This study aimed to verify the practical implications of innovation incentive programs in the development of a carpooling startup from Brazilian Federal District. It is a case study in which the startup was supported by programs to encourage innovation. Interviews were conducted with the managers of the startup, with the purpose of evaluating the confluence and applicability of the programs to the needs of the business, evidencing the impact of that programs in its development. Empirical evidence was treated through content analysis with a priori categorization, with the managers' perspectives being compared with the factors of incentive to startups – investment, mentoring and support for market insertion. The results demonstrated that financial assistance, managerial training and institutional networking contributed to the startup development. The study provides an analysis of startups development factors and contributes to the improvement of innovation incentive programs.


In this paper we present practical algorithmic optimizations addressing two problems. The first one is concerned with computing a maximal matching in an induced subgraph of a grid graph. For this problem we present a faster sequential algorithm using bit operations and a way of implementing it in a parallel environment. The second problem is concerned with computing minimum cost perfect matchings in bipartite graphs. For this problem we extend the idea behind the Hopcroft-Karp maximum matching algorithm and then we consider a more general situation in which multiple minimum cost perfect matchings need to be computed in the same graph, under certain cost restrictions. We present experimental results for all the proposed optimizations.


Temperature-Salinity (TS) diagrams emphasize the mutual variability of ocean temperature and salinity values, relating them to the corresponding density. Canonically used in oceanography, they provide a means to characterize and trace ocean water masses. In [1], a first attempt to estimate surface-layer TS diagrams based on satellite measurements has been performed, profiting from the recent availability of spaceborne salinity data. In fact, the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS, [2]) and the Aquarius/SAC-D [3] satellite missions allow to study the dynamical patterns of Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) for the first time on a global scale. In [4], given SMOS and Aquarius salinity estimates, and by also using Sea Surface Temperature (SST) from the Operational Sea Surface Temperature and Sea Ice Analysis (OSTIA, [5]) effort, experimental satellite-based TS diagrams have been routinely derived for the year 2011. They have been compared with those computed from ARGO-buoys interpolated fields, referring to a customised partition of the global ocean into seven regions, according to the water masses classification of [6]. In [7], moreover, besides using TS diagrams as a diagnostic tool to evaluate the temporal variation of SST and SSS (and their corresponding density) as estimated by satellite measurements, the emphasis was on the interpretation of the geographical deviations with respect to the ARGO baseline (aiming at distinguishing between the SSS retrieval errors and the additional information contained in the satellite data with respect to ARGO). In order to relate these mismatches to identifiable oceanographic structures and processes, additional satellite datasets of ocean currents, evaporation/precipitation fluxes, and wind speed have been super-imposed. Currently, the main focus of the study deals with the exploitation of these TS diagrams as a prognostic tool to derive water masses formation areas. Firstly, following the approach described in [8], the surface density flux (i.e. the change in density induced by surface heat and freshwater fluxes) is computed, characterizing how the buoyancy of a water parcel is being transformed, by increasing or decreasing its density. Afterwards, integrating over a certain time/space and deriving with respect to density, the formation (in Sv) of water masses themselves can be computed, pinpointing the range of SST and SSS in the TS diagrams where a specific water mass is formed. A geographical representation of these points, ultimately, allows to provide a relevant temporal series of the spatial extent of the water masses formation areas (in the specific test zones chosen). This can be then extended over challenging ocean regions, also evaluating the sensitivity of the performances to the datasets used. With this approach, known water masses can be identified and their formation traced in time and space. Longer time series will give further insights by helping to identify inter-annual water mass formation variability and trends in the TS/geographical domains. Future work aims at exploring additional datasets and at connecting the surface information to the vertical structure and to buoyancy-driven ocean circulation processes.


The notion of skeleton plays a major role in shape analysis since the introduction of the medial axis. The continuous medial axis is a skeleton with the following characteristics: centered, thin, homotopic, and reversible (sufficient for the reconstruction of the original object). The discrete Euclidean medial axis (MA) is also reversible and centered, but no longer homotopic nor thin. To preserve topology and reversibility, the MA is usually combined with homotopic thinning algorithms. Since there is a robust and well defined framework for fast homotopic thinning defined in the domain of abstract complexes, some authors have extended the MA to a doubled resolution grid and defined the discrete Euclidean Medial Axis in Higher Resolution (HMA), which can be combined to the framework defined on abstract complexes. Other authors gave an alternative definition of medial axis, which is a reversible subset of the MA, and is called Reduced Discrete Medial Axis (RDMA). The RDMA is thinner than the MA and can be computed in optimal time. In this paper we extend the RDMA to the doubled resolution grid and we define the High-resolution RDMA (HRDMA). The HRDMA is reversible and it can be computed in optimal time. The HRDMA can be combined with the algorithms in abstract complexes, so a reversible and homotopic Euclidean skeleton can be computed in optimal time.


A high rectovaginal fistula associated with schistosomiasis is reported in a 19-year-old Ethiopian woman. The case history is reviewed for clinical presentation, results of preoperative investigations, and operative and pathologic findings. Operative treatment consisted of a low anterior resection with division of the fistula and primary colorectal anastomosis. Histologic analysis confirmed that this rectovaginal fistula was caused by schistosomal eggs. Schistosomiasis is identified as a cause of high rectovaginal fistula, and may be managed effectively by low anterior resection.


The optimal solution of multi-objective control problem (MOCP) isn't unique, so it is hard for traditional method to obtain these optimal solutions in one simulation process. Based on this background, Multi-Objective Compatible Control (MOCC) algorithm was presented by Lihong Xu in [2]. MOCC is a compromise method, which hunts for suboptimal and feasible region as the control aim rather than precise optimal point. The controller of MOCC is optimized by GA in its interval, namely its controller lacks concrete controller structure. Due to the controller without concrete structure, the system model must be accurate and without input disturbance; however, it is impractical in practice. Besides, the control problem is different from the optimization. Different user has different preference and users' preference information plays a key role in control performance. In this paper, the feedback control law and users' preference information are incorporated into MOCC algorithm. An improved MOCC (IMOCC) algorithm is presented. The simulation result demonstrates its superiority and advantage over the MOCC algorithm.


Background Although peritoneal metastasis (PM) is associated with poor prognosis in gastric cancer (GC) patients, it is difficult to discriminate preoperatively. Our previous study has demonstrated visceral fat area (VFA) is a better obesity index than body mass index (BMI) in predicting abdominal metastasis. Aim This study aimed to further explore the relationship between obesity and PM. Methods VFA was retrieved for 859 consecutive patients undergoing radical gastrectomy between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2013. A receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to determine the BMI-specific cutoff values for VFA. Univariate and multivariate analyses evaluating the risk factors for PM at different BMI levels were performed. Results The optimal cutoff values for VFA were 67.28, 88.03, and 175.32 cm 2 for low, normal, and high BMI patients, respectively, and 18 (15.52%), 220 (40.15%), and 61 (31.28%) patients were classified as having high VFA in each group. Univariate logistic regression revealed that the association between high VFA and PM was not dependent on BMI (odds ratio [OR]=9.048, P=0.007 for low BMI, OR=3.827, P<0.001 for normal BMI, and OR=2.460, P=0.049 for high BMI). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, high VFA (OR=3.816, P<0.001) and vascular invasion (OR=1.951, P=0.039) were independent risk factors for PM only in the normal BMI group. Conclusions VFA only effectively predicted PM for GC patients with normal BMI, rather than those with low and high BMI. More attentions should be paid to those GC patients with high VFA and normal BMI.


The pheS5 Ts mutant of Escherichia coli defined by a G293 → A293 transition, which is responsible for thermosensitive Phenylalanyl‐tRNA synthetase has been well studied at both biochemical and molecular level but genetic analyses pertaining to suppressors of pheS5 were hard to come by. Here we have systematically analyzed a spectrum of Temperature‐insensitive derivatives isolated from pheS5 Ts mutant and identified two intragenic suppressors affecting the same base pair coordinate G673 (pheS19 defines G673 → T673; Gly225 → Cys225 and pheS28 defines G673 → C673; Gly225 → Arg225). In fact in the third derivative, the intragenic suppressor originally named pheS43 (G673 → C673transversion) is virtually same as pheS28. In the fourth case, the very pheS5 lesion itself has got changed from A293 → T293 (named pheS40). Cloning of pheS+, pheS5, pheS5‐pheS19, pheS5‐pheS28 alleles into pBR322 and introduction of these clones into pheS5 mutant revealed that excess of double mutant protein is not at all good for the survival of cells at 42°C. These results clearly indicate a pivotal role for Gly225 in the structural/functional integrity of alpha subunit of E. coli PheRS enzyme and it is proposed that G673 might define a hot spot for intragenic suppressors of pheS5.


Low kinetic energy ( approximately=0.1 eV) particles from partial discharges increase surface energy (wettability) and surface conduction of epoxy resin samples. Analysis of the surface energy polar and dispersion components indicates that polar phenomena govern surface evolution. Partial recovery of the initial properties is obtained by water rinsing and interpreted in terms of chain fragment removal.


In this article, I want to show that some doctrinal problems of legal interpretation and argumentation can be analysed in a more precise way than a standard doctrinal analysis, when we use insights from speech act theory and argumentation theory. Taking a discussion about the accusation of the criminal act insulting as a starting point, I will try to show that the doctrinal perspective on meaning of statutory norms and of the qualification of utterances as legal acts lacks the instruments to explain why discussions about these meanings and utterances are so complicated. In short, a doctrinal analysis focuses on word or sentence meaning, distinguishing between the literal or semantic meaning on the one hand and the meaning in context on the other. However, the analysis of this 'meaning in context' is often rather vague, especially in cases of indirect and strategic communication. It is the analysis of this meaning in context that can profit from insights from speech act theory. I do not want to 'solve' the problems of the interpretation of the norms concerning insulting. I only use this case in point as an exemplary example to discuss important (often implicit doctrinal) starting points about the related concepts meaning and intention (or commitment) in interpretative discussions.


Gc subtypes were determined by isoelectrofocusing and immunofixation on 342 blood samples from an Arab Moslem population in Israel. Observed allele frequencies were: Gc1F 0.2120, Gc1S 0.6023, and Gc2 0.1857. Those are similar to formerly reported frequency data for other Middle Eastern populations. A discriminant analysis, performed on data from 35 populations, resulted in a satisfactory classification of population groups related through geographic and racial origin.


ABSTRACT We report an instructive case of acute myeloid leukemia with histiocytic differentiation (acute histiocytic leukemia) arising in a patient, a 52-year-old woman with a history of follicular lymphoma. The results of genetic studies proved a clonal relationship between the lymphoma and the leukemic cells. To our knowledge, this is the first report of leukemic transdifferentiation of follicular lymphoma into modified base 5-methylcytosine (M5c)–like acute histiocytic leukemia and the first reported karyotype on a transdifferentiated neoplasm.


We evaluated vascular dysfunction with the single passive leg movement test (sPLM) in 22 frail elderly patients at 84 + 31 days after hospitalization for COVID-19 pneumonia, compared to 22 age-, sex- and comorbidity-matched controls (CTRL). At rest, all COVID-19 patients were in stable clinical condition without severe comorbidities. Patients (aged 72 ± 6 years, 73% male) had moderate disability (Barthel index score 77 ± 26), hypoxemia and normocapnia at arterial blood gas analysis and mild pulmonary restriction at spirometry. Values of circulating markers of inflammation (C-reactive protein: CRP; erythrocyte sedimentation rate: ESR) and coagulation (D-dimer) were: 27.13 ± 37.52 mg/dL, 64.24 ± 32.37 mm/1 h and 1043 ± 729 ng/mL, respectively. At rest, femoral artery diameter was similar in COVID-19 and CTRL (p = 0.16). On the contrary, COVID-19 infection deeply impacted blood velocity (p = 0.001) and femoral blood flow (p < 0.0001). After sPLM, peak femoral blood flow was dramatically reduced in COVID-19 compared to CTRL (p = 0.001), as was blood flow ∆peak (p = 0.05) and the area under the curve (p < 0.0001). This altered vascular responsiveness could be one of the unknown components of long COVID-19 syndrome leading to fatigue, changes in muscle metabolism and fibers' composition, exercise intolerance and increased cardiovascular risk. Impact of specific treatments, such as exercise training, dietary supplements or drugs, should be evaluated.


Environmental protection is not only a social dilemma, it is also a temporal dilemma influencing the survival of all human beings. Drawing from the temporal focus literature, we proposed that individuals with a stronger (vs. weaker) future temporal focus would engage in more proenvironmental
 behaviors via greater environmental commitment. Integrating trait activation theory, we further proposed that environmental resource scarcity would strengthen the process we had already proposed. We tested our proposals with 591 university students in Eastern China, who completed an anonymous
 survey. The data were collected in three waves with a 2-week interval between each wave. A structural equation model was applied to test the hypotheses. Future temporal focus significantly influenced participants' proenvironmental behavior via their environmental commitment, and the positive
 influence was stronger when the environmental resource was scarce. This study enriches the environmental protection literature by providing a temporal framework. The theoretical and practical implications of proenvironmental behavior are discussed.


Problem statement: IETF has introduced Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6) to support
mobility problem in the next generation Internet Protocol (IPv6). The key concept behind this protocol
is the usage of Mobility Anchor Point (MAP) located at any level router of network to support
hierarchical mobility management and seamless handover. The distance MAP selection in HMIPv6
causes MAP overloaded as the network grows. Approach: To address the issue in designing MAP
selection scheme, we proposed a dynamic speed detection mechanism that integrates with the load
control mechanism. Results: From the experimental results we obtained that the proposed scheme
gives better distribution in MAP load and reduced binding update cost.
Conclusion/Recommendations: The Next Generation Networks (NGN) is expected to provide
seamless handover in high speed wireless network environment. There is crucial need of very
sophisticated protocols to support NGN QoS requirements.


Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) provides a defense against virus-infected and tumorigenic cells. The recognition of antigen-presenting cells (APCs) for T cells and the association with them are essential in the formation of the immunological synapse (IS) which triggers T cell activation. Although various proteins that stabilize the IS structure for delivering appropriate signals in T cells have been identified, the role of adhesion molecule CD99 in CTL activation and IS formation has not been investigated. Here we found that CD99 in CTLs participates in T cell activation, proliferation, and effector differentiation by inducing of cluster formation between T cells and APCs. Interestingly, it is shown that CD99 is co-localized more at the peripheral supramolecular activating cluster (pSMAC) region than the central supramolecular activating cluster (cSMAC) in the IS, indicating the involvement of CD99 in IS formation. The absence of CD99 in CD8+ T cells resulted in slower formation of T-APC conjugates than WT CTLs. In addition, Akt-mediated signaling, followed by activation, proliferation, and cytokine production, was delayed in CD99KO CTLs upon TCR stimulation. Results presented here demonstrate for the first time that CD99 is recruited to the IS during APC and T cell interaction and plays an important role in subsequent T cell activation.


The autoimmune features of interstitial cystitis are reviewed. Despite some controversy, interstitial cystitis should be grouped to the connective tissue diseases but as a separate entity.


BACKGROUND The purse-string suture is a method for partial and complete closure of circular surgical defects. OBJECTIVE Short-term and long-term efficacy and cosmesis were assessed to evaluate the utility of purse-string closure as the sole method of closure of Mohs defects in different locations. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty-six circular wounds from Mohs surgery were closed with a running intradermal suture traversing the circumference of the wound. Preoperative and immediate postoperative wound areas were measured. Long-term cosmetic appearance was also assessed. RESULTS An immediate decrease in average wound area was observed, most notably in the neck and arm. Long-term cosmetic results were best in the head and neck and were remarkably similar for a given anatomic area. CONCLUSION The purse-string suture is rapid, simple, and associated with little morbidity. In properly selected cases, it is an excellent alternative for partial and complete closure of circular defects resulting from Mohs surgery.


OBJECTIVES
We investigated socioeconomic disparities in injury hospitalization rates and severity-adjusted mortality for pediatric trauma.

METHODS
We used 10 years of pediatric trauma data from Sacramento County, Calif, to compare trauma hospitalization rates, trauma mechanism and severity, and standardized hospital mortality across socioeconomic strata (median household income, proportion of households in poverty, insurance).

RESULTS
Children from lower-socioeconomic status (SES) communities had higher injury hospitalization and mortality rates, and presented more frequently with more lethal mechanisms of injury (pedestrian, firearm), but did not have higher severity-adjusted mortality.

CONCLUSIONS
Higher injury mortality rates among children of lower SES in Sacramento County are explained by a higher incidence of trauma and more fatal mechanisms of injury, not by greater injury severity or poorer inpatient care.


: Climate has always become part of an essential role in human life on earth. Climate change is a scorching topic because of various prediction efforts to predict the future of the earth's climate on human survival. As one institution that deals with climatology in detail, NOAA publishes a journal on the approach used to generate CHIRPS as a spatiotemporal dataset. The data consist of spatial two dimensions and temporal data from 1981 to 2020. The dataset for the experiment contains 480 pictures, which are 480 months or 40 years of data. K-means clustering is used to collect different characteristics of spatial data based on the Within Cluster Sum Square (WCSS) value using the Elbow method. Generalizing four spatial areas of different characteristic data, Authors have proposed a Convolutional Long Short-Term Memory model to carry out and develop by an attention mechanism. A deep learning architecture designed to learn the dependencies of temporal and spatial data exclusively utilizing convolutional layers and recurrent layers. Two issues with convolutional networks' ability to forecast sequences using historical data are addressed by our suggested architecture: (1) break the temporal order throughout the learning process, and (2) demand that the lengths of the input and output sequences be equal. The method's purpose is to improve the prediction for each previous method and having lower error than other models such as GRU, LSTM, and LSTM-AT. Still, every model reported in this paper has characteristics of how they learn the pattern of the data and visualize the error rate and performance in every spatial point. The Convolutional LSTM-AT model achieved MAE of 67.97, with training time around 2.5 minutes.


Drug related changes to lymphocyte populations and immune functions can indicate immunotoxicity in many species, including the dog. Immunoassays are routinely performed in human, monkey, and rodent samples, but few validated immunoassays specific for the dog exist. Here, we present five immunoassays optimized for functional and phenotypic analysis of canine adoptive and innate immunity. These assays were evaluated in canine peripheral blood and/or tissue to characterize immunomodulation effects and pharmacodynamics of stimuli and/or pharmaceuticals.


than a hundred countries where paraquat is now used, most of which have strict regulations governing the use of pesticides. In cases of human poisoning by paraquat, and in experimental animals, the highest concentrations are found in the kidneys and liver and though these organs show signs of damage there is no subsequent proliferation of any of their component cells. It would be expected that were induction of "near anaerobic conditions" a cause of the cellular reaction these organs would show more proliferation than the lungs. Measurement of ATP concentrations in paraquat poisoned animals also shows no change. There is therefore no parallel between Warburg's theory of carcinogenesis and the actions of paraquat as Drs. Stokes and Walker suggest.-We are, etc., K. FLETCHER. A. A. B. SWAN. Industrial Hygicne Research Laboratories, I.C.I. Ltd., Macclesfield, Cheshire.


Pelvic organ prolapse describes the loss of support and subsequent descent of pelvic organs into the vagina. It is common, affecting up to 50% of parous women, and can be accompanied by a number of burdening symptoms. Prolapse has been thrown into the spotlight secondary to mesh-related complications. There are a number of effective treatment options to consider when managing pelvic organ prolapse and most do not require mesh. Patients' choice, comorbidities and likelihood of treatment success should be considered when making decisions about their care. Vaginal mesh surgery is currently on hold in the UK and even prior to this there has been a reduction both in the number of all prolapse surgeries and the number of women seeking surgery to manage their symptoms. This article reviews the current evidence for the management of pelvic organ prolapse, providing an update on the current state of mesh in prolapse surgery and summarises the key evidence points derived from the literature.


SummaryNon-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAID) uncouple mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation.They induce an ionodependent mitochondrial swelling associated to an intramitochondrial alkalinisation.They induce an ionodependent lymphocyte swelling and they profoundly affect the captation of various ions by isolated lymphoid cells.All these effects demonstrate that these drugs are able to largely modify biological membranes permeability. In addition to their effect on prostaglandins biosynthesis, this membrane action could explain some of the effects exerted by these NSAID on the guinea-pig isolated ileum: inhibition of isometric contractions induced by electrical coaxial stimulations and of isotonic contractions to acetylcholine, histamine and nicotine.The reversing effect of prostaglandins which restore normal contractions could be due to a non specific sensitizing effect of prostaglandins on ileal smooth muscle.A sensitizing effect on ileal smooth muscle is described for two drugs, colchicine and v...


Class prediction and feature selection are two learning tasks that are strictly paired in the search of molecular profiles from microarray data [Cesare, Maria, Stefano, Giuseppe, "Semisupervised Learning for Molecular Profiling," IEEE/ACM Trans, on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, vol. 02, no. 2, pp. 110-118, 2005.]. In this paper, we present a scheme of recursive feature addition for gene selection combining classifiers for the purpose of classifying tumor tissues using DNA microarray data. Based on the highest train accuracy, the next gene is added into the feature set according to the measures of the correlation / mutual information between chosen genes and candidate genes. In comparison with the well-known gene selection methods of T-TEST and SVM-RFE using different classifiers, our method, on the average, performs the best regarding the classification accuracy under different feature dimensions.


A two-player finite game is represented by two payoff matrices (A, B), one for each player. Imitation games are a subclass of twoplayer games in which B is the identity matrix, implying that the second player gets a positive payoff only if she "imitates" the first. Given that the problem of computing a Nash equilibrium (NE) is known to be provably hard, even to approximate, we ask if it is any easier for imitation games. We show that much like the general case, for any c > 0, computing a 1 nc -approximate NE of imitation games remains PPADhard, where n is the number of moves available to the players. On the other hand, we design a polynomial-time algorithm to find ε-approximate NE for any given constant ε > 0 (PTAS). The former result also rules out the smooth complexity being in P, unless PPAD ⊂ RP.


Neutron activation of Pd, Au, and Ir in samples from (1) economically significant Ni sulfide deposits of Western Australia, (2) the host rocks of these deposits, (3) hydrothermal and/or metasomatic Ni sulfide (mainly millerite) mineralization in peridotite at Nullagine, Western Australia, (4) hydrothermal replacement (volcanic-exhalative?) Ni-Cu sulfide mineralization at Sherlock Bay, Western Australia, and (5) volcanic-exhalative sulfides in inter flow sediments at Kambalda are used to show that Ir and Pd can be used to discriminate between the various origins (magmatic, volcanic-exhalative, hydrothermal/metasomatic, and metamorphic) ascribed to Ni sulfide deposits.All the economically significant Ni sulfide deposits in Western Australia are strongly enriched in the precious metals relative to other crustal rocks and have similar Pd/Ni and Ir/Ni ratios to each other. These ratios persist regardless of whether the nickel sulfides occur at the base of volcanic ultramafic piles (e.g., Kambalda) or as centrally disposed interstitial sulfides in intrusive dunite bodies. The strong similarities of the Pd/Ir ratios of the Ni sulfide ores and of the spinilex-textured komatiites, which represent ultramafic liquids from which the Ni sulfide liquids were derived, together with other features of the precious metal geochemistry of the ores and host rocks of the Ni sulfide deposits, are used to show that the deposits had magmatic origins.In contrast, the Pd/Ir and Ir/Ni ratios of the hydrothermal and/or metasomatic Ni sulfide mineralization at Nullagine are distinctly different from those of the major Ni deposits. The former contains high Au, moderate but variable Pd, and exceptionally low Ir. Similarly, the volcanic-exhalative sulfides at Kambalda and Sherlock Bay contain negligible quantities of Pd and Ir. All the Ir in both the interflow sediments and the hydrothermal metasomatic mineralization is contributed by the host rocks and not by the sulfides. The Western Australian data, together with precious metal data for other examples of hydrothermal Ni-Cu sulfide mineralization, strongly suggest that although Ni, Au, and Pd may be transported in aqueous solution, Ir cannot. Hence, the relative abundance of Ir can be used as a discriminant of magmatic sulfides.


In this paper we address the problem of provisioning Quality of Service (QoS) to Voice over IP applications in a Wireless LAN scenario based on the IEEE 802.11 standard. We propose the use of a Cognitive Network approach to design a Call Admission Control (CAC) scheme, according to which each user stores relevant information on its past network experience and then uses such information to build a Bayesian Network (BN), a probabilistic graphical model to describe the statistical relationships among network parameters. The BN is exploited to predict the voice call quality, as a function of the Link Layer conditions in the particular scenario considered. Such prediction on the present and future values of the QoS provided is directly exploited to design the cognitive CAC scheme, which is shown to significantly outperform state of the art CAC techniques in a realistic scenario.


Aim: All the patients presented to gynecology polyclinics with abnormal uterine bleeding either during the reproductive or the peri/ postmenopausal period underwent endometrial sampling to exclude endometrial pathologies. One endometrial pathology frequently encountered in the histopathological examination of these samples is Endometrial Polyp (EP); and it is important that they are recognized as they require a distinct treatment plan and can be associated with endometrial malignancies. Material and Methods: In this study, we investigated the demographic and clinical findings and concomitant malignancies of the cases diagnosed with endometrial polyps based on endometrial biopsy samples at Bezmialem Vakif University over a period of 7 years and compared our results with those in the literature. Results: Our study determined an EP prevalence of 19% and only 11 (0.65%) of the 1694 cases were found to have "adenocarcinomas" within/outside the polyp. Conclusion: Considering that EPs may be associated with malignancies, histopathological examination must absolutely be performed with adequate sampling.


A new, very simple expression for the wide aperture dimension of the horn is presented and used in the optimum-gain pyramidal horn design. The design parameters are determined from the simple and explicit formulas. These formulas do not need the application of the iterative methods and are not restricted to the high-gain horn designs. The gain of a designed pyramidal horn is computed with no path length error approximation. Several design examples are given that illustrate the performance of the proposed design method. This proposed design method is useful for microwave antenna designers and the computer aided design (CAD) of optimum-gain pyramidal horns.


The areas of critical study have become very many and separate from each other, such as intertextuality, narrative structure, vision, dialogue structure, poetic, aesthetic, etc. of modern critical terms that can be studied in several fields such as painting, poetry, theatre, novel, story, and music. Therefore, this research deals with the dialogical structure in Bushra Al- Bustani's poetry since the dialogue is a well-known technique in modern Arabic poetry, and Bushra Al- Bustani's poetry is not devoid of this technique as we note with other poets. In Bushra Al- Bustani's poetry, several modern techniques were employed because of the poet's culture and artistic depth that made her use symbol, legend, dialogue, intertextuality, displacement and other critical visions that made the poet's poetic language with an internal rhythm that addresses the feelings of the reader. So, we had to stand at the dialogue as a narrative technique in poetry Bushra Al- Bustani, and the poem (Eve's Dialogue) will be a model for this technique so that Eve is evoked to be a conversational voice through which the image of Eve becomes apparent in a coherent artistic structure. A new language characterized by the poetic poems of Bushra Al-Bustani to form a bouquet of poetry in an artistic language with poetic techniques with multiple visions.


Optical pulses are generated by passive and hybrid mode-locking of a long wavelength (1075-1085 nm) InGaAs-GaAs ridge waveguide laser grown by gas source molecular beam epitaxy. The devices are fabricated with two sections, one of which contains a bend in the waveguide for coupling to an external linear cavity. Pulses 2-5 ps in duration have been generated with average powers ranging from 750 /spl mu/W to 1.8 mW. Pulse compression yields durations as short as 570 fs. Post amplification with a narrow stripe InGaAs-GaAs semiconductor optical amplifier increases the average output power up to 13 mW.


The authors develop an iterative, adaptive, space-variant restoration incorporating both regularization and artifact-suppression constraints. The algorithm is formulated using the method of projections onto convex sets (POCS). They introduce a closed-convex regularization constraint set called the partial Wiener solution set. Projection onto this set forces the solution to be equal to the Wiener solution over a predetermined set of frequencies that lie outside the neighborhoods of the zeros of the degradation transfer function. In the neighborhoods of the zeros, the Wiener solution contains significant errors that contribute to artifacts. Hence, in these neighborhoods the Wiener solution is discarded, and the missing frequency components are determined so that the entire solution is consistent with the artifact-suppression constraints and other a priori information. The proposed artifact-suppression constraints bound the norm of the variation of the image from its local mean using regionally adaptive bounds. The high quality of the resulting restorations is noteworthy. >


Background Statistical models are increasingly being used to estimate and project the prevalence and burden of asthma. Given substantial variations in these estimates, there is a need to critically assess the properties of these models and assess their transparency and reproducibility. We aimed to critically appraise the strengths, limitations and reproducibility of existing models for estimating and projecting the global, regional and national prevalence and burden of asthma. Methods We undertook a systematic review, which involved searching Medline, Embase, World Health Organization Library and Information Services (WHOLIS) and Web of Science from 1980 to 2017 for modelling studies. Two reviewers independently assessed the eligibility of studies for inclusion and then assessed their strengths, limitations and reproducibility using pre-defined quality criteria. Data were descriptively and narratively synthesised. Results We identified 108 eligible studies, which employed a total of 51 models: 42 models were used to derive national level estimates, two models for regional estimates, four models for global and regional estimates and three models for global, regional and national estimates. Ten models were used to estimate the prevalence of asthma, 27 models estimated the burden of asthma – including, health care service utilisation, disability-adjusted life years, mortality and direct and indirect costs of asthma – and 14 models estimated both the prevalence and burden of asthma. Logistic and linear regression models were most widely used for national estimates. Different versions of the DisMod-MR- Bayesian meta-regression models and Cause Of Death Ensemble model (CODEm) were predominantly used for global, regional and national estimates. Most models suffered from a number of methodological limitations – in particular, poor reporting, insufficient quality and lack of reproducibility. Conclusions Whilst global, regional and national estimates of asthma prevalence and burden continue to inform health policy and investment decisions on asthma, most models used to derive these estimates lack the required reproducibility. There is a need for better-constructed models for estimating and projecting the prevalence and disease burden of asthma and a related need for better reporting of models, and making data and code available to facilitate replication.


In a previous study utilizing benzophenone-based topological probes to study conformationally dependent changes in mouse muscle nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) topology, electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometric (ESI-MS/MS) analysis led to a consistent -2.0 Da mass deviation from expected values. In the present study a synthetic peptide, corresponding to nAChR alpha1 subunit residues 130-139, was photolabeled. MS/MS analysis of this peptide using an ion trap confirmed the previously observed mass deviation, associated only with fragment ions that contain the incorporated benzophenone moiety. Analysis of peak profiles for the photolabeled ions does not indicate the typical 'peak fronting' that produces a mass shift when labile ions are prematurely ejected from the ion trap. Rather, hydrogen/deuterium (H/D) exchange experiments support the hypothesis that a chemical rearrangement involving phenyl migration and ketone formation has formed an unexpected oxidized peptide, with molecular mass 2 Da less than that expected, that is isolated for collision-induced dissociation in the ion trap together with the predicted precursor due to the broad ion isolation window specified.


Current research articleanalyze the uses of geographical information system and Remote Sensing in mapping Land-Use Land-Cover change detection in Dehradun between 2000 and 2013.In achiev objective, Land Consumption Rate and the Land Absorption Coefficient were introduced insupportof the quantitative assessment of the change. The results in present study shows a rapid growth in built-up areabetween 2004 and 2013 while the periods between 2000 and 2004 witnessed notable reduction in this class. Suggestions were therefore made at the end of the work on ways to use the information as contained therein optimally.Capital city of Dehradun has witnessed outstanding physical expansion, growth with the developmental activities such as housing or building, road construction, deforestation and many other anthropogenic activities since its beginning as capital cities. Therefore it is resulted in increased urban land consumption and the modification and alterations in naturally availableland use land cover over the time periods.


E‐governance is a momentous currency in contemporary society, and it manifests in virtually all areas of life, which include, among others, banking, insurance, trade and commerce, and democracy. The deployment of Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Information Technology (IT) devices for democratic governance has been successful in technologically advanced countries, and has inspired countries from the developing South, such as Nigeria to contemplate or commence e‐elections for democratic sustainability. The elections regulatory body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had contemplated exploring e‐elections in the country but later dropped the idea on grounds of unpreparedness. Electoral process or election however, has its several components: voter registration, registration review/update, electioneering campaigns, actual voting, and release of election results. These naturally come with their challenges and have informed a school of thought that based on Nigeria's economic instability, corruption, resources mismanagement, and technologically backward climate, including unstable power supply, e‐elections would be far‐fetched. The other school of thought however, exhibits hope and optimism. This paper, with data scooped through questionnaire administration and from literature, examines the challenges and prospects as well as the peculiarity of Nigerian electoralsystem and the e‐election system, which will be marooned in the general Nigerian politicandl economic climate. Findings show that the prospects are and will always be good for the country, but that the stakes are far too high at a moment of huge infrastructural laybacks of the country. Moreover, not too many people have confidence in the electoral regime, let alone going ahead with such a venture as e‐elections. It therefore recommends, among other things, that the nation should develop the sub‐sectors of the economy that can sustain e‐elections before INEC goes ahead with the capital‐intensive enterprise for democratic sustainability in Nigeria.


Abstract : Policy makers concerned about population representation in America's armed forces have frequently referred to the unfair burden" of military service borne by young people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The purpose of this study was to examine the socioeconomic status (SES) of recruits in the Navy and Air Force and to analyze the relationship between a recruits SES background and his or her performance in the military over time. Data for this study were obtained from three sources: the Department of Defense Survey of Recruit Socioeconomic Backgrounds (SES survey), Military Entrance Processing Command enlisted cohort files, and personnel data files provided by the Navy and Air Force. After merging these data files, the SES survey respondents were tracked longitudinally, and several analyses were undertaken to assess the relationship between SES and performance in the military. The results of this research show that recruits in both services come from slightly lower SES backgrounds than do youths in the general population; and, most of this difference can be explained by the fact that sailors and airmen are consistently underrepresented in the highest measures or correlates of SES and over-represented in the lowest ones. Additionally, it was found that, while SES is not a strong predictor of first-term enlisted attrition in either service, it does explain differences in recruits' performance on-the-job in the Air Force. Further research is recommended, especially that which incorporates supervisors' ratings of military performance.


This case study reports on the management of a woman suffering from thrombocytopenic purpura who was referred to the periodontal clinic with gingival swelling and bleeding. This condition was related to nifedipine therapy for hypertension.


Abstract The prognosis of minimal residual disease (MRD) in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients is well established. However, the implementation of dynamic MRD for risk classification and decision-making for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) remains vague. In this study, we collected multiparameter flow cytometry (MFC)-MRD data of Ph-negative B-ALL patients (n = 134) from the Precision-Classification-Directed-Target-Total-Therapy-ALL-2016 (PDT-ALL-2016) cohort and stratified it into high-(HR), medium-(MR), and standard-risk (SR) groups. With a median of 3.65 years follow-up (95% CI: 3.037–4.263), 3-year OS rate was 51.8 ± 8.3% in HR, compared with MR 61.5 ± 10.8% (p = 0.472), and SR 73.3 ± 5.9% (p = 0.006). Multivariate analysis shows that integrated dynamic MRD is an independent factor for overall survival. Compared to pediatric-inspired chemotherapy, allo-HSCT significantly improves the survival of the HR cohort (p < 0.001), but not in MR and SR. Finally, our study suggests that integrated dynamic MRD defines a novel risk-classification criteria and highlights the benefits of allo-HSCT in adult patients with Ph-negative ALL.


Abstract Law recognizes a necessary (i.e., but-for) factor as a factual cause. However, it is a common misconception that the but-for test is the exclusive test of factual causation. Longstanding case law reveals that a factor may be a factual cause of an outcome, even if it was neither necessary nor sufficient for it. This was recently unanimously confirmed by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in Financial Conduct Authority v. Arch Insurance (UK) Ltd (2021). In the law, there seems to be a uniform concept of what it means to be a factual cause, one that is wider than necessity and includes unnecessary and insufficient factors which are recognized as factual causes across a wide variety of legal contexts. This uniform concept of factual cause can be captured in a forensically straightforward way in an "extended but-for test". Appreciation of unnecessary and insufficient factual causes, which are common, provides a more coherent frame in which to view the outcomes of certain earlier cases. It also illuminates the importance for clarity of legal reasoning of separating the context-independent factual cause issue from context-dependent analytical stages such as the scope of the rule and remedy, including loss quantification.


The Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome (AWS), which may occur with or without delirium, is a frequent consequence of sudden alcohol cessation in patients with moderate to severe Alcohol Dependence Syndrome (ADS). Withdrawal as a result of habituation to alcohol is part of the definition of the Alcohol Dependence Syndrome (ICD10). Since the recognition of Delirium Tremens, in the early nineteenth century, the management of the syndrome, an acute medical emergency, has proven controversial. The barbiturates, chlormethiazole, and recently the safer benzodiazepines transformed the management of these conditions. The benzodiazepines, particularly diazepam and chlordiazepoxide, are now the most used first line agents in the treatment of AWS. In addition, a number of other agents, including baclofen, a GABA-B receptor agonist, have the potential to suppress the alcohol withdrawal syndrome. In this review we review the potential use of baclofen in its role to treat AWS. We summarize initial case reports as well as more recent randomized trials of AWS treatment with baclofen. We conclude that currently there is not enough evidence to support the use of baclofen as a first line treatment for AWS. More research will be needed to determine where baclofen might have a role in second-line management of the Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome on its own or in combination with benzodiazepines or other agents.


Many software failures can be traced back to incomplete, inadequate, or poorly-designed quality assurance (QA) testing. Designing and implementing an effective QA process is critical to the delivery of software that performs as intended and delivers the expected results. A graphical user interface (GUI) is often the primary or single point of interaction between the user and the underlying software. No matter how well-planned a GUI and its functionality may be, any failure of the GUI to operate correctly, either from the user's or the owner's perspective, can result in significant loss of market reputation for the entire product. We define and examine ten critical processes in relation to GUI testing and test automation. These include traditional QA testing techniques requiring experience/knowledge on the underlying software and its applications, for effective test execution and software analysis: • Error identification: determine the common user mistakes likely to be made when using the GUI • Character risk level: determine which characters may create problems and when/where (e.g., using reserved characters incorrectly) • Operation usage: determine if/when operations are used incorrectly in the application (e.g., loading an invalid rule file) • Element relationships: determine if/when different settings or combinations of related elements create problems • Limitations and boundary values: determine what issues are created when limits are exceeded, or boundary values not observed • Performance and stress testing: typically observing time and memory consumption performance under extreme conditions • Smoke testing: finding fundamental instability within builds, to prevent superfluous testing • Real-world data: using actual data (e.g., customer data) that is not refined or limited, to ensure adequate coverage of customer-critical issues • Exploratory testing: when bugs are found, performing random testing in the general area, or of elements created by the same developer, to look for additional bugs. • Efficient bug reporting: giving back a clear bug report that can drive the efficiency of the bug fix


This paper discusses the influence of social cultural factors of some products of Islamic law in Indonesia by analyzing ideas of the scholars in the form of fiqh, fatwa, the judge's decision and laws in force in some Muslim countries. It is concluded that in the history of Islamic law, social and cultural factors have an important influence in coloring products of Islamic legal thought.


Since the discovery that both benign and malignant warts follow the prolonged painting with tar of the skin of mice, much investigation has been carried out using this method; nevertheless, as far as I am aware, a detailed study of the natural history of individual warts has not been made, attention so far being directed to individual mice, rather than individual warts. While carrying out. such an investigation on individual warts, a close correlation between malignancy and high rate of growth was observed, and vice versa. The present paper is concerned with this part of their natural history and allied considerations and is divided into four sections, as follows: A. Experimental Conditions; B. Results Obtained; C. Discussion; D. Summary. A. Experimental Conditions A mixed strain of mice was used which had been bred in the laboratory for a number of years; 60 of these mice were painted with a tar of high wart-producing potency for one hundred days on the nape of the neck, along a line 2 cm. long; 54 mice survived the hundred days; one of them never showed any warts, though observed for two hundred and eighty-seven days; upon the remaining 53 animals there grew two hundred and three warts. These warts formed the investigated material. The necks of the mice were examined and the warts measured to the nearest quarter of a millimeter three times a week. The major and minor dimensions and height of the warts were recorded, and from time to time drawings were made of the warts in elevation. Certain characters of the warts were also recorded: whether smooth or rough, scaly, ulcerated, horny, encrusted, exhibiting lateral or deep extension, etc. The records of their superficial dimensions, multiplied together, were plotted against time, so that the progress of the growth of the warts could always be seen, and closely followed.


Nineteen characterized strains and isolates of acidophilic heterotrophic bacteria were screened for their abilities to catalyse the reductive dissolution of the ferric iron mineral schwertmannite, under oxygen-limiting conditions. Acidocella facilis, Acidobacterium capsulatum, and all of the Acidiphilium, Acidocella and Acidobacterium-like isolates that grew in liquid cultures were able to reduce iron. In contrast, neither Acidisphaera rubrifaciens nor three Acidisphaera-like isolates tested were found to have the capacity for dissimilatory iron reduction. One of two iron-oxidizing Frateuria-like isolates also reduced iron under oxygen-limiting conditions. Microbial dissolution of schwertmannite was paralleled with increased concentrations of soluble ferrous iron and sulfate in microbial cultures, together with increased pH values and decreased redox potentials. While dissimilatory ferric iron reduction has been described previously for Acidiphilium spp., this is this first report of this capacity in Acidocella and the moderate acidophile Acidobacterium. The finding has significant implications for understanding of the biogeochemistry of acidic environments.


This review focuses on studies utilizing early, late and slow-wave components of event-related potentials (ERPs) in investigating two mental arithmetic processing (MAP) phenomenons - problem-size and arithmetic-operation effects. While MAP has been associated primarily with slow-wave components of ERPs, inconsistent findings are found in the literature on the sensitivity of early and some late components. In an attempt to theoretically integrate the results of reviewed studies, it is proposed that the amplitude of early and late ERP components are potential indices for measuring the effect of manipulating the problem-size and/or arithmeticoperation during MAP. This conclusion will help in providing more insight into the strategies employed in MAP by the human brain.


A free, multi-platform advanced raster imagery tool (OpenEV) has been developed to facilitate interactive analysis and exploitation of geospatial data. OpenEV was written using a combination of Python, C, and GTK, and uses OpenGL/spl reg/. The components of OpenEV are a library which can be used to build custom tools, and an example application which is a viewing tool made possible using the library. The viewing tool supports basic display and image manipulation, as well as an extensible command shell for more specialized operations. The viewer rapidly displays very large images (over 500 MB) and can manage multiple layers of vector data and single- or multi-channel raster data. Images may be real or complex, and can be viewed in either sensor geometry or georeferenced space. Basic tools for pan, zoom, region select, point marking, and printing are provided. The viewer also allows 3-D interactive perspective viewing, with on-the-fly registration of the elevation data and imagery. Hardware acceleration, when available, enhances the performance of continuous zoom, on-the-fly projection, and texture mapping. The underlying Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) is used to ingest various file formats, including CEOS, TIFF, JPEG, flat raster, and ENVISAT. The command shell provides access to a powerful programming and scripting language (Python) which supports custom extensions and research tool development. This paper describes the structure and current capabilities of OpenEV, as well as future goals.


Introduction: The pleomorphic adenoma (PA) is a benign salivary gland tumor. It has ductal cells,myoepitheliocytes and a stroma with hyalinised, myxoid and chondroid metaplasia zones. On the other hand, the H/ E gives an integral view of the tissue structure. Hematoxylin acts as a basic dye that stains violet. The eosin is an artificial acid dye that stains pink eosinophilic structures. The Eosina Y is strongly fluorescent, which allows to identify with the confocal laser microscope eosinophilic structures that are sometimes little visible to the photonic microscope. Objective: The PA chondroid stroma was analyzed with photonic and confocal scanning laser microscopes to demonstrate the value of the fluorescence emitted by Eosin Y in its structural description. Material & Methods: The histological examination of 10 PA parotid stained with H/E Y was performed. The images of the histological preparations were obtained by means of a photonic optical microscope and a FV1000 Olympus spectral confocal laser microscope, configured for the acquisition of orange / red fluorescence of the Eosin obtained between 555 to 655 nm. The eosin was excited at 543 nm using the He-Ne gas laser. Results: Photonic microscopy: The chondroid tumor areas presented a variable extension predominantly in only 4 cases. Histologically, these areas looked like immature hyaline cartilage, a chondroid type with an amorphous-like basophilic extracellular matrix and lacunae with round or oval chondroidocytes. * Scanning confocal laser microscopy: structures with strong red fluorescence were observed swollen in the extracellular matrix, the pericellular capsule of the chondroidocytes and the collagen of the territorial and inter-territorial matrices. Conclusions: The confocal laser scanning microscope allows visualizing structures in PA slides stained with H/E Y not visible to the clear field. We highlight the usefulness of H/E Y in histopathology both in photonic microscopy and confocal laser scanning microscopy.


This paper aims to develop an ecological history of Royal National Park. The socio-cultural context for the push to reserve such a large tract of land in perpetuity in 1879 includes the Park's early links to the Royal Zoological Society of NSW (formerly the Acclimatisation Society of NSW), in addition to a strong political movement advocating the reservation of open space in urban areas. A selection of maps of the Park situates it in a broader context. Previously unpublished data from 1879 to the present is evidence of increasing formal support for nature conservation and protected areas. Tim Flannery's contentious essay 'Beautiful Lies' (2003) is challenged on the issue of long-term fauna conservation in Australia's national parks. The paper concludes that using an ecological approach to interpreting historical data enables us to gain a clearer grasp of the reasons behind the changes to the Park's boundaries since 1879, the relationship between the Park and its fauna, and the challenges facing the Park as an urban park in the twenty-first century.


Abstract Liberty of thinking is an absolute characteristic of human rights manifested in our society and it has both an individual dimension - meaning having opinions and beliefs - and a social and political dimension - if we think at their development. Liberty of thinking, conscience and religion represent some of the basic components of a democratic society. This also occurs as the most important elements of the identity of a nation and it contributes significantly to its proper development. Human conscience can not and should not be directed by administrative means, but it should always be the result of its liberty of thinking and revealing thoughts. As it is regulated at the constitutional level, liberty of conscience has a complex content. It is one of the oldest citizen liberties, one of tradition, which is known under either its proper name or various aspects, such as liberty of speech, liberty of association and liberty of press.


the spins, in which the angle between adjacent spins is 120◦. However, you have a choice. The spins can wind round the triangle in one sense or in the opposite sense: they possess a chirality. Both configurations are also highly degenerate, as you can subject each of them to a global rotation of all spins by any arbitary angle and the energy will be unchanged. Thus even this simple example illustrates some common effects of frustration: highly degenerate ground states and the importance of chirality. In fact, the high degeneracy only really becomes apparent when you glue triangles or tetrahedra together into a large lattice and this is where the real fun begins. This book is an introduction to frustrated systems but covers the subject in remarkable depth. The nine articles contained within this volume treat many aspects of this field, though the first two-thirds of the book is restricted to theoretical aspects. In this second edition the contributing authors have updated their articles from the 2004 original to bring the topics up to date, although inevitably some are more updated than others. For example, although there is an excellent article on the physics of spin ice, monopoles don't get much of a mention, which is a notable omission as this has been one of the most exciting developments in the field. Nevertheless, for those working in this field, this book is an invaluable contribution and a rich source of authoratitive discussion and review. It is however up against some stiff competition in the form of the Springer book Introduction to Frustrated Magnetism (edited by Lacroix, Mendels and Mila) which contains chapters by many of the same authors who contributed to the present volume. Both books are extremely well produced and contain articles from key figures in the field. Both contain well-written articles of real value and, less significantly, both are bound in attractive dark blue hardback covers. However, if I could only take one frustrated magnetism book on my desert island, then it would have to be the Springer volume, as it has more breadth and insight, particularly into real systems. I still value Diep's volume and have enjoyed reading it. It contains unique insights on many aspects of frustrated magnets and is particulatly good on detailed explorations of the phase diagrams of model systems.


In India large quantity of marine sediments is dredged from harbors and seaports for construction of the marine structures and for maintenance of the shipping channels. The dredged soil requires large area for its disposal. It is recognized that the offshore dumping of dredged soil causes disruption to the aquatic environment. The marine dredge soil cannot be used in the valuable construction process because it exhibits properties such as low shear strength, high natural water content and high compressibility. This paper aims to reuse the dredged marine soil as a sustainable material which is economical for the construction activities. Attempts were made to stabilize the dredged soil for the different applications such as embankment construction, road construction and for landfill. This study investigates the potential reuse of the dredged soil for the road construction. This paper describes a study to solidify the dredged marine sediment by using quarry dust. Quarry dust is a waste product generated from the aggregate production could replace some proportion of soil for the improvement of geophysical properties of the soil. This project made an attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of using quarry dust in modifying the properties of marine sediments, by the means of laboratory tests to assess the compatibility of modifying the marine dredge soil as a construction material for the road construction.


The West Australian Department of Parks and Wildlife (Parks and Wildlife) undertakes and facilitates marine research that informs the management of marine parks and reserves created under the Conservation and Land Management Act 1984 (CALM Act). Broad marine research priorities for management include understanding patterns in the distribution of marine assets and the processes that shape these patterns, improving the design and function of marine reserves, and understanding the ecology of threatened and specially protected marine fauna. More specific and targeted research priorities are required for efficient and effective use of resources. Research relating to the ecological assets listed in each indicative or final marine reserve management plan was prioritised using a framework that considered the ecological and social value of assets, the anthropogenic pressures acting on assets and the current state of knowledge relating to assets. Invertebrates, macroalgae/seagrasses, soft sediment habitat, and intertidal and filter-feeding communities were identified as fundamental research priorities in several marine reserves, whilst the effects of climate change on turtles, coral reef, seagrass, macroalgal and mangrove communities and the effects of fishing on finfish and invertebrate communities were identified as priorities for applied research. A list of >100 marine asset and park specific research strategies is presented, which in combination with fundamental and applied asset priorities identifies focal areas of Parks and Wildlife marine research, promoting efficient use of resources and facilitating collaboration with other research organisations.


Seventy-seven undergraduates and 70 demographically diverse members of the community completed 12 individual differences measures hypothesized to predict lie-telling in everyday life and then kept a diary every day for a week of all of their social interactions and all of the lies that they told during those interactions. Consistent with predictions, the people who told more lies were more manipulative, more concerned with self-presentation, and more sociable. People who told fewer lies were more highly socialized and reported higher quality same-sex relationships. Manipulative people, less highly socialized people, and people with less gratifying same-sex relationships also told especially more self-serving lies, whereas people with higher quality same-sex relationships told relatively more other oriented lies.


Secure computation is increasingly required, most notably when using public clouds. Many secure CPU architectures have been proposed, mostly focusing on single-threaded applications running on a single node. However, security for parallel and distributed computation is also needed, requiring the sharing of secret data among mutually trusting threads running in different compute nodes in an untrusted environment. We propose SDSM, a novel hardware approach for providing a security layer for directory-based distributed shared memory systems. Unlike previously proposed schemes that cannot maintain reasonable performance beyond 32 cores, our approach allows secure parallel applications to scale efficiently to thousands of cores.


If one were to rank the various beliefs or assumptions in the field of curriculum that are thought most secure, the belief in the need for clarity and specificity in stating educational objectives would surely rank among the highest. Educational objectives, it is argued, need to be clearly specified for at least three reasons: first, because they provide the goals toward which the curriculum is aimed; second, because once clearly stated they facilitate the selection and organization of content; third, because when specified in both behavioral and content terms they make it possible to evaluate the outcomes of the curriculum.


Bose-Einstein condensation has been achieved in a magnetically trapped sample of 85Rb atoms. Stable condensates of up to 104 atoms have been created by using a magnetic-field-induced Feshbach resonance to reverse the sign of the zero-field scattering length. These condensates provide unique opportunities for the study of BEC physics. The variation of the scattering length near the resonance has been used to magnetically tune the condensate self-interaction energy over a very wide range. This range extended from very strong repulsive self-interactions to large attractive ones. The effect of moving the condensate through the Feshbach resonance has been studied and compared with theory. Long-lived metastable condensates with attractive interactions have been produced near the zero of the Feshbach resonance. The transition from repulsive to attractive interactions can lead to a "collapse" of the condensate in which the cloud shrinks below our resolution limit, loses a significant number of atoms due to inelas...


Many interactive (real-time) 3D visual simulation applications need large numbers of animated human figures, which incurs a significant computational load. To maintain the frame rate requirements of interactive visual simulation and enable scalability, the load must be kept relatively constant over a range of human figures, actions, and camera placement. Further, for productivity reasons, animation tasks may be written in low-performance interpreted procedural animation languages.
We have created a procedural animation system for human figures in the high-level scripting language Python. Each animation procedure provides a discrete multi-resolution tradeoff between computation cost and result detail. We prioritize actions by their figure's size, importance, and visibility. We use a reactive fixed frame-rate level-of-detail (LOD) control to maintain a nearly constant animation load. Traditional behavioral culling alone can eliminate non-visible actions to lower overall cost. Our 'behavior prioritization' further attempts to hold costs of visible actions relatively constant over a range of figures and actions, while allocating motion task computation to mirror author-defined priorities and camera placement. It is a load-shedding algorithm which can reduce the output detail to save time. Our work is done in the context of an idealized motion generator, a human arm reaching action and a walking action.
We analyze several attributes of the resulting controlled animation system which affect its performance such as the number of levels-of-detail within an animation procedure, the use of randomization in switching delays, a priority factor, and benefit and value functions.
The coupling of time-critical control on top of animation systems written in lower-performance, but more general-purpose, interpreted languages should lead to wider use of those languages for serious realtime animation work. Our control performs a type of run-time optimization on the interpreted code in the context of animation tasks. Data models of human figures bound tightly to multi-resolution procedural animation code form 'encapsulated models' enabling composition of scalable, real-time, animated virtual worlds.


We study modules whose maximal submodules are supplements (direct summands). For a locally projective module, we prove that every max- imal submodule is a direct summand if and only if it is semisimple and projective. We give a complete characterization of the modules whose maximal submodules are supplements over Dedekind domains.


We numerically analyze the group-velocity dispersion (GVD) effect of the nonlinear medium on the femtosecond time-resolved degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) signal with the third-order nonlinear delayed response. As a result, we find that material GVD greatly influences not only the magnitude but also the temporal profile of the DFWM signal.


The study of clitics has been a fertile site for investigating matters of the syntax-phonology interface, arguably second only to phonological phrasing phenomena. For instance, a classical puzzle has been the analysis of Wackernagel clitics, which appear in a second 'position' in the clause, either following the first syntactic phrase or first stressed word (Wackernagel 1892). Recent work have converged on an integrated model, whereby the implementation of clitic placement is distributed across both the syntactic and post-syntactic (PF) components of the grammar (Bošković 2001; Mavrogiorgos 2013; Spencer & Lúıs 2012). Bošković's (2001) manuscript presents an overview of the field at the time, ranging from strongly syntactic approaches to strongly phonological approaches, and based on data from cases such as Serbo-Croatian clitics, argues against these unilateral analyses. A natural question that follows from this conclusion is to what extent these two components may be divorced: if syntactic operations such as movement and PF mechanisms such as phonological filters are independent, then we may expect instances where the syntax is relatively inert while the PF component remains active. Ingush and Chechen, two Northeast Caucasian languages, demonstrate a rare interaction between cliticization and word-level reduplication. In these languages, a clitic 'a appears homophonously in a number of contexts, among them as a clause chaining marker. The conventional definition for a chained clause is a coordinated clause which shares the subject with the other conjunct. The languages exhibit OV word order and the verb phrase may also include preverbal elements (such as light verb constructions) and deictic markers. In chained clauses with transitive verbs (1) or other qualifying preverbal elements (2–3), the clitic 'a is hosted by the immediately preverbal item. Data come from Good (2005) and Nichols (2011).


The authors consider interband and intersubband absorption in HgCdTe/CdTe single quantum well structures. By measuring the transmission in an internal reflection geometry with and without a metallized surface and polarized light, they study the dependence of the infrared absorption on the polarization of the exciting electric field.


Close monitoring of data from individual programmes is required to evaluate the potential of the breast screening programme to reach the Health of the Nation target of 25% reduction in breast cancer mortality in the invited age group by the year 2000. This paper outlines the use of indirect age standardisation techniques to compare the performance of individual programmes in terms of their invasive cancer detection rates. Expected invasive cancer detection rates are calculated by applying data from the Swedish two county study to estimated England and Wales background incidence rates for different age strata. If the national programme overall meets these targets then the required mortality reduction should be achieved. The same method can be used by other (national) screening programmes by applying the relevant background incidence figures to produce internationally comparable data.


Pragmatism's founder, C. S. Peirce, initially envisioned philosophy as a means of rationally validating our beliefs and actions. Afterward, William James changed pragmatism into a way of undermining commitment to rational cogency. With the subsequent turn of various contemporary pragmatisms to relativism and subjectivism, such irrational tendencies have become still more prominent. Vagaries of Value aims to create a version of realistic and rationalistic pragmatism that is systemically viable and does justice to traditional pragmatism's salient insights. Nicholas Rescher strives to return pragmatism to its realistic and objectivistic roots in a detailed survey of issues across the whole board of philosophical thought, action, and evaluation. Rescher argues that the crisis of pragmatism created by today's subjective tendencies should be met by adopting not a revisionary, but a reconstructive understanding of pragmatism, keeping close to its Peircean roots. He argues that such a turning does not mitigate against the pragmatic program's practical orientation, but provides an opportunity for sharpening our understanding of how pragmatism can and should be developed.


The implementation of regional autonomy provides the opportunity for local governments to create progress in many aspects, including in the field of health. The research site is in Bone Regency.The research aimed (1) to investigate and understand the legal politics of the regional autonomy in realizing the good governance in health sector; (2) to investigate and understand the application of the good governance principles in the implementation of the administration affairs of the government.The research was an empirical legal research which usually called a socio-legal research. The research was conducted in the Regional Government of Bone Regency. The research was qualitative and was supported legal materials. The data were analyzed using the descriptive and qualitative content analysis.The research result indicated that (1) the legal policy of the regional autonomy in the realization of the good governance in health sector in Bone Regency was based on right of the health protection; that the government must give the right to every citizen, and the local government of Bone Regency should be involved in the health protection based on the principles of autonomy. That between the local government and the central government there should be a division of authority in order to avoid the overlapping authority. Therefore, the formats of regulatory, funding, and implementation are needed in order that the implementation of the health service could reach the community directly. (2) The application of a good governance in the implementation of the government affairs in the health sector in Bone Regency is measured based on: the community access to the information about the government coordination, the community trust in the government institutions (particularly in the health sector), the consistency of the local government of Bone Regency in enforcing the law when executing the government, and the involvement of the non-governmental elements in the policy making (particularly in the health sector). All these effect satisfaction level of the authority implementation of the local government of Bone regency in the health sector, 20 out of 40 respondents has given their good evaluation in the health sector; that the health service in the regency has been running well.


Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) has undergone a tremendous evolution in the nearly 15 years since it was first described. Continual refinement of the technology and techniques associated with EVAR and the respectable short-term results of this procedure led the United States Food and Drug Administration to approve several devices for the endovascular treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). There has been a corresponding rapid dissemination of this technology throughout the vascular surgery community in the United States. Availability and critical analysis of mid- and long-term follow-up data on the increasing number of patients who have undergone EVAR has begun to raise questions about the long-term durability and effectiveness of EVAR. Numerous complications of EVAR are now recognized and well described in the literature. One of these is graft limb dysfunction. Graft limb occlusion occurs in a significant number of patients and it is imperative that physicians who perform EVAR have a thorough understanding of this condition. There are a variety of factors that predispose patients to development of graft limb occlusion. These factors can be classified as either anatomic or graft-related. When patients present with graft limb occlusion, endovascular treatment is usually possible and it is highly effective. Some cases require traditional surgical treatment. Prevention of graft limb occlusion is of paramount importance. It can only be achieved with an aggressive search for graft limb compromise and liberal use of angioplasty and/or stenting at the time of graft implantation.


Objectives: To evaluate the effect of adjuvant intracameral triamcinolone acetonide (TA) on the surgical results of trabeculectomy with mitomycin C. Materials and Methods: All consecutive trabeculectomy cases performed in the glaucoma clinic between July 2012 and December 2013 were retrospectively reviewed from the patient charts. Only those with follow-up of 12 months or longer were included. Patients with intraoperative intracameral TA (study group, n=19) were compared to those without TA (control group, n=21) in terms of surgical success, intraocular pressure (IOP) change, medication use and complications. Results: Forty eyes of 31 patients (21 male/10 female, mean age 64.2±13.8 years) were included in the study. The mean follow-up period was 20.9±5.1 months and 20.7±6.7 months in the study and control groups, respectively (p=0.830). Baseline IOP was 26.4±9.9 and 25.2±7.6 mmHg (p=0.979), and final IOP was 12.7±2.6 and 13.6±3 mmHg in both groups respectively (p=0.226). At the final follow-up, complete success was observed in 68.4% and 52.4% of the study and control groups (p=0.349) and anti-glaucoma medication was used by 31.6% (mean number of medications: 0.79±1.2) and 47.6% (mean number of medications: 1.33±1.7), respectively (p>0.05). Bleb encapsulation, leakage, suture-lysis and hypotony rates were similar in both groups (for all, p>0.05). Cataract progression was noted in six (35.3%) and in five (26.3%) of the phakic eyes in the study and control groups, respectively (p=0.720). Conclusion: When used intracamerally, TA did not increase the complication rate in trabeculectomy surgery. Although the group that received TA showed lower IOP levels, use of fewer medications and fewer eyes requiring medication, the differences did not reach significance.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the telomerase activity in human non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and to investigate the possibility of telomerase as a tumor biological marker.

METHODS
The semi-quantitative assay and expression of PCR-based telomeric repeats amplification Protocol ELISA (TRAP-PCR-ELISA) and PAGE (TRAP-PCR-PAGE) were detected in 15 NSCLC tissues and 15 tumor-adjacent tissues, 3 normal lung tissues.

RESULTS
No telomerase activity in 15 tumor-adjacent tissues and 3 normal lung tissues was detected, However, of 15 NSCLC tissues, 13 were positive for telomerase activity with a 86.7% positive rate, telomerase activity was significantly higher in NSCLC than in Tumor-adjacent tissues and normal lung tissues (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION
The results suggest that telomerase is a tumor specific gene marker.


Short Message Service (SMS) is a text messaging service component of phone, web, or mobile communication systems, using standardized communications protocols that allow the exchange of short text messages between fixed line or mobile phone devices. Security of SMS's is still an open challenging task. Various Cryptographic algorithms have been applied to secure the mobile SMS. The success of any cryptography technique depends on various factors like complexity, time, memory requirement, cost etc. In this paper we survey the most common and widely used SMS Encryption techniques. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Recent trends on Cryptography on android message applications have also been discussed. The latest cryptographic algorithm is based on lookup table and dynamic key which is easy to implement and to use and improve the efficiency. In this paper, an improvement in lookup table and dynamic algorithm is proposed. Rather than using the Static Lookup Table, Dynamic Lookup Table may be used which will improve the overall efficiency.


The COVID-19 pandemic challenges higher-education institutions in Latin America. Switching from face-to-face to online instruction has profound implications regarding access in a strikingly unequal geographical region. The article highlights that the pandemic may have lasting consequences in the ways we understand the provision of higher education in Latin America. The increasing volatile and uncertain scenario requires institutions, educators, and students to adapt to the new normal shortly.


Blockchain protocols have revolutionized the way individuals and devices can interact and transact over the internet. More recently, a trend has emerged to harness blockchain technology as a catalyst to enable advanced security features in distributed applications, in particular fairness. However, the tools employed to achieve these security features are either resource wasteful (e.g., time-lock primitives) or only efficient in theory (e.g., witness encryption). We present McFly, a protocol that allows one to efficiently "encrypt a message to the future" such that the receiver can decrypt the message almost effortlessly. Towards this goal, we design and implement a novel primitive we call signature-based witness encryption and combine it with a BFT blockchain (or a blockchain finality layer) in such a way that the decryption of the message can be piggybacked on the tasks already performed by the blockchain committee, resulting in almost-for-free decryption. To demonstrate the practicality of the McFly protocol, we implemented our signature-based witness encryption scheme and evaluated it on a standard laptop with Intel i7 @2,3 GHz. For the popular BLS12-381 curve, a 381-bit message and a committee of size 500 the encryption time is 9 . 8 s and decryption is 14 . 8 s . The scheme remains practical for a committee of size 2000 with an encryption time of 58 s and decryption time of 218 s .


From reactions of equimolar quantities of the heavier lanthanoids (M = Gd – Lu) with the elements sulfur and iodine in fused silica ampoules (900 °C, 10 d) phase-pure samples of the lanthanoid sulfide iodides MSI (M = Gd – Lu) could be prepared. Besides the already structurally determined sulfide iodides MSI with M = Gd and Dy, all samples could be characterized by means of X-ray powder diffraction and their magnetic behavior was examined. In addition a single-crystal structure refinement for HoSI was carried out (orthorhombic, Pmmn; a = 415.09(4) pm, b = 531.34(5) pm, c = 920.53(9) pm), which confirmed the isotypy of the later lanthanoid sulfide iodides with the structure of FeOCl. On the basis of the X-ray powder diffraction experiments all prepared compounds could be indexed in a primitive orthorhombic unit cell. An analysis of the determined lattice parameters and cell volumes resulted in the typical lanthanoid contraction for compounds within the row of the 4f elements. The magnetochemical studies led to the expected effective magnetic moments for trivalent lanthanoid cations without showing any magnetic ordering phenomenon.


Breast Cancer Series: Hormone Therapy (FCS8836/FY906)
Women who are at high risk of getting breast cancer and women who have had breast cancer may be prescribed daily oral medications to block the estrogen receptor site or decrease the production of estrogen. This 2-page fact sheet describes various hormone therapy options. It is part of a 12-part Breast Cancer series. Written by Karen C. Daily and Martha C. Monroe and published by the UF Department of Family Youth and Community Sciences, June 2011.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fy906
Minor Revision February 2015.


Pregnancy is accompanied by changes in thyroid function. Due to the increased synthesis of thyroid binding globulin and the thyroid-stimulating effect of human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), serum concentrations of thyroid hormones will increase in the first trimester of pregnancy (total T4, T3). Free T4 levels decrease during the latter half of pregnancy. Hyperthyroidism during pregnancy is usually due to Graves' disease. Definitive therapy may be considered for cases prior to pregnancy, although a medical management as would be given during pregnancy is an equally good option. The medical management of hyperthyroidism consists of a monotherapy with thyreostatics in which the recommended dose needs to be adjusted on the basis of free T4 in the high-normal and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) in the low-normal area so as to minimise the risk of foetal hypothyroidism. The transplacental passage of maternal TSH receptor stimulating antibodies may cause foetal hyperthyroidism. Another cause of maternal hyperthyroidism during pregnancy is 'gestational transient thyrotoxicosis', which is associated with high hCG levels during the first trimester of pregnancy. It is nearly always accompanied by hyperemesis gravidarum. Hypothyroidism in pregnancy has negative consequences for the foetus. If the hypothyroidism is apparent prior to pregnancy, it should be corrected before conception (target TSH value of 1 mU/l). If discovered during pregnancy, treatment with levothyroxine should be started as soon as possible. In the case of a pre-existing hypothyroidism a 25-50% increase in the levothyroxine dosage is often needed during the first trimester of pregnancy. This is possibly due to an increased requirement. An adequate serum concentration of T4 is necessary for foetal brain development.


Some of the most commonly performed surgical operations in the world, including laser-assisted in-situ keratomileusis (LASIK), lens replacement (e.g. cataract surgery), and keratoplasty (cornea transplant), now employ therapeutic infrared femtosecond lasers (FSLs) for their extreme precision, low energy delivered into tissue and advanced ablation characteristics. Although the widely exploited applications of FSLs in medical therapeutics offer significant benefits, FSLs must generate very high intensities in order to achieve optical breakdown, the predominant tissue ablative mechanism, which can also stimulate nonlinear optical effects such as harmonic generation, an effect that generates coherent visible and UV light in the case of second- (SHG) and third-harmonic generation (THG), respectively. In order to improve the understanding of HG in corneal tissue, the effect of FSL polarization and pulse energy were investigated. FSL stimulated SHG intensity in corneal tissue was measured as the laser polarization was rotated 360 degrees. Further, the pulse energy at the SHG wavelength were measured for single FSL pulses as the pulse energy at the fundamental wavelength was varied through a range of clinically relevant values. The results of this study revealed SHG intensity oscillated with laser polarization, having a variation greater than 20%. This relationship seems to due to the intrinsic anisotropy of collagen fibril hyperpolarizability, not related to tissue birefringence. SHG pulse energy measurements showed an increase in SHG pulse energy with increasing FSL pulse energy, however conversion efficiency decreased. This may be related to the dynamic relationship between optical breakdown leading to tissue destruction and HG evolution.


We consider a simple supersymmetric hidden sector: pure SU( N ) gauge theory. Dark matter is made up of hidden glueballinos with mass m X and hidden glueballs with mass near the confinement scale Λ. For m X ∼ 1 TeV and Λ ∼ 100 MeV, the glueballinos freeze out with the correct relic density and self-interact through glueball exchange to resolve small-scale structure puzzles. An immediate consequence is that the glueballino spectrum has a hyperfine splitting of order Λ 2 /m X ∼ 10 keV. We show that the radiative decays of the excited state can explain the observed 3.5 keV X-ray line signal from clusters of galaxies, Andromeda, and the Milky Way.


Through the advancement of the Internet of Things (IoT), the development of devices for task automation, data extraction, and communication between devices has become increasingly easy. But as a result, tens of zettabytes of data are being generated every year, causing excessive bandwidth consumption as well as slow response times for devices. One of the ways to solve the problem is with the use of Edge Computing networks, such paradigm allows the transfer of the data processing to the edges of the network. Since the Edge is mostly composed of devices of varied and limited computational capacity, a good way to distribute the tasks that must be processed is needed. Therefore, efficient, and well tested, scheduling algorithms are a way to distribute tasks in such a way that the time required to perform them is minimized. This work explores the comparison o three distinct scheduling algorithms in Edge Computing: the Modified Monte Carlo Tree Search; the Improved Binary Grey Wolf Optmizer and the Application-aware Scheduling Algorithm, analyzing their speed and efficiency as an evaluation metric, using the iSPD grid simulator.


The books by Richard Thomson and Christophe Charle, and the multi-authored volume Le Miel et le fiel issue from clearly defined and separate disciplinary fields: art history, contemporary (cultural) history, and theatre studies. None of the three, to all appearances, attempts to go beyond the boundaries of its academic domain. Focusing on a brief period–the last decade of the 19th century–and a small geographical area–France–La Republique troublee looks at the reactive response of painting, a...


The polypeptide composition of four Tupaia herpesvirus strains--of which two were isolated from malignant tumors--was analysed by one- and two-dimensional gel analysis. It was found that purified virions of the tree shrew consist of a least 37 viral polypeptides when determined by SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The number of viral polypeptides increased to 49 when analysed by the two-dimensional technique with the molecular weights ranging from 12.000 to 230.000. Variations in the viral polypeptide patterns made it possible to differentiate between the different virus isolated even by the one-dimensional method. The two-dimensional technique allows the identification of virus-specific spots among the polypeptides of virus-infected cells. Radiolabeling experiments identified at least five glycoproteins which seem to reside on the surface of the virus envelope. In addition, neutralisation and immunodiffusion tests were performed which revealed cross-reactivities among the tupaia herpesvirus strains. Rabbit anti-tupaia herpesvirus sera did not neutralize other animal or human herpesvirus.


Mitochondrial disorders represent a large group of severe genetic disorders mainly impacting organ systems with high energy requirements. Leigh syndrome (LS) is a classic example of a mitochondrial disorder resulting from pathogenic mutations that disrupt oxidative phosphorylation capacities. Currently, evidence-based therapy directed towards treating LS is sparse. Recently, the cell-permeant substrates responsible for regulating the electron transport chain have gained attention as therapeutic agents for mitochondrial diseases. We explored the therapeutic effects of introducing tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) intermediate substrate, succinate, as a cell-permeable prodrug NV118, to alleviate some of the mitochondrial dysfunction in LS. The results suggest that a 24-hour treatment with prodrug NV118 elicited an upregulation of glycolysis and mitochondrial membrane potential while inhibiting intracellular reactive oxygen species in LS cells. The results from this study suggest an important role for TCA intermediates for treating mitochondrial dysfunction in LS. We show, here, that NV118 could serve as a therapeutic agent for LS resulting from mutations in mtDNA in complex I and complex V dysfunctions.


Flow visualization refers to a method used for qualitatively obtain information in the field of fluid mechanics. In this work, we show a simple single lens system using laser light illumination to observe flow dynamics using a setup similar to the schileren setup. As we will detail, it is based on a phase contrast technique in which the filter is made of a nonlinear optical material, therefore it is self-aligned and depends mainly on the illuminating intensity. Due to these characteristics, the resulting setup is extremely robust and builds up within a few milliseconds.


In contrast to most other analyses of Romani migration, this article is based on a series of interviews conducted with Romani migrants which formed part of an International Organisation for Migration (IOM) survey. The survey results suggest that socioeconomic factors are an important catalyst in the emigration of Slovak Roma. After providing a background to the migrations, the article analyses the Communist regime's policy towards the Roma, and its impact on their socioeconomic status both prior to and after the changes of 1989. The authors identify a "Romani socialist-style middle class," created primarily by these policies, which constitutes the primary group of migrants. Reasons for their migration include limited chances for personal development, a perception of being discriminated against and a lack of focus on developing local responses. Their migration signifies an attempt to escape from social exclusion. The article further considers the reasons why migration is seen as a preferable solution, and then moves on to an analysis of both Romani and majority perceptions of the migrations. The authors conclude with a set of recommendations for policy-makers and non-governmental organisations.


Finding novel and effective antibiotics for treatment of Legionella disease is a challenging field. Treatment with antibiotics usually cures Legionella infection; however, if the resultant disease is not timely recognized and treated properly, it leads to poor prognosis and high case fatality rate. Legionella pneumophila DrrA protein (Defects in Rab1 recruitment protein A)/also known as SidM affects host cell vesicular trafficking through modification of the activity of cellular small guanosine triphosphatase )GTPase( Rab (Ras-related in brain) function which facilitates intracellular bacterial replication within a supporter vacuole. Also, Legionella pneumophila LepA and LepB (Legionella effector protein A and B) proteins suppress host-cell Rab1 protein's function resulting in the cell lysis and release of bacteria that subsequently infect neighbour cells. Legionella readily develops resistant to antibiotics and, therefore, new drugs with different modes of action and therapeutic strategic approaches are urgently required among antimicrobial drug therapies;gene therapy is a novel approach for Legionnaires disease treatment. On the contrary to the conventional treatment approaches that target bacterial proteins, new treatment interventions target DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (Ribonucleic acid) species, and different protein families or macromolecular complexes of these components. The above approaches can overcome the problems in therapy of Legionella infections caused by antibiotics resistance pathogens. Targeting Legionella genes involved in manipulating cellular vesicular trafficking using a dendrimer-mediated antisense therapy is a promising approach to inhibit bacterial replication within the target cells.


Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have two defense perspectives firstly, to defend your network, resources and other information assets from this disastrous attack. Secondly, to prevent your network to be the part of botnet (botforce) bondage to launch attacks on other networks and resources mainly be controlled from a control center. This work focuses on the development of a botnet prevention system for Internet of Things (IoT) that uses the benefits of both Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Distributed Blockchain (DBC). We simulate and analyze that using blockchain and SDN, how can detect and mitigate botnets and prevent our devices to play into the hands of attackers.