Are the Harry Potter books Christian, or at least religious, and is this the underlying secret to their extraordinary popularity? This is precisely the contention of a number of writers who, to varying degrees, have enlisted J.K. Rowling's novels under the banner of Christian literary art (e.g. John Granger, Connie Neal, John Killinger, Francis Bridger). This is a striking development, particularly given the virulent opposition to the books among some conservative Christians (e.g. Richard Abanes, Stephen Dollins, Michael O'Brien), but the trend needs to be seen as part of a larger pattern of appropriation and rejection. While religious critics might celebrate Harry as Christian hero, the books are regularly portrayed as valorizing nonreligious perspectives. Roger Highfield, for example, praises the novels as a tribute to the wonders of science and technology, while Edmund Kern argues that the books serve as primers for a nontranscendent neo-Stoicism. Conversely, fundamentalists like Abanes, who excoriate Harry as occult proselytizer and Potter-mania as Satanic conspiracy, have an almost exact counterpart in secular critics like Jack Zipes and Andrew Blake, who attribute Harry's "irresistible rise" to forces equally invisible and evil: the "dark wizards" of corporate capitalism and the politicians who collude with them. Mainstream literary critics tend to dismiss or occlude religious considerations altogether, analysing the books exclusively in terms of their social and political effects. Indeed, it is difficult to be neutral about Harry Potter. As Suman Gupta has remarked, the reception of the books is sharply (and largely unthinkingly) polarized into obsessed fans and loathing critics, making them simultaneously the best-selling and beloved fiction of our time, as well as the most heartily despised and frequently banned or challenged (Gupta 19-20).


Objective Fibrin deposition on the peritoneum has been frequently observed in peritoneal fibrosis induced by long-term peritoneal dialysis. The present study was conducted to clarify the contribution of factor Xa through tissue factor and factor V expression in peritoneal fibrosis. Methods Wistar rats were intraperitoneally injected with chlorhexidine gluconate (CG) every day. For the interventional study, the factor Xa inhibitor fondaparinux was subcutaneously administered. After 28 days of CG injection, peritoneal specimens were examined by immunohistochemical analyses and in situ hybridization. Results The peritoneal submesothelial compact zone was observed to be markedly thicker in the CG-injected groups than in the normal group, and that thickness was dose dependent. Immunohistochemical study revealed massive fibrin, fibronectin, and type IV collagen depositions in the CG-injected groups, which was markedly higher than that in the normal group. Macrophage infiltration and staining for tissue factor, factor V, factor X, and protease-activated receptor-2 were intense in the CG-injected groups and negative/trace in the normal group. Tissue factor and factor V mRNAs were abundant in cells in the thickened peritoneum. A double-labeling experiment revealed that tissue factor was observed mainly in macrophages, and factor V was abundantly distributed in the fibrotic tissue together with macrophages. Fondaparinux treatment decreased the thickness of submesothelial fibrotic tissue, and size and number of CD31-positive vessels. Conclusion These results suggest that expression of tissue factor and factor V in infiltrated macrophages, together with factor X deposition, may progress angiogenesis and accumulation of extracellular matrix components, partly via profibrotic and procoagulant mechanisms in the peritoneum after inflammatory stimulation.


It is possible to enhance the high tempera-ture oxidation resistance and thus prolong the life time of non-oxide refractories by the application of oxide coating. In this -work, silicon nitride bonded silicon carbide refractories were coated with alumina using the plasma spraying technique. X-ray diffraction shouted r-Al2O3 to be the dominent phase in the as-sprayed alumina coatings. The stresses developed in the coating layer during post-spray heat-treatment have been analysed. It was found that the coating-was under a compressive stress below,but when heated above 1100C , the r-Al2O3 phase transformed into a-Al2O3 and this led to the formation of a destructive tensile stress(up to 1700 MPa) which caused cracks to form in and along the iveak bond between the alumina coating and SiC grains. The coatings then delaminated and of fered little protection to the refractory substrate from oxidation. Future research will be directed on the avoidance oj metastable phase formation in the plasma sprayed coating a


INTRODUCTION In 1898, Allesandro Codivilla performed the first pancreaticoduodenectomy; however, it was Kausch who first described the surgical technique in 1912. More than two decades later (1935), Allen O. Whipple performed a twostaged pancreaticoduodenectomy that involved a biliary diversion and gastrojejunostomy followed by resection of the duodenum and head of the pancreas. In 1941, Whipple modified the operation into a one-stage pancreaticoduodenectomy, which would situate his name into the history of pancreatic surgery. Despite this technical achievement, the procedure lacked rapid adoption because of its difficulty, and came to be associated with high hospital morbidity, and mortality rates approaching 30%. More than a century since the first Whipple procedure, pancreatic cancer continues to affect 200,000 people worldwide and claim 34,200 American lives each year, with an additional 37,680 new diagnoses expected in 2008. The lifetime risk for developing pancreatic cancer is now 1 in 79 for both men and women, and it remains the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. [1]. Whereas death rates for cancers of the stomach, lung, colon, and prostate have decreased over the past 20 years, death rates from pancreatic cancer have remained stable, with a slow increase in those aged 70 years. Although some of this may be a result of an increased overall life expectancy, the natural history of pancreatic cancer, lack of early detection strategies, inability to adequately identify at-risk populations, and aggressive biology play important roles in the disease's lethality, and remain a challenge to its treatment.


This article examines how community art centers of the Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration served as a third space, one that was explicitly designed to be different from art museums at that time. Created to employ artists during the Great Depression under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, goals of FAP programs included creating a national identity in the arts through cultural production, and developing individual consumers of art who would continue the support after government programs had ended. Another motivation for these programs was created in the spirit of progressivism. Thus, by incorporating art into the community, artists and organizers reenvisioned how citizens could interact with art through active engagement by developing studio experiences, art exhibitions, and community programming. The programs were conceived in direct contrast to established museums as new organizations developed with the communities they were designed to reach.


We aim to learn language models for Creole languages for which large volumes of data are not readily available, and therefore explore the potential transfer from ancestor languages (the 'Ancestry Transfer Hypothesis'). We find that standard transfer methods do not facilitate ancestry transfer. Surprisingly, different from other non-Creole languages, a very distinct two-phase pattern emerges for Creoles: As our training losses plateau, and language models begin to overfit on their source languages, perplexity on the Creoles drop. We explore if this compression phase can lead to practically useful language models (the 'Ancestry Bottleneck Hypothesis'), but also falsify this. Moreover, we show that Creoles even exhibit this two-phase pattern even when training on random, unrelated languages. Thus Creoles seem to be typological outliers and we speculate whether there is a link between the two observations.


Author(s): Brown, Ronald C. | Abstract: In 2017, after the election of Donald Trump and his subsequent language and actions surrounding global trade, Chinese President Xi Jinping took the world stage at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in a moment that led many to say he assumed the mantle of world leader on globalism and global trade, particularly in Asia. Previously, President Obama noted that the TPP presented an opportunity for the U.S., along with its partners, to write the rules of international trade with Asia-Pacific countries. At the same time, China has been working to negotiate another trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific Region, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The RCEP aims to be the largest free-trade bloc in the world, comprising all ten ASEAN nations (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) and the six other countries with which ASEAN already has free-trade agreements (FTAs)—China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.With China ascending in global leadership on Asian trade at the same time the U.S. descends, a looming question arises—what is to be expected in terms of trade rules and labor protections? There is a history on both issues that is explored in this paper and which reveals there may be difficulties ahead for those looking for an even playing field in trade and attention to labor protections. To many, it will seem like RCEP is a green light for MNCs to further invest in their labor supply chains in the developing countries in Asia, much to the consternation of labor unions in the U.S. and the detriment to American and Asian workers. Further, there are outstanding questions as to the efficacy of any labor protections that arise in future agreements. The Asia-Pacific Region is one of the largest markets in the world, so answering these questions is critical. To arrive at a fair estimate of what to expect in terms of real labor law protections and their enforcement in Asian countries under the Chinese-influenced FTAs, this paper examines the social dimension provisions of the Chinese free trade agreements (FTAs) in Asia relating to labor.


This paper presents a new formulation of 'practical Bayes-estimators' (PBE) for the 2-parameter Weibull model when both parameters are unknown. Overcoming some limitations of the first formulation gave rise to this work, but the results are beyond this intent. These estimators are a tool to improve technical knowledge by using a few experimental data. In this case, the controversy about whether to use Bayes or classical methods is surmounted since estimators, like maximum likelihood, give estimates that often appear unlikely on the basis of technical knowledge of the engineers. A Monte Carlo study supports the following conclusions: if the shape parameter is greater than one, modified PBE maintain the good properties of practical Bayes estimators; otherwise the modified PBE are much better and do not suffer from the past limitation regarding the formulation of the prior interval on the shape parameter itself; and when there are very few data the modified PBE work as a filter that always improves (on average) the prior information if it is poor, or substantially confirms it if it is good. From this viewpoint, Bayes theorem allows statistics to help engineering and not vice versa.


Blood, regardless of the amount of some of the hearth curb casting, coating non-arrival or less likely to come into close contact defects, such as blistering or peeling, and provides nuleum and gloss barrel electroplating way failure is to obtain a uniform coating film is not in the plating film . The present invention is made of aluminum or a method for the barrel electroplating using an aluminum alloy coating bath, Blood, rotating the positive electrode (6) disposed in the interior of the accommodating a taker barrel 4, oscillation or vibration Sikkim and, at the same time, the anode applying a voltage between the negative electrode is installed on the inner wall surface of the barrel, and the barrel and the rotating, oscillating or vibrating characterized.


One way to describe constitutional law has been concern with security, driven by fear not only of crime, insurrection, and subversion, but fear of rights, fear that claims of life, liberty, and property would cripple the Republic. Yet these very fears can be positively described as concern with that selfsame life, liberty, property, equality, and democracy. Therein lies a vision not of fear but of hope -- a vision generous enough to embrace those values of the Preamble the Court has held are not empowering but only precatory -- general welfare, liberty, and justice. The essay explores these very different visions of constitutional law and their implications.


The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts an important increment of primary energy demand until 2030. The electricity generation sector expects that world's demand gets duplicated, which would mean the installation of new plants up to an additional global capacity of 5,000 GWe. This huge increment of the demand, together with other economic factors, will give fossil fuels (coal, gas and oil) a key role within the energy field.


The research project CASCOM will implement, validate, and trial value-added support for business services for mobile workers and users across mobile and fixed networks. The vision of the CASCOM approach is that ubiquitous application services are flexibly co-ordinated and pervasively provided to the mobile users by intelligent agents in dynamically changing contexts of open, large-scale, pervasive environments. The essential approach of CASCOM is the innovative combination of intelligent agent technology, semantic Web services, peer-to-peer, and mobile computing for intelligent peer-to-peer (IP2P) service environments. The services are provided by software agents exploiting the co-ordination infrastructure to efficiently operate in highly dynamic environments.


Decentralization is a key concept in modern networks, such as the Internet,
social networks, or wireless phone or sensor networks. The systematic
study of how networks are formed by a multitude of non-cooperative
or only mildly cooperative players, is a vivid topic in Discrete Mathe-
matics, Computer Science, and Economics. In 2010, a variant addressing
robustness aspects was introduced. In this model, known as adversary model
or destruction model, one link in the network is destroyed at random af-
ter the network has been formed. Players anticipate this disruption and
try to build a network that gives them good connectivity even after the
destruction. How efficiently can this be done in a decentralized setting?
This thesis advances our knowledge regarding the adversary model: we
bring in the modern equilibrium concept of swap equilibrium and we extend to the destruction of one vertex. This disruption tends to be more severe compared to the case that just one link is destroyed. We characterize several settings, where for some, the formed networks are provably efficient, while for others, we show they can be inefficient up to a certain degree.
Apart from the adversary model, we study a model where each player v
tries to maximize the number of players at distance at most k from v, for
a fixed parameter k. For example, when the network models friendship,
then for k = 2, players would try to maximize the number of friends plus
friends of their friends, which is an interesting metric in Sociology. We
prove results on the structure and efficiency of such networks.
In the final chapter, the network is fixed and each player chooses one of k colors. For example, the network might describe the spatial relations between the players and colors might correspond to radio frequencies, so each player's aim is to choose a frequency that causes as few interference as possible with the frequencies of her neighbors.


The present research examines the efficiency achieved by the implementation of two collectors of ultraviolet radiation in an annular batch type photochemical reactor. The first geometry corresponds to a concentric cylinder with the source of radiation, which consists in a media mercury lamp with 1000 watts of power. The second dispositive is constitute by the implementation of two compound parabolic collectors, opposed in their aperture areas, with a concentration factor equal to one and an acceptance angle of 90° . The obtained results shows the capacity of both geometries to increase the efficiency of the system during the Blue Erionyl A-R acid dye degradation, dissolved in aqueous media, by the application of Advanced Oxidation Processes, in an homogeneous phase of ultraviolet radiation and H2 O2 catalyst application. By the use of 0.05 mL per liter of hydrogen peroxide at 50% as a ●OH radicals source, and a colorant concentration of 50 ppm, the collectors allows the 98.4 and 100% of the dye photochemical degradation into a experimental time of 5 minutes, So the experiments registering a system efficiency increasing around of 3.4 and 5.5% respectively. Unlike the original system, and of the cylindrical collector application, the opposite compound parabolic concentrators showed a better capacity to degrade the intermediate products, that are been produced during the mineralization process of the textile compound and absorbs light radiation at wavelengths included between 230 and 480 nm. This promotes a water treatment process time decrement and an electrical energy savings.


Electroluminescence (EL) from nanocrystalline Si (nc-Si) embedded in a single-crystal CaF2 layer formed on a p-type Si(111) substrate has been demonstrated. Nc-Si/CaF2 layers were grown by co-evaporation of Si and CaF2 with molecular beam epitaxy from Si and partially ionized epitaxy for CaF2, followed by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) in N2 ambient. Visible EL was observed at room temperature in the dark with the naked eye, from the whole area of the transparent electrode for current injection. Uniformity and intensity of luminescence was drastically improved by RTA in N2 ambient.


As machine learning models continue to achieve impressive performance across different tasks, the importance of effective anomaly detection for such models has increased as well. It is common knowledge that even well-trained models lose their ability to function effectively on out-of-distribution inputs. Thus, out-of-distribution (OOD) detection has received some attention recently. In the vast majority of cases, it uses the distribution estimated by the training dataset for OOD detection. We demonstrate that the current detectors inherit the biases in the training dataset, unfortunately. This is a serious impediment, and can potentially restrict the utility of the trained model. This can render the current OOD detectors impermeable to inputs lying outside the training distribution but with the same semantic information (e.g. training class labels). To remedy this situation, we begin by defining what should ideally be treated as an OOD, by connecting inputs with their semantic information content. We perform OOD detection on semantic information extracted from the training data of MNIST and COCO datasets and show that it not only reduces false alarms but also significantly improves the detection of OOD inputs with spurious features from the training data.


Based on an electrochemical method, three-dimensional arrayed nanopore structures are machined onto a Mg surface. The structured Mg surface is coated with a thin gold (Au) film, which is used as a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate. A rhodamine 6G (R6G) probe molecule is used as the detection agent for the SERS measurement. Different sizes of arrayed micro/nanostructures are fabricated by different treatment time using the electrochemical process. The topographies of these micro/nanostructures and the thickness of the Au film have an influence on the Raman intensity of the Mg substrate. Furthermore, when the thickness of Au film coating is held constant, the Raman intensity on the structured Mg substrates is about five times higher after a treatment time of 1 min when compared with other treatment times. The SERS enhancement factor ranges from 106 to 1.75 × 107 under these experimental conditions. Additionally, a 10−6 mol·L−1 solution of lysozyme was successfully detected using the Mg–Au nanopore substrates. Our low-cost method is reproducible, homogeneous, and suitable for the fabrication of SERS substrates.


Accessing information and medical services is a fundamental human right, whether it is provided in the online or in the classical environment. The widespread of internet use has produced a change in the users' preferences, shifting the attention towards electronic health care or monitoring services provided through medical Web applications. In this context, developers must provide quality information products capable of offering a proper functional framework for accomplishing specified tasks, with a focus on eliminating barriers that may hinder access to people with diminished physical or cognitive capabilities. As the ageing process brings substantial changes in the optimum functioning of a person, people over 65 years old are considered a vulnerable group, prone to isolation. The decline in vision, hearing, memory, cognitive or motor impairment, often leads to a difficult relationship with technology. Hence, the need to design interfaces that meet the specific needs and requirements of this category of users. This paper highlights the implementation phase and the main functions of a software tool dedicated to assist the usability evaluation of healthcare Web applications, in the case of elderly people. This tool supports evaluators in the registration of usability problems and in the collaborative consolidation of the results obtained from the evaluation process.


The article presents the main philosophical, political and juridical issues raised by the wide field of animal studies, and highlights their interdisciplinary nature. «Ricerche di Storia Politica» dedicates a special issue to human-animal interactions, starting from the assumption that they have relevant implications for the political sphere, and with the aim to both stimulate the dialogue between historiography and animal studies, and offer a diachronic reading of human-animal relationships and the animal advocacy movement. Specific attention is devoted to three major aspects: the historical and philosophical roots of moral concerns towards non-humans; the history of animal protection groups, from the Nineteenth century to the present; the conceptual and practical links between the «animal question» and the feminist movements.


In this study, the relationship between entrepreneurship education and innovative start-up intentions were invested among university students in northern Vietnam. Three factors of entrepreneurship, (curricular programmes, extracurricular programmes and social education) were adopted as independent variables and were assessed in combination with three factors (entrepreneurial capabilities, attitude and self-efficacy) as mediating factors. Curricular and extracurricular programmes for entrepreneurship based on self-efficacy, but not social education, had significant effects on innovative start-up intentions. In addition, self-efficacy did not affect the attitude of university students. It can be inferred that university students tend to increase their start-up intention when they study entrepreneurship and are confident in their capabilities and self-efficacy. Entrepreneurial attitude is also a factor of success.


Thomas Tyrwhitt would feature prominently on any list of influential eighteenth-century editors of classical and English literature. In addition to his work on Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Babrius's Aesop and other ancients, he contributed a number of emendations and explanatory notes to the variorum editions of Shakespeare. In his own right he produced notable editions of The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer in five volumes (1775-8) and Poems, supposed to have been written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley, and Others, in the Fifteenth Century (1777), an agglomeration of ballads, epics and eclogues attributed to an unknown British ancient and his circle, though in fact crafted by 'the marvellous Boy' Thomas Chatterton in the late 1760s. In order to offer some grounding to the longstanding debate about Tyrwhitt's merits as a textual scholar of the vernacular and to augment recent examinations of the post-Bentleian editing practices of the eighteenth century, which tend to focus on the nascent British canon of Shakespeare, Chaucer and Milton, this essay examines Tyrwhitt's work on the first print edition of Chatterton's pseudo-medieval poems. Not only has the editor's complex treatment of the problematic manuscripts been largely ignored, his refusal to engage in the debate about the authenticity of the papers that lay at the heart of the "Rowley controversy" has received lopsided attention in modern accounts of the book's reception. Instead, as I outline here, Tyrwhitt's diligent attempts to apply his textual-critical skills to these works deserve a thorough investigation for two compelling reasons. First: the unique problems posed by the texts magnify the working assumptions of a noteworthy mid-eighteenth-century textual scholar. Second: it will allow the edition to be treated as Tyrwhitt intended, not as a collection of literary forgeries that need to be accepted into or rejected from the literary canon, but as recovered texts that require, within the editor's authorial purview, careful restoration and, when necessary, correction.


In experimental studies on renovascular hypertension, we found that the amplifier properties of the hypertrophied heart and resistance vessels contributed considerably more to the maintenance of the elevated blood pressure (BP) during the chronic phase of the disorder than the basic underlying cause. This must also occur in chronic primary hypertension. Accordingly, we hypothesized that after reversal of hypertrophy by antihypertensive medication, the cause(s) of hypertension should be easier to detect during the redevelopment of hypertension once medication was stopped than in the chronic phase of the disorder. We have studied three groups of patients with moderate/severe hypertension in whom BP was controlled for 1 month; 1 year; 15 months to 5 years. The rate of subsequent redevelopment of hypertension between the series was inversely related to the duration of therapy, which was mostly with beta blockers and diuretics. The differences in the rate of redevelopment of hypertension between series 2 and 3 suggest that, with the drugs used, reversal of vascular hypertrophy is quicker than reversal of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). In series 3, we observed an inverse relationship between LV mass and duration of therapy. Redevelopment of hypertension was slowest after obtaining regression of both vascular hypertrophy and LVH. Preliminary findings suggest that sympathetic overactivity is present during the redevelopment phase in the majority of patients. Our findings have suggested a new therapeutic strategy, where the effectiveness of nonpharmacological methods of controlling BP is enhanced by first causing regression of cardiovascular hypertrophy by drug treatment followed by a non-drug phase of maintaining normal BP. We have found moderate regular exercise one of the most effective nonpharmacological antihypertensive methods and have now maintained five patients with moderate hypertension at normal BP for 1 year, following an initial period of drug treatment.


Summary Objective: To describe proximal tibial metaphyseal fractures in immature dogs. Materials and methods: Medical records of immature dogs with metaphyseal fractures of the proximal tibia were reviewed and data were collected on signalment and history of trauma. Craniocaudal and mediolateral radiographs were evaluated for the determination of the bones fractured, location of the fracture within the bone, fracture configuration, and the presence of fracture segment displacement and angulation. Results: Eighteen dogs with 22 proximal tibial metaphyseal fractures fulfilled the inclusion criteria. All fractures had a curvilinear, complete fracture of the proximal tibial metaphysis. Displacement was identified in 16 fractures and angulation in 15 fractures. All affected breeds were terrier or small breed dogs less than six months of age. The majority of dogs weighed 5 kg or less at the time of injury. The most common type of trauma that occurred was a jump or fall from a short distance. Clinical significance: Proximal tibial metaphyseal fractures are an uncommon injury that occur in skeletally immature dogs from minimal trauma. Proximal tibial metaphyseal fractures have a characteristic curvilinear fracture configuration that affects mainly small breed dogs with a predominance for terrier breeds. Supplementary Material to this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.3415/VCOT-16-11-0154


Deliberative democracy has been castigated by those who regard it as exclusive and elitist because of its failure to take into account a range of structural inequalities existing within contemporary liberal democracies. As a result, it is suggested, deliberative arenas will merely reproduce these inequalities, advantaging the already powerful extolling mainstream worldviews excluding the interests of the less powerful and those expounding alternative worldviews. Moreover, the tactics employed by those excluded social movements seeking to right an injustice are typically those – involving various forms of protest and direct action – which are incompatible with the key characteristics of deliberatively democracy. This paper seeks to examine the case against deliberative democracy through the prism of animal rights. It will be argued that the critique of deliberative democracy, at least in the case of animal rights, is largely misplaced because it underestimates the rationalistic basis of animal rights philosophy, misunderstands the aspirational character of deliberative theory and mistakenly attributes problems that are not restricted to deliberation but result from interest group politics in general. It is further argued that this debate about the apparent incompatibility between the ideals of deliberative democracy and non-deliberative activism disguises the potential that deliberative democracy has for advocates of animal rights and, by extension, other social movements too.


The evolutionarily conserved p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade is an integral part of the response to a variety of environmental stresses. Here we show that the Caenorhabditis elegans PMK-1 p38 MAPK pathway regulates the oxidative stress response via the CNC transcription factor SKN-1. In response to oxidative stress, PMK-1 phosphorylates SKN-1, leading to its accumulation in intestine nuclei, where SKN-1 activates transcription of gcs-1, a phase II detoxification enzyme gene. These results delineate the C. elegans p38 MAPK signaling pathway leading to the nucleus that responds to oxidative stress.


the technology of wireless sensor-actuator networks (WSANs) is widely employed in the applications of IoT due to its wireless nature and it does not involve any wired structure. The wireless systems that are battery-driven can easily reconfigure the existing devices and sensors efficiently in the manufacturing units without employing any cable for power operation as well as for communication. The wireless sensor-actuator networks that are based on IEEE 802.15.4 consumes significantly less power. These networks are designed and built cost-effectively by considering the capacity of battery and expense so that they can be employed for many applications. The application of a typical wireless Autonomous Scheduling and Distributed Graph Routing (DDSR) has illustrated the reliability of employing its basic approaches for almost ten years and it consists of the accurate plot for routing and time-slotted channel hopping therefore ensuring accurate low-power wireless communication in the processing site. Officially declared by the controversial statements associated with the government of Greek experiences fourth industrialization. There is a huge requirement for sensor nodes link via WSAN in the industrial site. Also, reduced computational complexity is one of the drawbacks faced by the existing standards of WSAN which is caused because of their highly centralized traffic management systems and thereby significantly improves the consistency and accessibility of network operations at the expense of optimization. This research work enables the study of efficient Wireless DGR network management and also introduces an alternative for DDSR by enabling the sensor nodes to determine their data traffic routes for the transmission of data. When compared to the above two physical routing protocols, the proposed technique can drastically improve the performance of a network, throughput, and energy consumption under various aspects. Energy harvesting (EH) plays a significant role in the implementation of large IoT devices. The requirement for subsequent employment of power sources is eliminated by The efficient approach of Energy Harvesting and thereby providing a relatively close- perpetual working environment for the network. The structural concept of routing protocols that are designed for the IoT applications which are based on the wireless sensor has been transformed into "energy-harvesting-aware" from the concept of "energy-aware" because of the development in the Energy harvesting techniques. The main objective of the research work is to propose a routing protocol that is energy-harvesting-aware for the various network of IoT in case of acoustic sources of energy. A novel algorithm for routing called Autonomous Scheduling and Distributed Graph Routing (DDSR) has been developed and significantly improved by incorporating a new "energy back-off" factor. The proposed algorithm when integrated with various techniques of energy harvesting enhances the longevity of nodes, quality of service of a network under increased differential traffic, and factors influencing the accessibility of energy. The research work analyses the performance of the system for various constraints of energy harvesting. When compared to previous routing protocols the proposed algorithm achieves very good energy efficiency in the network of distributed IoT by fulfilling the requirements of QoS.


SOME investigators, Fuchs 1 for example, have called attention to certain congenital anomalies of the glaucomatous eyeball. A characteristic small bulbus, a shallow anterior chamber, bulging ciliary processes and a comparatively large lens are met with in glaucoma. The higher incidence of "inflammatory" glaucoma in hyperopic persons may point in the same direction. In hydrophthalmos the ligamentum pectinatum and the angle of the anterior chamber are originally underdeveloped. The lens is rather small. Bilateral spherophakia, with a congenitally weak zonula, may be complicated by glaucoma, as Bowman 2 noted. All these anomalies mean a developmental peculiarity or disproportionate growth of the various tissues of the bulbus. According to studies which I have carried out in recent years, to be published elsewhere, proportionate physical growth is related to the normal activity and normal development of the central nervous system, including the pituitary body and the epiphysis. The eyeball, the optic nerve


This research is about testing the effectiveness of clove flower extract (Syzygium aromaticum L.) as an analgesic against the beating time caused by formalin male mice. This research is experimental with the Complete Random Design formula producing four times repetition (N = 4) and divided into five treatment groups (t = 5). Data were analyzed using ANAVA factorial test then followed by Duncan test. All tests are carried out with Product Solutions and Service Statistics (SPSS). The results of research and statistical analysis prove that clove flower extract at a dose of 1% is an effective dose compared to other treatment groups, seen from the amount of time licking male mice  which is smaller than other treatment groups. It can be concluded that the administration of clove flower extract has analgesic effectiveness against the reaction of male mice induced by formalin. The concentration of clove flower extract 1% is the most effective in reducing licking time.


In the present paper, we study the effect of van Hove singularities of conduction electron on the transport of a single quantum dot system in the Kondo regime. By using both the equation-of-motion and the noncrossing approximation techniques, we show that the corrections caused by these singularities are actually minor. It can be explained by observing that the singularities in the equations, which determine the electronic DOS on the dot, are integrable. Furthermore, we find that, although each line width function is divergent at van Hove singular points, the total divergence is canceled out in the final formula to calculate the current through the system. Therefore, as far as the qualitative properties of the system is concerned, these singularities can be ignored and the wide-band approximation can be safely used in calculation.


The end of a low‐velocity lens diffracts energy emerging after reflection at a lower level. Conventional interpretive treatment of such energy as an undiffracted reflection could lead to serious inferences of nonexistent structure. Constant moveout down the record is the main criterion for the diffracted reflection situation. The diffractive source, assuming the velocity in the surrounding material to be known, is found as the envelope of emergent travel paths. Reflected energy from the top of the feature, if recognized, can be analyzed for delineating the upper limit of the body. The thickness can be estimated from observed delay times. For discovering and delineating low‐velocity lenses, long reflection spreads should be used.


In the European Union (EU), country of origin labeling (COOL) became mandatory in 2002 in response to the United Kingdom's bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) crisis. Although the EU has enacted one of the most information rich COOL policies for beef globally, little research has focused on origin labeling in the EU. Therefore, we determined how German and British consumers' food safety concerns moderated their willingness to pay (WTP) for foreign (country of origin labeled) beef. Additional attributes, such as hormone-free labeling, quality assurance seals and promotional gourmet labeling were also analyzed. Random parameter logit model results indicated that British and German consumers' WTP for foreign beef is moderated by their specific food safety concerns. For example, as German consumers are increasingly concerned about BSE, their WTP for beef from Great Britain was most negative. When controlling for consumers' food safety concern in general, British consumers had the lowest WTP for beef from France, and German consumers had the lowest WTP for beef from the U.S. German and British consumers' had the highest WTP for hormone-free beef. These results are informational to the international trade of beef.


The time of COVID-19 represents a distinct, but currently under-defined and under-theorised, temporal moment. Using semiotic methods, this paper examines how the mechanical actions of the virus, through becoming social, create a new viral time, heralding an already-arrived new historical epoch. This epoch, which is simultaneously both homogenous and undifferentiated at one tempo, and supercharged with change, events and radically uncertain futurity at another, is riven with revolutionary potential. The existential challenge posed to the faltering socio-economic order is evidenced by a panicked political response combining reactionary attempts to reimpose temporal certainty and fixity, with desperate material concessions to a public suddenly expelled from a previously subsuming dominant productive time of capitalism. As such, this temporal crisis offers the necessary, if not sufficient, moment for profound re-imaginings of our productive and social relations, and an opportunity to look beyond the possible end of the world, and towards the end of capitalism.


Upon discharge, US service members experience an instantaneous immersion back into civilian life. One of the most challenging aspects of that reimmersion is the reentry/entry into the civilian workforce. As such, it is necessary to study the returning veteran's employment experience when considering the veteran's civilian reintegration. The purpose of this study was to analyze and evaluate the returning veteran's civilian employment experience and to identify challenges faced by the veteran in the civilian onboarding experience.,This study is a qualitative analysis in which 27 military veterans were interviewed about their experience with civilian reemployment. The results of the interviews were compiled, analyzed and grouped by common theme. This study explains some of the major issues confronted by the newly separated veteran and discusses how those challenges may influence job satisfaction and job performance.,The analysis identified the following three main themes that posed challenges to the veteran to civilian employment transition: civilian employer's military job knowledge deficit, veteran anxiety with civilian employer's lack of clearly defined new-hire processes and civilian employer misunderstanding of veteran compensation, benefits and family involvement expectations.,This study is beneficial to scholars in as much as it will help to more clearly identify literature gaps, provide direction on emerging research concepts, add to the existing literature on the veteran to civilian transitions and connect research areas that have not yet been adequately studied. Future research would be well served to follow a similar program of research but by employing different research methods in order to address the limitations outlined above and further support the findings of this research. Specifically, future research should sample across a wider set of individuals as study participants (time since discharge, age, military rank at time of separation, reserve status, etc.). By doing this, future researchers may be able to determine how perceptions change over time and with regard to military experience. A second area of future research may be to conduct related research based on civilian employment opportunities and qualifications. Specific areas of study to be considered should be focused primarily on the macro issues such as military leadership and translating military experiences and skill sets to civilian contexts. Unlike other findings in this research, these two areas cannot be affected at the organizational level, and as such require concept exploration and clarity.,This study provides guidance and direction for veterans and employers alike by outlining areas that may be challenging for new-hire military veterans and bringing to light areas where the civilian onboarding experience can improve to better accommodate veterans. Further, this study identifies areas that directly or indirectly contribute to high veteran turnover rates and ultimately high veteran unemployment rates.,This original quantitative study conducted by the author specifically identifies several areas in the veteran to civilian employment transition that pose challenges for the returning veteran. All data for this study were gathered and analyzed using first-hand face-to-face interviews and established data analysis methods by the researcher.


Successful implementation of evidence-based medicine in the development of high-risk medical devices requires a methodical scientific approach. However, even when research evidence is available from randomised controlled studies, it can be difficult to translate clinical evidence into regulatory and clinical decisions. Drug-eluting stents are used as an example to illustrate this principle.


Background and aims Intraventricular dyssynchrony has traditionally been studied by means of contraction delays between different myocardial segments. Recently, the discoordination of opposing wall contraction throughout the cardiac cycle has been proposed as a more faithful predictor of response. Aim of the current study was to evaluate which parameters – mechanical dyssynchrony or discoordination – normalize with left ventricular response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). Methods Cardiac mechanics were analysed before and after 6 months of CRT in 53 patients with left bundle branch block and advanced heart failure. Discoordination was quantified by means of the transverse strain discoordination index (TSDI) at basal and mid-ventricular segments; this index takes into account the percentage of time in the cardiac cycle in which cardiac deformation (transverse strain) of the two opposing walls occurs in noncoordinated directions. Dyssynchrony indices included septal to lateral peak-to-peak transverse strain delay and the standard deviation of time to peak tissue velocity in 12 mid-basal segments (Yu index). Results Around 63% of patients met the response criteria. Several baseline indices were predictive of reverse remodelling; TSDI at the mid-ventricular level demonstrated the best accuracy. Time from Q to peak velocity and strain tended to increase in all explored myocardial segments; despite a trend towards a decrease in septal-to-lateral strain delay, the latter decreased equally in responders and in nonresponding patients. Yu index decreased in responders more than in nonresponders, with borderline significance. Basal and medium TSDI remained unchanged in nonresponders and consistently normalized in patients who responded to CRT. The changes in TSDI were significantly correlated with improvements in left ventricular end-systolic volume and ejection fraction; the strongest correlation was observed for changes in TSDI measured at the mid-ventricular level. Conclusion Left ventricular reverse remodelling after CRT is accompanied by the recoordination of opposite-wall contraction, as testified by changes in mid-ventricular TSDI, which also reveals as a very good predictor of response. On the contrary, changes of segmental peak-to-peak delays (dyssynchrony indices) fail to capture the complex nature of left ventricular response to CRT.


In order to represent the mechanical response laws of high-modulus asphalt pavement (HMAP) faithfully and objectively, the viscoelasticity of high-modulus asphalt mixture (HMAM) was considered, and the viscoelastic mechanical responses were calculated systematically based on moving load by numerical simulations. The performances of the HMAP in resistance to the deformation and the cracking at the bottom layer were compared with the ordinary asphalt pavement. Firstly, Lubao and Honeywell 7686 (H7686) were selected as the high modulus modifiers. The laboratory investigations of Asphalt mix-70 penetration, Asphalt mix-SBS (styrene-butadiene-styrene), HMAM-Lubao and HMAM-H7686 were carried out by dynamic modulus tests and wheel tracking tests. The conventional performances related to the purpose of using the HMAM were indicated. The master curves of the storage moduli were obtained and the viscoelastic parameters were fitted based on viscoelastic theories. Secondly, 3D pavement models based on moving loads for the viscoelastic structures were built using the non-linear finite element software ABAQUS. The wheel path was discretized in time and space to apply the Haversine wave load, and then the mechanical responses of four kinds of asphalt pavement were calculated. Finally, the sensitivity analysis was carried out. The results showed that the addition of the high modulus modifiers can improve the resistance to high-temperature rutting of the pavements. Except for the tensile strain and stress at the bottom of the underlayer, other responses decreased with the increases of the dynamic moduli and the change laws of the tensile strain and stress were affected by the range of the dynamic modulus. The tensile stress at the bottom of the asphalt layer would be too large if the modulus of the layer were too large, and a larger tensile strain would result. Therefore, the range of the modulus must be restricted to avoid the cracking due to excessive tension when using the HMAM. The resistance of the HMAP to deformation was better and the HMAP was less sensitive to load changes and could better withstand the adverse effects inflicted by heavy loads.


Abstract The fraught relationship between popular music and the various kinds of power in Africa has stimulated intensive scholarship and encouraged heated discussions on the topic. Of special interest seems to be the multifaceted character of that interrelationship. It is generally agreed that artistic expression is influenced by political power and that the two mutually inform and shape each other. This article examines the themes of power, powerlessness and protest as they affect political governance in Cameroon, Central Africa, and as they are reflected in Cameroonian popular music. It further shows how popular songs are used to examine fundamental issues of national concern and to criticise the political leadership. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate how popular music can open a window of understanding into the current political process in Cameroon with a view to drawing implications for positive change. Written against the background of new historicism and postcolonial theories, the article is built on the assumption that popular music is a vibrant and dynamic form of oral literature which is shaped by social, economic and political forces in present-day Cameroon. As a result, popular music has the potential to play a role in influencing a society's perception and sense of direction. The article concludes by recommending that if the issues of power and marginality in Cameroon are to be addressed more successfully, and if the politically fraught conditions are to be ameliorated, then Cameroonians must be prepared to undergo a radical change of mentality.


Isolation of the proteinases inhibitors, available for medicinal purposes, was described, where the inhibitor of the Kunitz type was obtained from bovine pancreas and the inhibitor of the Bowman-Birk type from soybeans. Screening of the immobilization procedures was carried out, which enabled the authors to produce the polymeric conjugates of the proteinase inhibitors exhibiting the maximal rate of activity against pancreatic proteinases and granulocyte elastases. Pharmacokinetics of the proteinase inhibitors obtained was studied. High molecular derivatives of the inhibitors from the bovine pancreas circulated in rat blood in larger quantities and longer, their total clearance was 5 times than native inhibitor preparations. The preparations containing these inhibitors from bovine pancreas exhibited a high therapeutic efficiency in treatment of rats with hemorrhagic pancreatitis and acute liver failure in rabbits.


The impact of PGF2α on total proteins, free amino acids and the amino transferases in the gonads of silkworm, Bombyx mori L. were investigated in the present experiment. The effect of PGF2α resulted in increase in the total protein and free amino acid contents in the gonads of silkworm larvae indicating improved structural and dynamic levels of organization. The enhanced activity levels of amino transferases and glutamate dehydrogenases (GDH) in the gonads suggest the mobilization of amino acids for glycogen synthesis or protein synthesis or both.


A novel method for determining proton-exchanged LiNbO3 waveguide depth by infrared absorption spectroscopy was proposed. The method overcomes the shortcoming that the conventional prism-coupling + IWKB technique is only applicable to the multimode waveguides. For the commonly used single-mode waveguides, however, it is helpless. The experimental results indicated that this method has good accuracy.


Purpose
Risk assessment studies involving recidivism in sex offenders with intellectual disabilities (SOIDs) continue to be scarce, limited and producing mixed results. This study aims (to test the ability ...) to test the ability of one such instrument (the Static-99R) to predict intramural sexual and violent incidents involving members of this group.

Design/methodology/approach
The Static-99R was prospectively scored for 38 SOIDs. Occurrences of any violent or sexual incident and/or illegal sexual behaviour were recorded during a minimum period of six months. Predictive accuracy was analysed using several performance indicators.

Findings
The Static-99R significantly predicted sexual incidents (area under the curve = 0.70) but failed to predict violent and illegal sexual incidents. Regarding illegal sexual incidents, the instrument was better at detecting low-risk individuals than high-risk offenders.

Originality/value
Risk assessment studies, both in offenders with and without an intellectual disability (ID), rarely use multiple accuracy estimates. The current study used both discrimination and calibration indicators to evaluate the ability of the Static-99R to detect low- and high-risk offenders.


In Mobile Agent Technology, interoperability between agents is indispensably to secure the data from malicious agents under Multi-Agent System. To protect data and agents from malicious attacks, the multi- agent system essentially needs to offer secure communication and access control mechanisms. Hence the digital signature and cryptosystem of asymmetric key based encryption and decryption provides secure communication and increases the confidentiality of accessing services designated only to a determined group of users. However, for the distribution of public key between agents we need to identify the trusted agent. The identification of trusted agent in a multi-agent platform is a challenging work. The technique of adapting USB Dongle is like a security device, which makes the identity of trusted agent, gives a robust mechanism for the identification of trusted agents in a Multi-Agent secured Distributed Computing System. In addition to that bio-metric based finger print sensor enables the owner's physical contribution to access the data.


Two experiments investigating the benefit of computer-based applications in geography education are presented. The computer-based methods employ concepts of visualization, including animation and interactivity, to facilitate active learning. These computer-based methods are compared with physical (i.e. tangible) models, which themselves can be considered active learning tools. Thus, this report compares a pair of learning strategies using interactive external cognitive tools (one computer-based and one physical), rather than more typical studies which compare an approach using such interactive tools with an approach using more traditional lecture-based presentations. Results confirm existing findings that computer-based approaches are appealing to students but are not, by themselves, significantly beneficial in enabling understanding of complex concepts.


The objective of this study was to investigate the efficacy of Eruca Sativa seed oil to ameliorate the hazardous effect of aflatoxin B1 in male rabbits with special reference to the reproductive performance. The current experiment was carried out on 40 adult White New Zealand bucks (37 3.5 kg live body weight) during March – May. Rabbits were housed in an air7conditioned room at the Lab.Animal house of the National Research Center and had free access to water and pelleted diet (mycotoxin free).Bucks were proven to be fertile after examination of semen samples and were divided into four comparable groups, 10 bucks each. The first group (G1) was kept on basal diet without any additives, The second group (G2) was given 0.5 ml Eruca sativa seed oil (ESO)daily for 8 weeks, using an oral tube The third group(G3) was given 6 ppb of aflatoxin B1(AFB1; permissible concentration of aflatoxin in food stuff in Egypt.) dissolved in corn oil 3 times weekly for 8 weeks. The fourth group was treated similar to G3 in addition to 0.5ml of ESO daily starting two weeks before drenching AFB1. The moisture content of the ration was determined and random samples were examined for the presence of fungus and/or toxins before the start of the experiment. ESO GC/MS was carried out. At the end of the experiment, animals were slaughtered. Blood and epididimal sperm samples were taken for evaluation. Samples of muscles were collected for analyzing the residual amount of aflatoxin B1, while specimens from testes, kidney and liver were sent for histopathological examination. Aflatoxin B1 administration resulted in suppressed immunity, oxidative stress and hepatic and renal ailment, oilgospermea, teratospermea and asthenozoospermia. Results of the present study ascertained that Eruca sativa seed oil ameliorate the harmful effect of aflatoxine , It took all the disturbed values of blood and semen and pathological changes in liver,kidney and testes, due to aflatoxicosis back to normal. It is recommended to add ESO in drinking water in rabbit farms to control the problem of aflatoxicosis for the benefits of rabbit breeders and consumers.


The increasing number of power electronic devices connected to the power system is leading it to new stability challenges. The uncertainty of the grid-model may complicate the controller design and compromise stability. As a countermeasure, LQR and pole-placement techniques can be re-oriented to design for passivity, which is leading to new controller design paradigms. Nevertheless, as a general rule, all the variables of the system are considered in the full bandwidth, which may become unfeasible or costly in the industrial scenario. An original controller design technique for LC or LCL filter which accomplishes passivity in a wide range of frequency is proposed. Besides, it reduces the voltage sensor needs, even controlling it, being suitable for Grid-Forming. As consequence, the complexity of the software, hardware and price are reduced. Experimental verification is provided: impedance of the converter from the grid side and response against a changes in the reference/load.


In 2 studies with older adults, the authors investigated the effect of executive attention resources on the retrieval of emotional public events. Participants completed a battery of working memory tasks, as a measure of executive attention, and a battery of tasks assessing memory, as well as subjective experiences associated with the retrieval of remote public events. Participants also rated the valence of each public event story. The group-rated valence of the public event stories predicted retrieval and the quality of experiences associated with them, such that emotionally arousing events elicited the highest memory rates and the richest experiences. Furthermore, positive public events elicited the highest memory rates. Executive attention moderated only the relationship between event valence and how participants' associated memories are experienced at retrieval, such that superior executive attention resources predicted richer experiences associated with positive relative to neutral and negative stories. The current results extend previous findings on the effects of aging on emotion regulation, suggesting that cognitive control resources modulate subjective experiences associated with retrieved memories for remote real life events, but not memory retrieval itself.


Vaccines and chemotherapy may soon strengthen the armamentarium for control of type B hepatitis. The incidence of type A is still declining in the U.S., and now that type non-A, non-B has been transmitted to animals, a marker for it is being widely sought.


ABSTRACT Fusarium graminearum floral infections are a major risk to the global supply of safe cereal grains. We report updates to the PH-1 reference genome and significant improvements to the annotation. Changes include introduction of legacy annotation identifiers, new gene models, secretome and effectorP predictions, and inclusion of extensive untranslated region (UTR) annotations.


Pregnancy is a period that can influence women's psychological health, including body image and quality of life. This study aimed to examine the relationship between body image and quality of life and their predicting factors in pregnant women. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 250 pregnant women referred to health centers in Ilam City, Iran. Participants were selected using a random sampling method. Data collection tools comprised a sociodemographic questionnaire, Body Image Concern Inventory (BICI), and quality of life questionnaire (Short Form-12). Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 22, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). The mean ±SD of body image concern and quality of life was estimated at 31.77±9.86 and 54.62±15.71, respectively. There was a significant and negative correlation between body image and quality of life (P=0.001, r=-0.313). Also, the most important predictors of body image were vitality, body mass index (BMI), general health, and unintended pregnancy, respectively, and body dissatisfaction was the most significant predictor of quality of life. This study revealed some variables affecting pregnant women's body image and quality of life. Further studies are required to consider other factors influencing body image and quality of life among pregnant women.


This paper describes two automated methods to identify binary and continuous systems from their operating data. Both methods employ data clustering and localized modeling. For binary functions, the Karnaugh map is employed to transform an arbitrarily high dimensional distribution into a two-dimensional one where an elliptical clustering algorithm can be performed to identify a set of local neural net models to approximate the data. For real continuous functions, the input space is partitioned into regions that are small enough that a simple neural network can approximate the data well in each region. The partitioning method is inspired by an automatic mesh generation algorithm for Finite Element Method (FEM). A 7-bit Exclusive-OR (XOR), a Van der Pol oscillator, and a pendulum, respectively, are used to test the two proposed algorithms, and they are found to be satisfactory in generating models that can simulate the systems well.


This paper presents a journal of unique design ideas emerged from a virtual collaborative design studio between Rangsit University, Thailand and University of Newcastle, Australia. "NU Genesis", a virtual island in "Second Life" is used as an experimental platform, allowing the two universities to collaborate in design and learning across the continent. The presented designs are analyzed and evaluated to highlight the new design potentials in 3D virtual worlds, such as new design context and design support, and examples of the unique design usage of these potentials in future design practices. The design experiences and outcomes of the individual and collaborative projects are also discussed.


Background: Racial/ethnic minorities, low-income individuals and recent immigrants shoulder a disproportionate burden of colorectal cancer (CRC) mortality. In Florida, Blacks and Hispanics remain at an increased risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) compared to non-Hispanic Whites (NHW). In the Miami metropolitan area, this disparity is most prominent within the ethnic enclaves of Little Haiti and Hialeah, comprised predominately of Haitian and Hispanic Americans, respectively These communities experience an increased rate of late-stage CRC diagnosis relative to the state as a whole, largely due to lack of access to, and utilization of, CRC screening. Fecal immunochemical testing (FIT) has proved successful in addressing screening barriers for other medically-underserved communities. The present study represents a novel method for FIT delivery and uptake, particularly for the medically disenfranchished. Community Health Workers (CHWs), indigenous to Little Haiti and Hialeah, identified unscreened individuals, educated them about how to appropriately use FIT, and then provided them a postage-paid envelope to return completed tests to a laboratory for processing. Here we report preliminary acceptability and feasibility data for this approach. Methods: The FIT for Life screening program was available to all persons residing in Little Haiti and Hialeah 50 and 75 years old, who were unscreened or underscreened according to US Preventive Task Force recommendations, and considered average risk for CRC based on a brief screener. Our team worked closely with community partners to identify the CHWs, who ultimately were responsible for participant recruitment and intervention delivery. Following FIT return, a research assistant contacted participants to ask a series of questions in their language of preference about their perceived acceptability of FIT as a modality for CRC prevention. Any participant, identified as FIT positive was navigated to timely colonoscopy Results: To date, 221 participants (112 Hispanic, 109 Haitian) have been consented, received education on CRC screening, and were given the FIT kits. 92 Hispanics (82.1%) and 97 Haitians (88.9%) returned the FIT kits for processing. The test positive rate was 2.2% for Hispanics and 3.1% for Haitians. The mean quantity of blood in stool for positive tests was 896 ng/mL for Hispanics and 950 ng/mL for Haitians. The mean quantity of blood in stool for negative tests was 5.2 ng/mL for Hispanics and 4.8 ng/mL for Haitians. On follow-up clinical care, one Haitian participant was found to have an advanced stage CRC and a second did not want to undergo colonoscopy. Based on acceptability surveys, 100% of Hispanics and 90% of Haitians responded that they would use FIT again if offered for further screening; the same proportions would recommend the FIT with CHW method to friends and family members. Interestingly, 90.2% of Hispanics and only 5.0% of Haitians felt confident that FIT works as well as a CRC screening test that would be administered by a physician or nurse. Conclusion: The pairing of CHWs with CRC screening by FIT appears to be an effective approach to disease prevention that is highly acceptable to study participants. Further examination of whether this method is needed. We have begun collaborating with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) in Little Haiti and Hialeah to explore the sustainability of this approach and to ensure that participants are linked to a medical home for ongoing cancer prevention. Citation Format: Daniel Sussman, Monica Oriol, Martha Gonzalez, Heisy Asusta, Jose Ruiz, Dinah Trevil, Dorothy Parker, Erin Kobetz. FIT FOR LIFE: Increasing prevention and early detection of colorectal cancer for the medically disenfranchised. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Sixth AACR Conference: The Science of Cancer Health Disparities; Dec 6–9, 2013; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2014;23(11 Suppl):Abstract nr B46. doi:10.1158/1538-7755.DISP13-B46


This paper investigates the optimization and synthesis of nonuniformly spaced arrays with respect to the flattening of their grating plateaux. The analysis begins with the proof that the exponential spacing gives flat space-factor grating plateaux, using Poisson's sum and the stationary phase method. The theory then is generalized to include arrays of nonisotropic elements. It is found that results of the above analysis can be reduced to very simple forms. Through the use of Parseval's theorem, the theory of the space-factor gain of nonuniformly spaced arrays is also developed.


Despite a long tradition of user centred human computer interaction design, movement interaction, as it is still in its early phase, could be described as technology driven. This paper suggests taking the starting point in personal experiences as well as theories, of modern dance and body-centred philosophies, when studying human movement in order to inform people centred movement interaction design. Taking this approach also implies designing for a kinaesthetic interaction experience that includes the aesthetic part of kinaesthetics.


In this research report, we propose a heuristic algorithm with some primal recovery strategies for capacitated facility location problems (CFLP), which is a well-known combinatorial optimization problem with applications in distribution, transportation and production planning. Many algorithms employ the branch-and-bound technique in order to solve the CFLP. There are also some different approaches which can recover primal solutions while exploiting the primal and dual structure simultaneously. One of them is a MVCD (Mean Value Cross Decomposition) ensuring convergence without solving a master problem. The MVCD was designed to handle LP-problems, but it was applied in mixed integer problems. However the MVCD has been applied to only uncapacitated facility location problems (UFLP), because it was very difficult to obtain "Integrality" property of Lagrangian dual subproblems sustaining the feasibility to primal problems. We present some heuristic strategies to recover primal feasible integer solutions, handling the accumulated primal solutions of the dual subproblem, which are used as input to the primal subproblem in the mean value cross decomposition technique, without requiring solutions to a master problem. Computational results for a set of various problem instances are reported.


Circumstantial evidence suggests that the genome of Faba bean necrotic yellows virus (FBNYV), a nanovirus, consists of eight distinct, circular, single-stranded DNAs, each of about 1 kb and encoding only one protein. Here, the use of cloned full-length FBNYV DNAs for reproducing FBNYV-like symptoms in Vicia faba, the principal natural host of FBNYV, is reported. Characteristic symptoms of FBNYV infection were obtained in faba bean plants following biolistic DNA delivery or agroinoculation with all eight FBNYV DNAs. Although the eight different DNAs have been invariably detected in field samples infected with the various geographical FBNYV isolates, experimental infection with different combinations of fewer than eight DNAs also led to typical FBNYV symptoms. Even only five genome components, DNA-R, DNA-S, DNA-M, DNA-U1 and DNA-U2, were sufficient for inducing disease symptoms in V. faba upon agroinoculation. Symptomatic plants agroinoculated or bombarded with eight DNAs contained typical FBNYV virions; however, the virus was not transmitted by Aphis craccivora or Acyrthosiphon pisum, two efficient aphid vectors of FBNYV.


Due to the strong competitions among retailers, they need to find their competitive advantages in order to survive in the market. Windows display is the most effective element that retailer can use in order to provide good retail experience, which leads to customer loyalty. The main features of the design of window display are interest values, visual appeal, and relevance. The visual appeal of a display directly affects the ability of the display to gain shoppers attention. A successful window conveys a store's brand story, providing entertainment for the eyes with mood, material, lighting, and colours. An effective window display should be attractive, memorable, appropriate, timely, and neat. Well-designed windows display can positively affect consumers' purchase intentions. The objectives of this paper are: to investigate the influence window displays have on consumers and the design techniques required in a window display to entice people to enter a store, and to investigate how windows display promote the brand's image, the common classifications of windows display, and the design setting. Also, to explore the relationship between windows display and customer behaviour throughout S.O.R model. This paper emphasizes the important role of windows display as an effective media of visual communication, also it emphasizes that window display has a first impression and lasting impact on the minds of consumers. Furthermore, this paper improves the understanding of how window display design techniques creates a unique visual impact. The main results of this paper are: the window display is a means of attraction that can lead to the final purchase of a product.Effective windows display educates the consumer how to use the products and helps consumers to create and maintain in their minds the overall image and identity.The process of reinforcing the purchase decision consists of these steps: attention, perception, involvement, credibility, and memory.


The purpose is to shorten cycle time and to improve heat resistance and connection reliability. A conductive adhesive (17) is provided with at least an epoxy resin, a hardening agent, and conductive particles (23), wherein the hardening agent contains an imidazole hardening agent and an organic acid dihydrazide hardening agent. A tab wire (3) is positioned on electrodes (11, 13) formed on a solar cell (2) with the conductive adhesive interposed therebetween, and the conductive adhesive (17) is heat-hardened by subjecting the tab wire (3) to heat and pressure for a prescribed period of time and at a prescribed temperature and prescribed pressure.


Since alternative assessment embraces highly authentic tasks consistent with classroom goals and instruction, its implementation in the language classroom is believed to promote collaboration with peers, transfer responsibility to the learners and, consequently, foster learner autonomy. This paper presents the results of a research study aiming to determine whether portfolio assessment contributes to the development of autonomy in adolescent learners. In order to collect the data, qualitative and quantative methods of research were applied. The research results reveal that the implementation of portfolio assessment failed to affect the overall level of learner autonomy. Introducing one selected pedagogical procedure does not suffice to foster learner autonomy. Teachers need to be ready to pass a portion of their authority to the learners, who, in turn, need to know how to use the new privileges judiciously.


This study presents a technique for improving the efficiency and power factor of induction motor. In the proposed method, enhanced Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) with the aid of Genetic Algorithm (GA) algorithm is used to optimize the induction motor's parameters at various loading points. In the proposed algorithm, employed bees are generated the new solution for the input parameters by using GA. In the proposed method, GA is used for controlling the frequency of perturbation and improving the searching performance of ABC. The proposed method is used to provide the exact parameters from the optimized parameter values for all type of loading conditions. The parameters of induction motors are determined from the current, voltage, power loss, stray load losses and etc. The proposed technique is implemented in MATLAB platform and performance is evaluated. The performance of the proposed method is compared with ABC, FLC and integrated technique.


Predicting the arrival time of natural hazards such as tsunamis is of very high importance to the coastal community. One of the most effective techniques to predict tsunami propagation and arrival time is the utilization of numerical solutions. Numerical approaches of Nonlinear Shallow Water Equations (NLSWEs) and nonlinear Boussinesq-Type Equations (BTEs) are two of the most common numerical techniques for tsunami modeling and evaluation. BTEs use implicit schemes to achieve more accurate results compromising computational time, while NLSWEs are sometimes preferred due to their computational efficiency. Nonetheless, the term accounting for physical dispersion is not inherited in NLSWEs, calling for their consideration and evaluation. In the present study, the tsunami numerical model NAMI DANCE, which utilizes NLSWEs, is applied to previously reported problems in the literature using different grid sizes to investigate dispersion effects. Following certain conditions for grid size, time step and water depth, the simulation results show a fairly good agreement with the available models showing the capability of NAMI DANCE to capture small physical dispersion. It is confirmed that the current model is an acceptable alternative for BTEs when small dispersion effects are considered.


Abnormalities of coagulation and fibrinolysis may play an important role in the pathogenesis of ischaemic stroke and vascular dementia. We aimed to determine whether haemostatic function is altered in acute recent-onset or chronic ischaemic cerebrovascular disease. We studied consecutive patients with ischaemic stroke (n= 74) and vascular dementia (n =42) compared with healthy controls (n= 40) in a case–control study. The ischaemic stroke group was assessed twice, 3–10 days after the acute stroke and at 1–3 months. Fibrinogen, fibrin D-dimer (marker of fibrin turnover) and von Willebrand factor (vWF) (marker of endothelial disturbance) were elevated acutely (P < 0.0001) and in the convalescent phase after ischaemic stroke (P < 0.0001, P < 0.0001, andP < 0.01 respectively, compared with controls). Similar results were seen in the vascular dementia group. Stepwise multivariate regression analyses showed that cerebrovascular disease correlated independently with fibrinogen (P < 0.001) and fibrin D-dimer levels (P < 0.001), while vWF correlated independently with electrocardiograph evidence of ischaemic heart disease (P =0.004). Changes between acute and convalescent phases in ischaemic stroke were slightly inconsistent. However, in the acute stage there were tendencies for fibrinogen, D-dimer and vWF to be increased, and factor VIII was significantly higher. Abnormalities of haemostasis, including increased fibrin turnover and endothelial disturbance, are found in both acute and chronic cerebral ischaemia. Many of these patients have co-existent ischaemic heart disease and this may contribute to some of these changes. Acute ischaemic stroke is associated with transient changes in haemostatic factors; however, most abnormalities persist into the convalescent phase, and are also demonstrable in subjects with vascular dementia.


Adolescents are regularly exposed to Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) via smoking, and, more recently, vaping, cannabis / extracts. Growing legalization of cannabis for medical and recreational purposes, combined with decreasing perceptions of harm, makes it increasingly important to determine the consequences of frequent adolescent exposure for motivated behavior and lasting tolerance in response to THC. Male and female rats inhaled THC vapor, or that from the propylene glycol (PG) vehicle, twice daily for 30 minutes from postnatal day (PND) 35-39 and PND 42-45 using an e-cigarette system. Thermoregulatory responses to vapor inhalation were assessed by radio-telemetry during adolescence and from PND 86-94; chow intake was assessed in adulthood. Blood samples were obtained from additional adolescent groups following initial THC inhalation and after four days of twice daily exposure. Additional groups exposed repeatedly to THC or PG during adolescence were evaluated for intravenous self-administration of oxycodone as adults. Female, not male, adolescents developed tolerance to the hypothermic effects of THC inhalation in the first week of repeated exposure despite similar plasma THC levels. Each sex exhibited tolerance to THC hypothermia in adulthood after repeated adolescent THC with THC greater potency exhibited in females. Repeated-THC male rats consumed more food than their PG treated control group, in the absence of a significant bodyweight difference. Adolescent THC did not alter oxycodone self-administration in either sex, but increased fentanyl self-administration in females. Repeated THC vapor inhalation in adolescent rats results in lasting consequences observable in adulthood.PG, propylene glycol; THC, Δ9tetrahydrocannabinol;


Two continuous‐flow bench‐scale bioreactor systems populated by mixed communities of acidophilic sulfate‐reducing bacteria were constructed and tested for their abilities to promote the selective precipitation of transition metals (as sulfides) present in synthetic mine waters, using glycerol as electron donor. The objective with the first system (selective precipitation of copper from acidic mine water containing a variety of soluble metals) was achieved by maintaining a bioreactor pH of ∼2.2–2.5. The second system was fed with acidic (pH 2.5) synthetic mine water containing 3 mM of both zinc and ferrous iron, and varying concentrations (0.5–30 mM) of aluminium. Selective precipitation of zinc sulfide was possible by operating the bioreactor at pH 4.0 and supplementing the synthetic mine water with 4 mM glycerol. Analysis of the microbial populations in the bioreactors showed that they changed with varying operational parameters, and novel acidophilic bacteria (including one sulfidogen) were isolated from the bioreactors. The acidophilic sulfidogenic bioreactors provided 'proof of principle' that segregation of metals present in mine waters is possible using simple online systems within which controlled pH conditions are maintained. The modular units are versatile and robust, and involve minimum engineering complexity.


Criminology and criminal-psychology are sciences dealing mostly with the personality of the criminals as well as the interconnections of crime and deviance. The other player of the crimes - the victim - has recently come into focus posing the question why and how somebody is becoming a victim, and what effect can the victim have when the crime is being committed. The first international publications appeared at the beginning of the third millennium on so-called victims who are convinced to suffer from material, moral or other damages and, accordingly, who would pursue "justice" at any rate. They often appeal against decisions. Considering these facts the procedures are rather thorough and circumspect. A significant part of the law-enforcement staff is heavily involved for long periods. On the other side there is the person considered criminal being actually the real victim. These people are getting alienated from the society because of their reckoned deeds and, because of the distorting influence of the media they are condemned morally. The present study describes the syndromes of fake-victim, their occurrence as well as psychiatric considerations, social appearance and impact. The authors are drawing attention to the existence and significance of this medical-legal problem.


Background: Multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) model provides an ideal foundation to assess psychological properties of a questionnaire designed with multidimensional structure. This study aims to present the first use of MIRT models to investigate psychological properties of GHQ-12. Methods: A total of 1104 school children parents completed the Persian version of GHQ-12 questionnaire. A MIRT model was applied to model observed scores for each GHQ-12 item as a function of the subject's latent traits while taking into account the correlation between dimensions of the questionnaire. The goodness of fit indices were reported and items fit were assessed. Individual items were described in detail through item characteristic curves and the amount of information carried by different items were presented using information curves. Results: The MIRT analysis of the 12 item GHQ successfully demonstrated two factor structure corresponding to psychological distress and social dysfunction. The model showed all items were fitted adequately. Items varied in their discrimination ranged from 0.86 to 2.35 and 1.18 to 2.41 for psychological distress and social dysfunction, respectively. Moreover, item 8 and item 2 provided the least information in psychological distress and social dysfunction dimensions, respectively. Conclusions: The developed framework to evaluate psychological properties of GHQ-12 can be a suitable alternative to traditional approaches and also unidimensional IRT models which its use have been restricted due to multidimensional structure of the questionnaire.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the short- and long-term stability of bimaxillary surgery following LeFort I (LF-1) impaction with simultaneous bilateral sagittal split ramus osteotomy (BSSO) and mandibular advancement using the technique of rigid internal fixation (RIF). In order to assess the postoperative maxillary and mandibular movement pattern in 26 patients with vertical maxillary excess and mandibular deficiency, cephalograms were taken immediately preoperatively, and 1 week, 2 months, and 1 year after surgery. With paired t-test showing no statistically significant postoperative change for the point A of the maxilla from immediate postsurgery to longest follow-up (P> 0.05), the used technique of "RIF LF-I impaction and RIF BSSO advancement" tended to render excellent postsurgical stability in the horizontal (0.1+/-0.8mm mean posterior movement) and vertical (0.1+/-0.5mm mean inferior movement) direction. There was no instance of maxillary relapse of >2mm. Regarding mandibular BSSO advancement, the point B showed a significant vertical upward movement (1.6+/-1.2mm) (P< 0.001) and a slight horizontal forward movement (0.3+/-2.0mm) (P> 0.05) at 1-year follow-up. The incidence of posterior relapse of >2mm accounted for 11.5%. The data confirm the concept that the bimaxillary approach of "LF-I impaction and BSSO advancement" using the described technique of RIF is a stable procedure in the treatment of open bite patients classified as vertical maxillary excess in combination with mandibular deficiency.


Objective Implantation of biventricular devices (BiV) with a transvenous left ventricular lead is complex requiring a significant fluoroscopy time and radiation dose. In the United Kingdom, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) collects data regarding radiographic procedures and sets national diagnostic reference levels (DRL) at the 75th percentile of the distribution of doses for a wide range of procedures. Insufficient data were returned to the HPA to allow them to set DRL for BiV devices at the last publication in 2010. Due to the large variation in data available and small datasets for BiV procedures we aimed to collect a large dataset to guide standards for implantation. Methods We collected retrospective data (fluoroscopy time and radiation dose [DAP]) for new BiV devices for the three years 2009 - 2011 from three high volume tertiary centres in the North West of England. Databases were scrutinised to ensure the quality of the data. Results From a total of 1374 implants we identified data for 1319 patients for fluoroscopy time and 1316 for DAP. The mean fluoroscopy time for all three centres combined was 18.7±0.3 min. The 75th percentile fluoroscopy time for the combined data was 24.2 min. The mean DAP for the three centres combined was 25.1 ± 1.3 Gy cm2. The 75th percentile DAP for the combined data was 27.7 Gy cm2. Conclusions We present a large dataset of new biventricular device implants, based on the 75th percentile data we suggest a DRL of 24.2 min and 27.7 Gy cm2.


Introducing web weather 2.0, this paper suggests that active participation by civil society may arise through sharing of environmental data through observations of weather and other measurable variables in the environment performed by individuals. Collecting data from individuals is here suggested for improving weather data currently used by weather research centers and practitioners. Extending these current sets of weather data by using web 2.0 may address some issues stated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) regarding spatial and temporal resolutions of meteorological data including knowledge on different processes between the air and other environmental systems. To test the concept of web weather 2.0, the usability of weather data collected from individuals and the expected quantities of such data need to be determined. In addition, collection methods should be developed. Aiming at the design of an artifact that can meet these needs, this paper presents some important steps of the design process of a " share weather " system, including several demonstrations and experiments performed on different user groups, i.e. school children performing weather observations as a part of their daily tasks and education, and adults interested in weather due to their daily dependence on traffic conditions. This paper provides new knowledge about user-generated observations of weather, including quality and motivation to contribute, and guidance on how future systems for collection of environmental data from individuals may be created. After testing the feasibility of the designed " share weather " artifact, we conclude that the potential role of individuals in producing valuable information beneficial to society should be considered within several branches of environmental sciences as well as policy-making.


PURPOSE
The research aimed to examine the effect of a lifestyle intervention program using mobile application versus booklet for adults with metabolic syndrome in Hong Kong. The outcomes comprised body weight (primary outcome), exercise amount, improvement of cardiometabolic risk factors, cardiovascular endurance, perceived stress scale, and exercise self-efficacy.

DESIGN
A three-arm randomized controlled trial namely App group, Booklet group, and control group was adopted.

METHODS
Two hundred sixty-four adults with metabolic syndrome were recruited from community centers from 2019 to December 2021. Inclusion criteria are those adults with metabolic syndrome, able to use a smart phone. All participants received a 30-min health talk. App group additionally received a mobile application, while Booklet group received a booklet, and the control group received a placebo booklet. Data were collected at baseline, Weeks 4, 12, and 24. SPSS and generalized estimating equations (GEE) model were employed for data analysis.

FINDINGS
Attrition rates were minimal, ranged from 2.65% to 6.44%. Both app and booklet group showed significant improvement in outcomes (exercise amount, waist circumference) when compared to control group. However, statistically significant and superior results were observed in app group, including body weight, exercise amount, waist circumference, body mass index, and systolic blood pressure when compared to booklet group.

CONCLUSION
The lifestyle intervention supported with app was found to be superior to the booklet support for reducing body weight and maintaining exercise.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE
The lifestyle intervention program using mobile application support could be used widely for adults with metabolic syndrome in the community. Suggest nurses may incorporate this program in their health promotion strategies focusing on a healthy lifestyle to reduce the risk of progression to metabolic syndrome.


The Vauze massive sulfide lenses and underlying zones of disseminated sulfides lie at the same andesite/rhyolite contact as neighboring deposits, and have long been interpreted as volcanogenic. The andesites and rhyolites are submarine flows that have undergone only weak metamorphism and maintain shallow dips. They form part of a thick sequence of alternating andesitic and rhyolitic formations, which are the upper parts of the Blake River Group, within the Archean volcanic and sedimentary assemblage of the Abitibi belt.Stratiform sulfide lenses, in one case overlying explosive rhyolite breccia, lie on the two remaining flanks of a domelike feature on the top of the rhyolite. Massive copper-rich and pyrrhotite-bearing sulfides in the lenses and a fragmental form of these massive ores are overlain by layered pyritic-zinc sulfides and chert. Postore diorites separate these lenses from alteration in a pipelike fracture zone plunging steeply through the dome and several underlying formations. Stringers and disseminations of chalcopyrite occur with strong chloritization and sericitization in this zone.In a reconstructed model of the deposit, the features of the breccias of both rhyolite and massive sulfide point to their being the products of explosion from the pipe area, which was a conduit for solutions emerging as hot springs, and from sulfides deposited over the pipe and on the flanks of the dome. The sulfides must have formed as hard sulfide sinters in restricted lenses on the steep sides of the dome, from solutions flowing over them and without the metals having passed thraugh the medium of sea water. Later andesites covered the deposits.


Volunteer potato is a perennial weed that is difficult to control in crop rotations. It was our objective to build a small, low-cost robot capable of detecting volunteer potato plants in a cornfield and thus demonstrate the potential for automatic control of this weed. We used an electric toy truck as the basis for our robot. We developed a fast row-recognition algorithm based on the Hough transform and implemented it using a webcam. We developed an algorithm that detects the presence of a potato plant based on a combination of size, shape, and color of the green elements in an image and implemented it using a second webcam. The robot was able to detect potatoes while navigating autonomously through experimental and commercial cornfields. In a first experiment, 319 out of 324 images were correctly classified (98.5%) as showing, or not showing, a potato plant. In a second experiment, 126 out of 141 images were correctly classified (89.4%). Detection of a potato plant resulted in an acoustic signal, but future robots may be fitted with weed control equipment, or they may use a global positioning system to map the presence of weed plants so that regular equipment can be used for control. Nomenclature: Corn, Zea mays L, Potato, Solanum tuberosum L. Additional index words: Autonomous navigation, autonomous weeding, glyphosate, machine-vision, site-specific weed control. Abbreviations: DIPlib, Delft image-processing library; DSP, digital signal processor; GPS, global positioning system; JPEG, Joint Photographic Experts Group; NiMh, nickle metal hydride; PC, personal computer.


Departures from self-centred, consumption-oriented decision making are increasingly common in economic theory and are well motivated by a wide range of behavioural data from experiments, surveys, and econometric inference. A number of studies have shown large negative externalities in individual subjective well-being due to neighbours' incomes. These reflect the role of nearby households as comparison groups acting in individuals' reference-dependent preferences over income or consumption. At the same time, there are many reasons to expect positive spillovers from having prosperous neighbours. We combine high-resolution geographic data from three Canada-wide social surveys and the 2001 census to disentangle the spatial pattern of reference groups in urban areas and to identify channels of positive and negative spillovers on life satisfaction. We find evidence of significant effects of others' income at different scales and are able to reject a number of alternative explanations for the findings.


The Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway (HSR) is one of the most important railways in China, but it also has impacts on the economy and the environment while creating social benefits. This paper uses a life cycle assessment (LCA) method and a life cycle cost (LCC) analysis method to summarize the energy consumption, carbon emissions and costs of the Beijing-Shanghai HSR from the perspective of life cycle, and proposes some corresponding suggestions based on the results. The research objective of this paper is to analyse the carbon emissions, energy consumption, and costs of the rail system which includes the structure of the track and earthwork of the Beijing-Shanghai HSR during four stages: conception stage, construction stage, operation and maintenance stage, and disposal stage. It is concluded that the majority of the carbon emissions and energy consumption of the entire rail system are from the construction stage, accounting for 64.86% and 54.31% respectively. It is followed by the operation and maintenance stage with 31.60% and 35.32% respectively. In contrast, the amount of carbon emissions and energy consumption from the conception stage is too small to be considered. Furthermore, cement is the major contributor to the carbon emissions and energy consumption during the construction stage. As for the cost, the construction stage spends the largest amount of money (US$4614.00 million), followed by the operation and maintenance stage (US$910.61 million). Improving production technologies and choosing construction machinery are proposed to reduce the cost and protect the environment.


Understanding the complex dynamics of landslides is crucial for disaster planners to make timely and effective decisions that save lives and reduce the economic impact on society. Using the landslide inventory of the Chittagong Metropolitan Area (CMA), we have created a new artificial intelligence (AI)-based insight system for the town planners and senior disaster recovery strategists of Chittagong, Bangladesh. Our system generates dynamic AI-based insights for a range of complex scenarios created from 7 different landslide feature attributes. The users of our system can select a particular kind of scenario out of the exhaustive list of 1.054 × 1041 possible scenario sets, and our AI-based system will immediately predict how many casualties are likely to occur based on the selected kind of scenario. Moreover, an AI-based system shows how landslide attributes (e.g., rainfall, area of mass, elevation, etc.) correlate with landslide casualty by drawing detailed trend lines by performing both linear and logistic regressions. According to the literature and the best of our knowledge, our CMA scenario-based AI insight system is the first of its kind, providing the most comprehensive understanding of landslide scenarios and associated deaths and damages in the CMA. The system was deployed on a wide range of platforms including Android, iOS, and Windows systems so that it could be easily adapted for strategic disaster planners. The deployed solutions were handed down to 12 landslide strategists and disaster planners for evaluations, whereby 91.67% of users found the solution easy to use, effective, and self-explanatory while using it via mobile.