Introduction. High doses of methotrexate (HD-Mtx) in some patients may cause severe adverse effects despite monitoring of Mtx elimination and administering of calcium folinate. One of the most important enzymes of the folate metabolic pathway affected by Mtx is methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) which activity depends on genetic polymorphisms. Aim. Analysis of occurrence and intensity of Mtx therapy related early toxicities in children treated because of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in dependency on 677C>T MTHFR gene polymorphism. Material and methods. One hundred and sixty children (age: 1-17 years) treated in one pediatric oncology department between 1993 and 2007 according to ALL-BFM-90 and ALL-IC-2002 protocols were included into retrospective study. The presence of 677C>T MTHFR polymorphism was evaluated with the use of PCR-RFLP technique, and Mtx pharmacokinetics parameters were evaluated with immunoenzymatic method. Early toxicities of 617 chemotherapy cycles (Mtx dose 2 g/m2 and 3 g/m2) were analyzed according to NCI-CTC scale. Results. In analyzed group the patients with wild-type genotype CC, heterozygotes CT and homozygotes TT were 42.5, 48.75 and 8.75%, accordingly. Nausea and vomiting were significantly more common in CT heterozygotes (p = 0.03). In TT patients delays of therapy (p = 0.01), thrombocytopenia (p = 0.03) and acute neurotoxicities (p = 0.05) were more common. More severe liver toxicities, nausea, stomatitis, and infections were observed in TT homozygotes. Acute renal insufficiency of unknown etiology occurred in two patients (CT heterozygote and TT homozygote). Conclusions. Obtained results indicate the possible correlation between the presence of T allel and high risk of acute toxicities of HD-Mtx therapy in children. It is necessary to continue studies including higher number of patients with evaluation of other important genetic polymorphisms.


In many digital contexts such as online news and e-tailing with many new users and items, recommendation systems face several challenges: i) how to make initial recommendations to users with little or no response history (i.e., cold-start problem), ii) how to learn user preferences on items (test and learn), and iii) how to scale across many users and items with myriad demographics and attributes. While many recommendation systems accommodate aspects of these challenges, few if any address all. This paper introduces a Collaborative Filtering (CF) Multi-armed Bandit (B) with Attributes (A) recommendation system (CFB-A) to jointly accommodate all of these considerations. Empirical applications including an offline test on MovieLens data, synthetic data simulations, and an online grocery experiment indicate the CFB-A leads to substantial improvement on cumulative average rewards (e.g., total money or time spent, clicks, purchased quantities, average ratings, etc.) relative to the most powerful extant baseline methods.


Protein digestibility of soybean (soaked "S", boiled "B", and fermented "F" soybeans) was changed as 20.58 ± 0.25%, 48.71 ± 0.04%, and 50.21 ± 0.45%, respectively in the preparation of soybean fermentation. After simulated digestion, the increment rate of protein digestibility of both B and F was comparable and higher than that of S accompanying by the accumulations of small protein sub-fractions and essential amino acids. Interestingly, bioactivity parameters of all digested fractions increased by around 2 to 4-fold when digestion stages were progressed with overall F showed the maximum values. Processing not only improves the palatability but also increases protein utilization, the bioavailability of nutrients, and healthy support. The study verified the effect of processing and the benefits of soybean and fermented soybean beyond their basic nutrients which could be claimed as functional foods with higher protein digestibility and indispensable amino acids as well as potential bioactivities.


This article is a review of the immunological peculiarities of the newborn infant and the incidence, clinical features, treatment, epidemiology and prophylaxis of neonatal infections. Infective disorders are very common in the first month of life and are the principal cause of morbidity and mortality after the first few days. In the first few days after birth obstetrical factors are the chief cause of morbidity and mortality, and infections are uncommon since there has not been time for most of them to cause illness. Infective disorders are more amenable to preventive measures than any other cause of morbidity in the neonatal period,' and the efforts being made to reduce their incidence are yielding very encouraging results, particularly in maternity hospitals and infants' institutions where the risk of contracting infections is so much greater than in the home. Since the unduly high neonatal mortality rate can most easily be reduced by measures which will curtail the incidence of infections in the newborn, a better and more general understanding of the epidemiology and clinical features of such infections is of prime importance.


ABSTRACT There is rapidly evolving literature on water insecurity in the general adult population, but the role of water insecurity during the vulnerable periods of pregnancy and postpartum, or in the context of HIV, has been largely overlooked. Therefore, we conducted an exploratory study, using Go Along interviews, photo-elicitation interviews, and pile sorts with 40 pregnant and postpartum Kenyan women living in an area of high HIV prevalence. We sought to (1) describe their lived experiences of water acquisition, prioritisation, and use and (2) explore the consequences of water insecurity. The results suggest that water insecurity is particularly acute in this period, and impacts women in far-reaching and unexpected ways. We propose a broader conceptualisation of water insecurity to include consideration of the consequences of water insecurity for maternal and infant psychosocial and physical health, nutrition, and economic well-being.


ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to determine the difference between real age (RA) and dental age (DA) in boys and girls from the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (C.A.B.A.) by analyzing digital panoramic radiographs from the database of the Imaging Department at the Buenos Aires University School of Dentistry, using the Demirjian Method (DM). The sample consisted of 508 panoramic radiographs of 6- to 14-year old Argentines (268 female and 240 male). The Demirjian method was used to estimate dental age from each panoramic radiograph, and the Wilcoxon test was applied to perform a comparative analysis with the real age recorded in the image database. Average RA was 9.36 years (SD 2.11), and average DA according to the Demirjian method was 10.45 years (SD 2.31). For females, RA was 9.25 (SD 2.12), and DA according to the DM was 10.40 years (SD 2.41). For males, RA was 9.46 (SD 2.10), and DA according to the DM was 10.50 years (SD 2.22). An inter-class correlation coefficient (ICC) calculated as a correlation measure between dental age and real age was ICC = 1.09%. The ICC was 1.04% for the males and 1.15% for females. Significant differences were found between DA and RA (p <0.01) in general and according to sex. Real age was found to be lower than dental age in the study population from Buenos Aires City.


In Lebanon, primary care physicians (PCPs), including family doctors and GPs, are the main healthcare providers at the primary care level. The difference between the two is that GPs practice medicine directly after medical school without additional specialisation, while family physicians complete a family medicine residency before starting practice. PCPs have an essential role in counselling and providing health education, which are integral components of comprehensive care.

Health behaviour includes practices, actions, and habits that positively or negatively affect one's health status.1 In Lebanon, there is a high prevalence of risky health behaviour. Among the adult population, 38.5% are smokers, 45.8% do not have adequate physical activity, 13.8% have hypertension, 5.9% have diabetes mellitus (DM), 38.0% are overweight, and 27.4% are obese.2

Studies have shown better counselling of patients when the doctors themselves have a healthy lifestyle.3–7 The issue of whether or not doctors themselves adopt positive health behaviour has been studied in some countries, with mixed results. However, no such studies were done in Lebanon or the Arab region.

This article presents the results of a preliminary study in Lebanon, which assesses the level of PCPs' adherence to positive health behaviour, including the implementation of preventive recommendations.

A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was conducted among a convenience sample of 227 PCPs attending the Annual Lebanese Family Medicine Conference, held in Beirut in 2014. A 22-item-survey was used, with questions about physicians' demographics and adherence to different components of health behaviour, covering such topics as smoking status, exercise habits, cancer screening, and immunisation compliance.

### Sociodemographic characteristics

The response …


The viscosity of sunflower oil in 1,4-dioxane used as a diluent in the presence and absence of strong electrolytes (HCl, NaOH, NaCl) at different temperatures (298K to 323K) was accomplished. The viscosity of sunflower oil was found to increase with the increasing concentration and decreased with the increase in temperature. It was further observed that viscosity of sunflower solution in 1,4-dioxane increases under the influence of electrolytes. The values of Jones-Dole coefficient A and B were evaluated. The positive values of B-coefficient increased with the rise of temperature. This led to conclusion that ion-solvent interactions increase and electrolytes such as HCl, NaOH and NaCl behave as structure breaker in sunflower-1,4-dioxane system. The change in the values of fluidity parameters such as (a, k, α 1 , α 2 , β, β *) with concentration of oil and temperature suggests that fluidity parameters are structural. The energy of activation (ΔE v ), latent heat of vapourization (ΔL v ) and molar volume of oil (V m ) were also calculated. Effect of electrolytes show that, the concentration of electrolytes increases the value of (ΔE v ) and (ΔL v ) whereas the value of molar volume (V m ) decrease with the concentration of oil and electrolytes. In brief, unsaturations of fatty acids of oil are responsible for the changes in the values of different parameters determined. The results for (ΔE v ) and (ΔL v ) are influenced by the concentration of sunflower oil. Journal of Applied Sciences and Environmental Management Vol 9(2) 2005: 15-21


The names of many pictorial manuscripts from ancient Mesoamerica honor collectors, politicians, scholars, or institutions of the "Western" world or the national elite, alien to the people who created them and the region to which they refer. Different usages in designating these codices and lienzos have introduced some confusion in the nomenclature. Here, a new set of names is proposed that is more in conformity with the contents of the documents and closer to the Mesoamerican culture.


An electron microscopic radioautographic study was made of tritiated thymidine incorporation into the genome of Escherichia coli PAT 84 and of tritiated meso-D,L-2,6-diaminopimelic acid (DAP) into the cell envelope. Pulse-labeled cells growing at 30 degrees C with a doubling time of 170 min were classified according to length by the method of agar filtration. Mathematical analysis of the length distribution led to the assumption of an exponential relation between length and time. A novel DNA replication pattern was found. Within the cell cycle DNA replication terminates at 70 min; then a gap follows of 64 min, after which DNA replication is initiated at 134 min. Thus, the C period is 106 min and the D period is 100 min. Cell constriction starts at 141 min and coincides with initiation of DNA replication. Detailed quantitative analysis of the [3H]thymidine grain frequency distribution allowed the distinction of three groups of cells. The first group incorporated no label, the second group an amount C, and the third group an amount 2 X C. The relative contribution of each group to a particular length class was determined. The data fitted very well into the DNA replication pattern. The same analysis was carried out on DAP pulse-labeled cells. Again, three groups of cells could be distinguished, and their relative contributions to each length class was determined. The group with the double amount of label was especially prominent at the end of the cell cycle. The emergence of this group might represent the acquisition of new lateral growth areas.


Recently, alternative energy resources have emerged considerably due to the high oil prices and environment problems. Deep sea water that is one of the natural energy sources can be one of the attractive solutions to reduce the environment problems, and there are already a few examples in some developed countries. In this study, cooling system of deep sea water using heat exchangers of two hotels, located in near Haeundae Bay in Busan, have been analyzed on the quantity of electricity and gas use comparison between existing cooling system and deep seawater cooling system by using E-Quest simulation program. The results of the study showed that the Hotel A approximately saves 370 millions won per year, and the Hotel B saves 248 millions won per year. It means that the cooling system by using deep sea water has great worth to reduce the ratio of fuel sources.


Scholars have argued that World War I and its aftermath caused a rapid transformation in American global philanthropy. The decline of the American "moral empire" coincided with the rise of professional, bureaucratic, and secular philanthropy. The reasons for this transformation appear almost self-evident: the crisis greatly exceeded the capabilities of all private organizations, leading to the growth of state-supported, public, and semi-public organizations like the American Red Cross. In fact, though, mainline foreign missions grew rapidly after the war and did not decline until the Great Depression. In 1920, for instance, they combined to receive over 80 percent of Red Cross receipts. Even amid the decline of the "moral empire", therefore, mainline foreign missions remained major sources of philanthropic aid and primary representatives of American interests abroad. This article looks at the hopes and fears of Presbyterian (USA) foreign missions in the years before American entry into the (imprecisely named) European War, in order to understand the resilience of foreign missions during a period of crisis. The war created numerous practical, financial, and conceptual challenges. But, it also inspired the mission boards to seek greater sacrifices among donors, to coordinate with other boards and the federal government, and to find alternative methods to achieve its goals. These efforts in the first half of the 1910s prefigured a nationwide transformation in ideas about service and voluntary giving. After the United States entered the war, these "social goods" became nearly obligatory in the minds of many Americans.


Freeze-fracture cytochemistry allows visualization of cellular and molecular characteristics of biomembranes in situ. In this review, we discuss freeze-fracture cytochemistry with special reference to a new cytochemical labeling of replicas, the detergent-digestion fracture-labeling technique. In this procedure, unfixed cells are rapidly-frozen, freeze-fractured, and physically stabilized by evaporated platinum/carbon. The frozen cells are then removed from the freeze-fracture apparatus to thaw and are subsequently treated with detergents. After detergent-digestion, replicas are labeled with cytochemical markers. We demonstrate that the technique is a versatile tool for direct analysis of the macromolecular architecture of biomembranes and allows identification of particular intracellular membrane organelles. In addition, we demonstrate the application of ultrasmall gold to freeze-fracture immunocytochemistry. Freeze-fracture cytochemistry is a valuable technique for investigating topology and dynamics of membrane molecules.


Aim: To analyze the effect of out of pocket cost on subsequent mammography screening. Study design: Retrospective observational study Place and duration of study: Department of Radiology, Pir Abdul Qadir Shah Jeelani Institute of Medical Sciences, Gambat from 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2022. Methodology: One hundred female patients having ages 40-65 years with health insurances were followed from their baseline mammography screening up to their 12-36 months screening was enrolled. The clinical recorded, adjusted clinical group and other related information were documents. Results: 69% supported by a low deductible health policy while 31% were supported with a high deductible health policy The Adjusted Clinical Group score showed 74% within 0.3 scoring. For baseline mammography a decreased by 3.4% up to 12-24 months time was noticed. Conclusion: Out pocket cost has a significant effect of decreasing patient's number for subsequent mammography screening. Keywords: Breast carcinoma, Mammography, Screening


In this chapter, methods of dealing with the non-ideality of the radio over fiber infrastructure are described. Two general problems and their solutions are addressed: first, the nonlinear behavior of the radio over fiber links, dealt with through baseband compensation; second, the impact of fiber as well as propagation delays to the system performance. The compensation results show that the nonlinear distortions can be considerably reduced by low complexity predistortion. The timing delay analysis reveals that, particularly in OFDM based cellular wireless transmission setups with joint signal processing, the impact of the inter-symbol interference caused by transmitters with a large time difference of arrival only becomes critical if the system operates at a high SNR. Dependent on the pathloss environment and the cyclic prefix length, in the systems investigated, the additional asynchronous interference is rapidly attenuated so that it is almost not noticeable.


In this article, we present the results of a pilot study that adopts an interdisciplinary off‐site approach combining detailed surface survey, remote sensing analyses, geophysical prospections, geoarchaeological investigations and palaeoenvironmental analyses to investigate long‐term human‐environment interactions in the Pontine plain (Lazio, Central Italy). Focusing on a small study area just north of the ancient Roman way station of Ad Medias, in the middle of this former wetland, the developed integrated approach turned out to be very much successful, providing additional information on (a) the interpretation of the surface record in light of landscape and environmental dynamics, (b) the exposure of "hidden landscapes" that date from before the Roman phase of exploitation that is well‐attested in the surface archaeological record, and (c) the texture of this Roman landscape, allowing for a more accurate interpretation of both mapped surface materials and the wider context in which these surface sites were set.


The study entitled "Development of a liquid fertilizer application system for planting mechanism" was conducted in the laboratory as well as on field at ASPEE Agricultural Research Foundation, Tansa, Tal- Wada, Dist.- Palghar. Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material that is added to soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. Conservative estimates report 30 to 50% of crop yields are attributed to fertilizer. Fertilizer is a key player to enhance crop production by upgrading soil fertility. Liquid fertilizer application has many advantages over solid fertilizer application. Hence, For greatest fertilizer nutrient use efficiency it is important to select the right source, the right timing, the right rate and the right method of application, it can be achieved by developing a mechanism which will place the seed in soil and also precisely apply fertilizer in liquid form at root zone of crop at required rate and discharge. The various components of liquid fertilizer application mechanism such as furrow openers, frame, power transmission system for seed drill, ball valve, liquid tank etc were designed and developed. The prototype was then tested and evaluated in laboratory by calibrating the ball valve for the required discharge at particular given tractor speed(3.5 km/h, 4.0 km/h and 4.5 km/h), pump pressure(1 kg/cm2, 2 kg/cm2 and 3 kg/cm2) and knob position(1, 2 and 3) of ball valve. The optimum requirement of liquid to be applied per meter length was 61-65 ml, hence the maximum value in the optimum range was observed at speed 3 (4.5 km/h), pressure 1 (1 Kg / cm2) and knob position 3 as 64.4 ml.


Diarrhea is a common sequela of deregulated immune pathways underlying the wide range of intestinal acute and chronic diseases. The ongoing investigation of novel immune components and susceptibility factors allows better understanding of these pathologic mechanisms and continues to advance therapeutic options.


This study contributes to the body of current knowledge about the urban effect on extreme precipitation (EP) by investigating the city-EP interaction over Lagos, Nigeria. This is a unique, first-time study that adds a "missing piece" of this information about the African continent to the comprehensive global urban precipitation "picture". The convection-permitting Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is employed within an ensemble simulation framework using combinations of different physical schemes and boundary/initial conditions to detect the urban signal on an extreme rainfall event that occurred on May 30, 2006. WRF simulations are verified against satellite-estimated and in-situ observations, and the results from the best-performing ensemble members are used for analysis. The results show that the control simulation with urban representation generated 20–30% more rainfall over the urban area than the non-urban sensitivity simulation, in which the city is replaced by forest. Physical mechanisms behind the differences were revealed. We found that the urbanization in Lagos reduced evapotranspiration resulting in the increase of sensible heating (by 75 Wm−2). This further enhances urban heat-island effect (+1.5 K of air surface temperature), facilitating horizontal convergence, and boosting daytime sea breeze. As a result, more moisture is transported from the southern sea area to inland which then converges over Lagos city, creating favorable conditions for enhancing convection and extreme rainfall-generating processes.


In [3] Heyde proposed an extended version of the well-known Hájek-Rényi inequality to include random variables without finite moments. The purpose of this note is to point out that the theorem in [3] is in error, and to prove the following theorem in its stead: Theorem. Let X 1, X 2, ··· be any sequence of random variables, and define be independent random variables, each with mean zero and finite variance, and define Zk = Xk - Yk for k ≧ 1. Let c 1, c 2, ··· be a non-increasing sequence of positive numbers.


The carbidization of Fe(0) nanoparticles (NPs) under syngas (CO/H2) produces crystalline Fe2.2C iron carbide NPs (ICNPs) displaying excellent hyperthermia properties, however, this transformation is significantly delayed by the concomitant water formation. Consequently, very long carbidization times (∼140 h) are needed to obtain ICNPs with high specific absorption rate. In this paper, we show that the rate of the carbidization process can be greatly enhanced by the in‐situ removal of water using activated molecular sieves. As a result, ICNPs displaying very high heating power were obtained after only 40 h. Using this strategy, CO was successfully replaced by CO2 as a carbon source in the carbidization process, resulting in the efficient conversion of Fe(0) NPs to ICNPs at relatively low temperature (230 °C). Without water removal, carbidization did not occur under these conditions, and the Fe(0) NPs were clearly oxidized. In addition, this approach was successfully applied to displace the equilibrium of CO2 hydrogenation and accelerate the rate of the magnetically induced hydrogenation of CO2 on ICNPs. Interestingly, the in‐situ water removal had also a strong influence on the product distribution and especially the chain growth process, leading to a higher selectivity towards the formation of C3H8 (∼11 %).


In online communities, such as Twitter, Facebook, or Reddit, millions of pieces of contents are generated by users every day, and these user-generated contents (UGCs) show a great variety of topics discussed that make the online community vivid and attractive. However, the reasons why UGCs show great variety and how a firm can influence this variety was unknown, which had been an obstacle to understanding and managing UGCs' variety. This study fills these two gaps based on variety-seeking theory and topic modeling, which is a technique in machine learning. We extract, quantitatively, the topic of the UGCs using topic modeling and divide UGCs into two types: single topic and multiple topics. The user's tendency to choose the type of UGC is used to measure variety-seeking behavior. We found that users have an intrinsic preference for variety when producing UGCs; the more single topic UGCs were produced in the past, the higher the probability of producing multiple topics UGC and the lower the probability of producing single topic UGC would be in the next, and vice versa. Furthermore, we discussed the effect of language/linguistic style matching (LSM) between firm feedbacks and UGCs on users' variety-seeking tendencies in UGCs' production. This study makes three contributions: (1) broadening variety-seeking theory to new behavior, that is content production behavior, and the results demonstrated that people would show a variety-seeking behavior in producing UGCs. (2) a new feasible method to measure the variety of UGCs by using topic modeling to extract the topics of UGCs and then measure the variety-seeking behavior in producing UGCs by analyzing the choice between single topic and multiple topics. (3) guidance for the firm to alter LSM of feedbacks to influence the variety of UGCs.


Despite extensive research efforts, few quantum algorithms for classical optimization demonstrate realizable advantage. The utility of many quantum algorithms is limited by high requisite circuit depth and nonconvex optimization landscapes. We tackle these challenges to quantum advantage with two new variational quantum algorithms, which utilize multi-basis graph encodings and nonlinear activation functions to outperform existing methods with remarkably shallow quantum circuits. Both algorithms provide a polynomial reduction in measurement complexity and either a factor of two speedup a factor of two reduction in quantum resources. Typically, the classical simulation of such algorithms with many qubits is impossible due to the exponential scaling of traditional quantum formalism and the limitations of tensor networks. Nonetheless, the shallow circuits and moderate entanglement of our algorithms, combined with efficient tensor method-based simulation, enable us to successfully optimize the MaxCut of high-connectivity global graphs with up to 512 nodes (qubits) on a single GPU.


Magnetic resonance (MR) is of value in imaging intervertebral disk disease. We present the MR findings in two patients with thoracic disk herniations who required surgical intervention. The advantages of MR over CT myelography are ease of obtaining sagittal sections, rapid assessment of the entire thoracic spine, and a high rate of patient acceptance related to the noninvasive nature of MR and lack of morbidity and complications. For these reasons, we currently rely, almost exclusively, on MR for evaluating thoracic disk disease.


The VIV (Vortex-Induced Vibration) analysis of a flexible cylindrical structure under locally strong shear flow is presented. The model is made of Teflon and has 9.5m length, 0.0127m diameter, and 0.001m wall thickness. 11 2 accelerometers are installed along the model. The experiment has been conducted at the ocean engineering basin in the University of Tokyo in which uniform current c submerged by almost overall length. Local shear flow is made by superposing uniform current and accelerated flow generated by an impeller. The results of frequency and modal analysis a Induced Vibration) analysis of a flexible cylindrical structure under locally strong shear flow is f Teflon and has 9.5m length, 0.0127m diameter, and 0.001m wall thickness. 11 2 accelerometers are installed along the model. The experiment has been conducted at the ocean engineering basin in the University of Tokyo in which uniform current can be generated. The model is installed at about 30 degree of slope and submerged by almost overall length. Local shear flow is made by superposing uniform current and accelerated flow generated by an impeller. The results of frequency and modal analysis are presented. Induced Vibration) analysis of a flexible cylindrical structure under locally strong shear flow is f Teflon and has 9.5m length, 0.0127m diameter, and 0.001m wall thickness. 11 2-dimensional accelerometers are installed along the model. The experiment has been conducted at the ocean engineering basin in the an be generated. The model is installed at about 30 degree of slope and submerged by almost overall length. Local shear flow is made by superposing uniform current and accelerated flow generated


ABSTRACT Although sustainable infrastructure is indispensable, there is almost no reported research on an asphalt concrete (AC) and rubberized concrete (RC) composite pavement. Furthermore, each study incorporating rubber mostly deployed one or two supplementary materials. Therefore, the performance of sustainable AC/RC pavements with various supplementary materials including zeolite, slag, fly ash, and steel fiber was comprehensively investigated in this study. 126 cylinders (150×300 mm) and 84 beams (150×150×530 mm) under 4-point bending were tested. Based on the results, AC/RC pavement indicated much higher compressive strength, flexural strength, stiffness, and energy absorption capacity than AC one. Although 25% of coarse aggregate was replaced with rubber, when 30% of cement was replaced with zeolite, fly ash, and slag (each 10%) and steel fibers (1% of the beam volume) were added, 83.7% of the flexural strength of AC/plain concrete (PC) beams was retained. With 25% replacement of coarse aggregate by rubber and use of zeolite and slag (each 15%), 87.4% of the compressive strength of AC/PC was retained. 25% rubber and 30% slag were found to be the optimum design for AC/RC pavement. Moreover, results from the proposed equations for predicting flexural and compressive strengths were in good agreement with the test ones.


Observations by practitioners suggest that fracture speeds are often much faster than recently reported measurements. These measurements include speeds along isolated beams ranging from 15 to 45 m/s, as well as the speed of a meadow collapse of 20 m/s. Since reported velocities appear to be slower than many observed avalanches, we analyzed a sample of 27 videos to estimate avalanche fracture speeds. Time was measured by counting video frames from the explosive trigger to visible slab fractures, and distances by on-site measurements, picture scaling, and Google Earth. Though our speeds vary widely (from 18 to 428 m/s), most of our values fall in the range of 50 to 125 m/s, which clearly exceeds previously reported values. We also investigated the relationship between fracture speed and other characteristics, such as explosive size. Interestingly, in videos with visible crowns and stauchwalls, the stauchwall opens first or at the same time 33% of the time. Our results may improve our understanding of avalanche release, as well as providing practical guidance for explosive placements.


Many-core systems differ from traditional multi-processor systems in performance characteristics and sometimes behave in unfamiliar ways for us. This can lead us facing performance troubles from unknown causes, requiring long time to fix them. To address those situations it is important for us to accumulate technology and know-how on performance of multi-core systems through a plenty of case studies. This paper describes a case study on unusual phenomena of a many-core based system in executing DBT-1 transactions with MySQL; where system throughput was decreased with the increase of the number of cores, an appearance of a scalability bottleneck. The root-cause analysis based on several measurements of the system has succeeded to reveal that the problem was caused from an interaction between two bottlenecks at the different layers, hardware and software, which is hardly found in traditional systems. The bottleneck at the hardware layer has been alleviated by introducing a newly developed lock mechanism that the analysis results suggested. Although the problem may be particular to the system, we, however, believe that the method and process to identify the root cause are of wide use for various scalability bottlenecks.


The thoracic pedicle is generally cylindrical with various  indentations on its surface that may introduce an error in measurements, thus making the measurements unreliable. One hundred and eighty thoracic pedicle diameter measurements were carried out in five cadaveric human thoracic spine specimens, using a Vernier caliper. Coefficient of variation (CV) was used to evaluate the variation in measurements within and between  pedicles. Linear regression model was used to evaluate the  relationship between the variation in measurements and the average diameter of the bone per cadaver. The largest standard deviations in the five specimens were found at T2, T3, T6 and T12 levels. The least standard deviations were found at T1, T7, T9, T10 and T11. Four specimens demonstrated a negative linear relationship between the coefficient of variation and the average transverse diameter of the pedicle. This relationship was  significant (p<0.05) in two specimens. Vernier caliper measurements tend to be less reliable as the thoracic pedicle transverse diameter decreases. Caution is required when measuring the thoracic pedicle transverse diameter in the narrower mid-thoracic area of the spine with Vernier calipers.Keywords: reliability, thoracic pedicle morphometry


Guggulu (Commiphora mukul) is about 2-3.5 mt heighted plant of Burceraceae family. The plant grows wild in the arid, rocky tracts, also in low rainy and hot areas. The part used in medicinal preparation is resin, collected by tapping the barks. Guggulu deserves high values in Ayurvedic medicines. Guggulu is Rasayana, Vatakaphaghna, and used in various diseases. Due to high values and excessive demands, improper methods of collection, uncontrolled forest destruction and poor knowledge of cultivation; number of plants highly decreased. Now it categorized as threatened plant. Hence cultivation and conservation of this plant is necessary. Guggulu can be propagated by seed and vegetative method. Germination through seed is very poor. Vegetative propagation through stem cutting is most common and successful method. Farming care is also necessary f or proper growth. Conservation can be effected by knowledge of collection methods and awareness.


Studies on the daily behavioral activities of bullfrogs in laboratories may indicate avenues for appropriate technical management for this specie culture. Twenty-four post-metamorphic phase Lithobates catesbeianus (Shaw 1802) bullfrogs had their daily activities described. The animals were housed in six experimental stalls and feed was offered once a day at random times over 10 days of filming. Behavioral activity in each stall was recorded for the first 15 minutes of every hour in a 24-hour period. As results, we observed that ingestion and movement on dry ground were more common at dawn and rare in dark; inactivity on dry ground occurred more in the late night and at dawn. Consequently, there was preference for sheltering less at dawn and in the end of dark phases. The inactivity behavior in the water was more frequent during the early dark phase, showing an inverse relationship with respect to preferred times for feed ingestion. As a result of observed behaviors, we recommended that feed offerings for bullfrogs in captivity are during the light phase of day and that it is available until the following morning.


CO2 lasers can be seen to lend themselves to materials processing applications and have been used extensively in research and industry. This work investigated the surface modification of PMMA with a CO2 laser in order to vary wettability characteristics. The wettability characteristics of the PMMA were modified by generating a number of patterns of various topography on the sample surfaces using a CO2 laser. Through white light interferometry it was found that for all laser patterned samples the surface roughness had significantly increased by up to 3.1 µm. The chemical composition of selected samples were explored using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and found that the surface oxygen content had risen by approximately 4% At. By using a sessile drop device it was found that 50 µm dimensions gave rise to a more hydrophilic surface; whereas 100 µm dimensions gave rise to either no change or an increase in contact angle making the PMMA hydrophobic. This can be explained by the possibility of different wetting regimes taking place owed to the variation of topographies over the as-received and laser patterned samplesCO2 lasers can be seen to lend themselves to materials processing applications and have been used extensively in research and industry. This work investigated the surface modification of PMMA with a CO2 laser in order to vary wettability characteristics. The wettability characteristics of the PMMA were modified by generating a number of patterns of various topography on the sample surfaces using a CO2 laser. Through white light interferometry it was found that for all laser patterned samples the surface roughness had significantly increased by up to 3.1 µm. The chemical composition of selected samples were explored using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and found that the surface oxygen content had risen by approximately 4% At. By using a sessile drop device it was found that 50 µm dimensions gave rise to a more hydrophilic surface; whereas 100 µm dimensions gave rise to either no change or an increase in contact angle making the PMMA hydrophobic. This can be explained by the possibility of different wett...


The data space for audio signals is large, the correlation is strong, and the traditional encryption algorithm cannot meet the needs of efficiency and safety. To solve this problem, an audio encryption algorithm based on Chen memristor chaotic system is proposed. The core idea of the algorithm is to encrypt the audio signal into the color image information. Most of the traditional audio encryption algorithms are transmitted in the form of noise, which makes it easy to attract the attention of attackers. In this paper, a special encryption method is used to obtain higher security. Firstly, the Fast Walsh–Hadamar Transform (FWHT) is used to compress and denoise the signal. Different from the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), FWHT has good energy compression characteristics. In addition, compared with that of the triangular basis function of the Fast Fourier Transform, the rectangular basis function of the FWHT can be more effectively implemented in the digital circuit to transform the reconstructed dual-channel audio signal into the R and B layers of the digital image matrix, respectively. Furthermore, a new Chen memristor chaotic system solves the periodic window problems, such as the limited chaos range and nonuniform distribution. It can generate a mask block with high complexity and fill it into the G layer of the color image matrix to obtain a color audio image. In the next place, combining plaintext information with color audio images, interactive channel shuffling can not only weaken the correlation between adjacent samples, but also effectively resist selective plaintext attacks. Finally, the cryptographic block is used for overlapping diffusion encryption to fill the silence period of the speech signal, so as to obtain the ciphertext audio. Experimental results and comparative analysis show that the algorithm is suitable for different types of audio signals, and can resist many common cryptographic analysis attacks. Compared with that of similar audio encryption algorithms, the security index of the algorithm is better, and the efficiency of the algorithm is greatly improved.


Shopping transaction analysis is important for understanding the shopping behaviors of customers. Existing models such as association rules are poor at modeling products that have short purchase histories and cannot be applied to new products (the cold-start problem). In this paper, we propose BASTEXT, an efficient model of shopping baskets and the texts associated with the products (e.g., product titles). The model's goal is to learn the product representations from the textual contents to capture the relationships between the products in the baskets. Given the products already in a basket, a classifier identifies whether a potential product is relevant to the basket based on their vector representations. This relevancy enables us to learn high-quality representations of the products. The experiments demonstrate that BASTEXT can efficiently model millions of baskets and that it outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in the next product recommendation task. We also show that BASTEXT is a strong baseline for keyword-based product search.


Cancer is one of the main causes of death worldwide. For experts, epidemiological trends continue to be alarming given the increases in the rates of incidence and mortality. Nowadays, tumors are treated with radiotherapy, surgery and chemotherapy. The side effects derived from anti-tumor compounds are a result of their low specificity. On the other hand Parasitic and pathogenic diseases are relentlessly progressive, affected all living organisms. Wasp venom may deliver a painful sting, but scientists have carried out successful in vitro tests using the Wasps venom to kill cancer cells and antimicrobial diseases. Scientists designed a new therapy based on a peptide - the binding of several amino acids peptides from wasp venom for its potential use against breast cancer. This peptide has the ability to form pores in the cell plasma membrane, penetrate into the cell and finally, cause its death. Wasp Venom has long been used in traditional medicine. The active components of Wasp Venom found to exhibit interesting bioactivities, such as antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities as well as anti-tumors. In this respect, the present review for understanding of the mechanisms, mode of action and future prospects regarding the use of new drugs derived from wasp venom for treatment cancer, microbial and pathogenic diseases.


A charge-based silicon nanowire FET (SNWT) compact model has been developed. For the first time, inversion charge of SNWT with arbitrary doping concentration is described by an accurate equation including the effects of doping and volume inversion. Analytic drain current, transconductance, output conductance, terminal charges and capacitance are all physically derived and compared with numerical simulation. It shows that the core model is valid for all operation regions and a wide range of physical configuration including channel doping concentrations and geometrical dimensions. Moreover, advanced physical effects have been included in the model self-consistently.


This study is concerned with the theory of parametric coupling of waves in a hot inhomogeneous magnetized plasma in which the temperature gradient has been taken into account. The general dispersion relation and the polarization of the ordinary and the extra-ordinary wave modes are discussed. The eigen-mode solutions of the coupled differential equations for the wave amplitudes are obtained in the terms of the so called three wave interaction matrix elements. The theory of nonlinear wave-wave interactions, which has been extended to the case of an inhomogeneous magnetized plasma, is used to determine the threshold value of the electric field and the frequency shift. The results of this paper are also compared


We recently demonstrated that the morphology of a spin-cast polymer film can be controlled by the proper choice of solvent, polymer solution concentration, and spin speed [Y. Shi, J. Liu, and Y. Yang, J. Appl. Phys. 87, 4254 (2000)]. In this article, we report the correlation between the morphology and the electrical properties of poly(2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene based light emitting diodes. The performance of these devices, such as device turn-on voltage, current injection efficiency, and quantum efficiency, shows a strong dependence on thin film processing conditions. It is found that aromatic solvents and nonaromatic solvents have very different effects on device performance, which suggests that the solvation induced morphology effect is one of the controlling factors for polymer-based optoelectronic devices.


The human tongue is a structurally complex and extremely flexible organ. In order to better understand the mechanical basis for lingual deformations, we modeled a primitive movement of the tongue, sagittal tongue bending. We hypothesized that sagittal bending is a synergistic deformation derived from co-contraction of the longitudinalis and transversus muscles. Our model of tongue bending was based on classical bimetal strip theory, in which curvature is produced when one muscle layer contracts more so than another. Contraction was modulated via mismatched thermal expansion coefficients and temperature change (to simulate muscular contraction). Our results demonstrated that synergistic contraction produced curvature and strain results which were in better correspondence to empirical results derived from tagging MRI than were the results of contraction of the longitudinalis muscle alone. This fundamental reliance of tongue bending on the synergistic contraction of its intrinsic fibers supports the muscular hydrostat theory of tongue function.


Carbohydrates are nowadays a very competitive feedstock for the chemical industry because their availability is compatible with world-scale chemical production and their price, based on the carbon content, is comparable to that of petrochemicals. At the same time, demand is rising for biobased products. Brazilian sugar cane is a competitive feedstock source that is opening the door to a wide range of bio-based products. This essay begins with the importance of the feedstock for the chemical industry and discusses developments in sugar cane processing that lead to low cost feedstocks. Thus, sugar cane enables a new chemical industry, as it delivers a competitive raw material and a source of energy. As a result, sugar mills are being transformed into sustainable biorefineries that fully exploit the potential of sugar cane.


The effects of the simultaneous incorporation of Cu and O in CdSe films grown by sputtering are presented. The Cu and O contents varied between 1 and 5 at.% in films deposited at 150, 200, 250 and 300 °C. Concentrations of 2, 3, 4 and 5 at.% of CuO in the target promoted the formation of copper selenide clusters immersed within the CdSe:Cu:O host. Energy considerations (enthalpy of formation and bond dissociation energy) were used to discuss the absence of copper oxide and the formation of copper selenide aggregates, as well as the film thickness dependence on the concentration of CuO in the target. The band gap of the films ranged from 1.21 to 2.07 eV, depending upon growth conditions. Significant below-band-gap absorption was observed which was ascribed to the copper selenide micro and nano clusters. Good crystalline quality of the films, for high substrate temperatures, was evidenced through the appearance of overtones of the vibrational longitudinal optic modes detected by Raman micro spectroscopy. It was determined that the electronic properties, optical transmission and electrical conductivity depended on the chemical composition and crystalline structure. This characteristic is relevant because through copper and oxygen co-doping is possible to control these technologically important physical properties of CdSe in a simple and reliable manner.


In the paper the economic and legal aspects of interaction between railway and sea transport modes are сonsidered. The measures for improving the economic efficiency of combined transportation are proposed.


It is sometimes suggested that there are two kinds of reasoning: inferential reasoning and non-inferential reasoning. However, it is not entirely clear what the difference between these two kinds of reasoning is. In this paper, I try to answer the question what this difference is. I first discuss three answers to this question that I argue are unsatisfactory. I then give a different answer to this question, and I argue that this answer is satisfactory. I end by showing that this answer can help to resolve some disagreements in which the difference between inferential and non-inferential reasoning plays a role.


A prospective study on predictors of polypharmacy in Geriatrics was conducted in the General Medicine department of a 750 bedded multi-specialty private hospital in South India. A total of 124 geriatric patients were enrolled in the study of which 59% were male patients and 41% were female patients. The analysis of results of the study conducted revealed that 54.73% of population were prescribed with 6-10 drugs, 37.09% with 11-15 drugs and 5.64% with 16-20 drugs. Our study assessed Potentially Inappropriate Medications (PIM) as per Beers Criteria. The results revealed that the PIM use was observed in 48.3% patients. The analysis also revealed that the association between the number of drugs and number of PIM was statistically significant. Similarly the association between the number of co-morbidities and number of drugs was statistically significant.


The molecular mechanism that leads to pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH), a pregnancy-specific syndrome, remains poorly understood. It has been suggested that microRNAs (miRNAs) may be potentially useful biomarkers for severe preeclampsia (PE), which is an important condition associated with PIH. The aim of the present study was to identify miR-204 by verifying differentially expressed serum miRNAs in patients with PIH during pregnancy compared with normal controls. Subsequently, the effects of miR-204 on proliferation and apoptosis of human choriocarcinoma (JAR) cells in hypoxic microenvironment were investigated. Previous studies indicated a number of miRNA candidates and the present study validated the expression of eight miRNAs in serum samples using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). A higher expression of miR-204 was identified in patients with PIH. To assess the impact of miR-204 inhibition on hypoxic JAR cells function in vitro, cell proliferation was detected using a Cell Counting Kit-8 assay. The rate of apoptosis and cell cycle progression was then examined by flow cytometry. RT-qPCR confirmed that serum miR-204-5p is more highly expressed in patients with PIH. Further statistical analysis indicated that the survival ratio of JAR cells in hypoxic microenvironments was increased in the miR-204-5p inhibitor group. However, the miR-204-5p inhibitor protected hypoxic JAR cells from apoptosis. The analysis of cell-cycle status demonstrated that the percentage of cells in the G2/G1 phase was larger compared with the control group. The results of the present study suggest that low levels of miR-204-5p may increase cell proliferation and reduce cell apoptosis with cell cycle changes in vitro. Therefore, serum miR-204-5p may be used as a notable biomarker for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of PIH.


Abstract:This article explores literary discussions of sovereignty in two medieval Scottish romances, John Barbour's The Bruce (c. 1375) and the anonymous Arthurian romance Golagros and Gawane (c. 1475), both of which respond to the Anglo-Scottish conflicts of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and advocate Scottish independence. Premodern European conceptions of sovereignty relied on narratives of recognition to construct and support political claims. This essay argues that these Scottish vernacular texts adapted terms from the larger European discourse to re-imagine the nature of government and freedom through the formal element of a 'sovereign recognition'. While Barbour's The Bruce attempts to distinguish the validity of political claims via the rightful behavior of rulers, ultimately it remains trapped by the prevailing terms of sovereign recognition that require the subjugation of others and the citation of documentary 'proof' to establish authority. By contrast, Golagros and Gawane critiques the use of historical narratives of recognition in determining political relations. This Arthurian romance posits alternative criteria for sovereign recognition that would create a dialogic system of equivalent polities based on personal bonds of mutual acknowledgement. The political thought in both literary texts offers a valuable challenge to current definitions of sovereignty and freedom as located solely within the framework of the territorial nation-state.


Aflatoxins are toxic and carcinogenic secondary metabolites produced by some common aspergilli during growth on feeds, foods or laboratory media. Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is a decaketide (C20-polyketide) which is synthesized by the mold from acetate units via the polyketide pathway. Methionine contributes the methoxy-methyl group. Six known intermediate compounds in the biosynthesis of AFB1 include norsolorinic acid, averantin, averufin, versiconal hemiacetal acetate, versicolorin A and sterigmatocystin. Other aflatoxins (B2, B2a, G1, G2 and G2a) appear to be conversion products of AFB1. When aflatoxins, and in particular AFB1, occur in feed and are consumed by dairy cattle, a variety of symptoms can occur, which includes unthriftiness, anorexia and decreased milk production. Changes in amounts of enzymes and other blood constituents also result from ingestion of AFB1. The hepatic microsomal mixed-function oxidase system of the cow converts some of the ingested AFB1 into aflatoxin M1 (AFM1), which is excreted in milk. AFM1 retains the toxicity of, but is less carcinogenic than AFB1. Certain heat treatments associated with milk processing appear to inactivate a portion of the AFM1 in milk. If raw milk contains AFM1, products (fluid products, nonfat dried milk, cultured milks, natural cheese, process cheese, butter) made from such milk also will contain AFM1. AFM1 appears to be associated with the casein fraction of milk, hence concentrating the casein in the manufacture of products (e.g. cheese, nonfat dry milk) is accompanied by concentrating of the AFM1. Methods involving thin-layer or high-performance liquid chromatography are commonly used to detect and quantify AFM1 in milk and milk products.


We propose that by utilizing acoustically-active delivery vehicles (AADVs), which combine the acoustic activity of an ultrasound contrast agent (UCA) with the high payload and extravasation ability of nanoparticles, we can overcome limitations of current chemotherapy delivery methodologies. AADV were formed by conjugating nanocapsules to the shell of biotinylated UCAs. Ultrasound parameters were optimized with a 2.25 MHz focused transducer using a flow phantom to achieve both acoustic radiation force and microbubble destruction. R3230 cells cultured on a cover slip were exposed to the AADV and sonicated with the focused transducer. Fluorescence microscopy verified binding of nanocapsules to ultrasound contrast agents to form AADVs, and increased delivery of nanocapsules to cells within the focus of the transducer (relative to nanocapsule delivery without ultrasound). An order-of-magnitude increase in particles were delivered to cells exposed to ultrasound compared to unexposed cells.


Background Patients requiring medical emergency team (MET) review have complex clinical needs, and most remain on the ward after review. Current detection instruments cannot identify post-MET patient requirements, meaning patients remain undistinguished, potentially resulting in missed management opportunities. We propose that deteriorating patients will cluster along dimensions of illness severity and that these clusters may be used to strengthen patient risk management practices. Objective To identify and define the number of illness severity clusters and report outcomes among ward patients following MET review. Study design and setting This retrospective cohort study examined the clinical records of 1500 adult ward patients following MET review at an Australian quaternary hospital. Three-step latent profile analysis methods were used to determine clusters using Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) and Nursing Activities Score (NAS) as illness severity indicators. Study outcomes were (1) hospital mortality, (2) unplanned intensive care unit (ICU) admission and (3) subsequent MET review. Results Patients were unplanned (73.9%) and medical (57.5%) admissions with at least one comorbidity (51.4%), and complex combinations of acuity (SOFA range 1–17) and dependency (NAS range 22.4%–148.5%). Five clusters are reported. Patients in cluster 1 were equivalent to clinically stable general ward patients. Organ failure and complexity increased with cluster progression—clusters 2 and 3 were equivalent to subspecialty/higher-dependency wards, and clusters 4 and 5 were equivalent to ICUs. Patients in cluster 5 had the greatest odds for death (OR 26.2, 95% CI 23.3 to 31.3), unplanned ICU admission (OR 3.1, 95% CI 3.0 to 3.1) and subsequent MET review (OR 2.4, 95% CI 2.4 to 2.6). Conclusion The five illness severity clusters may be used to define patients at risk of poorer outcomes who may benefit from enhanced levels of monitoring and targeted care.


Contemporary dental simulation systems were developed to improve dental students' transition from the preclinical laboratory to the clinic. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of a virtual reality computer-assisted simulation system (VR) with a contemporary non-computer-assisted simulation system (CS). The objectives were to determine whether there were differences between the two systems in the quality of dental students' preparations and the amount of faculty instruction time. Students who completed their first year of dental school and had no previous experience preparing teeth were group matched according to their performance in the first-year Dental Anatomy laboratory course and assigned to VR (n=15) or CS (n=13). In the summer, they spent two weeks (approximately 3 hrs/day) executing amalgam and crown preparations on typodont teeth. Short presentations describing the preparations were given to both groups; however, preparation criteria were available on the computer for the VR group, while the CS group received handouts. Both groups could request feedback from faculty, although VR also obtained input from the computer. A log was kept of all student-faculty (S-F) interactions. Analysis of the data indicated significant differences between groups for the following variables: mean number of S-F interactions was sixteen for the VR group versus forty-two for the CS group; and mean time of S-F interactions was 1.9+/-2 minutes versus 4.0+/-3 minutes (p<0.001) for VR and CS, respectively. Faculty spent 44.3 hours "interacting" with twenty-eight students, averaging 0.5 hours per VR student and 2.8 hours per CS student. Thus, CS students received five times more instructional time from faculty than did VR students. There were no statistical differences in the quality of the preparations. While further study is needed to assess virtual reality technology, this decreased faculty time in instruction could impact the dental curriculum.


ABSTRACT April Le Quéré, P.; Nistor, I., and Mohammadian, M., 2021. Effect of lateral spacing of structures on tsunami-induced scour. Journal of Coastal Research, 37(4), 813–826. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Tsunamis are a devastating force, as seen by the extreme tsunamis that struck the Indian and Pacific Oceans over the past two decades: the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, the 2010 Chile Tsunami, and the 2011 Tohoku Japan Tsunami. In those events, flood-induced scouring was found to be an important phenomenon that often led to infrastructure damage. Past research has focused on scouring around single columns and other isolated horizontal structures to attempt to understand the complex processes characterizing this phenomenon. However, given that coastal cities often comprise complex arrangements of multiple structures, often crammed, tsunami inundation flow often finds concentrated paths in between such structures; these flow concentrations increase the resulting scouring. This research is an attempt to inform the scientific community on the potential of augmented scour attributable to flow concentration that is due to the lateral spacing of structures and to compare it with nonconcentrated flow-induced scour. The authors employed the FLOW-3D numerical model for this study. This model was first calibrated using a physical model experiment performed in the dam break flume of the University of Ottawa, Canada. Results from this study demonstrate that flow concentration due to the lateral spacing of structures leads to greater scouring than for the case of an isolated structure and that the magnitude of the scour, for most cases studied, was larger than what is prescribed by the latest building codes.


Problems that occur between is a 42 Ha land dispute villagers Sungai Parit, district Indragiri Hulu Sungai Lala with PT.Inecda Plantation.Masyarakat claims that about 42 hectares of land belongs to the people while PT.Inecda Plantation claims that 42 ha of land that are owned by the company the. Plantation PT.Inecda related dispute with residents of Sungai Parit causing residents sent a letter to the Regional Representatives Council Indragiri Hulu. The letter sent to residents of the Regional Representatives Council Indragiri Hulu in connection with PT.Inecda Plantation since 20 years ago to annex the land warga.Surat sent due to lack of clarity on the settlement that has been done several times with the Government of Indragiri Hulu. The purpose of this thesis, namely: First, to find out what the causes of land disputes between indigenous peoples PT.Inecda Plantation with moat river, Secondly, to find out how the efforts made for the settlement of land disputes with indigenous peoples PT.Inecda Plantation river trench.This type of research can be classified in this type of sociological research is research done by identifying how the effectiveness of law that law applies in the community.From the research it is clear that the cause of the problem of land disputes with indigenous peoples PT.Inecda Plantation River Ditch is due to the inclusion of a new home or investment of PT.Inecda Plantation namely household money. PT.Inecda Plantation as well as ignoring the rights of indigenous peoples and the Government Sungai Parit not firm in see investments coming in, a local company established itself so that the environment of indigenous people ignoring local area and do not pay attention to the condition of the area where they founded the company. The settlement of land disputes with indigenous peoples PT.Inecda Plantation Sungai Parit is the first mediation session conducted on January 15, 2013 Date mediated by the head of the Sungai Parit in Hall Village Head Office, On January 10, 2004 Local Government conduct a second mediation process mediated by the head of the Regional land Indragiri Hulu, As of February 15, 2016 at a meeting held by the National land Agency and the Ministry of Environment held diaur China to listen to the opinions of indigenous peoples Sungai Parit against customary land tilled by PT.Inecda Plantation. The results of the meeting the majority of customary land Sungai Parit people returned to the Ministry of Environment to manage.


We theoretically investigate the mutual interaction of a nematic liquid crystal with a static electric field within the general framework of a variational theory for nematoacoustics recently proposed in [E. G. Virga, Phys. Rev. E, 80 (2009), 031705] and based on a coupling between the nematic director and the gradient of the mass density. The liquid crystal is confined in a nematic cell with strong planar anchoring conditions imposed at the boundaries. A linear and a nonlinear numerical analysis of the corresponding equilibrium equations are performed. We show that a Freedericksz-type transition occurs at a threshold voltage applied at the plates of the cell, and a distortion of the director profile is induced and accompanied by a mass density undulation.


The 2019 Novel Corona virus infection (COVID-19) is an ongoing public health emergency of international focus. Significant gaps persist in our knowledge of COVID-19 epidemiology, transmission dynamics, investigation tools and management, despite (or possibly because of) the fact that the outbreak is an unprecedented global threat. On the positive side, enough is currently known about the epidemic process to permit the construction of mathematical predictive models. We construct and analyze here one first step: that of adapting a traditional SEIR epidemic model to the specific dynamic compartments and epidemic parameters of COVID-19, as it spreads in an age-heterogeneous community. We analyze the current management strategy of the epidemic course (travel bans, service closures and interruptions, social distancing). We generate predictions, and assess the efficiency of these control measures, in the context in which their sustainability is currently being questioned.


We sampled the alternative conceptions of 257 third grade students (8-11 years old) using an open questionnaire. The answers were categorized into three topics and used to construct a multiple choice instrument. Following the pretest our instruction phase contained the confrontation with the students' own alternative conceptions about humans' and cats' vision at a wildlife-park. Immediately after instruction, the multiple choice instrument was presented as a post test and several weeks later as a retention test. Due to the heterogeneity within our student sample we defined and found five different groups. Our data shows that the instruction of primary school children using confrontation according to the conceptual change theory does not lead to a change of conceptions or to synthetic models, furthermore we found no detectable conceptual growth. Finally, students with the accepted scientific conception as well as students with other concepts seemed to be confused by this instruction.


Non-classical structures of organic compounds are defined as molecules containing non-tetrahedral tetracoordinate and/or hypercoordinate carbon atoms. The evolution of the views on this subject is considered and the accumulated theoretical and experimental data on the structures and dynamic transformations of non-classical organic compounds are systematised. It is shown that computational analysis using the methods and the software potential of modern quantum chemistry has now acquired high predictive capacity and is the most important source of data on the structures of non-classical compounds. The bibliography includes 227 references.


In a Yale Law Journal article Jonathan R. Macey and Geoffrey P. Miller argue that Smith v. Van Gorkom, commonly referred to as the Trans Union case, should be considered as a takeover case rather than as a Business Judgment Rule Case. As it is currently construed, Smith is broadly applicable as a corporate duty of care case based on the common sense supposition that boards of directors must obtain all reasonably available information before making decisions. Thus, while Macey and Miller claim that their articulated position will result in more easily squaring Smith with other Delaware case law, their position is a radical departure from the views of other commentators. This article argues that none of the reasoning behind the arguments presented by Macey and Miller makes sense. The consequences of overruling Smith are astounding: investor confidence would decrease; market economics would be less efficient; the corporate law doctrine would be less rational; and there would be a loss of corporate accountability. As a result, this article takes the position directly contrary to that of Macey and Miller; Smith v. Gorkom should be reaffirmed not reconsidered.


Optimal sensor location methods are crucial to realize a sensor profile that achieves pre-defined performance criteria as well as minimum cost. In recent times, indoor cultivation systems have leveraged on optimal sensor location schemes for effective monitoring at minimum cost. Although the goal of monitoring in indoor cultivation system is to facilitate efficient control, most of the previously proposed methods are ill-posed as they do not approach optimal sensor location from a control perspective. Therefore in this work, a genetic programming-based optimal sensor placement for greenhouse monitoring and control is presented from a control perspective. Starting with a reference micro-climate condition (temperature and relative humidity) obtained by aggregating measurements from 56 dual sensors distributed within a greenhouse, we show that genetic programming can be used to select a minimum number of sensor locations as well as a symbolic representation of how to aggregate them to efficiently estimate the reference measurements from the 56 sensors. The results presented in terms of Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) and three error-related metrics demonstrate that the proposed model achieves an average r of 0.999 for both temperature and humidity and an average RMSE value of 0.0822 and 0.2534 for temperate and relative humidity respectively. Conclusively, the resulting models make use of only eight (8) sensors, indicating that only eight (8) are required to facilitate the efficient monitoring and control of the greenhouse facility.


—Using Building Information Modeling (BIM)-based design technology for various building design processes has been global and widely adopted in building construction projects. Many projects, however, are still conducted thru traditional 2D-based work methodologies, and there are some concerns when making submissions for building approvals derived from BIM-based design information. For example, when an applicant manually inputs information into a specific application form, subjectivity can become an issue. Human mistakes can be made during the input data process when there is some miscommunication between participants related a project. To address this problem, this paper proposed an improved BIM-based building approval system with a BIM-based information collection approach. To that end, we surveyed several countries where the building permit process use a web-based system. Then based on the information input method we classified the required information into two types: BIM-external and BIM-internal. The proposed approach provides an approach that improve the efficiency and the accuracy of the building permit process, since a BIM-based building model can be applied directly.


The UML is a collection of 13 diagram notations to describe different views of a software system. The existing diagram types display model elements and their relations. Software engineering is becoming more and more model-centric, such that software engineers start using UML models for more tasks than just describing the system. Tasks such as analysis or prediction of system properties require additional information such as metrics of the UML model or from external sources, e.g. a version control system. In this paper we identify tasks of model-centric software engineering and information that is required to fulfil these tasks. We propose views to visualize the information to support fulfilling the tasks. This paper reports on industrial case studies and a light-weight user experiment to validate the usefulness of the proposed views that are implemented in our MetricView evolution tool


We present the analysis, design, and measurement results of a low-noise, low-power MEMS oscillator at 20 MHz. The oscillator consists of a high-Q differential resonator, which is wire-bonded to a high-gain CMOS transimpedance amplifier (TIA). Measurement results show that the TIA achieves a tunable gain from 12 kΩ to 69 kΩ. The phase noise floor of the oscillator's output voltage is at -131 dBc/Hz, while the differential peak-to-peak swing can be varied between 160 mV and 1700 mV by an on-chip automatic level control (ALC) loop. The TIA, fabricated in a 0.35-μm CMOS process, occupies an area of 0.15 mm2 and dissipates 6.9 mW from a 2.5 V supply.


The auxin-producing bacterium Azospirillum brasilense Sp245 can promote the growth of several plant species. The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana was chosen as host plant to gain an insight into the molecular mechanisms that govern this interaction. The determination of differential gene expression in Arabidopsis roots after inoculation with either A. brasilense wild-type or an auxin biosynthesis mutant was achieved by microarray analysis. Arabidopsis thaliana inoculation with A. brasilense wild-type increases the number of lateral roots and root hairs, and elevates the internal auxin concentration in the plant. The A. thaliana root transcriptome undergoes extensive changes on A. brasilense inoculation, and the effects are more pronounced at later time points. The wild-type bacterial strain induces changes in hormone- and defense-related genes, as well as in plant cell wall-related genes. The A. brasilense mutant, however, does not elicit these transcriptional changes to the same extent. There are qualitative and quantitative differences between A. thaliana responses to the wild-type A. brasilense strain and the auxin biosynthesis mutant strain, based on both phenotypic and transcriptomic data. This illustrates the major role played by auxin in the Azospirillum-Arabidopsis interaction, and possibly also in other bacterium-plant interactions.


American cutaneous leishmaniasis is an endemic anthropozoonosis that exhibits a broad spectrum of clinical presentations. Intermediate/borderline disseminated cutaneous leishmaniasis is a distinct clinical condition that comprises cutaneous disease of a chronic nature, usually occurring as multiple lesions with or without mucosal involvement. The disease is usually caused by parasites of the subgenus Viannia, frequently occurs in context of an underlying disease, and is often resistant to standard antileishmanial therapy. We report a case that was refractory to standard therapy and other second‐line drugs, but resolved after treatment with fluconazole, and review the use of fluconazole as a second‐line drug in children.


Most surface water treatment plants use floc-filtration as the most important treatment step in drinking water production. This paper presents a new technological development which allows floc-filtration to be carried out in pressure filters. Experiments in pilot and full scale show its high efficiency. The technological development allows us to treat algal-rich and high turbid matter containing raw water efficiently at high filtration rates. Floc formation can be realised by means of a special reaction tank in front of the filter inlet. Efficient removal of particles and turbidity is achieved if filtration with filter inlet flow controller is used.


Vegetables provide nutrients for health and maintenance of human body. Apart from this fact about its nutrient-content, human also need to make sure the vegetables they consume are chemical free. The most important factor in running this organic farming system is farmers' behavior over the system itself. This behavior, supported by the farmers' knowledge about the farming system, will lead to their demeanor in applying the farming system in Trawas. This research uses three methods; descriptive method, correlation method and analytic method. To collect the sample, Simple Random Sampling is used. From 104 members of the community, by using Slovin's formula, the researcher gets 31 respondents as the samples. Furthermore, the researcher uses scoring and Rank Spearman method in the analysis. The result of this research shows that; 1) the rank of the farmers' behavior are average, and the rank of the knowledge are also average (54,84%), while the rank of the demeanor are high (64,52%), and the rank of the skills are high (64,52%); 2) the rank of the application of the organic farming system in Trawas is high (54,84%); 3) there is corelation between knowledge, demeanor and skill with the application of organic system in District of Trawas at the 99% rate of signification.
Keywords : Organic Farming, Farmer Behavior, Vegetables Farming


We report on the energy-transfer mechanism between amorphous Si nanoclusters and erbium ions in a SiO2 matrix. We have studied a set of optimized samples which show maximum Er3+ to Si-nc coupling ratio. We demonstrate that the transfer mainly occurs to the 4I112 level in less than 100 ns and that higher Er3+ energetic levels are not involved. Furthermore, we show that there are no traces of Auger back-transfer, excited state absorption, or pair-induced quenching mechanisms in our samples, leading us to propose a model in which the short interaction distance between Si-nc and Er3+ ions is the limiting factor for the noncomplete excitation of the whole Er3+ active population.


SIR,-Dr. D. C. Deuchar's letter (April 1, p. 967) draws attention to the well-recognized difficulty of assessment of the effect of drugs used in the treatment of angina pectoris. He refers in his first paragraph to "persantin," which is marketed by my company, as a drug " which it is claimed, largely on the basis of work in experimental animals, to be effective as a coronary vasodilator." This could, I feel, have been more accurately expressed. Persantin is effective as a ooronary vasodilator. Studies in the animal and in the human subject with healthy coronary trees have demonstrated this without doubt.'-8 The question at issue is whether persantin is equally effective in the diseased coronary tree.


Current global changes make it important to be able to predict which interactions will occur in the emerging ecosystems. Most of the current methods to infer the existence of interactions between two species require a good knowledge of their behaviour or a direct observation of interactions. In this paper, we overcome these limitations by developing a method, inspired from the niche model of food web structure, using the statistical relationship between predator and prey body size to infer the matrix of potential interactions among a pool of species. The novelty of our approach is to infer, for any species of a given species pool, the three species‐specific parameters of the niche model. The method applies to both local and metaweb scales. It allows one to evaluate the feeding interactions of a new species entering the community. We find that this method gives robust predictions of the structure of food webs and that its efficiency is increased when the strength of the body–size relationship between predators and preys increases. We finally illustrate the potential of the method to infer the metaweb structure of pelagic fishes of the Mediterranean sea under different global change scenarios.


Cancer is one of the most common causes of death, taking over 7 million lives each year globally. The global incidence is remarkably rising. Massive investments in research are also on the rise to unravel the genetic and molecular basis of cancer as a prerequisite to design of more effective treatment strategies. This review explores causes of cancer, its molecular basis and the treatment strategies. Future perspectives regarding research on cancer and envisaged milestones of management and/or treatment interventions are also explored. Keywords: Carcinogens, Mutations, Proto-oncogenes, Tumor-suppressor genes.


The present study was conducted to evaluate how changes in leaf area affected vine growth, yield and grape quality of five-year-old potted Cabernet Sauvignon grapevines. At the beginning of flowering vines were randomly assigned to the following five treatments: untrimmed (control); shoot trimmed at either node 12 (T12) or node 6 (T6) with laterals either retained (R) or excised (X). Those four manipulations are abbreviated to: T12LR, T12LX, T6LR and T6LX, respectively.

Total leaf area per vine was significantly lowered in T12LX and T6LX as compared to the other treatments, whereas lateral formation was able to offset foliage loss due to trimming in T12LR and T6LR with respect to control vines. T6LR also showed a more prolonged lateral node production. Yield per vine and its components did not differ significantly among treatments except for berry size, which was reduced in T6LR and T6LX. Grape ripening was severely retarded in T6LX, as shown by lower °Brix, pH, colour and phenolics, and higher TA, tartrate and malate. A maturity delay was also shown in T6LR as lower soluble solids and total anthocyanins per berry in comparison with untrimmed vines. No difference in grape quality versus control was shown by the T12 treatments. Post-trimming assimilation rates (A) clearly indicated a large compensation capacity of retained main leaves despite their mean age being higher than that calculated for main leaves sampled the same day on control vines. The assimilation rates recorded on lateral leaves increased proportionally with lateral shoot size and inversely to the number of main leaves retained with trimming.
Based on present results, both the area and photosynthetic effectiveness of source leaves will drive overall vine responses to shoot trimming. For example, T6LX showed the worst performance with respect to the other treatments, in agreement with lowest leaf area, leaf-to-fruit ratio and oldest canopy. However, T6LR had a somewhat retarded ripening despite its non-limiting leaf-to-fruit ratio, relatively young canopy and maximum whole-canopy photosynthesis and efficiency at veraison. Under such circumstances, duration of growth and possible competition with the berry sugaring process may have played a role.


Purpose
This study aims to explore the role of planned, sudden shifts in lived experiences, in influencing learner capabilities towards improved problem-solving for sustainable development outcomes. The authors responded to employers of engineering and built environment graduates observing limited "real-life" problem-solving skills, beyond using established formulae and methods, in spite of attempts over more than two decades, to train engineers and other built environment disciplines in areas such as whole system design and sustainable design.

Design/methodology/approach
A grounded theory approach was used to guide the analysis of data collected through ethnographic methods. The process involved reflecting on authors' efforts to develop context appreciation within a course called "International Engineering Practice", using two years of collected data (archived course information, including course profile; completed assessment; lecture and field visit evaluations; and focus groups). The study is built on the authors' working knowledge of Bloom's Taxonomy and Threshold Learning Theory, and the well-established role of "context appreciation" in complex problem-solving. After the first iteration of the course, the authors looked for additional theoretical support to help explain findings. The Cynefin framework was subsequently used to augment the authors' appreciation of "context" – beyond physical context to include relational context, and to evaluate students' competency development across the four domains of "clear", "complicated", "complex" and "chaotic".

Findings
This study helped the authors to understand that there was increased capacity of the students to distinguish between three important contexts for problem-solving, including an increased awareness about the importance of factual and relevant information, increased acknowledgement of the varying roles of professional practitioners in problem-solving depending on the type of problem and increased appreciation of the importance of interdisciplinary teams in tackling complex and complicated problems. There were several opportunities for such courses to be more effective in preparing students for dealing with "chaotic" situations that are prevalent in addressing the United Nations' 17 sustainable development goals (UNSDGs). Drawing on the course-based learnings, the authors present a "context integration model" for developing problem-solving knowledge and skills.

Research limitations/implications
The research findings are important because context appreciation – including both physical context and relational context – is critical to problem-solving for the UNSDGs, including its 169 targets and 232 indicators. The research findings highlight the opportunity for the Cynefin framework to inform holistic curriculum renewal processes, enhancing an educator's ability to design, implement and evaluate coursework that develops physical and relational context appreciation.

Practical implications
The study's findings and context integration model can help educators develop the full range of necessary problem-solving graduate competencies, including for chaotic situations involving high degrees of uncertainty. Looking ahead, acknowledging the significant carbon footprint of global travel, the authors are interested in applying the model to a domestic and/or online format of the same course, to attempt similar learning outcomes.

Originality/value
Connecting Bloom's taxonomy deep learning and threshold learning theory critical path learning insights with the Cynefin framework context domains, provides a novel model to evaluate competency development for problem-solving towards improved holistic physical and relational "context appreciation" outcomes.


We propose a new prescriptive analytics model based on robust satisficing that incorporates a prediction model to determine the here-and-now decision that would achieve a target expected reward as well as possible under both risk ambiguity and estimation uncertainty . The reward function of the decision model depends on some observable parameters whose future realizations are uncertain, and their outcomes may be influenced by some observable factors or the decision made. The robust satisficing model features a residual ambiguity set that characterizes the risk ambiguity of the regression residuals via a moment constraint on the expected prediction loss, and a regularized estimation set that characterizes the estimation uncertainty of the regression coefficients imposed by a regularization constraint. We provide statistical justification for the robust satisficing models and formulate tractable models when the reward function is a saddle function. We feature two applications and use real data in their case studies; a wine portfolio investment problem, and a multi-product pricing problem. Through these numerical studies, we elucidate the benefits of our robust satisficing model over the predict-then-optimize approach; when evaluated on the true distribution, the robust satisficing models yield solutions with lower risks, and with suitably chosen targets, they could also achieve higher expected reward. We observe consistent and significant improvement over the benchmarks, and the improvements are more pronounced when less data is available.


Electronic abstract of the thesis for the library for the acquisitions department of Wageningen UR library (published as a html file so hyperlinks may be included) In English, one or 2 pages. Functional ecology of tropical forest recovery Currently in the tropics, the area of secondary forest exceeds that of mature forest, and the importance of secondary forest will probably continue to increase in the future. Understanding secondary forests' potential for maintaining biodiversity and critical ecosystem functions is thereby vital. The aim of this study was to mechanistically link tropical forest succession with the recovery of ecosystem functioning after agricultural field abandonment using a trait-based approach. Such an approach makes use of functional traits; components of an organism's phenotype that are key to assess ecosystem responses to global change drivers, and are at the same time indicators of how organisms drive changes in ecosystem functioning. Trait-based approaches could therefore provide a mechanistic way to scale up from organisms to ecosystems and thereby contribute towards a more predictive biodiversity and ecosystem functioning science. For this study, I made use of secondary forest data from a wet forest region in Chiapas (main study site), that cover the first 3 decades of succession, complemented with data from a dry forest region in Oaxaca, that cover the first 6 decades of succession. Both are tropical regions in Mexico, characterized by high biodiversity levels and rapid forest loss for agricultural expansion. In this study I found that functional diversity (the range of different functional traits) increases rapidly and functional composition (the weighted average functional trait value) changes directionally with succession (chapter 2 and 3). These reflect changing habitat filters (changing environmental gradients that underlie succession), and also a gradual shift from habitat filtering towards an increasing effect of competitively driven limiting trait similarity (chapter 4 and 5). Such successional changes in community functional properties suggest strong changes in ecosystem functions, however in situ ecosystem function rates were primarily explained by the total amount of biomass present rather than by biodiversity or functional trait properties of secondary forests (chapter 6). Only the more controlled ex situ decomposition rates were additionally significantly influenced by functional diversity and functional composition. When evaluating the identity of species that drive most of the ecosystem functions I found that different functions were largely driven by the same (dominant) species, implying a limited effect of biodiversity for multifunctionality at a given moment in time. This suggests that biodiversity is mainly important for maintaining multifunctional ecosystems across temporal and spatial scales (chapter 7). Deforestation is a major threat to natural forests and biodiversity, and I recognize that secondary forests are generally a poor substitute of mature forest. Nevertheless, I show that unassisted recovery through natural succession can be rapid, and contribute considerably to maintenance of biodiversity, functional strategies and ecosystem functions. So while protecting the remaining tracts of mature forests is vital, secondary forests are key components of multifunctional human-modified landscapes where synergies between biodiversity, ecosystem functions and human wellbeing can be optimized.


Recent researches on Automatic Chord Extraction (ACE) have focused on the improvement of models based on machine learning. However, most models still fail to take into account the prior knowledge underlying the labeling alphabets (chord labels). Furthermore, recent works have shown that ACE performances are converging towards a glass ceiling. Therefore, this prompts the need to focus on other aspects of the task, such as the introduction of musical knowledge in the representation, the improvement of the models towards more complex chord alphabets and the development of more adapted evaluation methods.
In this paper, we propose to exploit specific properties and relationships between chord labels in order to improve the learning of statistical ACE models. Hence, we analyze the interdependence of the representations of chords and their associated distances, the precision of the chord alphabets, and the impact of the reduction of the alphabet before or after training of the model. Furthermore, we propose new training losses based on musical theory. We show that these improve the results of ACE systems based on Convolutional Neural Networks. By performing an in-depth analysis of our results, we uncover a set of related insights on ACE tasks based on statistical models, and also formalize the musical meaning of some classification errors.


The aim of the article is to describe the trends ongoing in modern economic discourse. Economic discourse is considered to be a part of business discourse texts united by the topic of commerce and economic relations. The author looks into speech influence means used by the participants of online communication in social media posts. The work is carried out in the framework of functional pragmatic paradigm. Studying the correlation between the speech forms and their functions, this approach allows to identify the main speech strategies and tactics used by specialists in economics and ordinary people discussing economic issues. The tactic of assessment is the object of the current study. The excerpts from social media involving debate on single market issue were chosen by method of continuous sampling. They included the posts from accounts of European Union Commission, EU Finance, Confederation of British Industry, BBC Politics et al. The author singles out speech means characterizing the phenomenon from a positive and negative perspective. They are treated as a reflection of collective consciousness of Europeans and demonstrate an attitude of doubt and skepticism towards the single market. To conclude, online communication in the field of economics and business proves to be a valuable object for linguistic research. New mass media play an important role in formation of discourse field and a powerful tool for expressing public opinion.


According to familiar accounts, Rousseau held that humans are actuated by two distinct kinds of self love: amour de soi, a benign concern for one's self-preservation and well-being; and amour-propre, a malign concern to stand above other people, delighting in their despite. I argue that although amour-propre can (and often does) assume this malign form, this is not intrinsic to its character. The first and best rank among men that amour-propre directs us to claim for ourselves is that of occupying 'man's estate'. This does not require, indeed it precludes, subjection of others. Amour-propre does not need suppression or circumscription if we are to live good lives; it rather requires direction to its proper end, not a delusive one.


Organic photovoltaic is an attractive technology to solve future energy supply scenarios. To further increase the potential of this technology novel absorber materials and interface materials have to be developed. In this work the paramount importance of interface materials for efficient as well as stable organic photovoltaic cells and modules is demonstrated. The general requirements of interface materials are elaborated and properties of a novel interface material which meets the demands are investigated experimentally and by simulations.


Fingerprint authentication for content protection in the human-machine systems, cybernetics, and computational intelligence is very popular. Because of the complex input contexts, low-quality input fingerprint images always exist with cracks and scars, dry skin, or poor ridges and valley contrast ridges. Usually, fingerprint images are enhanced by one stage in either the spatial or the frequency domain. However, the enhanced performances are not satisfactory because of the complicated ridge structures that are affected by unusual input contexts. In this paper, we propose a novel and effective two-stage enhancement scheme in both the spatial domain and the frequency domain by learning from the underlying images. To remedy the ridge areas and enhance the contrast of the local ridges, we first enhance the fingerprint image in the spatial domain with a spatial ridge-compensation filter by learning from the images. With the help of the first step, the second-stage filter, i.e., a frequency bandpass filter that is separable in the radial- and angular-frequency domains, is employed. It is noted that the parameters of the bandpass filters are learnt from both the original image and the first-stage enhanced image instead of acquiring from the original image solely. It enhances the fingerprint image significantly because of the fast and sharp attenuation of the filter in both the radial and the angular-frequency domains. Experimental results show that our proposed algorithm is able to handle various input image contexts and achieves better results compared with some state-of-the-art algorithms over public databases, and to improve the performances of fingerprint-authentication systems.


This report describes RRS Charles Darwin Cruise 135, an ATSR satellite validation cruise which took place in October-November 2001. The cruise was divided into two legs: Leg 1 primarily focussed on ATSR satellite validation and Leg 2 was planned around the recovery of Netherlands Institute of Sea Research (NIOZ) moorings. Throughout the cruise real-time measurements of the air-sea fluxes of momentum, sensible heat, latent heat and CO2 were made, in addition to the usual mean meteorological parameters. The main aim of Leg 1 (Seychelles to Seychelles) was to achieve as many ATSR satellite overpass validations as possible with the SISTeR radiometer. In addition 5 APEX floats were deployed in support of the ARGO Programme and two XBT equatorial sections were made. During Leg 2 (Seychelles to Durban) the key objective was to recover an array of seven moorings, on a section across the Mozambique Channel roughly at its narrowest part, which had been previously deployed by NIOZ. Further ATSR overpass validations were achieved and two more XBT sections were made.