Remediation planning and 222Rn-related construction zoning require knowledge of how close and strong 226Ra sources can be in different foundation soils under different groundwater conditions without excessively elevating indoor 222Rn levels. A two-dimensional numerical-analytical model was developed to simulate (a) 222Rn emanation, decay, and movement by diffusion and advection in soils around houses and in their understructures; and (b) 222Rn accumulation in a single-zone house. The model represents foundation soils and a house in elliptical-cylindrical geometry. 222Rn may diffuse through its floor slab or may enter via idealized cracks and openings. The model was validated with analytical calculations of two-dimensional air pressure fields and with one-dimensional calculations of 222Rn generation with diffusion and diffusion combined with advection. Agreement generally was within < 1% when finite-difference approximations were minimized. Benchmark comparisons with indoor 222Rn measurements in two test-cell structures under passive and depressurized conditions averaged within 11% of measured values, well within measurement uncertainty. The corresponding average bias was only 3%. Larger variations were observed when applying the model to 50 houses. In this application, a negative bias of nearly 50% was observed due to data gaps and to poorly-characterized floor slabs and crack distributions.


Social and environmental justice across generations is a fundamental attribute of sustainable development. In this article, which is also a call for papers for a future theme in Public Money & Management (PMM), we develop our case for further research on how governments and public service organizations seek to address sustainable development in their decision-making processes. We believe that accounting for social and environmental aspects is an underdeveloped area of research and practice that is worthy of further critical enquiry. We therefore call on researchers and practitioners to submit their research to a themed issue of PMM on managing and accounting for sustainable development in public services.


In this field the focus of attention has shifted from the optical image formed by the refracting surfaces of the eye to the optics of the retina. Retinal optics includes the Stiles–Crawford effects of the first and second kind, macular pigment, forward scatter, entoptic effects, and reflection by the pigment epithelium, choroid, and sclera. Three kinds of measurements of blur need to be compared: (1) blur of the optical image measured by cutting a hole through the coats of the eye to expose the vitreous, (2) blur of the image formed by light reflected from the retina, and (3) blur of the image transmitted by way of the optic nerve to the brain. The coarseness of the retinal mosaic and micronystagmus must be taken into account in dealing with resolving power. The motor mechanisms that have to be considered include those which control fixation and accommodation.


PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to systematically review and critically examine the international marketing and innovation management research on new service development (NSD) in the context of emerging markets (EM). Research on services in EM, a heterogenous set of countries with an increasing contribution to global economic output, is sparse. This paper attempts to underscore the academic and managerial relevance of the field.Design/methodology/approachA systematic review of published empirical literature from peer-reviewed journals focusing on an 11-year period, 2010–2020, was undertaken. Further, bibliometric and text mining analyses were conducted using VOSviewer and Leximancer software programmes.FindingsThis analysis of 36 journal articles reveals that NSD research is a dynamic field with an increasing number of quantitative, multi-country and multi-method studies encompassing a variety of geographical settings and industries.Originality/valueDoing justice to this vibrant field of research and its managerial importance, the authors create an overview of existing empirical studies to serve as a repository of knowledge on NSD for both academics and practitioners. Further, the authors offer a thematic and temporal overview of the content of existing studies. Drawing upon the abovementioned, the authors suggest some promising avenues for future research.


Context is both social and interpersonal. It is social in the sense that context encompasses the internal organization of a society including communication and consist s of the study of linguistic material produced within the structure of the society. The interpersonal context usually takes priority over the social context in such sub-disciplines as pragmatic, discourse analysis, conversational analysis, etc. The focus is rather on the individuals involved in interaction relative the speaker and the hearer or the reader and the writer to understand of exchanged utterances or texts. However the role of context in linguistic use has been most forcefully asserted in the studies associated with names such as in Yule, Grundy, Buhler, Levinson, Rankema, Keith etc. by introducing the wide notion of deixis referring to the 'environment text'. The same logic stands in communication of the utterance of 'Broken April' by Ismail Kadare referring to the phrase analyzing process, in order of getting intrinsically the meaning out and comparing it with discourse and utterance itself.


Whether or not IL-8 attracts T lymphocytes and activates neutrophils in vivo remains unclear. Most studies on function of IL-8 in vivo have been done on human IL-8 in heterologous animals. To elucidate the role of IL-8 in vivo, we injected homologous IL-8 into rabbit knee joints and investigated the inflammatory response. Injection of 10 micrograms of rabbit IL-8 induced a massive accumulation of neutrophils. IL-8 attracts T lymphocytes in vitro; however, rabbit IL-8 induced no appreciable lymphocyte accumulation in rabbits. Although human IL-8 was reported not to induce cartilage destruction when injected into heterologous animals, we observed that rabbit IL-8 did provoke a release of neutrophil elastase, leading to cartilage destruction, when injected into rabbits. An inhibitor against neutrophil elastase (ONO-5046) prevented destruction of the cartilage. Injection of rabbit IL-8 induced bioactive and immunoreactive IL-1 beta and IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) in the joint cavity. Immunohistochemistry showed that IL-1 beta and IL-1Ra positive cells were infiltrating leukocytes. In neutrophil-depleted rabbits, rabbit IL-8 induced far lesser concentrations of IL-1 beta and IL-1Ra and no cartilage destruction compared with findings in normal rabbits. Thus, the infiltrating neutrophils are the main producers of these cytokines and are responsible for the cartilage destruction. In addition to neutrophil chemotactic activity, IL-8 proved to have a neutrophil-activating capability in vivo, with respect to release of neutrophil elastase and induction of IL-1 beta and IL-1Ra.


For a tree to stand erect with its branches, its roots must be strengthened by nourishing them timely such that the whole tree receives proper nourishment for its growth and development. Similarly, the Tridoshas, Saptha Dhatus and Tri-Malas are the roots strengthening this body when nourished timely. The Dosha-Dhatu-Mala in their state of normalcy enhances the strength of the body which is inferred through their respective physiological functions. This is achieved under the influence of two factors that is- Ahara and Agni. Ayurveda has endowed the function of thermogenesis and metabolism in the body to Agni. Proper functioning of Agni is responsible for all the metabolic activities in the body. Thereby, Agnimandya is said to be the root cause for all the diseases, as it results in the formation of Ama affecting the Rasavaha Srotas initially. The Ama Lakshanas resemble with the Rasapradoshaja Vikaras. Kapha Dosha is said to be the Asrayee in Rasa Dhatu and thereby the Rasa Vruddhi Lakshanas are similar to that of Kapha Vruddhi Lakshanas. So the Chikitsa as mentioned for Kapha Dosha can be implemented in Vruddhi/Kshaya of Rasa Dhatu. Shodhana without Ama-Pachana results in further complication. Therefore the line of treatment revolves around Srotoshodhana, Pachana, Agnideepana and Vatanulomana.


The present study was undertaken to evaluate the feasibility of salivary kinetics of chloroquine as an approach to biopharmaceutical and pharmacokinetic assessment and to test the bioequivalency of two marketed brands of chloroquine phosphate tablets using noninvasive saliva sampling technique. Pharmacokinetic parameters were computed following oral administration of a single dose of 600 mg of chloroquine base (250 mgx4 chloroquine phosphate tablets) to ten human healthy volunteers. All volunteers received medication in a two period, two way cross-over design. The difference between the formulations were statistically insignificant. In all the cases the relative bioavailability of the test formulation, B was found to be in the range of 84-115%. No adverse reactions were observed during the entire study except for mild dizziness in 70% of the volunteers.


In this paper we analyze a set of financial ratios from hospitality sector SMEs in order to ascertain which factors determine a greater probability of default. We choose the hospitality sector due to its importance in the Portuguese economy and has been particularly affected by the recent economic downturn and austerity measures and because, to the best of our knowledge, this sector has never been the object of such a study. Usually the literature seeks to find a set of variables which are significant in the estimation of default and multiple discriminant analysis and logit methodology are the main avenues of research on this area. Our data was collected from SABI and we followed logit methodology. Our results recommend that in ascertaining the creditworthiness of borrowers only debt and equity variables appear to be relevant to explaining failure, and overreliance on profit as an indication of good financial performance should be limited. The main reason for our rather poor results could be from problems with the data quality, possibly since the accounts published by firms aren't reliable and tend to present negative results.


In sensory cortices, the information flow has been thought to be processed vertically across cortical layers, with layer 4 being the major thalamo-recipient which relays thalamic signals to layer 2/3, which in turn transmits thalamic information to layer 5 and 6 to then leave the cortex to reach subcortical and cortical long-range structures. Although several exceptions to this model have been described, neurons in layer 4 are still considered to establish only local (i.e., interlaminar and short-range) connections. Here, taking advantage of anatomic, electrophysiological, and optogenetic techniques, we describe, for the first time, a long-range corticostriatal class of pyramidal neurons in layer 4 (CS-L4) of the mouse auditory cortex that receive direct thalamic inputs. The CS-L4 neurons are embedded in a feedforward inhibitory circuit involving local parvalbumin neurons and establish connections in the posterior striatum in yet another feedforward inhibitory thalamo→cortico(L4)→striatal circuit which potentially contributes in controlling control the output of striatal spiny projection neurons. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The assumption has been that layer 4 neurons are the main thalamic recipient layer, projecting to the upper cortical layer 2/3. However, no study has revealed a detailed understanding of the circuit mechanisms by which layer 4 sends a projection to a subcortical structure, such as the striatum, and differentially innervate the spiny projection neurons (SPNs) and intrastriatal parvalbumin-expressing neurons. For the first time, our results demonstrate that the auditory cortex projects to the posterior part of the dorsal striatum via pyramidal neurons located in layer 4 (CS-L4 neurons). Here we propose a new wiring diagram that implemented the old one, in which layer 4 is not only involved in the transfer of thalamic input to the upper layer 2/3, but can also exert a direct top-down control, bypassing intracortical processing of subcortical structures, such as the posterior part of the dorsal striatum. This poses a new conceptual cell element (CS-L4 neurons) for experimental and theoretical work of the cortical function.


Proc Amer Assoc Cancer Res, Volume 45, 2004

4583

Successful cancer therapies targeting the tumor vasculature would be expected to block the existing blood supply and to prevent tumor neovascularization. To evaluate safety and toxicity of metronomic long term administration of alpha interferon (IFNα), thalidomide and celecoxib we designed a randomized, open label phase II clinical trial. Patients with proven metastatic solid tumors with a slow rate of growth, defined as free interval from treatment to progression > of 6 months, were considered suitable for the study. From January 2002 to November 2003 we randomized 34 patients to 6 groups: A1. IFNα + thalidomide (5 patients), A2. IFNα + thalidomide + celecoxib (6 patients). B1. IFNα + celecoxib (6 patients), B2. IFNα + celecoxib + thalidomide (5 patients). C1. celecoxib + thalidomide (6 patients). C2. celecoxib + thalidomide + IFNα (6 patients). Treatment plan included daily administration of subcutaneous alpha-interferon 0.5 MU/12 hrs, thalidomide 100 mg/daily orally, celecoxib 200 mg/12 hrs orally for at least 4 months even in presence of progressive disease. Patients included in drugs arm A2, B2 and C2 started with 2 drugs for 2 months and than added the third drug to combination, continuing therapy for two additional months. Thirteen patients had renal cell carcinoma, 9 had hepatocellular carcinoma, and 12 had other tumors ( 4 medullary thyroid carcinoma,1 follicular thyroid carcinoma, 3 prostatic cancer, 2 unknown primary tumor, 2 neuroendocrine tumors). After 4 months of treatment, among 30 patients evaluable for response, we observed 1 partial response (3%) 20 stable disease (67%). 47% of patients had clinical benefit (partial response + stable disease lasting more than 6 months ). No grade IV toxicity has been observed according to NCI criteria. Grade III common adverse events included leucopenia (7%); anemia (3%); asthenia (7%), and lethargy (7%). We observed skin toxicity scored as grade I in 17% and grade II in 20% limited to the patients treated with celecoxib. Circulating endothelial cells (CEC) and progenitors (CEP) were measured by flow cytometry before therapy and every two months thereafter. Patients with long lasting stable disease had a significant decrease in CEC and CEP counts. An increase in apoptotic CEC was observed in the patient who achieved a partial response in lung metastasis from renal cells carcinoma, treated with celecoxib plus thalidomide (arm C1). These promising data suggest that metronomic, long term administration of IFNα + celecoxib + thalidomide different combination schedules can be considered a safe and active antitumor treatment. CEC could be considered as surrogate marker of antiangiogenic activity. This study is supported by AIRC


Spherical microlenses are fabricated in a modified melting technology. Resist cylinders are patterned by photolithography and subsequently dissolved in a controlled solvent atmosphere. This technique enables the fabrication of spherical resist microlenses of selectable rim angles in the range from 1 to 30 deg. Photoresist microlenses with a focal length of 20 mm, a diameter of 1 mm and a good sphericity are realized. The photoresist lenses are transferred into the silicon substrate through reactive ion etching. Within the inner 80% of the lens diameter, the deviation of the silicon lenses from a sphere amounts to less than ?/20 at ?51.55?m. The resist and silicon lenses are characterized by mechanical and interferometric methods. This technology is compared with the well established melting technique.


In this paper, we study a multi-residential electricity load scheduling problem with multi-class appliances in smart grid. Compared with the previous works in which only limited types of appliances are considered or only single residence grids are considered, we model the grid system more practically with jointly considering multi-residence and multi-class appliance. We formulate an optimization problem to maximize the sum of the overall satisfaction levels of residences which is defined as the sum of utilities of the residential customers minus the total cost for energy consumption. Then, we provide an electricity load scheduling algorithm by using a PL-Generalized Benders Algorithm which operates in a distributed manner while protecting the private information of the residences. By applying the algorithm, we can obtain the near-optimal load scheduling for each residence, which is shown to be very close to the optimal scheduling, and also obtain the lower and upper bounds on the optimal sum of the overall satisfaction levels of all residences, which are shown to be very tight.


Both molecular and morphologic characters support the reinstatement of Leuctra biellensis Festa, 1942 as a valid species distinct from Leuctra nigra (Olivier, 1811). Genetic distances between L. biellensis and the different populations of L. nigra are around 9%, while intraspecific distances among L. nigra haploclades are less than 1%. Morphologically, the two species can be separated in male adult specimens by the shape of the two teeth on tergite VIII, by the lateral edges of tergites and by the distal expansion of the paraprocts. Leuctra biellensis occurs on the southern slope of the Alps in Italy and Switzerland (Ticino and Graubünden), while L. nigra has a wide distribution in Central and Northern Europe. As the type material of L. biellensis was lost, and to avoid future confusion between the two species, we designate as neotype a male imago collected at the type locality.


BACKGROUND
MicroRNA (miR)-210 expression is induced by acute and chronic hypoxia and provides prognostic information in patients with aortic stenosis and acute coronary syndrome. We hypothesized that circulating miR-210 concentrations could provide diagnostic and prognostic information in patients with acute heart failure (HF).

METHODS
We measured miR-210 concentrations in serum samples on admission from 314 patients hospitalized for acute dyspnea and 9 healthy control subjects. The diagnostic and prognostic properties of miR-210 were tested in patients after adjudication of all diagnoses and with median follow-up of 464 days.

RESULTS
All patients and control subjects had miR-210 concentrations within the range of detection, and the analytical variation was low as the coefficient of variation of synthetic spike-in RNA was 4%. Circulating miR-210 concentrations were increased in patients with HF compared to healthy control subjects, but miR-210 concentrations did not separate patients with acute HF (n = 143) from patients with non-HF-related dyspnea (n = 171): the area under the curve was 0.50 (95% CI 0.43-0.57). Circulating miR-210 concentrations were associated with mortality (n = 114) after adjustment for clinical risk factors (hazard ratio 1.65 [95% CI 1.03-2.62] per unit miR-210 increase), but this association was attenuated and not significant after adjustment for established cardiac protein biomarkers.

CONCLUSIONS
Circulating miR-210 concentrations are associated with mortality, but do not add to established protein biomarkers for diagnosis or prognosis in patients with acute dyspnea.


While aberration correction for scanning transmission electron microscopes
(STEMs) dramatically increased the spatial resolution obtainable in the images of materials that are stable under the electron beam, the practical resolution of many STEM
images is now limited by the sample stability rather than the microscope. To extract physical information from the images of beam sensitive materials, it is becoming clear that there is a critical dose/dose-rate below which the images can be interpreted as representative of the pristine material, while above it the observation is dominated by beam effects. Here, we describe an experimental approach for sparse sampling in the STEM and in-painting image reconstruction in order to reduce the electron dose/dose-rate to the sample during imaging. By characterizing the induction limited rise-time and hysteresis in the scan coils, we show that a sparse line-hopping approach to scan randomization can be implemented that optimizes both the speed of the scan and the amount of the sample that needs to be illuminated by the beam. The dose and acquisition time for the sparse sampling is shown to be effectively decreased by at least a factor of 5× relative to conventional acquisition, permitting imaging of beam sensitive materials to be obtained without changing the microscope operating parameters. The use of sparse line-hopping scan to acquire STEM
images is demonstrated with atomic resolution aberration corrected the Z-contrast images of CaCO3, a material that is traditionally difficult to image by TEM/STEM because of dosage issues.


Since the 1990s, the link between the lack of access to opportunities (work, health, shopping, leisure, etc.) and social exclusion processes has been the subject of growing interest in research and policy. In the United Kingdom, for example, the creation of the Social Exclusion Unit in 1997 was a starting point for the development of many studies analysing the spatial dimension of social exclusion. Lack of access to facilities and services has been cited among the components of social isolation. Similarly, in the US and in France the implementation of workfare policies has placed new emphasis on the necessity for job seekers to access employment. In the field of transport studies, access is generally analysed from a narrow point of view, as a problem of transport networks performance, reduced to the ease to reach opportunities. In this paper, we argue that the social characteristics of space and of individuals, along with the provision of urban amenities in a given urban environment, are also crucial components of the complex notion of urban access. Rejecting a narrow definition of access, we seek to broaden the approach of access inequalities and discuss its implications for public policies. In our paper we first define the notion of accessibility, based on a review of the literature regarding urban access and its measure. In a second part, we examine the use of the notion of access in the transport field, underlying the shortcomings resulting from a mobility-focused paradigm of access. In the third part, we present the "new narrative of access" which was incorporated into policy discourses, in relation to the raising issue of social exclusion in North America and several European countries. We finally argue that the notion of accessibility can better address social justice and equity issues than a right to mobility.


Diagnosis and management of venomous bites and stings, particularly snakebite, is important for Australian clinicians. In 2015, a flipped classroom was trialled to teach the principles of envenomation to year 1 medical students in a MD program. A bespoke online resource was developed and then used by students to prepare for a face-to-face class tailored to their learning needs. Students reported positively about learning the principles of envenomation with the online resource and found it useful. Responses from students also indicated that the interactive class was beneficial to their learning, particularly the clinical application of envenomation. These findings were supported by comparisons of pre- and post-test scores that showed significant learning gains across eight questions. The study also provided some insights into students' perception of knowledge retention and why some students may prefer to prepare individually for content attainment.


Picturing America: Photography and the Sense of Place argues that photography is a prevalent practice of making American places. Its collected essays epitomize not only how pictures situate us in a specific place, but also how they create a sense of such mutable place-worlds. Understanding photographs as prime sites of knowledge production and advocates of socio-political transformations, a transnational set of scholars reveals how images enact both our perception and conception of American environments. They investigate the power photography yields in shaping our ideas of self, nation, and empire, of private and public space, through urban, landscape, wasteland and portrait photography. The volume radically reconfigures how pictures alter the development of American places in the past, present, and future.


BACKGROUND
We explored the expression of Fatty Acid Synthase (FAS) in lung carcinomas and its association with clinico-pathological features and prognosis. FAS is a recently discovered molecule involved in the energy supply of normal cells. FAS is also overexpressed in neoplastic tissues because of their increased necessity for energy.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
One hundred and six patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma were followed-up for an average period of 5 years. FAS expression was detected immunohistochemically.

RESULTS
FAS staining was observed in 61 out of 106 cases (57.54%). Statistical analysis revealed that FAS had an overall low prognostic value (p = 0.14), while FAS-negative expression in stage I patients showed a trend for better survival (p = 0.10). PTNM stage (p < 0.0001) was the only significant prognostic marker for overall survival.

CONCLUSION
FAS is a reliable marker of low-stage clinically aggressive lung carcinomas. The determination of FAS expression in lung carcinomas may stratify patients and determine therapeutic approaches for their care.


The U.S. National Institutes of Health has resumed funding research on how pathogens that cause diseases like influenza and SARS become more deadly, the agency announced last month. Funding was halted three years ago under the Obama administration after a series of safety failures at biosecurity labs raised concern that the research could fall into the wrong hands. With the renewed funding comes a more stringent review process that will weigh the risks and benefits of any research on potentially pandemic pathogens. "I am confident that the thoughtful review process laid out [in the plan] will help to facilitate the safe, secure, and responsible conduct of this type of research in a manner that maximizes the benefits to public health," NIH Director Francis Collins says. The new review process will apply to research on any pathogen that is highly transmissible and likely to cause significant illness or death in humans.


North American (NA) ginseng root (Panax quinquefolium) has become of increasing scientific interest because of its immune-enhancing properties. Herein, we have developed a novel approach to synthesize ginseng polysaccharide nanoparticles (NPs) from NA ginseng for enhancing their immunostimulation. Nanoparticles of ginseng polysaccharide were prepared using a microfluidic device and compared to other conventional wet chemical processes including nanoprecipitation and reverse microemulsion. The morphology and size of the NPs were characterized by SEM, TEM, DLS and FTIR. Depending on the experimental conditions, microfluidics was found to provide unimodal polysaccharide spheres down to 20 nm (±4 nm) with very narrow particle size distributions. In addition, the immunostimulating effect of the polysaccharide NPs was investigated on Murine macrophage cell lines, with the results revealing an enhanced production of all proinflammatory mediators in a concentration dependent manner. The proposed microfluidic system has the advantages of ease of fabrication, simplicity, and a fast and low-cost process that is capable of producing ginseng polysaccharide NPs with demonstrated enhancement of immunostimulation of macrophage cell lines.


The present study examines the characteristics of the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) events represented in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model version 1 (E3SMv1), DOE's new Earth system model. The coupled E3SMv1 realistically simulates the eastward propagation of precipitation and moist static energy (MSE) anomalies associated with the MJO. As in observations, horizontal moisture advection and longwave radiative feedback are found to be the dominant processes in E3SMv1 that lead to the eastward movement and maintenance of the MJO MSE anomalies, respectively. Modulation of the diurnal cycle of precipitation in the Maritime Continent region by the MJO is also well represented in the model despite systematic biases in the magnitude and phase of the precipitation diurnal cycle. On the MJO impact over the midlatitude, E3SMv1 reasonably captures the pattern of the MJO teleconnections across the North Pacific and North America, with improvement in the performance in a high‐resolution version, despite the magnitude being a bit weaker than the observed. Regarding the interannual variability of the MJO, the El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) modulation of the zonal extent of MJO's eastward propagation, as well as associated changes in the mean state moisture gradient in the tropical west Pacific, are well reproduced in the model. However, MJO in E3SMv1 exhibits no sensitivity to the Quasi‐Biennial Oscillation (QBO), with the MJO propagation characteristics being almost identical between easterly QBO and westerly QBO years. Processes that have been suggested as critical to MJO simulation are also examined by utilizing recently developed process‐oriented diagnostics.


It is very common that most product assemblies in industry require two mating parts where one must fit into the other. However, we may observe interference if the shaft does not fit within or over the shaft, or we may experience excessive clearance. In calculating the percentage of interference or excessive clearance, most industries usually assume normal distribution for quality characteristics of mating parts and use a distribution of their difference to analyze the interference or clearance. However, it has not been proved that the collected data matches the assumption of normality. Therefore, it is doubtful that the calculated nonconforming rate truly reflects the performance of the assembly process. This research focuses on the clearance and interference analysis for the non‐normal data of product assembly. Comparisons have also been made between actual nonconforming rate and the assumed normal percentage of nonconformance by overlooking their theoretical distributions of two mating parts. Finally, a computer program has been proposed to simplify tedious calculation process for estimating the nonconforming rate under non‐normal distribution.


The act of establishing a nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) by a state is a sovereign right protected by Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations and Article VII of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). It is a step towards nuclear disarmament by restricting the areas on earth and in space where such weapons may be freely produced, moved, tested, stationed and used. It is a measure of national security for states that wish to distance their territory and their populations completely from the nuclear arms race, its implications and its effects on development, health and international relations. When the African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (Treaty of Pelindaba) enters into force, probably this year, over half of the earth's land mass and 119 countries will be protected in such zones.


of 1 9 dB at 10 GHz and a maximum available gain of 1 1 c l 3 at 18 GHz. Extrapolation of this maximum available gain usi l g a 6 dB/octave rolloff yields a maximum frequency of oscilla ion (fmax) of 65 GHz, compared with 100 GHz for the best 'levices.' The  OMCVD-overgrown  devices  have  a lower f l,lax because their output impedance, as derived from an equiva cnt circuit model, is about an order of magnitude lower. Atten 11?ts are in progress t o fabricate PBT's with higher impedance ~ !,'or example, by reducing the doping of the overgrown GaAs 1a:er) without significantly degrading the other device parame1,ers. The performance of such devices would equal or exceed the best PBT performance so far achieved.


In order to determine the persistence of heat stress effect in dairy cows regarding the breed, parity and susceptibility to heat stress, over 1.9 million of test-day records from Holstein and Simmental cows reared in Croatia were used. The persistence of heat stress effect in the subsequent milk recordings was determined in cows that had significant decrease of daily milk yield at different THI threshold value (65, 70, 75, 80, and 85). The obtained results indicate that cows heat stressed at lower THI threshold value had higher proportional drop of daily milk yield in subsequent milk recordings. Also, primiparous and Simmentals experienced higher proportional drop when compared to multiparous and Holsteins. The negative effect of heat stress on daily milk contents that existed in all cows was more pronounced in the 2nd subsequent milk recording. The determined increase of somatic cell count in more heat stress sensitive Holsteins (THI in 65, 70, 75) indicates that Holstein cows, in terms of heat stress, also become more susceptible to mastitis. Finally, the lower was the THI threshold value, the stronger and more persistent was the heat stress effect. Considering the quite probable increase of the frequency of heat stress days, it is necessary to develop an adequate strategy for dairy farming. Aiming the accurate answer to the problem of heat stress in this region, it is necessary to conduct further research on genetic evaluation


In contemporary Geographical Information Systems (GIS) the large variety of digital map sources requires the handling and storing of various descriptive data in a single storage facility. Although the number and type of attributes can vary among different maps, the storage of such inhomogeneous data in a single database is difficult, as querying is an essential task and requires fast retrieval of data based on any present attribute. In this study, the authors compare three different approaches to this problem based on relational and objectoriented database systems by implementing and testing with massive inhomogeneous and altering descriptive data. Since this problem is not only typical in the field of GIS, the solution can be applied generally to any domain using inhomogeneous data, like e-commerce systems and document warehouses.


Human safety and health and 'green' environmental sustainability are major concerns to the world community. To material scientists and engineers, these concerns meant that they have to device new ways of treating or producing materials. Over the last decade, natural fibres had been treated chemically to enhance fibre-matrix interfacial adhesion and this trend continues until today. The goal of this study is to find a suitable replacement for chemical treatment of natural fibres. The use of biological base treatment agent in the form of sea water to enhance fibre-matrix interfacial adhesion in sugar palm fibre reinforced epoxy composites was studied. Sugar palm fibre was soaked in the sea water for the duration of 30 days. Impact and flexural tests were carried out in order to examine the effectiveness of this treatment in accordance to the ASTM D256 and ASTM D790 respectively. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to analyse the surface fibres and fractured composites. It was experimentally proven that the sea water treated composites of 20% and 30% fibre content had higher impact value at 18.46 MPa and 14.16 MPa with 5.06% and 4.27% of improvements respectively, when compared to untreated composites. Similar result was reported for flexural strength of 30% fibre content which had higher impact value at 53.87 MPa with 7.35% of improvements. For the composite of 20% fibre content, reverse trend result was obtained at 54.22 MPa with decrease 8.12% compared to untreated composites. In conclusion, sea water treatment significantly improved surface characteristics of fibres by removal of the outer layer of hemicellulose and pectin and led to improve fibre-matrix interface. This caused a direct result of higher impact and flexural strength compared to untreated composites.


We report late-time spectroscopic observations of the Type IIn supernova (SN) 1998S, taken 14 years after explosion using the Large Binocular Telescope. The optical spectrum exhibits strong, broad emission features of [O i], [O ii] and Hα, in addition to weaker features of [O iii], Hβ and [Fe ii]. The last decade of evolution has exhibited a strengthening of the oxygen transitions relative to Hα, evidence that the late-time emission is powered by increasingly metal-rich SN ejecta crossing the reverse shock. The Hα luminosity of ≈8000 L⊙ requires that SN 1998S is still interacting with relatively dense circumstellar material (CSM), probably produced by the strong wind of a red supergiant progenitor at least ∼103 years before explosion. The emission lines exhibit asymmetric blueshifted profiles, which implies that the receding hemisphere of the SN is obscured by dust. The [O iii] λ5007 line, in particular, exhibits a complete suppression of its red wing. This could be the result of the expected wavelength dependence for dust extinction or a smaller radial distribution for [O iii]. In the latter case, the red wing of [O iii] could be absorbed by core dust, while both the blue and red wings are absorbed by dust within the cool dense shell between the forward and reverse shocks; this interpretation could explain why late-time [O iii] emission from SNe is often weaker than models predict. The [O i] line exhibits double-peaked structure on top of the broader underlying profile, possibly due to emission from individual clumps of ejecta or ring-like structures of metal-rich debris. The centroids of the peaks are blueshifted and lack a red counterpart. However, an archival spectrum obtained on day 1093 exhibits a third, redshifted peak, which we suspect has become extinguished by dust that formed over the last decade, after day 1093. This implies that the 'missing' red components of multi-peaked oxygen profiles observed in other SNe might be obscured by varying degrees of dust extinction.


The leg ulcers are an important pathology that typically lead to life quality impairment, frequent stays in the hospital, and risk of mortality enhancement. It has an incidence of about 1% among adults, reaching incidence levels of 10% among elderly people above the age of 70. About 95% of the ulcers are diagnosed as venous, arterial, mixed or diabetic, being the most frequent ones the venous ulcers, that typically account for about 70 to 80% of the total number of ulcers identified. With the goal of optimizing the treatment and counseling of patients suffering from this type of pathology, it was created in 2002 in Hospital dos Capuchos (Lisbon, Portugal) a special multidisciplinary medical center focused in the study and treatment of the leg ulcers. It was established a treatment protocol with the Public Health Centers from unit B, sub-region of Lisbon. Patients are observed by the multidisciplinary group. The authors of the present research conducted a retrospective study of all the patients observed by this group between 2002 and the first term of 2006. The total number of patients observed was of 294 patients, 80% of them above 60 years old. Results indicated that in terms of the ulcers etiology, 51,3% (n=151) were venous, 35,4% (n=104) were diabetic and 6,8% (n=20) were arterial. The average ulcers area was 23,9cm2, the average number of ulcers was 1,6 , and 42,3% of the ulcers had a duration higher than 6 months. From the sample of 199 positive cultures, 40,2% showed the presence of Staphylococcus aureus, 21,2% of these being MRSA. The authors concluded that due to the established protocol, the cicatrization rate was of 72,2% and 45,9% of the patients reached total cicatrization of the ulcers in less than 2 months. These results are extremely positive when compared with the average rate of cicatrization (6 months) referred in the medical literature. Keywords: Leg ulcer; venous leg ulcer; diabetic ulcer; iodopovidone; elastic compression bandages; healing


Cable array robots are a class of robotic mechanisms which utilize multiple actuated cables to manipulate objects. This paper discusses the defining characteristics and the important issues relating to this class of robots. One particular type of cable array robot with three cables is presented in detail including kinematic relations and dynamic modeling. The resulting models are used to design a sliding mode control system for the robot, providing robustness to uncertainty in the mass of manipulated objects while tracking a given trajectory. Experimental results are provided for the system, showing that the robot is capable of tracking a trajectory within several centimeters, which is reasonable performance for many industrial applications. These results are discussed in detail and future research plans are presented.


ABSTRACT Serratia marcescens cells swarm at 30°C but not at 37°C, and the underlying mechanism is not characterized. Our previous studies had shown that a temperature upshift from 30 to 37°C reduced the expression levels of flhDCSm and hagSm in S. marcescens CH-1. Mutation in rssA or rssB, cognate genes that comprise a two-component system, also resulted in precocious swarming phenotypes at 37°C. To further characterize the underlying mechanism, in the present study, we report that expression of flhDCSm and synthesis of flagella are significantly increased in the rssA mutant strain at 37°C. Primer extension analysis for determination of the transcriptional start site(s) of flhDCSm revealed two transcriptional start sites, P1 and P2, in S. marcescens CH-1. Characterization of the phosphorylated RssB (RssB∼P) binding site by an electrophoretic mobility shift assay showed direct interaction of RssB∼P, but not unphosphorylated RssB [RssB(D51E)], with the P2 promoter region. A DNase I footprinting assay using a capillary electrophoresis approach further determined that the RssB∼P binding site is located between base pair positions −341 and −364 from the translation start codon ATG in the flhDCSm promoter region. The binding site overlaps with the P2 "−35" promoter region. A modified chromatin immunoprecipitation assay was subsequently performed to confirm that RssB∼P binds to the flhDCSm promoter region in vivo. In conclusion, our results indicated that activated RssA-RssB signaling directly inhibits flhDCSm promoter activity at 37°C. This inhibitory effect was comparatively alleviated at 30°C. This finding might explain, at least in part, the phenomenon of inhibition of S. marcescens swarming at 37°C.


The repeated appearance of strikingly similar crab–like forms in independent decapod crustacean lineages represents a remarkable case of parallel evolution. Uncertainty surrounding the phylogenetic relationships among crab–like lineages has hampered evolutionary studies. As is often the case, aligned DNA sequences by themselves were unable to fully resolve these relationships. Four nested mitochondrial gene rearrangements–including one of the few reported movements of an arthropod protein–coding gene–are congruent with the DNA phylogeny and help to resolve a crucial node. A phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences, and gene rearrangements, supported five independent origins of the crab–like form, and suggests that the evolution of the crab–like form may be irreversible. This result supports the utility of mitochondrial gene rearrangements in phylogenetic reconstruction.


Renowned for their technical inventiveness, variety, and beauty, Islamic ceramics first began to flourish in the medieval period. This handsome book presents over one hundred works from the unparalleled Harvey B. Plotnick Collection and documents the extraordinary achievements in Islamic pottery from the 9th to 14th centuries. Focusing on three of the most important types of ceramics produced in Iraq and Iran----lusterware, minai, and underglaze painted wares----the book includes fascinating information on each of the works and an introductory essay that discusses the exalted status that ceramics held in the medieval Islamic world, the developments of various techniques in ceramic production, and the singular importance of this major collection. It also tells the particular story of the development of lusterware from the era of the Abbasids (9th--10th centuries), to the court of the Fatimid rulers in Egypt, to its remarkable artistic expression in Iran in the late 12th century.


In this paper we provide experimental results concerning the impact of the negotiation protocol onto the quality of the negotiation outcome as well as onto the communication complexity of interactions incurred during negotiations. We evaluate experimentally three negotiation protocols (Direct Task Assignment, Contract Net and Iterated Contract Net) with respect to two performance measures: negotiation outcome (i.e. utility) and communication complexity (i.e. number of messages transferred), by assigning different busy profiles to the contractors. We find that the Direct Task Assignment delivers the worst average outcome, but at the same time it uses the lowest number of messages. The Contract Net and Iterated Contract Net deliver much higher utility on average, but the Iterated Contract Net obtains the highest outcome for some configurations at the cost of the highest number of messages.


A specific feature of the acoustoelectric scattering of the nonuniform surface acoustic wave (SAW) beams by the straight metal strips placed on the piezoelectric substrates is discussed. A closed-form solution is obtained to describe the influence of diffraction on the reflective delay line with finite aperture. The found results allow us to develop the fast simulation and synthesis tool that can be applied to evaluate and compensate for the diffraction effect in SAW tags of arbitrary architectures. Efficiency of the proposed approach is illustrated by example of SAW tag synthesized on 128°-LiNbO3.


PURPOSE
We examined the expression of REIC/Dkk-3, a possible candidate for a tumor suppressor gene, in human renal clear cell carcinoma (RCCC) cell lines and sporadic RCCC surgical specimens.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Human RCCC cell lines (Caki-1, Caki-2, ACHN and KPK-1) and several control cell lines were used to examine the expression of REIC/Dkk-3 mRNA and characterize a newly raised antibody specific for REIC/Dkk-3 protein. Pairs of cancerous and adjacent noncancerous tissues were obtained from 20 patients with RCCC. Of them 17 and 7 cases were analyzed by real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, and by Western blot analysis and/or immunohistochemical analysis, respectively.

RESULTS
The decreased expression of REIC/Dkk-3 mRNA and protein in human RCCC cell lines, and the specificity of the new antibody were confirmed. In a real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction study using 17 pairs of RCCC and adjacent normal tissues REIC/Dkk-3 mRNA levels were significantly decreased in carcinoma tissues (by 25% to approximately 95% in 15 pairs). Western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry revealed a significant decrease in REIC/Dkk-3 protein levels in 6 of the 7 and 13 of the 14 RCCC cases analyzed, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
The decrease in REIC/Dkk-3 mRNA and protein levels was observed irrespective of tumor grade and stage, indicating the involvement of REIC/Dkk-3 in an initial step of malignant conversion. Consequently REIC/Dkk-3 could be a new molecular target for therapeutic measures against RCCC.


Over the past few years our collaboration and others have shown that it is possible to study the very low cross-section channels from compound nuclear reactions by measuring the gamma radiation in coincidence with the neutron multiplicity. We have designed and constructed a new, very large (>14 liters) five-segment, liquid scintillator detector array for fast neutrons. The detector consists of five independent pie-shaped segments configured as a thin compact annulus. The segments are physically as well as optically isolated from each other, allowing each segment to be recharged separately in the event that the scintillator becomes contaminated. Each of the five segments is coupled to an Amperex XP2041 photomultiplier tube which has been specially selected for low gain.


This article provides a brief overview of the tools and methods that may be useful to assess neuropathic trigeminal pain. Pain is a complex multidimensional and biopsychosocial experience. While the assessment of neuropathic trigeminal pain is complex, there are several meaningful ways available for the systematic assessment of neuropathic pain and its effects and manifestations. The key to such an analysis is a standardized pain history and examination and a good knowledge of pain mechanisms. Patients can be asked to provide detailed information about their spontaneous pain (ie, stimulus-independent pain), eg, quality, intensity, localization, time course, and modifying factors. Stimulus-dependent pain components can be characterized with clinical examination procedures and quantitative psychophysical techniques such as application of mechanical, thermal, chemical, and electrical stimuli. The description of the stimulus-dependent pain is important to reveal the function of the somatosensory system and to map the extent of hyperalgesia, hyperesthesia and allodynia, because the normal relationship between stimulus intensity and perceived intensity is distorted in many neuropathic pain conditions. In addition to the psychophysical techniques, a number of laboratory tests for assessment of trigeminal pain have been developed and tested, although critical information on sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values is still scarce. There is also a need for common guidelines on classification, diagnostic procedures, and management. This will require concerted international, interdisciplinary action.


The aim of the research was to subjectively assess the situation of Polish urban households and their sense of social security during the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, primary household surveys were designed and subsequently carried out in Poland in April, June and September 2020 using the CAWI method. An assessment of household security was made, presenting households' subjective feelings about the loss of financial stability, loss of employment, and the overall deterioration of their situation. Responses also addressed a potential worsening in the situation in Poland, growing poverty of families, and rising unemployment in the country. One of the most important conclusions from the research is that there is a dichotomy of feelings among respondents whereby they view the situation of their households as better than that of the country as a whole. Furthermore, between the first and the second stages of the research, there was an increase in optimism among respondents, persisting into the third stage. Finally, the research results show that the smaller the city, the lower the sense of social security.

https://gnpje.sgh.waw.pl/pdf-149196-76783?filename=Social Security and the.pdf


In an image capture by using several cameras, a bad illumination condition has an influence on the image quality, especially the contrast and details in dark region. Generally, HDR imaging technique used to match the quality between the real scene and the captured image. However, multi - exposure technique is limited by veiling glare that is scene-, exposure-, lens-, aperture-, and camera-dependent. This paper presents a color correction method using chromatic adaptation method. The proposed method consists of tone mapping method and chromatic adaptation method. The experimental results show that the proposed method yield better performance than conventional method.


Auxetics refer to a class of engineered structures which exhibit an overall negative Poisson's ratio. These structures open up various potential opportunities in impact resistance, high energy absorption, and flexible robotics, among others. Interestingly, auxetic structures could also be tailored to provide passive adaptation to changes in environmental stimuli — an adaptation of this concept is explored in this paper in the context of designing a novel load-adaptive gripper system. Defining the design in terms of repeating parametric unit cells from which the finite structure can be synthesized presents an attractive computationally-efficient approach to designing auxetic structures. This approach also decouples the optimization cost and the size of the overall structure, and avoids the pitfalls of system-scale design e.g., via topology optimization. In this paper, a surrogate-based design optimization framework is presented to implement the concept of passively load-adaptive structures (of given outer shape) synthesized from auxetic unit cells. Open-source meshing, FEA and Bayesian Optimization tools are integrated to develop this computational framework, enhancing it adopt-ability and extensibility. Demonstration of the concept and the underlying framework is performed by designing a simplified robotic gripper, with the objective to maximize the ratio of towards-load (gripping) horizontal displacement to the load-affected vertical displacement. Optimal auxetic cell-based design generated thereof is found to be four times better in terms of exhibited contact reaction force when compared to a design obtained with topology optimization that is subjected to the same specified maximum loading.


In this study, the complexation of 2,3-dihydro-1H-phenothiazine-4(5aH)-one with 14 various cations were investigated by density functional theory. At the outset, the structures of the ligand, different cations and their derived complexes were optimized geometrically. Then, IR calculations were performed on them in order to acquire the formation enthalpy and Gibbs free energy values. The obtained results substantiate that 2,3-dihydro-1H-phenothiazine-4(5aH)-one forms the strongest and the most stable complex with Cr3+ cation. In addition, this ligand demonstrates an eminent selectivity toward chromium (III) ions. In this regard, it can be used as an electroactive sensing material in developing a Cr3+ selective potentiometric electrode. All calculations were applied by Density functional theory in the level of B3LYP / 6-31G(d).


Superconducting magnets of the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) are cooled by supercritical helium with 4.5 K, which was supplied and recovered by the 9 kW of the Helium Refrigerator System (HRS). While current is being charged, the supercritical helium expands to both side of the helium inlet and the outlet of the magnets due to the generated AC losses. To maintain the pressure gradient, both the supply and the return pressures of the HRS are increased at the same time and the differential pressure of the HRS was reduced after the event. However, the pressure rising in the magnets may block the helium flow or create reversal flow of the helium. During unipolar experiment of PF1 magnet up to 2 kA with 1 kA/s of ramp-up rate, the mass flow rate was decreased at the PF1 cooling tube (manifold) in the helium distribution system (HDS), whereas the pressure is increased and the temperature is to be increased or decreased according to compression and expansion of the heated helium in the magnets. For the bipolar experiment of PF1 up to ±2 kA with 1 kA/s ramp-up rate and 2 kA/s ramp-down rate, the conditions in the helium flow were drastically changed, especially the mass flow rate was measured to be maintained at zero for a few second (more than 4 s). This behavior could decisively affect the cryogenic stabilities in the magnet, and may impose a major limit on the long pulse operation of KSTAR. In this paper, we investigated this behavior and analysed by using 1-dimentional thermo-hydraulic code, GANDALF.


The electronic band structure, metallization, structural phase transition and superconducting transition of silver chloride (AgCl) and silver bromide (AgBr) under pressure are studied using the TB-LMTO method. The ground state properties and bandgap values are compared with the experimental and previous theoretical results. These silver halides become metals and superconductors under high pressure, but before this they undergo structural phase transition from NaCl phase to CsCl phase. It is found that the charge transfers between Ag 5s, 4d and X np, nd (X = Cl, Br; n = 3, 4) states cause metallization. It is found that the metallization pressure increases with decrease of lattice constant. The density of states at the Fermi level (N(EF)) is enhanced as the pressure is further increased, which leads to the superconductivity in AgCl and AgBr. Like CsI, AgCl and AgBr come under the class of pressure induced superconductors. The pressure effects on λ (electron–phonon mass enhancement factor) and μ* (electron–electron interaction parameter) clearly suggest that AgCl and AgBr are electron–phonon mediated superconductors. The non-occurrence of metallization, phase transition and onset of superconductivity simultaneously in ionic solids is also confirmed.


We explore the concept of using a deep-submicron HV CMOS process to produce a drop-in replacement for traditional radiation-hard silicon sensors. Such active sensors contain simple circuits, e.g. amplifiers and discriminators, but still require a traditional (pixel or strip) readout chip. This approach yields most advantages of MAPS (improved resolution, reduced cost and material budget, etc.), without the complication of full integration on a single chip. After outlining the design of the HV2FEI4 test ASIC, characterization results and first experience obtained with pixel and strip readout will be shown before discussing future prospects of active sensors


This article explores the possible effects of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) legislation on stand-alone corporate sustainability reporting and assurance on such reports. To this end, we use stakeholder theory to examine the potential impact of the IRA on sustainability reporting, which includes environmental, social, and governance indicators. It also explores the various ways of implementing measures to achieve high-quality sustainability reporting and guidelines for assurance of such reports. This article provides one of the first frameworks for organizations to initiative action regarding climate change.


Children with speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN) form a highly heterogeneous group, including those with an unexplained delay in language development known as specific language impairment (SLI). There is growing recognition that multiple mechanisms underlie the range of profiles observed in these children. Broadly speaking, both the domain-general executive attentional system known as working memory and domain-specific linguistic processing have been implicated in children with SLI. It has been challenging to tease apart these influences, however, due to the symbiotic relationship between working memory and language learning. For example, working memory limits might constrain the linguistic detail encoded, whereas poor language knowledge would place greater demands on working memory for retaining unfamiliar phonological information. There is growing evidence for separable impairments in these processing resources leading to relative deficits in linguistic or working memory processes in different children. Such findings have important clinical implications for both the assessment and treatment of children with SLCN.


Abstract The best medium composition for production of intracellular Iipase by Rhizopus delemar contained oleic acid and no glucose. The technique of cell immobilization using polyurethane foam biomass support particles was studied as a means of further enhancing intracellular lipase activity. Fungal mycelia were found to strongly adhere to the polyurethane foam matrix during growth to form immobilized cell biocataiysts, which, after cell membrane permeabiiization and drying, exhibited a Iipase activity 3.3 times greater than that of cells grown in a freely suspended state. Upase within the Immobilized cells showed properties similar to purified extracellular Rhizopus delemar lipase but was more thermostable than the free enzyme. The biocatalyst was used for triglyceride hydrolysis in a continuous stirred‐tank reactor. In this format it was found that the degree of hydrolysis of olive oil and the flavor profile of lipolyzed milk fat could be easily controlled.


In a previous study (Bednarik et al., 1998) we showed the value
of somatosensory and motor evoked potential (MEP) parameters in
assessment of the clinical relevance of cervical cord
compression in clinically silent cases. We felt that a
comparison of the predictive value of some other
electrophysiological, clinical and radiological variables was
indicated, in a larger group of patients over a longer
follow-up period. A group of 66 patients (32 women, 34 men,
median age 50 years) with magnetic resonance signs of
spondylotic cervical cord compression and without clear-cut
clinical signs of spondylotic cervical myelopathy (SCM) was
prospectively followed for at least 2 years (range: 2-8 years,
median follow-up period: 4 years). Primary endpoint was the
development of clinical myelopathic signs. Clinical,
radiological and electrophysiological parameters were assessed
by three independent observers and then correlated with the
clinical outcome. Clinical signs of myelopathy were detected in
13 patients (19.7%) during the follow-up period. The only
variables significantly associated with the development of
clinically symptomatic SCM were the presence of symptomatic
cervical radiculopathy (92% of SCM cases), abnormal
somatosensory (SEP) and/or motor evoked potentials (84.6%) and
EMG signs of multisegmental anterior horn cell lesion (61.5%).
In contrast, radiological parameters, such as Pavlovs ratio,
spinal cord compression ratio, and spinal cord hyperintensity
and area, showed no significant association with the
development of symptomatic SCM. Thirty-four patients showed no
signs of clinical radiculopathy and normal EP and EMG findings
at the beginning: none of them developed clinical signs of
clinically symptomatic SCM during the follow-up period.
Conclusions. Evoked potentials and EMG signs of subclinical
cervical cord lesion together with clinical signs of cervical
radiculopathy may predict the development of clinically
manifest SCM and could thus serve as valuable tools in its
management.


Exploration of sustainable alternatives to chemicals derived from petro-based industries is the current challenge for maintaining the balance between the needs of a changing world while preserving nature. The major source for sustainable chemicals is either the natural existing plant sources or waste generated from agro-based industries. The utility of such resources will supplement new processed materials with different sets of properties and environmental friendliness due to their biodegradability and low toxicity during preparation, usage and disposal. Amongst other polymers used on a day-to-day basis, phenolic resins account for vast usage. Replacement of petro-based monomers such as phenol and its derivatives either partly or completely utilized for the synthesis of such resins is ongoing. Extraction of natural phenolic components from cashew nut shell liquid, lignin, tannin, palm oil, coconut shell tar or from agricultural and industrial waste, and their utilization as synthons for the preparation of bio-based polymers and properties obtained are reviewed in this paper. This review article is designed to acknowledge efforts of researchers towards the "3C" motto – not only trying to create but also adapting the principles to conserve and care for a sustainable environment. This review paper describes how extraction, separation and recovery of desired phenolic compounds have occurred recently; how substituted phenol compounds, unmodified and modified, act as monomers for polymerization; and how the presence of sustainable phenolic material affects the properties of polymers. There are about 600 references cited and still there is a lot to uncover in this research area.


We present the process of building linguistic corpora of the Portuguese-related Gulf of Guinea creoles, a cluster of four historically related languages: Santome, Angolar, Principense and Fa d'Ambô. We faced the typical difficulties of languages lacking an official status, such as lack of standard spelling, language variation, lack of basic language instruments, and small data sets, which comprise data from the late 19th century to the present. In order to tackle these problems, the compiled written and transcribed spoken data collected during field work trips were adapted to a normalized spelling that was applied to the four languages. For the corpus compilation we followed corpus linguistics standards. We recorded meta data for each file and added morphosyntactic information based on a part-of-speech tag set that was designed to deal with the specificities of these languages. The corpora of three of the four creoles are already available and searchable via an online web interface.


The aim of this study was to investigate the brain cortex Na(+)-K+ ATPase activity in rats made diabetic by streptozotocin and epileptic by pentylenetetrazol. Streptozotocin diabetic rats showed a significant decrease in brain cortex Na(+)-K+ ATPase activity whereas the pentylenetetrazol treatment caused no significant change in enzyme activity. On the other hand, no brain cortex Na(+)-K+ ATPase activity could be detected in all the diabetic rats treated with pentylenetetrazol. Our results concluded that reduced Na(+)-K+ ATPase activity in streptozotocin diabetic rats may contribute to the pathogenesis of metabolic complications of the central nervous system, and that the undetectable enzyme activity in diabetic convulsing rats may result from considerable damage or necrosis of brain tissue during pentylenetetrazol seizures.


Agenesis of the gallbladder is a rare congenital anomaly occurring
in 1 to 4 people of a population of 10000. It may present with biliary
type symptoms such as upper abdominal pain requiring further
investigation. Ultrasound is the first choice of imaging for biliary
symptoms but is frequently misleading in the context of Gallbladder
Agenesis. We report a case of congenital Gallbladder Agenesis and a
biliary tract abnormality diagnosed by laparoscopy. As a result most
patients are diagnosed following conversion of laparoscopic to open
cholecystectomy and subsequent failure to identify the gallbladder.
Failure to suspect Gallbladder Agenesis at laparoscopy can result in
unnecessary open surgery and a high risk of bile duct damage with
corresponding postoperative morbidity and mortality.


Objective: To evaluate the usefulness of the broad range bacterial rDNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method combined with DNA sequencing in the aetiological diagnosis of intracranial or spinal infections in neurosurgical patients. Methods: In addition to conventional methods, the broad range bacterial PCR approach was applied to examine pus or tissue specimens from cerebral or spinal lesions in patients treated in a neurosurgical unit for a clinical or neuroradiological suspicion of bacterial brain abscess or spondylitis. Results: Among the 44 patients with intracranial or spinal lesions, the final diagnosis suggested bacterial disease in 25 patients, among whom the aetiological agent was identified in 17. A causative bacterial species was identified only by the rDNA PCR method in six cases, by both the PCR methodology and bacterial culture in six cases, and by bacterial culture alone in five. All samples in which a bacterial aetiology was identified only by the PCR approach were taken during antimicrobial treatment, and in three patients the method yielded the diagnosis even after ⩾ 12 days of parenteral treatment. One case also identified by the PCR approach alone involved a brain abscess caused by Mycoplasma hominis, which is not readily cultured by routine methods. Conclusions: In patients with brain abscesses and spinal infections, the broad range bacterial rDNA PCR approach may be the only method to provide an aetiological diagnosis when the patient is receiving antimicrobial treatment, or when the causative agent is fastidious.


C143 Breast cancers of the basal-like subtype, which share a similar expression profile to breast cancers with BRCA1 mutations, are characterized by a "triple-negative" phenotype, i.e. negative for expression of the estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and HER2/neu oncogene. They are often associated with a poor outcome and are resistant to current treatment options. Previous work from our and other laboratories has shown sensitivity of BRCA1-deficient cells to Parp inhibitor KU58948 and cisplatin. Similarly, we have found that BRCA1-deficient cells were more sensitive to gemcitabine compared to wild-type BRCA1 cells. We thus hypothesized that breast cancers with the triple-negative phenotype would also be sensitive to these agents. To investigate this, we compared a panel of breast cancer cell lines with known triple-negative status (HCC38, HCC1143, HCC1806 and MDAMB468) to other breast cancer cell lines (MCF7 and BT474) for sensitivity to PARP inhibitor KU58948, gemcitabine, and cisplatin. We found by methylene blue staining and MTT assay that triple-negative cell lines (HCC1806 and MDAMB468) were more sensitive to Parp inhibitor KU58948 compared to other cancer cell lines (MCF7 and BT474). Furthermore, we also found by MTT assay that triple-negative cell lines (HCC38, HCC1143, HCC1806 and MDAMB468) were sensitive to gemcitabine and cisplatin than other cancer cell lines (MCF7 and BT474). However, this effect was not observed for doxorubicin or paclitaxel. We then analyzed sensitivity of HCC1806, MDAMB468, and BT474 cell to Parp inhibitor KU58948 in combination with gemcitabine or cisplatin. Compared to gemcitabine or cisplatin alone, we found that the triple-negative cell line (MDAMB468) was more sensitive to the combination treatment of Parp inhibitor KU58948 and cisplatin, whereas the other cancer cell line (BT474) remained resistant to both combination treatments. Overall, we found that human breast cancer cell lines with known triple-negative status, like BRCA1-deficient cell lines, were more sensitive to Parp-inhibition, cisplatin, and gemcitabine. These data suggest novel treatment options for triple-negative breast cancers.


One of the most acute problems in the world today is provision of a respectable living for the elderly. Today the process of aging population as a result of a declined birth rate and increased life expectancy) has touched all countries of the world - developed countries as well as countries like Russia. Consequently, reforming traditional pension systems to deal with the changing situation has become an important issue around the world. These reforms typically center on the implementation of some form of funding of future pension benefits. This also holds for Russia, where in 1995 pension reform legislation introduced the so-called "accumulation pension". In this context, this article will deal with the issues concerning the establishment of mutual funds, legal aspects of their operating and their investing opportunities. There will be carried out a comparative analysis of mutual funds with the other forms of public investments, namely: Common Funds of Bank Management, Voucher Investment Funds and Joint-stock Investment Funds.


In this paper, we propose a novel mixed reality martial arts training system using deep learning based real-time human pose forecasting. Our training system is based on 3D pose estimation using a residual neural network with input from a RGB camera, which captures the motion of a trainer. The student wearing a head mounted display can see the virtual model of the trainer and his forecasted future pose. The pose forecasting is based on recurrent networks, to improve the learning quantity of the motion's temporal feature, we use a special lattice optical flow method for the joints movement estimation. We visualize the real-time human motion by a generated human model while the forecasted pose is shown by a red skeleton model. In our experiments, we evaluated the performance of our system when predicting 15 frames ahead in a 30-fps video (0.5s forecasting), the accuracies were acceptable since they are equal to or even outperforms some methods using depth IR cameras or fabric technologies, user studies showed that our system is helpful for beginners to understand martial arts and the usability is comfortable since the motions were captured by RGB camera.


ABSTRACT This study compared Chinese male and female police cadets' perceived occupational self-efficacy in the following domains of police responsibility: making arrests, overall police duties, report filing, using police equipment, interaction with the public/colleagues, solving problems, living with police expectations, having the required physical and emotional strength to complete police work. Data were analysed based on surveys conducted with 1023 cadets (151 females and 872 males) in a police college located in a Southeastern province of China. It was found that male cadets were significantly more self-efficacious than their female counterparts in the areas of making arrests, filing reports, and using police equipment. Moreover, male cadets were also significantly more confident that they were physically and mentally capable of doing police work. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that among the different aspects of self-efficacy, the differences in making arrests and having physical strength were the greatest between male and female cadets. Training program for female cadets should be targeted toward improvement in policing skills and mental resilience to increase their confidence in their ability to successfully execute the police role. Future studies can continue exploring how perceived self-efficacy of police changes over time and whether deployment practices and perceived treatment affect male and female cadets' self-efficacy.


Low-temperature degradations of acrylonitrile homopolymers and acrylonitrile/acrylamide copolymers in air were investigated by IR and thermogravimetry. The degradation rates of acrylonitrile polymers were determined by measurement of normalized absorbance of CN band and effects of the degradation temperature, time, and comonomer on the rate of degradations were discussed. It was found that the polymers start to degrade as the temperature increased to 150°C. In the temperature range of 180–210°C, values of the rate of polymer degradation were maximal and the rate of degradation of acrylonitrile/acrylamide copolymers was higher compared with that of acrylonitrile homopolymers. At 150°C, acrylonitrile homopolymers had an induction period of about 0.5 h. The rate of degradation of acrylonitrile/acrylamide copolymers showed an obvious trend of increase along with acrylamide concentration, and changes of the rate became less prominent as the weight ratio of acrylamide/acrylonitrile went beyond 5/95. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 101: 1511–1514, 2006


Abstract: In continuous cereal-based crop rotation, inappropriate residue management such as burning and removing may deteriorate soil properties and crop productivity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of different tillage systems (TSs), nitrogen fertilization, and maize (Zea mays L.) stubble management (SM) on subsequent wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) crop and soil properties. The experiment consisted of three TSs, i.e., shallowing with rotavator (0–10 cm), conventional (0–20 cm), and deep tillage (0–30 cm) as main plots, whereas the subplots were SM (removal, burning, or incorporation) with or without 120 kg N ha-1 as urea. The treatments were laid out in a split-plot fashion with whole-plot factor in a randomized complete block design. Shallow tillage (ST) increased wheat yield and soil moisture retention, soil mineral N, total N, and organic carbon. Similarly, stubble incorporation with N fertilization enhanced grain yield and soil properties as compared with the stubble removed or burning treatments. Synergetic effects were noted between ST and residue incorporation with N fertilization for grain yield and soil N response. We conclude that in a cereal-based cropping system, ST and maize stubble incorporation accompanied by N fertilization can improve soil properties and productivity of subsequent wheat crop in existing soil conditions.


Phase transitions occur in a variety of physical phenomena ranging from condensation of gases to solidification of liquids. It is of paramount importance to provide an adequate modelling of these phenomena in a thermodynamically consistent way. This paper addresses an introduction into the mathematical modelling of phase transitions in fluids from the perspective of consistently employing a modified Legendre transform of entropy considered as a given function of internal energy and volume. An explicit conservative scheme for incompressible phase transition and an implicit non-conservative scheme based on the fictitious-capacity and lubrication-theory approximations are implemented in MATLAB R ©. Illustrative numerical simulations are conducted, and some results are verified against an exact benchmark solution.


Linear IgA disease is a subepidermal blistering disorder associated with an IgA basementmembrane antibody. It is of unknown causation, but there are reports of cases associated with lymphoproliferative and other malignancies' and with drug therapy.^ We studied 62 adults with linear IgA disease to determine whether significant associations with other diseases were present. The patients were seen in London and Oxford between 1972 and 1988, and follow-up varied from 6 months to 40 years after the onset of symptoms. The age at onset varied between 14 and 83 years, with approximately half beginning after the age of 50. The main finding of the study was the absence of obvious triggering factors or of associated disease in the majority of patients. However, three patients had an associated lymphoproliferative disease. These comprised individual patients with IgG multiple myeloma, diffuse lymphoblastic lymphoma and centroblastic/centrocytic lymphoma. A further seven patients had other malignancies, with single cases of mesenchymal tumour, eccrine carcinoma of the skin, malignant melanoma of the eye, and carcinoma of the uterus, kidney, bladder and colon. Comparison with national cancer registry statistics suggests that the association found between adult linear IgA disease and lymphoproliferative malignancy is extremely unlikely to be due to chance. Likewise, we feel that ascertainment bias and the effects of drug therapy for either of the disorders are unlikely to explain the association. It is entirely speculative whether the two diseases may result from common aetiological influences, or whether the linear IgA disease may simply be a paraneoplastic manifestation of a lymphoproliferative disorder in some patients.


The pathway to excellence is turbulent and aspiring musicians must cope with the 'ebb and flow' of development if they are to realise their potential. With this in mind, internationally renowned musicians were interviewed in order to identify the challenges of each stage of musical development and the psychological characteristics that can enable aspiring musicians to sustain this developmental process. Results suggest that while certain psychological characteristics are salient throughout the career and facilitate continued development, others are especially important at key stages and critically at key transitions. This research satisfies more than academic interest, as findings should sensibly inform music educators about the skills and characteristics required by aspiring musicians at key stages during the learning process.


Today, in many countries, there are many banks engaging in financial derivatives trading to manage risks. This paper selects data on financial derivatives trading from US banks and FRED to analyze the effect of financial derivatives trading on US banks and its economy. The results show that the impact of total financial derivatives trading revenue on bank residual (assets less liabilities) is bigger; an increase in total financial derivatives trading will lead to dramatically rise in bank residual in ten years; a positive change in interest rate derivatives trading has strongly positive impact on bank residual in eleven years; US bank credit don't always expand with the increase in other derivatives (equity and commodity derivatives) trading which is strongly positive in first five years; the change in bank credit represents the feature of convex functions with the grow of total financial derivatives trading and interest rate derivatives; the change in gross government investment represents the characteristic of convex function with the growth of foreign exchange contracts, interest rate de- rivatives and total financial derivatives trading; an increase in equity and commodity derivatives trading from US banks results in the decrease in U.S. GNP per capita. In a word, more financial derivatives which banking is engaged in are not better.


The authors briefly describe biofeedback techniques such as EMG feedback, temperature feedback, and heart rate feedback, along with reports from the literature about their application to specific problems such as subvocalization while reading, Raynaud's disease, cardiac arrhythmias, and epilepsy. Many clinical applications of biofeedback are aimed at inducing relaxation, a state that has important psychotherapeutic potential. The authors suggest that biofeedback could be used to reduce a patient's general level of arousal or as an adjunct to behavior therapy or insight therapy. While there have been no reports in the literature of any harmful effects secondary to feedback training, the authors caution that some patients may respond negatively to an objectively measured state of relaxation.


G protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER) in the amygdala and the dorsal hippocampus mediates actions of estradiol on anxiety, social recognition and spatial memory. In addition, GPER participates in the estrogenic regulation of synaptic function in the amygdala and in the process of adult neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus. While the distribution of the canonical estrogen receptors α and β in the amygdala and dorsal hippocampus are well characterized, little is known about the regional distribution of GPER in these brain regions and whether this distribution is affected by sex or the stages of the estrous cycle. In this study we performed a morphometric analysis of GPER immunoreactivity in the posterodorsal medial, anteroventral medial, basolateral, basomedial and central subdivisions of the amygdala and in all the histological layers of CA1 and the dentate gyrus of the dorsal hippocampal formation. The number of GPER immunoreactive cells was estimated in these different structures. GPER immunoreactivity was detected in all the assessed subdivisions of the amygdaloid nucleus and dorsal hippocampal formation. The number of GPER immunoreactive cells was higher in males than in estrus females in the central (P = 0.001) and the posterodorsal medial amygdala (P < 0.05); higher in males than in diestrus females in the strata orients (P < 0.01) and radiatum-lacunosum-moleculare (P < 0.05) of CA1-CA3 and in the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus (P < 0.01); higher in diestrus females than in males in the basolateral amygdala (P < 0.05); higher in diestrus females than in estrus females in the central (P < 0.01), posterodorsal medial (P < 0.01) and basolateral amygdala (P < 0.01) and higher in estrus females than in diestrus females in the strata oriens (P < 0.05) and radiatum-lacunosum-moleculare (P < 0.05) of CA1-CA3 and in the molecular layer (P < 0.05) and the hilus of the dentate gyrus (P < 0.05). The findings suggest that estrogenic regulation of the amygdala and hippocampus through GPER may be different in males and in females and may fluctuate during the estrous cycle.


Differential Impact of Racial Microaggressions on Asian Americans: Relationship to Perpetrator & Power Status Rachel Haeyoung Kim The unremitting image of Asian Americans as being "Model Minority" has created a veil that conceals their incessant struggles with discrimination, prejudice and microaggressions on individual, institutional and cultural levels. Previous studies have highlighted the personal and collective struggles of this group and emphasized the harmful consequences to physical, emotional and mental well-being of Asian Americans. The current study explored potential factors that may influence the impact of experiencing racial microaggressions for Asian Americans. More specifically, a 2 x 2 betweensubjects factorial design was utilized to examine whether level of familiarity and role of power in the target's relationship with the perpetrator differentially impacts the experience of a racial microaggression. A vignette illustrated a microaggressive encounter with a perpetrator who differed on these conditions with a sample of 263 Asian Americans. The findings indicate support for the damaging psychological consequences of receiving racial microaggressions with participants reporting significantly negative experience when the perpetrator was someone familiar in a position of authority. The results of the present study contribute to the literature on racial microaggressions by providing support for the injurious impact it has for Asian Americans and continues to challenge the model minority myth that persists to silence their voices and invalidate their racial reality.


In this paper, we will present the results of our efforts developing the Autonomy Kit for the Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center's (TARDEC) Autonomous Ground Resupply (AGR) Sustainment Operations (SO) program. Robotic Research, LLC was responsible for the design, build, and implementation of the "Autonomy Kit" for the AGR SO. The Autonomy Kit is designed to be a fault-tolerant, vehicle-agnostic applique kit that provides the hardware and software needed to perform higher-level autonomous driving and planning functions. In the first Increment, the main focus was developing a "Leader/Follower" capability, where a manned "Leader" vehicle could perform a mission with a number of unmanned "Followers" reproducing its trajectory, maintaining convoy constraints, and avoiding obstacles in the path.


Purpose: An improvement of education quality and learning process to face the recent challenges involves many aspects of an education system. One of them is the teacher's quality. Multiculturalism quality of the teacher is a crucial factor because it enables them to hold and sustain the education well. The paper is aimed at analyzing a teacher with a wide vision of multiculturalism educating her students of complex problems reflected in the Freedom Writers movie.
Methodology: It is a qualitative paper. The data consist of two types of data i.e. primary data consisting of texts of the movie relating to the topic and secondary one covering the data that support the analysis. The technique of the data collection is carried out as follows watching and examining the movie, selecting the proper data suitable with the topic and presenting the data for the analysis. The technique of the data analysis is done through library research using descriptive method and applying the theory of Sociology of Literature of Laurenson and Swingewood.
Results: The result is a teacher with a great vision of multiculturalism can educate well students of a very complex problem and different social backgrounds.
Implications: Its implication on the Indonesian education is that in the movie, the teacher figure of Gruwell can inspire not only the Indonesian teachers but also all people involved in education to brush up their vision and knowledge of multiculturalism in the frame of increasing the quality of national education and in the end of the day it can strengthen the feeling of nationalism to the country, Indonesia.


We consider the M/G/1 queue with second optional service and server breakdowns. A customer leaves the system either after the first required service with probability (1 – θ ) or immediately goes for a second optional service with probability θ after the completion of the first required service. For this queueing model, it is rather difficult to obtain the steady-sate probability explicitly. We apply the maximum entropy approach to approximate the system size distributions by using the first and second moments of the system size. Accuracy comparisons between the two approximate solutions are conducted. Numerical results indicate that using the first moment approach is more accurate than using the second moment approach.


A cross sectional abattoir based study was conducted from February 2014 to October, 2015 on camels slaughtered at Akaki municipality abattoir to determine the prevalence of Tuberculosis in camels and assess the association of risk factors with the prevalence of Tuberculosis in camels using single intra-dermal comparative cervical tuberculin (SICCT). Of the total of 387 camels investigated, overall camel tuberculosis prevalence of 9.82% (95% CI: 6.84%-12.8%) at a cut off value ≥ 4mm and prevalence of 17.05% (95% CI: 13.3%-20.82%) at a cut off value ≥ 2mm, were recorded. Pearson chi-square test reveals, there was statistically significant association of prevalence with the origin of camels at a cut off value ≥ 2mm (χ2 = 13.461, P=0.000). However, there was no statistically significant association (P>0.05) of risk factors of age, sex, body condition and origin of camels with the prevalence at a cut off value ≥ 4mm.The multivariate logistic regression analysis shows at a cut off value ≥ 4mm, being old aged (adjusted OR= 0.999, 95% CI: 0.450-2.22), female (adjusted OR= 2.226, 95% CI: 0.5099-9.719) were identified as risk factors for positive tuberculin reactivity. Similarly, the multivariate analysis at a cut off value ≥ 2mm, showed being moderate body conditioned (adjusted OR= 1.583, 95% CI: 0.7399-3.385) was identified as risk factor for higher tuberculin reactivity. The present study aimed to determine tuberculin reactivity of camels and assess associated risk factors with the prevalence. It was concluded that Tuberculosis is an existing phenomenon in camels. It is therefore, recommended that detailed epidemiological investigations should be conducted for the better understanding of the epidemiology of the disease in camels of pastoral communities with particular emphasis to zoonotic significance in camel rearing areas of Ethiopia. Keywords : Akaki abattoir, Camel Tuberculosis, Ethiopia, Prevalence, Risk factors, Comparative Tuberculin testing.


Binary code similarity detection (BCSD) has various applications, including but not limited to vulnerability detection, plagiarism detection, and malware detection. Previous research efforts mainly focus on transforming binary code to assembly code strings using reverse compilation and then using pre-trained deep learning models with large parameters to obtain feature representation vector of binary code. While these models have proven to be effective in representing binary code, their large parameter size leads to considerable computational expenses during both training and inference. In this paper, we present a lightweight neural network, called FastBCSD, that employs a dynamic instruction vector encoding method and takes only assembly code as input feature to achieve comparable accuracy to the pre-training models while reducing the computational resources and time cost. On the BinaryCorp dataset, our method achieves a similar average MRR score to the state-of-the-art pre-training-based method (jTrans), while on the BinaryCorp 3M dataset, our method even outperforms the latest technology by 0.01. Notably, FastBCSD has a much smaller parameter size (13.4M) compared to jTrans (87.88M), and its latency time is 1/5 of jTrans on NVIDIA GTX 1080Ti.


This study examined the effect of monetary policy on bank credit in Vietnam. Time series data are obtained at quarterly frequency for the period 2000-2021. The factors of interest rate, exchange rate, expanded money supply growth, and economic growth are used as a proxy for monetary policy affecting bank credit in the VECM regression model. The study concludes that monetary policy variables have a significant influence on bank credit in Vietnam and this influence shows no sign of fading away. The pass-through of monetary policy factors affecting the credit supply expansion policy of banks to the economy is recognized in both the short and long term. Interest rates on bank loans have an impact of over 4% on bank credit. The expansion rate of money supply growth has a positive and significant impact on bank credit to the extent of more than 20%. Exchange rates have an impact of more than 9% on bank credit. Economic growth affects more than 8% of bank credit. Monetary policy of the Central Bank affects the supply of credit to the economy of banks. The Central Bank of Vietnam is recommended that the variables of monetary policy be managed properly and that the goals be set towards increasing bank credit for the economy.


In order to enhance the performance of a 3D laser scanning system, a low occlusion approach is analyzed to find the best view for scanning by considering the object position instead of the sensor position. Based on a 2-axis 3D color scanner developed by OES/ITRI, the best position (BP) of an object on the rotary table will be focused to meet the best view requirements for the low cost scanner. Since the 2-axis 3D scanner only consists of linear and rotary moving apparatuses, in general, it needs 2 or more scanning processes to capture multiple layers to register and merge to a complete 3D file. In order to optimize the scanned layers and minimize the amount of data, we propose an algorithm to effectively decrease the amount of scanned layers and to acquire best-view data in the 2-axis 3D scanner based on the proposed best-position criteria. In the experimental results, the emphasized problems of the worst case really occur when the object is set at an infeasible position. And the best-view scanning is illustrated after the object is reallocated suitably with the best position by the proposed algorithm. Hence, besides the NBV problem, the low-occlusion criteria proposed in the paper also play an important role for acquiring complete 3D data. In future, we will focus on the development of the automatic procedure to combine the NBV solution to achieve more efficient scanning for any complex 3D model.


Abstract The article deals with selected aspects of the economic structure and functions of the largest villages in Poland. The main aim of the study is to investigate the diversity and changes that can be observed to have happened since before the fall of Communism in Poland. Large villages with populations exceeding 5,000 inhabitants are located in the same part of the rural–urban continuum as small towns, including many poviat (1) seats. For this reason, they are an interesting comparative category of settlement units. The study was based on a source database from the end of the last century and on contemporary public data from the REGON database. The comparison is based not only on various data, but also uses various research methodologies.


The paper offers an analysis of how to operationalize the development goal of promoting well‐being, and provides an exemplar. It focuses on one element of a comprehensive methodology to operationalize empirical research into the social and cultural construction of well‐being in developing countries. This research uses a definition of well‐being that combines objective and subjective dimensions and locates these in the social and cultural relationships of particular societies. We focus here on the Resources and Needs Questionnaire (RANQ), a research instrument specifically developed for this work. This explores the relationships between the resources that households command and the levels of needs satisfaction which household members experience. Preliminary analysis of data for Bangladesh and Peru identifies a number of significant relationships between the distribution of resources that households command and the levels of needs satisfaction they achieve. These outcome results then represent a foundation for further analysis using complementary qualitative and process‐oriented data. JEL Classifications: A12, I32, Z1


Fact verification models have enjoyed a fast advancement in the last two years with the development of pre-trained language models like BERT and the release of large scale datasets such as FEVER. However, the challenging problem of fake news detection has not benefited from the improvement of fact verification models, which is closely related to fake news detection. In this paper, we propose a simple yet effective approach to connect the dots between fact verification and fake news detection. Our approach first employs a text summarization model pre-trained on news corpora to summarize the long news article into a short claim. Then we use a fact verification model pre-trained on the FEVER dataset to detect whether the input news article is real or fake. Our approach makes use of the recent success of fact verification models and enables zero-shot fake news detection, alleviating the need of large scale training data to train fake news detection models. Experimental results on FakenewsNet, a benchmark dataset for fake news detection, demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach.