Over the last decades, Sweden like most of the rest of Europe has experienced significant demographic changes due to aging population and influx of immigrants. Shifting composition of the population can be expected to affect housing construction in terms of housing tenure and total stock. While numerous studies have shown that there might be a dependence of demographic composition of the population and real estate construction, other studies have shown that this might be a result stemming from lack of control variables. This study sets out to analyze the relationship of demography and real estate construction, adding to the existing literature by differentiating between real estate construction in rental and owning sectors, as well as single- and multifamily sectors. We utilize a panel data set spanning from 1975 to 2005 that consists seven aggregated, self-contained regions of Sweden. Our preliminary findings suggest that the different estimates of the relationship between age categories of the population and housing construction is negligible. However, the difference in magnitude from younger persons between rental and non-rental multi-family housing construction is significant.


The authors describe a newborn with postnatal myopathy who subsequently developed feeding difficulties, ophthalmoplegia, ptosis, encephalopathy, and seizures. She became ventilator dependent after sudden apnea. The myopathy was without ragged red fibers in the muscle biopsy. An electron transport chain study showed a markedly generalized low level of enzyme activity, particularly in complexes I, I + III, and IV. An initial electroencephalogram finding was normal; subsequent electroencephalograms showed suppression bursts. The mitochondrial copy number in skeletal muscle was 2% of normal.


In 2006 the Portuguese National Archives (DirectorateGeneral of the Portuguese Archives) engaged in the development of an OAIS compatible digital repository system for long-term preservation of digital material. Simultaneously, at the University of Minho a project called CRiB was being devised which aimed at the development of a wholesome set of services to aid digital preservation. Among those services were format converters, quality-assessment tools, preservation planning and automatic metadata production for retaining representations' authenticity. This paper provides a detailed description of both projects and discusses how these may be integrated into a complete digital preservation solution based on currently available archiving and preservation standards, e.g. OAIS, EAD, PREMIS, METS and


Based upon substantial numbers of women enrolling in MBA and law programs, from the 1970s onward expectations have been high. With 25 and later 36% female MBA matriculates, and 33% and later 49-51% in law, by the 21st Century the expectation was that great numbers of women would populate the CEO suites and boardrooms in the U.S. NO SEAT AT THE TABLE (NYU Press 2007) documents how the numbers lag badly behind the expectations, and how the reality lags further yet behind the numbers. Analyses of Fortune 500 proxy data, as the enclosed chapter demonstrates, produce scant reason to posit a reversal of the leaky pipe phenomenon any time soon. The number of women directors remains static, or grows only slowly, while the number of women trophy directors, those who 4 or more directorships, has increased rapidly. These and other factual findings support the proposition that the glass ceiling remains in place. NO SEAT AT THE TABLE explores explanations for women's failure to advance in the number one would have predicted. Further, NO SEAT AT THE TABLE offers suggestions both for women who wish to advance and for corporations which wish to facilitate entry of more women into the pool from which corporate directors may be chosen.


The methodologies applicable for the evaluation of periodontal associated diseases are constantly evolving to provide quick, realistic, and scientifically proven results. Trends in the past followed a clinical evaluation of periodontal tissues and radiographic-based reports that formed the foundation for detection of diseases involving the structures supporting the teeth. As the confines and limitations of conventional strategies became obvious over the passage of time, hand in hand variety of techniques have evolved and experimentally justified. These improvisations are based on an improved understanding of the periodontal-pathogenic cascade. Periodontal pathogenesis and a paradigm shift from disease understanding to disease prevention and treatment entail few prerequisites that demand the objectivity of diagnostics procedure that includes sensitivity and specificity along with an explanation of the intensity of the disease, Gingival crevicular fluid an oral bio-fluid resides in the close proximity with gingival tissues have been widely used to understand and differentiate the periodontal health and diseased status. The biomarkers present in the GCF can be a reliable tool to detect the minute changes seen in the disease processes. The GCF consists of various host and bacterial-derived products as well as biomarkers which in turn can be evaluated for the diagnosis, prognosis as well as management of the periodontal disease. Thus, the review aims at describing GCF as a potential oral biofluid helpful in differentiating periodontal health and disease status.


According to the norms of Ukrainian legislation the institute of representation belongs to the sphere of Civil Law of Ukraine. At that the researchers of the science of the civil law have pointed out and emphasized the peculiarities of representation in different areas as sharing some common features it possesses different contents. The abovementioned peculiarity of representation has been attracting attention and is still under the research by scientists-laborers whose views on the presence of representation in the Labor Law are at times oppositional. The following are among those scientists: B. K. Behichev, O. V. Bryliova, N. D. Hetmantseva, L. V. Zaitseva, M. S. Kaminska, V. H. Melnikova, V. O. Protsevskyi, S. M. Prylypko, H. A. Trunova, H. I. Chanysheva, O. M. Iaroshenko and others. Despite numerous scientific debates in this area the topicality of the suggested subject of the research still remains extremely significant which is mainly predetermined by the absence of the norms on the regulation of the relations of representation in the current Law Code on Labor. This is why the aim of this research is to determine the possibilities of representation of employers according to the norms of Labor Law both in individual and collective labor relations alongside with the analysis of problematic issues in this area and the ways of their solution.


Attackers rapidly change their attacks to evade detection. Even the most sophisticated Intrusion Detection Systems that are based on artificial intelligence and advanced data analytic cannot keep pace with the rapid development of new attacks. When standard detection mechanisms fail or do not provide sufficient forensic information to investigate and mitigate attacks, targeted threat hunting performed by competent personnel is used. Unfortunately, many organization do not have enough security analysts to perform threat hunting tasks and today the level of automation of threat hunting is low.
In this paper we describe a framework for agile threat hunting and forensic investigation (ATHAFI), which automates the threat hunting process at multiple levels. Adaptive targeted data collection, attack hypotheses generation, hypotheses testing, and continuous threat intelligence feeds allow to perform simple investigations in a fully automated manner. The increased level of automation will significantly boost the analyst's productivity during investigation of the harshest cases.
Special Workflow Generation module adapts the threat hunting procedures either to the latest Threat Intelligence obtained from external sources (e.g. National CERT) or to the likeliest attack hypotheses generated by the Attack Hypotheses Generation module. The combination of Attack Hypotheses Generation and Workflows Generation enables intelligent adjustment of workflows, which react to emerging threats effectively.


Purpose of review Feminizing genitoplasty in male-to-female transsexuals is gaining significant importance within society. Our aim is to evaluate current articles and assess scientific validity of the recent literature (January 2008 to June 2009) of male-to-female gender-reassignment surgery. Recent findings This is a very difficult and demanding field of surgery, often followed by many complications that have an impact on long-term results, quality of life and general patient satisfaction. In the last 18 months, there were only a few articles that deserve attention. Small advances are made in surgical technique, especially of aesthetics of external genitalia, which now closely resemble a natural woman, in creation of mons veneris using albugineal strip and some useful anatomical remarks regarding surgical procedure. Two articles evaluate long-term and medium-term surgical outcomes and one describes surgical complications. One study deals with body composition, volumetric and areal bone density 3 years after surgery. Summary In the last 18 months, there are only several works regarding surgical technique in male-to-female feminizing genitoplasty, which may have impact on clinical practice, whereas one work researches negative implications of hormonal treatment and surgery on bone and body composition.


The invention discloses a new synthesizing technique of chiral drug (S)-alpha-ethyl-2-oxo-1-pyrrolidine acetamide ( left Piracetam) intermediate (S)-(+)-2-aminobutanamide hydrochlorate, which comprises the following steps: adopting 2-brobutyrate as initial raw material; aminating; esterifying; ammonolyzing; detaching; looping; obtaining the object compound; making mixed rotary free alkaline (+-)-2-aminobutanamide; adopting half-quantum resolution method to connect chemical detaching salt to evolve salt; removing the detaching agent through alkalization; obtaining the (S)-(+)-2-aminobutanamidehydrochlorate with optical activity; using the mother liquor to make the product. The invention improves the receiving rate and saves the cost of raw material with simply technical operation and low cost, which resolves the resolved mother liquor after racemic action again to reduce the pollution of environment, therefore fitting for industrialized manufacturing.


We present efficient angle-dependent low-energy Hamiltonians to describe the properties of the twisted bilayer graphene (tBLG) heterostructure, based on {\it ab initio} calculations of mechanical relxation and electronic structure. The angle-dependent relaxed atomic geometry is determined by continuum elasticity theory, which induces both in-plane and out-of-plane deformations in the stacked graphene layers. The electronic properties corresponding to the deformed geometry are derived from a Wannier transformation to local interactions obtained from Density Functional Theory calculations. With these {\it ab initio} tight-binding Hamiltonians of the relaxed heterostructure, the low-energy effective theories are derived from the projections near Dirac cones at K valleys. For twist angles ranging from 0.7$^\circ$ to 4$^\circ$, we extract both the intra-layer pseudo-gauge fields and the inter-layer coupling terms in the low-energy Hamiltonians, which extend the conventional low-energy continuum models. We further include the momentum dependent inter-layer scattering terms which give rise to the particle-hole asymmetric features of the electronic structure. Our model Hamiltonians can serve as a starting point for formulating physically meaningful, accurate interacting electron theories.


A method for the quantification of the natural hormone 17 beta-estradiol (17 beta-E2) in bovine serum by liquid chromatography atmospheric pressure chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-APCI-MS-MS) was developed. Ethinylestradiol (EE2) was used as internal standard. Analytes were extracted from serum using acetate buffer, purified by C18 solid-phase extraction (SPE) and chromatographed on a polymeric reversed-phase (PLRP-S) LC column. They were ionized in a heated nebulizer (HN) interface operating in the negative ion mode, where only the intact deprotonated molecules, [M - H]-, were generated at m/z 271 and 295 for 17 beta-E2 and EE2, respectively. These served as precursor ions for collision-induced dissociation (CID) and diagnostic product ions were identified for the unambiguous hormone confirmation by selected reaction monitoring (SRM) LC-APCI-MS-MS. The method was validated on bovine serum and the limit of quantification (LOQ) was 30 pg ml-1 for 17 beta-E2. The inter-day precision (relative standard deviation, RSD) and accuracy (relative error, RE) derived from the analyses of validation samples at three concentrations ranged from 1.76 to 3.76 and from -4.18 to -2.01%, respectively. This method is currently being successfully applied to measure the bovine serum concentration of 17 beta-E2 in order to discriminate between the physiological concentrations of 17 beta/E2 and the hormone levels resulting from illegal administration.


ABSTRACT Kenaf fibers have long been utilized because of their remarkable properties, such as availability, durability, and strength. Recently, they have also been used as sound-absorbing composites for noise control purposes. This paper investigates the possibility of improving the tensile strength of kenaf fibers through optimizing the alkaline treatment process. It also considers the effects of such optimization on the acoustic absorption coefficients of the samples fabricated from these treated kenaf fibers as well as the applicability of the numerical model to predict the acoustic absorption. Having employed the response surface methodology (RSM) to optimize the alkaline treatment process and achieve optimal conditions for the kenaf fibers, the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and tensile test were used to study and compare the morphological and tensile properties of raw fibers (nonoptimal) and the fibers treated in optimal conditions. Several cylindrical samples with constant thickness and density (30 mm and 200 kg/m3) were then made of fibers treated in optimal conditions. The sound absorption coefficient, porosity, and airflow resistivity of these samples were measured based using ISO 10534–2 (impedance tube system), SEM and ASTM C423-09A, respectively. The results demonstrated that the tensile strength of optimally treated fibers increased by 182.39%. The acoustic absorption coefficients of the samples fabricated from these fibers were also higher at all frequencies (low-, mid-, and high-frequency range) compared with samples made of untreated fibers in a way that the Sound Absorption Average value of the former increased by 17.97%. Moreover, it was found that inverted Dunn and Davern model via Nelder-Mead simplex method well follows the sound absorption pattern from the experimental results in the overall frequency range. The use of multifaceted improvement approaches for natural materials such as kenaf fibers increases the usability of these materials as sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives in the engineering process of manufacturing sound-absorbing materials.


Histopathological examination was carried out on male rats after single subcutaneous administration of 1, 2-dibromo-3-chloropropane (DBCP). DBCP produced injury in the kidney, testis, intestine, lympho-hematopoietic tissues, epididymis and liver. The renal injury consisted of proximal tubular necrosis in the outer medulla and degeneration of glomerular podocytes. Seminiferous epithelial desquamation and tubular atrophy were seen in testis. In lympho-hematopoietic tissues, there was depletion of lymphocytes as well as myeloid cells. Intestinal epithelial necrosis and rare mitosis occurred in the crypt of Lieberkiihn. Hepatic and epididymal injuries were relatively mild. The lesions developed dose-dependently, the minimal effective doses appearing to be 30 mg/kg for kidney, 100 mg/kg for testis, intestine and lympho-hematopoietic tissues and 300 mg/kg for epididymis and liver. These results indicated that DBCP might be a radiomimetic toxicant.


This work investigates the division of labor between mood and illocutionary force in syntax by examining three
 modal construals encoded by the speaker-oriented adverb zuìhǎo 'best' (deontic, epistemic and evidential) in
 Mandarin, and accounts for a cluster of syntactic and pragmatic properties it is associated with. Very much in line with Tsai's
 (2015a, 2015b and 2015d) modal system in Mandarin, it is observed that each type of zuìhǎo can co-occur
 with its matching modal auxiliary in the fashion of Cinque's (1999) 'location-in-Spec'
 hypothesis and encodes a certain type of illocutionary force. One persistent question is how zuìhǎo substantiates
 illocutionary force in syntax, while its designated position is not situated in the licensing domain of ForceP. As far as the left
 periphery is concerned, this work argues for a conspiracy between syntax, semantics and pragmatics to ensure the success in
 activating the Bidirectional Agree relation between speech act, force and mood. We argue for a speech act layer (Sa*P) externally
 merging to CP (Speas and Tenny, 2003), whose head values the uninterpretable speech act feature [uSa] on Force0
 via the Bidirectional Agree to trigger its interface with the utterance content (CP). Meanwhile, following Kempchinsky's (2009) idea, it is further argued in this work that Force0 hosts the
 uninterpretable feature [uW] which has to be checked and valued by the modal construals of
 zuìhǎo to determine the irrealis-realis mood. An immediate implication is that ForceP serves as a gateway to
 not only mood but also speech act at the interface. Several issues involved in dealing with zuìhǎo are
 discussed.


Objective: This study aimed to assess the level of awareness about Hepatitis B infection, and the HBV testing and vaccination history among students of medical laboratory sciences (MLS) at Sudan international university.Results: A total of 271 students responded to the questionnaire. Among them, 67% were females, and 33% were males with a mean age of 20.93 ± 1.6 years. Only 66 (24.4%) students were vaccinated against hepatitis B, whereas 205 (75.6%) students had never been vaccinated. Out of all study participants, 121 (44.6%) had never been tested for HBV. Among the study participants, 60.4% had good knowledge about HBV, 85% had a positive attitude toward HBV, and 85% had good practices related to HBV. The mean awareness score was 18.3, with 64% of participants having satisfactory awareness about HBV. Moreover, this awareness was significantly predicted by the study level of the student (P = .000). Being on the fourth year of study was associated with satisfactory awareness about HBV (OR = 0.41, 95% CI 0.188–0.889).


Introduction Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal-recessive inherited neuromuscular disorder that causes progressive loss of motor neurons in the anterior horn of the spinal cord, and is the leading genetic cause of infant mortality, affecting 1 in 10 000 live births. SMA causes diffuse symmetrical proximal muscle weakness, greater in the lower than upper limbs and absent or markedly decreased deep tendon reflexes. Clinically, SMA is divided into types 0 through 4 based on the age of onset and clinical course. Currently, the only approved treatment for all types of SMA is intrathecal Nusinersen (Spinraza®). The standard route to access the intrathecal space is through an interlaminar approach with the use of imaging guidance for patients who are obese or have complicated anatomy. Alternative routes such as transforaminal, C1/2 puncture or a caudal approach can also be considered based on the pathology and difficulty of routine interlaminar access. In older children, severe scoliosis develops secondary to neuromuscular weakness. Scoliosis in these children is typically progressive, which usually requires long segment surgical fusion with hardware and bone allografts for stabilization. In such patients, scoliosis itself and/or the surgical hardware preclude a standard interlaminar approach for gaining intra-thecal access and other routes such as fluoroscopy guided transforaminal approach should be considered instead. In this study, we report the safety and efficacy of transforaminal LP for the injection of Nusinersen in the subset of children who had extensive spinal fusion and/or scoliosis which precluded an interlaminar approach. Method This is a single-center study approved by our institutional review board. Retrospective chart reviews of all pediatric patients requiring fluoroscopically-guided intrathecal Nusinersen injections were performed. Demographic and procedural details and related complications were obtained from the electronic medical records. All transforaminal intrathecal injections were conducted under fluoroscopic guidance and patients were evaluated immediately and within two weeks follow up for complications. Results Between October 2017 and February 2018, we performed 36 Nusinersen injections in 12 children who were previously diagnosed with SMA. Fluoroscopic-guided transforaminal injections were successfully performed 19 times (52% of these injections) in 5 patients (3 male and 2 female) aged between 4 to 17 years (Mean=12 years). One patient had SMA type 1 and four had SMA type 2. The level and site of the Nusinersen injections are as follows: T12/L1 (Right=2), L1/L2 (Right=2), L2/L3 (Right=4, Left=7), L3/L4 (Right=4). General anesthesia was used in 15 procedures (79%) local anesthesia in 4 (21%). Four patients had chronic respiratory failure, three were BiPAP dependent, and three had osteoporosis. One patient had morbid obesity (BMI=33.8) but the rest had a BMI within the normal range (Mean=21.4). Complications such as post-LP headache, back pain, bleeding, radicular pain and/or paresthesias were not noted whether immediately after procedures or at 1–2 days and 2 weeks follow up. Conclusion Transforaminal lumbar puncture is a safe and effective method for delivering intrathecal Nusinersen in children with spinal muscular atrophy and complex spinal fusions that preclude the use of the standard interlaminar route. Disclosures T. Shokuhfar: None. P. Nazari: None. S. Ansari: None. M. Hurley: None. S. Azmi: None. N. Kuntz: 6; C; Biogen: membership on Medical advisory committee and honoraria for lectures. V. Rao: None. M. Potts: None. B. Jahromi: None. A. Shaibani: None.


Native lung surfactant protein C (SP-C) is a 4.2-kDa acylpeptide that associates with alveolar surfactant phospholipids via a transmembrane α-helix. This helix contains mainly Val, although poly-Val is inefficient in helix formation, and helical SP-C can spontaneously convert to β-sheet aggregates and amyloid-like fibrils. SP-C is cleaved out from a 21-kDa integral membrane protein, proSP-C, in the alveolar type II cell. Recently several mutations localized in the endoplasmic reticulum-lumenal (C-terminal) part of proSP-C (CTproSP-C) have been associated with intracellular accumulation of toxic forms of proSP-C, low levels of mature SP-C, and development of interstitial lung disease. CTproSP-C contains a ∼100-residue Brichos domain of unknown function that is also found in other membrane proteins associated with amyloid formation, dementia, and cancer. Here we find that recombinant CTproSP-C binds lipid-associated SP-C, which is in β-strand conformation, and that this interaction results in an increased helical content. In contrast, CTproSP-C does not bind α-helical SP-C. Recombinant CTproSP-C(L188Q), a mutation associated with interstitial lung disease, shows secondary and quaternary structures similar to those of wild type CTproSP-C but is unable to bind lipid-associated β-strand SP-C. Transfection of CTproSP-C into HEK293 cells that express proSP-C(L188Q) increases the amount of proSP-C protein, whereas no effect is seen on cells expressing wild type proSP-C. These findings suggest that CTproSP-C binds nonhelical SP-C and thereby prevents β-sheet aggregation and that mutations in CTproSP-C can interfere with this function.


Nonpenetrating injuries to the abdomen represent a challenging problem in our nation's hospitals today. There seems little likelihood—in a growing society in which nearly 40,000 persons annually are killed in automobile accidents, and 3,500,000 injured—that we can look with any optimism toward the prevention of these injuries. It is hoped that a review of the experience of the St. Louis City Hospital in the management of these wounds will contribute something to the understanding of this problem. Clinical Material This is a survey of 141 abdominal injuries caused by blunt trauma, admitted to the St. Louis City Hospital between Jan. 1, 1948, and Jan. 1, 1958. Of these injuries 68% occurred in males, and 60% were under 30 years of age. With few exceptions, the injuries were sustained within the urban area of the city of St. Louis; 40% of all admissions were in the eight-hour period from 10 p.m.


In this paper, we apply the concept of pretraining to hidden-unit conditional random fields (HUCRFs) to enable learning on unlabeled data. We present a simple yet effective pre-training technique that learns to associate words with their clusters, which are obtained in an unsupervised manner. The learned parameters are then used to initialize the supervised learning process. We also propose a word clustering technique based on canonical correlation analysis (CCA) that is sensitive to multiple word senses, to further improve the accuracy within the proposed framework. We report consistent gains over standard conditional random fields (CRFs) and HUCRFs without pre-training in semantic tagging, named entity recognition (NER), and part-of-speech (POS) tagging tasks, which could indicate the task independent nature of the proposed technique.


In this paper, we propose a novel spectrally efficient cooperative transmission protocol for multiple access scenarios. Different to some existing cooperative multiple access schemes, the proposed scheme can exploit the availability of relays as an extra dimension to increase reception robustness. By carefully scheduling the multiple sources and relays' transmission, a source with a poor connection to the destination can have higher priority to obtain better help from relays. As a result, the full diversity gain can be achievable for each user although only a fraction of the all relays is scheduled to help him. An achievable diversity-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT) is developed for the proposed transmission protocol to assist performance evaluation. With a large number of relays, the DMT achieved by the proposed scheme can approximate the optimal multiple-input single-input upper bound. Both analytical and numerical results show that the proposed protocol can outperform comparative schemes in most conditions.


Summary.  We propose an on‐line algorithm for exact filtering of multiple changepoint problems. This algorithm enables simulation from the true joint posterior distribution of the number and position of the changepoints for a class of changepoint models. The computational cost of this exact algorithm is quadratic in the number of observations. We further show how resampling ideas from particle filters can be used to reduce the computational cost to linear in the number of observations, at the expense of introducing small errors, and we propose two new, optimum resampling algorithms for this problem. One, a version of rejection control, allows the particle filter to choose the number of particles that are required at each time step automatically. The new resampling algorithms substantially outperform standard resampling algorithms on examples that we consider; and we demonstrate how the resulting particle filter is practicable for segmentation of human G+C content.


NaBrO3 combined with NaHSO3 was found to be an excellent oxidizing reagent of alcohols, diols, and ethers under mild conditions. A variety of aliphatic and cyclic diols were selectively oxidized with satisfactory yields to the corresponding hydroxy ketones and/or diketones, which are difficult to selectively prepare due to a concomitant formation of cleaved products. For example, 2-hydroxycyclohexanone and 1,2-cyclohexanedione were selectively formed by allowing 1,2-cyclohexanediol to react with NaBrO3/NaHSO3 reagent in a selected solvent. On the other hand, an alkyl ether, such as dioctyl ether, reacted with NaBrO3/NaHSO3 in water at room temperature to give octyl octanoate in 82% yield. The same oxidation at higher temperature (60 °C) produced the α-brominated ester, octyl 2-bromooctanoate, which is considered to be formed through an alkenyl alkyl ether as the intermediate. The treatment of 1-ethoxy-1-heptene with NaBrO3/NaHSO3 afforded ethyl 2-bromoheptanoate and 2-bromoheptanoic acid as the major prod...


This study aims to examine experiences of adoptive families, mainly focusing on mothers with their biological children and adopted a child, through a phenomenological approach. The subjects of this study are adoptive family's mothers with their biological children according to a criterion-based selection. 15 mothers who adopted children under 12 months, who are currently aged over 6, are selected and given personal and in-depth interviews, questions ranging from the process before adoption, foster care and changes in family relationships to the issues caused by adoption and coping methods. 6 steps of a phenomenological method that Colaizzi(1978) proposed are applied to analyze the data. The results of this study are as follows. The central theme of this study is 'A family which has harmonized with love beyond blood ties'. First, the participants have shown difficulties in different aspects over adoption than those of sterile families. The motive of their adoption is to let adopted children experience a happy childhood in a loving family. Secondly, the participants have adjusted themselves to new adoptive families, have committed to the care of their new children, and have experienced a change in family relationships. Finally, adoptive families have successfully been settled while overcoming difficulties together.


ISABELLE is a 400 x 400 GeV proton-proton colliding beam accelerator now under construction at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The beams will be guided and focused by superconducting magnets. A total of 722 dipole beam bending magnets and 280 quadrupole beam focusing magnets are required. Centrifugally cast CF-8 stainless steel tubes were selected to provide a rigid support and to house the superconducting magnet assembly. The selection of this material for the support tubes is discussed by Dew-Hughes and Lee. Their study indicates that the presence of delta ferrite strengthens the material but causes a decrease in ductility if the ferrite content is greater than 10%. Brown and Tobler found that the fracture toughness is also decreased as the delta ferrite content is increased.


The impact of integrated pest management (IPM) in reducing insecticide residues at Kothapally (IPM) and Enkepally (non-IPM) villages of Ranga Reddy district, Andhra Pradesh, India was evaluated in two vegetables (tomato and brinjal), besides soil and water samples during 2008–09. Out of the 15 tomato fruit samples analyzed for insecticide residues from IPM fields, only 3 samples (20% contamination) were found contaminated with residues compared to 47% in non-IPM fields. Two soil samples out of the 10 from non-IPM tomato fields, had insecticide residues. In the brinjal fields, 20% of the IPM treated and 47% in non-IPM had insecticide contamination. Twenty per cent of the soil samples in the non-IPM fields had insecticide residues, while none of the soil samples in the IPM fields had residues. Water samples collected either from IPM or non-IPM treated fields contained no residues above the detectable level. Though the contamination levels in crops and soils in the IPM and non-IPM fields indicated substantial differences, the residue concentrations were below the MRLs.


We examined whether repeated bouts of exercise could override growth hormone (GH) auto-negative feedback. Seven moderately trained men were studied on three occasions: a control day (C), a sequential exercise day (SEB; at 1000, 1130, and 1300), and a delayed exercise day (DEB; at 1000, 1400, and 1800). The duration of each exercise bout was 30 min at 70% maximal O2 consumption (VO2max) on a cycle ergometer. Standard meals were provided at 0600 and 2200. GH was measured every 5-10 min for 24 h (0800-0800). Daytime (0800-2200) integrated GH concentrations were approximately 150-160% greater during SEB and DEB than during C: 1,282 +/- 345, 3,192 +/- 669, and 3,389 +/- 991 min.microgram.l-1 for C, SEB, and DEB, respectively [SEB > C (P < 0.06), DEB > C (P < 0.03)]. There were no differences in GH release during sleep (2300-0700). Deconvolution analysis revealed that the increase in 14-h integrated GH concentration on DEB was accounted for by an increase in the mass of GH secreted per pulse (per liter of distribution volume, lv): 7.0 +/- 2.9 and 15.9 +/- 2.6 micrograms/lv for C and DEB, respectively (P < 0.01). Comparison of 1.5-h integrated GH concentrations on the SEB and DEB days (30 min exercise + 60 min recovery) revealed that, with each subsequent exercise bout, GH release apparently increased progressively, with a slightly greater increase on the DEB day [SEB vs. DEB: 497 +/- 162 vs. 407 +/- 166 (bout 1), 566 +/- 152 vs. 854 +/- 184 (bout 2), and 633 +/- 149 vs. 1,030 +/- 352 min.microgram.l-1 (bout 3), P < 0.05]. We conclude that the GH response to acute aerobic exercise is augmented with repeated bouts of exercise.


We study the famous example of weakly first order phase transitions in the 1+1D quantum Qstate Potts model at Q > 4. We numerically show that these weakly first order transitions have approximately conformal invariance. Specifically, we find entanglement entropy on considerably large system sizes fits perfectly with the universal scaling law of this quantity in the conformal field theories (CFTs). This supports that the weakly first order transitions is proximate to complex fixed points, which are described by recent conjectured complex CFTs. Moreover, the central charge extracted from this fitting is close to the real part of the complex central charge of these complex CFTs. We also study the conformal towers and the drifting behaviors of these conformal data (e.g., central charge and scaling dimensions).


Critical applications, such as industrial control systems or remote medical applications, require highly reliable networks. A key enabler of such applications are networks that deliver the required strict performance guarantees. A prominent tool for deriving such guarantees for networks and the involved components is network calculus (NC). Device specifics may have a stark influence on model characteristics, making modeling in heterogeneous environments work-intensive. OpenFlow and P4 are two approaches that emerged from the Software-Defined Networking (SDN) community making networks more flexible and, consequentially, even harder to model.In this work, we demonstrate a novel approach that uses NC to model such SDN-based devices despite their increased complexity. Abstracting away from overall device behavior, we initially model only the fundamental building blocks of SDN devices that define network device behavior. NC provides a framework to compose different NC models into a single model, which we use to combine the building blocks into a model that describes a network device program built from these building blocks. This approach allows for modeling a maximal number of devices with a minimal amount of measurements. We apply our approach to two different SDN devices, the Zodiac FX and the NetFPGA SUME. A comparison between the prediction of our composed models and real measurements reveals a prediction error below 1 %, thereby proving the validity of our approach.


A construction of thought certainly has a number of important devices that became a cornerstone of thought itself, no exception in Islamic legal thought. Devices construction of Islamic law is the first and foremost element of Islamic law before being applied to the mah}kum fi>h. There are three devices that became a cornerstone of the construction of Islamic Law, namely: (1) h}ukm/hukum, (2) h}a>kim, (3) mah}kum 'alayh.. Despite talk of Islamic Law, however, is ultimately up to the implementation to mah}kum fi>h. But on the other hand, the application was actually determined by the readiness of the devices construction. This paper focuses on the discussion of the three sets of construction of Islamic Law and the implications arising from differences related to the understanding of three construction device of Islamic Law itself. Keywords : hukum, h}a>kim, mah}kum 'alayh


Introduction Thiopurines (TPs) including azathioprine and mercaptopurine have an established role in maintaining disease remission in ulcerative colitis (UC) but their impact on the risk of colectomy remains unknown. Our aim was to establish predictors of colectomy and determine the effect of TPs on the risk for colectomy using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD). Methods We conducted a population based study using electronic primary care records in the UK. We identified incident cases of UC between 1989 and 2009 in the CPRD which contains prescribing and clinical data for 8% of the UK population and is a validated research database. Patients were included if registered with a practice for at least 12 months prior to diagnosis. We compared rates of colectomy between TP users and non-users and examined the impact of treatment duration. We performed survival analysis using the Kaplan-Meier method. Independent risk factors for surgery were determined using a multivariable Cox proportional hazards model. Results Overall, 8673 patient met our inclusion criteria of which 479 (5.5%) went on to have a total colectomy during 21 years of follow up. 51.4% were male and the median age was 46 years (IQR: 32–62 years). Female patients were less likely to undergo colectomy (HR 0.70, 95% CI: 0.58–0.84, p < 0.001). There was a threefold increase in the risk of colectomy amongst TP users compared with non-users (HR 3.48, 95% CI: 2.84–4.37, p < 0.001). Of the TP users, those receiving greater than 12 months of treatment, were least likely to undergo colectomy compared with users for less than 3 months (HR 0.29, 95% CI: 0.21–0.40, p < 0.001). Early steroid users were almost twice as likely to undergo colectomy (HR 1.94, 95% CI: 1.59–2.37, p < 0.001). 5-ASA use was protective, with users 65% less likely to undergo colectomy than non-users (HR 0.35, 95% CI: 0.28–0.44, p < 0.001). Conclusion Male sex, TP use and early steroid use within 3 months of diagnosis are predictors of colectomy in UC. Amongst TP users, sustained TP use for greater than 12 months duration, was associated with a reduction in colectomy rates. 5-ASA use was associated with a two thirds reduction in risk of colectomy. Our findings support the role of 5-ASA use and prolonged TP treatment for UC patients with a severe disease phenotype. Disclosure of Interest None Declared.


 Abstract : The article is based on the study of technologies and recommendations developed by the authors as a result of the experience accumulated in teaching a set of disciplines aimed at gaining knowledge and skills in the field of investigating certain types of crimes, performed at the Department of Investigation of the Lukyanov Orel Law Institute of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia from 2010 to 2019. The article examines the issues of preparation and selection of the most optimal training model, and the applied part provides the algorithm of a lesson, as well as options for assessing the work done by


ABSTRACT The established method for determining dike heights and dimensioning river training structures is to assess the resulting backwater by numerical modelling. The common consensus is that bottom friction determines the backwater and that momentum advection only has a local effect. We demonstrate that the numerical/artificial backwater contribution from the momentum advection approximation can be of the same order of magnitude as the bottom friction contribution, depending on the advection scheme. This is realized using a one-dimensional analysis and verified using a set of one- and two-dimensional test problems including a wavy bed case, flow over emerged and submerged groynes and finally an actual river. We compare first- and second-order accurate advection schemes and compute their artificial contribution to the backwater, for a range of practically-feasible grid resolutions. The tests demonstrate that the conservation/constancy properties of the scheme determine the size of this contribution, rather than the order of the scheme.


This paper describes an algorithm for suppressing composite noise in multi-source acoustic signals for real-time voice personal assistant application. This paper gives the implementation and algorithm to get desired noise free signal to speech enabled devices by using ICS 52000 linear microphone array and Pico IMX Board, it first finds the direction of arrival of the sources using time delay between the microphone signals, based on the direction angle, the microphone signals are Presteering. The presteered signal is time shifted and aligns same signal is given to noise signal extraction unit by using blocking coefficients, both results are adaptively filtered using NLMS filter, it gives the noise free desired signal. The resultant is given to wake word engine and alexa (cloud), the proposed speech enhancement algorithm shows significant performance improvements in terms of speech processing evaluation and can also be used to deactivate certain processes during the non-speech signal. We tested the output to voice enabled devices the accuracy of detection rate matches the reference devices like alexa echo and ok google.


The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has been using full-depth reclamation (FDR) as a rehabilitation strategy since 2001. Most projects to date have used a combination of foamed asphalt and portland cement as the stabilizing agent. Recently though, the fluctuating and at times high cost of asphalt binder coupled with the relatively complex mix-design procedure for mixes that include foamed asphalt has generated interest in the use of portland cement alone as an alternative stabilizing agent. However, shrinkage cracking associated with the hydration and curing of the cement-treated layers remains a concern, especially with regard to crack reflection through asphalt concrete surfacings and the related problems caused by water ingress. Considerable research has been undertaken on crack mitigation, and a range of measures related to improved mix designs and construction practices have been implemented by road agencies. One of the most promising measures, used in conjunction with appropriate mix designs, is that of microcracking the cement-treated layer between 24 and 72 hours after construction. In theory, this action creates a fine network of cracks in the layer that limit or prevent the wider and more severe block cracks typical of cement- treated layers. Limited research to assess microcracking as a crack mitigation measure has been completed on a number of projects in Texas, Utah, and New Hampshire. Recommendations from these studies were first implemented by the Texas Department of Transportation and then later by other state departments of transportation. However, longer-term monitoring on a range of projects in Texas and other states has revealed that microcracking has not always been successful in preventing cracking, with some projects showing reflected transverse and block cracks in a relatively short time period, attributable to a number of factors including but not limited to cement spreading, the method of curing, and the interval between base construction and placement of surfacing. Discussions with researchers in Texas indicated that additional research was necessary to better understand the microcracking mechanism, and to identify the key factors influencing performance, including but not limited to aggregate properties, cement content, the time period before microcracking starts, layer moisture contents, roller weights and vibration settings, the number of roller passes, the field test methods and criteria used to assess the degree of microcracking, and the effects of early opening to traffic. A multi-phase project was therefore initiated at the University of California Pavement Research Center (UCPRC) to investigate these outstanding issues. The first phase of this study is discussed in this report, which covers the literature review, preliminary laboratory testing to investigate simulation of the microcracking process in the laboratory, and early results from field testing on four projects where microcracking was implemented. Keywords: Full-depth reclamation; cement stabilization, crack mitigation, microcracking UC Pavement Research Center Research Report UCPRC-RR-2016-07


A variety of caregivers, including grandparents, help raise children. Among grandparents, most Western samples evidence a matrilateral (i.e., mother's kin) bias in caregiving, and many studies show more positive impacts and stronger relationships with grandmothers than grandfathers. The aim of the present study is to test competing hypotheses about a potential laterality bias and explore contrasts between grandmothers and grandfathers in a sample of urban young adult university students in Bangalore, India. A sample of 377 (252 women) relatively mobile and high socioeconomic status individuals 17 to 25 years of age completed a survey consisting of sociodemographic and grandparenting questions. Results reveal generally little evidence of either a patrilateral or matrilateral bias, though findings varied for some outcomes. As illustrations, there were no differences in residential proximity or the most recent time when a participant saw matrilateral or patrilateral grandparents, whereas maternal grandmothers were more approving of one's choice of a life partner than were paternal grandmothers. In inductively coded responses to an open-ended item about the roles of grandparents, maternal grandmothers were more often identified as "guides" and less often deemed "non-significant" than paternal grandmothers, while paternal grandfathers were less often viewed as guardians and more often noted for their influence compared with maternal grandparents. Findings also revealed differences between grandmothers and grandfathers, such as grandmothers playing more prominent roles in community and religious festivals. Findings are interpreted within changing residential, work, education, and family dynamics in urban India as well as a primary importance on parents relative to grandparents.


Despite the prospects of electrohydrodynamic instability patterning (EHIP), poor process parameter controllability is a significant challenge in uniform large-scale nanopatterning. Herein, we introduce a EHIP process using an ultrahigh electric field (>108 V/m) to effectively accelerate the pattern growth evolution. Owing to the strong dependence on a temporal parameter (1/τm) of the field strength, our method not only reduces the completion time of pattern growth but also overcomes critical parametric restrictions on the pattern replication, thereby enhancing the replicated pattern quality in three dimensions. The pattern can be uniformly replicated over the entire film surface even without a perfectly uniform air gap, which has been severely difficult in the conventional method. To further demonstrate how straightforward yet versatile our approach is, we applied our EHIP approach to successfully replicate the densely packed nanostructures of cicada wings.


Background/aim To emphasize the role of cochlear implantation (CI) in the auditory rehabilitation of patients with otosclerosis (OS) and share our surgical experiences on this rare group of patients. Materials and methods Retrospective analysis of the patients who have a diagnosis of otosclerosis and implanted between January 1998–May 2019 was performed. Preoperative and postoperative clinical, radiological, audiological and surgical findings are presented. Results Among 2195 patients who have been implanted in our institution, 12 (0.54%) met the diagnostic criteria of OS according to their preoperative (clinical, radiological, audiological) and peroperative (surgical) findings. Electrode insertion was performed via "round window membrane and cochleostomy" in 8 and 4 patients, respectively. No major complications occured. All patients showed satisfactory performances by means of audiometric scores postoperatively. Nonauditory stimulation (NAS) which manifested as "facial twitching" was a challenging problem in one patient during the surgery and subsided after the operation. Conclusion Our experience on CI in patients with OS revealed that the implantation was a relatively safe procedure and had satisfactory impact on audiological performances.


In this paper, we propose a new controller design method, where the identification technique, which directly acquires any order of reduced model, is applied to the feedforward controller design composed of time delays and inverse dynamics of a controlled object. By applying the proposed controller, the tracking error with reference signal of the N-th power of t becomes zero when the future reference signal is available. The resulting system has neither deterioration in the feedback characteristics nor increase in the tuning man-hour because feedforward controllers do not affect the feedback characteristics and the feedback controller can be designed with the accumulated know-how.


Objective: To explore perception of stress & stressors among first year medical students, with or without intervention.
Study Design: Quasi-experimental study.
Place and Duration of Study: Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University (SMBBMU), Larkana and duration of the study was of eight months starting from Oct 2017.
Methodology: All the first year medical students who were willing to participate and present in class and filled the post it notes and perceived stress scale-questionnaire completely were included in this study. These 240 students were randomly divided to two equal groups of 120 students in each; group I received intervention and thus labeled as intervention group, whereas group 2 included remaining half of students which did not receive any intervention (non-intervention group). The intervention was in form of a 2 days' workshop on stress management. The contents of workshop were carefully selected in concordance with the identified stressors from response of students on the post-it-notes.
Results: About 45% (109) were boys and 55% (131) were girls. Most common stressors identified were, time management (24.1%), lack of guidance from teacher regarding test/exam preparation (20.8%), failure to memorize and retain learned facts (19.1%), lack of peer support (12.5%), frequent test/exams (10.8%) long courses (8.3%) and conflict with teachers/friends (4.1%). Mean baseline perceived stress scale score in intervention group was 19.72 ± 6.04 where as in non-intervention group it was 19.27 ± 0.583. The difference of PSS scores before (baseline) and after intervention (delayed) was statistically significant (p-value <0.001) between two groups.
Conclusion: We may conclude from our study findings that the moderate degree of stress is not uncommon among first year medical students and the stress-management intervention improves perception of stress by addressing the common stressors as identified by them.


This paper presents an evaluation method for thermal ageing of surface-modified layer by X-ray diffraction techniques. Test specimens with surface-modified layer were prepared through shot peening with two different processing degrees. Thermal ageing test was then carried out using these specimens. Lab X-ray in-situ measurement was applied to obtain dynamic behavior of compressive residual stress and full width at half maximum (FWHM) within surface-modified layer during thermal ageing test. After the tests, X-ray diffraction line profile analysis was also applied to characterize thermal ageing-induced evolution of microstructure, such as crystalline size and micro strain (plastic strain due to dislocation), within surface-modified layer. As the results, relaxation of compressive residual stress due to thermal ageing was correlated highly with reduction of micro strain. The quantitative relation between them was successfully established based on inherent strain theory. Thus, the evaluation method with X-ray diffraction techniques are expected to be useful for quantifying the stress relaxation and microstructure evolution within surface-modified layer during thermal ageing.


Tai Chi has been widely practiced in China for centuries as an art form, religious ritual, relaxation technique, exercise, and a method of self-defense for people of all ages. It has been used to improve balance; promote postural stability; decrease falls; enhance cardiovascular and ventilatory functions; rehabilitate persons with acute myocardial infarction and rheumatoid arthritis; and reduce pain, stress, and nightmares. The purpose of this article is to summarize, synthesize, and critically evaluate the research-based use of Tai Chi presented in the current literature and give implications and directions for future research. Additional studies about the effects of Tai Chi from a nursing perspective are needed to make clear when it is beneficial as a nursing intervention.


This article aimed to examine the relational implications of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) for the didactic triangle. This examination revealed that the introduction of computer has some impacts on the relations (Pedagogical, Curricular, and Didactic) existing in the didactic triangle which need to be addressed with special care: The indispensable nature of the teacher"s roles is undermined, for the learner does not necessarily expect his intervention in order to progress in the learning process ; CALL imposes new constraints on the teacher who has to make additional effort in terms of professional skills and research in order to transform and adapt the content offered by technological tool to classroom realities; classroom realities (environmental, linguistic, experiential, representational, intellectual, etc.) might inhibit the learner"s creative and language potentialities. To improve the implementation of CALL, I suggested a more structured didactic framework which would allow the language teacher to take advantage of this major asset in order to enhance the chances to achieve more dynamic participation of the learner in his own training.


Abstract We present the results of a taxonomic review of the four species of Allobates endemic to the Atlantic Forest Domain in Brazil. A total of 880 preserved specimens from 29 localities covering their range in Atlantic Forest were studied based on external attributes. Characters formerly described as diagnostic in original descriptions and others cited for dendrobatids in the literature were studied along the total geographic range of the populations of these species, including the type localities. We found no discrete characters, qualitative or quantitative, capable of differentiating the species. Most local and geographic variation was limited to snout-vent length and color pattern. Considering the lack of evidence otherwise, we use the results of our morphological analysis to allocate all Atlantic Forest species of Allobates to synonymy with Allobates olfersioides.


The purpose of this course is to provide students with the background and knowledge base of the current literature and research in literacy and language policy as it relates to school programming and educational standards. This course will give participants an increased ability in describing the socio-linguistic environment from world, national and local language communities connected with schools. The course will also provide participants with tools to name, frame, and analyze language policy and its impact on a variety of stakeholders. Participants will be able to analyze and recommend appropriate language policy for local language groups.


Students often leave introductory geoscience courses without learning the scientific perspective, and we developed Lecture Tutorials to help alleviate this problem. Lecture Tutorials are 10–20 minute interactive worksheets that students complete in small groups in class after a short introductory lecture. They are specifically designed to combat alternative conceptions and increase learning on difficult topics. Our study shows that Lecture Tutorials increase student learning in the classroom more than just lecture alone. On related multiple choice questions asked before and after the Lecture Tutorial (but after a short lecture on the topic), student scores increased 19%. When a subset of these questions was given before and after an extended lecture instead of a Lecture Tutorial, student scores did not increase by a statistically significant amount. On the multiple choice assessment questions given on exams relating to the information covered in the Lecture Tutorials, students who completed the Lecture Tutorials scored significantly higher than students who heard just lecture. In addition, students feel that they are an important and useful part of their learning experience. Lecture Tutorials are being disseminated and are available for instructor use.


Basic impairments of the muscular fibre in fractures of the lower jaw with different localization within terms from several hours to several weeks in persons with various clinical course were studied with help of electronic microscopy. Following treatment of the injury with a "quiet" course, in the tissues studied there was activation of reparative processes up to normalization of the submicroscopic structures. Despite the given treatment, the injury accompanied with predominance of destructive changes in the muscular tissue. In the muscles, a disturbed permeability of depolarization waves was revealed, they causing contraction and relaxation of the muscles.


This corpus-based study investigates adjectives that allow complementation by both that- and to-clauses. The study is concerned with arriving at a structural and functional description of the distribution of adjectives that allow complementation by both to-infinitive clauses and that-clauses, based on the various syntactic and semantic manifestations of these two clause types and the adjectives that are complemented by them. The study reveals that there is a strong correlation between the semantics of different adjectives, the grammatical patterns they allow and their differing valency possibilities. Furthermore, the study shows that to-clauses are primarily used when the subject of the complement clause does not need to be explicitly marked. Conversely, that-clauses are primarily used when the subject of the complement clause is required. Other factors influencing the choice between that- and to-clauses include the ability to mark modality and tense on the finite verb in that-clauses as well as differing register distribution. The ability to mark modality on the finite verb in that-clauses functions as a strong factor favouring the use of that-clauses. The differing register distribution reveals that post-predicative to-clauses typically are represented by complex matrix subjects in the academic register whereas the matrix subjects post-predicative to-clauses in fiction and the spoken register typically are represented by anaphoric personal pronouns. Furthermore, the register distribution of adjectives complemented by that- and to-clauses has been linked to differing functions of these clauses in different registers. The study shows that extraposed to-clauses are frequently complementing epistemic matrix adjectives in the academic register. In the spoken register, on the other hand, post-predicative that-clauses with that omission are typically complementing evaluative predicates.


The modernization of reservoir management is of great significance to the coordinated development of the region. There are many factors affecting the modernization of reservoir management, and there is a certain degree of ambiguity, randomness and uncertainty among the factors. It is difficult to evaluate the modernization of reservoir management comprehensively by traditional methods. This study first studies the connotation of reservoir management modernization under the concept of coordinated development; that is, securitization, economization, scientificalization and greenization. On this basis, a modernization evaluation system and AHP-Fuzzy evaluation model for reservoir management are constructed. Then, an empirical study is conducted with six large reservoirs in Jiangxi Province of China. The results show that the modernization level of large-scale reservoir management in Jiangxi Province is generally above the middle level, and the economic management and engineering management level of some reservoirs is relatively low, resulting in a low scientific and economic level of reservoir management, which is a key factor restricting the process of reservoir management modernization.


The growing interest in the role of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in promoting social development is welcome, but the article nevertheless questions the value of the broad term FBOs. The categorizations of FBOs do not bring adequate clarity. Four justifications for keeping the FBO term are analyzed: (i) highlighting the importance of religion and the size of FBOs; (ii) identifying characteristics of FBOs, specifically extensive networks and stronger local presence; (iii) surveillance of FBOs as potentially divisive actors; and (iv) necessary to map donations. Four justifications for scrapping the FBO term are also analyzed: (i) the term FBO might give connotations to religiously extremist movements – or to Western worldviews; (ii) the emphasis on the "devotedness" inherent in FBOs might directly and indirectly promote behavioral economics; (iii) both religion and FBOs might become "essentialized"; and (iv) research of FBOs is characterized by a lack of rigorous methodological, investigative approach.


Crop disease management in smart agriculture involves applying and using new technologies to reduce the impact of diseases on the quality of products. Coffee rust is a disease that factors such as poor agronomic management activities and climate conditions may favor. Therefore, it is crucial to identify the relationships between these factors and this disease to learn how to face its consequences and build intelligent systems to provide appropriate management or help farmers and experts make decisions accordingly. Nevertheless, there are no studies in the literature that propose ontologies to model these factors and coffee rust. This paper presents a new ontology called RustOnt to help experts more accurately model data, expressions, and samples related to coffee rust and apply it whilst taking into account the geographical location where the ontology is adopted. Consequently, this ontology is crucial for coffee rust monitoring and management by means of smart agriculture systems. RustOnt was successfully evaluated considering quality criteria such as clarity, consistency, modularity, and competence against a set of initial requirements for which it was built.


There are profound differences of opinion among contemporary philosophersboth about whether Wittgenstein is worth reading and about whatone can learn from him. They parallel disagreements about whether, and in what sense, philosophical problems are problems of language. In this paper, I shall describe three views of Wittgenstein, corresponding to threeways of thinking about the so-called "linguistic turn in philosophy". Doingso will help me defend two claims for which I have argued in the past. First: there is no interesting sense in which philosophical problems areproblems of language. Second: the linguistic turn was useful nevertheless,for it turned philosophers' attention from the topic of experience towards that of linguistic behavior. That shift helped break the hold of empiricism—and, more broadly, of representationalism.


This paper investigates the task solvability of mobile robot systems subject to Byzantine faults. We first consider the gathering problem, which requires all robots to meet in finite time at a non-predefined location. It is known that the solvability of Byzantine gathering strongly depends on a number of system attributes, such as synchrony, the number of Byzantine robots, scheduling strategy, obliviousness, orientation of local coordinate systems and so on. However, the complete characterization of the attributes making Byzantine gathering solvable still remains open.
In this paper, we show strong impossibility results of Byzantine gathering. Namely, we prove that Byzantine gathering is impossible even if we assume one Byzantine fault, an atomic execution system, the n-bounded centralized scheduler, non-oblivious robots, instantaneous movements and a common orientation of local coordinate systems (where n denote the number of correct robots). Those hypotheses are much weaker than used in previous work, inducing a much stronger impossibility result.
At the core of our impossibility result is a reduction from the distributed consensus problem in asynchronous shared-memory systems. In more details, we newly construct a generic reduction scheme based on the distributed BG-simulation. Interestingly, because of its versatility, we can easily extend our impossibility result for general pattern formation problems.


In several electrical insulation components, such as cable connectors, joints and penetrators, various solid insulating materials are usually brought in contact, forming interfaces. The dielectric strength of these solid$|$solid interfaces is critical for the strength of the overall system. Especially in cases that the applied field has a tangential to the interface component, the solid$|$solid interface is regarded as a point of major weakness. Furthermore, these components are usually used in subsea applications and therefore the presence of water at the interface should be considered. The primary objective of this work is to examine how the elasticity of the solid material, the applied pressure and the interface condition is influencing the 50Hz/AC breakdown strength of the interface with a tangentially applied field. First, an prediction of the effect of varying elasticity modulus on the breakdown strength is attempted through theoretical modelling, adding to existing work. Following, the assumptions are verified by experimental testing in the High Voltage Laboratory of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). In order to facilitate the execution of the tests, a customised setup is built in the laboratory and identical test-samples are produced and prepared. Different pressure levels are applied for each material combination (XLPE$|$XLPE, SIR$|$SIR or XLPE$|$SIR) and for each interface condition (dry, wet or lubricated). The test data are treated using the Weibull distribution and are compared based on the minimum, mean and $63^{rd}$ percentile value. It is seen that, generally, the minimum or the mean value is adequate to qualitatively compare the strength of different interfaces. Through the tests, it is also seen that the softer the materials that form the interface are, the lower is the elasticity modulus and thus the higher the breakdown strength. The influence of water and insulating oil at the interface is also explored through experimental testing in the lab. Therefore, the breakdown strength of wet and lubricated (oily) interfaces is examined and compared. Through analysing and accordingly presenting the test results, it becomes evident the the wet interface behaves poorly while the lubricated facilitates higher breakdown strength values. Further, the behaviour of an interface comprised by two materials with different elasticity is investigated (hybrid interface). The hybrid interface appeared to be the least affected by water, despite the low applied pressure.


: Bovine semen, diluted with a skimmed milk, 10% egg yolk, 7% glycerol extender and frozen in 0,25 ml French straws, was thawed in water at 5 degrees C, 20 degrees C or 35 degrees C for 20 seconds and then incubated at 37 degrees C. Specimens were examined periodically for motility. Semen thawed at 35 degrees C maintained motility for longer than that thawed at lower temperatures. Attempts to duplicate these findings in vivo were inconclusive but tend to correlate in vitro findings.


The level of antibiotic-sensitivity of 73 S. aureus strains isolated from children with dysbacteriosis of the large intestine in an outpatient clinic was determined. The isolation rate of polyresistant strains was 44%. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) were isolated from 25 children (34.2%). 60% of MRSA strains could not be typed with the international set of phages. Among the strains capable of being lyzed by the phages the representatives of phage groups 3 and 4 prevailed. All MRSA strains were sensitive to vancomycin, 84-88% of the strains were sensitive to chloroamphenicol, rifampicin, spiramycin and neomycin, 80% of the strains were sensitive to fusidin and phosphomycin. The level of sensitivity of methicillin-sensitive S. aureus strains (MSSA) to different groups of antistaphylococcal antibiotics was higher. 36-64% of MRSA strains and 21-27% of MSSA strains were resistant to the action of curative bacteriophages. The suppression of obligate microflora was the risk factor in the development of staphylococcal infection of the gastrointestinal tract in children.


Common morning-glory (Ipomoea purpurea (L.) Roth, Convolvulaceae), an annual herbaceous vine native to South America, was first recorded to be cultivated in China in 1890, and since then it has invaded all provinces of China. It was one of the 18 alien invasive species in China (MEE. 2014). As an invasive weed, it can readily invade dry lands, orchards, and nurseries and compete for sunlight by wrapping other plants. On 20 September 2019 and 18 July 2020, I. purpurea was found to be parasitized by a dodder species (also Convolvulaceae) in Lushan Mountain (36°21'N, 118°3'E, 569 m elevation), Shandong province, China (Fig. S1). Within and area of ca. 100 m2, dozens of individuals of common morning-glory were parasitized by the leafless stems of dodder. After removal of the haustrial connection of the dodder stem from the I. purpurea stem, brownish black lesions around uneven holes were visible on the I. purpurea stem, with broken haustoria clearly visible to our naked eye remaining in the I. purpurea stem (Fig. S1). Anatomical results showed that the haustoria of dodder penetrate I. purpurea stem and xylem elements connect the vascular systems of both the parasitic and host plant (Fig. S1). Based on morphological characteristics of stems, inflorescences, calyx, corolla, stamens, and capsules as described in Costea et al. (2006), this dodder was identified as Cuscuta campestris Yunck. (i.e., field dodder). Field dodder is readily distinguished from C. chinensis and C. australis in China by the capsules with persistent corollas enveloping 1/3 or less of its base and the spreading and inflexed corolla lobes with acute to acuminate apices. In order to further confirm the identity of the species, total genomic DNA was extracted and sequenced using genome-skimming method as described in Qu et al. (2019). An 831-bp region of 18S-ITS1-5.8S-ITS2-26S for the dodder studied was assembled, examined, and deposited in GenBank under accession number MN718805. The new sequence has 100% similarity with other available sequences of C. campestris (accession number: KT383104, KT383150, KY968857). Phylogenetic analysis also placed the new dodder accession with other accessions of C. campestris (Fig. S2a). In addition, the plastome sequence of the dodder studied was assembled (86,727 bp in length) and deposited in GenBank under accession number MN708214, and a BLAST analysis found that it was 99.98% similar to that of C. gronovii (accession number: AM711639). The plastome of C. gronovii was published by Funk et al. (2007). However, Costea et al. (2015) indicated that Funk et al. (2007) misidentified C. campestris as C. gronovii. Furthermore, our phylogenetic tree strongly supported the identification of the dodder studied as C. campestris (Fig. S2b). Therefore, the dodder on common morning-glory in Shandong province was finally identified as C. campestris according to morphological and molecular evidence. The specimen of C. campestris on I. purpurea was deposited at the herbarium of the College of Life Sciences, Shandong Normal University (voucher number: 092012B). Field dodder, the second most common dodder species in North America, is the most widespread Cuscuta weed in the world and has been found in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and South America (Holm et al. 1997). To our knowledge, this is the first report of the parasitic invasive weed C. campestris parasitizing the invasive weed I. purpurea in Shandong of China. This is also the first report of Cuscuta species parasitizing confamilial Ipomoea species, which is especially noteworthy given that the genus Cuscuta is sister to the genus Ipomoea. This study provides a good model for exploring gene flow between species of closely related genera with different lifestyle. Another implication of this study is that customs and departments of inspection and quarantine need to quarantine the seeds or plants of both dodders and common morning-glories.


Process mining is a set of techniques that combine the scientific point of view of the data with the point of view of running processes correctly. The process mining can be performed with several algorithms, such as Alpha miner, Inductive Miner, and Fodina. Those existing algorithms only form a process model. Nevertheless, a system can be built not only a process model but also collaboration process models. Collaboration process models are several interconnected process models that are carried out by sending messages between those activities. Besides shortcoming of depicting collaboration process models, another issue is called an Invisible Task in a Non-Free Choice relationship. This issue occurs when particular conditions, i.e. skip, redo and switch, are happened in activities which are interdependent with other activities. Alpha $ is a pioneering algorithm that describes the Invisible Task in Non-Free Choice (IT-in-NFC); however, this algorithm cannot handle collaboration process models. This study proposes Modified Alpha ++ that contains rules of storing messages of activities and modifies Alpha ++ algorithm with additional Invisible Task rules to present Alpha $. The evaluation results show a process model obtained by Modified Alpha ++ is better than other algorithms, i.e. Alpha ++, Fodina and Inductive Miner. That statement is proven with the Fitness, Precision, and F -Measure values of the process model by Modified Alpha ++ are 1. On the other hand, process models of Alpha ++, Fodina and Alpha ++ obtain less than one F -Measure value.


This paper presents an approach to the analysis of free and forced vibrations of strengthened sandwich beam with viscoelastic core and composite coats by considering geometrical asymmetry. A higher-orde theory is used considering longitudinal and rotational inertias as well as the asymmetry of sandwich beam. The formulation of the equation of motion is carried out by Hamilton principle. A comparative study to validate the proposed numerical approach is performed comparing the obtained results with other findings. Moreover, a parametric analysis is carried out with different configurations of the sandwich beams in order to analyze the influence of different parameters on the dynamic behavior. The analysis highlighted from the study of fiber orientation influence on dynamic behavior, that the structure damping can be improved by adopting a better composite configuration. However, the obtained results from the thickness ratio effect showed that the sandwich structure has more dissipative capacity for low values of viscoelastic thickness and it is more efficient for asymmetrical sandwich beam.


Abstract : PROJECT GOALS AND OBJECTIVES. The PI continues to examine atmospheric predictability with the goal of improving ensemble forecasts at ranges of 12 hours to 10 days. The research is addressing several issues, including: 1. Documentation of analysis uncertainty from mesoscale and global analyses. 2. Design of optimal ensemble forecast systems (EFS), with an emphasis on precipitation forecasts. 3. Calibration of EFS output by artificial neural networks and other statistical techniques. 4. Design of stochastic physics parameterizations that improve under-dispersion in EFS s. Most progress during the past year involved topics 1 and 2, with limited progress on topics 3 and 4, so descriptions of new results will primarily emphasize topics 1 and 2. The PI also served as Co-Chief Scientist to Dr. M. Steven Tracton for ONR initiative on Predictability in the Atmosphere and Ocean, and presumably will continue to play some role on any follow-up ONR predictability initiative. DOCUMENTATION OF ANALYSIS UNCERTAINTY. As noted in last year s report, we are estimating the statistics of analysis errors Eo from differences between different analysis-forecast systems. The method gives a component'' of the analysis uncertainty that, although difficult to relate with high precision to Eo, quite likely denotes a reasonable lower bound of its magnitude. Although this methodology is not as comprehensive or precise as statistics from emerging ensemble data assimilations or from well-constructed observing system simulation experiments (OSSE s), it is currently tractable, very economical, and useful guidance can be quickly obtained.


In recent times, mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) has become a growing interesting field for researchers. Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are infrastructure-less self configuring networks designed to support mobility. In mobile ad hoc network, nodes move arbitrarily; therefore the network may experience rapid and unpredictable topology changes. Because nodes in a MANET normally have limited transmission ranges, some nodes cannot communicate directly with each other. Hence, routing paths in mobile ad hoc networks potentially contain multiple hops, and every node in mobile adhoc networks has the responsibility to act as a router. This paper presents overview of MANET characteristics, routing protocols and its performance parameters.


Web recommender systems anticipate the information needs of on-line users and provide them with recommendations to facilitate and personalize their navigation. There are many approaches to build such systems. Among them, using web access logs to generate users' navigational models to build a web recommender system is a popular approach, given its non-intrusiveness. However, using only one information channel, namely the web access history, is often insufficient for accurate recommendation prediction. We advocate the use of additional information channels available to better model user navigational behavior. In this paper, we investigate a novel hybrid web recommender system, which combines the access history, the content of visited pages, as well as the connectivity between web resources in a web site to model users' concurrent information needs and then generate users' navigational patterns. Our experiments show that the combination of the three channels in our system significantly improves the quality of the web site recommendation, and each additional channel used contributes to this improvement. In addition, we discuss cases on how to reach a compromise when not all channels are available.


In late 2019, a novel corona virus (COVID-19) was identified in Wuhan, a city in the Hubei province of China. COVID-19 rapidly spread and led to an outbreak
in China and then became a global health emergency. Human pathogenic coronavirus bind to their target cells through angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).
The expression of ACE2 is substantially increased in hypertension patients and with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Hypertension is also treated with ACE inhibitors and
ARBs, which results in an upregulation of ACE2.We therefore hypothesis that hypertension and diabetes treatment with ACE2-stimulating drugs increases the risk
of developing severe and fatal COVID-19. Therefore, we propose for COVID-19 patients to prevent ANG I and II formation by direct blockade of renin with the
specific inhibitor called Aliskiren. The aliskiren acts as a renin inhibitor, which blocks the conversion of angiotensinogen to ANG I. Hence, blood pressure is reduce
by decreasing the amount of ANG II to reach the AT1 receptor, thereby causing a decrease ACE2 released. Through the respective review, we hope to contribute to
the treatment of patients infected with COVID-19, especially hypertensive patients.


We present photoionization cross sections and asymmetry parameters for the 2π level of nitric oxide which are obtained from the direct solution of the e+NO+ collisional equations at the static‐exchange level. These cross sections differ significantly from those obtained previously using a moment theory approach [J. J. Delaney, I. H. Hillier, and V. R. Saunders, J. Phys. B 15, 1477 (1982)]. The calculated cross sections show a broad nonresonant feature at a photon energy of 29 eV which is not as pronounced as observed experimentally. The σ shape resonance in our cross section occurs at 14 eV which is about 5 eV below the feature in the measured cross sections attributed to this shape resonance. The probable role of autoionization and vibrational averaging on these cross sections is also discussed.


Sri Lankan society consists of multicultural, multiethnic groups and the laws governing these groups in terms of their main social affairs are also considered to be different. WhereasRoman Dutch Law operates as the common law of the country, Kandyan Law, Muslim Law and Thesawalamai Law also exists in certain domains. In the present context, Kandyans can be defined as inhabitants who are descendants of the families settled in the Kandyan kingdom in 1815. In ancient times, Kandyans practised their own traditions and customswhich highlightedthe unique features of their society. Later on, these traditions and customs of the Kandyans were codified under the British administration. A new set of laws pertaining to Kandyan marriage and divorce were introduced by the British through the Kandyan Marriage and Divorce Act, which presently prevails under the Act no.44of 1952. Section 32 of the aforesaid Act introduced six grounds for the dissolution of a Kandyan marriage, namely, (a) adultery by the wife after marriage, (b) adultery by the husband, coupled with incest or gross cruelty, (c) complete and continued desertion by the wife for two years, (d) complete and continued desertion by the husband for two years, (e) inability to live happily together, (actual separation from bed and board for a period of one year shall be the test), finally (f) mutual consent. The purpose of this study is to assess whether the six grounds for the dissolution of a Kandyan marriage create an unequal treatment towards women in terms of obtaining a divorce. The objective of the study is to critique the discriminatory provisions of the grounds for divorce with special reference to the principle of matrimonial fault and other domestic and international standards. The study is entirely based on a qualitative approach, which largely focused on the provisions of Kandyan Marriage and Divorce Act No. 44 of 1952, the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and other relevant domestic/ international legal instruments. The study highlights the discriminatory issue relating to women in terms of burden of proof of grounds number (a) and (b) under the matrimonial fault and other domestic and international standards. The study concludes by emphasizing the necessity of establishing gender neutrality in the dissolution of marriage under Kandyan law, further suggesting the need for revising the grounds on par with modern social requirements such as habitual drunkenness, the imprisonment of a spouse, and the disappearance of a spouse.


This paper investigates the odd ratio of selecting clean verses unclean source of energy as the main household fuel choice in urban areas using logistic functions through modelling of a binary dependent variable. Also, the research examines the important determinants of household fuel choice in urban Kenya. The data was obtained from KIPPRA's data set on patterns of fuel use in Kenya. The study analysis was informed by energy ladder hypothesis and consumer behavior theory as the theoretical framework. Multinomial logistic estimation model was used to investigate the choices households make and patterns of cooking fuels in urban areas. From regression results income of household, cost of fuel and socio-economic factors were identified as the main factors explaining house fuel choice decisions. To accelerate use of clean residential fuel, the policymakers and government must carry out public education campaign, and ensure the accessibility and affordability of these fuels in urban areas to avoid harmful effects such as pollution and health problems fuelled by kerosene and biomass.


Research supported by the Committee for Science and Technology of Spain (Project Cod. AGF98-0968) and Excma. Diputacion Provincial de Pontevedra, Spain.


The density-matrix renormalization group algorithm has emerged as a promising new method in ab initio quantum chemistry. However, many problems still need to be solved before this method can be applied routinely. At the start of such a calculation, the orbitals originating from a preceding quantum chemical calculation must be placed in a specific order on a one-dimensional lattice. This ordering affects the convergence of the density-matrix renormalization group iterations significantly. In this paper, we present two approaches to obtain optimized orderings of the orbitals. First, we use a genetic algorithm to optimize the ordering with respect to a low total electronic energy obtained at a predefined stage of the density-matrix renormalization group algorithm with a given number of total states kept. In addition to that, we derive orderings from the one- and two-electron integrals of our test system. This test molecule is the chromium dimer, which is known to possess a complicated electronic structure. For this molecule, we have carried out calculations for the various orbital orderings obtained. The convergence behavior of the density-matrix renormalization group iterations is discussed in detail.


In this paper, we compare Model Soups performances on three different models (ResNet, ViT and EfficientNet) using three Soup Recipes (Greedy Soup Sorted, Greedy Soup Random and Uniform soup) from arXiv:2203.05482, and reproduce the results of the authors. We then introduce a new Soup Recipe called Pruned Soup. Results from the soups were better than the best individual model for the pre-trained vision transformer, but were much worst for the ResNet and the EfficientNet. Our pruned soup performed better than the uniform and greedy soups presented in the original paper. We also discuss the limitations of weight-averaging that were found during the experiments. The code for our model soup library and the experiments with different models can be found here: https://github.com/milo-sobral/ModelSoup


We describe the fabrication, and initial testing of a novel optically interrogated, microelectromechanical system (MEMS) pressure sensor in which the entire MEMS structure is fabricated directly on an optical fiber A new micromachining process for use on a flat fiber end face that includes photolithographic patterning, wet etching of a cavity, and anodic bonding of a silicon diaphragm is utilized. We have employed both 200- and 400-/spl mu/m-diameter multimode optical fibers. A pressure sensor fabricated on an optical fiber has been tested displaying an approximately linear response to static pressure (0-80 psi). This sensor is expected to find application in situations where small size is advantageous and where dense arrays may be useful.


Screening tests of hydroethanolic crude extracts of six species of Aspidosperma (Apocynaceae) against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were performed. Aspidosperma ramiflorum Muell. Arg. showed good activity against Bacillus subtilis with MIC and MBC of 15.7 and 125 μg/mL, moderate activity against Staphylococcus aureus with MIC and MBC of 250 and 500 μg/mL, and weak activity against Escherichia coli with MIC and MBC of 1000 μg/mL. Aspidosperma pyricolum Muell. Arg. (MIC/MBC 125/250 μg/mL) and Aspidosperma olivaceum Muell. Arg. (MIC/MBC 250/ > 1000 μg/mL) displayed moderate antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis. Separation of the crude extract of Aspidosperma ramiflorum was performed according to the usual acid–base process, which produces alkaloid mixtures and closely related metabolites. The basic fraction was active against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Escherichia coli, with MICs of 31.2, 62.5, and 250 μg/mL, respectively. The basic fractions were more active than the acid fractions, probably because they contained some active alkaloids and/or closely related metabolites absent from the other fractions, or they contained a higher concentration of these active compounds.


Our objective was to integrate a sociological and an economic theory of market partitioning into a unifying framework: Glenn Carroll's resource-partitioning and John Sutton's sunk cost theories, respectively. In so doing, two important theory fragments from organizational ecology and industrial organization are integrated in an attempt to understand the antecedents and consequences of so-called dual market structures. A dual market structure features high concentration and high density, two market structure conditions that in most extant theory are thought to be unrelated. We argue that both theory fragments are highly complementary, offering different stories about the evolution of competition that produce similar market structure outcomes. In terms of the competitive strategies and organizational forms involved, however, the accounts of dual market structure evolution in the resource-partitioning and sunk cost theories are very different. This is instrumental in developing a dynamic theory of Porterian strategic management. We use these insights to reinterpret existing evidence, discussing a series of well-known industry studies. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.


MISTRAL, a CFD (computational fluid dynam- ics) code developed by Martin Spel and Walter Dieudonne at R.Tech, is compared against theory and literature for geometries and flow conditions of interest in the design of the JSF F136 diuser- liner secondary flow path and in the design of super- sonic/hypersonic weapons systems. The MISTRAL flow solver has primarily been validated in high speed flow regimes. The current validation study is the first use of the MISTRAL CFD code in the United States and focuses on fluid side heat trans- fer. The first step involves validation with van Driest theory (Stanton number) for heat transfer rate on a flat plate in subsonic and supersonic flows. Classi- cal cylindrical and spherical geometries in supersonic flows are then studied to verify pressure drag, skin friction drag, heat transfer, and shock structure.


The difference in Erythrocyte Osmotic Fragility (EOF) and haematologic parameters among two pure (Marshal and Ross) and a Hubbard-Anak cross breeds of 9-week-old broiler chickens were evaluated in this study. There was a statistically significant (P<0.05) decrease in EOF in Marshall breed at NaCl concentrations of 0.5% when compared to other breeds. However, Ross breed had the highest EOF at this NaCl concentration. Haematologic parameters of Packed Cell Volume (PCV), haemoglobin concentration, Red Blood Cell (RBC) count, erythrocytic indices and differential leucocyte counts were not significantly different (P>0.05) among the three breeds. In conclusion, this result revealed a breed difference in EOF and that erythrocyte membranes are osmotically more stable in Marshal breed of broiler chickens.


Abstract A novel three-dimensional scanning vibrating electrode technique (3D SVET) apparatus is described, which uses a bifunctional probe to record topographical and current density data. This apparatus is used to investigate the localised corrosion occurring on 2 cm2 exposed areas of flat specimens of electroplated zinc and galvannealed (Zn-Fe alloy coated) 1·2 mm sheet steel and specimens of the same substrates laser welded together, freely corroding in near neutral, aerated, aqueous chloride electrolyte. On flat galvannealed (IZ) specimens anodic events are highly localised and occur at random over the exposed specimen surface during a 24 h immersion period. This reflects the progressive dezincification of zinc rich areas of the iron zinc intermetallic coating. By contrast on flat electroplated zinc (EZ) specimens anodic activity is localised but corrosion initiates at a single anodic centre, eventually spreading out to form a scar on the metallic surface. This concentration of anodic activity on the specimen leads to greater dezincification than for the IZ coating. The SVET data was used to provide an estimate of the total zinc loss from the 2 cm2 exposed area on the coupons of 544 μg for EZ and 236 μg for IZ respectively. The close physical proximity of anodic and cathodic events in the latter substrate is believed to lead to greater zinc (hydr) oxide formation and hence lower measured zinc loss. Laser welded specimens were prepared by joining IZ to IZ and IZ to EZ coated 1·2 mm steel panels. A 2 cm2 exposed area was investigated using SVET with ca. 1 cm2 exposed either side of the weld. The joining of IZ specimens together using a laser weld changes the localisation of anodic activity in neutral aerated sodium chloride solution dramatically. In this instance focal anodes initially concentrate next to the weld area in a zone enriched in zinc (and depleted in iron) as a result of the welding process. This localisation of anodic and cathodic activity next to the weld reduces the anodic damage on the IZ remote to the heat affected zone. When specimens of EZ and IZ are laser welded together all anodic activity becomes focussed on the EZ specimens with a total zinc loss over 24 h from the 1 cm2 exposed area measured as 489 μg, very close to that of the zinc loss from the EZ specimen (2 cm2) alone. By contrast there is no measurable zinc loss from the IZ portion specimen under these conditions. The increase in zinc loss per unit area from the EZ reflects the additional cathodic area provided by the connected IZ coupon and bimetallic coupling of the metallic coatings.


We consider a dynamical probabilistic traffic model for the number of users transmitting at any time. This model captures both user mobility and traffic burstiness. Moreover, we assume no centralized controller, such as a scheduler, is available. When multiple users transmit simultaneously, multiple-access interference (MAI) affects throughput considerably. Most queue control schemes assume individual users know the states of their own queues (local queue information) along with the states of other users queues (shared queue information) and address issues of scheduling; but this sharing of information may be onerous in a practical system. While shared queue information has recently been shown (Me/spl acute/dard et al., 2004) not to affect the capacity of such systems, it has a considerable impact on delay. We introduce a scheme, where for each user, a bit of shared queue information specifies whether its queue length is above or below a threshold. Our scheme relies on two different service classes implemented through a superposition coding scheme (first proposed with Me/spl acute/dard and Goldsmith, 1999, further studied and expanded with Me/spl acute/dard et al., 2004). The first class experiences no delay due to multiple-access interference, while the second class requires retransmissions when such an event occurs. We show how our scheme affords an energy-delay tradeoff. Moreover, when configured properly, our scheme can attain boundary points of the region corresponding to minimum energy with no shared queue information for zero delay along with minimum energy subject to system stability. We derive bounds on the performance of the multiple-access system using our proposed scheme by introducing Lyapunov function bounds in a manner similar to Bertsimas et al., 2001.


Endovascular techniques are showing promise as both alternative as well as primary therapies for ischemic strokes. These procedures are continuously evolving as the patient population and clinical expectations increase while materials and imaging technology advances to match those demands. Many of these techniques have yet to demonstrate the rigorous proof of benefit gained only through a randomized controlled trial, in part due to the emergent nature and devastating natural history of some ischemic strokes. Multi-disciplinary neurovascular centers are spearheading the rapid accumulation of both data and experience, which will one day hopefully validate the application of some if not all of these techniques. This review is aimed at summarizing the major categories of available techniques, the existing evidence leading to and supporting their employment, and the ongoing data collection intended to eventually establish them as standards in clinical practice.