Karst aquifers supply a significant fraction of the world's drinking water. These types of aquifers are also highly susceptible to pollution from the surface with recharge usually occurring through fractures and solution openings at the bedrock surface. Thickness of the protective soil cover, macropores and openings within the soil cover, and the nature of the weathered bedrock surface all influence infiltration. Recharge openings at the bedrock surface, however, are often covered by unconsolidated sediments, resulting in the inadvertent placement of landfills, unregulated dump sites, tailing piles, waste lagoons and septic systems over recharge zones. In these settings surface geophysical surveys, calibrated by a few soil cores, could be employed to identify these recharge openings, and qualitatively assess the protection afforded by the soil cover. In a test of this hypothesis, geophysical measurements accurately predicted the thickness of unconsolidated deposits overlying karstic dolomite at a site about 100 km south of Chicago, Illinois. Zones of elevated electrical conductivity and high ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) attenuation within the sediments coincided with subcropping solutionally‐enlarged hydraulically active bedrock fractures. These fractures extend to over 12‐m depth, as shown by 2‐D inverted resistivity sections and soil coring. Anomalous electromagnetic (EM) conductivity and GPR response may be due to higher soil moisture above these enlarged fractures. An epikarstal conduit at 2.5‐m depth was directly identified through a GPR survey. These results suggest that surface geophysical surveys are a viable tool for assessing the susceptibility of shallow karst aquifers to contamination.


In this brief, a model-free adaptive predictive control (MFAPC) is proposed. It outperforms the current model-free adaptive control (MFAC) for not only solving the time delay problem in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems but also relaxing the current rigorous assumptions for sake of a wider applicable range. The most attractive merit of the proposed controller is that the controller design, performance analysis and applications are easy for engineers to realize. Furthermore, the problem of how to choose the matrix {\lambda} is finished by analyzing the function of the closed-loop poles rather than the previous contraction mapping method. Additionally, in view of the nonlinear modeling capability and adaptability of neural networks (NNs), we combine these two classes of algorithms together. The feasibility and several interesting results of the proposed method are shown in simulations.


The belief in a just world has been found to be related to rule breaking behavior. However, research has yet to determine whether the same relation holds for corrupt behavior. The current study focused on identifying whether the belief in a just world is a factor that predicts bribery behavior. We hypothesized that people with a weaker belief in a just world would be more likely to report that they had given a bribe compared with people with a strong belief in a just world. A retrospective design was used to conduct a study in Lithuania. Belief in a just world was measured with two scales for assessing personal and general beliefs in a just world. We measured bribery behavior by asking participants (N = 316) to report how many times they had given a bribe during the past 5 years. The results showed that a personal belief in a just world predicted bribery behavior, whereas a general belief in a just world did not. We discuss implications for further studies.


Sovereign creditworthiness within the euro area hinges upon the credibility of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). We analyse whether political events that worsen the SGP's credibility result in a shared default risk premium for all euro members, therefore leading to a joint deterioration of creditworthiness. We especially examine the decisions and statements of the Commission and the Council of Economic and Finance Ministers. Analysing daily data through the 1999–2005 period with an ARMA-GARCH model, we find the Commission plays a decisive role in affecting investor evaluations, where its credibility-strengthening decisions decrease volatility and statements signalling a weakening of fiscal credibility spark uncertainty on financial markets. Our results stress the importance of creating credible fiscal institutions that preserve sovereign creditworthiness within the euro area.


The purpose of this article addresses the analysis of the normative base in the field of combating child neglect and homelessness in the years of Soviet power, the article analyzes the legal, organizational activities, activity of state bodies and public organizations, to assist street children in the years of Soviet power, is the analogy between the present and the Soviet historical stage


Mirror to My Thoughts evolved from three dialogues. It was a sunny Wednesday afternoon
and, as I sat meditating my attack on my beloved Apple Crumble, Pete Cobb leaned to my
left and asked if I had considered a Doctorate. Naturally I was mildly perplexed at the
distraction, but in the same breath intrigued. Could it be simply the right place, the right
time? Some weeks earlier, Stanford University were in negotiations with me regarding a
visiting professorship for the fall which incorporated a retrospective exhibition curated by
Professor Barbaro Martinez-Ruiz. I did the calculations – dates, times, what was
required, but, more importantly, whether I was able to intellectually abridge 20 years of
practice into a single document that would come to fruition in the same season.
It seemed appropriate.
Some time after Pete Cobb's proposition, I sat in my studio and listed my entire life's work,
arranging it into major themes. It was at this point I began to see reflecting back at me
a concentrated, complex, thought-provoking resource that was honest and true. Works on
identity, perception and degrees of separation were just a few themes that were
referenced in a number of key works.
In 2009-10, I was blighted by graduate students sending email requests for images and
essays and the fact became clear that a lifetime of work flying solo had not been
misspent. Unearthing, compiling, cutting and soul-searching has enabled me to pen this
moment in my practice entitled Mirror to My Thoughts.


A solution for antenna needs in upcoming 5G mobile wireless is presented. It is based on employment of broadband multiband antennas, including wide-scan mmWave phased arrays. This new approach is indispensable not only in dealing with the high capacity and data rates, but also in enabling physical-layer security in the cyberspace, for 5G and beyond. The discussions are focused on smartphones, where the design is by far more complex, difficult, and costly due to their small size. A feasibility study has been performed by breadboard experimentation; the results so far are highly promising.


Advances in AI technology affect knowledge work in diverse fields, including healthcare, engineering, and management. Although automation and machine support can increase efficiency and lower costs, it can also, as an unintended consequence, deskill workers, who lose valuable skills that would otherwise be maintained as part of their daily work. Such deskilling has a wide range of negative effects on multiple stakeholders -- employees, organizations, and society at large. This essay discusses deskilling in the age of AI on three levels - individual, organizational and societal. Deskilling is furthermore analyzed through the lens of four different levels of human-AI configurations and we argue that one of them, Hybrid Intelligence, could be particularly suitable to help manage the risk of deskilling human experts. Hybrid Intelligence system design and implementation can explicitly take such risks into account and instead foster upskilling of workers. Hybrid Intelligence may thus, in the long run, lower costs and improve performance and job satisfaction, as well as prevent management from creating unintended organization-wide deskilling.


We propose a method of measuring approximate quantum eigenfunctions in polygonalized billiard geometries, based on a quasiclassical evolution operator having a (smoothened) Perron-Frobenius kernel modulated by a phase arising from quantum considerations. Using a plane wave ansatz, we show that the condition under which this is an eigenfunction of the quasiclassical operator is identical to the condition for it to be an eigenfunction of the Schrödinger equation for polygonalized billiards. Finally, we demonstrate this technique by determining the quasiclassical eigenfunctions of the polygonalized stadium billiard using arbitrary trajectories and comparing this with the exact quantum stadium eigenfunctions.


This paper proposes a new computational model to predict the earth pressure balance (EPB) shield performance during tunnelling. The proposed model integrates an improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) with adaptive neurofuzzy inference system (ANFIS) based on the fuzzy C-mean (FCM) clustering method. In particular, the proposed model uses shield operational parameters as inputs and computes the advance rate as the output. Prior to modeling, critical operational parameters are identified through principle component analysis (PCA). The hybrid model is applied to the prediction of the shield performance in the tunnel section of Guangzhou Metro Line 9 in China. The prediction results indicate that the improved PSO-ANFIS model shows high accuracy in predicting the EPB shield performance in terms of the multiobjective fitness function [i.e. root mean square error <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(RMSE) = 0.07$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, coefficient of determination (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$R^{2}) = 0.88$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, variance account <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$(VA) = 0.84$ </tex-math></inline-formula> for testing datasets, respectively]. The good agreement between the actual measurements and predicted values demonstrates that the proposed model is promising for predicting the EPB shield tunnel performance with good accuracy.


The task of session-based recommendation is to predict user actions based on anonymous sessions. Recent research mainly models the target session as a sequence or a graph to capture item transitions within it, ignoring complex transitions between items in different sessions that have been generated by other users. These item transitions include potential collaborative information and reflect similar behavior patterns, which we assume may help with the recommendation for the target session. In this paper, we propose a novel method, namely Dual-channel Graph Transition Network (DGTN), to model item transitions within not only the target session but also the neighbor sessions. Specifically, we integrate the target session and its neighbor (similar) sessions into a single graph. Then the transition signals are explicitly injected into the embedding by channel-aware propagation. Experiments on real-world datasets demonstrate that DGTN outperforms other state-of-the-art methods. Further analysis verifies the rationality of dual-channel item transition modeling, suggesting a potential future direction for session-based recommendation.


In the present investigation, the authors obtain sharp upper bounds for certain coefficient inequalities for linear combination of Mocanu α -convex p−valent functions. The results are extended to functions defined by convolution.


Two cases of catatonic stupor are described due to presumed encephalitis lethargica. Catatonic and obsessional phenomena in the setting of a depressive psychosis associated with a movement disorder may constitute a post-encephalitic syndrome.


Background:Immune thrombocytopenia purpura (ITP) is an autoimmune bleeding disorder that is heterogeneous in presentation, disease course, treatment response, and impact on quality of life. Treatments often cause unpleasant side effects, and prolonged use can lead to tolerability issues and toxicity. Disease symptoms and treatments available impact the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among patients living with ITP. Here, we compare anxiety and its impact among adult ITP patients and determine whether anxiety levels differ dependent on treatment.
 Methods: For this study, we used three of the five surveys from the PDSA Natural History Study Registry including; treatment history and two adult QoL surveys. As of June 2020, 357 adult patients completed the survey assessing treatment history. A total of 310 adult patients completed the adult QoL (part one) survey, and 301 adults completed the adult QoL (part two) survey. Patients were stratified by 1) no treatment received 2) treated in the past 3) on therapy within the last six months; patients currently on therapy were further stratified by first and second-line therapy.
 Results: Among the 357 completed surveys on treatment history, 11% (n=40) have never received treatment for ITP, 46% (n=166) have in past, and 43% (n=158) currently receive therapy (within the last six months). Among those currently on treatment, 82% receive monotherapy; 26% use a first-line therapy (corticosteroid, IVIG, or Anti-D), and 43% are using a second-line therapy (TPO-RA, rituximab, and other second-line options). Therapies reported include TPO-RA's (41%), corticosteroids (24%), IVIG (7%), rituximab (3%), SYK inhibitor (1%), antibiotics (4%), anti-D (1%) and other second-line treatments (such as MMF), and "other" treatments including complementary therapies (14%). Overall, 23% had a splenectomy at some point to manage their active ITP.
 When asked to reflect on the last seven days, patients completing the QoL survey (n=310), 66% felt anxious; 17% reported this was experienced 'almost always/often'. Among those who have never been treated, feeling anxious was reported 67% of the time; 18% reported feeling this way 'almost always/often'. A similar trend was observed in patients not currently on treatment. Among those receiving a first line therapy, anxiousness was reported 74% overall; 19% 'almost always/often'. Among those receiving a second line therapy, 72% reported feeling anxious; 9% reported feeling this way 'almost always/often'. Differences in high levels of anxiousness reported among the different treatment groups was not significant (X2= 3.4, p=.48).
 Difficulties focusing were reported (51%, 9% reporting this occurred 'almost always/often'). Among those who have never been treated, difficulties were reported (48%, 12%, 'almost always/often'). Those not currently receiving treatment had difficulties focusing due to anxiety (50%, 4% reporting this 'almost always/often'). Those on first line treatment indicated focus was impacted by anxiety overall (60%, 36% 'almost always/often') and those receiving second-line therapy reported (58%, 8% 'almost always/often'). Differences in high levels of anxiety affecting concentration reported among the treatment groups was significant (X2= 20.87, p=.00033), revealing a higher anxiety profile among those using corticosteroids. When difficulty with focus due to anxiety was compared between those receiving corticosteroids and those receiving a TPO-RA specifically, anxiety was significantly higher in the steroid group (X2=9.15, P=.0024); this trend was not found to be statistically significant among other second line therapies.
 Conclusion: The physical symptoms of ITP often guide treatment selection for patients however, providers should also focus on mitigating stress and other indicators of mental health in order to provide the best outcome and quality of life in disease course. Differences in interpretation behind the terms feeling 'anxious' vs ' anxiety affecting focus' may explain our conflicting results. Higher anxiety levels (in contrast to higher anxiousness) appeared related to treatment type in those currently receiving therapy; corticosteroid users were more impacted by their anxiety than those receiving TPO-RAs; steroids are known to interfere with mood and concentration, and this is confirmed by patients in this survey.

 Kruse: CSL Behring: Other: Grant paid to PDSA; UCB: Other: Grant and consultancy fee, all paid to PDSA; Rigel: Other: Grant paid to PDSA; Principia: Other: Grant paid to PDSA; Pfizer: Other: Grant and consultancy fee, all paid to PDSA; Argenx: Other: Grant paid to PDSA; Amgen: Other: Grant and honorarium, all paid to PDSA; Novartis: Other: PDSA received payment for recruiting patients to I-WISh and for promoting I-WISh on the globalitp.org website. Grant and consultancy fee, all paid to PDSA outside the submitted work. Lambert:AstraZeneca: Research Funding; Principia: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Dova: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Shionogi: Consultancy; Sysmex: Research Funding; RDMD ITP study: Consultancy; ITP Australia: Consultancy; CdLS Foundation: Consultancy; 22qSociety: Consultancy; Platelet Disorder Support Association (PDSA): Consultancy; ClinGen: Honoraria; Bayer: Consultancy; Argenix: Consultancy; Octapharma: Consultancy, Research Funding; Educational Concepts in Medicine: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding.


We study the role of Standard Setting Organization (SSOs) in the adoption of standards. The way the SSO balances the interests of sponsor and users is key to its ability to certify the technology. Proximity to users builds trust in the endorsement, but may be unattractive to technology sponsors. In a static context, we show that the SSO is an effective certifier if and only if it puts enough weight on users' interests. We then tackle the more challenging problem of SSO certification in a dynamic setting in which new information will accrue in the future and user choices are irreversible. The SSO and the users must then both take a dynamic perspective and contemplate the possibility of a "second chance" that may arise for the standard. A key insight is the possibility of multiple self-fulfilling expectations. It is possible to have an equilibrium with no second chance, a lenient SSO endorsement policy and high stigma from early rejection. It is also possible to have an equilibrium with a second chance, a selective SSO endorsement policy and low stigma from early rejection. Finally, and in both the static and the dynamic setups, we ask whether the SSO is too inclined to turn down or to accept the standard from a social viewpoint. (JEL: D71, D82, L15, O31) Copyright (c) 2005 The European Economic Association.


PurposeThis paper examines the beliefs of human resource professionals (HRPs) regarding the impact of Industry 4.0 on organizations in terms of readiness for human resources management (HRM) transformation, the challenges of a potential new legal and financial framework, the new means on performance management and automation, and finally the decision-making process in the era of human-machine cooperation.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyzed a sample of 251 HRPs from 11 different countries divided into 4 cultural clusters to explore their attitude to incorporate new practices to the HR field because of technological development. The paper explores HRPs' beliefs in a legal and financial context, performance management issues, and the impact of automation on the decision-making process. Furthermore, the authors perform a cross-cultural comparison analysis to examine potential significant differences between cultural clusters.FindingsHRPs are aware of how technology adoption is affecting work environment and they highlight the importance of human resources (HR) for businesses, despite the global trend of extensive machinery exploitation. Interestingly, our results suggest that overall globalization, common knowledge, and internationalized practices lead to homogeneity for most issues under study.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, there has not been any comprehensive study exploring and analyzing the effects of Industry 4.0 on HRPs perceptions in the context of a dynamic HR environment influenced by technological transformation. The study shows that HRPs' present similar perspectives for most issues addressed, irrespective of cultural characteristics of HRPs. Hence, this paper generates some important insights in an attempt to build a framework for enhancing HR in this new era.


Prolonged limb immobilization, which is often the outcome of injury and illness, results in the atrophy of skeletal muscles. The basis of muscle atrophy needs to be better understood in order to allow development of effective countermeasures. The present study focused on determining whether skeletal muscle stem cells, satellite cells, are directly affected by long‐term immobilization as well as on investigating the potential of pharmacological and physiological avenues to counterbalance atrophy‐induced muscle deterioration. We used external fixation (EF), as a clinically relevant model, to gain insights into the relationships between muscle degenerative and regenerative conditions to the myogenic properties and abundance of bona fide satellite cells. Rats were treated with tetracycline (Tet) through the EF period, or exercise trained on a treadmill for 2 weeks after the cessation of the atrophic stimulus. EF induced muscle mass loss; declined expression of the muscle specific regulatory factors (MRFs) Myf5, MyoD, myogenin, and also of satellite cell numbers and myogenic differentiation aptitude. Tet enhanced the expression of MRFs, but did not prevent the decline of the satellite cell pool. After exercise running, however, muscle mass, satellite cell numbers (enumerated through the entire length of myofibers), and myogenic differentiation aptitude (determined by the lineal identity of clonal cultures of satellite cells) were re‐gained to levels prior to EF. Together, our results point to Tet and exercise running as promising and relevant approaches for enhancing muscle recovery after atrophy. J. Cell. Physiol. 215: 265–275, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Social networking sites are a phenomenon of masses increasingly important in the digital media ecosystem, and not so much news that does not have implemented a social network with links. Hence, the public user of social networks is, in many cases, part of the audience of the media. But to know in depth this part of the digital audience using social networks and the impact they make on the environment of the media is important to study those behind the virtual social networking communities. But these users, what do they think? What is their opinion on a news?, What are their needs? What type, model and way to see the information they want? In this context, the ethnographic and anthropological research with all its technical to play a key role in any study of this type. But, what extent ethnography and anthropology can help they be more effective with messages of online journalism? Does it help to know ethnography public behind social networks accessing articles or other media reports? Is it important to know the customs of the users of social networks? Should the means to adapt to new environments where virtual ethnographic emerges a new journalism based on participation? This article attempts to answer these and other variables.


Cervical dystonia (CD) is a neurological movement disorder characterized by sustained involuntary muscle contractions. First-line therapy for CD is intramuscular injections of botulinum neurotoxin (e.g., abobotulinumtoxinA) into the affected muscles. The objective of this systematic literature review is to assess the clinical evidence regarding the effects of abobotulinumtoxinA for treatment of CD in studies of safety, efficacy, patient-reported outcomes, and economic outcomes. Using comprehensive electronic medical literature databases, a search strategy was developed using a combination of Medical Subject Heading terms and keywords. Results were reviewed by two independent reviewers who rated the level of evidence. The search yielded 263 publications, of which 232 were excluded for being duplicate publications, not meeting the selection criteria, or failing to meet predefined eligibility criteria, leaving a total of 31 articles. Clinical efficacy, patient-reported outcomes, and safety data were in 6 placebo-controlled trials (8 articles), 6 active-controlled trials, and 16 observational studies (17 articles). Data on health economic outcomes were provided in one of the clinical trials, in two of the observational studies, and in one specific cost-analysis publication. This review demonstrated that the routine use of abobotulinumtoxinA in CD is well-established, effective, and generally well-tolerated, with a relatively low cost of treatment.


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This chapter approaches teasing as one of the most ambiguous types of conversational humour. Based on the teasing episodes found in the British National Corpus, it proposes different categories of doing teasing, its functions and the target's reactions. The results show that with the help of teasing, most often the teasers decide to conceal their genuine criticism levelled at the targets or point to some behavioural or personal deviations, while the targets tend to react seriously or refute such teases. Therefore, it is argued that teasing should not be seen as an extremely relationship-affirming verbal practice, but can easily occasion a spectrum of evaluations from politeness and impoliteness to mock politeness and mock impoliteness.


The high tree diversity in tropical forests has long been a puzzle to ecologists. In the 1970s, Janzen and Connell proposed that tree species (hosts) coexist due to the stabilizing actions of specialized enemies. This Janzen-Connell hypothesis was subsequently supported by theoretical studies. Yet, such studies have taken the presence of specialized pathogens for granted, overlooking that pathogen coexistence also requires an explanation. Moreover, stable ecological coexistence does not necessarily imply evolutionary stability. What are the conditions that allow Janzen-Connell effects to evolve? We link theory from community ecology, evolutionary biology and epidemiology to tackle this question, structuring our approach around five theoretical frameworks. Phenomenological Lotka-Volterra competition models provide the most basic framework, which can be restructured to include (single- or multi-)pathogen dynamics. This ecological foundation can be extended to include pathogen evolution. Hosts, of course, may also evolve, and we introduce a coevolutionary model, showing that host-pathogen coevolution can lead to highly diverse systems. Our work unpacks the assumptions underpinning Janzen-Connell and places theoretical bounds on pathogen and host ecology and evolution. The five theoretical frameworks taken together provide a stronger theoretical basis for Janzen-Connell, delivering a wider lens that can yield important insights into the maintenance of diversity in these increasingly threatened systems.


Business Intelligence (BI) applications allow their users to query, understand, and analyze existing data within their organizations in order to acquire useful knowledge, thus making better decisions. The core of BI applications is a data warehouse (DW) which integrates several heterogeneous data sources, mainly structured transactional databases. However, a new trend has emerged, since users of BI applications no longer limit their analysis to structured databases, and they also need unstructured sources to empower their analysis (i.e. data from the Web, company-internal reports, emails, etc.). Therefore, the ability to manage this available information is crucial for the success of the decision making process. Unfortunately, this new useful data, although easily available for companies, are often found in unstructured data (such as web pages, internal reports, emails, and so on) which make it unuseful for feeding the DW beneath BI applications. To shed light on this scenario, in this paper, we propose a novel model for using ontologies to integrate Question Answering (QA) systems in the DW. The great benefit of using QA is that specific pieces of data (i.e. answers) that will empower the analysis are detected, obtained and returned from unstructured data in order to feed the DW.


The problem of natural language document categorization consists in classifying documents into predetermined categories based on their contents. Each distinct term, or word, in the documents is a feature for representing a document. In general, the number of terms may be extremely large and the dozens of redundant terms may be included, which may deteriorate the performance of classification. In this paper, an SVM based feature ranking and selecting method for text categorization is proposed. The contribution of each term for classification is calculated based on the nonlinear discriminate boundary generated by support vector machine (SVM). The results of experiments on the Reuters-21S78 dataset show that the proposed method achieves higher classification performance than existing feature selection based on LSI and x/sup 2/ statistics values.


In this paper, a decentralized formation control is proposed which enables collision free coordination and navigation of agents. We present a simple method to define the formation of multi-agents and individual identities (IDs) of agents. Two decentralized coordination and navigation techniques are proposed for the formation of rovers. Agents decide their own behaviors onboard depending upon the motion initiative of the master agent of the formation. In these approaches, any agent can estimate behavior of other agents in the formation. These will reduce the dependency of individual agent on other agents while taking decisions. These approaches reduce the communication burden on the formation where only the master agent broadcasts its motion status per sampled time. Any front agent can act as a master agent without affecting the formation in case of fault in initial master agent. The main idea of this paper is to develop an adequate computational model under which agents in the formation will perform to coordinate among each other. Assignments of IDs to agents are very useful in real-time applications. These proposed schemes are suitable for obstacle avoidance in unknown environment as a whole formation. Agents are free from collision among each other during navigation. These schemes can be used for velocity as well as orientation alignment problems for a multi-agent rover network. These schemes are tested with extensive simulations and responses of agents show satisfactory performances to deal with different environmental conditions.


Results derived from an investigation into the possibility of utilizing the proteinic sunflower isolate (PSFI) in cooking meals with minced and comminuted meat are presented. A method of enriching meals with PSFI during their preparation has been devised and their pepsin digestibility investigated.


Following the theoretical and methodological principles of Variationist Sociolinguistics, this paper analyzes the use of the aspirated variant of postvocalic /s/ by residents of City of God, a predominantly-black neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro that is widely known as a favela (roughly, shantytown or slum). The analyzed data consist of seventeen sociolinguistic interviews conducted in 2015 with twenty-two residents of this community. The quantitative analysis included six social variables—race/color, regional origin, age, gender, education, and speaker—as well as six linguistic variables—preceding vowel, following sound, syllabic stress, number of syllables, grammatical category, and word. Race/color, age, and all the linguistic factors considered in the analysis were selected as statistically significant to the occurrence of /s/ aspiration. This study indicates a possible connection between aspiration and race/color and stresses the importance of including racial identity as a relevant factor in sociolinguistic studies in Brazil, especially those focusing on favelas and other similar urban communities.


Relativistic astrophysical phenomena such as gamma-ray bu rsts (GRBs) and active galactic nuclei often require long-lived strong magnetic field that cannot be achiev ed by shock compression alone. Here, we report on three-dimensional special-relativistic magnetohydro dynamic (MHD) simulations that we performed using a second-order Godunov-type conservative code, to explore the amplification and decay of macroscopic turbulence dynamo excited by the so-called Richtmyer-Meshkov in stability (RMI; a Rayleigh-Taylor type instability). This instability is an inevitable outcome of interact ions between shock and ambient density fluctuations. We find that the magnetic energy grows exponentially in a few e ddy-turnover times, because of field-line stretching, and then, following the decay of kinetic turbul ence, decays with a temporal power-law exponent of −0.7. The magnetic-energy fraction can reach ǫB ∼ 0.1 but depends on the initial magnetic field strength, which can diversify the observed phenomena. We find that the m agnetic energy grows by at least two orders of magnitude compared to the magnetic energy immediately be hind the shock, provided the kinetic energy of turbulence injected by the RMI is larger than the magnetic en ergy. This minimum degree of the amplification does not depend on the amplitude of the initial density fluctu ations, while the growth timescale and the maximum magnetic energy depend on the degree of inhomogeneity in the density. The transition from Kolmogorov cascade to MHD critical balance cascade occurs at ∼ 1/10th the initial inhomogeneity scale, which limits the maximum synchrotron polarization to less than ∼ 2%. We derive analytical formulas for these numerical results and apply them to GRBs. New results include the avoidan ce of electron cooling with RMI turbulence, the turbulent photosphere model via RMI, and the shallow decay o f the early afterglow from RMI. We also performed a simulation of freely decaying turbulence with rela tivistic velocity dispersion. We find that relativistic turbulence begins to decay much faster than one eddy-turnov e time because of fast shock dissipation, which does not support the relativistic turbulence model by Naray n & Kumar. Subject headings: magnetic fields — turbulence — instabilities — relativity — g amma rays


Staphylococcus epidermidis is one of the bacteria that can cause infectious diseases. In general Staphylococcus epidermidis can cause diseases of swelling (abscess) such as skin infections or acne. Cinnamon ( Cinnamomum burmannii [Ness.] BI) leaf extract has a substance which gives antimicrobial effects that can be used as an inhibitor of the Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteria's growth because it contains substances such as essential oils, flavonoids, saponins, tannins, and alkaloids. The aim of this research is to analyse the effect of the concentration of cinnamon leaf extract and to determine the concentration of extract which has the best influence to the inhibition zone diameter of Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteria. This research was conducted in Biology Laboratory of University of Muhammadiyah Malang, on 17-18 May 2017. The results showed that there was an effect of giving various concentrations of cinnamon leaf extract to the inhibition zone diameter of Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteria's growth. The concentration of cinnamon leaf extract which has the best influence to the inhibitory zone diameter of Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteria is 100% with the mean of inhibitory zone diameter 15.16 mm.


Modification of DNA bases plays vital roles in the epigenetic control of gene expression in both animals and plants. Though much attention is given to the conventional epigenetic signature 5-methylcytosine (5-mC), the field of epigenetics is attracting increased scientific interest through the discovery of additional modifications of DNA bases and their roles in controlling gene expression. Theoretically, each of the DNA bases can be modified; however, modifications of cytosine and adenine only are known so far. This review focuses on the recent findings of the well-studied cytosine modifications and yet poorly characterized adenine modification which serve as an additional layer of epigenetic regulation in animals and discuss their potential roles in plants. Cytosine modification at symmetric (CG, CHG) and asymmetric (CHH) contexts is a key epigenetic feature. In addition to the ROS1 family mediated demethylation, Ten-Eleven Translocation family proteins-mediated hydroxylation of 5-mC to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine as additional active demethylation pathway are also discussed. The epigenetic marks are known to be associated with the regulation of several cellular and developmental processes, pluripotency of stem cells, neuron cell development, and tumor development in animals. Therefore, the most recently discovered N6-methyladenine, an additional epigenetic mark with regulatory potential, is also described. Interestingly, these newly discovered modifications are also found in the genomes which lack canonical 5-mC, signifying their independent epigenetic functions. These modified DNA bases are considered to be important players in epigenomics. The potential for combinatorial interaction among the known modified DNA bases suggests that epigenetic codon is likely to be substantially more complicated than it is thought today.


Acetylene and ethylene are frequently used in vacuum carburizing in Japan. In this study the natural gas which is available from the lifeline is applied to vacuum carburizing. The gas composition inside the furnace was analyzed by the gas chromatography in order to examine the carbon infiltration mechanism. Unsaturated hydrocarbon gases (such as acetylene and ethylene) are generated from the natural gas. The effect of acetylene concentration in the furnace on the carbon infiltration rate was investigated. The carbon amount which infiltrates into the steel increases, as acetylene concentration in furnace increases. It is possible that carbon concentration of specimen surface increases to the cementite precipitation concentration in the short term, when natural gas flow rate increases in the initial carburizing stage. After that, carbon concentration of specimen surface does not decrease, even if the natural gas flow decreases, because carbon atoms which are consumed for diffusion to inside are sufficiently supplied. By using this method, inhibition of soot generation, reduction of process gas and shortening of the carburizing period are possible. The carbon concentration profile of the vacuum carburized specimen was compared with the simulation.


Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is associated with symptoms of dyspnea and fatigue, which contribute to exercise limitation. The origins and significance of dyspnea and fatigue in PAH are not completely understood. This has created uncertainly among healthcare professionals regarding acceptable levels of these symptoms, on exertion, for patients with PAH. Dysfunction of the right ventricle (RV) contributes to functional limitation and mortality in PAH; however, the role of the RV in eliciting dyspnea and fatigue has not been thoroughly examined. This paper explores the contribution of the RV and systemic and peripheral abnormalities to exercise limitation and symptoms in PAH. Further, it explores the relationship between exercise abnormalities and symptoms, the utility of the cardiopulmonary exercise test in identifying RV dysfunction, and offers suggestions for further research.


The most frequently identified central nervous system tumor in adults is glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). GBM prognosis remains poor despite multimodal treatment, i.e., surgery and radiation therapy with concurrent temozolomide-based chemotherapy. Silvestrol, an eIF4A inhibitor, has been demonstrated to be able to kill tumor cells in previous studies. In this study, it was found that silvestrol considerably attenuated the proliferative potential of U251 and U87 glioma cells and reduced expression of cyclin D1. In addition, silvestrol reduced the level of ERK1/2 and decreased the levels of AKT phosphorylation. Unfortunately, the effect of silvestrol in inhibiting GBM cells was greatly reduced with hypoxia, and the downregulation in AKT/mTOR and ERK1/2 were also rescued with an upregulation of HIF1α, which warranted further research. Taken together, silvestrol exerted antitumor effects in GBM cells by inhibiting the AKT/mTOR and ERK1/2 signaling cascades.


Cytogenetic biodosimetry is applied in the medical evaluation of persons involved in radiological abnormal situations in order to assess the doses received, the imminent danger to health and to apply the most appropriate medical treatment. It also contributes to the clarification of events when there are doubts about the results of the physical dosimetry due to defective or absent dosimeters. It is the most accurate method of biological dosimetry as there is a mathematical relationship to calculate the dose, to establish the degree of homogeneity of exposure and, in the case of non- homogeneous exposures, to establish the fraction of the body irradiated and the dose it received. This is done through the quantification of the number and types of chromosomal aberrations and micronuclei and their distribution in peripheral blood lymphocytes. For this analysis, the dose-effect relationships and an automated system for calculating radiation doses are established. Currently we are developing a joint project University of Costa Rica San Juan de Dios Hospital, in order to explore the effects of radiation on the chromosomes of patients exposed for therapeutic reasons and treated at this hospital. Similarly, we will make the calibration curve for the dose - in vitro response for gamma rays and validate it by intercomparison with the Cytogenetic Dosimetry Laboratory of the Center for the Protection and Radiation Hygiene of Cuba.


After a three-year investigation the German Competition Authority (GCA) found Facebook's data policy to be abusive. In its assessment the authority stated that, by making the use of its social-networking service conditional upon users granting extensive permission to collect and process their personal data, Facebook unlawfully exploited its dominant position in the German market for social networks. Hence, the GCA has found a way – uniquely German-specific – to limit Facebook's ability to gather, combine, and analyse data. In order to achieve this, it has acted as a self-appointed enforcer of data protection rules, establishing a violation previously undetected by any data protection authority and placing a 'special privacy responsibility' on dominant firms.


We examine the role of trade liberalization in accounting for increasing wage inequality in the Philippines from 1994 to 2000--a period over which trade protection declined and inequality increased dramatically. Using the approach of Ferreira, Leite, and Wai-Poi (2007), we find that trade-induced effects on industry wage premia and industry-specific skill premia account for an economically insignificant increase in wage inequality. A more substantial role for trade liberalization comes through trade-induced employment reallocation effects whereby reductions in protection appear to have led to a shift of employment to more protected sectors, especially services where wage inequality tended to be high to begin with. Nevertheless, the key drivers of wage inequality appear to be changes in economy-wide returns to education and changes in industry membership over and above those accounted for by our estimates of trade-induced employment reallocation effects. In order for trade liberalization to account for a relatively large portion of the increases in wage inequality, it would have to be a major determinant of the changes in economy-wide returns to education.


End-to-end reliability is an important issue in building large-scale distributed enterprise applications based on multi-tier architecture, but the support of reliability as adopted in conventional replication or transactions mechanisms is not enough due to their distinct objectives - replication guarantees the liveness of computational operations by using forward error recovery, while transactions guarantee the safety of application data by using backward error recovery. Combining the two mechanisms for stronger reliability is a challenging task Current solutions, however, are typically on the assumption of simple transaction pattern where a request from a single client executes in the context of exactly one transaction at the middle-tier application server, and seldom think about some complex patterns, such as client transaction enclosing multiple client requests or nested transactions. In this paper, we first identify four transaction pattern classes, and then propose a fault-tolerant scheme that can uniformly provide exactly-once semantic reliability support for these patterns. In this scheme, application servers are passively replicated to endow business logics with high reliability and high availability. In addition, by replicating transaction coordinator, the blocking problem of 2PC protocol during distributed transactions processing is eliminated. We have implemented this approach and integrated it into our own J2EE application server, OnceAS. Also, its effectiveness is discussed in different transaction patterns and the corresponding performance is evaluated


Central banks play an important role in the direction of capital flows through the interest rate channel. Capital flows also impact the exchange rate, which are important goals of monetary policy. Due to the prominence of the U.S. Dollar in international trade, decisions made by the Federal Reserve Bank (FED) also affect the decisions of Central Banks of other countries. During the 2008 financial crisis the FED reached the zero-bound of its policy rate (the federal funds rate) and engaged in quantitative easing. This lead to capital outflows from developing countries, who then raised interest rates defensively to protect their economies from adverse effects in their terms of trade. This study examines the relationship between interest rates, effective exchange rates and growth by means of Granger Causality test, as a result of interest rates determined by FED in post-2003 period, in the direction of the interest rate Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT/TCMB) applies to Dollar deposits. Turkey is a country that floats its exchange rate but protects against large movements. According to analysis results, the decisions made by CBRT are affected by FED interest rate changes. On the other hand, it was concluded that there was not any effect of CBRT interest rates on the exchange rate, consistent with its floating regime.


1 Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA 6 2 Structural Biology Program, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, USA 7 3 Department of Molecular, Cell and Systems Biology, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA 8 4 Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Huck Center for Malaria Research, Pennsylvania State 9 University, University Park, PA, 16802 10 5 Dynamique des Interactions Membranaires Normales et Pathologiques, UMR5235 CNRS, INSERM, Université de 11 Montpellier, Montpellier 12 6 Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA 13 7 Department of Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA. 14 * Corresponding Author: email@example.com 15


The main objective of the research was to test the predictive ability of five voter turnout theories in the conditions of Slovak society (the societal modernization theory, the theory of disenchanted voting, the socioeconomic status theory, the mobilization theory and the theory of habitual voting). To test the predictive ability of theories, three hypotheses were formulated and verified using quantitative methods such as multiple regression analysis and additional univariate statistical analyses. The results have shown that all five theories are relevant for explanation of the map of electoral participation in Slovakia. However, the interpretative contribution of individual theories has changed over time. While the theory of disenchanted voting was very relevant for explanation of regional differences in voter turnout in the 1990s and early 2000s, the societal modernization theory and the socioeconomic status theory gained more interpretative power in the 2010s. It was indicated by a significant contribution of independent variables such as the proportion university graduates or the net migration rate to the regression models for turnout. The effect of mobilization theory has been observed in the case of a positive contribution of the variable "the share of Roman Catholics in municipality" to the regression models, which has been steadily rising since 2006. On the contrary, the share of Roma population in municipality has been influencing the electoral turnout in a negative way. It can be interpreted as a sign of resignation on the opportunity to use elections to achieve collective objectives among the Roma community. However, the share of Roma population in municipality can also be a proxy for some other variables, such as the poverty rate, thanks to ecological fallacy of the regression models. The electoral turnout in the Hungarian-speaking municipalities has changed significantly in the last two parliamentary elections, from regions with significantly above-average turnout to regions with below-average turnout. It can be explained, in part, by a split among political parties representing Hungarian minority in Slovakia, following the mobilization theory. Finally, the high turnout in small municipalities and the significantly positive contribution of the share of seniors to regression models have proved the explanatory power of the habitual voting theory in contemporary Slovakia. The process of transition of voter behavior in Slovakia is geographically uneven, as is witnessed by a greater validity of modernization and socioeconomic status theories in the western regions and the theory of habitual voting and mobilization theory in the eastern regions. The explanation of regional and local differences in electoral participation is becoming more similar to models observed in the West European democracies. However, significant differences remain, which is one of the reasons for close observation of the electoral participation map of Slovakia in a future geographical research.


In this paper, we study a finite direct electrical transmission line when we distribute resistors R_{n} according to a parity-time (PT) distribution composed of a gain (-R) and loss (+R) sequence. Considering zero boundary conditions, we find analytical results for the frequency spectrum ω(R,k_{d}) as a function of resistance R and the wave number k_{d}. A frequency spectrum analysis shows a phase transition from real to complex eigenvalues as a function R for fixed k_{d=N}, where 2N is the size of the transmission line. Numerically, we study localization properties through the normalized localization length Λ(R,k_{d}). This measure shows good agreement with the analytical results and gives an account of the PT-phase transition. Our results pave a solid way toward studying the interplay between parity-time symmetry concepts and one-dimensional electrical transmission lines, aiming to find another generation of electronic devices capable of controlling the flow of energy.


This study focuses on residential buildings that are planned to be constructed in the Sino-Swedish project in Wuxi, China. The focus is on how different heat transfer coefficients for building materials affect the energy consumption for a building in terms of heating and cooling requirements. In the introduction an overview of major energy policies is given as well as a foundation for residential energy efficiency improvements and a description of the key components in other ecocities. A baseline and two scenarios with different energy performance were created in the modeling software DesignBuilder to calculate the energy consumption for heating and cooling. It resulted in three levels of energy consumption were the baseline had an energy consumption for heating and cooling of 62 kWh/m2-year, first scenario had 57 kWh/m2-year and the second scenario had 35 kWh/m2-year. There is a significant difference in energy performance between baseline and scenario two and this is due to the difference in construction air tightness and heat transfer coefficient for windows, walls, roofs, doors and floors. The results from modeling in DesignBuilder were exported to the modeling software STELLA and scaled up to city level. Three building stock composition scenarios were created; 100 percent baseline, 100 percent scenario two and the last city composition 50 percent baseline, 30 percent scenario one and 20 percent scenario two. The result for each of the building stock scenarios was 126 GWh/year, 87 GWh/year and 116 GWh/year. The thesis also discuss what parameters that have a significant impact on the buildings energy performance and what assumptions that might affect the results. The building performance and the choice of materials for the building envelope will affect the overall energy consumption; hence have a large impact on the Sino-Swedish eco-city project. The difference in energy consumption between the baseline and scenario two is substantial and the choice will affect other energy systems in the eco-city.


This article summarises the main findings of the research papers published by the Reserve Bank in 1993. The Bank's research is directed at issues of relevance for monetary and financial policy-making in Australia. Over the past year, the Bank's published research focussed on five broad topics: (i) the determinants of the exchange rate and the links between the exchange rate and trade flows, (ii) employment and unemployment, (iii) the changing nature of the business cycle, (iv) monetary aggregates and (v) the behaviour and evolution of financial markets and institutions. Research activities are made available to the public through the Bank's annual conference volume, Research Discussion Papers, Occasional Papers and Bulletin articles.


Abstract As buyers perceive quality parity among competing brands of a product with a significant service component in its consumption, product support service can become a differential advantage for a brand. The authors propose and test a framework for leveraging independent service providers as a competitive advantage in durable goods export markets in developing countries. Using survey data, the authors found a relationship between easy access to product support services, buyer herd behavior, and brand preference of passenger cars in a developing country. The paper concludes by suggesting how management can leverage independent service providers as a source of competitive advantage for a brand.


Governments around the world are adapting the e-government initiative to provide new ways of delivering their services. The e-government initiative aims to increase government performance efficiency; however, there are a number of limitations facing the success of the e-government initiative. One of the key limitations is the citizens' lack of knowledge about the e-government services which, in turn, requires an in-depth understanding of the citizens' needs in order to provide them with the right service, at the right time. One way to accomplish this is by using the life-event approach, which is considered to be a citizen-centric approach that matches the citizen's life-events with the needed e-government services. Moreover, with the increasing population using or organising their lives on social media, some services are turning to organising and recording a person's life. One such example is the 'timeline' on Facebook, in which the events in a person's life are being recorded, and considered to be a source for capturing citizen's life-events and needs. This research aims to develop a mechanism to advertise e-government services to citizens by using social media based on the life-event approach. Accordingly, the Social Media - Norm-Based Life-Event (SM-NoBLE) system is implemented with a mechanism for extracting citizen's life-events from citizen interactions with social media. Then, it matches life-events with relevant e-services using the Norm-Based Life-Event (NoBLE) framework and the concept of norms borrowed from organisational semiotics for the matching mechanism. This research creates a case study of Saudi Arabia to apply the SM-NoBLE system to evaluate accuracy and functionality.


Satellite images are multispectral or hyperspectral images, which are important for earth observation and military reconnaissance. However, there exists big incompatibility between the transmission capacity of satellite channel and large amount hyper spectral data. There are spatial and spectrum redundancy in hyper spectral image. As to exploit spectrum correlation sufficiently, it must be to pre-process hyper spectral image. In this paper, we propose a novel acceptable complexity lossy hyper spectral image compression scheme. Conventional approaches to sampling signals or images follow Shannon's celebrated theorem, which says that the sampling rate must be at least twice the signal bandwidth (the so-called Nyquist rate). In fact, this principle underlies nearly all signal acquisition protocols used in consumer audio and visual electronics, medical imaging devices, radio receivers, and so on. Compressive sampling, also known as compressed sensing or CS, a novel sensing sampling paradigm that goes against the common wisdom in data acquisition. CS theory asserts that one can recover certain signals and images from far fewer samples or measurements than traditional methods used. Keywords: Image compression; compressive sensing (CS); sparsity; discrete cosine transform (DCT); isometry; orthogonal pursuit matching(OMP).


Interest in structured treatment interruptions (STIs) (sometimes mistakenly called drug holidays) continues to increase. Though research in this area is relatively new and so far inconclusive, many people are already taking unplanned or unstructured treatment interruptions due to problems with drug side effects, treatment failure and adherence problems.


We measured asset-based and education-based inequity in utilization of 2 cancer screening tests, Pap tests and mammograms, using nationally representative surveys conducted in 2003, 2008, and 2013. Utilization of Pap tests (ages 25-59 years) and mammograms (ages 50-69 years) increased over time. Asset-based and education-based inequities declined significantly for both screening tests, particularly among women who reported a doctor visit in the previous year. This decline coincided with increases in the coverage of primary health care in Brazil. However, barriers persisted; in 2013, college-educated women were still 2.27 times more likely to have a mammogram than those who were illiterate.


This paper proposes a highly defect tolerant Parallel Prefix Adder (PPA) design. Motivated by the inherent defect tolerance capability displayed in a Kogge Stone Adder (KSA), this paper identifies the key elements that can be applied to make the general PPA's defect tolerant: 1) the Generate and Propagate computing hardware is divided into disjoint groups, such that defects in one group will not "contaminate" the computation carried out by the other groups; 2) redundant copies of the results for each group can be derived cost-effectively from the other disjoint groups. This approach provides flexibilities for a defect tolerant PPA design on both the number of groups and the type of Sub-Adder structure to be adopted. As is verified by the simulation results, the proposed scheme not only offers a general way of constructing highly defect tolerant PPA's, but also opens up a large number of pareto-front design choices, considering the objectives of reliability, hardware and performance.


Electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structures can help in the reduction of mutual coupling by their capabilities of suppressing surface wave's propagation in a specific frequency range. In this work, a dual-layer EBG structure, which had a lower resonant frequency than the single-layer one, is proposed in order to reduce the mutual coupling between 𝐸-plane coupled microstrip antenna array. As this EBG structure significantly made the series capacitance between neighbor cells larger, a drastic reduction of the unit cell size was achieved. The simulated and experimental results show that the proposed structure has a significant 19 dB mutual coupling reduction.


This study investigates how local milieus foster innovation success in firms. We complement the common practice of linking firm performance indicators to regional characteristics with survey evidence on the perceived importance of locational factors. While the former approach assumes that location characteristics affect all firms in the same way, the survey allows us to model how firms judge the attractiveness of locations using a heterogeneous set of criteria. It turns out that the availability of highly skilled labor and the proximity to suppliers matter for firms' innovation performance. Interestingly, location factors obtained from the survey provide a more accurate explanation of how local milieus facilitate innovation.


The importance of the cholinergic system for cognitive function has been well documented in animal and human studies. The objective of this study was to elucidate the cognitive and functional connectivity changes associated with enhanced acetylcholine levels. We hypothesized that older adults with mild memory deficits would show behavioral and functional network enhancements with an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor treatment (donepezil) when compared to a placebo control group.


This paper presents the results of the experimental research of 3D structures developed with an SLA additive technique using Durable Resin V2. The aim of this paper is to evaluate and compare the compression curves, deformation process and energy-absorption parameters of the topologies with different characteristics. The structures were subjected to a quasi-static axial compression test. Five different topologies of lattice structures were studied and compared. In the initial stage of the research, the geometric accuracy of the printed structures was analysed through measurement of the diameter of the beam elements at several selected locations. Compression curves and the stress history at the minimum cross-section of each topology were determined. Energy absorption parameters, including absorbed energy (AE) and specific absorbed energy (SAE), were calculated from the compression curves. Based on the analysis of the photographic material, the failure mode was analysed, and the efficiency of the topologies was compared.


I overview the physical picture of QCD at low energies that has led to the prediction of a narrow exotic baryon Theta^+ which cannot be made of three quarks. The very narrow width of the Theta^+ and a possible reason why it is seen in low- but not in high-energy experiments are briefly discussed.


Recent advances in deep learning have been pushing image denoising techniques to a new level. In self-supervised image denoising, blind-spot network (BSN) is one of the most common methods. However, most of the existing BSN algorithms use a dot-based central mask, which is recognized as inefficient for images with large-scale spatially correlated noise. In this paper, we give the definition of large-noise and propose a multi-mask strategy using multiple convolutional kernels masked in different shapes to further break the noise spatial correlation. Furthermore, we propose a novel self-supervised image denoising method that combines the multi-mask strategy with BSN (MM-BSN). We show that different masks can cause significant performance differences, and the proposed MM-BSN can efficiently fuse the features extracted by multi-masked layers, while recovering the texture structures destroyed by multi-masking and information transmission. Our MM-BSN can be used to address the problem of large-noise denoising, which cannot be efficiently handled by other BSN methods. Extensive experiments on public real-world datasets demonstrate that the proposed MM-BSN achieves state-of-the-art performance among self-supervised and even unpaired image denoising methods for sRGB images denoising, without any labelling effort or prior knowledge. Code can be found in https://github.com/dannie125/MM-BSN.


Quoting King Solomon's famous prayer to God at the Temple in Jerusalem, "Behold, the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded," Alicia Suskin Ostriker posits a God who cannot be contained by dogma and doctrine. Troubled by the way the Bible has become identified in our culture with a monolithic authoritarianism, Ostriker focuses instead on the extraordinary variability of Biblical writing. "For the Love of God" is a provocative and inspiring re-interpretation of six essential Biblical texts: "The Song of Songs", the "Book of Ruth", "Psalms", "Ecclesiastes", "Jonah", and "Job". In prose that is personal and probing, analytically acute and compellingly readable, Ostriker sees these writings as "counter-texts," deviating from convention yet deepening and enriching the Bible, our images of God, and our own potential spiritual lives. Attempting to understand "some of the wildest, strangest, most splendid writing in Western tradition," she shows how the Bible embraces sexuality and skepticism, boundary crossing and challenges to authority, how it illuminates the human psyche and mirrors our own violent times, and how it asks us to make difficult choices in the quest for justice. For better or worse, our society is wedded to the Bible. But according to Talmud, "There is always another interpretation." Ostriker demonstrates that the Bible, unlike its reputation, offers a plenitude of surprises.


Electrical engineering and here especially the power side is an important topic in today's engineering curricula. Through Bologna Process, curricula had to be shortened by 25 % but additional contents were to be included. Thus education must become more efficient. Non-electrical engineering students shall get application oriented knowledge and competence in variable speed drives. Power electronics is the decisive part but hard to understand if basics in electrical engineering as well as power electronics are taught with only few lecture hours. The proposed method relies on practical experience of teaching advanced power electronics and drive at a university where no electrical engineering curriculum exists. Teaching must be supported strongly by good lecture material prepared for the described target group.


Background - Having identified a need to improve education around pre-operative fasting, and to facilitate more Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), an online learning tool was developed. Design - An evaluation study was conducted to ascertain the effectiveness of the tool in developing knowledge in a group of pre-registration nursing students. Results - A quiz attached to the online teaching tool showed a high level of information uptake, 63% (n=44) of the students achieved a mark of 90% or higher and only 15% (n=11) achieving a mark of less than 70%. A questionnaire was undertaken resulting in the students highlighting their enthusiasm for engagement in similar learning opportunities in the future.


Currently, satellite ocean color imageries play an important role in monitoring of water properties in various oceanic, coastal, and inland ecosystems. Although there is a long-time and global archive of such valuable data, no study has comprehensively used these data to assess the changes in the Caspian Sea. Hence, this study assessed the variability of bio-optical properties of the upper-water column in the Southern Caspian Sea (SCS) using the archive of the Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The images acquired from SeaWiFS (January 1998 to December 2002) and MODIS Aqua (January 2003 to December 2015) satellites were used to investigate the spatial–temporal variability of bio-optical properties including Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), attenuation coefficient, and remote sensing reflectance, and environmental parameters such as sea surface temperature (SST), wind stress and the El Nino-southern oscillation (ENSO) phenomena at different time lags in the study area. The trend analysis demonstrated an overall increase of 0.3358 mg m−3 in the Chl-a concentration during 1998–2015 (annual increase rate of 0.018 mg m−3 year−1) and four algal blooms and in turn an abnormal increase in Chl-a concentration were occurred in August 2001, September 2005, 2009, and August 2010. The linear model revealed that Chl-a in the northern and middle part of the study area had been influenced by the attenuation coefficient after a one-month lag time. The analysis revealed a sharp decline in Chl-a concentration during 2011–2015 and showed a high correlation with the turbidity and attenuation coefficient in the southern region, while Kd_490nm and remote sensing reflectance did a low one. Generally, Chl-a concentration exhibited a positive correlation with the attenuation coefficient (r = 0.63) and with remote sensing reflectance at the 555 nm (r = 0.111). This study can be used as the basis for predictive modeling to evaluate the changes of water quality and bio-optical indices in the Southern Caspian Sea (SCS).


For PT.GCI Palembang optimization of the shortest route is needed in the process of finding the location of BTS (Base Tower Station) because with the optimization of the shortest route determination can assist the technician in optimizing the distance to the location of BTS needs to be done maintenance and repair so as to increase the efficiency of time and the required costs. The shortest route problem is a problem in finding the path between two vertices on a weighted graph that has a combined value of the number of weights on the side of the graph passed by the minimum number. In this research using Floyd Warshall algorithm to determine the shortest route. Where the Floyd Warshall algorithm can compare all track opportunities in the graph for each side of all the nodes it passes to the least amount. Based on the results of calculations from this research obtained the shortest route that is from point 1 – 4- 3 – 2 that is equal to 10,9 km


This paper deals with the issue of geometry representation of voxelized three-dimensional scenes using hierarchical data structures. These include pointerless Sparse Voxel Octrees that have no pointers on child nodes and allow a compact binary representation. However, if necessary, there is a possibility to reconstruct these pointers for rapid traversing. Sparse Voxel Directed Acyclic Graphs added 32-bit pointers to child nodes and merging of common subtrees, which can be considered lossless compression. By merging common subtrees, no decompression overhead occurs at the time of traversing. The hierarchical data structure proposed herein – the Pointerless Sparse Voxel Directed Acyclic Graph – incorporates the benefits of both – pointerless Sparse Voxel Octrees (by avoiding storing pointers on child nodes) and Sparse Voxel Directed Acyclic Graphs (by allowing the merging of common subtrees due the introduction of labels and callers). The proposed data structure supports the quick and easy reconstruction of pointers by introducing the Active Child Node Count. It also potentially allows Child Node Mask compression of its nodes. This paper presents the proposed data structure and its binary-level encoding in detail. It compares the effectiveness of the representation of voxelized three-dimensional scenes (originally represented in OBJ format) in the proposed data structure with the data structures mentioned above. It also summarizes statistical data providing a more detailed description of the various parameters of the data structure for different scenes stored in multiple resolutions.


The purpose of this research was to examine closely the formation of development in children`s creativity as the effects of ballet education, the objective of which was a harmonious development of a whole person through creative physical activities, in order to establish appropriate ballet education for children as a major activity in childhood education. The research was carried out on the 60 children - 30 in the experimental group and 30 in the comparison group, aged between 4 to 5 attending the kindergarten attached to S University in Seoul. The experimental group children took a ballet program of 24 lessons in total - each lesson lasting for 30 minutes, two lessons a week for 12 weeks after the regular kindergarten hours. The comparison group children had free physical activities during the total of 24 lessons, each period for 30 minutes, twice a week for 12 weeks after the regular kindergarten hours. After the 12 weeks of experimental period pre-test and post-test were conducted in each group and between the two groups according to sex and age differences in order to find out specific statistics through individual interviews in which the children answered the questions by responding to the terminology of examination. For the pre- and post-experiment tests, the t-test was used to measure the significant difference means of each group. The results of analyses showed that there was not much difference between the means in creativity and in its sub-division factors such as fluency, flexibility and originality between the experimental group and the comparison group prior to the ballet education program. But after the ballet education program, there was a significant difference (p<.01) in creativity and in the sub-division factors of creativity such as fluency (p<.01), flexibility (p<.01), originality (p<.05) in the experimental group.


Because of weight gain, women often discontinue hormonal contraception, especially depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA). Our objective was to conduct a systematic review of studies describing dietary intake or eating behavior in DMPA users to understand whether the use of DMPA is associated with changes in dietary habits and behaviors leading to weight gain. We searched the PubMed, POPLINE, CENTRAL Cochrane, Web of Science, and EMBASE databases for reports published in English between 1980 and 2017 examining dietary intake or eating behavior in healthy women in reproductive age and adolescents using DMPA (150 mg/mL). Of the 749 publications screened, we excluded 742 due to duplicates (96), not addressing the key research question (638), not reporting dietary intake data (4), and not evaluating the relationship of body weight and dietary or eating behaviors (4). We identified seven relevant studies, including one randomized placebo-controlled trial, one non-randomized paired clinical trial, and five cohort studies. The randomized trial found no association and the other reports were inconsistent. Findings varied from no change in dietary intake or eating behavior with DMPA use to increased appetite in the first six months of DMPA use. Few studies report dietary intake and eating behavior in DMPA users and the available data are insufficient to conclude whether DMPA use is associated with changes in dietary habits or behavior leading to weight gain.


Hecto pressure composite cycle engines with piston engines and piston compressors are potential alternatives to advanced gas turbine engines. The nondimensional groups limiting their design have been introduced and generally discussed in Part I (Chatzianagnostou and Staudacher, 2018, "Comparison of Piston Concept Design Solutions for Composite Cycle Engines—Part I: Similarity Considerations," ASME J. Eng. Gas Turbines Power, 140(9), p. 9). Further discussion shows, that the ratio of effective power to piston surface PA characterizes the piston thermal surface load capability. The piston design and the piston cooling technology level limit its range of values. Reynolds number and the required ratio of advective to diffusive material transport limit the stroke-to-bore ratio s/d. Torsional frequency sets a limit to crankshaft length and hence cylinder number. A rule based preliminary design system for composite cycle engines is presented. Its piston engine design part is validated against data of existing piston engines. It is used to explore the design space of piston components. The piston engine design space is limited by mechanical feasibility and the crankshaft overlap resulting in a minimum stroke-to-bore ratio s/d. An empirical limitation on stroke-to-bore ratio s/d is based on existing piston engine designs. It limits the design space further. Piston compressor design does not limit the piston engine design but is strongly linked to it. The preliminary design system is applied to a composite cycle engines of 22 MW takeoff shaft power, flying a 1000 km mission. It features three 12-cylinder piston engines and three 20-cylinder piston compressors. Its specific fuel consumption and mission fuel burn are compared to an intercooled gas turbine with pressure gain combustion of similar technology readiness.


Much effort has been performed for performance tuning. However, it is becoming clear that performance tuning is much harder in complicated modern parallel architectures. For performance tuning, compiler approach was prevailing in the era of vector architecture. Today, instead, PSE approach which provides users with abstract programming emerges, which also has a problem in tuning fine points. Another approach is " autotuning" which is a brute force attack for performance tuning. We have proposed that idiom recognition can be a bridge between abstract source programs and concrete architectures. This paper applies term rewriting theory -a very general framework to the idiom recognition system. Moreover, we apply higher order term rewriting to find better patterns. We show that tiling and recursive algorithm scheme patterns can be reinvented by the extended idiom recognition. Furthermore, we discuss a method of enrichment of candidates of optimizations by using the general framework of graph rewriting.


The reform of ISDS and potential alternatives to it, is a priority for the EU today. Foreign direct investment (FDI) by the European Union in Brazil and Latin America is considerable, and vice versa. Various forms of settling disputes between investors and states are incorporated into agreements carrying FDI.
Classical Investor-to-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms have become increasingly contentious in recent years, and with the growth in the number of ISDS agreements, public fears that investors may gain control of sensitive areas of public policy have grown also (see Section 2). Compared to State-to-State Dispute Settlement (SSDS) mechanisms, investor-to-state dispute settlement mechanisms are criticized for enabling companies and multinationals the potential to undermine a country's public policy objectives with the threat to national sovereignty that this implies. Justifications for ISDS boil down to states' provision for protection of investors in order to progress with their development goals. However, the core drivers of globalization are changing rapidly and the rise of countries capable of exponential growth, accentuates the negatives to ISDS, including the lack of democratic accountability of and scrutiny over third country investors, the use of private arbitrators, the secrecy of proceedings and rulings, and no participatory rights for third parties holding a direct interest in the process.
To date, investment protection has been confined to case-specific international agreements, rather than through overarching bilateral agreements. Legally speaking, these agreements span the public international law basis of the treaties and the public law nature of the relationship between the investor and sovereign state concerned, and asymmetry between states in international agreements further complicates multilateral approaches to reforming ISDS. At EU level, Foreign Direct Investment was included in the European Union's powers under the Common Commercial Policy under the Treaty of Lisbon (ToL) in 2009, but such initiatives when involving ISDS reform remain complex and must respect the EU Member States' competences. Thus, the entry into force of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada in September 2017 is preliminary: all the EU Member States must ratify it, raising again the spectre of political resistance to its ISDS clause as experienced in 2016, particularly in the Belgium State of Wallonia. The ISDS mechanisms in CETA must respect the delineation between EU and Member State competences established by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in May 2017, and Belgium raised important questions for the CJEU in September 2017 on the compatibility of CETA with EU law, even before the preliminary entry into force of CETA (see Section 3.1).
Following EU Commission President Jean Claude Juncker's State of the Union Address in September 2017, the EU is committed to making ISDS fit for purpose both within the EU 28 Member States but also in the EU's external relations with third countries. The EU is abiding by its commitment to unprecedented transparency in all its trade and investment actions following the pathway set down by President Juncker. Improved democratic controls over ISDS to improve public trust at home and abroad, will also be an important yardstick. Already the UNCITRAL working group began work in November 2017 on the topic of ISDS reform and the EU has been advocating the Multilateral Investment court to this end.
This contribution focuses on ISDS in EU external relations. Section 3 explores EU policy reform of ISDS – notably proposing a new a permanent, judge-based Multilateral Investment Court (MIC) for investor-state disputes – to set a level playing field at global level for the protection of FDI while also guaranteeing states and society their democratic rights to shape public policy. Section 4 then examines the experience of Latin America, revealing a long-established refusal of any transfer of sovereignty through bilateral agreements regarding ISDS, resorting more to experimental forms of mediation based on the willingness of the state concerned.
Given that investor protection clauses have not been incorporated within the EU-MERCOSUR draft trade agreement, and the consistent refusal of Brazil's parliament to ratify agreements containing ISDS, would a multi-lateral investment court render ISDS more palatable to Brazil and other ISDS avert countries? Or is there indeed a sufficient critical mass of problem cases to justify the EU's bazooka approach in the form of the MIC. Is this solution proportionate as well as acceptable democratically and legally speaking, especially given the questions as to the compatibility of the MIC with EU law. While the European Commission can negotiate and ratify agreements containing provisions for the protection of direct foreign investments of third country nationals in the EU (and vice versa), the EU Member States must be involved in the negotiation of clauses on dispute settlement between investors and states, as well as in relation to non-direct foreign investment ('portfolio' investments made without any intention to influence the management and control of an undertaking). The Member States' national constitutional procedures must be respected in the ratification of such clauses in multilateral or bilateral agreements between the European Union and third countries.
All this said, the conclusions consider whether Latin American approaches present a viable alternative that the EU might emulate – even in part – in the modernization of its ISDS system, or whether these approaches present more of a blank cartridge in addressing sovereignty and democracy concerns (see Section 5). Is there any intermediate solution in-between the European legal bazooka and the Latin American blank cartridge?


In this paper, I argue that the capacity to talk about sex and sexuality is vital to effective narrative practice, though these issues are little discussed among narrative practitioners. Building our skills in enabling such conversations can better equip us to move in the direction of reducing violence, discrimination and coercion; creating safety and improving wellbeing. I argue that being capable of conversations about sexual practices is critical to important goals, such as ending sexual violence and eliminating discrimination against queer people. The capacity to speak about sexuality is also important in supporting people who wish to move beyond traumatic or joyless experiences related to sex and into living thriving and pleasurable lives. This paper invites readers to reflect on their own confidence and ability in enabling conversations about sex and sexuality. Finally, it provides concrete suggestions for people who would like to increase their capacity for relaxed conversations about sex and sexuality.


Given the evolution of high mountain environment due to global warming, mountaineering routes and huts accesses are more and more strongly affected by glacial shrinkage and concomitant gravity processes, but almost no studies have been conducted on this relationship. The aim of this research is to describe and explain the evolution over the last century of the access to the five alpine huts around the Mer de Glace glacier (Mont Blanc massif), the larger French glacier (length = 11.5 km, area = 30 km2), a major place for Alpine tourism since 1741 and the birthplace of mountaineering, by using several methods (comparing photographs, surveying, collecting historical documents). While most of the 20th century shows no marked changes, loss of ice thickness and associated erosion of lateral moraines generate numerous and significant changes since the 1990s. Boulder falls, rockfalls and landslides are the main geomorphological processes that affect the access, while the glacier surface lowering makes access much longer and more unstable. The danger is then greatly increased and the access must be relocated and/or equipped more and more frequently (e.g. a total of 520 m of ladders has been added). This questions the future accessibility to the huts, jeopardizing an important part of mountaineering and its linked economy in the Mer de Glace area


In order to evaluate operating efficiency of urban logistics enterprises, Data envelopment analysis (DEA) model is established. This model calculates overall efficiency, technical efficiency, scale efficiency and scale benefit of four logistics enterprise respectively. Then some feasible measures are given to nonDEA effective enterprises to make them be DEA effective. While the relationship between operating efficiency and resource allocation efficiency is analyzed, this paper also gives some advices about logistics industry development that are referred to the decision department of enterprises.


BACKGROUND: The present study aims to examine the characteristics of patients with trauma who applied to the emergency department in parallel periods before and after the novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak and analyze the effects of social change on traumatic injuries.METHODS: In this study, medical records of patients who presented to the emergency departments of seven hospitals operating as a tertiary training and research hospital in Istanbul between March-June 2018, March-June 2019, and March-June 2020 are due to trauma were retrospectively analyzed. The clinical and demographic characteristics of traumatic injuries before and after the pandemic were compared.RESULTS: In our study, 4088 trauma patients' data were reviewed; 1279 in March-June 2018, 1684 in March-June 2019, and 1125 in March-June 2020. When the total number of patients was examined, it was noticed that the number of patients decreased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. No significant difference was found between the periods regarding sex and trauma mechanisms of the patients. The mean age was higher in patients admitted in 2020 compared to previous years. In our study, incidences of intracranial hemorrhage, femur fracture, lung injuries, and mortality rates were higher in March-June 2020 compared to previous parallel years. CONCLUSION: In March-June 2020, compared to the previous year, there was a 34% decrease in trauma cases admitted to the emergency department. Albeit no difference was found between the periods regarding trauma mechanisms, the higher mortality in the March-June 2020 period indicates that trauma continues to be one of the major causes of death despite the pandemic.


Administration of estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) decreases the incidence of breast cancer, as shown in a double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized trial of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) in 10,739 postmenopausal women with a prior hysterectomy. Although paradoxical because estrogen is recognized to stimulate breast cancer growth, laboratory data support a mechanism of estrogen-induced apoptosis under the correct environmental circumstances. Long-term antiestrogen treatment or estrogen deprivation causes the eventual development and evolution of antihormone resistance. Cell populations emerge with a vulnerability, as estrogen is no longer a survival signal but is an apoptotic trigger. The antitumor effect of ERT in estrogen-deprived postmenopausal women is consistent with laboratory models. Cancer Prev Res; 4(5); 633–7. ©2011 AACR.


Pulse rate variability (PRV) has been proposed as a surrogate for the estimation of Heart Rate Variability (HRV), which is a non-invasive technique used to assess the cardiac autonomic activity. However, both physiological and technical factors may affect the relationship between HRV and PRV, and there are no standards for the analysis of PRV from photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals. The aim of this study was to determine the best outlier management strategies for PRV analysis. 117 PPG signals with randomly generated PRV information were simulated using Gaussian signals. From these, interbeat intervals were detected and different outlier detection and correction techniques were applied. Time and frequency-domain and non-linear PRV indices were extracted and compared with respect to the gold standard values obtained from the simulated PRV information. The results show that, in good quality PPG signals, there is no need to apply any outlier management technique for the extraction of PRV information. Clinical relevance- Establishing guidelines for PRV mea-surement can lead to more reliable and comparable results, as well as to the increase in the use of this variable for the diagnosis and monitoring of cardiovascular and autonomic conditions.


Chernoff bounds on the error probability for the detection of non-Gaussian stochastic signals in additive white Gaussian noise are computed. By the use of Fokker-Planck (F-P) equations and a certain conditional expectation, the quasi-transition function, an equation for time evolution of the Chernoff bound is obtained. This time evolution equation is solved exactly to give all previously known results. Although the general non-Gaussian case cannot be conveniently solved for short time duratio ns, in the important special case of stationary processes and long integration times, bounding the error probability reduces to solving for the largest eigenvalue \lambda_0 of a differential operator. In particular, P(error) \leq \exp (\lambda_0T) , where T is the observation period. By iteratively determining \lambda_0 via the Galerkin variational procedure, we compare the performance of different receiver forms for a specific problem involving the detection of non-Gaussian random signal processes.


Abstract Background Clinical practice patterns vary between providers, but few studies have examined this variation among infectious disease (ID) physicians. Characterizing these differences in practice can help identify areas where targeted educational interventions or further research are needed to improve clinical decision-making. We describe a faculty survey conducted at our institution designed to identify clinical practice variation within a large academic ID division. Methods In January 2017, an electronic survey was distributed to all clinical ID faculty at our institution. The survey collected baseline demographic information as well as responses to 28 common clinical dilemmas encountered in routine practice. Descriptive statistics were performed. Results Twenty-four (44%) of 54 active clinical ID faculty (12 assistant professors, 6 associate professors, and 6 professors) completed the survey. Examples of clinical dilemmas with >80% agreement among faculty included: (1) S. aureus bacteremia should be a mandatory ID consult (88%) and (2) lumbar puncture should be performed for all patients with suspected ocular syphilis (88%). The majority of clinical dilemmas had less than 80% agreement, and these spanned the range of routine ID practice. Examples included: (1) use of ceftriaxone for outpatient antibiotic therapy for nonbacteremic invasive methicillin-susceptible S. aureus infections (58% agree), (2) length of treatment for guideline-defined uncomplicated S. aureus bacteremia (50% 2 weeks, 50% 4 weeks), (3) use of fixed-dose dolutegravir/abacavir/lamivudine as a single-drug regimen for an HIV-infected patient with an M184V mutation (42% agree), and (4) benefit of routine anal Pap smears among HIV-infected men who have sex with men (50% agree). Conclusion Practice patterns vary between ID physicians within our institution, particularly for clinical dilemmas for which there is insufficient or conflicting published data. Further studies to examine practice pattern variation among ID physicians across institutions and geographic regions could identify areas where further research or educational interventions are needed to enhance clinical care. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.


The risk‐adjusted Bernoulli cumulative sum (CUSUM) chart developed by Steiner et al. (2000) is an increasingly popular tool for monitoring clinical and surgical performance. In practice, however, the use of a fixed control limit for the chart leads to a quite variable in‐control average run length performance for patient populations with different risk score distributions. To overcome this problem, we determine simulation‐based dynamic probability control limits (DPCLs) patient‐by‐patient for the risk‐adjusted Bernoulli CUSUM charts. By maintaining the probability of a false alarm at a constant level conditional on no false alarm for previous observations, our risk‐adjusted CUSUM charts with DPCLs have consistent in‐control performance at the desired level with approximately geometrically distributed run lengths. Our simulation results demonstrate that our method does not rely on any information or assumptions about the patients' risk distributions. The use of DPCLs for risk‐adjusted Bernoulli CUSUM charts allows each chart to be designed for the corresponding particular sequence of patients for a surgeon or hospital. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Received: Revised: Accepted: January 26, 2014 March 14, 2014 April 13, 2014 Streptococcus suis 2 (SS2) is an important zoonotic agent, and its pathogenesis has been extensively studied recently. Our earlier study showed that there were different responses between pig breeds after SS2 infection, which is similar to the previous observation in two mice lines. Bases on our previous transcriptome sequencing profiles, 15 target genes in spleen, lymph node, brain, lung, and liver were compared between Enshi black and Landrace breeds after SS2 infection, by qPCR in this study. Gene Resistin was up-regulated in lymph and spleen of both breeds, whereas it was significantly down-regulated in lung and liver of Enshi black. IL-1b and CD300c was significantly up-regulated in the brain and lymph of Enshi black and the liver of Landrace, whereas CXCL10 was significantly up-regulated in the brain and liver of Enshi black, and the lymph of Landrace pig. Gene NPG3 was highly induced in the brain and lymph of Enshi black, but not so high in Landrace. S100A8, S100A9 and S100A12 were significantly increased in the brain of Enshi black but S100A9 was significantly decreased in the lymph node of Enshi. MMP9 in the brain was up-regulated in Enshi black whereas it was down-regulated in Landrace. We observed differential performances from 5 immunoglobulin genes, especially IGLV5 and IGKV6. Our results suggested that Enshi black and Landrace have significant differences of innate and adaptive immune responses after SS2 infection. The results could lay foundation for further deep study of resistance/ susceptibility mechanism in pigs. ©2014 PVJ. All rights reserved


That the Taungs skull represents the youthful form of a remarkably interesting kind of Ape has been made abundantly clear by the descriptions given of it by its discoverer and by my friend Dr. R. Broom. For fuller knowledge we must await the detailed account which Prof. R. A. Dart is now preparing, and the casts with which we hope that he will provide us. Meanwhile we may learn something from a preliminary sagittal section, which I owe to the kindness of Dr. Broom and the generosity of Prof. Dart, who permitted him to trace it. Fig. 1 (p. 2) is a reproduction of this section. The absence of any suggestion of a frontal torus, the small angle made by the nasion (ν) radius with the nasi-lambda (N.L.) axis, and the proximity of the nasion to the anterior termination of the brain will be seen at a glance. These are characters rather human than simian, and combine to give the forehead a striking human appearance, so much so as to suggest that 'Homunculus' might not inappropriately have been chosen for a surname. The significance of these and other features may be best illustrated by comparison with similar sections provided by other members of the Primates. But, first of all, it is necessary as a preliminary to point out the capital importance of confining our comparisons to skulls in one and the same stage of development. This will be best appreciated by reference to the following illustrations. In fig. 2 the