage of racism and for calling White believers to conversion and racial solidarity. Juxtaposing the memoria passionis of the Black community with Vatican II's mysticism of communion with the dead, the author asks what it would mean for White Christians to place themselves under the judgment and mercy of the Black "cloud of witnesses." The author proposes three moments in the complex dynamic of conversion in Whites, a life-long process in which Blacks, both the living and the dead, must hold some degree of agency. The essay concludes with a meditation on purgatory.


Through a nurse-midwifery service in a mixed urban and rural agricultural community, we compared maternal risk factors, prenatal care, labor and delivery, and adverse birth outcomes in low-income Mexican-American Hispanic, white (Caucasian), and Southeast Asian women—a three-way analysis rarely reported in the literature. Southeast Asian women were older and had more children. Hispanic women bore children at a younger age. Both Southeast Asians and Hispanics made fewer prenatal visits than did Caucasian women, and used less analgesia and anesthesia during delivery. The incidence of Cesarean section (7.7 percent) and low birthweight (5.9 percent) was compared to local, state, and national reference statistics. Prospective case-controlled studies and cost/benefit analyses of nurse-midwifery services could yield more definitive information. But until more precise data are collected for birth certificates, these studies will be difficult.


Activation mutations in JAK3 occur in 16% of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cases, and co-occur frequently with HOXA cluster rearrangement. Genomic rearrangement of the HOXA cluster results in increased expression of HOXA9 and HOXA10. However it remains unclear if either HOXA9 or HOXA10 can cooperate with activating JAK3 mutations during oncogenic transformation and leukemogenesis. We have previously shown that JAK3 mutations lead to cell transformation and cause a long latency T-ALL in vivo using a mouse bone marrow transplant model. In this study we demonstrate that co-expression of the activating JAK3(M511I) protein with HOXA9 cooperate to develop leukemia within 30 days of transplant using an in vivo bone marrow transplant model. In our cooperative model, murine hematopoietic stem / progenitor cells were co-transduced with either both retroviral vectors encoding JAK3(M511I)/GFP and HOXA9/mCherry or each individually and then injected into sub-lethally irradiated recipient mice. Mice transplanted with bone marrow cells expressing JAK3(M511I) mutant alone developed T-ALL in 120 to 150 days. In sharp contrast, mice transplanted with cells expressing both JAK3(M511I) and HOXA9 showed rapid leukemia development within 30 days after transplant. Leukemia development was characterized by the rapid and specific increase in GFP-mCherry double positive cells. These animals showed high WBC, and splenomegaly and accumulation of immature CD8 single positive cells in the thymus. Similar experiments with HOXA10 did not show cooperation suggesting that HOXA9 is the more important oncogene in HOXA rearranged leukemias when a JAK3 activating mutation is present. To determine the underlying genetic mechanism for cooperation between HOXA9 and JAK3(M511I) the single positive JAK3 and double positive JAK3/HOXA9 expressing cells were isolated from thymi of leukemic mice for both epigenomic profiling using ATAC-seq and gene expression profiling. These analyses identified genetic pathways activated by the co-expression of HOXA9 and JAK3(M511I) mutation and provide mechanistic insight into the synergistic interaction between these two factors in driving leukemia development. Treatment of the animals with a JAK kinase inhibitor resulted in delayed leukemia development, confirming that the leukemia cells remain sensitive to the JAK inhibitor. This mouse model provides insight in the cooperation between oncogenes in leukemia development and provides a model for the study of targeted agents in this setting.

Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Staphylococcus aureus is a significant human pathogen whose evolution and adaptation has been shaped in part by mobile genetic elements (MGEs), facilitating global spread of extensive antimicrobial resistance. However, our understanding of the evolutionary dynamics surrounding MGEs is incomplete, in particular how changes in the structure of multidrug-resistant (MDR) plasmids may influence important staphylococcal phenotypes. Here, we undertook a population-and functional-genomics study of 212 methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) ST239 isolates collected over 32 years to explore the evolution of the pSK1 family of MDR plasmids, illustrating how these plasmids have co-evolved with and contributed to the successful adaptation of this persistent MRSA lineage. Using complete genomes and temporal phylogenomics we reconstructed the evolution of the pSK1 family lineage from its emergence in the late 1970s, with multiple structural variants arising. Plasmid maintenance and stability was linked to IS256- and IS257-mediated chromosomal integration and disruption of plasmid replication machinery. Overlaying genomic comparisons with phenotypic susceptibility data for gentamicin and chlorhexidine, it appeared that pSK1 has contributed to enhanced resistance in ST239 MRSA through two mechanisms: (i) acquisition of plasmid-borne resistance mechanisms increasing rates of gentamicin resistance and reduced chlorhexidine susceptibility, and (ii) changes in plasmid configuration linked with further enhancement of chlorhexidine tolerance. While the exact mechanism of enhanced tolerance remains elusive, this research has uncovered a clear evolutionary response of ST239 MRSA to chlorhexidine, one which may contribute to the ongoing persistence and adaptation of this lineage within healthcare institutions.


The paper deals with a new tool for discrete system simulation called QS_PN_Simulation. This tool allows easy creating of queuing system models as Petri net graphs. Simulation experiments with models can be done and chosen statistic results of simulations can be obtained. The use of this system is demonstrated in the paper: creation of a model of chemical production system, simulation experiments with this model and obtained results are presented here. Supposed extension of proposed tool is then discussed in the conclusion of the paper.


Operational Technology has gotten a growing place in our daily lives. With the increasing number of devices (connected or not), the need for a clean environment that allows effective and efficient testing is also increasing. Furthermore, some devices are connected to the physical world with the ability to affect it. Assembling those specific devices with at least a sensor, an actuator, and a (micro)processor creates Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs). With such power in the hands of machines, it is imperative that they behave as expected and that they resist disruptive environments (whether from cyber attacks, unwanted noise, or environmental disturbance). Indeed, the impacts of an unexpected behavior could lead to significant damage (disruption of the production line, overheating of a nuclear reactor, false fire alarm, etc.). That is why the safety and the security of those systems should also be at the center of concerns. As the definition of those systems is quite simple, one can assemble various components to create a unique CPS. One could also modify an existing CPS to satisfy a specific need (e.g., a fire alarm system modified to detect carbon monoxide in the air, changing communication protocols or programming languages used for the sake of maintainability). To test such highly-configurable systems, there are multiple techniques. Fuzzing works particularly well with any system by sending pseudo-random inputs. To adapt to specific systems and test requirements (coverage, resources, etc.), fuzzing is itself highly-configurable (Grammar-based, symbolic, probabilistic, etc.). This is why it could perform particularly well with CPSs, which all might require a different and specific testing approach depending on their interfaces, components, etc. Currently, no frameworks allow for the classification of CPSs to enable the automatization of the generation of tests following their requirements. That is why this thesis will take a configurable approach to find and recommend the most suitable classification of CPS for testing and comparing the various fuzzing techniques to find the most effective ones based on relevant features and requirements of CPSs.


The purpose of this research was to develop a programme to help women whose partners died of AIDS to cope with stigma. Having experienced severe stigmatisation these women used mostly ineffective problem-focused strategies and limited emotion-focused strategies. Due to their difficulty in coping there was a need to develop a programme to assist them to cope with the stigma of having lost a partner to AIDS, as well as being HIV positive themselves. The programme was developed, implemented and evaluated by means of a holistic multiple case design with a sample of four women. Data were collected by means of multiple sources from transcripts of the eight sessions, naive sketches by participants, as well as field notes from observations of individuals and of the group. Data analysis was done according to the case record method. The conclusions about the impact of the programme were that it had a positive impact based on the fact that these women grew from being lonely, reserved, having negative self perceptions, to being open about their HIV status, sharing their problems related to stigma, seeking support, being altruistic by advocating for assistance of other women in the same situation, as well as suggesting the establishment of a home-based care facility where they can assist in caring for others.


In a preliminary study 28 patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (14 males, 14 females; mean age 67 years, mean disease duration 9 years) were tested with the GIESSEN-TEST (GT) personality inventory in an attempt to define distinctive premorbid personality features of Parkinson's disease. Patients and close relatives were asked to fill out the test questionnaires with a retrospective judgement of healthy times; at the same time patients and relatives were interviewed for premorbid habits and personality traits of the patients. The results obtained suggest that parkinsonian patients are of an introverted and anancastic premorbid personality type. In the GIESSEN-TEST (GT) marked trends toward "overcontrol"; "depressiveness", "positive social resonance", and "social impotency" were observed. The results are discussed and related to findings of distinctive premorbid smoking and drinking habits of parkinsonian patients.


In this work, polypropylene (PP) was foamed via rotational molding using a chemical blowing agent (CBA) based on azodicarbonamide over a range of concentration (0 to 0.5% wt.). The samples were then analyzed in terms of morphological, thermal and mechanical properties. The morphological analysis showed a continuous increase in the average cell size and cell density with increasing CBA content. Increasing the CBA content also led to lower foam density and thermal conductivity. Similarly, all the mechanical properties (tension, flexion and impact) were found to decrease with increasing CBA content. Finally, the efficiency of the rotomolding process was assessed by producing neat PP samples via compression molding. The results showed negligible differences between the rotomolded and compression molded properties at low deformation and rate of deformation indicating that optimal rotomolding conditions were selected.


More than 6 W average power ultraviolet radiation at 355 nm was generated in LiB3O5 (LBO) crystalthrough the frequency mixing of the fundamental and second harmonic radiation of a Nd:YAG laser. Thisperformance was achieved with 38% optical-to-optical conversion efficiency (532 nm to 355 nm).


On 26 August, Arctic sea ice cover dipped to 4.1 million square kilometers, 70,000 square kilometers below the 2007 mark, which was previously the lowest extent of ice cover in the satellite record, according to an analysis of satellite data by scientists with NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) of the University of Colorado, Boulder. "By itself it's just a number, and occasionally records are going to get set. But in the context of what's happened in the last several years and throughout the satellite record, it's an indication that the Arctic sea ice cover is fundamentally changing," said NSIDC scientist Walt Meier. "The persistent loss of perennial ice cover—ice that survives the melt season—led to this year's record summertime retreat. Unlike 2007, temperatures were not unusually warm in the Arctic this summer," said Joey Comiso, senior research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Md. The six lowest ice extents in the satellite record have occurred in the last 6 years, according to NSIDC.


Inferring over and extracting information from Large Language Models (LLMs) trained on a large corpus of scientific literature can potentially drive a new era in biomedical research, reducing the barriers for accessing existing medical evidence. This work examines the potential of LLMs for dialoguing with biomedical background knowledge, using the context of antibiotic discovery as an exemplar motivational scenario. The context of biomedical discovery from natural products entails understanding the relational evidence between an organism, an associated chemical and its associated antibiotic properties. We provide a systematic assessment on the ability of LLMs to encode and express these relations, verifying for fluency, prompt-alignment, semantic coherence, factual knowledge and specificity of generated responses. The systematic analysis is applied to nine state-of-the-art models (including ChatGPT and GPT-4) in two prompting-based tasks: chemical compound definition generation and chemical compound-fungus relation determination. Results show that while recent models have improved in fluency, factual accuracy is still low and models are biased towards over-represented entities. The ability of LLMs to serve as biomedical knowledge bases is questioned, and the need for additional systematic evaluation frameworks is highlighted. The best performing GPT-4 produced a factual definition for 70% of chemical compounds and 43.6% factual relations to fungi, whereas the best open source model BioGPT-large 30% of the compounds and 30% of the relations for the best-performing prompt. The results show that while LLMs are currently not fit for purpose to be used as biomedical factual knowledge bases, there is a promising emerging property in the direction of factuality as the models become domain specialised, scale-up in size and level of human feedback.


UNLABELLED: The aim of this study was to assess the predictive value of HIV RNA levels after 1 month of therapy on the long-term virologic outcome in an unselected general population of HIV-infected patients. DESIGN: Analysis was conducted retrospectively on an ongoing clinical cohort of HIV-positive patients who were receiving antiretroviral treatment. Data on 575 patients were analyzed. RESULTS: The HIV RNA value at 1 month was significantly correlated with the virologic outcome after 12 and 24 months of therapy (R = 0.258 and R = 0.44, respectively). The predictive value of the 1-month viral load was also statistically significant after stratification for baseline CD4 T-cell counts. Prediction was similar in highly compromised patients (CD4 < or = 100 cells/microl; R = 0.426; p = .001) or in patients with a better immunologic status (R = 0.419; p < .0001). It retained validity in patients who were naive or experienced for antiretroviral therapy. CONCLUSION: HIV RNA level after 1 month of therapy is a useful prognostic marker in HIV-infected patients. It predicts long-term virologic and immunologic outcome. A cutoff level of 5000 copies/ml identifies patients most likely to fail current therapy. In these patients, a more aggressive strategy or specific diagnostic interventions to clarify the relative influence of viral resistance and/or subtherapeutic regimens is advised.


Abstract The study concerns soil creep deformation in multistage triaxial stress tests under drained conditions. High resolution X-ray computed microtomography (XμCT) was involved in structure recognition before and after triaxial tests. Undisturbed Neogene clay samples, which are widespread in central Poland, were used in this study. XμCT was used to identify representative sample series and informed the detection and rejection of unreliable ones. Maximum deviatoric stress for in situ stress confining condition was equal 95.1 kPa. This result helped in the design of further multistage investigations. The study identified the rheological strain course, which can be broken down into three characterizations: decreasing creep strain rate, transitional constant creep velocity, and accelerating creep deformation. The study found that due to multistage creep loading, the samples were strengthened. Furthermore, there is a visibly "brittle" character of failure, which may be the consequence of the microstructure transformation as a function of time as well as collapse of voids. Due to the glacial tectonic history of the analyzed samples, the reactivation of microcracks might also serve as an explanation. The number of the various sizes of shear planes after failure is confirmed by XμCT overexposure.


Raman spectroscopy studies on n and i-butane were performed at pressures of up to 40 GPa at ambient temperatures using the DAC technique. Normal butane undergoes two phase transitions at 1.9(5) GPa and 2.9(5) GPa and isobutane at 2.7(5) GPa and 3.5(5) GPa. These phase transitions were identified based on observations of the splitting Raman modes and the appearance or disappearance of particular Raman peaks. Our results demonstrate the complex, high-pressure behavior of butane isomers.Raman spectroscopy studies on n and i-butane were performed at pressures of up to 40 GPa at ambient temperatures using the DAC technique. Normal butane undergoes two phase transitions at 1.9(5) GPa and 2.9(5) GPa and isobutane at 2.7(5) GPa and 3.5(5) GPa. These phase transitions were identified based on observations of the splitting Raman modes and the appearance or disappearance of particular Raman peaks. Our results demonstrate the complex, high-pressure behavior of butane isomers.


ABSTRACT: Local governments play dual, but conflicting, roles in China's tax system. That is, they are both tax collectors and controlling shareholders of firms subject to tax payments. We investigate how local governments balance their tax collection and tax avoidance incentives. We find that the conflicts between central and local governments arising from the 2002 tax sharing reform have led to more tax avoidance by local government-controlled firms, particularly when the local government's ownership percentage of the firms is higher than the tax sharing ratio. We also find evidence that the overall level of tax avoidance by local government-controlled firms in a region is positively associated with local fiscal deficits. As a high level of government ownership of corporations and intergovernmental tax sharing are common phenomena in many transitional economies, this study offers valuable insights into how the dual roles played by local governments affect tax policy enforcement in these economies. JEL C...


The main concern of the present study was to examine the effect of training   sexual pedagogying skills to parents in reducing sexual behaviors of pre-school children. Methodology: Regarding this subjects in a form of a plan quiz experimental of 30 cases randomly chosen among parents who had 2 to 6- year old children, lived in Isfahan and reported based on observed behaviors in their child minimum scales of rarely, often true and sometimes true in sexual behavior questionnaire, and they were placed in the experimental (N=15) and control group (N=15). Results: Then the sexual pedagogying skills trained to the experimental group in 7 sessions. A pre-test and post-test done for the two groups and a follow up test was done  after ending the sessions a month later. Conclusion: The findings of the study didn't confirm the effectiveness of training of sexual pedagogying skills in reducing pre-school children's sexual behaviors.


One of the challenging scheduling problems in Cloud datacenters is to take the allocation and migration of reconfigurable virtual machines into consideration as well as the integrated features of hosting physical machines. We introduce a dynamic and integrated resource scheduling algorithm (DAIRS) for Cloud datacenters. Unlike traditional load-balance scheduling algorithms which consider only one factor such as the CPU load in physical servers, DAIRS treats CPU, memory and network bandwidth integrated for both physical machines and virtual machines. We develop integrated measurement for the total imbalance level of a Cloud datacenter as well as the average imbalance level of each server. Simulation results show that DAIRS has good performance with regard to total imbalance level, average imbalance level of each server, as well as overall running time.


Abstract The purpose of this study is to ascertain the extent to which certain of the Certified Financial Planning Board of Standards (the Board) prescribed topics are covered in for-credit introductory Personal Financial Planning courses delivered by AACSB accredited business schools. Time value of money, financial planning process, personal financial statements, and mutual funds receive the most emphasis. While many prescribed topics receive significant course time, little coverage is given to many others, such as forms of business organizations and financial services industry regulations. The authors conclude that there is a disparity between the Personal Financial Planning course in the CFP Board Model Financial Planning curriculum and what is taught at surveyed schools. © 2006 Academy of Financial Services. All rights reserved. JEL classification: G29 Keywords: Financial planning; AACSB finance course; Personal finance course; CFP introductory course 1. Introduction This study examines the introductory level, for-credit, Personal Financial Planning (PFP) course that satisfies some of the program requirements stipulated by the Certified Financial Planning (CFP) Board of Standards (the Board). Academic institutions register programs with the CFP Board, designed to encourage novices, as well as seasoned professionals, in the financial planning field, to seek the CFP designation. The Board requires that academic institutions, with registered programs, include 101 mandated topics in their curriculum. At the time we undertook this study the 101 required topics were grouped into seven content segments that were called: (1) General Principles of Financial Planning; (2) Insurance Planning and Risk Management; (3) Employee Benefits Planning; (4) Investment Planning; (5) Income Tax Planning; (6) Retirement Planning; and (7) Estate Planning. In 2004 the Board, in partnership with the Academy of Financial Services, issued its model curriculum, essentially a reconfiguration for teaching the 101 topics. Some schools offer an introductory PFP course as part of their curriculum. This course usually includes specific topics that can satisfy some or all of the "General Principles of Financial Planning" or "Personal Financial Planning" content segments. Certain schools do not offer an introductory PFP course, but integrate the material in their other content segments. There are also schools that offer a capstone course, which reviews mandated materials and/or covers those topics not taught elsewhere. The Guide to CFP Certification (2002) reports that, effective January 1, 2007, the CFP Board will require that candidates must have a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university to qualify for CFP certification. Longo's (1998) study views the CFP designation "emerging as the dominant credential in terms of recognition among not only investors, but also the American press and even many planners." The CFP credential does not belong to any one financial service sector as those individuals who have earned it have a variety of backgrounds. The CFP designation is marketed very well and professionals with other financial planning credentials have been considering adding this credential. Prime candidates for adding the designation are Chartered Life Underwriters (CLU) and Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) in the insurance fields and the Personal Financial Specialist (PFS) in the accounting field. Anthes (2002) believes that the acceptance of the CFP designation has been a result of spreading financial planning education throughout colleges and universities in the United States. Studies show that the general population has little understanding of basic personal finance issues. Chen and Volpe (1998) state that college students have little knowledge about personal finance. While most college students may not yet be investors, the findings of Chen and Volpe are consistent with Singletary (2002), who reported that "year after year, surveys show that investors get a failing grade when quizzed about their basic knowledge of personal finance. …


The scientific and considered medical opinion in every country finds no evidence that trauma, shock, physical or mental strain, exposure, or climatic conditions are causal factors in the aetiologically mysterious disease diabetes, though factors of heredity and previous obesity are well recognized. This opinion grows stronger with more experience. Both major wars produced no increase in diabetes, and London with its tensions and " blitzes " shows no increased incidence. A phrase in my book, The Diabetic Life, "When shares go down in Wall Street diabetes goes up" (p. 10), partially contradicts this. I must confess that this sentence was copied from another writer into my first edition in 1925 when I knew little and has remained there too long. I shall expunge this phrase from future editions. Factors of worry can sometimes increase the sugar in established diabetics but, I think, never per se are a clear primary cause, otherwise the majority of humanity would become diabetic. So let me repeat that I think war claims for pensions for diabetics are unfounded on fact. The expense to the State of tribunal appeals and High Court litigations must be considerable, probably thousands of pounds to the taxpayer. I should mention that many times the British Legion too presses for compensation in such cases and approaches me for supporting certificates. These I cannot provide on factual grounds, as I consider that diabetes must be looked upon aetiologically in the same light as cancer or leukaemia. And, after all, is diabetes a disability requiring or worthy of a pension, award, or support ? The Council of the Diabetic Association, a sympathetic body of lay diabetics, has often considered appeals to support claims for pensions and has refused-this on the ground that adequate treatment and cooperation in it by the diabetic produce normal health and no real important disability in work or life.-I am, etc.,


Molecular dynamics simulations of pure liquid water under ambient conditions using four common empirical water models have been analyzed to determine how well the oxygen-oxygen radial distribution function, g(OO)(r), used as the sole criterion of congruence with experiment, captures variations in the actual anisotropic collective structuring for these models. The largest systematic deviations from tetrahedrality were found to be due to deformations of the angle between the two closet hydrogen bond donor neighbors, but for intrinsic geometric reasons, these were found to contribute less to g(OO)(r) than deformations of the angles between one hydrogen bond donor neighbor and one hydrogen bond acceptor neighbor. Relying exclusively on a qualitative characterization of the second peak in g(OO)(r) seems to overemphasize the differences between the structuring in some of these models.


Nanostructures entail a high potential for improving implant surfaces, for instance, in stent applications. The electrophoretic deposition of laser-generated colloidal nanoparticles is an appropriate tool for creating large-area nanostructures on surfaces. Until now, the bonding and characteristics of the interface between deposited nanoparticles and the substrate surface has not been known. It is investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy to characterize an electropolished NiTi stent surface coated by laser-generated Au and Ti nanoparticles. The deposition of elemental Au and Ti nanoparticles is observed on the total 3D surface. Ti-coated samples are composed of Ti oxide and Ti carbide because of nanoparticle fabrication and the coating process carried out in 2-propanol. The interface between nanoparticles and the electropolished surface consists of a smooth, monotone elemental depth profile. The interface depth is higher for the Ti nanoparticle coating than for the Au nanoparticle coating. This smooth depth gradient of Ti across the coating-substrate intersection and the thicker interface layer indicate the hard bonding of Ti-based nanoparticles on the surface. Accordingly, electron microscopy reveals nanoparticles adsorbed on the surface without any sorption-blocking intermediate layer. The physicomechanical stability of the bond may benefit from such smooth depth gradients and direct, ligand-free contact. This would potentially increase the coating stability during stent application.


In the last decades numerous changes have affected tourism sector, such as the globalization of markets, the diffusion of new information and communication technologies, and, over all, the demand evolution. All these factors have caused the crisis of mass tourism and the socalled post-tourism birth, reshaping holiday taking and increasing tourist market segmentation. Today tourists want to understand the lifestyle and the local tradition of the destination. Therefore, tourist products must reflect the true culture of the place and must be authentic. This paper analyses the case of Calabria. Calabria is not a successful tourist destination and it is not affected by the main international tourist flows, also due to transportation difficulties and their high costs. The region draws principally the Italian segment of "summer, beach and sun" market and, therefore, it suffers of high demand seasonality. The latter explains the low average occupancy rate of accommodation facilities and the modest rate of return on investment in the tourism sector in the region. A consequence of the congestion of space during the peak season is the negative environmental impact of tourism because of the surpassing of the carrying capacities of the resource base in summer months. In order to overcome these problems, tourism flows have to be regulated and measures are needed to extend the tourist season. The starting could be offering authenticity and uniqueness, concentrating the efforts on typical elements of local lifestyle, history and tradition, involving also the local community. The proposed study analyses some successful enterprises created in order to achieve the previously illustrated aims.


We propose a randomly-biased quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) signaling scheme for a noncoherent Rayleigh block-fading multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel. In order to optimize a prior of bias, we evaluate a lower bound of the spectral efficiency of the noncoherent MIMO channel with randomly-biased QPSK signaling in the large-system limit, by using the replica method. Our main result is that randomly-biased QPSK signaling with vanishing bias is optimal in the large-system limit for any signal-to-noise ratio.


The following compilation of historical manuscript and published material relating to the Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines for the approximate period 1770 to 1900 aims to supplement that contained in the author's Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines 17701850 (Wollongong University, 1990). The latter was compiled in a relatively short 18 month period between 1988 and 1989, and since then a great deal of new material has been discovered, with more undoubtedly yet to be unearthed of relevance to this study. As a result the present document contains material of a similar nature to that in the 1990 work, with an added emphasis on items from the period 1850 to 1900. Also included are bibliographic references which bring up to date those contained in the previous work. All told, some 1000 pages of primary sources and references to published works are now available on the Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines for the approximate period 1770 to 1900, though an attempt has been made to include items from this century which outline some of the history of the central Illawarra and Shoalhaven Aboriginal communities. Important documents reproduced in this volume included blanket issue returns from the period 1827-30; index entries concerning Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines taken from the Colonial Secretary's Correspondence and Aboriginal Protection Board files at the Archives Office of New South Wales, covering the period 1868-1900; 1820s material from the Alexander Berry Papers (Mitchell Library), including references to his collecting of Aboriginal skulls; dreaming stories from various sources; reports of the Lake Illawarra Aboriginal Mission from the turn of the century; and references to the Coomaditchie Reserve at Port Kembla, which survives to this day. References to numerous published and unpublished archaeological reports are also included. An alphabetical listing of over 2100 Illawarra and Shoalhaven Aboriginal words compiled from historic references is included as an appendix.


Being a martensitic stainless steel with high strength, excellent workability and good damping capacity, 12% Cr steel is widely used for turbine blades. In recent years, there has been an increased demand for larger blades in order to increase the efficiency. Because turbine blades require a high strength material, it has become an important issue how far the hardness threshold can be extended. Accordingly, a study of the effect of precipitates on hydrogen embrittlement was conducted using SUS 410J1 steel as a test material, for the purpose of determining guideline for the selection of high strength 12% Cr steel. SUS1 410J1 steel used in this study did not suffer from cracking due to hydrogen embrittlement when stable M2N was precipitated. Thus, it is concluded that the cracking could be prevented when precipitates become stable.


Properties of single-pulse and two-pulse echoes and their secondary echo signals as well as the role of reversible relaxation in the observed decays of echo signals at the multipulse excitation mode in a number of multidomain magnetic materials were studied.


Health can influence eating habits and also mental and social well-being. This cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the relationship between healthy lifestyle and stress among 173 university students using Simple Lifestyle Indicator Questionnaire (SLIQ) and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Score-42 (DASS-42) to measure their emotional states of depression, anxiety and stress. The results indicated that 71.8% were categorized as having an unhealthy lifestyle and 28.2% an intermediate lifestyle. Based on the SLIQ stress domain, 50.7% are stressed. Based on DASS score, 46.8% have anxiety. There was a statistically significant difference in healthy lifestyle score between various types of residences (F=3.929, p<0.05). The conclusion is that students with poor lifestyles have higher anxiety, depression and stress. The implication of this study is that universities should provide healthy activities to encourage healthy lifestyle practices by students.


Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is mainly transmitted via mucosa; an effective vaccine must induce appropriate mucosal immunity to contain virus transmission. To induce 2F5/4E10-like broadly neutralizing antibody at mucosa sites, the HIV-1 epitopes ELLELDKWASLWN and NWFDITNWLWYIK, recognized by broadly neutralizing antibodies 2F5 and 4E10, respectively, and a short membrane-proximal external region (MPER) (LELDKWASLWNWFDITNW) of HIV gp41 (containing both epitopes) were displayed on three surface loops of bovine papillomavirus (BPV) 1 L1 protein. BPV L1 can form virus-like particles which are mucosa-tropic. Chimeric virus-like particles (CVLPs) were assembled when the fusion proteins were expressed in sf9 cells. CVLPs had sizes similar to those of BPV particles and could be recognized by HIV broadly neutralizing antibodies 2F5 and 4E10. By competition ELISA, CVLP showed strong abilities for competitively binding to 2F5 in the presence of competitors, the peptide ELLELDKWASLWN or to 4E10 in the presence of peptide NWFDITNWLWYIK. Epitope-specific serum IgG and intestinal secretory IgA responses were elicited after oral immunization of mice with the CVLPs. The antibodies specifically recognized HIV-1 gp160 envelope glycoprotein expressed on the cell surface. These findings provide valuable information for an HIV vaccine immunogen design to induce 2F5/4E10-like broadly neutralizing antibody via presenting HIV-1 gp41MPER epitope on BPV VLPs.


Visualization of three-dimensional morphological changes in the subcellular structures of a biological specimen is one of the greatest challenges in life science. Despite conspicuous refinements in optical nanoscopy, determination of quantitative changes in subcellular structure, i.e., size and thickness, remains elusive. We present an integrated chip-based optical nanoscopy set-up that provides a lateral optical resolution of 61 nm combined with a highly sensitive quantitative phase microscopy (QPM) system with a spatial phase sensitivity of $\pm$20 mrad. We use the system to obtain the 3D morphology of liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) combined with super-resolved spatial information. LSECs have a unique morphology with nanopores that are present in the plasma membrane, called fenestration. The fenestrations are grouped in clusters called sieve plates, which are around 100 nm thick. Thus, imaging and quantification of fenestration and sieve plate thickness requires resolution and sensitivity of sub-100 nm along both lateral and axial directions. In the chip-based nanoscope, the optical waveguides are used both for hosting and illuminating the sample. A strong evanescent field is generated on top of the waveguide surface for single molecule fluorescence excitation. The fluorescence signal is captured by an upright microscope, which is converted into a Linnik-type interferometer to sequentially acquire both super-resolved images and quantitative phase information of the sample. The multi-modal microscope provided an estimate of the fenestration diameter of 124$\pm$41 nm and revealed the average estimated thickness of the sieve plates in the range of 91.2$\pm$43.5 nm for two different cells. The combination of these techniques offers visualization of both the lateral size (using nanoscopy) and the thickness map of sieve plates, i.e. discrete clusters fenestrations in QPM mode.


Continuously dividing cancerous cell requires duplication of its genome and other cellular building blocks before every cell division. This increased demand for amino acids, nucleotides and fatty acids, require readjustment of metabolic pathways, specially glycolysis and TCA cycle, to divert intermediates of these series of reactions from energy generating process (OXPHOS) to synthesis of cellular macromolecule building blocks. This altered cellular metabolism has been observed as early as 1926. Otto Warburg observed aerobic glycolysis and proposed defective mitochondria as a cause of cancer. Since then, 'Warburg effect' has become a hallmark of cancer detection by positron emission tomography (PET) and is now being perused for designing of novel anticancer drug targeting enzymes like PKM2. However, since beginning, Warburg hypothesis of nonfunctional mitochondria has been questioned. Now it is clear that cancerous cell has intact and functional mitochondria, moreover reverse. Warburg effect has proposed a nonfunctional mitochondria in stromal tissue and with functional OXPHOS system for ATP synthesis in cancerous cells. These two hypotheses of Warburg and reverse Warburg show two extremes one relying almost completely on aerobic glycolysis and another on OXPHOS for ATP synthesis in cancerous cell, but both of them fail to explain how cell readjusts to meet increased demand for ATP synthesis as well as cellular building blocks simultaneously, from the intermediates of glycolysis and TCA cycle. In the present hypothesis, we present how truncation of TCA cycle can increase rate of synthesis of amino acids and simultaneously TCA cycle gets completed to generate NADH and FADH2. Oncomine database analysis further shows upregulation of ATP synthase genes and indicative of increased OXPHOS I cancerous cell. In this background, we propose that cancerous cell utilizes both aerobic glycolysis and OXPHOS, for synthesis of ATP and to meet increased requirement of proteins, nucleic acids and fatty acids.


In Semantic Role Labeling (SRL), it is reasonable to globally assign semantic roles due to strong dependencies among arguments. Some relations between arguments significantly characterize the structural information of argument structure. In this paper, we concentrate on thematic hierarchy that is a rank relation restricting syntactic realization of arguments. A loglinear model is proposed to accurately identify thematic rank between two arguments. To import structural information, we employ re-ranking technique to incorporate thematic rank relations into local semantic role classification results. Experimental results show that automatic prediction of thematic hierarchy can help semantic role classification.


An interferometric imaging setup is described that allows us to map the spatial distribution of the phase of a second-harmonic (SH) wave by using multimode laser sources with achromatic beam imaging of the fundamental and SH waves. Working distances > 1 m and a robust setup allow experiments that were not possible before.


This paper describes work that seeks to take the first steps towards demonstrating the application of Sci-Fi prototyping methodology to developing futuristic products. Science-Fiction Prototyping is based on an iterative interaction between science fiction and fact. We begin the paper by explaining the science-fiction prototyping process. We then identify a futuristic product to act as an exemplar of this process (free willed domestic robots) before describing virtualreality systems and how they can provide a suitable visualisation environment for conceptualizing products. Next we identify a paper that provides a promising approach to emulating intelligent control and free-will, quantum computing. We then provide an introduction to quantum computing and argue the need for a special quantum development environment before presenting an architecture for the quantum development tools and the robot. Finally we present an evaluation methodology before summarising our work. We are in the process of implementing this system and we hope that by the time the workshop occurs, we will be able to report some initial results.


Principal geodesic analysis (PGA) is a generalization of principal component analysis (PCA) for dimensionality reduction of data on a Riemannian manifold. Currently PGA is defined as a geometric fit to the data, rather than as a probabilistic model. Inspired by probabilistic PCA, we present a latent variable model for PGA that provides a probabilistic framework for factor analysis on manifolds. To compute maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters in our model, we develop a Monte Carlo Expectation Maximization algorithm, where the expectation is approximated by Hamiltonian Monte Carlo sampling of the latent variables. We demonstrate the ability of our method to recover the ground truth parameters in simulated sphere data, as well as its effectiveness in analyzing shape variability of a corpus callosum data set from human brain images.


This prospective study was undertaken to evaluate the prognostic value of uterine perfusion on the day of human chorionic gonadotropin administration in patients who were undergoing intrauterine insemination. Uterine perfusion was evaluated by measuring the pulsatility index of the ascending branch of the uterine arteries on the day of administration of human chorionic gonadotropin. No pregnancy occurred when the pulsatility index of the ascending branch of the uterine arteries was more than 3. The fecundity rate was 18% when the pulsatility index was less than 2 and was 19.8% when the pulsatility index was between 2 and 3 (not significant). The continuing pregnancy rate was 18% when the pulsatility index was less than 2, compared with 12.1% when the pulsatility index was between 2 and 3 (P < 0.05). Our data suggest that the measurement of uterine perfusion on the day of human chorionic gonadotropin administration may have predictive value regarding fecundity and the continuation of pregnancy in intrauterine insemination.


Effects of different levels of peridural analgesia on cardiovascular dynamics, blood gases and limb blood flow were studied in normovolemic man. Lidocaine, 2 per cent, was injected to achieve successively greater levels of analgesic block. During analgesia to T4 or below, MABP, TPR, and CO remained within normal limits; with T2-3 block, TPR decreased 15 per cent and CO increased 22.6 per cent, resulting in a 5 per cent increase in MABP; with blocks extending to T1 or higher, TPR decreased 18.7 per cent while CO remained slightly above normal, resulting in a 16.3 per cent reduction in MABP. Blood flow in the leg increased progressively to 292 per cent with T2-3 block, while blood flow in the arm decreased as much as 58 per cent. However, after extension of the block above T1, blood flow in the arm increased to 125 per cent above normal, while blood flow in the leg declined to 219 per cent above normal. The data suggest that cardiovascular responses to peridural block, unlike responses to subarachnoid block, are not the result of sympathetic blockade alone, but involve several other factors, including the dose of local anesthetic. When several doses of lidocaine result in arterial blood levels ranging from 4 to 7 µg/ml, most subjects develop increased CO. This may be sufficient to offset vasodilating effects of high sympathetic block so that MABP remains normal.


Cryogenic fluid damper seals operating close to the liquid-vapor region (near the critical point or slightly sub-cooled) are likely to develop a two-phase flow region which affects the seal performance and reliability. An all-liquid, liquid-vapor, and all-vapor, i.e., a continuous vaporization bulk flow model for prediction of the seal dynamic forced response is given in Part I. The numerical method of solution of the flow equations is detailed here. Computed predictions for static seal characteristics, leakage and axial pressure drop, correlate well with existing measurements for a gaseous nitrogen seal and a liquid nitrogen seal with two-phase at the seal exit plane. The effects of two-phase flow regimes on the dynamic force coefficients and stability of an oxygen damper seal are discussed. Fluid compressibility effects, particularly for mixtures with low mass content of vapor, are of utmost importance. Under these conditions, an increase on seal direct stiffness and reduction of whirl frequency ratio are shown to occur.


The ubiquitous heat shock protein Hsp90 appears to participate directly in the function of a broad range of cellular signal transduction components, including steroid hormone receptors; however, an evolutionarily related subclass of intracellular receptors, exemplified by the retinoid receptors RAR and RXR, had been inferred from biochemical studies to function independently of Hsp90. To examine this issue genetically, we measured mammalian and avian retinoid receptor activity in a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain in which the expression of the yeast Hsp90 homologue could be conditionally repressed approximately 20-fold relative to wild type. We tested transcriptional activation by RAR or RXR-RAR, from two types of retinoic acid response elements, triggered by three different agonist ligands. In every condition, we found that activation was severely compromised under conditions of low Hsp90 expression. We showed that the defect was in signal transduction rather than transcription activation per se, and that high affinity hormone binding was abolished in extracts of cells producing low levels of Hsp90. We suggest that Hsp90 may function in at least one step of signal transduction by all members of the intracellular receptor superfamily.


State-of-the-art rainfall products obtained by satellites are often the only way of measuring rainfall in remote areas of the world. However,it is well known that they may fail in properly reproducing the amountof precipitation reaching the ground, which is of paramount importance for hydrological applications. To address this issue, an integration between satellite rainfall and soil moisture SM products is proposed here by using an algorithm, SM2RAIN, which estimates rainfall from SM observations. A nudging scheme is used for integrating SM-derived and state-of-the-art rainfall products. Two satellite rainfall products are considered: H05 provided by EUMESAT and the real-time (3B42-RT) TMPA product provided by NASA. The rainfall dataset obtained through SM2RAIN, SM2RASC, considers SM retrievals from the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT). The rainfall datasets are compared with quality-checked daily rainfall observations throughout the Italian territory in the period 2010‐13. In the validation period 2012‐13, the integrated products show improved performances in terms of correlation with an increase in median values, for 5-day rainfall accumulations, of 26% (18%) when SM2RASC is integrated with the H05 (3B42-RT) product. Also, the median root-mean-square error of the integrated products is reduced by 18% and 17% with respect to H05 and 3B42RT, respectively. The integration of the products is found to improve the threat score for medium‐high rainfall accumulations. Since SM2RASC, H05, and 3B42-RT datasets are provided in near‐real time, their integration might provide more reliable rainfall products for operational applications, for example, for flood and landslide early warning systems.


Aluminum alloys are used in automobile and aerospace industries because of their low density and good mechanical properties, better wear resistance as compared to conventional metals and their alloys. In these industries there is continues demand to develop light weight, inexpensive and strong material which has led to the development of aluminum alloy metal matrix composites with ceramics as reinforcement particles. In this present work, aluminum based metal matrix composites have been fabricated using SiO2 and TiO2 as reinforcement materials by stir casting process and wear behaviour, hardness and breaking load have been evaluated.


This article examines the constitutionality of Article VII of the 1958 New York Convention ( NY Convention) under Egyptian and Jordanian law. Under Article VII , which provides for the application of the more-favourable-right provision, the winning party in an arbitration can rely on any regime provided by the local legal system to recognize and enforce the arbitral award. In doing so, the winning party can bypass provisions under which the losing party can resist enforcement. This article examines whether Article VII constitutionally provides modes of enforcement by which the winning party can enforce a legal arbitral award as well as providing grounds of refusal by which the losing party can resist enforcement of illegal awards. As such, this article examines the constitutionality of Article VII , and asks whether it balances the interests of the winning party and the losing party under constitutional law in Egypt and Jordan.


Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi (phylum Glomeromycota) are one of the most important yet least understood groups of soil microorganisms. This chapter discusses recent findings concerning the genome structure in Glomeromycota in the context of the evolutionary theory predictions. The extent of the intraindividual polymorphism of the PLS1 and rRNA genes combined with the uncommonly large genome size estimates available at the time led Pawlowska and Taylor to speculate that genomes of Glomeromycota may be polyploid. A solution to the dilemma of how multiple gene copies are distributed among the nuclei of Glomeromycota is expected to emerge from the complete genome sequence of Glomus intraradices, which is anticipated to be available in 2007. This genome sequence and future projects to sequence genomes of other AM fungi are also likely to shed light on the source of the huge diversity of genome sizes in various species of Glomeromycota that was uncovered recently. To better understand the patterns of the rDNA variation in Glomeromycota, the chapter first explores general mechanisms behind the process of concerted evolution and possible causes of deviations from the molecular pattern of concerted evolution. The conflicting inferences about the genetic makeup and genome structure of Glomeromycota are clearly a reflection of the scarcity of experimental data. Some of the outstanding questions will be resolved by the examination of genome sequence data of representative AM fungi when these become available in the near future.


The Internet of Things (IoT) aims to create a digital world where any information system can expose, discover, understand and consume data and services for analysis, diagnosis, decision support and task automation in various domains such as healthcare, transportation, energy, industry, agriculture, etc. Faced with this diversity of applications and rapid evolution, infrastructures must be able to achieve high levels of security and confidentiality while being open, sustainable, and agile to adapt to the multiple requirements of applications.
To meet these needs, new paradigms are emerging. These include the Software Defined Networks (SDN) paradigm, which offers the ability to dynamically program different applications and devices to provide end-to-end service chains. In parallel, the Blockchain paradigm is increasingly used in the Internet of Things, making distributed transactions between connected objects such as financial transactions or "smart contracts" possible.
Although the combination of these two paradigms (Blockchain/SDN) is a major issue for the success of the Internet of Things, paving the way for new business models and management/control of communication networks, there is not yet a specified/formalized architecture allowing the use of the "Blockchain" in SDN. In this research, a new architecture for a system combining blockchain and SDN for IoT security is proposed


Periodontal diseases are characterized by inflammation and destruction of tooth-supporting tissues. There is interest in anti-inflammatory substances of plant origin because of their advantage in relation to classic anti-inflammatory drugs. The cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory effect of extracts of Scopulophila parryi and Psacalium decompositum were evaluated with the 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazole-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium (MTT) method and their pro-inflammatory cytokine profile was determined in a human peripheral blood monocyte culture model. The plant was collected and identified and the methanol extract was prepared by maceration. Cytotoxicity was evaluated in vitro with the MTT (3-[4,5-dimethylthiazole-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium) assay in two cell lines, VERO and Detroit 551 human fibroblasts. The anti-inflammatory activity of human peripheral blood monocytes and gene expression of the proinflammatory cytokines, IL-1, IL-6 and IL-8, were evaluated The extract of P. decompositum was less toxic on the VERO and Detroit 551 cell lines with a DL50 of 77.30 μg/mL and the S. parryi extract had 150.58 μg/mL. Both extracts significantly reduced expression of IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8 at 300 μg/mL for S. parryi and at 400 μg/mL for P. decompositum. The extract of P. decompositum was less toxic for both cell lines and the two methanol extracts are good alternatives as immunomodulators of proinflammatory cytokines.


As shown in 58,468 individuals, representing 10 different samples from four different surveys, the "Benn" index (weight/heightp) is highly correlated with other body mass measures that use weight and height, with values of r as high as 0.98 with weight alone. Comparing the Benn index and other body mass indices with four different skinfold measurements (triceps, subscapular, iliac, and abdominal) on 1933 males and 2136 females, correlations involving the Benn (weight/heightp) index were marginally superior to those with weight (by 0.09) and only fractionally superior to those with height/weight (by 0.04). Under the circumstances it is not evident that the population-specific exponent p in the Benn index conveys a material advantage in nutritional assessment.


Highly energy efficient ships are valuable assets in the maritime transport industry;
however, energy efficiency often comes at a higher price. In this work "energy
efficient ships" are considered to be ships designed with lightweight structures, which
lead to lower fuel-consumption or larger payload capacity. The material of the
lightweight structures addressed in this thesis is fibre-reinforced plastic, a material
known for its high strength to weight ratio. The material is also known to be
expensive and traditional design principles with over-conservative estimates need to
be reviewed in order to limit the costs.
The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the development of methods for
calculating the ultimate limit state (ULS) of fibre- reinforced plastic panels with less
conservative estimates compared to traditional methods used in the industry. This
contribution was achieved by extending the formulation of an existing computer
software known as Panel Ultimate Limit State (PULS), which is used for estimating
the ULS capacity for steel and aluminium panels, to include unstiffened single-skin
composite panels. The ULS was defined as the ultimate load-carrying capacity. Two
traditional lay-ups used in the maritime industry were analysed for different
breadth/thickness-ratios under compressive load conditions. The results were
compared with a finite element analysis and another semi-analytical model.
Through comparisons of the developed software against a finite element analysis, it is
found that composite PULS provides reasonable conservative ULS results for plates
with high breadth/thickness-ratios. Composite PULS has its limitations when it comes
to estimating the ULS of plates with low breadth/thickness-ratios. It was experienced
that the balance between accuracy and computational time is hard to establish.
Using composite PULS in order to estimate the ULS capacity is through this thesis
shown to give a less conservative ULS compared to traditional design criteria.
Composite PULS is based on Hashin-Rotem's failure criteria, and estimated the ULS
to be 73-94% of the ULS calculated with a finite element analysis.


Abstract Background:   Tuberculous pleurisy is a common extrapulmonary manifestation and is second to tuberculous lymphadenitis. Due to its paucibacillary in origin, its diagnosis is a challenge. Furthermore, it is also complicated by the emergence of MDR. Gene Xpert MTB/RIF is a new rapid promising innovation for the detection of mycobacterium tuberculosis and its resistance to Rifampicin, giving result within two hours. Objective:   To evaluate the diagnostic role of Gene Xpert MTB/RIF in suspected cases of tuberculous pleurisy. Study Design:   Cross sectional study. Study Setting:   Institute of Chest Medicine Mayo Hospital – a Tertiary Care Hospital affiliated with King Edward Medical University, Lahore. Methodology:   The study group, one hundred (M-60 and F-40) cases having exudative, predominantly lymphocytic pleural effusion with strong suspicion of tuberculous in origin were enrolled randomly for Gene Xpert MTB / RIF. Results:   Among one hundred study cases, Gene Xpert detected mycobacterium tuberculosis in 12(12%) cases [M-8 (13.3%) and F-4 (10%)]. Resistance to Rifampacin was detected in 6 (6%) cases [M-2 (3.3%) and F-4 (10%)]. Conclusion:   Gene Xpert MTB/RIF is a useful new rapid promising technique to diagnose tuberculous pleurisy. Although at present it has limited availability and utility. Key Words:   Gene Xpert. MTB – Mycobacterium tuberculosis. RIF – Rifampacin. TB – Tuberculosis. MDR – Multidrug resistance.


Pain is a predominant symptom in chronic pancreatitis. When diagnosing chronic pancreatitis it is important to exclude other causes of abdominal pain. Diagnostic evaluation can be started with upper abdominal ultrasound examination and fecal elastase-1 assay. Treatment of pancreatic pain should be actively carried out in order to prevent the pain to become chronic. If the pain cannot be managed with anti-inflammatory drugs and modifications of lifestyle, endoscopic, radiologic and surgical treatments have to be contemplated.


This article explores the relationship between skepticism and sexual nonconformity in Italy from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. In the inquisitorial cases under examination, the praise of sexual freedom was supported by a heretical re-reading of the myth of the Fall from Grace. The criticism of religious deception is the link between sexual freedom and skepticism: these dissenters accused the elites of enforcing a morality based on a reward in the afterlife to keep people under control. Although these ideas have been mostly associated with seventeenth-century erudite libertines, this research shows them emerging almost a century before, in cross-class environments where forbidden books circulated widely. The article will explore how the written word was creatively re-appropriated in these composite social contexts, analyzing the influence of a Mediterranean tradition of radical doubt that cut across the boundaries dividing the three Abrahamic faiths. In particular, it will focus on the cultural exchanges between Christianity and Islam.


This beautifully illustrated book (the first about British agates) has been produced to introduce these natural semi-precious stones to people unaware of them. The first section defines and describes agates, outlines their distribution and occurrence in the British Isles, and presents a theory of agate formation. The middle section deals in detail with representative agates, especially those from the Old Red Sandstone lavas of Scotland, and a list of agate localities is given. The final section deals with collecting, cutting and polishing agates; their use in jewellery; and agates from elsewhere in the world. R. A. HOWIE


In flight tests, to demonstrate the performance of integrated navigation systems, which are strapdown inertial navigation systems/celestial navigation systems (SINS/CNS), will involve a lot of effort and a heavy financial budget. So, it is important to design a functional self-contained hardware in a loop simulation system on the ground for solving the verification of SINS/CNS integrated navigation systems. Aiming at solving the main program, a high precision, versatile and better real-time performance hybrid simulation system of SINS/CNS integrated navigation is presented. The system adopts the design of hardware-functional modularization and software-flow integration, and makes use of a trajectory generator to produce simulated nominal trajectory data which is a uniform reference to signal process, and employs unique time synchronization algorithms to collect actual errors data of inertial sub-system and celestial sub-system. By combining with nominal trajectory data, the data smoothing, all-sky autonomous star map identification and integrated navigation algorithm based on unscented Kalman filtering (UKF), this system can accomplish a lot of system performance testing. It has the features of flexibility and extensibility and can be used to effectively reduce the experimental expense and shorten the development time of integrated navigation system, which is significant for studying algorithm performance, system speciality, and practical application of integrated navigation system.


Corporations have increasingly turned to voluntary, multi-stakeholder governance programs to monitor workers' rights and standards in global supply chains. This article argues that the emphasis of these programs varies significantly depending on stakeholder involvement and issue areas under examination. Corporate-influenced programs are more likely to emphasize detection of violations of minimal standards in the areas of wages, hours, and occupational safety and health because focusing on these issues provides corporations with legitimacy and reduces the risks of uncertainty created by activist campaigns. In contrast, these programs are less likely to emphasize workers' rights to form democratic and independent unions, bargain, and strike because these rights are perceived as lessening managerial control without providing firms with significant reputational value. This argument is explored by coding 805 factory audits of the Fair Labor Association between 2002 and 2010, followed by case studies of Russell Athletic in Honduras, Apple in China, and worker rights monitoring in Vietnam.


This study aimed to analyze the phytochemical profile and drying with prediction of the leaves of Ocimum citriodurum L, quantify the total phenolics and flavonoids and determine the unprecedented potential of the fungicidal activity of the oil-in-water nanoemulsion incorporated with essential oil and hydroalcoholic extract of O. citriodurum L. The leaves were carefully selected in the rural area of São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil, and subsequently crushed and stored. The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation (100°C / 3h). To obtain the hydroalcoholic extract, maceration in solvent extract ethanol PA 70% (v / v) was used. To determine the antifungal activity, the technique recommended by the International Clinical Laboratory Standard was used through the technique of Dilution in Broth and Sowing and Agar to determine the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) and Minimum Fungicidal Concentration (CFM), respectively, front to strains of Aspergillus niger (ATCC 6275), Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (ATCC 96723), Penicillium chrysogenum (ATCC 10106). The results obtained for fungicidal action attested to CIM and strong inhibition for the action of essential oils and hydroalcoholic extracts with a concentration of 250 µg mL-1 in front of A. niger, C. gloeosporioides and P. chrysogenum. CFM's of 300, 250 and 500 mL-1 were observed in front of A. niger, C. gloeosporioides and P. chrysogenum, respectively. With the results obtained it is stated that a stable nanoemulsion was obtained for both (EX) and (OE) and that they present active compounds in which they favor an excellent antifungal activity.


This paper looks at the main challenges that are facing the Transport sector in the countries of S. E. Europe after enlargement. First, it looks at the challenge of setting a common Transport policy and points as priority areas the questions of: frontier crossings, road transport quotas, working hours (road transport), restructuring of railways, promotion of Rail Freight 'Freeways', new financing schemes through Public Private Partnerships, and other issues. Then it looks at the factors that will determine the future transport outlook of the area in both qualitative and quantitative terms and it finds that there is a web of factors and issues that will play a role, such as for example the socio-political climate and preferences, the advent of New Technologies, and the degree of development of the Trans-European Networks. The paper looks at the 'challenges' facing the inter-urban and urban transport separately. As regards the first it concludes that a) higher integration of the transport provider into the whole transport and logistics chain, and b) closer co-operation and 'integration' with the customer, will be the main ones, while for urban transport the main challenge will be improvement of urban traffic management systems and, inevitably, demand management measures, as well as implementation and operation of a whole new series of technologies and systems of urban ICT that will form the Integrated Urban ICT environment of the future.


A new generation of multislice computed tomography (MSCT) scanners, which allow a complete heart coverage, is becoming widely available. With retrospective data reconstruction, it offers new perspectives for cardiac kinetics evaluation in non invasive imaging with volume sequences of high spatial and temporal resolutions. A new method is proposed for cardiac motion extraction in MSCT. It is based on a 3D surface-volume matching process associated to a hierarchical description of shapes. Needing the segmentation of only one volume, it provides, on a whole dynamic sequence, 3D velocity fields associated to the left ventricle inner surface and an estimation of the localization of this surface. The estimated motion can be used for global and local functional parameters quantification. Results obtained on simulated and real data show the good behavior of this method


To ensure the safety of ships and ports, groups and individuals, at all levels of the maritime sector, use analysis to identify potential hazards and their outcomes. One of the most relied upon methods is using a risk assessment tool to define and prioritise threats. A disadvantage of most existing assessment frameworks, however, is their inability to update risks dynamically as factors, such as the environment, change. In the maritime sector, a range of dynamic factors is needed to measure risks, but most conventional frameworks are unable to use them to revise and update their risk profiles. In addition to static and dynamic, maritime operational risks can be affected by elements classified as cyber, cyber-physical, or physical in nature. This demonstrates the relatively equal presence of information and operational technology (i.e. IT/OT) used, however most quantitative risk assessment frameworks are normally limited to one or the other. This article explores the full range of cyber-related risk factor types within maritime in order to evaluate applicable risk frameworks and suggest improvements that could help each of those tools assess maritime-cyber risks specifically.


Recently, learned image compression methods have out-performed traditional hand-crafted ones including BPG. One of the keys to this success is learned entropy models that estimate the probability distribution of the quantized latent representation. Like other vision tasks, most recent learned entropy models are based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs). However, CNNs have a limitation in modeling long-range dependencies due to their nature of local connectivity, which can be a significant bottleneck in image compression where reducing spatial redundancy is a key point. To overcome this issue, we propose a novel entropy model called Information Transformer (Informer) that exploits both global and local information in a content-dependent manner using an attention mechanism. Our experiments show that Informer improves rate-distortion performance over the state-of-the-art methods on the Kodak and Tecnick datasets without the quadratic computational complexity problem. Our source code is available at https://github.com/naver-ai/informer.


37 patients with bilio-digestive anastomosis--18 choledocho- and 19 hepatico-jejunostomies Roux-en-Y--had been followed up for 6--62 months. Hepato-biliary sequential scintigraphy showed in 26 patients both unimpeded bile passage and normal function of the jejunal loop. 6 patients had stenosis in the common bile duct or the anastomotic region with cholangitis and cholostasis. In 5 patients we observed an impaired function of the jejunal loop. Though all of these patients had clinical symptoms only one patient developed cholostasis.


An experimental study of the innovative wound expander applicability for surgical operations in the oral cavity was performed. For comparative analysis, 40 experimental models were divided into 4 groups depending on the use of auxiliary devices: Farabef hooks, VICRYL 3/0 suture material (ETHICON, USA), innovative wound expander, without the use of additional materials and tools. An experimental simulation of the operation of dental implantation in the area of the included dentition defect (Kennedy class III, IV), as one of the most frequent outpatient surgical operations in the oral cavity, was performed. The results of the study prove the innovative wound expander applicability for surgical operations in the oral cavity and its obvious advantages over existing analogues: providing adequate access, reliable, stable fixation of the wound edges, minimal injury to the surrounding tissues, protecting the edges of the operating wound from possible injury during surgery, lightweight, durable design, individually adapted to the anatomical features of the operated area, made of biologically inert materials, safety and ease of operation, affordable price, no need for an assistant to contact the operating field. Therefore, it is reasonable to conduct further clinical approbation and introduce the device into the practice of dental surgeons and maxillofacial surgeons.