The object of this experiment was to study some common motor achievements of children at the preschool ages in an effort to discover (1) the stages of development in selected motor achievements, (2) the sequence of development of these stages, (3) the interrelationships of these motor achievements, and (4) their relationship to sex and to ascendance scores. The tests devised were given to ninety-eight children in the preschool laboratories of the University of Iowa. These tests were designed to provide means of discovering the motor development of children from two to six years of age by utilization of normal activities. The selected activities were: ascending and descending ladders, ascending and descending steps, hopping, skipping, jumping, balancing on path and circle, ball throwing, ball catching, and ball bouncing. Preliminary observation and testing were carried through in order to determine what the stages of performance were. The objective was to record the stages which clearly differed one from the other. How they line up in regard to age progress is the ultimate end of the study. Bayley (1) made a seriatim study of sixty-one children, testing these children from infancy up to three years of age. She says, "There remains the possibility that the motor functions measured during the first three years are actually less discreet and independent than are the motor skills measured at later ages. If this is true, we may find that a gradual increase in the functional independence of motor skills will continue for some time after the age of three years." (1, p. 18) One purpose of the present study is to discover the increase of motor skills into the four-, five-, and six-year levels.


Background: Organophosphorus (OP) compounds have intense anticholinesterase activity and are commonly used as insecticides and pesticides. OP poisoning is a global health problem and poses a threat to human health. Case Report: Here we report two sisters, aged 3 and 4 years, who had inadvertently eaten agricultural pesticides. These patients had a decreased level of consciousness, nausea, and vomiting. We do not have pralidoxime in this center and the adjacent center, so we used atropine as the primary drug in treating these patients. However, after 4 days, the 3-year-old patient felt a weakness in upper and lower limb movements. Conclusion: In the treatment of OP poisoning, it is necessary to pay special attention to delayed complications such as intermediate syndrome. Citation :


ABSTRACT Introduction: Aberrations in feedback learning are hypothesised to contribute to the behavioural disruptions and impairment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, few studies have evaluated the relation of reward/punishment feedback and ADHD symptom severity on learning. The current study evaluates the differential effects of reward and punishment feedback on learning among adults with elevated ADHD. Methods: One hundred five participants self-reported their level of current ADHD symptoms and completed an innovative instrumental learning task. Results: Consistent with predictions, participants with low self-reported ADHD symptom severity benefitted equally from reward and punishment feedback during the learning task, whereas participants with high self-reported symptom severity performed better (indexed by accuracy on learning task) from reward than punishment feedback trials. Conclusions: Overall, adults with high self-reported symptom severity of ADHD learned more from reward-based feedback, which provides critical implications for motivational theories about ADHD, as well as for treatment protocols. Future work should examine the translatability of results within a treatment setting.


To be viable for safety-critical applications, such as autonomous driving and assistive robotics, autonomous agents should adhere to safety constraints throughout the interactions with their environments. Instead of learning about safety by collecting samples, including unsafe ones, methods such as Hamilton-Jacobi (HJ) reachability compute safe sets with theoretical guarantees using models of the system dynamics. However, HJ reachability is not scalable to high-dimensional systems, and the guarantees hinge on the quality of the model. In this work, we inject HJ reachability theory into the constrained Markov decision process (CMDP) framework, as a control-theoretical approach for safety analysis via model-free updates on state-action pairs. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the HJ safety value can be learned directly on vision context, the highest-dimensional problem studied via the method to-date. We evaluate our method on several benchmark tasks, including Safety Gym and Learn-to-Race (L2R), a recently-released high-fidelity autonomous racing environment. Our approach has significantly fewer constraint violations in comparison to other constrained RL baselines, and achieve the new state-of-the-art results on the L2R benchmark task. We release our code in the supplementary material.


The effects of cold plasma under atmospheric pressure are being explored for medical ap‐ plications. It was found that plasma effects on cells correspond to a plasma–medium in‐ teraction; thus, plasma-treated cell culture medium alone is able to influence the cell behavior. Here, we discovered that the liquid-mediated effect of atmospheric-pressure ar‐ gon plasma on mouse liver epithelial cells persists up to 21 days of storage; i.e., the liquid preserves the characteristics once induced by the argon plasma. Earlier investigations of our group revealed that temperature and pH, hydrogen peroxide production and oxygen content can be excluded as initiators of the detrimental biological changes. As we found here, the increased osmolality in the media caused by plasma treatment can also be ex‐ cluded as a reason for the observed cell effects. Conversely, we found changes in the components of cell culture medium by fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) and decreased cell viability in plasma-treated media independent of the presence of fetal calf serum (FCS) during plasma treatment. The persistent biological effect on plasma-treated liquids observed here could open up new medical applications. Stable plasma-treated liq‐ uids could find application for dermatological, dental, or orthopedic therapy. cells were ascertained. We discovered that the liquid-mediated effect of atmospheric-pressure argon plasma on mouse liver epithelial cell–cell contacts and cell membrane microvilli persists up to even 21 days or 7 days of storage, respectively. Earlier investigations of our group revealed that temperature and pH (both were constant) as well as hydrogen peroxide production and oxygen content (both decreased within 1 day) can be excluded as initiators of the detrimental biological changes. As we found here, increased osmolality in the media caused by plasma treatment can also be excluded as a reason for the observed cell effects. On the other hand, we found an additional peak in size-exclusion chromatography analysis in basic DMEM after plasma treatment and significantly decreased cell viability in plasma-treated media independent of the presence of FCS during plasma treatment. High molecular compounds generated during plasma treatment of DMEM without


Abslracf-Theoretical and practical aspects of the design of a binary FM signal originating from a single frequency source are presented. Such a technique permits a high degree of frequency and phase stability which cannot be achieved with conventional methods. The line frequencies are inherently locked to ,the bit speed, are orthogonal to each other, and always have a predetermined phase at the bit transition points. Consequently, the intersymbol interference is negligible and the original message can be recovered by noncoherent FM or a coherent process using either differential or absolute reference. There is no need to maintain such an absolute reference at the receiver, since the reference forms an inherent part of the transmitted signal and is easily separable. Three simple and practical embodiments of the system are presented; either method generates the desired signal and reconstructs the original data input. Finally, the experimental model is discussed and certain empirical results presented.


The authors report their experience with an unusual case of intracerebral sarcoma of meningeal cell origin in an 8 1/2-year-old girl. This tumor occurred 6 1/2 years after cranial irradiation at relatively low dosage (2200 rads) had been delivered to the head in the course of a multimodality treatment for acute lymphocytic leukemia. The tumor recurred approximately 10 months after the first surgical intervention. Macroscopic total excision of the recurrent growth followed by whole-brain irradiation (4500 rads) failed to eradicate it completely and local recurrence prompted reoperation 18 months later. This complication of treatment in long-term childhood leukemia survivors is briefly discussed, as well as the pathology of meningeal sarcomas.


Background: The exact pathophysiology of primary Orthostatic Tremor (OT) is unknown. A central oscillator is assumed, and previous imaging studies show involvement of cerebellar pathways. However, the presence of ataxia on clinical exam is disputed. We set out to study ataxia in OT prospectively. Methods: EMG-confirmed primary OT subjects and spousal controls received a neurological exam with additional semiquantitative evaluations of ataxia as part of a multinational, prospective study. These included detailed limb coordination (DLC), detailed stance and gait evaluation (DS), and the Brief Ataxia Rating Scale (BARS). Intra- and inter-rater reliability were assessed and satisfactory. Results: 34 OT subjects (mean age = 67 years, 88% female) and 21 controls (mean age = 66 years, 65% male) were enrolled. Average disease duration was 18 years (range 4–44). BARS items were abnormal in 88% of OT patients. The OT subjects were more likely to have appendicular and truncal ataxia with significant differences in DLC, DS and BARS. Ocular ataxia and dysarthria were not statistically different between the groups. Discussion: Mild-to-moderate ataxia could be more common in OT than previously thought. This is supportive of cerebellar involvement in the pathophysiology of OT. We discuss possible implications for clinical care and future research. Highlights: Previous studies of Primary Orthostatic Tremor (OT) have proposed pathophysiologic involvement of the cerebellar pathways. However, presence of ataxia has not been systematically studied in OT. This is a prospective comprehensive ataxia assessment in OT compared to controls. Mild-to-moderate appendiculo-truncal ataxia was found to be common in OT.


Purpose
Knowledge management (KM) is crucial to ensure construction organisations effectively take advantage of existing expertise, engendering faster and more effective decision-making. Most importantly, it helps organisations to learn from past experiences. Despite its increasing academic attention, the implementation of KM is still relatively slow across the construction industry. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain a renewed understanding of the extent of KM practices in construction.

Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative approach using a questionnaire survey was used to prioritise the 15 critical factors and 9 enables of knowledge creation. Finally, an exploratory factor analysis is used to determine the principal elements of successful KM implementation in construction.

Findings
KM in a construction organisation is significantly influenced by knowledge sharing, collaboration, learning from mistakes, employee training and knowledge strategy. On the other hand, knowledge is created mostly through project mistakes, individual constant self-improvement, challenging barrier, review session and brainstorming discussion. With factor analysis technique, three underlying factors impacting KM practices are capacity and capability improvement, long-term commitment and innovation and synergetic working culture.

Research limitations/implications
Questionnaire survey was used as the single data collection instrument. The findings of the current study shed light on the salient issues affecting KM practices in construction but may not generalise to organisations operating in other industries.

Practical implications
These findings can support first-order KM implementation decision-making and enable the exploitation of existing knowledge assets towards achieving sustainable development and competitive advantage.

Originality/value
Effective KM practices are about finding the best ways to deliver the right knowledge to the right person at the right time, enabling informed decision-making and improving operational efficiencies. The contribution of this study is built upon the examination of the underlying factors of KM implementation; the findings provide insights into the core aspects of KM practices, facilitating managers in prioritising KM strategies that are really going to make a difference.


The aim of the study is to investigate what possibilities teachers have to identify bilingual pupils in the younger years in elementary school risking to develop reading and writing difficulties. A part of this aim is to examine the available working methods of the teachers, as well as how they collaborate on the younger pupil´s reading and writing skills. Qualitative interviews are conducted and a total of six teachers have been involved in the study. The results show that the school has a good chance of discovering multilingual pupils who are at risk of developing reading and writing difficulties. However, according to the results there are several difficulties connected to the pupils´ skills and multilingualism. Moreover, the teacher's further education as well as their mutual cooperation could be improved.


The technique of density matrix equation (DME) for a small system interacting with a bath is explained in detail. Special attention is given to the nonsecular DME that is needed in the vicinity of overdamped tunnelling resonances in molecular magnets (MM). The relaxation terms of the DME for MM are represented in the universal form that does not employ any unknown spin-lattice coupling constants and absorbs the information about the spin Hamiltonian in the exact basis states and transition frequencies. This makes adding new types of anisotropy easy and error-free. The Mathematica code is available from the author.


There is a tendency abroad among the members of the medical profession to be intolerant of interference in all branches of science involved in medicine. We admit that medical knowledge is based on chemistry, physics and zoology, and yet the non-medical chemist, physicist or biologist is usually ignored or even told to mind his own business when medical problems are under invest igation. It has been pointed out in these columns that it would be advantageous if every teacher in the medical school had passed through the full medical curriculum, so that he would be in a position to appreciate the limits of what may be termed medically applied chemistry, medically applied physics and medically applied biology. This is obviously a matter of expediency. The professor of chemistry would find it difficult to determine how much 01' how little pure chemistry the medical student requires for a proper understanding of those processes which govern the function of the cell. Unless he possessed a wide knowledge of physiological and pathological chemistry, he would tend to give instruction in very elementary science and to introduce details concerning chapters of chemistry not even remotely connected with medicine. Similarly a non-medical expert teaching physics rarely has any conception of the extent of physical knowledge that should be taught to medical students. It requires an extensive and intimate knowledge of the physical problems ill cellular physiology, of the dynamics and mechanics of the body fluids and muscular organs and of the physical basis of many pathological states to appreciate the extent of training in this science needed by medical students. The same disadvantages obtain when the non-medical biologist endeavours to select from his wider range of information the kind .and amount of knowledg« suited to med ical edueation. For these reasons we have advocated that the experts responsible for the teaching of these sciences to medical students should themselves have studied medicine in all its branches. There is, however, another aspect of this question which should be examined with earl'. As new problems are attacked and fresh avenues of research are opened, the range of knowledge of pure chemical, physical 01' biological science involved is gradually extended. The expert in medical chemistry blocks the COUl'Sl' of progl'l'SS in his own field if he neglects to confer from time to time with the non-medical chemical expert. The same applies, to both the physicist and the biologist. Life is too short for anyone man to command expertnes» in all branches of medicine and of the allied sciences. In a few institutions, like the Lister I nstitut e of Preventive Medicine, non-medical chemists are appointcd to conduct bio-ehem ical research in «onuexion wit h pat hological problems. It is, however, \'Pry rare iudverl, for medical practitioners engaged in research to seek the collaboration of the non-medical expert in the one or other of the fundamental sciences. It must never be forgotten that Pasteur, to whom medicine owes the possibility of bacteriology, was not medically trained. Many of the problems of medicine arc so closely shrouded in mystery that a solution call only be expected if a co-ordinated effort is made to investigate every aspect. \Ve should 1I0t hesitate to appeal to the great ehemical, physical, zoological and botanical institutions of the Commonwealth for assistance in wresting her secrets from :\ature. 'I'he objections raised in the ease of the teacher of students to the non-medically t rained scientist do not obtain when collaboration ean be offered by the skilled medical research student. There are many hiatuses in medical information'that could be filled with comparative ease, if the problems could be presented by the medical expert to the pure chemist, physicist 01' biologist. It needs but a slight modification of the position adopted by the members of the medical profession to institute an admirable system of co-operation and combined endeavour. We are convinced that the scientists in our universities and in the 8tate-supported museums and analogous institutions will not hesitate to'lend their aid if it IS frankly sought. • CHRONIC NEPHHlTIS,


In spite of having been the object of considerable attention, the histopathological grading of oligodendrogliomas is still controversial. The determination of reliable biomarkers capable of improving the malignancy grading remains an essential step in working toward better therapeutic management of patients. Therefore the metabolome of 34 human brain biopsies, histopathologically classified as low‐grade (LGO, N = 10) and high‐grade (HGO, N = 24) oligodendrogliomas, was studied using high‐resolution magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (HRMAS NMR) and multivariate statistical analysis. The classification model obtained afforded a clear distinction between LGOs and HGOs and provided some useful insights into the different metabolic pathways that underlie malignancy grading. The analysis of the most discriminant metabolites in the model revealed the presence of tumoral hypoxia in HGOs. The statistical model was then used to study biopsy samples that were classified as intermediate oligodendrogliomas (N = 6) and glioblastomas (GBMs) (N = 30) by histopathology. The results revealed a gradient of tumoral hypoxia increasing in the following direction: LGOs, intermediate oligodendrogliomas, HGOs, and GBMs. Moreover upon analysis of the clinical evolution of the patients, the metabolic classification seems to provide a closer correlation with the actual patient evolution than the histopathological analysis. Magn Reson Med 59:959–965, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Text Categorization (TC) is the discipline concerned with the construction of automatic text classifiers, i.e. programs capable of assigning to a document one or more among a set of predefined categories based on the content of the document. Building these classifiers is itself done automatically, by means of a general inductive process that learns the characteristics of the categories from a set of preclassified documents. In this paper we discuss a class of applications, automatic indexing with controlled vocabularies, that is of direct concern to organizing digital libraries. We exemplify this class of applications by discussing an ongoing project aimed at classifying scientific papers about computer science with respect to the ACM Classification Scheme. When it was proclaimed that the Library contained all books, the first impression was one of extravagant happiness. All men felt themselves to be the masters of an intact and secret treasure. There was no personal or world problem whose eloquent solution did not exist in some hexagon. (. . . ) As was natural, this inordinate hope was followed by an excessive depression. The certitude that some shelf in some hexagon held precious books and that these precious books were inaccessible, seemed almost intolerable. [Jorge Luis Borges, The Library of Babel, 1941]


In the modern world, there is an increased need for language translation. Attempts of
language translation are as old as computer themselves. Machine translation is the
attempt to automate all, or part of the process of translating from one human language to
another language. Machine Translation involves translating from a source natural
language to a target language. Machine Translation is hard because structures in one
human language often do not correspond in a simple way to structures in another. This
paper represents a prototype of a Simple Malay to English Translator. This translator is
developed to translate simple Malay sentence to English sentence since there is not many
Malay-English translator available. The main tools that will be used for the project
development are Java Language, Forte for Java 4.0 Community Edition and Microsoft
Notepad version 5.1. From the research done, a dictionary that is used for a machine
translator is usually being created in a notepad file for easy retrieval compared to using
Microsoft Access of other database application. The ambiguity problem would not be
addressed in this project. Hence, the goal of the project is to translate syntactically correct
and the semantic factor is not taken into consideration.


This paper proposes a novel data acquisition framework in sensor networks using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with the goal of increasing the efficiency of the data gathering efforts. To maximize the system throughput, we introduce a priority-based frame selection scheme to suppress the number of redundant data transmissions between sensor nodes and the UAV. Toward this goal, we classify the nodes inside the UAV's coverage area into different frames according to their locations. Taking advantage of the mobility of the UAV, we assign different transmission priorities to nodes in different frames. To do that, we introduce an adjustment to the contention window value used in IEEE 802.11 MAC, thereby defining a lower contention window range to the frame with higher priority (urgent area) and a higher contention window range to the frame with lower priority (less important area). The proposed framework leads to a reduction in packet collisions and, at the same time, minimizes the packet loss originated from nodes in the rear-side of the UAV when the UAV moves in the forward direction. To optimize the networks' energy consumption, we present a novel routing protocol based on the aforementioned framework. By leveraging the proposed framework and routing algorithm, we aim to reduce the transmission distances between senders and receivers. A shorter distance leads to better channel quality and energy savings, as is verified by our simulation studies and results.


Marketing of specialist services to referring physicians can be highly effective at influencing referral patterns if the referring physician's needs are taken into account. Furthermore, it is possible to generate referrals from nonreferring physicians by approaching them correctly. The ideal approach is for a specialist to treat non-referring physicians as though they referred the patient, even when they didn't. This practice allows the specialist to demonstrate communications service quality in a non-aggressive, non-sales context. The United Weight Control case study summarizes the impact of a referral-generation strategy with "before" and "after" analyses of the strategy's cost and effectiveness.


This study investigates the degree of comparability between TEPS and TOEIC regarding test content and construct considering that these elements are important since they are frequently utilized as official English tests in Korea. The New TEPS, an updated version of the original TEPS that reflects the needs analysis, and TOEIC, which was revised in 2016, were analyzed based on the following theoretical frameworks that focus on language elements. This study systematically analyzed test attributes based on: 1) Test Task Characteristics (type, length, speed, etc.) of each test section and item distribution based on the type and content category, 2) Various corpus indices of the test content, and 3) Test Usefulness (construct validity, authenticity, and interactiveness), comparing the overall test comparability between the New TEPS and TOEIC. Results indicate that although the tests' objectives and development foundations differ, there were similarities in content and construct. Nevertheless, a handful of discrepancies were also identified, necessitating the thorough examination of the tests' compatibility when interpreting test results. In addition, based on the theoretical framework of Test Usefulness, the strengths and weaknesses of each test's content and construct were examined. This study also postulates a suitable direction to develop a valid communicative proficiency test.


A high-flux thin film nanocomposite (TFN) nanofiltration (NF) membrane for low pressure operation (3.5 bar) was fabricated by blending purified amino-functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (NH2-SWCNTs) with piperazine (PIP) as aqueous phase monomers through interfacial polymerization (IP). The surface properties and structures of the polyamide (PA) active layer were suitably tailored by introducing different amounts of NH2-SWCNTs into the PA layer. It was found that the homogeneous incorporation of NH2-SWCNTs facilitated a more integral PA layer along with improved roughness, hydrophilicity, and surface charge of the modified membranes, which could be validated by membrane characterisation including SEM, AFM, ATR-FTIR, XPS, zeta potential and water contact angle measurements. Based on cross-flow NF tests, the optimized ultra-thin NH2-SWCNT-TFN membranes with 0.002 wt% of NH2-SWCNTs exhibited outstanding water permeability of up to 17.8 L m−2 h−1 bar−1, 71.1% higher than that of the pristine membrane, along with high MgSO4 rejection of 91.0% and Na2SO4 rejection of 96.34%. Meanwhile, NH2-SWCNT-TFN membranes also showed excellent long-term stability and antifouling ability. This work demonstrates a facile strategy to fabricate a scalable, low-pressure and ultra-thin TFN membrane with excellent performance.


Nowadays, machine learning plays a key role in developing plenty of applications, e.g., smart homes, smart medical assistance, and autonomous driving. A major challenge of these applications is preserving high quality of the training and the serving data. Nevertheless, existing data cleaning methods cannot exploit context information. Thus, they usually fail to track shifts in the data distributions or the associated error profiles. To overcome these limitations, we introduce, in this paper, a novel method for automated tabular data cleaning powered by dynamic functional dependency rules extracted from a live context model. As a proof of concept, we create a smart home use case to collect data while preserving the context information. Using two different data sets, our evaluations show that the proposed cleaning method outperforms a set of baseline methods in terms of the detection and repair accuracy.


UNLABELLED
To evaluate the impact of health promotional strategies against The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in Trinidad and Tobago.

METHODS
The HIV/AIDS Morbidity and Mortality reports were used to chart the pattern of change in the incidence of new HIV positive cases for the years 2000-2007 to determine the decrease in new HIV positive cases after 2004 with the implementation of the National Strategic Plan as well as What's Your Position (WYP), KNOW Your Status and Get Tested Now campaigns. These effects were tested using a quasi-experimental, post exposure design. A cross-sectional survey using street intercept interviews provided data on intervention effectiveness. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the impact of HIV/AIDS campaigns, using their respective objectives.

RESULTS
The study showed that a 16% decline in new HIV positive cases began during 2003 and 2004 and continued to decline by smaller margins until 2007. Data collected from the 599 participants with exposure to at least one campaign found that 92.7% reported awareness of WYP, followed by GTN (71.1%), RIU (42.6%), KYS (38.4%) and OUCH! (8.5%). 23.7% participants reported condom use post program exposure, whereas 19.0% practiced informed abstinence. A relationship was found between KYS and HIV/ AIDS Testing (p = .016) and between RIU and increased condom use (p = .010).

CONCLUSIONS
Since the implementation of the programs, there have been positive lifestyle modifications among the sample population. Particularly "WYP" has been particularly effective in increasing awareness of practicing abstinence, faithfulness to one partner, condom usage when applicable, knowing their HIV status and further educating themselves about HIV/AIDS.


Papaya (Carica papaya L.) has a great economic importance in tropical and subtropical countries, Brazil being one of the largest producers of papaya  in the world. This crop requires a considerable amount of water during its cycle, making proper irrigation management essential for optimal water use. Improving water-use efficiency can increase levels of agricultural production as well as the efficient use of water resources in semi-arid regions.The aim of this work was to evaluate productivity and water-use efficiency of irrigation inpapaya. The research was carried out in the Curupatiirrigation Perimeter, located in the semi-arid region of Brazil. The volume of water applied to the crop was quantified by calculating the number of operating hours of the pump unit supplying the irrigated lot, determining the flow rate of the emitters used in the irrigation system, and evaluating the soil moisture profile.The total volume of water applied was 2,663,296.20 m3, for a yield that ranged from 80 to 106 t ha-1. For water-use efficiency, it was found that for each kilogram of papaya produced, 1,042 m3 of water were consumed, giving a productivity of 0.95 kg m3. The water-use efficiency was affected by the different types of soil in the irrigation perimeter.

 Key words: Water-use efficiency, irrigation management, irrigated agriculture, production, Carica papaya L.


Deep reinforcement learning (RL) has recently shown great promise in robotic continuous control tasks. Nevertheless, prior research in this vein center around the centralized learning setting that largely relies on the communication availability among all the components of a robot. However, agents in the real world often operate in a decentralised fashion without communication due to latency requirements, limited power budgets and safety concerns. By formulating robotic components as a system of decentralised agents, this work presents a decentralised multiagent reinforcement learning framework for continuous control. To this end, we first develop a cooperative multiagent PPO framework that allows for centralized optimisation during training and decentralised operation during execution. However, the system only receives a global reward signal which is not attributed towards each agent. To address this challenge, we further propose a generic game-theoretic credit assignment framework which computes agent-specific reward signals. Last but not least, we also incorporate a model-based RL module into our credit assignment framework, which leads to significant improvement in sample efficiency. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework on experimental results on Mujoco locomotion control tasks. For a demo video please visit: https://youtu.be/gFyVPm4svEY.


The following discussion concentrates on the rhythmites described by Aitkenhead & Riley (1996) from Carboniferous successions in the Central Pennine Basin. These rhythmites have a high probability of being tidal in origin as noted by the authors. The available evidence, however, makes a much stronger case than that tentatively advocated in the text. The implications of a tidal origin of such laminae have a significant impact on the interpretation of the Carboniferous depositional environments in the area of study.

1. Previous research

Within a depositional basin that has been traditionally interpreted as mainly non-marine, acceptance of marine and/or tidal influences can be initially difficult. As an example, in the early 1980s, research was undertaken on laminated facies associated with coals in the Illinois Basin (Eastern Interior Coal Basin) of central USA. Based upon the existing interpretation of basin analysis and palaeogeography, coupled with a recurring association of arthropod trackways and coals, the sequence was interpreted to be non-marine, and more specifically, lacustrine (Archer & Maples 1984; Maples & Archer 1987).

Later, these same rocks were reinterpreted as having been deposited under conditions of tidal influence (Kvale et al. 1989). Subsequently, much of the strata overlying coals have been interpreted in a similar manner (Kvale & Archer 1990). Acceptance of this was greatly aided by documentation of modern analogs in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, Canada (Dalrymple & Makino 1989; Dalrymple et al. 1991) and in the Bay of Mont Saint Michel in France (Tessier et al. 1995).

In part, ...


Three synthetic pyrethroids (biphenthrin, fluvalinate and cyhalothrin) and two recommended acaricides, a sulfur compound (propargite) and a chlorinated hydrocarbon (dicofol), were evaluated against the two spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae . Bioassay data of tested pesticides against susceptible and field collected adult females were compared, both did not correlate (r = 0.074). Biphenthrin exhibited the greatest performance with both tested colony. The greatest tolerance of field population was recorded with fluvalinate and propargite. In contrast the lowest resistance ratio was calculated from cyhalothrin bioassay data. Weak correlation (r =0.307) was estimated when field data of initial and residual efficiency were linked. Fluvalinate and propargite exhibited the worst acaricidal efficiency under laboratory conditions. Although of the uncorrelation (r2=0.036 or 0.011) between the initial or residual field activity with the bioassay data of susceptible strain, but they were moderately or strongly correlated (r =0.69 or 0.839, respectively) with the bioassay data of field collected individuals. This study confirmed that laboratory study may not be sufficient to predict the performance of tested pesticides under field conditions.


Introduction: The literature presents different findings about the vibration training efficacy on muscle performance, even using protocols with similar parameters. Objective: The purpose of this systematic review was to investigate the effects of whole body vibration (WBV) on strength and quality of life in health elderly people, presenting a meta-analisys. Methods: PubMed, CINAHL, SciELO, LILACS and PEDro databases were systematically searched for studies that used WBV in healthy elderly. These searches were supplemented with material identified in references and a qualitative and quantitative analysis was performed to summarize the findings. The search was performed by two independent researchers with a third was selected to solve problems of search disagreement, data collection, and quality score. Results: Nine studies with strength outcome and two studies with quality of life outcome were identified, with sample ranging 21 to 220 elderly, all studies had control groups performing exercises or guidelines. Some studies have shown significant improvements in muscle strength, muscle power, vertical jump height, timed get up and go test and quality of life. Conclusion: The meta-analysis of the findings in these studies shows that WBV could benefit health elderly, increasing muscle strength and improving the quality of life mainly in functional capacity. The number of publications found in the databanks searched is small, with limitations in design of protocols with a weakness to the interpretation of the findings, suggesting the need of investigation with WBV with well-designed protocols and controlled parameters into the effects of WBV training in elderly people.


Measurements of 7Li nuclear spin-lattice relaxation times are made at applied magnetic field strengths from 0.25 mT to 7.05 T, in order to determine directly the form of the frequency-dependent spectral densities that modulate relaxation. This magnetic resonance dispersion (MRD) technique provides detailed information regarding molecular dynamics down to the picosecond time scale. 7Li MRD measurements made on aqueous lithium ion in the presence of small concentrations of nitroxide free radicals give direct evidence supporting the formation of a coordination complex. The dipole-dipole electron-nuclear coupling is modulated by both translational and rotational diffusive motions, and both of these contributions are resolved. However, scalar coupling arising from the presence of paramagnetic electron spin density at the nucleus dominates the nuclear relaxation. Changes in the pH and free radical moiety are compared with dynamical variables, geometric constraints, and formation constants obtained from a model of nuclear relaxation. The calculated bimolecular formation constants are on the order of 2 x 10(-3) M-1, and the relative accuracy of this parameter is tested.


Arora, Barak, Brunnermeier, and Ge [ABBG10] showed that tak ing computational complexity into account, a dishonest seller could increase the lemon costs o f a family of financial derivatives dramatically. We show that if the seller is required to construct derivativ es of a certain form, then this phenomenon disappears. In particular, we define and construct pseudorandom derivative families, for which lemon placement only slightly affects the values of the derivativ es. Our constructions use randomness extractors and expander graphs. We study our derivatives in a more general setting than Arora et al. In particular, we analyze arbitrary tranches of the common collateralized debt obligations (CD Os) when the underlying assets can have significant dependencies.


Transcriptional gene silencing has broad applications for studying gene function in planta. In maize, a large number of genes have been identified as tassel-preferred in their expression pattern, both by traditional genetic methods and by recent high-throughput expression profiling platforms. Approaches using RNA suppression may provide a rapid alternative means to identify genes directly related to pollen development in maize. The male fertility gene Ms45 and several anther-expressed genes of unknown function were used to evaluate the efficacy of generating male-sterile plants by transcriptional gene silencing. A high frequency of male-sterile plants was obtained by constitutively expressing inverted repeats (IR) of the Ms45 promoter. These sterile plants lacked MS45 mRNA due to transcriptional inactivity of the target promoter. Moreover, fertility was restored to these promoter IR-containing plants by expressing the Ms45 coding region using heterologous promoters. Transcriptional silencing of other anther-expressed genes also significantly affected male fertility phenotypes and led to increased methylation of the target promoter DNA sequences. These studies provide evidence of disruption of gene activity in monocots by RNA interference constructs directed against either native or transformed promoter regions. This approach not only enables the correlation of monocot anther-expressed genes with functions that are important for reproduction in maize, but may also provide a tool for studying gene function and identifying regulatory components unique to transcriptional gene control.


WANG, KRAUS, and DAVIS (1998) measured surf-zone longshore sediment transport rates using streamer sediment traps at 29 beaches along the southern U.S. Gulf and Atlantic shorelines. Longshore transport was measured during three to five minute intervals, and the results were  extrapolated to obtain the annual total longshore transport rates (TSLT). Simultaneously, they observed breaking wave characteristics and calculated the longshore transport rate using the CERC longshore transport formula (USACE, 1984).


For persons living with HIV, effective symptom management is crucial for good health outcomes and usually involves close support persons. The collaboration of persons living with HIV and their close support persons in the process of symptom management, including symptom experience reports, was investigated using an exploratory mixed methods design. Integration of methods included hypothesis generation from participants' narratives. Results revealed that collaboration is constituted by distinct but integrative positions of manager and partner that are reflected in diverse themes of symptom management and confirmed in quantitatively assessed symptom reports. Divergent qualitative and quantitative findings highlighted problems in neurocognitive symptom communication. Symptom management processes should be supported by better integrating the close support persons into clinical service, and further research on neurocognitive symptom experience is needed.


Described here are ultrastructural changes in neurons of feline red nucleus exhibiting axon reaction after unilateral rubropsinal tratotomy at the C-2 level and surviving 2 to 65 days. Ultrastructural alterations included neurofilamentous hyperplasia; proliferation of smooth ER; temporary disappearance of organized granular ER with partial substitution by haphazardly arranged, broad cisternal profiles; loss of rosette ribosomes and occurrence of single ribonucleoprotein granules or an intercisternal amorphous density; increased numbers of subsurface cisterns and allied structures, often disposed in stacks; vesiculation and vacuolation of Golgi cisternae; prevalence of autophagic bodies derived in part from Golgi complexes; probable mitochondrial hyperplasia and various qualitative changes in these organelles; an increase in lipofuscin. Dendritic changes paralleled those of perikarya save that proliferation of subsurface cisterns and autophagic bodies was absent. Abnormalities of myelinated axons and boutons occurred and may have originated from retrograde degeneration of cortical neurons induced by lateral funiculotomy. Some perikarya were devoid of axosomatic boutons. Ultrastructural changes varied with the length of postoperative survival and were, at least partly, reversible. Chromatolysis was detectable light microscopically before ultrastructural abnormality appeared. The bearing of transneuronal mechanisms on axon reaction of central neurons and the protective effect of section of axons beyond the site of origin of collaterals are discussed.


Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the most important vegetable crop of thebworld, including Pakistan, ranking number one among all vegetables both in production and consumption. Although bacterial diseases (such as blackleg and soft rot) cause substantial damage to potato crop in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, yet no significant research has been done so far on any aspect of these diseases.We onducted extensive surveys (2007-2009) to document the status of these diseases in our province and found that disease severity and incidence, at different locations, ranged from 2-40 % and 5-75 %, respectively.The frequency of the three causal organisms was found to be 47.61% for Erwinia carotovora subsp. atroseptica (Eca), 45.23% for E. carotovora subsp. carotovora (Ecc), and 7.14% for E. chrysanthemi (Ech).As there is some debate about the role of tuber-borne, soil-borne, and diseased plant-debris-borne primary inoculum of Eca in causing primary infections, we studied these sources of inocula.The results indicated that the pathogen population in inoculated tubers kept increasing during the entire duration (80 days) of the study whereas that in diseased plant debris declined very slowly. No bacteria could be detected in artificially inoculated soil after two months.Therefore, it was concluded that the infected tubers are the best source of inoculum followed by diseased plant debris.Because studying pathogen population helps in the control of the disease it causes, therefore, we were interested in finding diversity among the isolates of the pathogens causing potato blackleg and soft rot.The intra-specific diversity among the isolates of Ecc, and Ech is well known but that among the isolates of Eca is debatable.For this reason, we used randomnly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) to amplify DNA from 20 Eca isolates using 2 selected random primers.The data (bands) generated were used to perform cluster analysis using the un-weighted pair-group method with arithmetical average (UPGMA) of Genetyx software, version 7.0 and the resulting 4 main clusters were presented as dendrogram. We were also interested invknowing if the genotypic differences among the Eca isolates would be correlated to some phenotypic character; so, we used potato stem rot assay to divide the 20 Eca isolates among 4 aggressiveness groups. Our data suggested that although the isolates genetically differed from each other by as much as 40%, these differences were not tightly correlated to the pathogenic differences found among them.Because blackleg and soft rot of potato is a hard-to-control disease, we were interested in an integrated management of the disease.The components of the integrated management that we studied included: (i) use of different plant extracts as seed tuber treatment to kill the contaminating blackleg and soft rot bacteria, (ii) use of balanced nutrition to enhance the competitiveness of the plant host against the pathogen, and (iii) finding resistance, if any, against blackleg and soft rot of potatoes among the popular commercial potato cultivars available to local farmers.Among the different aqueous extracts used, neem extract was found to be the best which decreased the disease incidence and disease severity by 71.18% and 56.86%, respectively as compared to the control. Neem extract also increased yield per plant by 344.44% as compared to that of control.The results of the host fertilization studies concluded that the fertilizer combination of N3P1K3 (262/252/262 kg.ha-1) which is slightly higher than the normally practiced dose (247/247/247 kg.ha-1) was the best in bringing the disease to a minimum and subsequently increasing the yield. In case of varietal screening, based upon our overall results, no variety was found to be resistant against blackleg and soft rot of potatoes. However, field performance of variety Kuroda was comparatively better than other varieties whereas variety Desiree seemed to be the most susceptible.


It has been established that a crack has an important effect on the dynamic behavior of a structure. This effect depends mainly on the location and depth of the crack. To identify the location and depth of a crack in a structure, a method is presented in this paper which uses synthetic artificial intelligent technique, that is, Adaptive-Network-based Fuzzy Inference System(ANFIS) solved via hybrid learning algorithm(the back-propagation gradient descent and the least-squares method) are used to learn the input(the location and depth of a crack)-output(the structural eigenfrequencies) relation of the structural system. With this ANFIS and a continuous evolutionary algorithm(CEA), it is possible to formulate the inverse problem. CEAs based on genetic algorithms work efficiently for continuous search space optimization problems like a parameter identification problem. With this ANFIS, CEAs are used to identify the crack location and depth minimizing the difference from the measured frequencies. We have tried this new idea on a simple beam structure and the results are promising.


We have studied the radiation response of a prototype SiC radiation detector by using a 6H-SiC wafer. Metal contacts on the surface of the SiC samples were fabricated by using a thermal evaporator in a vacuum condition. Among the SiC samples, several samples were heated by a Rapid Temperature Annealing(RTA) device for 10 minutes at 300°C. The metal contacts on the annealed and non-annealed samples were scanned by using AFM(Atomic Force Microscope) before and after an annealing process. The current-voltage characteristics of the SiC detectors were measured by parameter analyzer and the radiation response was evaluated by 238Pu with 5.5 MeV α-ray at room temperature and a atmospheric pressure. After annealing process, the surface roughness and the current-voltage characteristics decreased. The Schottky barrier heights of non-annealed and annealed SiC samples were determined as 0.638 eV and 0.688 eV, respectively. Also radiation response spectra of the annealed and non-annealed detectors were similar.


Greater understanding of gamers' preferences (what it is in the game that they value) and motivations (why they play the game) provides cues for game developers' better response to consumer desires and drives. Complementing insights from literature that identifies a wide variety of antecedents to both preferences and motivations, the article addresses the relationship between the two by reporting on an empirical study in the context of online role-playing. In the study, analysis of gamer preferences revealed five gamer clusters (storyline-lovers, aesthetics-lovers, socializers, achievers and local-story-lovers), which together reflect three key gamer motivations (achievement related, social and immersion based). In a key finding, immersion emerged as an overarching motivator, spanning all the clusters and different in nature from the other two motivating factors. Also, distinguishing between local- and global-storyline-lovers may have important implications. Thirdly, the authors make a methodological contribution connected with the design of best–worst scaling, thereby informing managerial insights and providing avenues for further research.


Translating text that diverges from the training domain is a key challenge for neural machine translation (NMT). Domain robustness - the generalization of models to unseen test domains - is low compared to statistical machine translation. In this paper, we investigate the performance of NMT on out-of-domain test sets, and ways to improve it.
We observe that hallucination (translations that are fluent but unrelated to the source) is common in out-of-domain settings, and we empirically compare methods that improve adequacy (reconstruction), out-of-domain translation (subword regularization), or robustness against adversarial examples (defensive distillation), as well as noisy channel models.
In experiments on German to English OPUS data, and German to Romansh, a low-resource scenario, we find that several methods improve domain robustness, reconstruction standing out as a method that not only improves automatic scores, but also shows improvements in a manual assessments of adequacy, albeit at some loss in fluency. However, out-of-domain performance is still relatively low and domain robustness remains an open problem.


This tutorial article demonstrates how time-to-event data can be modelled in a very flexible way by taking advantage of advanced inference methods that have recently been developed for generalized additive mixed models. In particular, we describe the necessary pre-processing steps for transforming such data into a suitable format and show how a variety of effects, including a smooth nonlinear baseline hazard, and potentially nonlinear and nonlinearly time-varying effects, can be estimated and interpreted. We also present useful graphical tools for model evaluation and interpretation of the estimated effects. Throughout, we demonstrate this approach using various application examples. The article is accompanied by a new R-package called pammtools implementing all of the tools described here.


Abstract The iconic Viking Landers that landed on Mars in 1976 demonstrated that the Martian surface is an extreme place, dominated by high UV fluxes and regolith chemistry capable of oxidizing organic molecules. From follow-on missions, we have learned that Mars was much warmer and wetter in its early history, and even some areas of Mars (such as crater lakes, possibly with sustained hydrothermal activity) were habitable places (e.g. Grotzinger et al. (2014). Science (New York, N.Y.) 343; Mangold et al. (2021). Science (New York, N.Y.). However, based on the Viking results we have learnt that the search for life and its remains is challenged by abiotic breakdown and alteration of organic material. In particular, the harsh radiation climate at the Martian surface that directly and indirectly could degrade organics has been held accountable for the lack of organics in the Martian regolith. Recent work simulating wind-driven erosion of basalts under Mars-like conditions has shown that this process, comparable to UV- and ionizing radiation, produces reactive compounds, kills microbes and removes methane from the atmosphere. and thereby could equally jeopardize the success of life-seeking missions to Mars. In this review, we summarize and discuss previous work on the role of physical and chemical mechanisms that affect the persistence of organics, and their consequences for the detection of life and/or its signatures in the Martian regolith and in the atmosphere.


The Detached-Eddy Simulation model implemented in the computational fluid dynamics code, EllipSys3D, is applied on the flow around the NREL Phase-VI wind turbine blade. Results are presented for flow around a parked blade at fixed angle of attack and a blade pitching along the blade axis. Computed blade characteristics are compared with experimental data from the NREL/NASA Ames Phase-VI unsteady experiment. The Detached-Eddy Simulation model is a method for predicting turbulence in computational fluid dynamics computations, which combines a Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes method in the boundary layer with a Large Eddy Simulation in the free shear flow. The present study focuses on static and dynamic stall regions highly relevant for stall regulated wind turbines. Computations do predict force coefficients and pressure distributions fairly good and results using Detached-Eddy Simulation show considerably more three-dimensional flow structures compared to conventional two-equation Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes turbulence models, but no particular improvements are seen on the global blade characteristics.Copyright © 2002 by Riso National Laboratory and ASME


This study proposes to develop a conceptual model for raising architecture based public design experts. Taking an integrated approach to educating architects and public designers, it tries to examine existing architectural education programs if they reflect various aspects of the term 'publicity' in which public design has been continuously mentioned. The model as developed will be expected to serve as an important indicator for stimulating education efforts to raise effectively public designers within an architectural education system. Relevant issues related to expertise development as well as integrated education are discussed to provide theoretical backgrounds for composing the model. Additionally, the study develops an analytical framework that includes a total of 4 critical components. They are (1)definition of the term 'publicity' in public design domains, (2)evaluation of KAAB's student performance criteria(SPC) as validated in terms of 'publicity,' (3)change in status of architecture within the domains as suggested by government bodies, (4)architectural typology in the public design context as needed for architectural education. All these components are likely to be critical in creating the model. A literature review was conducted on components used in the model development process. In addition, literature related to both expertise development and integrated education was critically reviewed. Results are as follows. First, the term 'publicity' is defined in 5 types(safety, convenience, universalism, context, symbolism, self-directed or independence) in an integrated and practical viewpoint. Although KAAB's SPC as evaluated by 5 types(deletion, addition, integration, content change, amendment) is likely to meet cardinal directions of Framework Act on Building and Master Plan for Architectural Policy, second, development and application of educational strategy as well as practice guidelines remain uncompleted. Third, status of architecture as a public design domain has been tremendously improved as buildings and open space as their spatial background have been most emphasized in creating a good public image. Fourth, common sense of a good public image for the place has been made among professionals and scholars that a total of 6 public design domains(space, buildings, facilities, visual media, outdoor flyers, night sight) are all related and needed in an integrated manner.


Radiation theory (absorption, spontaneous emission, and stimulated emission) is applied to Potassium (39K and 41K) to examine details of the D1 lines, Figure 1, in the near IR at 770 nm. When examining the resonance fluorescence from two counter-propagation laser beams in a K cell, Figure 2, three prominent "Doppler-free" features—dips at the D1a and D1b resonances and spikes at their crossover frequencies—stand out superposed on the fluorescence background. They are examined with a detailed simulation, Figures 3 and 4, and compared to observations, Figure 5. Parametric studies of the Doppler-free features, Figures 6–8, indicate how to maximize their prominence, and thus their importance as frequency references for laboratory and atmospheric observations. Figure 1: Hyperfine Structure of Potassium


Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) have shown promising performance in image synthesis and unsupervised learning (USL). In most cases, however, the representations extracted from unsupervised GAN are usually unsatisfactory in other computer vision tasks. By using conditional GAN (CGAN), this problem could be solved to some extent, but the main drawback of such models is the necessity for labeled data. To improve both image synthesis quality and representation learning performance under the unsupervised setting, in this paper, we propose a simple yet effective Transformation Generative Adversarial Networks (TrGAN). In our approach, instead of capturing the joint distribution of image-label pairs p(x,y) as in conditional GAN, we try to estimate the joint distribution of transformed image t(x) and transformation t. Specifically, given a randomly sampled transformation t, we train the discriminator to give an estimate of input transformation, while following the adversarial training scheme of the original GAN. In addition, intermediate feature matching as well as feature-transform matching methods are introduced to strengthen the regularization on the generated features. To evaluate the quality of both generated samples and extracted representations, extensive experiments are conducted on four public datasets. The experimental results on the quality of both the synthesized images and the extracted representations demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.


This technical report documents a particular error in efficiency measurements of triple-absorber concentrator solar cells caused by incorrect spectral irradiance -- specifically, one that occurs when the irradiance from unfiltered, pulsed xenon solar simulators into the GaInAs bottom subcell is too high. For cells designed so that the light-generated photocurrents in the three subcells are nearly equal, this condition can cause a large increase in the measured fill factor, which, in turn, causes a significant artificial increase in the efficiency. The error is readily apparent when the data under concentration are compared to measurements with correctly balanced photocurrents, and manifests itself as discontinuities in plots of fill factor and efficiency versus concentration ratio. In this work, we simulate the magnitudes and effects of this error with a device-level model of two concentrator cell designs, and demonstrate how a new Spectrolab, Inc., Model 460 Tunable-High Intensity Pulsed Solar Simulator (T-HIPSS) can mitigate the error.


A differential pulse code modulation (DPCM) system employing a median predictor, which is called the predictive-median-DPCM (PM-DPCM), is proposed. It is shown that the PM-DPCM is resistant to transmission errors. Specifically, it is observed that transmission errors are often isolated and not propagated in the PM-DPCM images. The characteristics of PM-DPCM are analyzed, and its performance is compared with those of other DPCM systems through experiments. 1-D and 2-D PM-DPCM systems are defined and their properties are examined. Some statistical properties of PM-DPCM are derived. >


Community Work is one of the most utilised community based sentences in New Zealand. It is a low cost and low intensity sentence that is extensively used to punish low level offences. Although Community Work is not an explicitly rehabilitative sentence, it does possess some implicitly rehabilitative traits. In her Ireland based study, McGagh (2007) argued that rehabilitative practices enhance Community Work and lead to better outcomes for offenders. The most recent New Zealand based study on the sentence was conducted over 2 decades ago by Asher and O'Neill (1990). This is the research gap this study sought to fill by exploring rehabilitative practices within a faith-based Community Work agency.

The study was an ethnographic case study of a faith-based agency within which offenders on Community Work sentences completed sentenced hours. A number of qualitative data collection methods including observations, interviews, a focus group and analysis of testimonial data were used to triangulate findings. The researcher gathered data from three participant groups at the agency. These groups were; individuals currently or previously on community work sentences at the agency, agency staff and agency volunteers.

When offenders on community work sentences arrive at this agency their status as offenders is kept private. They are consequently introduced as volunteers and have access to all the same benefits of volunteers. The ability to keep their offender status private and be regarded as any other volunteer was a central theme present in the data. This helped those sentenced to community work to develop a non-offender identity. The invisibility of offender status helped offenders distance themselves from the offender identity, while being offered the visible prosocial 'volunteer' identity helped them shift their self-narrative from that of an offender to a nonoffender.

Desistance research suggests that subjective changes in an offender's self-narrative can be indicative of the offender engaging in the desistance process (Farrall & Maruna, 2004; Healy, 2010; Serin & Lloyd, 2009). This study found that anonymising the offender status of individuals in community work sentences at this agency may have initiated a shift in self-narratives as individuals shifted their identity from offenders to volunteers. This narrative shift potentially helped trigger and maintain offender desistance. The principle of treating offenders as desisters rather than persisters displays a confidence in the offenders' ability to change. This faith in an individual's ability to change has been found to be desistance supportive (Raynor & Robinson, 2005).

Anonymising offender status as a rehabilitative practice can lead to the onset or maintenance of desistance. It is a potentially effective intervention that could be broadly integrated into the community work sentence.


Abstract Deficiency of essential trace element, Se, has been implicated in adverse birth outcomes and in child linear growth because of its important role in redox biology and associated antioxidant effects. We used data from a randomised controlled trial conducted among a cohort of pregnant and lactating women in Dhaka, Bangladesh to examine associations between Se biomarkers in whole blood (WBSe), serum and selenoprotein P (SEPP1) in maternal delivery and venous cord (VC) blood. Associations between Se biomarkers, birth weight and infant growth outcomes (age-adjusted length, weight, head circumference and weight-for-length z-scores) at birth, 1 and 2 years of age were examined using regression analyses. WB and serum Se were negatively associated with birth weight (adjusted β, 95 % CI, WBSe delivery: −26·6 (–44·3, −8·9); WBSe VC: −19·6 (–33·0, −6·1)); however, delivery SEPP1 levels (adjusted β: −37·5 (–73·0, −2·0)) and VC blood (adjusted β: 82·3 (30·0, 134·7)) showed inconsistent and opposite associations with birth weight. Positive associations for SEPP1 VC suggest preferential transfer from mother to fetus. We found small associations between infant growth and WBSe VC (length-for-age z-score β, 95 % CI, at birth: −0·05 (–0·1, −0·01)); 12 months (β: −0·05 (–0·08, −0·007)). Weight-for-age z-score also showed weak negative associations with delivery WBSe (at birth: −0·07 (–0·1, −0·02); 12 -months: −0·05 (–0·1, −0·005)) and in WBSe VC (at birth: −0·05 (–0·08, −0·02); 12 months: −0·05 (–0·09, −0·004)). Given the fine balance between essential nutritional and toxic properties of Se, it is possible that WB and serum Se may negatively impact growth outcomes, both in utero and postpartum.


In society, the impulse toward sex segregation remains strong. Social separation of the sexes persists, from childhood on. Pink and blue tracking in the nursery gives way to sex segregated public schooling. In 2006 the Department of Education released new regulations expanding the opportunities for single-sex classes, schools, and extracurricular activities. These regulations fueled an explosive increase in single-sex public schools and classes. The popular media endorse separatist themes - from heralding the "boy crisis" in education to proclaiming that single-sex schools are "better for girls." The separatism continues in labor market. Even though women comprise 47 percent of the labor force, occupational segregation by sex persists, with women accounting for 79 percent of social workers and 89 percent of healthcare support occupations, while 77 percent of protective service workers and 92 percent of construction managers are men. In sum, almost 70 percent of all workers are in occupations that are strongly dominated by one sex or the other.This segregation in society has its parallels in legal doctrine and legal theory. The central premise of this essay is that masculinities studies and feminist legal theory occupy separate academic silos. The branches of inquiry, although drawing on selected excerpts from each other and with some cross-fertilization in recent years, have remained largely segregated - in their methodologies, scholarship, conferences, and subjects. The first part of the essay traces how those silos were built; the second part addresses whether they should be dismantled and, if so, in what ways.


An efficient fault simulation based evaluation methodology for the determination of fault coverages and test set quality is a practical way to obtain a set of high quality gate delay fault detecting tests. Unfortunately, the methodology is computationally intensive enough to be intractable for reasonably large VLSI circuits. An attractive alternative for speeding up these computation algorithms is parallel processing. In this paper, we present, for the first time, parallel algorithms for gate delay fault simulation and fault coverage determination through test quality evaluation. These algorithms are theoretically analyzed, and experimental studies of their implementation are reported. Studies of load balancing schemes for these algorithms are also presented. The results conform to the theoretically predicted performance, with speedups of up to 12 being obtained for 15 processors.


Caring for the elderly in the 1990s poses a challenge necessitating exploration of a number of variables which affect the patient, the family and the setting in which care is provided. Hence, nursing leadership is compelled to shape the processes of elder care. The authors share strategies, insights and approaches to address this growing mandate.


Constraining free parameters of two modified gravity theories such as beyond Horndeski and Eddington Inspired Born-Infeld Theories of Gravity have been done precisely with LHS6343C data. However, it remains insufficient to explain the radius and mass relation of Brown Dwarf globally. We still need to identify how well beyond Horndeski and Eddington Inspired Born-Infeld Theories of Gravity being compared by the completed observation mass-radius data of Bayliss et. al. The provided data gives error-bar that can be used to study more systematically through the standard deviation analysis. We do Chi-Squared test to obtain minimum value on the free parameters of both Modified Gravity theories. We compare the two results and constrain the free parameters of both theories on confidence level 1 σ. We can obtain the more accurate results for determining the limits of free parameters of both theories.


The introduction of Green Chemistry (GC) into school science curriculum is considered an important step that encourages students to build connections between chemistry, other school subjects, and different aspects of their daily lives. The concepts associated with GC can be applied throughout the various levels of education with different degrees of complexity and provide a systematic approach to the teaching of science for sustainability. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the specific content that can be associated with the teaching of GC in primary and secondary schools in Chile. This study aims to provide a model of curricular science content for GC school education, utilizing the framework of Educational Reconstruction. The research question was "What links do in-service science teachers and science education researchers establish between GC and the school curriculum?" Specifically, we were interested in comparing science teachers' and science education researchers' perceptions of the links between GC and school science subject, school science contents, and crosscutting science concepts. A qualitative approach was employed for data collection and analysis, focusing on the written responses of 20 in-service science teachers and 20 science education researchers. We conclude the study by proposing an empirically based model of curricular content for GC school education (GCSE), comprising three dimensions: the multidisciplinary dimension of school science subjects represented here by chemistry, with the greatest presence, biology, physics, and geology; the intradisciplinary dimension of core disciplinary contents within each school subject; and the interdisciplinary dimension linked to a range of crosscutting concepts for GC.


The oxidation of carbon monoxide in the presence of hydrogen can produce a single ignition pulse in a closed vessel and repetitive, i. e. oscillatory, ignition in an open system. It is possible to predict the locus of critical conditions on a map of reactant pressure, p, against vessel temperature, Ta, in a flow system by a treatment based on the change in local stability of the stationary state. Even the very simplest kinetic model for the CO + H2 + O2 reaction allows satisfactory predictions of the dependence of the critical pressure on Ta, and of the displacement of such p–Ta peninsulae as the mixture composition (CO : H2 ratio) is varied. Many of the results can be obtained in terms of simple algebraic expressions. The relation between this approach and classical treatments of criticality based on the unbounded growth of the steady-state radical concentration or on tangency conditions (chain–thermal theory) is investigated. Oscillatory periods (the interval between successive ignition pulses) are calculated, and the variation in the mean residence time arising from the change in the number of moles during reaction and the accompanying self-heating is discussed.


Stomach contents analysis (SCA) provides a snap-shot observation of a consumer's diet. Interpretation of SCA data can be complicated by many factors, including variation in gastric residence times and digestion rates among prey taxa. Although some SCA methods are reported to efficiently remove all stomach contents, the effectiveness of these techniques has rarely been tested for large irregular shaped prey with hard exoskeletons. We used a controlled feeding trial to estimate gastric residency time and decomposition rate of a large crustacean prey item, the Blue Crab (Callinectes sapidus), which is consumed by American Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis), an abundant apex predator in coastal habitats of the southeastern United States. The decomposition rate of C. sapidus in the stomachs of A. mississippiensis followed a predictable pattern, and some crab pieces remained in stomachs for at least 14 days. We also found that certain portions of C. sapidus were prone to becoming caught within the stomach or esophagus, meaning not all crab parts are consistently recovered using gastric lavage techniques. However, because the state of decomposition of crabs was predictable, it is possible to estimate time since consumption for crabs recovered from wild alligators. This information, coupled with a detailed understanding of crab distributions and alligator movement tactics could help elucidate patterns of cross-ecosystem foraging by the American Alligator in coastal habitats.


Soil organic carbon (SOC) is an important component of the global carbon cycle yet is rarely quantified adequately in terms of its spatial variability resulting from losses of SOC due to erosion by water. Furthermore, in drylands, little is known about the effect of widespread vegetation change on changes in SOC stores and the potential for water erosion to redistribute SOC around the landscape especially during high‐magnitude run‐off events (flash floods). This study assesses the change in SOC stores across a shrub‐encroachment gradient in the Chihuahuan Desert of the south‐west USA. A robust estimate of SOC storage in surface soils is presented, indicating that more SOC is stored beneath vegetation than in bare soil areas. In addition, the change in SOC storage over a shrub‐encroachment gradient is shown to be nonlinear and highly variable within each vegetation type. Over the gradient of vegetation change, the heterogeneity of SOC increases, and newer carbon from C3 plants becomes dominant. This increase in the heterogeneity of SOC is related to an increase in water erosion and SOC loss from inter‐shrub areas, which is self‐reinforcing. Shrub‐dominated drylands lose more than three times as much SOC as their grass counterparts. The implications of this study are twofold: (1) quantifying the effects of vegetation change on carbon loss via water erosion and the highly variable effects of land degradation on soil carbon stocks is critical. (2) If landscape‐scale understanding of carbon loss by water erosion in drylands is required, studies must characterize the heterogeneity of ecosystem structure and its effects on ecosystem function across ecotones subject to vegetation change. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Considerable progress has been made toward the formation of a computing profession since we started tracking it in this column a decade ago.


Objective : Ordering transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) for inappropriate indications could prolong patient waiting time, increase echocardiography laboratory workload, and compromise the quality of TTE studies. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of and factors associated with inappropriate indications for TTE in adult outpatients at Siriraj Hospital. Methods : Two cardiologists prospectively and independently evaluated indications for adult TTE scheduled during regular office hours at Her Majesty Cardiac Center, Siriraj Hospital. Cases were classified as appropriate, inappropriate, or uncertain according to the 2011 Appropriate Use Criteria for Echocardiography proposed by a group of American cardiology organizations. Agreement between the two cardiologists was measured using weighted kappa statistic, and disagreement was resolved by consensus. Factors were evaluated for association with inappropriate indication for TTE. Results : Four hundred and eighty-two patients were included. Weighted kappa statistic was 0.46 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.34 to 0.59] for agreement between the two cardiologists. Four hundred and thirty-two TTE were appropriate (89.6%, 95% CI 86.6% to 92.1%), 27 were inappropriate (5.6%, 95% CI 3.9% to 8.0%), and 23 were uncertain (4.8%, 95% CI 3.2% to 7.0%). Neither status of ordering physician (cardiologist, cardiology fellow, or cardiothoracic surgeon) nor payment type was found to be significantly associated with the appropriateness of indications for TTE. Conclusion : The prevalence of inappropriate indications among adult outpatients undergoing TTE during regular office hours at Siriraj Hospital was low. No significant association was observed between the appropriateness of TTE indications and either status of ordering physician or payment type.


BGC-Ha-ras, isolated from the human gastric cancer cell line BGC-823 and activated by point mutation, is a transforming oncogene. To study whether this oncogene can still be located in the original position of chromosome 11 of BGC-823 cell line, chromosomal in situ hybridization method was used. The results showed that 31% silver grains were localized on chromosome 11, 83% of which on the 11p15 region, and in addition, 10% grains on distal end of the short arm of the other abnormal chromosome. Such results are significant in further study of the relation between gene localization and carcinogenesis.


Cuttings transport behavior in drilling directional wells was experimentally investigated using a once-through type large-scale flow loop apparatus, the Cuttings Transport Flow Loop System (CTFLS) in the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation Kashiwazaki Test Field. The annular test section of the CTFLS is 9-m long and consists of a 5" ID transparent casing pipe and a 2.063" OD drillpipe. The inclination of the test section can be set at an angle from 0 to 90° in 15° increments. Drillpipe can be mounted either in concentric or eccentric mode.Experiments using two types of drilling mud, water and 0.15% PHPA solution, were conducted to focus on the effects of parameters such as hole inclination angle, drillpipe eccentricity, mud flow rate, mud rheology and rate of penetration (ROP). In the test procedure, mud was circulated and cuttings were fed into the test section both at constant rates, supposing a condition of drilling with constant ROP. Then, for predetermined mud flow rates, quantitative data in steady-state condition such as volumetric concentration of cuttings in the annulus, cuttings bed height and frictional pressure loss were measured. Critical flow rate determination based on a cuttings concentration criteria defined in this study was also presented, and optimum mud flow rate in actual field operation was discussed from a more practical point of view.


[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This dissertation consists of a critical introduction and a full-length book of poetry. The critical introduction deals with the literary manifestations of exile in contemporary poetry. It examines the forms of exile expressed in said poetry, the literary characteristics of each form and provides examples of each form. The introduction also outlines the critical discourse around the idea of exilic poetry. Finally, the introduction also connects this research to the original poems that follow. The book of poems explores exilic tensions by asking readers to inhabit (either the I or the you) the poems, and in many cases, assign their own value to the remaining position. Maintaining a sense of both intimacy and distance, the poems are filled with sensory traces of memory, ritual rhythms, echoes of music, and clipped images, all of which I try to orchestrate with fluidity.


ABSTRACT Mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) is frequently encountered in pediatrics and challenges healthcare practitioners to provide safe, consistent, cost-effective care. Clinical management of children who sustain MTBI poses dilemmas for healthcare practitioners. This article will provide an overview of pediatric MTBI including definition, issues impacting diagnosis and management, risk factors for intracranial injury, indications for diagnostic imaging, disposition, and return to sports/activity. Knowledge and understanding of MTBI in children aid healthcare practitioners to make informed competent recommendations for care. Clinicians must have a thorough understanding and working knowledge of pediatric MTBI to aid clinical decisions and optimize patient outcomes.


We consider some crucial problems related to the secure and reliable operation of power systems with high renewable penetrations: how much reserve should we procure, how should reserve resources distribute among different locations, and how should we price reserve and charge uncertainty sources. These issues have so far been largely addressed empirically. In this paper, we first develop a scenario-oriented energy-reserve co-optimization model, which directly connects reserve procurement with possible outages and load/renewable power fluctuations without the need for empirical reserve requirements. Accordingly, reserve can be optimally procured system-wide to handle all possible future uncertainties with the minimum expected system total cost. Based on the proposed model, marginal pricing approaches are developed for energy and reserve, respectively. Locational uniform pricing is established for energy, and the similar property is also established for the combination of reserve and re-dispatch. In addition, properties of cost recovery for generators and revenue adequacy for the system operator (SO) are also proven. Simulations validate the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism.


This paper puts forward a unified model of two of the most relevant demand-based explanations of economic growthâThirlwall's law and the two-gap model. Under certain specifications, it is shown that Thirlwall's law extended with capital flows is equivalent to the "external gap." Our unified model, expressed in growth rates, is particularly useful to explain short-term growth in developing countries. Relevant policy implications are also drawn from the results.


Identifying how changes in biodiversity alter infectious disease dynamics is important for both basic science and policy. Biodiversity, broadly conceived, denotes "the variety of life in all its manifestations" (Loreau and Kinne 2010 ), and encompasses not only species richness, but also phylogenetic diversity, trait and functional distinctions among taxa, and indeed the complexity of community organization, such as food web interactions. Wood et al. ( 2014 ) note that an increase in biodiversity can at times amplify disease risk in a focal host species existing across a gradient in biodiversity, and some empirical examples do seem to demonstrate amplifi cation (Young et al. 2013 ). Keesing et al. ( 2006 ) outline several mechanisms that could underlie such amplifi cation, and it is certainly the case that if there is no biodiversity (the "parking lot ecosystem") there will be no zoonotic diseases. Where matters get more interesting, complex, and relevant to conservation is when one examines how disease risk might shift across broadscale gradients in more realistic scenarios, such as when one compares largely intact natural ecosystems with systems degraded or fragmented by human activity (the focus of this comment). The recent literature contains a variety of examples of situations in which high biodiversity reduces disease risk, a phenomenon termed the "dilution effect" (Keesing et al. 2006 , Civitello et al. 2015 ). Wood et al. ( 2014 ) review a number of cases in which they hypothesize that one might fi nd that instead of a dilution effect, an increase in biodiversity is associated with increased disease risk. They postulate in particular (p. 821) that prior work has focused on the developed world, and that infectious disease in developing nations in the tropics often increases with increasing diversity. We respectfully suggest that for many of the systems discussed by Wood et al. ( 2014 ), the role of diversity is not yet clear, at least if comparisons are between intact forest and degraded habitats, including in particular in tropical biomes. Such comparisons are particularly pertinent to conservation policy, and would facilitate predictions regarding whether disease risk will increase when forests of high conservation value are degraded or fragmented by human activities. One consequence of eroding wildlife diversity in fragmented forests is that smallerbodied hosts, and hosts at lower trophic levels, most famously rodents, can become hyperabundant either due to increased food availability, or to ecological release following extirpation of competitors or predators (Adler and Levins 1994 , Nupp and Swihart 1998 , Terborgh et al. 2001 , Keesing and Young 2014 ). The disappearance of top predators (Estes et al. 2011 , Ripple et al. 2013 ), a widespread signature of anthropogenic impacts, releases their prey from topdown regulation and can also lead to an upsurge in infectious disease because of reduced mortality of infected hosts (Packer et al. 2003 ). Ecological release of prey species can occur across a gradient in body size from small rodents, which can be far more abundant in forest fragments (Nupp and Swihart 1998 , Debinski and Holt 2000) , to largebodied ungulates, which can become hyperabundant in the absence of predation or when feeding on agricultural landscapes (Ripple et al. 2013 , Wilmers and Levi 2013 ). Shifts in competition can also lead to ecological release; McCauley et al. ( 2008 ), for instance, report that removal of large herbivores in African savanna permitted surges in the abundance of smallbodied rodents, which sustain pathogencarrying fl eas at higher abundance (see also Young et al. 2014 ). Fragmentation of habitats can also lead to the ecological release of hosts through other mechanisms. For example, because of matrix subsidies and mesopredator release, generalist mesocarnivores such as raccoons and opossums often reach much higher densities in fragmented landscapes near agricultural fi elds and on the periphery of exurban development (Crooks and Soule 1999 , Ritchie and Johnson 2009 ). For example, the most heavily infected hosts for the trematode vector of salmonpoisoning disease ( Nanophytes salmincola ) in Oregon are mesopredator raccoons and skunks Ecology, 97(2), 2016, pp. 536–546 © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America


This research is executed aim to know the plant species and the way of exploiting permanent wood upon which traditional boat making by Yachai tribe in Mappi regency. The Method that used in this research is descriptive method with the structural semi interview technique and direct perception in field. Result of research indicate that the tribe Yachai exploit the plant species have permanent wood upon which traditional boat as much 26 species from 14 family. There are 8 wood species which is often used for the body of boat and also own the good quality according to Yachai tribe, that is Atam (Scihizomeria serrata Hochr), Batki (Adinandra forbesii Baker. F), Chomach (Gordoniapapuana Kobuski), Rupke (Tristania sp.), Bao (Dillenia papuana artelli), Top (Buchanania macrocarpa Laut), Mitbo (Cordia Dichtoma Forst.), and Yunun (Camnosperma brevipetiolata Volkens). While to part of oar exploit 2 wood species that is Bach (Buchanania Arborescens.Bi) and Tup (Litsea ampala Merr). Yachai Tribe recognized 3 boat model owning different size measure and function, that is Junun Ramchai, Junun Pochoi and Junun Toch.© 2005 Jurusan Biologi FMIPA UNS SurakartaKey words: vascular plants, traditional boat, Yachai tribe, Mappi Regency.


Drawn from the extensive holdings of the Staatliche Museum in Berlin, this collection of jewelry through the ages links cultures and eras to show how the design, wearing, and collecting of personal adornment has evolved over the ages. Many of these beautiful pieces are presented for the first time in book form. They range from classic items such as necklaces, rings, and earrings to less common items with origins in non-European cultures. The book features jewelry ranging from the splendid crowns of Ancient Greece, golden earrings from Babylon, and jeweled collars worn by 13th-century Islamic royalty, to more modern pieces, such as those contained in the imperial collection of Queen Louise of Prussia, Art Nouveau jewelry designed by Rene Lalique and samples from the house of Bulgari. This chronologically arranged survey includes numerous brief essays and nearly 400 illustrations with detailed captions, making it an ideal reference for anyone interested in cultural history, the history of jewellery, or the art and craft of jewellery making.


This classroom action research is aimed to improve the skills of writing short stories based KUIK through the application of sinectics model in class X SMA Negeri 1 Pemalang. The research was conducted on 37 students in class X SMA 1Pemalang. Quantitative data collection is carried out through tests to write the short stories, then it was analyzed by using descriptive analysis of the percentage. Qualitative data collection used manual observation, interviews, and documentation to uncover changes in behavior of students in the learning process. The findings showed the average value before the action research by 59.7%, and the average value of 79.4% after the action. It shows that a sinectics model can improve KUIK-based short stories writing skill by 19,7 %  in SMA Negeri 1 Pemalang students. Keyword : writing skill, KUIK, short story, sinectics model


This article introduces the cat.dt package for the creation of Computerized Adaptive Tests (CATs). Unlike existing packages, the cat.dt package represents the CAT in a Decision Tree (DT) structure. This allows building the test before its administration, ensuring that the creation time of the test is independent of the number of participants. Moreover, to accelerate the construction of the tree, the package controls its growth by joining nodes with similar estimations or distributions of the ability level and uses techniques such as message passing and pre-calculations. The constructed tree, as well as the estimation procedure, can be visualized using the graphical tools included in the package. An experiment designed to evaluate its performance shows that the cat.dt package drastically reduces computational time in the creation of CATs without compromising accuracy.


Japanese psychiatric mental health systems are being steadily improved. Psychiatric nurses' attitude towards strengths of persons with mental disability is critical in order to promote de-institutionalization of patients. However, nurses' attitudes, particularly their Strengths-Oriented Attitude (SOA) has not been well studied and explained. The purpose of this study was to clarify the SOA of nurses working in psychiatric hospitals in Japan. There were 1148 Psychiatric Registered Nurses (PRN) and Psychiatric Practical Nurses (PPN) employed at 17 psychiatric hospitals in Japan who consented to participate in the study. The self-administered questionnaire was mailed and returned between October 2013 and January 2014. The subjects' SOA was evaluated using the Strengths-Oriented Attitude Inventory (SOAI) developed by the authors based on the work by Rapp and Goscha. The actual SOA and its relationship to individual characteristics were also analyzed to clarify the SOAI. Factor analysis revealed four components of the SOAI: Factor 1 = "Nursing practice based on the assessment which focused on social resources"; Factor 2 = "Nursing practice based on the holistic assessment of person with mental disability"; Factor 3 = "Support in community which respected the person's way of living"; and Factor 4 = "Emphasize of the strengths of individual with mental disability." Results indicated a high orientation toward Factors 2 and 4, but a low orientation toward Factors 1 and 3. There were no significant differences between age, years of psychiatric nursing experience, academic background, and subjects' SOA. However, differences were observed in gender, current workplace, work position, type of license, and work experience. The subjects showed low orientation toward social resources and respected the patient's way of life. Nurses working in psychiatric mental health institutions should receive continuing education courses designed to increase their orientation toward Factors 1 and 3.


Plasmid-mediated AmpC β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli (AmpC-E) bacteraemia was characterized by comparison with bacteraemia caused by extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing E. coli (ESBL-E) and non-resistant E. coli (NR-E) in the era of the worldwide spread of the CTX-M-15-producing O25b-ST131-B2 clone. Of 706 bloodstream E. coli isolates collected between 2005 and 2010 in three Japanese university hospitals, 111 ESBL screening-positive isolates were analysed for AmpC and ESBL genes by PCR. A case-control study was performed in which the cases consisted of all of the patients with AmpC-E bacteraemia. Phylogenetic groups, sequence types and O25b serotype were determined. Twenty-seven AmpC-E isolates (26 of which were of the CMY-2 type) were identified, and 54 ESBL-E and 54 NR-E isolates were selected for the controls. Nineteen AmpC-E isolates were also positive for ESBL. CTX-M-14 was the most prevalent ESBL type among both the AmpC-E and ESBL-E isolates. The O25b-ST131-B2 clone was the most prevalent among the ESBL-E isolates (26%) and the second most prevalent among the NR-E isolates (13%), but only one O25b-ST131-B2 clone was found among the AmpC-E isolates. Twenty-three different sequence types were identified among the AmpC-E isolates. When compared with bacteraemia with ESBL-E, previous isolation of multidrug-resistant bacteria and intravascular catheterization were independently associated with a lower risk for AmpC-E. When compared with NR-E bacteraemia, prior use of antibiotics was the only significant risk factor for AmpC-E. Unlike the spread of the O25b-ST131-B2 clone between ESBL-E and NR-E, the AmpC-E isolates were not dominated by any specific clone.


We have performed two-dimensional calculations of the implosions of thin-walled aluminum cylinders driven by a source of radiation. The source is generated by the stagnation of an imploding plasma liner on to a foam target (dynamic hohlraum or flying radiation case) in the PBFA-Z facility at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Both Lagrangian and Eulerian codes are used for the simulations of the compression of the shell by the ablatively-driven main shock.


The maximum spacing (MSP) method, introduced by Cheng and Amin (1983) and independently by Ranneby (1984), is a general method for estimating parameters in univariate continuous distributions and ...


Usable and secure authentication on the web and beyond is mission-critical. While password-based authentication is still widespread, users have trouble dealing with potentially hundreds of online accounts and their passwords. Alternatives or extensions such as multi-factor authentication have their own challenges and find only limited adoption. Finding the right balance between security and usability is challenging for developers. Previous work found that developers use online resources to inform security decisions when writing code. Similar to other areas, lots of authentication advice for developers is available online, including blog posts, discussions on Stack Overflow, research papers, or guidelines by institutions like OWASP or NIST. We are the first to explore developer advice on authentication that affects usable security for end-users. Based on a survey with 18 professional web developers, we obtained 406 documents and qualitatively analyzed 272 contained pieces of advice in depth. We aim to understand the accessibility and quality of online advice and provide insights into how online advice might contribute to (in)secure and (un)usable authentication. We find that advice is scattered and that finding recommendable, consistent advice is a challenge for developers, among others. The most common advice is for password-based authentication, but little for more modern alternatives. Unfortunately, many pieces of advice are debatable (e.g., complex password policies), outdated (e.g., enforcing regular password changes), or contradicting and might lead to unusable or insecure authentication. Based on our findings, we make recommendations for developers, advice providers, official institutions, and academia on how to improve online advice for developers.