Repressor protein period (PER) complexes play a central role in the molecular oscillator mechanism of the mammalian circadian clock. While the main role of nuclear PER complexes is transcriptional repression, much less is known about the functions of cytoplasmic PER complexes. We found with a biochemical screen for PER2-interacting proteins that the small GTPase regulator GTPase-activating protein and VPS9 domain-containing protein 1 (GAPVD1), which has been identified previously as a component of cytoplasmic PER complexes in mice, is also a bona fide component of human PER complexes. We show that in situ GAPVD1 is closely associated with casein kinase 1 delta (CSNK1D), a kinase that regulates PER2 levels through a phosphoswitch mechanism, and that CSNK1D regulates the phosphorylation of GAPVD1. Moreover, phosphorylation determines the kinetics of GAPVD1 degradation and is controlled by PER2 and a C-terminal autoinhibitory domain in CSNK1D, indicating that the regulation of GAPVD1 phosphorylation is a novel function of cytoplasmic PER complexes and might be part of the oscillator mechanism or an output function of the circadian clock.


Deep learning has improved state-of-the-art results in many important fields, and has been the subject of much research in recent years, leading to the development of several systems for facilitating deep learning. Current systems, however, mainly focus on model building and training phases, while the issues of data management, model sharing, and lifecycle management are largely ignored. Deep learning modeling lifecycle generates a rich set of data artifacts, e.g., learned parameters and training logs, and it comprises of several frequently conducted tasks, e.g., to understand the model behaviors and to try out new models. Dealing with such artifacts and tasks is cumbersome and largely left to the users. This paper describes our vision and implementation of a data and lifecycle management system for deep learning. First, we generalize model exploration and model enumeration queries from commonly conducted tasks by deep learning modelers, and propose a high-level domain specific language (DSL), inspired by SQL, to raise the abstraction level and thereby accelerate the modeling process. To manage the variety of data artifacts, especially the large amount of checkpointed float parameters, we design a novel model versioning system (dlv), and a read-optimized parameter archival storage system (PAS) that minimizes storage footprint and accelerates query workloads with minimal loss of accuracy. PAS archives versioned models using deltas in a multi-resolution fashion by separately storing the less significant bits, and features a novel progressive query (inference) evaluation algorithm. Third, we develop e cient algorithms for archiving versioned models using deltas under co-retrieval constraints. We conduct extensive experiments over several real datasets from computer vision domain to show the e ciency of the proposed techniques.


Amplitudes, periods, and travel times of the longitudinal P′ or PKP core waves have been investigated. Results indicate that the epicentral distance of the main focal point and the travel time of P′ phases vary with the periods of the waves. This variation would seem reasonably explained in terms of dispersion. The point of reversal in the travel-time curve of the waves through the outer core is believed to lie near 157°. Data suggest a discontinuity between 120° and 125° rather than 110°. Anomalies existing in energy, period, and travel-time relationships of the P′ phases indicate that current concepts of velocity distribution and of propagation paths within the core are in need of modification.


Abstract In 2018, the televised 'one-punch' incident in the Australian Football League (AFL) raised concerns about the wider societal impact of violence in sport. Professional AFL player, Andrew Gaff was caught on camera punching an opposing player in the head. The ensuing debate highlighted the role of actors in investigating, prosecuting and penalising unlawful acts of violence in sport. The article examines this regulatory framework; where traditional attitudes about the social desirability of sport and acceptance of harm support an autonomous self-regulatory approach, often insulated from the full application of the criminal law. This article explores whether the current framework meets community expectations and wider societal concerns. With a renewed focus on player safety and wellbeing as priorities in contemporary sport, this article is a timely review of a recurring theme in the literature: the point at which force in sport becomes a criminal matter beyond the remit of private regulation.


Implantation of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) into the pancreas of rats has been shown to induce adenocarcinoma. Complexes of tubules, which have the appearance of proliferated intralobular ducts, frequently appear during tumor development. These complexes were studied by light and electron microscopy to determine their method of formation. In addition, a tubular complex was reconstructed from serial sections to determine its three-dimensional configuration. Although tubular complexes have been thought by others to result from ductal proliferation, the following observation indicate that they originate from zymogen-granule-containing cells: a) there is a continuum of transitional stages between acini and tubules, b) most tubules decrease in size and are replaced by connective tissue (evidence of regression rather than proliferation), c) few mitotic figures are seen in tubular complexes, d) the tubules comprise many cells which have an abundance of rough endoplasmic reticulum, an organelle which is sparce in ducts, and e) the three-dimensional arrangement of tubules appears identical to the branching, anastomosing arrangement of zymogen-granule-containing cells of the normal rat pancreas. Control animals in which only sutures were placed in the pancreas showed minimal reaction. It is concluded that "acini" become recognized as tubules when loss of zymogen granules accompanies tumor induction by DMBA. Transformation of these cells could be erroneously interpreted as transformation from proliferating ducts.


Synthesis of heme A from heme B (protoheme IX) most likely occurs in two steps with heme O as an intermediate. Bacillus subtilis CtaB, an integral membrane protein, functions in farnesylation of heme B to form heme O. CtaA, also a membrane protein, is required for heme A synthesis from heme O and appears to be a monooxygenase and/or a dehydrogenase. Wild-type ctaA and ctaB expressed together from plasmids in B. subtilis resulted in CtaA containing equimolar amounts of low-spin heme B and heme A; this form of CtaA was named cyt ba-CTA. A mutant ctaB gene was identified and characterised. It encodes a truncated CtaB polypeptide. Wild-type ctaA and the mutant ctaB gene on plasmids resulted in CtaA containing mainly low-spin heme B; this variant was named cyt b-CTA. The heme B component in cyt ba-CTA and cyt b-CTA showed identical properties; a mid-point redox potential of +85 mV, an EPR g(max) signal at 3.7, and a split alpha-band light absorption peak. The heme A component in cyt ba-CTA showed a mid-point potential of +242 mV, an EPR g(max) signal at 3.5, and the alpha-band light absorption peak at 585 nm. It is suggested that the CtaA protein contains two heme binding sites, one for heme B and one for substrate heme. The heme B would play a role in electron transfer, i.e. function as a cytochrome, in the monooxygenase and/or dehydrogenase reaction catalysed by CtaA whereas heme O/heme A would be substrate/product.


This paper suggests a feature point-based Iterative Closest Point (ICP) algorithm to compensate for the disparity error in building a two-dimensional map. The ICP algorithm is a typical algorithm for matching a common object in two different images. In the process of building a two-dimensional map using the laser scanner data, warping and distortions exist in the map because of the disparity between the two sensor values. The ICP algorithm has been utilized to reduce the disparity error in matching the scanned line data. For this matching process in the conventional ICP algorithm, pre-known reference data are required. Since the proposed algorithm extracts characteristic points from laser-scanned data, reference data are not required for the matching. The laser scanner starts from the right side of the mobile robot and ends at the left side, which causes disparity in the scanned line data. By finding the matching points between two consecutive frame images, the motion vector of the mobile robot can be obtained. Therefore, the disparity error can be minimized by compensating for the motion vector caused by the mobile robot motion. The validity of the proposed algorithm has been verified by comparing the proposed algorithm in terms of map-building accuracy to conventional ICP algorithm real experiments.


We propose to explore switching methods in order to recover some properties of Kalmanlike observers for output feedback stabilization of state-affine systems that may present observability singularities. The self-tuning gain matrix in Kalman-like observers tend to be singular in the case of non-uniformly observable systems. We show in the case of state-affine systems with observable target that it can be prevented by dynamically monitoring observability of the system, and switching the control when it becomes critical.


The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) was used in 2021 to image the carbon-rich evolved star R Lep in Bands 8-10 (397-908 GHz) with baselines up to 16 km. The goal was to validate the calibration, using band-to-band (B2B) phase referencing with a close phase calibrator J0504-1512, 1.2 deg from R Lep in this case, and the imaging procedures required to obtain the maximum angular resolution achievable with ALMA. Images of the continuum emission and the hydrogen cyanide (HCN) maser line at 890.8 GHz, from the J=10-9 transition between the (1110) and (0400) vibrationally excited states, achieved angular resolutions of 13, 6, and 5 mas in Bands 8-10, respectively. Self-calibration (self-cal) was used to produce ideal images as to compare with the B2B phase referencing technique. The continuum emission was resolved in Bands 9 and 10, leaving too little flux for self-cal of the longest baselines, so these comparisons are made at coarser resolution. Comparisons showed that B2B phase referencing provided phase corrections sufficient to recover 92%, 83%, and 77% of the ideal image continuum flux densities. The HCN maser was sufficiently compact to obtain self-cal solutions in Band 10 for all baselines (up to 16 km). In Band 10, B2B phase referencing as compared to the ideal images recovered 61% and 70% of the flux density for the HCN maser and continuum, respectively.


Precipitation in North America has become less acidic over the past 2 decades because of reduced power plant emissions and compliance with the Clean Air Act Amendments [Sirois, 19937rsqb;. The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments were developed to reduce the acidity of sensitive surface waters, which are primarily in upland forested environments, where acidified waters and associated high aluminum concentrations are toxic to many species of aquatic flora and fauna [Schindler et al., 1989]. Our studies show that in spite of less acidic precipitation, the buffering capacity of streams in upland forests of the Catskill Mountains in southeastern New York has not increased in recent years. These data suggest that long-term leaching by acid rain has lowered exchangeable calcium ion concentrations in the soil in upland areas, where the underlying, slow-weathering bedrock provides an inadequate supply of cations to neutralize acidity.


Schwannoma are rare. We describe the clinical presentation, diagnostic workup and therapy in sympathetic chain schwannoma in a 54 year old patient. Besides the operative management the differential diagnosis of painless swelling at the carotid bifurcation are discussed


To investigate the effect of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) supplementation on the fatty acid composition of erythrocyte phospholipids and breast milk lipids, pregnant Brazilian women in the 30th week of gestation were randomized to supplement their usual diet with 2 g/day of fish oil (FO group) or primrose oil (PO group, control) capsules for 15 days. Erythrocyte phospholipids from FO group had proportionally higher docosahexaenoicacid and eicosapentaenoic acid levels and furthermore, the ratio of n-6/n-3 PUFA was significantly lower in the breast milk lipids compared with the control group. Assessment of plasma anti-oxLDL autoantibodies and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance concentration demonstrated that both groups had the same levels and they were unaltered by supplementations.


A series of cross-linked polymer supported ionic liquids based on quaternary ammonium salts have been prepared using a facile method of radical polymerization. Styrene-functionalized quaternary ammonium chloride salts, which are derived from imidazole, trimethylamine, triethylamine and triethanolamine, were copolymerized with divinyl benzene (DVB) under solvothermal conditions. These polymer supported ionic liquids displayed high efficiency in catalytic conversion of CO2 to cyclic carbonates. Notably, to the best of our knowledge, it was the first time that the polymeric ionic liquid catalyst was applied in a continuous flow fixed-bed reactor. During the study period of 130 hours, the polymer supported ionic liquids exhibited high stability.


We revisit the spectra observed by Ramos Almeida et al. (2013) from an homogeneous sample of galaxies at 0.27<z<1.28 with the aim of finding out the characteristics of the single objects by consistent modelling. In particular we investigate the trend of the most significant physical parameters and of the element abundances with redshift. The observed corrected line ratios cover a relatively large range. Nevertheless the calculated physical conditions are similar to those of active galactic nuclei and of starburst galaxies. For some of the galaxies the dominant photoionizing source is ambiguous. The N/H and O/H relative abundances are close to the solar ones but show a dip at z=0.7.


Background The aim of the study was to evaluate and compare the efficacy, tolerability and toxicity of three palliative radiotherapy (RT) schedules in locally advanced head and neck carcinoma (LAHNC), i.e. Quad Shot schedule, Christie schedule and conventional palliative schedule. Methods The patients were randomly divided into three groups of 30 each. Group I patients were planned for 14.8 Gy in 4 fractions over 2 days, repeated three weekly for two more cycles. Group II patients were planned for 50 Gy in 16 fractions over 3.1 weeks. Group III patients were planned for 20 Gy in 5 fractions over 5 days, repeated after an interval of 3 weeks. The quality of life was assessed before and after RT using University of Washington Quality of Life questionnaire version 4. Results Local control rates were 84%, 76%, and 76% for groups I, II and III, respectively. Disease status at 6-month follow-up was no evidence of disease (20%, 28%, and 16%), residual disease (72%, 48%, and 76%), and recurrent disease (8%, 24%, and 8%) in groups I, II and III, respectively. Grade III acute skin reactions were 28%, 44%, and 16% in groups I, II and III, respectively. Grade III acute mucosal reactions were 36%, 56%, and 24% in group I, II and III, respectively. Quality of life improved in all groups after RT. Conclusion Quad Shot schedule may be used in LAHNC with better local control and acceptable toxicity as compared to conventional palliative RT schedule in Indian setting.


Automobile exhaust derived air pollutants have become a major health hazard. Coupled with the inhalation of fuel vapour, as occurs in petrol station workers, this may lead to significant impairment of lung function. Spirometric lung functions were studied in 58 petrol station workers to examine this possibility. The forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), forced expiratory flow 25%-75% (FEF25-75) and peak expiratory flow (PEF) were recorded and analysed separately for smokers and non-smokers. The workers were divided into 5 groups for analysis of data based on the number of years of work in the petrol pumps. Outdoor air analysis was also carried out. The FVC, FEV1 and PEF declined significantly with increasing years of work in petrol stations in both smokers and non-smokers. Smoking as an independent variable was found to affect the FEV1 significantly but not FVC or PEF. The FEF25-75 was found to be the most affected spirometric value with a significant reduction with increasing years of work. Smoking as such did not affect it. Oxides of nitrogen (NOx), suspended particulate matter (SPM) and particulate matter less than 10 microns (PM10) in outdoor air were higher than the national ambient air quality standards. Exposure to automobile exhaust and fuel vapour impairs lung function in a time-dependent manner. Cigarette smoking appears to accelerate the decline.


The scope of asteroseismic studies within the Belgo-Indian Network for Astronomy and astrophysics (BINA) is explored. The main strands of current research in asteroseismology of solar-type stars are outlined. While it is obvious that it would be difficult to match the quality of the space-based seismic data on such stars with ground-based telescopes, the possibility of contribution to supplemental non-seismic data is considered. New calibrations of colour-temperature relations using archival data are presented. It is proposed that with similar calibrations with BINA-based photometric data in the future, it would be possible to provide accurate estimates of effective temperatures of solar-type stars that would be useful in asteroseismology of such stars.


Abstract This article reviews the utility of imaging in the diagnostic work-up of suspected and undifferentiated axial and peripheral inflammatory arthritis. Radiographic findings, that is, late damage but not early inflammation, are part of the classification criteria for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ankylosing spondylitis, spondyloarthritis (SpA), and psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and they are generally part of the early examination program in arthritis. Computed tomography visualizes calcified tissue with high resolution but is rarely used unless radiography is unclear and MRI unavailable. MRI and ultrasonography (US) allow sensitive visualization and assessment of peripheral inflammatory and destructive joint and soft tissue involvement, and MRI is by far the best available method for detecting inflammation in the spine and sacroiliac joints in early SpA. Thus MRI/US can contribute to an earlier diagnosis of RA, PsA, and SpA. MRI and US are part of the recent American College of Rheumatology/European League against Rheumatism 2010 classification criteria for RA (can be used to count involved joints), and MRI is part of the SpondyloArthritis International Society criteria for axial and peripheral SpA. Thus radiography, MRI, and/or US should be used in clinical practice to contribute to the diagnostic work-up in suspected, but not definite, inflammatory joint disease and early unclassified inflammatory joint disease, and they are also useful in establishing a specific diagnosis of RA. Radiography and particularly MRI are essential in establishing an early diagnosis of axial SpA.


Ensuring the privacy of sensitive data used to train modern machine learning models is of paramount importance in many areas of practice. One approach to study these concerns is through the lens of differential privacy. In this framework, privacy guarantees are generally obtained by perturbing models in such a way that specifics of data used to train the model are made ambiguous. A particular instance of this approach is through a "teacher-student" framework, wherein the teacher, who owns the sensitive data, provides the student with useful, but noisy, information, hopefully allowing the student model to perform well on a given task without access to particular features of the sensitive data. Because stronger privacy guarantees generally involve more significant perturbation on the part of the teacher, deploying existing frameworks fundamentally involves a trade-off between student's performance and privacy guarantee. One of the most important techniques used in previous works involves an ensemble of teacher models, which return information to a student based on a noisy voting procedure. In this work, we propose a novel voting mechanism with smooth sensitivity, which we call Immutable Noisy ArgMax, that, under certain conditions, can bear very large random noising from the teacher without affecting the useful information transferred to the student.
Compared with previous work, our approach improves over the state-of-the-art methods on all measures, and scale to larger tasks with both better performance and stronger privacy ($\epsilon \approx 0$). This new proposed framework can be applied with any machine learning models, and provides an appealing solution for tasks that requires training on a large amount of data.


Background Skin thickness in systemic sclerosis (SSc) may be measured by high frequency ultrasound. Most studies have a cross sectional design. Objectives The aim of the study was to study the changes in high frequency ultrasound of the skin during one year of follow-up in SSc. Methods In this retrospective study we identified 113 patients in whom ultrasound examination was performed at baseline and at the one year follow-up at 5 predefined sites. 37 were classified as diffuse cutaneous SSc (dcSSc) and 76 as limited cutaneous SSc (lcSSc). Results There were significant changes in skin thickness of the chest (p=0.002) and in the total sum of skin thickness (p=0.008) during the observation time. The changes of skin thickness of the phalanx, back of hand, forearm and lower leg were however not significant. There was an inverse correlation between total skin thickness and disease duration (rS: -0.26; p=0.005). Anti RNA polymerase III (ARA) positive patients displayed significantly larger variance in change of total skin thickness than patients with centromeric antibodies (ACA) (p=0.003), anti topoisomerase I antibodies (ATA) (p=0.017), and ANA without ACA, ATA or ARA (p=0.045). Paired T-test showed that total skin thickness was reduced in the 18 patients treated by Cyclophosphamide (p=0.015) whereas no reduction of total skin thickness was seen after treatment with Azathioprine, Methotrexate or Mycophenylatemofetil. 45 patients treated with Prednisolone showed a reduced total skin thickness (p=0.015) whereas there was no difference in patients not treated with Prednisolone. The ultrasound measurements of skin thickness correlated to serum-cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (serum-COMP) (rS: 0.38; p=0.001) and the modified Rodnan skin score (mRSS) (rS: 0.51; p=0.001) at baseline and the 1-year follow-up (rS: 0.47; p<0.001 and rS: 0.51; p<0.001 respectively). At 1-year follow-up total skin thickness also correlated to hand mobility in scleroderma (HAMIS) values (rS: 0.47; p<0.001). Changes in total skin thickness correlated with changes in mRSS (rS: 0.32; p=0.001) and HAMIS (rS: 0.36; p=0.004) during the same time period. Conclusions In SSc, measurement of skin thickness by high frequency ultrasound, enables us to better understand the complex process of skin fibrosis in regard to the evolvement of oedema and skin contractions and the diversity between phenotypes and effects of therapies. Disclosure of Interest None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.4209


The armour technologist conducts ballistic impact testing either for evaluating armour materials and systems or for studying material's defeating mechanism. Most standards make use of the ballistic limit velocity for ballistic assessment. This is the bullet impact velocity that leads to the protection perforation in 50 per cent of the cases. Various models have been emerged to estimate this key metric. The present article summarises the popular models developed for ballistic limit estimation. An attempt is made to point out models' strength and weakness. First, the experimental set-up used for that goal is displayed. Next, a concise overview of ballistic limit estimation methods is presented. Lastly, a discussion is dedicated to model's comparison and analysis. This literature survey reveals that the main drawback of already existing methods is that they are purely statistical. Moreover, existing methods are based on the normality assumption of perforation velocities which tends from -infinity to infinity. The main conclusion of this survey is that the presented methods offer a comparable accuracy in estimating the ballistic limit velocity. However, a given variability is remarked when extreme values estimation is of interest, impact velocities leading to low and high perforation probability. Finally, existing models' performances decay with the reduction of the experimental sample size which represent a constraining requirement in ballistic resistance assessment. Keyword: Ballistic resistance; Ballistic limit; Normal law; Perforation probability


Some subsidiary components of flagella from the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardii have been studied in the electron microscope using frayed and partially dispersed material, negatively stained. In all, 5 distinct subsidiary structures have been observed, 3 of which are associated with the 9 pairs of outer tubules and 2 with the central pair of tubules. 1. Radial spokes , about 33 nm long and 5 nm in diameter, are attached at right angles to the A tubule of each outer pair and extend into the lumen of the flagellum in the direction of the central pair of tubules, but do not reach them. The spokes usually occur in pairs along the length of each A tubule. The interval between pairs is about 70 nm and that between the 2 members of each pair about 30 nm. 2. ' Secondary fibres '. The distal end of each spoke terminates in a hammerhead-like attachment some 10-20 nm by 5 nm with its axis parallel to the long axis of the flagellum. These hammerhead attachments are now identified with the so-called 'secondary fibres' previously deduced from micrographs of embedded and sectioned material. There is no evidence from the present work of a continuous secondary fibre throughout the length of the flagellum. 3. Side arms are found attached to the A tubule of each outer pair. These arms, which occur in pairs, are roughly at right angles to the radial spokes which are also attached to the A tubules. The side arm material is distributed along the tubule at regular intervals of about 14 nm. 4. The chemically more stable centre tubule has 2 longitudinal rows of projections, each projection being about 18 nm long with a repeat distance of about 16 nm. 5. Occasionally, on the chemically less stable centre tubule, there is observed one row of projections which are somewhat similar to those on the other tubule. New information has made it possible to reinterpret earlier work and to present a 3-dimensional picture of the external flagellum and its parts.


The Tennessee Valley Authority, as a federal corporation governed independently by a three-person board, undertook excessive investments in the 1980s based on erroneous projections of technology and demand growth for electricity. These capital outlays have been financed to pay back loans on deferred depreciation by arbitrary price increases for electricity. Even with electricity markets now beginning to open up to competition, inside and outside the TVA regional monopoly "fence," TVA still expects to keep solvent and reduce excessive debt. But financial analysis undertaken here indicates that TVA's solvency scenario holds only under very narrow assumptions, and an array of equally plausible, and perhaps more realistic, assumptions leads to projections of insolvency for TVA within a very few years. If insolvent, with realization of one of the more likely scenarios, TVA as a public enterprise would not go into bankruptcy. It might be able to generate increased revenues by price increases; if only in a limited range given newly competitive markets for power inside or adjacent to the "fence." It could call for the Federal Financing Bank to redeem TVA bonds at full value even though these bonds would be redeemed at discounted value in the market for bankrupt securities. The impending threat of insolvency then makes a pressing case for determination as to whether the Federal Bank should bail out TVA from the consequences as of investment errors with taxpayer funds. The alternative would be to treat this company the same as investor-owned utilities that made erroneous large-scale capital outlays over the last two decades. This would call for bankruptcy proceedings, following privatization of the Tennessee Valley Authority.


This is the case report of an 85-year-old woman who on two consecutive occasions presented with acute abdominal pain. The first presentation was large bowel obstruction. CT abdomen revealed this was due to a cholecystocolic fistula, allowing a large gallstone to pass and obstruct in the sigmoid colon. The second presentation was after laparotomy; the second CT abdomen revealed another gallstone causing small bowel obstruction. This case is interesting because cholelithiasis rarely leads to sigmoid colon obstruction (gallstone coleus)1 and gallstone ileus. Unfortunately, this patient had both. A gallstone causing obstruction in either the small or large bowel is rare, but occurrence of both in the same patient has not been reported to date. This case also shows how the elderly unwell surgical patient was mismanaged and she could have been spared surgery and irradiation if she was managed appropriately from the start.


The histological evidence of EAE in mice was presented to show the identity with those of other species of animals. There was a typical perivascular mononuclear cell infiltration. In addition, a hyperacute form was characterized by edema and the infiltration of polymorphs. In vascular lesions, vascular stasis, thrombosis, and hemorrhage were observed. As for the effect of pertussis vaccine used in the induction of mouse EAE, responsiveness to the histamine sensitizing factor was not directly correlated to the incidence of EAE. However, the intravenous administration of pertussis vaccine caused remarkable leukocytosis, which might play a certain role in mouse EAE induction.


In this paperwe present results to the problemof an adequate and compact symbolic representation of morphological features of anatomical structures that serve as surgical landmarks for automated assistance in endoscopic surgery using theGeneral FormalOntology (GFO) as a formal framework. For this purpose, we employed a translation from this first-order logic representation to a more compact description logic based formalism with the associated benefits, such as the availability of decidable reasoning procedures, for the purpose of automated landmark recognition in a hybrid symbolic/subsymbolic AI approach.


— Drying characteristics of rough rice (variety of lenjan) with an initial moisture content of 25% dry basis (db) was studied in a hot air dryer assisted by infrared heating. Three arrival air temperatures (30, 40 and 50 0 C) and four infrared radiation intensities (0, 0.2 , 0.4 and 0.6 W/cm 2 ) and three arrival air speeds (0.1, 0.15 and 0.2 m.s -1 ) were studied. Bending strength of brown rice kernel, percentage of cracked kernels and time of drying were measured and evaluated. The results showed that increasing the drying arrival air temperature and radiation intensity of infrared resulted decrease in drying time. High bending strength and low percentage of cracked kernel was obtained when paddy was dried by hot air assisted infrared dryer. Between this factors and their interactive effect were a significant difference (p<0.01). An intensity level of 0.2 W/cm 2 was found to be optimum for radiation drying. Furthermore, in the present study, the application of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for predicting the moisture content during drying (output parameter for ANN modeling) was investigated. Infrared Radiation intensity, drying air temperature, arrival air speed and drying time were considered as input parameters for the model. An ANN model with two hidden layers with 8 and 14 neurons were selected for studying the influence of transfer functions and training algorithms. The results revealed that a network with the Tansig (hyperbolic tangent sigmoid) transfer function and trainlm (Levenberg-Marquardt) back propagation algorithm made the most accurate predictions for the paddy drying system. Mean square error (MSE) was calculated and found that the random errors were within and acceptable range of ±5% with coefficient of determination (R 2 ) of 99%.


Colorectal cancer is a major public health problem in industrialised countries. Several studies have shown that social environment influences survival in cancer patients in many countries, but the causes remain unknown. In France, very little work has been done in this area. Our aim was to assess whether social environment influences survival of colorectal cancer patients in a well‐defined French population and, if so, to what extent this could be explained by differences in stage at diagnosis or in treatment. The study population consisted of 1,642 colorectal cancer patients diagnosed between 1978 and 1987 in the French department of Calvados. Socio‐demographic characteristics were assessed in terms of socio‐professional category, place of residence (urban vs. rural) and distance from the place of residence to a specialised health‐care centre. The relation between social environment, clinical factors and survival was studied using 2 multivariate methods (Cox model and relative survival method). Patients with poorer prognosis were found to be farmers of both sexes and individuals without occupation among males. Differences in survival were not explained entirely even when variations in stage at diagnosis and in treatment were taken into account. Int. J. Cancer 73:317–322, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


This article introduces the special issue on "Assessing the Effects of Immigration and Diversity in Europe" to the JEPOP readers. The article starts with a summary of the controversy generated by Putnam's 2007 article "E pluribus unum". Next, it provides a brief account of the state of the art in the scholarship analysing the link between diversity, trust, social capital and social cohesion. The article continues with a discussion of a number of key problems that affect the existing scholarship, and highlights how the contributions to this special issue overcome some of these limitations. After this, the article considers the implications of this debate for the study of elections and public opinion. It concludes with a succinct overview of the contributions to the special issue and a discussion of how they help move forward the scholarship in this area.


MIFARE Classic is the most widely deployed contactless smartcard on the market. However, many active and passive attacks are provided after its proprietary stream cipher CRYPTO1 was reverse engineered. The short 48-bit key of the CRYPTO1 cipher, leaked parity bits and the encrypted error code that is sent after a failed authentication (which is corrected in the hardened new cards) allow the adversary to perform offline brute force attack and avoid detection. Such an attack requires wireless interaction with a card for less than a second and then a brute force attack which was shown to take around 9 days on a single GTX280 GPU. We optimized this brute force attack on modern GPUs by using bitsliced implementation technique and observed that a brute force attack on a GTX970 GPU can be performed in less than 5 hours. Although this attack is not applicable to hardened MIFARE Classic cards, a similar attack using the short key length and the leaked parity bits can be performed when a single key is known, possibly using the default keys for unused sectors. Such an attack requires wireless interaction with a card for less than a second and then a brute force attack which was shown to take approximately one month on a single GTX460 GPU. Our bitsliced implementation of this attack takes less than 7 hours on a GTX970 GPU.


Buried soils are grouped into three categories, namely Holocene soils, Pleistocene ones and those of earlier geologic periods. Buried soils mainly occur on floodplains and in sandy areas in Hungary. Gradual subsidence of the lowland areas and irrationally high rate of deforestation in the catchment regions have resulted in the burial of soils with younger deposits in the floodplain areas; most of the soils buried here are black hydromorphic ones. The major cause of burial in the sandy areas, however, is repeated deposition of the shifting sand. Climatic changes and the beginning cultivation of the originally grassland and forest areas have resulted in the movement and redeposition of the sandy deposits. Most of the Pleistocene-age paleosols have come to light in loess profiles. They can be regarded as remnants of forest soils with varying humus profiles and serve as excellent stratigraphic markers in studies of loess deposits.


We present a Bayesian hierarchical multi-view mixture model termed Symphony that simultaneously learns clusters of cells representing cell types and their underlying gene regulatory networks by integrating data from two views: single-cell gene expression data and paired epigenetic data, which is informative of gene-gene interactions. This model improves interpretation of clusters as cell types with similar expression patterns as well as regulatory networks driving expression, by explaining gene-gene covariances with the biological machinery regulating gene expression. We show the theoretical advantages of the multi-view learning approach and present a Variational EM inference procedure. We demonstrate superior performance on both synthetic data and real genomic data with subtypes of peripheral blood cells compared to other methods.


Today a large number of marine based energy devices are been deployed rapidly across coastal areas of the world's oceans to harness the huge natural energy and power potential provided by nature. These devices produce sound signals at high sound pressure levels across a wide range of frequencies that could be detrimental to the health and livelihood of marine animals. This paper proposes a computer model that simulates the emission of acoustic signals produced by a wave energy device. It analyses these signals with the aid of the audiogram of marine mammals, in this case the Harbour seal. This enables us to estimate the levels of acoustic noise experienced by marine mammals due to the presence of ocean deployed devices. Propagation of the acoustic signals underwater was modelled with boundary conditions using the finite element method. These include the bathymetry (features of underwater terrain) of the deployment site and properties of the propagation media. The type of spreading of the acoustic signals, and their interaction with the bottom surface interface of the acoustic enviroment was also taken into consideration. The effect of the bottom surface of the acoustic medium was seen to affect the sound pressure level (SPL) values as the sound receiver moves away from the source.


What is clear is that the evaluation of success will not be based on the amount of documents that have been revised since the reforms were launched, but on whether the envisaged benefits of tighter timescales, simplified rules, and greater information-gathering powers result in more robust decisions on the cases that are likely to have the greatest impact on the internal market. Hilary Jennings (Univ. of East Anglia)


There are four major Lewy body disorders with dementia: Parkinson's disease (PD), PD with Alzheimer's disease (AD), cortical Lewy bodies and neuritic plaques, and cortical Lewy bodies and no concomitant AD-type pathology. A variety of pathogenetic processes may underly this panoply of diseases including oxidative stress, excitatory amino acid toxicity, amyloidogenesis, neurofibrillary tangle formation, inflammation, apoptotic cell death, and neurotransmitter deficiency. Treatment strategies include transmitter replacement, neuroprotection, agents to limit AD-type pathology, iron chelation, and anti-inflammatory drugs. Patients with Lewy body disorders exhibit cognitive decline resulting from a variety of disease processes and treatment must address the disease-specific pathogenesis.


Lignocellulosic biomass (LB) has been recognized as potential raw for bioethanol production. To facility LB bioconversion a pretreatment is applied, followed by simultaneous or separated saccharification and fermentation (SSF or SHF, respectively) steps. Characterization of pretreated materials, needed to evaluate their ethanol yields, involves laborious and destructive methodologies. Therefore, saccharification is also time consuming and expensive step and some pretreated samples have not suitable characteristics to obtain high ethanol yields. Since bioethanol production aims to be a multivariable process respect to lignocellulosic resources, this work attempts to use NIR spectroscopy as alternative to wet chemical analysis to characterize samples from multiple pretreatments and lignocellulosic resources simultaneously and estimate their ethanol yield after a SSF process using multivariate calibration. Selection of suitable samples to obtain high ethanol yields using a classification method is also evaluated. Partial least squares (PLS) and discriminant partial least squares (PLS-DA) were used as calibration and classification techniques, respectively. Results showed ability of NIR spectroscopy to predict the chemical composition of samples and their ethanol yields, even if different lignocellulosic materials were used in the models, with low prediction errors and high correlation coefficients with reference methods (r>0,96) in PLS models and low misclassification rates (20- 30%) in classification models. Use of these models could facility the fast selection of high number of samples with suitable characteristics to obtain high ethanol yields and as predictive tool of these ethanol yields after a SSF process under controlled conditions.


Editor's Note: This essay paper of Professor Kornai with an unusually provoking title consists of two parts. Part I is the slightly edited, non-abridged version of his writing published as an oped in The Financial Times (FT) on 11 July 2019, the world's leading global business publication (Kornai 2019a). Subsequently, the full text of this paper was published in the Hungarian weekly magazine Élet és Irodalom (Life and Literature; Kornai 2019b), which in turn generated a number of commenting articles published in the same weekly. Still in the month of July, the original essay was translated into Chinese by a Hong Kong newspaper and into Vietnamese. An influential multilingual Chinese newspaper gave an extensive summary of the FT essay (Street 2019). The latter one, according to our best knowledge, was disseminated only on the internet. Part II is the translated and slightly edited version of Kornai's second article, published in September this year on the same topic (Kornai 2019c). In this second essay he responded to his critiques both in Hungary and world-wide. This piece was published in its original form in Hungarian by the previous mentioned Hungarian weekly.1 We, the Editors of Acta Oeconomica, are proud to publish the complete English translation of this second essay first time. We thank for the opportunity given to us by Professor Kornai to publish the Frankenstein-papers in an integrated form, together with all the necessary bibliographic references.


India's largest demographic group, the millennials, born between the years 1981 and 1996, constitute a staggering 36% of the country's population. In spite of the abundant amount of research carried out on the features, requirements, stimulations, and outlooks of millennials in the West, the corresponding work performed in India has been lacking. Due to the fact that these aspects have a profound influence on the Human Resource Practices of firms to attract, retain, and motivate millennials, it is critical to explore their requisites and mindsets. The study endeavors to combine the results of both Western and Indian surveys of millennials to HR tactics in Indian firms, to create insights that enable organizations to comprehend and cater to the prerequisites of this crucial demographic. The millennials of India come from diverse backgrounds, have differing experiences and aspirations, and comprehending these subtleties is indispensable in crafting effective HR policies. For instance, Indian millennials are inclined to attach more significance to job security as opposed to their Western counterparts, and hence, could be reflected in HR tactics that highlight career development and long-term career planning. Furthermore, Indian millennials prioritize work-life balance and a positive workplace culture, which can be reflected in policies that provide adaptable working arrangements and opportunities for collaboration and innovation.


These days, the dynamics of social interaction in Indonesia is affected by various
issues that are threatening the diversity of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia (NKRI).
This study aims to describe the multicultural approach in learning in elementary school
as an effort to strengthen the student's values of multiculturalism from an early age. The
descriptive qualitative method is used to analyze various problems related to the
implementation of multicultural approach in learning. The research was conducted in
five public elementary schools in PasarRebo Sub-district, East Jakarta. The results of
the research explains that the multicultural approach should be a soft skill for the
teachers and all components of the primary school management as an effort in fostering
tolerance, living in peace, mutual protection, mutual freedom from threats, and to
achieve the peaceful and harmonious Indonesia.


Introduction: Sexual problems have significant effects on individual sexual function. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of counseling on sexual function of lactating women with decreased sexual desire. Methods: This is a quasi-case research. The sample consisted of 104 lactating mothers with sexual desire disorder from 2 to 6 months after childbirth. Samples were randomly selected and divided into two control and case groups. Data were collected using questionnaires, including the decreased sexual desire scale, sociodemographic characteristics, and midwifery questionnaire, and female sexual function index (FSFI). Sexual function was measured before and 4 weeks after consultation based on the rapport building, exploration, decision making, and implementing the decision (REDI) model. The results were analyzed by using SPSS-24 software and a significant level of <5%. Results: The mean age of participants was 30.71 ± 6.23 years and 29.65 ± 5.66 years in the case and control group, respectively (p = 0.380), ∼50% had a diploma degree or more, 100% were living in urban areas, and 95.90% of women were housewives. Both case and control groups were homogeneous in terms of demographic and midwifery variables (p > 0.05). There was a highly significant difference between study and control groups regarding mean FSFI domains except for orgasm, as well as in the total FSFI score 4 weeks after the intervention (p < 0.001). The results of the linear mixed effects model for assessing the trend of mean total FSFI score present that the mean of total FSFI score in the case group was increased 2.26 in comparison with the control group. Estimated slopes for female indicate that the mean of total FSFI score was increased 3.44 for 1 month. Conclusions: The results of this study show that supporting lactating women with decreased sexual desire through sexual counseling based on the REDI model can make a significant difference in their sexual function.


Summary: ATP:citrate lyase has been purified some 20-fold from the oleaginous yeast, Lipomyces starkeyi CBS 1809. The enzyme, which is labile, was stabilized by the addition of ATP and citrate to extraction buffers. Michaelis-Menten kinetics were exhibited towards ATP and citrate. The molecular weight of the enzyme was determined to be approximately 510000. There was a specific requirement for ATP for activity. No activity was observed in the absence of Mg2+, although Co2+ and Mn2+ could partially substitute for Mg2+. ADP inhibited activity (50% inhibition at 1 mM), as did long-chain fatty acyl-CoA esters (50% inhibition with 4μm oleoyl-CoA). The possibility of control of ATP:citrate lyase activity by fluctuations in the prevailing energy charge or by changes in the intracellular concentrations of long-chain fatty acyl-CoA esters is discussed.


This paper examines the differences in total factor productivity (TFP) between multinationals and domestic firms before and after tax rate changes to investigate whether the host country corporate tax rate has a significant in fluence on the measured TFP advantage of multinational companies. Using a sample of approximately 16,000 European firms (1998-2004), we find that a 10 percentage points cut in the statutory corporate tax rate would increase multinationals' measured TFP by about 10 per cent relative to domestic firms, consistent with profit-shifting by multinationals. At the sample mean, this would imply a 44 per cent increase in the TFP advantage of multinationals.


Traditionally, debates over American health coverage institutions have relied on vocabulary and concepts from the world of insurance. Policymakers, scholars, and commentators emphasize the interests of parties with direct financial or legal ties to the health insurance contract. Missing from that conversation are the interests of each individual's friends and family. This group, which I term the "personal network," bears diverse and potentially devastating burdens relating to the individual's health coverage status, illnesses, and medical interventions. These burdens undermine equality of opportunity and reinforce existing social hierarchies. Turning to feminist scholarship on domesticity and care, I explain why the interests of personal networks are wrongly presumed to be coextensive with those of individuals, if they are even mentioned at all. I then examine personal network burden through the interdisciplinary lenses of microeconomic externalities, classical liberalism, and sociocultural risk studies. Each of these analytical frameworks sheds new light on ways in which the Affordable Care Act (ACA) benefited personal networks, even if only incidentally, thereby providing a novel, independent justification for the ACA's reforms and for America's long-term trend toward a social insurance model for health coverage. I conclude by offering a normative framework for considering future developments that would more fully account for personal networks' stake in the health coverage conversation.As the early years of the ACA continue to generate controversy and discord, this Article offers a novel perspective on what the ACA did well, what problems remain to be solved, and what political messaging may be helpful in solving them.


The effects of short-term hyperoxia on age-related diseases and aging biomarkers have been reported in animal and human experiments using different protocols; however, the findings of the studies remain conflicting. In this systematic review, we summarized the existing reports in the effects of short-term hyperoxia on age-related diseases, hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α), and other oxygen-sensitive transcription factors relevant to aging, telomere length, cellular senescence, and its side effects. This review was done as described in the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guideline. A systematic search was done in PubMed, Google Scholar, and Cochrane Library and from the references of selected articles to identify relevant studies until May 2021. Of the total 1,699 identified studies, 17 were included in this review. Most of the studies have shown significant effects of short-term hyperoxia on age-related diseases and aging biomarkers. The findings of the studies suggest the potential benefits of short-term hyperoxia in several clinical applications such as for patients undergoing stressful operations, restoration of cognitive function, and the treatment of severe traumatic brain injury. Short-term hyperoxia has significant effects in upregulation or downregulation of transcription factors relevant to aging such as HIF-1α, nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B-cells (NF-kB), and nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (NRF2) among others. Short-term hyperoxia also has significant effects to increase antioxidant enzymes, and increase telomere length and clearance of senescent cells. Some of the studies have also reported adverse consequences including mitochondrial DNA damage and nuclear cataract formation depending on the dose and duration of oxygen exposure. In conclusion, short-term hyperoxia could be a feasible treatment option to treat age-related disease and to slow aging because of its ability to increase antioxidant enzymes, significantly increase telomere length and clearance of senescent cells, and improve cognitive function, among others. The reported side effects of hyperoxia vary depending on the dose and duration of exposure. Therefore, it seems that additional studies for better understanding the beneficial effects of short-term hyperoxia and for minimizing side effects are necessary for optimal clinical application.


Atypical porcine pestivirus (APPV) was found to be associated with pigs demonstrating congenital tremors (CT), and clinical signs in pigs have been reproduced after experimental challenge. Subsequently, APPV has been identified in both symptomatic and asymptomatic swine of all ages globally. The objective of this research was to perform a longitudinal study following two cohorts of pigs, those born in litters with pigs exhibiting CT and those born in litters without CT, to analyze the virus and antibody dynamics of APPV infection in serum from birth to market. There was a wide range in the percentage of affected pigs (8–75%) within CT-positive litters. After co-mingling with CT-positive litters at weaning, pigs from CT-negative litters developed viremia that was cleared after approximately 2 months, with the majority seroconverting by the end of the study. In contrast, a greater percentage of pigs exhibiting CT remained PCR positive throughout the growing phase, with less than one-third of these animals seroconverting. APPV RNA was present in multiple tissues from pigs in both groups at the time of marketing. This study improved our understanding of the infection dynamics of APPV in swine and the impact that the immune status and timing of infection have on the persistence of APPV in serum and tissues.


The increase of biological residues from numerous fellings of palms (Phoenix canariensis) infested by red palm weevil (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Olivier) in central Italy and around the Mediterranean basin, has created an important disposal problem. This issue could provide a further use by introducing it as a food in diet of ruminants, beyond that represented by the use as fuel in biomass power plants for heating or electrical energy. The shredded material of palm can be employed to animal nutrition, resulting in interest for the feed industry and livestock sector. Analysis, carried out on samples of shredded palm, made using a chipper machine modified to obtain a product of small size (according to the phytosanitary measures of Lazio Region: n. 390, June 5, 2007), showed an high water content (79%) and therefore a not easy conservation. A conservation technique could be dehydration, in order to make product as flour, pellets, to introduce in unifeed together with the other compounds of the diet (forage, concentrates, etc.). Given the high water content, the dehydration process causes a very high production cost. About nutritional value, analysis showed 0.65 UF/ kg on dry matter basis, higher than the straw and hay of stable grass in an advanced stage of maturation (0.20 to 0.30 UF/kg). These values are similar to a good hay obtained from mixed grass. As consequence it is possible to use shredded palm as part of energy of the ruminants diet. Is still not clear which component allows the achievement of this value, probably derives in small part by the lipid component and largely by the fibrous component. Moreover data showed that the presence of fatty acid precursors of CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) such as oleic acid and linoleic acid, is much higher than the values of Italian pastures. Utilization of these fatty acids in animal diets improves quality of the final products (milk, cheese, meat). The possibility of introducing shredded palm in ruminants diet, may be topic of interested to feed animal in arid areas of the Mediterranean basin, where it is difficult to find good forages.


Integrated polarization rotators suffer from very high sensitivity to fabrication errors. A polarization rotator scheme that substantially increases fabrication tolerances is proposed. In the proposed scheme, two tunable polarization phase shifters are used to connect three rotator waveguide sections. By means of properly setting the polarization phase shifters, fabrication errors are compensated and perfect polarization rotation is achieved. Analytical conditions are shown that determine the maximum deviation that can be corrected with the proposed scheme. A design example is discussed, where the thermo-optic effect is used to provide the required tunable polarization phase shifting. Calculated 40dB extinction ratio is shown in presence of fabrication errors that would yield a 4dB extinction ratio in the conventional approach.


My first ten years at a state university in the Midwest were horrible years! In this time I experienced much hostility and racism in a "college culture,"' which to me was "distinctly alien and unfriendly." The message, as stated by Jon Reyhner, was "subtle but clear, you are not welcome here."' It had reached the point, after a number of years, where I was consulting attorneys for a possible racial discrimination lawsuit against the university. Then, a new president took over and reinstated my program, American Indian Studies and Dakota Studies (AIsDs) and my position as associate professor. What I propose to do in this article is recite and comment on some of the horrible racist acts that happened to me over the past ten years; mention the sources of support for my program, positions, and for me personally; and discuss what it is like now in the year 2003. Another purpose of this account is to serve as encouragement for younger Native faculty and to convey the message that it is possible for Indigenous faculty to survive in a hostile and racist environment such as higher education institutions are.


In the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes, not only insulin hormone deficiency but also inappropriate secretion of counterregulatory hormones are thought to play a part. From this point of view, inhibition of counterregulatory hormones should also be evaluated in the treatment of type 1 diabetes. The cyclic tetradecapeptide hormone somatostatin was first characterized as the major physiological inhibitor of growth hormone release from the pituitary, but it has subsequently been shown to inhibit the release of many other physiologically important compounds, including insulin, glucagon, gastrin, and secretin. Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a complication of type 1 diabetes, and its management includes insulin, fluid, and electrolyte therapy. Alternative treatments have been investigated in unresponsive patients. As a inhibiting hormone of counterregulatory hormones, somatostatin may be used in the treatment of diabetic ketoacidotic coma. In this study, two diabetic ketoacidotic children who were unresponsive to standard insulin and fluid therapy are discussed; despite appropriate management of fluid and electrolytes, the patients' blood glucose levels could not be lowered, and they had no clinical improvement. We tried somatostatin infusion therapy in both of these children.

The first patient is an 8-year-old girl who was admitted to our emergency room with a history of polyuria and polydipsia during the last week. She had deep and rapid breathing, loss of consciousness, and acidosis at the time of admission. There was no particular disease in …


Consumers' choice of a good may be motivated by the wish to belong to some group or the search for exclusiveness. Such behavior gives rise to either positive or negative consumption externalities. Although, these externalities are very important in several markets, their impact on firms' quality choice in vertically differentiated markets has not been yet explored. We study firms' decisions in terms of prices and qualities when consumers' utility is affected by the number of consumers who buy the same quality and also partially affected by the number of consumers who buy close qualities. The market outcomes are significantly affected as the low quality firm may prefer to stay out of the market when the consumption externality is strong. Moreover, under some conditions on the strength of the consumption externality and on consumers' sensitivity to firms' quality difference, we prove that product differentiation may not be maximal as in the standard model.


Whole-organism acid methanolysates of strains of halophilic bacteria were examined for glycerol diether moieties and other long-chain constituents by thin-layer chromatography. Glycerol diether moieties were detected only in acid methanolysates of archaebacterial halophiles. Eubacterial halophiles contained only fatty acid methyl esters. Spots on thin-layer plates attributed to diether moieties were further identified by infrared spectroscopy. Thin-layer chromatographic analysis of whole-organism methanolysates provides a simple and rapid method of distinguishing archaebacterial halophiles from eubacterial halophiles. The majority of archaebacterial halophiles produced only one chromatographically distinct glycerol diether moiety, but certain strains, including the recently described alkalophilic halophiles, produced two distinct moieties.


Story Ending Generation (SEG) is a challenging task in natural language generation. Recently, methods based on Pre-trained Language Models (PLM) have achieved great prosperity, which can produce fluent and coherent story endings. However, the pre-training objective of PLM-based methods is unable to model the consistency between story context and ending. The goal of this paper is to adopt contrastive learning to generate endings more consistent with story context, while there are two main challenges in contrastive learning of SEG. First is the negative sampling of wrong endings inconsistent with story contexts. The second challenge is the adaptation of contrastive learning for SEG. To address these two issues, we propose a novel Contrastive Learning framework for Story Ending Generation (CLseg)†, which has two steps: multi-aspect sampling and story-specific contrastive learning. Particularly, for the first issue, we utilize novel multi-aspect sampling mechanisms to obtain wrong endings considering the consistency of order, causality, and sentiment. To solve the second issue, we well-design a story-specific contrastive training strategy that is adapted for SEG. Experiments show that CLseg outperforms baselines and can produce story endings with stronger consistency and rationality.


Presented is the development of a multi-scale model predicting the material response of a light activated shape memory polymer. Rotational Isomeric State (RIS) theory is used to build a molecular scale model of the polymer chain backbone, tracking the distances between cross-links. Cross-link to cross-link distances are then used with Boltzmann statistical mechanics to predict material response, generating Young's modulus and stress-strain relation predictions. Young's modulus is predicted by the model to be 0.049 and 3.2 MPa for the soft and hard states of the polymer respectively. Experimentally determined properties are also presented with reported moduli of 2.0 and 11.4 MPa in the soft and hard states respectively.© 2008 ASME


A precision spindle is a key component of the ultra-precision machine tools that are used for machining precision molds for producing various lenses and other precise parts. The machining accuracy required for the parts now reaches several tens of nanometers. In order to achieve the desired machining accuracy, the precise spindle system with high stiffness bearings is inevitably needed for the ultra-precision machine tools. The paper thus deals with a design of a spindle supported by water hydrostatic bearings. An objective of the study is to design the precision spindle supported by the water hydrostatic bearings with the bearing stiffness of 1 kN/μm. Thus the paper presents the design procedure of the hydrostatic thrust bearings. In particular, the design of the bearing restrictors is introduced. The characteristics of water hydrostatic thrust bearings of the designed spindle are investigated theoretically. The influences of the gap sizes and the supply water pressure on the bearing stiffness are given. It is indicated that the bearing stiffness of 1 kN/μm can be obtained by the spindle design. Structure and materials of the developed spindle are also introduced.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Novel three organic dyes with the general structure donor-(π-conjugated-acceptor) 2 (D-(π-A) 2 ) have been designed, synthesized and characterized for application to dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The high soluble electron donor and acceptor groups of the dyes were carbazole and aldehyde moieties. The conjugated chain of the dyes contains a thiophene thiophene (TT) or thiophene phenyl (TP) unit. The introduction of a fluorene ring in the donor part of these dyes to increase of light harvesting, prevent dye aggregation and suppress the dark current significantly in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The three bulky donor dyes (D1, D2 and D3), were successfully synthesized using bromination, alkylation, Ullmann coupling and Suzuki coupling reaction. The new divergent synthetic strategy was used to overcome the key bromination step. All of the novel target structures containing a bulky and high soluble carbazole group attached to a fluorene donor unit have been characterized by 1 H-NMR, 13 C-NMR, Mass spectrometry and FT-IR spectroscopy.


ABSTRACT Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) are non-coding RNAs vital for ribosomal RNA (rRNA) maturation. The U8 snoRNA, encoded by the SNORD118 gene in humans, is an atypical C/D box snoRNA as it promotes rRNA cleavage rather than 2′–O–methylation and is unique to vertebrates. The U8 snoRNA is critical for cleavage events that produce the mature 5.8S and 28S rRNAs of the large ribosomal subunit. Unexpectedly, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the SNORD118 gene were recently found causal to the neurodegenerative disease leukoencephalopathy, brain calcifications, and cysts (LCC; aka Labrune syndrome), but its molecular pathogenesis is unclear. Here, we will review current knowledge on the function of the U8 snoRNA in ribosome biogenesis, and connect it to the preservation of brain function in humans as well as to its dysregulation in inherited white matter disease.


The philosopher meditating alone in his study is a cliché of western culture. But behind the hackneyed image lies a long history of controversy. Was solitude the 'palace of learning' that many learned people, religious and secular, perceived it, or a debilitating state of solipsistic misery and intellectual degeneracy, as its enemies described it? In the mid eighteenth century the debate became fiercely personal during a public quarrel between two philosophical luminaries: David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In the 1760s Rousseau faced persecution from state and church authorities in France and Switzerland. Hume gave him refuge in England. The relationship rapidly turned toxic as the convivial Hume sought to manage his notoriously reclusive charge. Solitude became a casus belli in a war of words that fascinated intellectual Europe. But the fracas was more complex than it appeared. Who are we with, when we are alone? For Hume, no less than Rousseau, the question proved inescapable, in both his personal career and his philosophy. A closer look at two thinkers who, on the surface, were a study in opposites, reveals much about the vicissitudes of solitude in the life of the creative mind.


We suggest an approach to partial synchronization of chaotic systems with uncertainty. This method contains two steps: (i) transforming the synchronization system into the canonical form by the well-known feedback linearization theory and (ii) finding a control signal to ensure the asymptotic stability of the canonical system. This partial synchronization approach requires very little system information by applying a finite-time convergence technique to estimate uncertainties caused by unknown states, parameters, or structure. We also argue in detail that this partial synchronization method can be extended to parameter identification, (sub)structure estimation, and even phase detection. Several examples are presented to illustrate the partial synchronization approach suggested.


The current study discusses new opportunities for secure ground to satellite communications using shaped femtosecond pulses that induce spatial hole burning in the atmosphere for efficient communications with data encoded within super-continua generated by femtosecond pulses. Refractive index variation across the different layers in the atmosphere may be modelled using assumptions that the upper strata of the atmosphere and troposphere behaving as layered composite amorphous dielectric networks composed of resistors and capacitors with different time constants across each layer. Input-output expressions of the dynamics of the networks in the frequency domain provide the transmission characteristics of the propagation medium. Femtosecond pulse shaping may be used to optimize the pulse phase-front and spectral composition across the different layers in the atmosphere. A generic procedure based on evolutionary algorithms to perform the pulse shaping is proposed. In contrast to alternative procedures that would require ab initio modelling and calculations of the propagation constant for the pulse through the atmosphere, the proposed approach is adaptive, compensating for refractive index variations along the column of air between the transmitter and receiver.


: During locomotion, the foot–ankle system plays an important role for forward progression of the body. The center of pressure (COP) is regarded as the point of the ground reaction force (GRF) vector acting on the foot surface during the stance phase. COP movement trajectory and velocity reflect the stance phase forward progression of the foot segment and the ankle joint motion characteristics. This study aimed to investigate different levels of footwear insole stiffness on COP forward velocity, GRF and ankle joint angles during walking stance phase. Two healthy subjects (one female, one male; age 26.5 ± 6.4 years, height 168.5 ± 2.1 cm, weight 64.9 ± 5.4 kg) participated in this study. Subjects were asked to walk along a 10 m walkway at two different speeds: self–selected normal (SSN) and self–selected fast (SSF). Within each walking speed, subjects were required to walk under two different insole stiffness conditions: (1) normal shoe insole (NSI) from the testing shoe (Nike Free RN Flyknit 2017) used in this study; (2) 1.6 mm thick carbon fiber insole (CFI) fitted within the testing shoe. Stiffer insole (CFI) significantly decreased peak ankle internal rotation angle ( p = 0.001) and sagittal plane angle ROM ( p = 0.022); additionally, CFI significantly increased peak ankle eversion angle compared to the NSI condition ( p = 0.028). In conclusion, increasing footwear insole stiffness would alter stance phase ankle joint motion at SSF walking speed. Additionally, stiffer insoles may tend to decrease COP peak velocity at the initial heel strike and the terminal stance phase. Future research should investigate the combined effects of various insole properties on lower extremity system kinematic and kinetic patterns in various locomotion activities.


Adenosine is an important regulatory metabolite which attenuates inflammation when it binds and activates the adenosine A 2A receptor subtype on immune cells. However, the effect of adenosine on inflammatory responses in endothelial cells is mostly unknown. Thrombin as a known pro-inflammatory protease is involved in a variety of pathophysiological processes associated with inflammation in stimulated endothelial cells. The present study investigated the effect of adenosine on thrombin-mediated modulation of pro-inflammatory responses in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Adenosine, in a concentration-dependent manner (1-100µM), inhibited the barrier disruptive effect of thrombin (20nM) on endothelial monolayer. The expression level of adenosine receptors, A 1 , A 2A , A 2B and A 3 was examined in HUVECs and it was found that A 2A and A 2B are the highest expressing receptors among the four subtypes (A 2B > A 2A >A 1 >A 3 ) in endothelial cells. Further studies revealed that the barrier protective effect of adenosine on thrombin-induced hyperpermeability in HUVECs was abrogated by the A 2A receptor specific siRNA or the A 2A receptor specific antagonist, ZM-241385, but not by siRNAs targeting the other adenosine receptor subtypes. To further determine the molecular mechanisms of the barrier protective effect of adenosine, its effect on thrombin-induced RhoA activation was assessed. Pretreatment of endothelial cells with adenosine prevented both thrombin-induced RhoA activation (Rho-GTP) and its membrane translocation as evidenced by cell fractionation and Pull-down assays, respectively. Moreover, preincubation of endothelial cells with adenosine down-regulated the expression of cell surface adhesion molecules (VCAM-1 and ICAM-1) and thrombin-mediated activation of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kB) pathway. Adenosine also inhibited secretion of the early chemokine, MCP-1, and the late-acting pro-inflammatory cytokine, HMGB-1, by thrombin-stimulated endothelial cells. Taken together, these results suggest that adenosine can inhibit pro-inflammatory thrombin signaling responses in endothelial cells by specifically activating the A 2A receptor subtype, thereby protecting endothelium during the activation of coagulation and inflammatory pathways. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) uses two separate linear referencing systems (LRSs) for complete statewide crash mapping. The State Trunk Network (STN) represents only state routes while the Wisconsin Information System for Local Roads (WISLR) includes all roads, with additional detail given to local routes. A functional link between the two systems, the link-link table, has been developed that allows data to be translated from STN(a higher resolution representation) to WISLR (a lower resolution representation). This functional link between the two systems requires updating to reflect changes due to roadway construction, linear referencing system edits, and other changes. The focus of this research was to develop a technique to update the functional merge between the two systems. Updating the link-link table is needed to allow for continued data translation between from STN to WISLR, allowing for regular formation of a statewide crash map. While data is easily translated from high to low resolution, ambiguities arise when data is moved from low resolution to high resolution. Research presented in this thesis identifies common problems associated with low to high resolution data translation and provides some rules and guidelines to accommodate these issues. This thesis presents the link-link table update methodology, an approach to expanded data translation between dissimilar-resolution LRSs, and recommendations for future work related to each topic. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries)


The STEM disciplines (sciences, technology, engineering, mathematics) remain male-dominated fields of study and professional careers. Teaching at a university that specializes in these fields means to teach at a white male-dominated institution which did not add women's and gender studies courses to its curriculum until the arrival of the author, a feminist anthropologist. Following the advice of Paulo Freire to construct teaching as a political process and to introduce knowledge meaningful to the student, the male-dominated women's and gender studies classroom becomes an extraordinary space where it is not the oppressed majority which might collaborate with the instructor to access and create knowledge, but those (unwitting?) representatives of the powerful sex/gender and racial group.


Weather and climate variability associated with major climate modes is a main driver of interannual yield variability of commodity crops in global cropland areas. A global crop forecasting service that is currently in the test operation phase is based on temperature and precipitation forecasts, while recent literature suggests that crop forecasting services may benefit from the use of climate index forecasts. However, no consistent comparison is available on prediction skill between yield models relying on forecasts from temperature and precipitation and from climate indices. Here, we present a global assessment of 26-yr (1983–2008) within-season yield anomaly hindcasts for maize, rice, wheat, and soybean derived using different types of statistical yield models. One type of model utilizes temperature and precipitation for individual cropping areas (the TP model type) to represent the current service, whereas the other type relies on large-scale climate indices (the CI model). For the TP models, three specifications with different model complexities are compared. The results show that the CI model is characterized by a small reduction in the skillful area from the reanalysis model to the hindcast model and shows the largest skillful areas for rice and soybean. In the TP models, the skill of the simple model is comparable to that of the more complex models. Our findings suggest that the use of climate index forecasts for global crop forecasting services in addition to temperature and precipitation forecasts likely increases the total number of crops and countries where skillful yield anomaly prediction is feasible.


A model based on Monte Carlo methods has been used to investigate the effects of magnetostatic and repulsive interparticle interactions on the properties of a magnetic fluid. The model predicts the formation of open loop structures in the absence of a magnetic field, and long chains in the presence of large magnetic fields. The model also predicts that the initial susceptibility is reduced in the presence of interactions. These predictions are in agreement with experimental observations.


The strength of a bonded interface is considered for the case in which bonding is the result of clusters of discrete bonds distributed along the interface. Assumptions appropriate for the case of adhesion of biological cells to an extracellular matrix are introduced as a basis for the discussion. It is observed that those individual bonds nearest to the edges of a cluster are necessarily subjected to disproportionately large forces in transmitting loads across the interface, in analogy with well-known behavior in elastic crack mechanics. Adopting Bell's model for the kinetics of bond response under force, a stochastic model leading to a dependence of interface strength on cluster size is developed and analyzed. On the basis of this model, it is demonstrated that there is an optimum cluster size for maximum strength. This size arises from the competition between the nonuniform force distribution among bonds, which tends to promote smaller clusters, and stochastic response allowing bond reformation, which tends to promote larger clusters. The model results have been confirmed by means of direct Monte Carlo simulations. This analysis may be relevant to the observation that mature focal adhesion zones in cell bonding are found to have a relatively uniform size.


An earthquake accompanied by tsunami that occurred in the Mentawai Islands on 25 October 2010 brought many casualties and damage on housing. As a result, people living on the coastline lost their homes and has to be relocated to safer places. The implementation of the housing reconstruction program was based on the relocation approach. Unsafe coastal locations require the communities to move to higher ground which unfortunately at the forest areas of Mentawai. The success of the reconstruction of the housing sector can be an indicator of success in the implementation of post-disaster reconstruction. The purpose of this research is to identify the community satisfaction levels on the housing reconstruction projects in Sipora island. This research was conducted in South Sipora by conducting structured interview on 20 respondents spread across four villages. Respondents were invited to rate the satisfaction levels from very dissatisfied until very satisfied with points values 1-5. The results show that the level of community satisfaction was 2.91. The main problem was caused by a long delay in the start of the reconstruction program. In addition, there are still problems after the house is completed, such as the lack of availability of clean water and public facilities.


Background and Aims
We evaluated dynamic changes in neurophysiology of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) at different time points and the role of demyelination and axonal burden in predicting outcome.

Methods
Nerve conduction study (NCS) was done in 44 GBS patients at admission and at 1 and 3 months, and were categorized into acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (AIDP), acute motor axonal neuropathy (AMAN), acute motor sensory axonal neuropathy (AMSAN), equivocal and in-excitable motor nerve (IMN). The demyelinating and axonal burden on motor NCS at admission, 1 and 3 months were computed and correlated with disability at 3 and 6 months. Disability was assessed using Clinical Grading Scale.

Results
Twenty-four (54.3%) had AIDP, 5 (11.4%) AMAN, 12 (27.3%) equivocal and 3 (6.8%) had IMN at admission. Maximum instability was noted in equivocal group; majority of whom became AIDP at three months. Neurophysiological subtypes at different time points did not correlate with 6 months disability, but demyelination burden at admission (r = -0.42; P = 0.005) and axonal burden at one month (r = 0.43; P = 0.04) correlated with six months disability.

Conclusion
Inverse correlation of axonal burden at one and three months with disability suggests role of secondary axonal damage in predicting outcome. Repeat NCS at one month helps in categorizing GBS and also in prognostication.


Sputum cytologic examination is still an important method for diagnosing lung cancer, and it is simple to perform. The present report is an analysis of 161 cases of primary lung cancer proved by thoracotomy. A detection rate of 73.3% in sputum and 84.5% in combination with other cytologic methods have been obtained. Cytotyping accuracy as compared with histologic classification in 105 cases was 79.0%. The importance of examining more than three sputum samples from a patient with suspected lung cancer is stressed.


Objective: To explore Wnt3a expression in HCC tissues and serum, and to discuss its clinical diagnostic and prognostic value. Methods: The Wnt3a expressions were detected in a total of 186 patients (HCC, liver cirrhosis and chronic Hepatitis) and 40 controls by Elisa, comparing with AFP to evaluate its clinical diagnosis value. Wnt3a expressions in 80 HCC and surrounding tissues were analyzed by IHC, to explore its prognostic value. Results: Wnt3a with brown staining was mainly distributed in cytosol and of hepatocyte membrane. The higher expression (3-6 scores) was 71.3% in HCC, 13.8% in surrounding tissues, associated with poorly-differentiated grade, liver cirrhosis, HBV infection, higher TNM stage (P<0.05) and 5-year survival rate (P<0.001), identified as independent predictive factors for poor HCC outcome and closely related with lower five-year survival rate. Serum average Wnt3a levels were significantly higher (P<0.001) in the HCC group than those in any other groups of benign liver diseases, with about 4.0, 9.2 and 26.7 times higher than that in the liver cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis and normal control group. Wnt3a expression in HCC were closely related to AFP concentration, liver cirrhosis HBV infection, poor differentiation, TNM stagingand extra- hepatic metastasis (P<0.05). The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value and negative predictive values were 92.5, 94.3, 93.2, 96.1 and 89.3% at 800 ng/L as cutoff value for Wnt3a. Combining Wnt3a and AFP test, the total sensitivity could rise to 96.3%. The area under ROC curve in Wnt3a (0.994)was higher than in AFP (0.710). Conclusions: Wnt3a as a critical signal molecule in the Wnt pathway is a new specific marker for HCC diagnosis and prognosis.


Risk analysis can provide a logical basis for selecting the optimal design capacity of a flow conveyance hydraulic structure for the least total cost or specified non-exceeding risk levels. Decisions concerning design capacity can involve many factors - economic, social, environmental and political. However, only economic factors and hydraulic-hydrologic uncertainties are the focus of this study. For selecting an adequate spillway capacity, the generalized dynamic model is employed for comparison with the static model and the resulting analytical data, extracted from the text Water Resources Engineering, by Linsley and Franzini. The improvements through use of the generalized dynamic model to the method employed in that text are suggested here.


The data for the study on the epidemiology of bovine mastitis were collected from November 2015 to February 2016 to investigate the prevalence of mastitis in administrative towns of three selected districts of Arsi zone, Oromia Regional State, namely Iteya, Sagure, and Asella, Ethiopia; and to analyze the association between the risk factors and mastitis occurrence. Sample cows were selected and examined for clinical mastitis and at the same time, milk samples were evaluated both clinically and using the California Mastitis Test (CMT). Some parameters of the cows which have biological relation with this disease together with other potential risk factors were collected along with primary data collection. The analysis of the primary data showed that overall mastitis prevalence in the locations covered by the study was 28.6% of which 83.3% was subclinical, while 16.7% were clinical mastitis cases. Analysis related to the investigation of the existence of an association between risk factors and mastitis revealed that there was a significant association between the occurrence of mastitis and two of the risk factors evaluated, breed and age of the cow. The other risk factors investigated (i.e. parity, location, and lactation stage had no significant association with mastitis occurrence). Since mastitis is a complex disease that results from the interaction of different factors, it may be difficult to limit it to only some given factors. Environment and management factors and their combination may also have an additional impact on the epidemiology of the disease. A prevalence with the indicated magnitude together with the added effect of a lower level of awareness of the society about milk-associated zoonoses implies that this disease causes significant public health problems. In addition, mastitis may cause silent economic loss through unnoticed production loss along with reduced milk yield from subclinical and clinical (e.g. blind teats) cases. Due to a lack of awareness about mastitis and/or negligence, farmers in all corners of the country are suffering from economic and public health problems imposed by mastitis. This lack of awareness about mastitis-associated problems and/or negligence could be a possible reason for the use of raw milk which is a common scenario particularly in pastoral areas and the selling of adulterated milk which is becoming increasingly practiced in Ethiopia which is also true in these specific localities.


It is commonly thought that the prevalence of moral dissent poses a problem for the moral cognitivist, forcing her to diagnose either a lot of misunderstanding, or a lot of unexplained observational error. Since mere misunderstanding can be ruled out in most cases of moral dissent, and since the diagnosis of widespread unexplained error is interpretively unstable, prevalent dissent has pushed many philosophers towards non-cognitivism. In this essay, I argue that once a diachronic, pragmatist theory of language along the lines of the latest Wittgenstein is employed, a third interpretive option becomes available to the cognitivist. Besides the diagnostic options of misunderstanding and factual disagreement, she can argue that a given case of moral dissent is an instance of grammatical tension. This interpretation not only saves moral cognitivism, it also has some attractive theoretical implications. Among other things, it yields an elegant way of solving the current debate around moral particularism.


Volume 2 "Broadband Access, WDM Metro and Network Management" shows how new optical technologies and architectures can improve the performance of broadband access and WDM metropolitan networks. WDM passive optical networks and WDM rings feature strongly in this volume. A paper from a group of key vendors in Germany will describe a DWDM metro ring network with up to 800 Gb/s using novel add-drop multiplexers.


When we teach, we tell a story to our students and to ourselves, a story about the acquisition of knowledge. The telling of this tale is what we usually refer to as pedagogy. A syllabus, in this view, is a kind of fiction inhabited by nonfictional characters who journey together through the "plot" of the story. Every syllabus, of course, tells a slightly different tale. However, when a syllabus is codified into a textbook-that most maligned of literary genres-it begins to resemble something more akin to what Jean-Franvois Lyotard calls a "master narrative," a story around which other stories are constructed. According to Lyotard, even in an age of science, narration is the quintessential form in which "how-to" knowledge is established and transmitted. I would argue that in the largely literate and institutionalized societies of the West, textbooks provide us with many of these culturally essential narratives of knowledge. In this essay I propose to anatomize the "stories" that four influential composition textbooks "tell," both to reveal their pedagogical and epistemological suppositions and also to uncover the "master narratives" that give their theories of writing consequence and shape. The four texts are Rhetoric: Discovery and Change by Richard Young, Alton Becker, and Kenneth Pike; ForminglThinking/Writing by Ann Berthoff; Teaching Composing by William Coles; and A Short Course in Writing by Kenneth A. Bruffee. In the case of these four, at least, the tale told follows the ancient pattern of heroic adventure, a pattern of separation, initiation, and return. Joseph Campbell's comparative study of eastern and occidental mythologies, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, identifies a basic form of this heroic story, the "monomyth."


ABSTRACT Public libraries have traditionally carried out the local history activities with the main emphasis on the collection and preservation of local studies material in order to meet the educational and research needs, whereas the significance of the local studies material for the everyday needs of different groups of citizens has not been emphasized so much. More than a decade ago, the document adopted by the National Council for Librarianship should have encouraged the librarians to modernize their work based on the market policy and to develop local studies collections in all libraries. By an analysis of the selected published articles and the collected data, the author states that librarians strived to improve the situation at all times but they have not achieved the goals. They will continue to follow this objective, but due to the new Act of Librarianship, now they can expect more help from the state and from the regional libraries, and also from the new technology. In author's opinion, the help itself will not be sufficient if the market power of the local history material is not used, and if this material will not be brought closer to different target groups and individuals. Appropriate services should be provided inside and outside of their environment, and thus the diversity of the purposes of local studies material will be realized. A detailed definition of the benefits of the use of local studies material proposed by the author, provides a useful starting-point to encourage the use of local studies material and services, which can strengthen the satisfaction among the citizens and the reputation of the library in its environment.


This paper presents a corrected electric model for a novel non-contact-type radio-frequency (RF) microelectromechanical systems switch for high frequency applications (f > 24 GHz). This type of switches were proposed in the ref. [1], however in the electric model it is necessary considerer two resistors to have excellent agreement between simulation and experiment results. The proposed switch is a capacitive shunt type operated by the change of capacitance between the signal line and ground lines, the switch consists of a coplanar waveguide line and variable capacitors OFF to the ON state and 200 ps in the ON to the OFF state. The simulation results show a good agreement with our proposed electric circuit of the designed switch and experimental results.


I regret that unavoidable absence in Europe on duty prevents me from addressing you in person and taking part in the deliberations of the Society today.
This message to you is being written on shipboard as we make our way towards the Immortal City, the civilization of which played so great a part in the past in the dissemination of culture and of infectious diseases throughout Western Europe.
We have just passed "Flores in the Azores where Sir Richard Grenville lay," one of the outposts of that great little country, Portugal, which led the van in maritime exploration and discovery before the day of Columbus.
Before us lie Cape St. Vincent and Cape Trafalgar, scene of the great battle between the English and the combined fleets of France and Spain, an event which has played a part in the distribution of races in the tropics and in the development of tropical medicine.


This research paper is centered on the nexus between exchange rate variation and economic growth in Nigeria with emphasis to the purchasing power of the average Nigerians and the level of international transaction. Exchange rate fluctuations have been of serious concern to the monetary authorities, policy makers and business tycoons of developing countries, Nigeria inclusive because of the relevance of exchange rate in international trade, investment and in determining the level of output growth of a country. Therefore it is vital to examine the degree at which exchange rate fluctuates which had called for a lot of attention in Nigeria. This study examined the Impact of Exchange Rate Fluctuation on the Nigerian Economic Growth using an annual data of forty-three (43) years covering the period (1970-2013). The standard deviation method was employed to capture and estimate the fluctuation inherent in the model as regards the research's objective. The study employed econometric techniques such as; Multiple Regression Model, Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test, Johansen Co-integration test and the Error Correction Model (ECM). Evidence from this study exhibited that there exists a positive but insignificant impact of exchange rate fluctuation on Nigerian economic growth in both the long run and short run. This result is attributed to the ability of the Nigerian government to effectively regulate some other important macroeconomic variables which can infuriate exchange rate which has thereby helped curtail the effects of exchange rate fluctuation during the study period. This is an indication that monetary authorities might have initiated policies that helped absorb the influence of exchange rate fluctuation on economic growth in Nigeria. Therefore, the government should encourage domestic production of goods and services for Naira exchange rate appreciation and generally to promote economic growth in Nigeria- moreover to maintain and sustain exchange rate and economic stability. In the same vein, the government should pay more attention to other more volatile macroeconomic variables like oil price and inflation rate in Nigeria. Research paper Keywords: Exchange Rate, Exchange rate fluctuation, Economic growth, Purchasing power, Macroeconomic variables Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Amassoma, D. (2017). "The Nexus between Exchange Rate Variation and Economic Growth in Nigeria", Journal of Entrepreneurship, Business and Economics, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 1–40.


Electroencephalogram (EEG)-based neurofeedback has been widely studied for tinnitus therapy in recent years. Most existing research relies on experts' cognitive prediction, and studies based on machine learning and deep learning are either data-hungry or not well generalizable to new subjects. In this paper, we propose a robust, data-efficient model for distinguishing tinnitus from the healthy state based on EEGbased tinnitus neurofeedback. We propose trend descriptor, a feature extractor with lower fineness, to reduce the effect of electrode noises on EEG signals, and a Siamese encoder-decoder network boosted in a supervised manner to learn accurate alignment and to acquire high-quality transferable mappings across subjects and EEG signal channels. Our experiments show the proposed method significantly outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms when analyzing subjects' EEG neurofeedback to 90dB and 100dB sound, achieving an accuracy of 91.67%-94.44% in predicting tinnitus and control subjects in a subject-independent setting. Our ablation studies on mixed subjects and parameters show the method's stability in performance.