Artificial nanozymes are designed for pursuing the functions of splendid catalytic efficiency and prominent selectivity of natural enzymes, meanwhile obtaining higher stability than that of natural enzymes. This emerging technology shows widespread application in the crossing field between nanotechnology and biomedicine. In this work, we employed a universal approach to fabricate a Co@N-CNTs hybrid nanocomposite as an oxidase mimic, in which fine Co nanoparticles were wrapped in N-doped carbon nanotubes, stacking on a hollow dodecahedron carbon skeleton. The synergistic effects of nanostructure engineering, N-doping and carbon coating, as well as the derived interfacial effect contribute to the glorious oxidase-like activity, stability and reusability. It can catalytically oxidize the colorless substrate 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) to a blue oxidation product (ox-TMB). As a result, a colorimetric technique with excellent selectivity and sensitivity for detecting ascorbic acid (AA) with naked eyes was established, in view of specific inhibitory effects towards oxidation of TMB. Under optimal detection conditions, this method exhibits a good linearity ranging from 0.1 to 160 μM with a low limit of detection (LOD) of 0.076 μM. For practical applications, Co@N-CNTs hybrid catalyst as a mimic oxidase was used for the determination of AA in human serum, which yielded satisfactory results. This work may serve as a new research thought to guide the design of high-performance nanozymes and establish a sensing platform for the detection of AA.


The ability to recognise emotions lends a conversational artificial intelligence a human touch. While emotions in chit-chat dialogues have received substantial attention, emotions in task-oriented dialogues remain largely unaddressed. This is despite emotions and dialogue success having equally important roles in a natural system. Existing emotion-annotated task-oriented corpora are limited in size, label richness, and public availability, creating a bottleneck for downstream tasks. To lay a foundation for studies on emotions in task-oriented dialogues, we introduce EmoWOZ, a large-scale manually emotion-annotated corpus of task-oriented dialogues. EmoWOZ is based on MultiWOZ, a multi-domain task-oriented dialogue dataset. It contains more than 11K dialogues with more than 83K emotion annotations of user utterances. In addition to Wizard-of-Oz dialogues from MultiWOZ, we collect human-machine dialogues within the same set of domains to sufficiently cover the space of various emotions that can happen during the lifetime of a data-driven dialogue system. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first large-scale open-source corpus of its kind. We propose a novel emotion labelling scheme, which is tailored to task-oriented dialogues. We report a set of experimental results to show the usability of this corpus for emotion recognition and state tracking in task-oriented dialogues.


Yield control plays an important role in the TFT-LCD manufacturing firms, and the post-mapping operation is a crucial step. The post-mapping operation combines one TFT plate and one CF plate to form a LCD. Each TFT and CF plate is divided into a number of panels. The LCD panel is acceptable only when both TFT and CF panels are good. The TFT-LCD manufacturing firms use the sorter, a kind of robot, to increase the yield for matching TFT and CF plates. Evidently, there will be a great loss if a random mapping policy is executed. In this study, we first apply two of the most popular meta-heuristic methods to solve the post-mapping problem: Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Simulated Annealing (SA). However, when the number of matched cassettes is large, the number of ways for choosing different matched objects will become so enormous that the initial population in GA (or initial solution in SA) should be selected with a proper procedure. That is, we propose a two-phased GA and SA to improve the performance of the initial population. The basic concept of phase one is to generate an efficient initial population (or initial solution). In phase one, the initial population is created based on the optimal solution to the cassette-matching problem. In phase two, we perform GA (or SA) with the initial population created in phase one. The four different heuristic algorithms are tested for the same data to compare the various ports in the post-mapping yield control problem. The result shows that proposed two-phased algorithms provide a more excellent solution than GA and SA.


This article deals with issues of assessing the scientific activity of teams of performers when submitting applications to scientific funds. The purpose of the study is to develop new approaches to the use of scientometric indicators to assess the scientific potential of university teams when submitting applications to scientific foundations. Methodological foundations of the research: a systematic approach (considers science as a social institution in an indissoluble connection with society as a whole), a metasystem approach (considers the results of scientific activity as a metasystem, that is, a system with relatively independent components), a probabilistic-statistical approach (considers research activity as a probabilistic process), qualimetric approach (considers the productivity of scientific activity as a latent variable, reflected by a set of criteria). As a result, the authors proposed: an information model of the relationship between the requirements for a scientific project by the customer, and the level of compliance of the scientific potential of the team of performers and a methodology for assessing the scientific potential of the team of performers when applying for the competition. The information model forms the basis of the developed information system for supporting the project activities of ITMO University, which serves to improve the process and increase the efficiency of preparation of draft applications submitted by the university. The proposed methodology is implemented using scientometric indicators, through software algorithms for automated assessment of scientific potential. In the course of an experimental study, the authors have shown that the proposed approaches correlate with the effectiveness of participation in competitions. The proposed solutions have been successfully integrated into the ITMO University, management system.


This paper presented the real-time self-tuning leaming control based on evolutionary computation, which proves its superiority in finding of the optimal solution at the off-line learning method. The individuals of the populations are reduced in order to learn the evolutionary strategy in real-time, and new method that guarantee the convergence of evolutionary mutations is proposed. It is possible to control the control object slightly varied as time changes. As the state value of the control object is generated, evolutionary strategy is applied each sampling time because the learning process of an estimation, selection, mutation is done in real-time. These algorithms can be applied; the people who do not have knowledge about the technical tuning of dynamic systems could design the controller or problems in which the characteristics of the system dynamics are slightly varied as time changes.


To meet the increasing requirements of HCI researchers who are looking into using liquid-based materials (e.g., hydrogels) to create novel interfaces, we present a design strategy for HCI researchers to build and customize a liquid-based smart material printing platform with off-the-shelf or easy-to-machine parts. For the hardware, we suggest a magnetic assembly-based modular design. These modularized parts can be easily and precisely reconfigured with off-the-shelf or easy-to-machine parts that can meet different processing requirements such as mechanical mixing, chemical reaction, light activation, and solution vaporization. In addition, xPrint supports an open-source, highly customizable software design and simulation platform, which is applicable for simulating and facilitating smart material constructions. Furthermore, compared to inkjet or pneumatic syringe-based printing systems, xPrint has a large range of printable materials from synthesized polymers to natural micro-organism-living cells with a printing resolution from 10μm up to 5mm (droplet size). In this paper, we will introduce the system design in detail and three use cases to demonstrate the material variability and the customizability for users with different demands (e.g., designers, scientific researchers, or artists).


After reading A Guided Tour of Mathematical Methods for the Physical Sciences, not only will you be able to impress your friends with a back-of-the-envelope scaling analysis to debunk the myth that a bathtub drains in different directions in both hemispheres. You will also know whether life is possible in a five-dimensional world. In fact, you will understand a lot of mathematical methods and know how to apply them to real physical problems. This unique textbook presents all of its material in the form of problems that invite the reader to participate in the development of the theory Guided by Roel Sneider's textbook, learning mathematical methods can be fun.


Abstract. Nowadays change detection is an important role in civil and military fields. The Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images due to its independent of atmospheric conditions and cloud cover, have attracted much attention in the change detection applications. When the SAR data are used, one of the appropriate ways to display the backscattered signal is using covariance matrix that follows the Wishart distribution. Based on this distribution a statistical test for equality of two complex variance-covariance matrices can be used. In this study, two full polarization data in band L from UAVSAR are used for change detection in agricultural fields and urban areas in the region of United States which the first image belong to 2014 and the second one is from 2017. To investigate the effect of polarization on the rate of change, full polarization data and dual polarization data were used and the results were compared. According to the results, full polarization shows more changes than dual polarization.


This paper uses generic equations to model the switching performance of metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs). Two MOSFETs with different gate structures are analyzed and switching times are presented, which are compared against practical measurements. It is shown that it is possible to get a reasonable accuracy of the switching performance of a MOSFET in a nonsynchronous buck converter, but care must be taken to ensure the correct values of the parameters are used. It is also shown that the MOSFET with the thick bottom oxide gate provides a faster switching instant when compared to a conventional U-Trench gated MOSFET.


Abstract Vespa magnifica (Smith) is an aggressive social wasp species of Vespidae family. This species is of medical importance for its dangerous sting, traditional medicinal use and valuable venom components. Here, a complete mitogenome of V. magnifica was presented. It was 16,730 bp in length with nucleotide composition of AT: 79.4% and CG: 20.6%. In total, 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA, and two ribosomal RNA genes were annotated in this mitogenome. Phylogenetic analysis was performed using V. magnifica with 20 other species of Vespidae. The result indicated those species of genus Vespa fell into a paraphyletic group. Moreover, the Vespa species with large body size were clustered into a clade. This mitogenome resource can contribute to further phylogenetic and taxonomic study on genus Vespa.


Demographic trends indicate that ethnic minority populations constitute 25 percent of the current population and will be the majority of the United States population in 2050. Forty percent of the demographic in California are ethnic minorities making encounters between healthcare workers and patients from different cultural backgrounds commonplace. Research also indicates that ethnic minority patients are more likely to utilize emergency medical services as an entry point into the health system due to lack of medical insurance and access to primary care. Our qualitative study attempts to understand health disparities through focus groups with 76 patients and their feedback on the use of emergency medical services. Patients revealed challenges in both service provision and delivery of emergency medical services. Implications include the development of cultural competence training programs and the selection of diverse groups of county emergency medical first responders in California.


Abstract An elegant 4-step synthesis of (-)-secolongi-folene diol 6 from longicamphor 1, involving a Norrish type I photoinduced α-cleavage to the alkenal 3 as the key reaction, is described.


Polydomain nematic sheets can be designed for desired shape transition, and a typical example is a disc composed of congruent wedges with rank-1 connected director field. Recent theoretical study indicated that such a disc, if infinitesimally thin, tends to become a perfect pyramid upon illumination. Nonetheless, what is the influence of the finite thickness remains unexplored. In the present work, we reexamine this problem by treating the disc as an elastic plate with finite thickness. Analytical solution to the photo-actuated shape is obtained in small deformations, and the influences of the number of domains and the attenuation of photo intensity are discussed in detail. The results are expected helpful to the design of related photo-responsive devices.


Building upon the work of the Fermilab and Tsukuba groups, we discuss improved lattice actions capable of describing onium and heavy-light systems with errors of order (~pa)2 but accurate to arbitrary order in(ma)n, wherea is the lattice spacing, ~p is the spatial momentum of the heavy quark(s) andm the heavy quark mass. We demonstrate using both a tree-level example and an inductive proof that this accuracy can be achieved for hadronic masses using an action containing only three mass-dependent parameters: the bare quark mass ( 0), an anisotropy coefficient (ζ ) of the Dirac spatial derivative term and a coefficient (cP) of the chromomagnetic Pauli term. Further improvement terms are needed to calculate matrix elements involving spinor fields or composite operators. This represents a simplification of earlier results and makes practical the non-perturbative evaluation of these coefficients.


A sober reflection or speculation on African leadership portrays the practice of authentic democracy as a perennial problem in Nigeria and in African continent. Democratic/electoral process is where citizens choose representatives in government by means of free, fair, contested and regularly scheduled elections and where adults have the right to vote and their votes count. But Nigerian democracy lacks basic trust. It is really a universal problem but Africans and Nigerians in particular got larger portion as our democratic practice is very poor. The citizens should be the starting point and focus of democracy, but this is not the case in Nigeria as many political and elected elites represent their business interest. This democratic deficit or deficiency is seen in local, state and federal levels of Nigerian government and this leads gradually to a serious decline in citizen's active participation or active citizenship. Using expository and analytic method of inquiry, we found out that Nigerians and Africans may have been drifting from this form of government due to some of its demerit. Again, Africa has been long known for its communitarian living/communalism which we found to have enormous similarities with democracy though the difference is clear. Corruption, bad leadership, lack of originality and the likes are the causes of lack of authentic democratic practice and leadership in Africa and in Nigeria. Finally, this study concludes that the dividends of authentic democracy will be fully evident and rooted in Nigeria and Africa only when we embrace democracy in full.


Several studies have been prepared recently examining the differences between the various age groups, fro m various aspects. This present study follows the concept of generation marketing, and presents the peculiar traits of generation Z when it comes to selecting workplaces and career paths. Within the frame of a qualitative primary research, we have investigated the expectations, ideas about a successful career of Z generation and the motivation tools which could be targeted for them to be drive n for results and committed to the employer. It was important for us to know who these surveyed youngsters regard as their role model in terms of a successful career. Within the frame of the qualitative research, thirty interviews were conducted based on a semi-structured guide. The recruiting of members for the sample and the conduction of interviews were realized with the involvement of students from both institutions. We believe that the findings of the research provide useful information for future employers, to understand the values of their potential employees and their approach towards the world of work. It all might contribute to the establishment of appropriate incentive systems, and to the selection of HR tools which are able to increase loyalty and commitment, and inspire a better performance. Furthermore, the results also reveal important findings in relation to education: the peculiarities of generation Z – their attitude, values, behaviour – by all means call for adapting a new approach in their education. In order to be able to select efficient methods and contents, it must consider both the demands of the labour market and the generation -related peculiarities of students enrolled in education.


From the experimental data on inelastic neutron scattering the frequency spectrum of lithium atomic vibrations is extracted at the temperature of 22, 227, 397 and 557°C. The frequency spectrum for lithium-hydrogen melt (98 at.% Li7, 2 at.% H) has been obtained at 557°C. Based on the frequency spectrum, the temperature dependencies of the mean-square of the lithium atoms displacements in time, the mean-square amplitude of atomic vibrations, velocity autocorrelation function of atoms are calculated. A generalized frequency spectrum of hydrogen atomic vibrations in lithium-hydrogen melt is obtained.


The synthesis of enantioenriched small molecules is an ongoing goal of organic chemists. This focus review explores the use of kinetic resolutions catalyzed by chiral Brønsted acids. Methods include classic kinetic resolutions and dynamic kinetic resolutions. The small molecules obtained are potentially valuable intermediates in the synthesis of biologically important compounds.


In recent years power saving is one of the important thing. Domino logic circuit is power efficient cicuit,so it is widely used in variety of applications in digital design. But it has a limitation of low noise immunity and more leakage current. This problem can be solved by using keeper transistor to compensate leakage current of pull down network. The conventional keeper domino circuit reduces the performance and more power consumption due to the contention between keeper transistor and pull down network. This problem is more in wide fan in OR gates due to large number of leaky paths connected to the dynamic node. In this paper ,a new technique is proposed which overcomes the contention problem and reduces power dissipation and provide high noise immunity. Simulations of wide fan in OR gates are designed using TSMC 180nm technology with Vdd=1V at 270 c and 1100 c demonstrate 50% power reduction using mentor graphics.


Abstract The article establishes the inflection of proper names in Luwian and Lycian, which differs from appellative inflection in all oblique cases. It is argued that the locative, genitive and ablative were reshaped after the pattern of the ā-stems, which were the most frequent type in names. The characteristic dative *-Vi̯o, however, was generalised from the i-stems, whose type had become restricted to names, especially personal names, after the PD i-stems had been generalised in the appellatives. The origin in the i-stems appears from Hittite, which has a corresponding ending in i- and ii̯a-stems. In Hittite, the ending can be traced back further to the use of the allative in dat.-loc. function to circumvent the unfortunate combination of a stem in *‑i‑ with the dat.-loc. ending *-i. The Luwic data can now be used to determine the character of the PAnat. allative, which must have been *-o on account of Lyc. -e. Since Anatolian shows a vigorous allative that is presupposed by petrified remnants such as *pr-o 'forward' in other IE languages, the allative provides an additional argument for the Indo-Anatolian hypothesis.


Abstract This article re-examines Burke's doctrine of intervention by analysing his decades-long interest in the 'Polish question'. Contrary to the main thrust of existing scholarship, it argues that the French Revolution did not fundamentally transform Burke's assessment of the European state system. Rather, Burke's most famous and controversial 1790s positions on the topic were rehearsed in the previous decades through his practical engagement in long-running eighteenth-century discussions about the Polish state, which acted as a lightning rod for disagreements surrounding the nature and future of European politics. Burke was interested in the Polish state because it raised fundamental questions about the nature of European civilization, the rules of progress, and the conditions for long-lasting peace. The Polish crisis of 1772 led him to reflect on the relationship between internal and external politics, and crystallized his analysis of the Balance of Power as not only the guarantor of continental peace, but also as the very source of the unique 'spirit' of European civil society. It was this same framework of analysis that he applied to France in the 1790s, to argue that the expansionist ambitions inherent to democratic republicanism warranted intervention because they threatened the unique nature of European civilization.


A constant voltage mode of a power supply was adopted to study the current-induced effects in La0.8Ca0.2MnO3 epitaxial thin films. After processed by a current of the density of ~3 × 105 A/cm2 for 1 minute, they exhibited anisotropic conduction. Like the behavior of p-n junctions, the current starts to increase dramatically in the forward direction at a threshold voltage (opening voltage Vop), e.g., ~2.3 V at 30 K. For a processing with extending duration, the resistance while processing dropped from 10 k¿ to 2 k¿. Current voltage curves measured following such a step showed more stable asymmetric characteristics and substantial reduction of Vop, which is ~0.8 V at 290 K and ~1.6 V at 50 K. Our results are useful for revealing the origin of asymmetric conduction induced by current and for potential application.


We present a theory of thermal conduction in a transition metal dichalcogenide nanocomposite structure with rough interfaces that accounts for the anisotropic conductivities of the host, the insert and the interface regions. The host and insert conductivities are calculated using a semi ab-initio method. The effects of specularity in phonon interface scattering and the thermal boundary resistance is incorporated through linking a phonon wavevector dependent specular scattering parameter to the average height of surface inhomogeneities, and the conductivity of the composite is calculated by employing an extension of a modified effective medium approach. Our work for spherical inserts of WS2 in MoS2 predicts that the effects of specular scattering due to surface roughness is more pronounced for inserts smaller than 100 nm, even at volume fractions of the order of 0.05.


Background and aims – This paper reports a further discovery in the context of a long-term botanical survey in the Cross River-Sanaga interval of west-central Africa, focussing on species discovery and conservation. Methods – Normal practices of herbarium taxonomy have been applied to study the material collected. The relevant collections are stored in the Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London and at the Institute of Research in Agronomic Development – National Herbarium of Cameroon. Key results – Species new to science recently discovered from the cloud (submontane) forests of the Cameroon Highlands in Cameroon are reviewed. Most of these species are rare, highly localised, and threatened by habitat destruction. These discoveries increase the justification for improved conservation management of surviving habitat. Tricalysia elmar Cheek (Coffeeae-Rubiaceae) is described as an additional cloud forest species new to science. Its taxonomic position is discussed, and it is compared with similar species of the genus. Restricted so far to four locations, Mt Kupe, Bali Ngemba, Lebialem and Nta Ali, its conservation status is assessed as Endangered (EN B1+2ab(iii)) according to the 2012 criteria of IUCN.


Semiconductor diode laser devices are well known to be used in a variety of industries; such as telecommunication, military, medical and industrial such as car manufacturing. They are also seeing applications in photo-cosmetic industry as well. Historically, the photo-cosmetic applications have been limited to professional use only, but now some are making their way into home use consumer applications as well. I will present an overview of both professional and home use applications.


It is well known that the backbone of any system is the architecture which holds the whole system together to manage the complexity and requirements changes. The past twenty years or more of research into software and IT systems design has resulted in exponential growth of architectural design strategies. Therefore it has also resulted in confusion for many software engineers who may not be experts in software design to understand and choose a suitable architectural solution to their problem. We have tackled this issue by providing a classification framework and knowledge based reasoning for software designers to choose the appropriate strategies for their problem. This paper illustrates a classification schemes for architectural design strategies and a tool support for knowledge based reasoning for choosing a design solution.


Background: Traumatic dental injuries (TDI) are one of the most common causes of oral morbidity in children. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the knowledge of first aid measures for TDI, assess their attitudes and perceptions towards treatment. The study will also seek to compare these factors between fathers and mothers and evaluate the socio-economic and demographic factors that influence them.
Methodology: A total of 198 pairs of parents (198 fathers and 198 mothers) selected using a convenience sample in Riyadh City, were surveyed over a period of one month. A composite questionnaire based on combining two previously developed questionnaires, was translated into Arabic contained questions on personal information and the knowledge of the fathers and mothers about Emergency management of TDI. The total number of correct answers represented the total knowledge score of the parent. The t test was used to compare the mean scores between fathers and mothers, while linear regression models were developed to examine the effect of sociodemographic variables on the knowledge.
Results: The mothers had a slightly higher knowledge about the emergency management of dental traumatic injury, though these differences were not statistically significant. The overall awareness of the management of traumatic dental injuries was low among both parents. Education and gender of the parent were overall predictors of knowledge. When analysed separately education was directly related to knowledge in mothers but not in fathers.
Conclusion: The knowledge of traumatic dental injuries among parents in this sample was low, but fathers had a poorer knowledge when compared to mothers. Education was a significant factor in the knowledge of mothers but not fathers.


Abstraction denotes the cognitive process by means of which general concepts are formed. The dominant view of abstraction considers it not only as a complex and sophisticated cognitive activity, but also as a distinctive hallmark of mankind. The distinctiveness of abstract thought has indeed been closely related to another feature peculiar to our species: language. Following this perspective, the possibility to entertain conceptual representations is thus precluded to animals devoid of full-blown language. I challenge this view and propose that the representational dynamic of the brain is conceivable as a type of self-organization, in which action plays a crucial part. My aim will be to investigate whether, and to what extent, conceptual knowledge can be attributed to non-linguistic animal species, with particular emphasis on nonhuman primates. I therefore introduce the notion of semantic content as a type of 'relational specification'. A review of recent neurophysiological data on the neural underpinnings of action end-states in the macaque monkey brain is presented. On the basis of this evidence, I propose that conceptual representations can be conceived as the expression of a coherent internal world model. This model decomposes the 'outer' space inhabited by things in a meaningful way only to the extent that it accords to biologically constrained, embodied invariance. Finally, I discuss how the 'comparative' neuroscientific approach to abstraction proposed here may shed some light on its nature and its evolutionary origin.


Using 1994-98 International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) microdata, this paper investigates the impact of employment protection laws on the incidence of temporary employment by demographic group. More stringent employment protection for regular jobs is predicted to increase the relative incidence of temporary employment for less experienced and less skilled workers. I test this reasoning using IALS data for Canada, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, countries with widely differing levels of mandated employment protection. Across these countries, the strength of such mandates (as measured by the OECD) is positively associated with the relative incidence of temporary employment for young workers, native women, immigrant women and those with low cognitive ability. These effects largely hold up when I adjust for the possible sample selection due to the fact that employment to population ratios differ across countries. Moreover, the effects of protection on the young, women, and immigrants are stronger in countries with higher levels of collective bargaining coverage, suggesting a connection between binding wage floors and the allocative effects of employment protection mandates.


Psychological warfare has become an increasingly pressing problem the last few years. The aim of this thesis is to study the development of psychological warfare and its defence in Sweden, focusing on disinformation. Furthermore, this research intends to develop a theoretical framework combining theories of critical security, the communication revolution and the network state. A qualitative text analysis is used to examine public documents to study the political discussion regarding psychological warfare and defence in Sweden from 2014 to today. The results show that psychological warfare is a threat to Sweden's democratic society and human rights. The spread and use of disinformation has drastically increased since the evolution of internet and social media and the results show that high-technological countries are more sensitive to disinformation. To combat psychological warfare politicians in Sweden suggest more networking, both within the country, between institutions and different levels of society, as well as internationally. Psychological warfare, like disinformation, is not territorially bounded and therefore it cannot be defeated by sovereign states alone. Finally, it is important to improve the population's source criticism and to provide them with reliable information to develop a strong psychological defence in a society constantly subjected to disinformation. (Less)


A thermo-optical waveguide switch matrix is designed and fabricated on silicon-on-insulator wafer. Multi-mode interferometers are used as power splitters and combiners in a Mach-Zehnder structure. Inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching is used to fabricate the waveguides. The rise and fall times of the switch matrix are 13 mu s and 7 mu s, respectively. Switch cells have an average switching power consumption of 340 mW.


Abstract The tribe Leptodirini (Leiodidae: Cholevinae) is one of the largest radiations of Coleoptera in the subterranean environment. Although subjected to systematic and evolutionary studies, the phylogeny remains poorly understood. We assessed the phylogeny of the western Mediterranean lineages (Iberian Peninsula, Pyrenees and Sardinia) based on a cladistic analysis of fourteen characters of external morphology and twenty characters of the male and female genitalia, studied in 182 species belonging to thirty‐nine genera. We tested the monophyly of the traditional two main divisions of the group (infraflagellates and supraflagellates), as well as that of some 'phyletic series'. The final matrix contained fifty‐eight terminal taxa, twenty‐four of which had different character state combinations. The strict consensus of the sixty most parsimonious trees recovered a monophyletic Leptodirini, but not their separation into infraflagellates and supraflagellates. The supraflagellates formed a paraphyletic group with respect to the infraflagellates (corresponding to our sampled 'Speonomus' series), with Notidocharis sister to all other included Leptodirini, and Speonomidius sister to Leptodirini excluding Notidocharis. The series 'Spelaeochlamys', including the Sardinian genera but excluding Pseudochlamys, was recovered as monophyletic with weak support. The 'Quaestus' series formed a polytomy with Pseudochlamys plus the 'Speonomus' series (including Bathysciola), which was recovered as monophyletic with strong support. Speonomus, Bathysciola, Quaestus and Troglophyes were para‐ or polyphyletic. Our results suggested the respective monophyletic origin of the Leptodirini from the Pyrenees (Pseudochlamys plus the 'Speonomus' series) and the Mediterranean coast plus Sardinia (series 'Spelaeochlamys'). On the contrary, the Leptodirini of the Atlantic north coast of the Iberian Peninsula (series 'Quaestus' and 'Speonomidius') were not monophyletic.


We present a proof that the quantum Yang–Mills theory can be consistently defined as a renormalized, perturbative quantum field theory on an arbitrary globally hyperbolic curved, Lorentzian spacetime. To this end, we construct the non-commutative algebra of observables, in the sense of formal power series, as well as a space of corresponding quantum states. The algebra contains all gauge invariant, renormalized, interacting quantum field operators (polynomials in the field strength and its derivatives), and all their relations such as commutation relations or operator product expansion. It can be viewed as a deformation quantization of the Poisson algebra of classical Yang–Mills theory equipped with the Peierls bracket. The algebra is constructed as the cohomology of an auxiliary algebra describing a gauge fixed theory with ghosts and anti-fields. A key technical difficulty is to establish a suitable hierarchy of Ward identities at the renormalized level that ensures conservation of the interacting BRST-current, and that the interacting BRST-charge is nilpotent. The algebra of physical interacting field observables is obtained as the cohomology of this charge. As a consequence of our constructions, we can prove that the operator product expansion closes on the space of gauge invariant operators. Similarly, the renormalization group flow is proved not to leave the space of gauge invariant operators. The key technical tool behind these arguments is a new universal Ward identity that is formulated at the algebraic level, and that is proven to be consistent with a local and covariant renormalization prescription. We also develop a new technique to accomplish this renormalization process, and in particular give a new expression for some of the renormalization constants in terms of cycles.


Sensor network plays more and more import role in modern industries, but debugging and diagnosis is always error-prone and time-consuming.This research aims to make up the debugging gap between simulation and testbed on sensor net.'SUSE' is a set of tools that provide a variable level debugging and diag-nostics tools on both emulators and testbeds. Firstly, 'Snapshot collector' used to generate snapshots on test beds then collect them into a sink node. Secondly 'Up/Downloader' make helps on transferring data between emu-lators and test beds. 'Standard mask generator' creates variable masks from snapshots. Finally 'Evaluator' generates a report depends on comparison between masks that come from emulators and test beds.'SUSE' can fulfill the gap between simulations and testbeds, which also provides help on performing different tests and fault injection on testbeds. 'SUSE' is also a powerful idea that can be expanded to different platforms.


Abstract. Understanding the behavior of the Greenland ice sheet in a warmer climate, and particularly its surface mass balance (SMB), is important for assessing Greenland's potential contribution to future sea level rise. The Eemian interglacial, the most recent warmer-than-present period in Earth's history approximately 125 000 years ago, provides an analogue for a warm summer climate over Greenland. The Eemian is characterized by a positive Northern Hemisphere summer insolation anomaly, which introduces uncertainties in Eemian SMB when using positive degree day estimates. In this study, we use Eemian global and regional climate simulations in combination with three types of SMB models – a simple positive degree day, an intermediate complexity, and a full surface energy balance model – to evaluate the importance of regional climate and model complexity for estimates of Greenland SMB. We find that all SMB models perform well under the relatively cool pre-industrial and late Eemian. For the relatively warm early Eemian, the differences between SMB models are large which is associated with the representation of insolation in the respective models. For all simulated time slices there is a systematic difference between globally and regionally forced SMB models, due to the different representation of the regional climate over Greenland. We conclude that both the resolution of the simulated climate as well as the method used to estimate the SMB, are important for an accurate simulation of Greenland's SMB. Whether model resolution or SMB method is most important depends on the climate state and in particular the prevailing insolation pattern. We suggest that future Eemian climate model inter-comparison studies are combined with different SMB models to quantify Eemian SMB uncertainty estimates.


Monilethrix is a rare autosomal dominant disease characterized by hair fragility and follicular hyperkeratosis. Mutations in the human basic hair keratins hHb1 and hHb6 have recently been reported in this disease. Twelve families and sporadic cases were clinically diagnosed with monilethrix and were available for the study. The gene segment encoding the helix termination motif region of keratin hHb6 was PCR amplified and sequenced. Mutations were recognized in 6 families. Four families had the previously described mutations, Glu413Lys and Glu413Asp. In 2 unrelated families, a novel mutation, Glu402Lys, was identified. No clear association was found between the severity of the phenotype and the mutation carried. Furthermore, heterozygous members of the same family had variable degrees of hair and skin involvement. Homozygous patients identified in one large consanguineous family were more severely affected. Other genetic or environmental factors may also play a role in monilethrix.


The intrinsic spin Hall conductivity of typical topological insulators Sb$_2$Se$_3$, Sb$_2$Te$_3$, Bi$_2$Se$_3$, and Bi$_2$Te$_3$ in the bulk form, is calculated from first-principles by using density functional theory and the linear response theory in a maximally localized Wannier basis. The results show that there is a finite spin Hall conductivity of 100--200 ($\hbar$/2e)(S/cm) in the vicinity of the Fermi energy. Although the resulting values are an order of magnitude smaller than that of heavy metals, they show a comparable spin Hall angle due to their relatively lower longitudinal conductivity. The spin Hall angle for different compounds are then compared to that of recent experiments on topological-insulator/ferromagnet heterostructures. The comparison suggests that the role of the bulk in generating a spin current and consequently a spin torque in magnetization switching applications is comparable to that of the surface including the spin-momentum locked surface states and the Rashba-Edelstein effect at the interface.


Heat wave experiments are performed on TJ-II stellarator plasmas to estimate both heat diffusivity and power deposition profiles. High frequency electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) modulation experiments are used to obtain the power deposition profile, which is observed to be wider and duller than that estimated by ray tracing techniques. The causes of this difference are discussed in the paper. Fourier analysis techniques are used to estimate the heat diffusivity in low frequency ECRH modulation experiments. This includes the power deposition profile as a new ingredient. ECRH switch-on/off experiments are exploited to obtain power deposition and heat diffusivities profiles. These quantities are compared with those obtained by modulation experiments and transport analysis, showing good agreement.


In this paper the problem of time-varying network induced delay in industrial applications, such as remote DC motor speed control, is addressed. The goal of this paper is to provide a control design methodology that can assure the closed-loop performances of the industrial application, in a tele-operation environment, while compensating the time-varying delays introduced by the communication network. To this end, firstly, the error caused by the time delay is considered as a disturbance and a novel method of finding the bounds of the disturbance is proposed. Secondly, an one step ahead predictive controller based on flexible control Lyapunov functions is designed, which explicitly takes into account the bounds of the disturbances caused by the time-varying network-induced delay and guarantees also the input-to-state stability of the system. The methodology is then applied for a network-controlled DC motor to illustrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed delay modeling and control strategy.


BACKGROUND
Stroke is a devastating outcome of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). An atherosclerotic ascending aorta is a major risk factor for plaque detachment during cannulation and external clamping in patients undergoing CABG while on extracorporeal circulation (ECC). To avoid external cannulation and clamping we developed and tested a new multifunctional cannula in a pig model.

METHODS
The cannula has a double-balloon endoclamping function and is placed via the apex of the left ventricle through the aortic valve in the ascending aorta. It has 2 integrated lines for cardioplegic solution and for venting the left ventricle. In this animal model, a single balloon cannula was used because of the short ascending aorta in pigs.

RESULTS
The cannula was placed smoothly and reproducibly with a guide-wire technique. The cardioplegic solution was administered via aortic root perfusion. Weaning from ECC was uneventful, and macroscopic examination did not reveal any damage to the aortic valve.

CONCLUSIONS
This cannula could be used in patients with a severe atherosclerotic ascending aorta. The risk of plaque detachment and stroke during ECC might be reduced.


A common perception persists that local responses to globalisation are inherently fundamentalist in nature. The purpose of this essay is to critique two recently published best-selling books that propound this argument. In Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas Friedman argues that the globalisation of capitalism is an intrinsically democratic process, which has nonetheless sparked local, fundamentalist reactions. Benjamin Barber argues in Jihad versus McWorld, that democracy, rooted at the scale of the nation-state, is being undermined from above by a globalising consumer culture, and from below by a fundamentalist backlash to globalisation. The Lexus/McWorld versus Olive Tree/Jihad framework therefore implies that local identity-based responses to globalisation are always regressive in nature. This binary division is inadequate because it ignores the many examples of progressive community responses that have also occurred. This essay argues that by adopting a social theory of geographic scale, we can recognise that that nature of local responses to globalisation is a geographically and ideologically open question. The essay concludes by examining three identity-based communities in the US, Canada and Spain to show how they used cooperatives to progressively articulate with the capitalist world economy, while retaining their local identities and attachment to place.


In contrast to the large body of research investigating intervention for poor decoding skills, far fewer studies have evaluated interventions for reading comprehension. There is even less research on children with more specific difficulties with reading comprehension, often referred to as "poor comprehenders". Levels of effectiveness have varied for interventions targeting lower- and higher-level language, including inference making, on trained measures, with little transfer to generalised reading comprehension measures in both skilled and less-skilled readers. Outcomes have been more positive for poor comprehenders, however findings have been inconsistent as to which programme components have led to gains in reading comprehension. This pilot study utilised a case series design to explore whether a novel intervention targeting oral inference making and comprehension monitoring was effective in improving the targeted skills and reading comprehension of 11 children, aged 9;2–12;3 years, with average-for-age phonological and lower-level language skills but weak inferencing. All participants improved on the primary inference subtest post-intervention and continued to score higher at maintenance than at pre-intervention. Results on the remaining higher-level language tasks were more varied, as were the results for reading comprehension, with fewer participants demonstrating generalisation to these tasks, particularly the nonfiction texts. While the results are preliminary and descriptive, they suggest that improvements can be made in higher-level language in a 10-session intervention, and provide directions for future research.


The main purpose of this study is to determine the visual contents that should be used in food business websites by neuromarketing measurement. It is inevitable that the visual content planning to be made on a website will increase the experience performance of the users on that website. In this research, an experimental design was planned, and two websites were created from twenty-eight visual content items obtained from the literature. By creating the experimental procedure, an experimental area was prepared for eight subjects, and websites were shown to them. Electroencephalogram (EEG) and eye-tracking measurements were taken over the websites shown during the experiment. The results revealed that the experiment1 website using structured visual contents was more efficient on attention, higher concentration, and total fixation. The findings revealed that the anxiety level of the experiment2 website, which used unplanned visual contents, was more pronounced for the subjects. In light of the findings obtained in this study, professionals can create visual contents that they use on food business websites much more efficiently.


Frequency stabilization of a RF excited CO 2 laser on the peak of the Doppler broadened gain curve using the photoacoustic effect generated from the laser itself is achieved. The photoacoustic signal is directly coupled from a RF discharge chamber using a condenser microphone into an amplifier and a lock-in stabilizer. The frequency stability is estimated to be better then 3×10−8.


The Demeter project tries to provide a framework for digital design and to define an integrated environment which will support the whole range of design activities. This report describes D0, the preliminary phase of the Demeter project. D0 is an experiment in communication among existing tools in a specific design domain (reliability analysis). The selected tools execute on different computer systems and use widely different data representations. D0 provides a unifying framework which allows isolated tools to cooperate in a useful way and makes the underlying structure invisible to the user. 10 references.


Paleomagnetic and rock-magnetic investigations of basalts from Hole 834B in the Lau backarc basin and of sediments from Holes 841A and 841B at the Tonga Ridge are reported. Three groups of blocking temperatures in the basalts suggest the presence of at least three magnetic phases: pure magnetite, a Ti-poor titanomagnetite, and a Ti-rich phase. The drill-string-induced remanence in the basalts is typically between three and six times the original normal remanent magnetization intensity, but it is mostly removed by alternating-field (AF) cleaning in 5 mT. Volume susceptibility values range from 0.04 × I0" to 4 × I0" cgs. The modified g-ratio 75/sus ranges from 0.5 to 10. The drill-string-induced remanence behaves different in the two sediment cores from Holes 841A and 841B, which may be the result of differences in the sediment or caused by the different drilling equipment used. The AF-cleaned inclinations of the sediment in Holes 841A and 84IB suggest a slight flattening with increasing depth (up to 6° under a load of 400 m of sediment) to be present. This flattening is likely to be caused by the differential rotation of detrital particles under compaction during diagenesis.


The study examined the use of complementary and alternative medicine among residents of selected rural and urban communities in the Philippines using the CAM healthcare model. Interviews were conducted on 146 respondents in structured questionnaire that applies the RAND Short Form (SF) 36 and the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire as measures of self-perceived health status. A higher prevalence was observed among the rural respondents (68.4%) as compared with their urban counterparts (51.5%). Users in both rural and urban areas perceived CAM as beneficial. Significant predictors of use included the type of community, an annual income of less than USD 10,500, more than 10 years of residence in the community, self-perceived health status in the energy/fatigue, emotional well-being and pain scales in the SF 36, presence of chronic illness, and consultations to traditional faith healer for health issues. Since only about 27% of the variability in the odds of using CAM can be explained by the model, further studies investigating other predictors of use are recommended.


Author(s): Zhang, Xinyu | Advisor(s): Kreutz-Delgado, Ken; Smarr, Larry | Abstract: In recent years deep learning algorithms have shown extremely high performance on machine learning tasks such as image classification and speech recognition. In support of such applications, various FPGA accelerator architectures have been proposed for convolutional neural networks (CNNs) that enable high performance for classification tasks at lower power than CPU and GPU processors. However, to date, there has been little research on the use of FPGA implementations of deconvolutional neural networks (DCNNs). DCNNs, also known as generative CNNs, encode high-dimensional probability distributions and have been widely used for computer vision applications such as scene completion, scene segmentation, image creation, image denoising, and super-resolution imaging. We propose an FPGA architecture for deconvolutional networks built around an accelerator which effectively handles the complex memory access patterns needed to perform strided deconvolutions, and that supports convolution as well. We also develop a three-step design optimization method that systematically exploits statistical analysis, design space exploration and VLSI optimization. To verify our FPGA deconvolutional accelerator design methodology we train DCNNs offline on two representative datasets using the generative adversarial network method (GAN) run on Tensorflow, and then map these DCNNs to an FPGA DCNN-plus-accelerator implementation to perform generative inference on a Xilinx Zynq-7000 FPGA. Our DCNN implementation achieves a peak performance density of 0.012 GOPs/DSP.


Cordyceps militaris has been used in traditional medicine to treat numerous diseases and reported to have antitumor and immunomodulatory activities in vivo and in vitro. The precise mechanism of its immune response activities is unclear. The water extract of Cordyceps militaris (CME) and cordycepin (3'-deoxyadenosine) were prepared. Cordycepin, nucleoside analogue, is a metabolite of C. militaris, whereas CME is included the cordycepin 1.3 ng/mg. How CME or cordycepin modulated immune reaction mechanism in antigen presenting cells (APCs) by ability to present exogenous antigens in association with the major histocompatibility complexes (MHC) in vitro and ex-vivo were examined. Microencapsulated ovalbumin (OVA) was efficiently captured, processed and presented on both MHC class I as well as MHC class II molecules. DC 2.4 cells (H-2Kb) or bone marrow- drived DCs (BM-DCs) generated from the BM cells of C57BL/6 mouse (H-2Kb) were cultured in the presence of CME or codycepin with OVA-microspheres, and the amount of OVA peptide - MHC class I complexes was measured by T cell hybridoma, CD8 OVA 1.3 T cell, that recognizes the OVA-H-2Kb complex and IL-2 production. The increment of the phagocytotic activity and the expression of MHC molecules on DCs by CME (12.5 ~ 200 μg/ml) were shown, while suppression of its activity had shown by cordycepin. CME also increased IL-2 production when we examined the effects of CME on CD4+ T cells. On the other hand, cordycepin inhibited CD4+ T cell responses in a concentration of between 5μg to 40μg. The present study demonstrates the modulation of cross priming capability could be a target of therapeutic immunoregulation.
 Key words: Cordyceps militaris, cross presentation, immunomodulator


BackgroundThe morbidity and mortality attributed to injecting drug use is a substantial contributor to any study on causes of premature death. Understanding the extent of this may be limited by difficulties in observing and recording outcomes over several decades. Historic studies have recorded information in a period when blood borne virus and drug deaths were a smaller proportion or, in the cases of Hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS, absent from National mortality figures.Design and settingA cohort of people who had, ever, injected drugs was established over a prolonged period of observation in one, community based, medical practice in Edinburgh (UK). Outcomes were measured in the clinical situation and by accessing death certificates from national, UK, registers.FindingsCauses of death in a cohort of 794 people who inject drugs (PWIDs) varied over time, some conditions relating to single pathological diagnoses and others were more complicated, multimorbid, and cumulative over time. HIV/AIDS was a striking cause of death until 1995 when antiviral chemotherapy was introduced. Drug related deaths (mainly overdose) remained a significant cause of death and death due to alcohol, respiratory, cardiovascular and cancer (mainly lung) increased over time. A wide range of other causes including suicide and violence and trauma were recorded.ConclusionsMortality resulting from present or historic drug use may be underestimated in current recoding systems, which largely record deaths from overdose or a single pathological event in an acute situation. The range of conditions causing or contributing to premature death is enormous reflecting multiple risks associated with drug use.


OBJECTIVE
To use listening sessions with groups of Latinas to develop a contextual understanding of the lives of immigrant women to inform program development and ultimately better serve the community's needs for domestic violence services.

DESIGN AND SAMPLE
This study was exploratory and descriptive, mixing qualitative listening sessions with quantitative methods. Seven listening group sessions were facilitated with 63 women participating.

MEASURES
Data included information from a short demographic questionnaire, texts of narrative from the sessions, and tallies of thematic comments made during the listening sessions.

RESULTS
Themes derived from aggregated data from the listening sessions included women's Unmet Needs, Responsibilities, Goals, Achievements, Help-seeking, and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). Findings indicated that Latinas' comments were often family-focused and they have many unmet needs. Familiarity with community resources to meet needs was not consistent across groups, for example, women who had not utilized domestic violence services were unlikely to know where to obtain help for IPV problems.

CONCLUSIONS
The ease with which women shared knowledge of resources and offered emotional support to each other during listening sessions supports their use by bilingual public health nurses in communities for needs assessment, education, and networking among Latinas.


Diatoms are amongst the most important marine microalgae in terms of biomass, but little is known concerning the molecular mechanisms that regulate their versatile metabolism. Here, the pennate diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum was studied at the metabolite and transcriptome level during nitrogen starvation and following imposition of three other stresses that impede growth. The coordinated upregulation of the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle during the nitrogen stress response was the most striking observation. Through co‐expression analysis and DNA binding assays, the transcription factor bZIP14 was identified as a regulator of the TCA cycle, also beyond the nitrogen starvation response, namely in diurnal regulation. Accordingly, metabolic and transcriptional shifts were observed upon overexpression of bZIP14 in transformed P. tricornutum cells. Our data indicate that the TCA cycle is a tightly regulated and important hub for carbon reallocation in the diatom cell during nutrient starvation and that bZIP14 is a conserved regulator of this cycle.


T. R. Malthus, still today best known name in the field of population, stated issues and dilemmas around which research and controversy have revolved since the first "Essay on Population" was published in 1798. In one sentence, the Malthusian principle is that population tends to grow until it presses against the means of subsistence. He was not the first to propound the theory that population tends to increase proportionately faster than the supply of food. But the style of essay and many evidences presented in the latest five editions undoubtedly contributed to the impact of the work on a community. There were not only the observation of tendencies but also reference to the bad structure of society and unfavourable distribution of wealth. Malthus bas been widely read, but be bas also been widely misquoted. The most important Malthus achievement was to show that population studies can be examined and analysed empirically and discussed on a rational basis.


Abstract A growing body of literature suggests that oral health can influence cognitive function during aging. However, it is currently unclear whether reduced masticatory efficiency influences cognitive impairment in longitudinal studies. This study sought to investigate the effects of reduced chewing ability on the incidence of cognitive impairment using national representative data from 10 years of follow-up in Korea. Among the 10,254 people recruited in 2006 (1st wave), 7568 with normal cognitive function were selected. The participants were followed up every 2 years. The number of participants followed up until the 6th wave was 5020 in 2016. Chewing ability and scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination were recorded using self-reported questionnaires. Risk factors for dementia taken from systematic literature reviews were used as covariates. We performed logistic regression and created general estimating equation models after controlling for all covariates to assess the relationship between chewing ability and cognitive decline. Decreased chewing function was associated with mild cognitive impairment after controlling for confounding variables. The odds ratio for cognitive impairment was about 1.28 times higher than in people with poor chewing function as in those with good chewing function. We identified changes in chewing function from the 1st wave to the 6th wave; the odds ratios were 2.21 (95% confidence interval = 1.90–2.58) in the good-poor group and 2.11 (95% confidence interval = 1.74–2.55) in the poor-poor group. We identified an impairment in cognitive function in the poor (poor-poor and good-poor) chewing ability group. Therefore, we have confirmed that reduced mastication efficiency may contribute to a deterioration in cognitive function. People with deteriorated chewing ability must be given additional attention to aid in the prevention of cognitive decline.


PURPOSE
Grating-based x-ray phase contrast imaging is considered as one of the most promising techniques for future medical imaging. Many different methods have been developed to retrieve phase signal, among which the phase stepping (PS) method is widely used. However, further practical implementations are hindered, due to its complex scanning mode and high radiation dose. In contrast, the reverse projection (RP) method is a novel fast and low dose extraction approach. In this contribution, the authors present a quantitative analysis of the noise properties of the refraction signals retrieved by the two methods and compare their sensitivities.

METHODS
Using the error propagation formula, the authors analyze theoretically the signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of the refraction images retrieved by the two methods. Then, the sensitivities of the two extraction methods are compared under an identical exposure dose. Numerical experiments are performed to validate the theoretical results and provide some quantitative insight.

RESULTS
The SNRs of the two methods are both dependent on the system parameters, but in different ways. Comparison between their sensitivities reveals that for the refraction signal, the RP method possesses a higher sensitivity, especially in the case of high visibility and/or at the edge of the object.

CONCLUSIONS
Compared with the PS method, the RP method has a superior sensitivity and provides refraction images with a higher SNR. Therefore, one can obtain highly sensitive refraction images in grating-based phase contrast imaging. This is very important for future preclinical and clinical implementations.


Long term infrastructure planning and development is an enabler of productivity growth and this growth has been responsible for much of the improvements in Australia's living standards, and this relationship is expected to continue into the future. Without productivity growth, Australian living standards will stagnate and, as the population ages, it is possible that our standard of living could fall.


Introduction: Cancer of breast tissue is a commonly recognized cancer among females and is the fifthmain reason of cancer associated deaths in the world. It is important and beneficial for the females at risk to understand breast cancer as this may assist in timely detection and management of this deadly disease. Objectives: To assess understanding about breast cancer, knowledge and attitude, risk factors and screening practices among female in Islamabad. Methodology: The study is across-sectional survey which was conducted from October 2020 till March 2021. A self-administered questionnaire, using Google forms, was distributed among women residing in Islamabad, consisting of questions regarding knowledge about breast cancer symptoms, risk factors and screening methods. A total of 320 participants completed and submitted the questionnaire. Results: The participants of the present study were familiar with the term "breast cancer"; however, their attitude towards breast cancer prevention was recorded as unsatisfactory because they lacked knowledge about the screening practices of breast cancer. Conclusion: Women residing in Islamabad seem to have limited understanding about breast cancer, its symptoms and associated risk factors which is somewhat similar to other developing countries. Very few women in the study population practice "BSE" and have undergone "CBE" and "mammography". They also have limited information about other screening practices of breast cancer. Keywords: "Breast cancer", "Breast Self-Examination", "Clinical Breast Examination", "Mammography", Screening


Fire Radiative Power (FRP) is related to fire combustion rates and is used to quantify the atmospheric emissions of greenhouse gases and aerosols. FRP over gas flares and wildfires can be retrieved remotely using satellites that observe in shortwave infrared (SWIR) to middle infrared (MIR) wavelengths. Heritage techniques to retrieve FRP developed for wildland fires using the MIR 4 μm radiances have been adapted for the hotter burning gas flares using the SWIR 2 μm observations. Effects of atmosphere, including smoke and aerosols, are assumed to be minimal in these algorithms because of the use of longer than visual wavelengths. Here we use Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) and Landsat 8 observations acquired before and during emergency oil and gas flaring in eastern Saudi Arabia to show that dark, sooty smoke affects both 4 μm and 2 μm observations. While the 2 μm observations used to retrieve gas FRP may be reliable during clear atmospheric conditions, performance is severely impacted by dark smoke. Global remote sensing-based inventories of wildfire and gas flaring need to consider the possibility that soot and dark smoke can potentially lead to an underestimation of FRP over fires.


This study intends to verify the presence of a correlation between the size of vowel space and the speech intelligibility. A reduced intelligibility is a common problem for those individuals suffering from dysarthria. They show a compressed vowel space with an important degree of acoustic centralization. A recent metric employed to distinguish healthy from dysarthric speech is represented by the Vowel Space Area (VSA). We have tested this parameter by comparing subjects with Down Syndrome to control speakers. The results of the present research, the first available data for Italian language, proved that the VSA is a suitable acoustic predictor of an impaired intelligibility


The study of specimens of the retiolitid graptolites Stomatograptus sp., and Agastograptus robustus with a complete or nearly complete periderm permits a better understanding of the growth and development of retiolitids. Incremental layers deposited in more or less concentric layers on skeletal lists are synchronized with the deposition of sheetlike fusellar bands between the lists. Lists, therefore, become progressively more robust, while the periderm of fusellar bands remain single-layered. It appears that before the development of new distal thecal lists and concomitant deposition of fusellar bands can begin, the next proximal-most thecae must be essentially complete. Retiolitid graptolite thecal growth thus appears to mirror that of "normal" graptolites.


: A comparative study was made of the serological properties and virus-neutralizing activity of antiencephalitis gamma-globulin and Fab-fragments isolated from it by gel-filtration. Horse immunoglobulins against the autumno-summer tick-borne encephalitis virus could be disintegrated with the aid of papaine to monovalent Fab-fragments which (according to the complement fixation reaction, the test of suppression of the complement fixation, and the HAIT) retained the serological activity whose level was compared with that of the serological activity of gamma-globulin. Fab-fragments possessed a marked virus-neutralizing activity. The mean value of a logarithm of the neutralization index was 2.65 +/- 0.2 for Fab-fragments and 3.74 +/- 0.38 for gamma-globulin (P less than 0.01).


A numerical procedure was applied to simulate the pickup process for a die bonder to study the breakage of GaAs dice. Parameters such as needle ejecting speed, vacuum pressure, and radius of needle were investigated by the Taguchi method to obtain the manufacture process working-window in order to shorten the tuning time. It was found that the ejecting speed of the needle and the downward pressing force of the pickup collet are the major factors for die breakage. This procedure could also be applied to inspecting the effects of other factors or analyzing different types of pickup machines.


This article discusses changing patterns of migration in India using the data from the 2011 Census. In this study, the statistical (growth rate, percentage distribution) and cartographic methods have been used to analyse and map the changing patterns of migration across the states in India. It is found that in India, 37.5 percent of the population experienced spatial mobility in the 2011 Census which is higher than that of the 2001 Census (30.8 percent). The volume of migrants in the intercensal period (2001 to 2011) increased from 98.3 million to 161.4 million, an increase of over 64 percent. Overall, migration is more likely among the rural populations compared to the urban. However, substantial increase in the volume of urban-urban movements (14 million in 2001 to around 33 million in 2011) is the focus of the current study along with the rural-urban flows. For the first time in Indian Census history, the volume of urban-urban migration overtook the rural-urban migration volume in the last intercensal period. Creation of additional 2700 new Census Towns in the 2011 Census may be the real driving force for this staggering increase


1. An abnormal cell of probably reticuloendothelial origin with prominent cytoplasmic granules was observed in the bone marrow, liver and a lymph node of an adult white female with incidentally discovered, asymptomatic hepatosplenomegaly. 2. Histochemical studies revealed the granules to consist of a chemical complex which contained bound lipid and protein. 3. The cells differed from those of Gaucher's disease, Niemann-Pick's disease and other storage diseases. The significance of these cells remains unknown.


This study approaches discussions on school management and the direct election of principals and their relation with democratization in the decision-making process, seeking to reflect how the process of election of principal held at the Abraham Lincoln Municipal Elementary School, which composes the teaching network of Medicilândia-Para, and to what extent this mechanism has favored the participation of the school and local community in the decision-making processes of school management. We seek to problematize the extent to which the process of election of principal held at the Abraham Lincoln Municipal Elementary School that composes the medicilândia-para education network enables the organization of work in the school from the perspective of democratic management, and whether this mechanism favors the participation of the school and local community in the decision-making processes of school management. As a general objective, we analyze the perceptions of the several social subjects present in the school space about the process of direct election for the choice of school direction and its possible relation with democratic management in the Abraham Lincoln Municipal Elementary School of the municipal network of Medicilândia-Para. Through a qualitative research based on authors such as Paro (2003; 2005; 2007; 2010), Luck (2008; 2009), Azevedo (2011), Cabral Neto (2009), Vieira (2007), Dourado (2007), our results demonstrated that our interviewees have a certain understanding of the direct electoral process for school leaders' choices, and that this mechanism significantly influences the development of democratic school management, since the research participants demonstrated knowledge about their participatory role in the daily life of the school community and often participate in school management, which is shared through councils, administrative meetings, parent-teacher meetings, PPP construction and evaluation, meetings and/or workshops on the organization of pedagogical work. With regard to municipal legislation (Laws, Resolutions and SMEs), it was possible to observe that they are in line with what our LDB and our Federal Constitution of 1988 express, with legal defined devices, delineated, well elaborated and based on the management and organization of macro pedagogical work through Semed and micro through the management of the school unit in basic school.


There are a number of ultra-structural and immuno-histochemical studies involving hyperbaric oxygen treatment in skeletal muscle, as well as soft tissue healing. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, in conjunction with blood platelet injection therapy, serves as a valuable addition to previously known and trusted rehabilitation techniques and protocols for the healing of musculoskeletal or soft tissue injuries. The primary aim of this case report is to describe the effect on the recovery time of hamstring injuries when combining hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) and platelet rich plasma (PRP) injection therapy with exercise rehabilitation. A retrospective, post-intervention data analysis was used in this case series report. Data, obtained through collaboration with a professional rugby union and an accredited Hyperbaric Medicine (HBOT) Centre, were analysed using the Statistical Programme for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The significance value was set at 5%. A significant decrease in the injury time of the hamstring injuries in rugby players was noted, with a 38% reduction in injury time in players with a grade-one injury, and 45.7% reduction in players with a grade-two injury. In terms of recurrent injuries, 62% of players with grade-one injuries remained uninjured after treatment, and the percentage of re-injured players with grade-two injuries was 0% after HBOT, PRP and physical therapy treatment. The notion that the healing time of hamstring injuries will decrease when HBOT and PRP are administered in conjunction with traditional rehabilitation therapy is indicated by the data of this report.


This paper presents a performance study of UDP/IP and M-VIA using Linux/SimOS. Linux/SimOS is a Linux operating system port to a complete machine simulator SimOS. A complete machine simulator includes all the system components, such as CPU, memory, I/O devices, etc., and models them in suffi- cient detail to run an operating system. Therefore, a real program execution environment can be set up on the simulator to perform detailed system evaluation in a non-intrusive manner. The motivation for Linux/SimOS is to alleviate the limitations of SimOS (and its variants), which only support proprietary operating systems. Therefore, the availability of the popular Linux operating system for a complete ma- chine simulator will make it an extremely effective and flexible open-source simulation environment for studying all aspects of computer system performance, especially evaluating communication protocols and network interfaces. The contributions made in this paper are two-fold: First, the major modifications that were necessary to run Linux on SimOS are described. These modifications are specific to SimOS I/O device models and thus any future operating system porting efforts to SimOS will experience similar challenges. Second, a detailed analysis of the UDP/IP protocol and M-VIA is performed to demonstrate the capabilities of Linux/SimOS. The simulation study shows that Linux/SimOS is capable of capturing all aspects communication performance, including the effects of the kernel, device driver, and network interface.


Medicinal plants constitute a source of raw materials for both traditional systems of medicine (e.g. Ayurvedic, Chinese, Unani, Homeopathy, and Siddha) and modern medicine. Nowadays, plant materials are employed throughout the industrialized and developing world as home remedies, over-the-counter drugs, and ingredients for the pharmaceutical industry. As such, they represent a substantial proportion of the global drug market. Most rural populations, especially in the developing world, depend on medicinal herbs as their main source of primary health care. Although most medicinal herbs are not, in their natural state, fit for administration, preparations suitable for administration are made according to pharmacopeia directions. The therapeutic potential of a herbal drugs depends on its form: whether parts of a plant, or simple extracts, or isolated active constituents. Herbal remedies consist of portions of plants or unpurified plant extracts containing several constituents, which often work together synergistically. The herbal drug preparation in its entirety is regarded as the active substance and the constituents are either of known therapeutic activity or are chemically defined substances or group of substances generally accepted to contribute substantially to the therapeutic activity of the drug. Phytochemical screening involves botanical identification, extraction with suitable solvents, purification, and characterization of the active constituents of pharmaceutical importance. Qualitative chemical examination employing different analytical techniques is conducted to detect and isolate the active constituent(s). In general, all medicines, whether they are synthetic or of plant origin, should fulfill the basic requirements of being efficacious and safe. Ultimate proof of these can only be achieved by some form of clinical research. A defined and constant composition of the drug is therefore one of the most important prerequisites for any kind of clinical experiment. Quality control for the efficacy and safety of herbal products is essential. The quality control of phytopharmaceuticals may be defined as the status of a drug, which is determined either by identity, purity, content, and other chemical, physical or biological properties, or by the manufacturing process. Compared with syn25


Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptorg (Pparγ) is a member of the nuclear receptor (NR) superfamily, which regulates diverse biological functions including lipogenesis and differentiation, anti-inflammation, insulin sensitivity, cellular proliferation, and autophagy. Independent lines of evidence support a role for Pparγ as either a collaborative oncogene or as a tumor suppressor. Heterozygous mutations of Pparγ have been detected in 4/55 patients with colon cancer and a chromosomal translocation between PAX8 and Pparγ in follicular thyroid cancer appeared to serve as a dominant inhibitor of endogenous Pparγ expression. Pparγ agonists reduced tumorigenesis in several in vivo models. In contrast, several studies suggest Pparγ may enhance tumor growth. Pparγ ligands increased polyp numbers in the Apc mouse model of familial adenomatosis. Pparγ and its ligands inhibit breast tumor growth; however, constitutively active Pparγ collaborated in mammary oncogenesis with polyoma middle T antigen or oncogenic ErbB2. Pparγ activation involves post-translational modifications including phosphorylation and sumoylation upon growth factor or ligand stimulus. Mutation of the Pparγ1 sumoylation site at K77 and K365 demonstrated that K77 may either reduce Pparγ-dependent gene induction and enhance repression or reduce repression, depending upon the synthetic reporter gene used. Lysine residues of nuclear receptors also serve as substrates for acetylation and Pparγ binds co-activators and co-repressors with intrinsic or associated histone acetylase or deacetylase activity including NCoR, SMRT, SIRT1, and p300. Initially characterized for the ERα, AR and, subsequently, the orphan nuclear receptor steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1), acetylation occurs at a conserved lysine motif shared amongst evolutionarily related nuclear receptors. Several nuclear receptors and co-integrators involved in lipid metabolism are regulated by acetylation including p300, PGC1α, FXR, LXR and RAR. Both TSA- and NAD-sensitive HDACs (e.g. SIRT1) regulate Pparγ function and SIRT1 inhibits Pparγ-dependent adipocyte differentiation. Whether Pparγ is acetylated in cancer cells and how Pparγ exerts it9s crucial, though controversial, function in tumorigenesis have not been established. Pparγ induces gene transcription through binding specific NR half-sites and through non-canonical binding sequences (such as CREB/AP-1 sites). Transcriptional repression involves Pparγ sumoylation at lysine 77 (K77). Herein, Pparγ was shown to be acetylated at nine distinct lysine residues. SIRT1 bound and deacetylated Pparγ at K154/155. ChIP-Seq analysis for genome-wide DNA binding demonstrated the acetylation site was required for binding NR half-sites, but was not required for non-canonical site binding. Breast tumor growth, de novo lipid synthesis, induction of autophagy and evasion of apoptosis was promoted by K154/155 and inhibited by K77 in vivo. Pparγ acetylation induced a gene signature that was increased in breast cancer, associated with a reduction in SIRT1 abundance and poor outcome. The Pparγ acetylation site determines binding to autophagy and apoptosis signaling to regulate breast tumor lipid metabolism and growth. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2013;73(24 Suppl): Abstract nr P2-06-02.


Understanding and managing water resource problems involves complex processes and interactions within the watershed surface and subsurface. The imposition of total maximum daily load (TMDL) regulations on the pollutant influx to a watershed has created a strong demand for new assessment tools. The spatial scales relevant to transport of the pollutants may span many orders of magnitude, ranging from field plots to regional hydrological systems. As the demand for and development of watershed modeling capabilities have evolved, geographic information systems (GIS) in tandem with remote sensing technologies have played an essential role supporting both data collection and analysis. This paper reviews the current and future trends of GIS and remote sensing technologies in watershed modeling. The primary focus of this discussion is on spatial data availability and management, and further opportunities for model development.


Archibald and Knopfmacher recently considered the largest missing value in a com- position of an integer and established the mean and variance. Our alternative, proba- bilistic approach produces (in principle) all moments in an almost automatic way. In order to show that our forms match the ones given by Archibald and Knopfmacher, we have to derive some identities which are interesting on their own. We construct a one-parameter family of identities, and the first one is (equivalent to) the celebrated identity due to Allouche and Shallit. We finally provide a simple direct analysis of the LMV(-1) case: if the largest missing value is exactly one smaller than the largest value, we say that the sequence has the LMV(-1) property.


Dereplication represents a key step for rapidly identifying known secondary metabolites in complex biological matrices. In this context, liquid-chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) is increasingly used and, via untargeted data-dependent MS/MS experiments, massive amounts of detailed information on the chemical composition of crude extracts can be generated. An efficient exploitation of such data sets requires automated data treatment and access to dedicated fragmentation databases. Various novel bioinformatics approaches such as molecular networking (MN) and in-silico fragmentation tools have emerged recently and provide new perspective for early metabolite identification in natural products (NPs) research. Here we propose an innovative dereplication strategy based on the combination of MN with an extensive in-silico MS/MS fragmentation database of NPs. Using two case studies, we demonstrate that this combined approach offers a powerful tool to navigate through the chemistry of complex NPs extracts, dereplicate metabolites, and annotate analogues of database entries.


This paper presents a pilot study of testing a learning solution for smartphones, the Talking Tools (TT), under development. The study targets what, why, and when teacher students (N=11) use TT for microblogging about their work in a sloyd course. Their subjective reflections from a questionnaire using open-ended questions are used for validating earlier analysis of student blogs. Suggestions for teacher guidelines for using TT are discussed based on the findings.


Temperature-dependent Rutherford backscattering measurements on a Pb(110) crystal face have provided evidence for an anomalous surface thermal expansion. This structural change can be considered as a precursor of a pronounced disordering ("melting") of the surface, which takes place as the temperature is raised towards the bulk melting point. These phenomena are found to be completely absent on the close-packed (111) surface of Pb. The implications of these results for current models of surface melting are discussed.


Abstract. Desertification is the third most important global challenge after crisis of water shortage and drought in the 21st century. Many countries, especially developing countries, are faced this phenomenon. Identifying the regions exposed to this phenomenon is so important for combating desertification. Regarding to the importance of this phenomenon, in this study, we assessed desertification in Kashan, Iran, using IMDPA model and GIS software. According to the region condition, water was selected as the criterion and some indices were identified for it. For monitoring, the effect of criterion and indices changes was investigated during 1966–1974, 1974–1992, 1992–2002 and 2002–2011. Finally, for providing the desertification early warning system, data related to the criterion and indices were collected during 2003–2011 and the threshold of each index was determined. The results showed that the class of desertification based on Electrical Conductivity index was very severe in the study area, so this index is one of the most important desertification indices in arid areas in Iran.


An inorganic pyrophosphatase (EC184.108.40.206) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae was purified to PAGE homogeneity by sonication disruption, (NH4)2SO4 fractionation and DEAE-cellulose column chromatography. The optimum pH and temperature of the enzyme were 7.4-7.8 and 60 degrees C, respectively. The Km was 19.3 mmol/L. The enzyme required Mg2+ as a cofactor for hydrolysis of pyrophosphate and was inhibited by Ca2+, Hg2+, Pb2+, Mn2+.


In a multicentre study performed by the German Working Group for Dermatological Research a total of 286 female and male patients with circumscribed scleroderma (morphoea) were examined with reference to form and extent of their skin manifestations (e.g. progressive idiopathic atrophodermia, Pasini-Pierini Type) and systemic involvement. On the basis of the literature and our observation of circumscribed scleroderma classification into three types appears to be appropriate: a plaque-type (with generalized circumscribed scleroderma as the most severe variant), a linear type (with pansclerotic disabling morphoea as the most severe variant) and a profound type (with eosinophilic fasciitis as the most severe variant).


This review is mainly concerned with the presentation of our experimental results and ideas concerning the relaxing factor in the contraction-relaxation cycle of skeletal muscle. The microsomal (or vesicular) relaxing factor, probably identical with the endoplasmic reticulum, is able to bind strongly Ca in the presence of ATP. Since Ca i£ shown to be essential for the contraction of actomyosin system, this Ca binding seems to represent the mechanism of the relaxing factor. In view of these findings, a possible mechanism of the link between excitation and contraction is postulated.


Docetaxel-based chemotherapy has been recommended for advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). However, treatment failure often occurs because of acquired drug resistance. In this study, a docetaxel-resistant NPC cell line CNE-2R was established with increasing doses of docetaxel for more than 6 months. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and ESI-Q-TOF–MS were used to compare the differential expression of docetaxel-resistance-associated proteins between human NPC CNE-2 cells and docetaxel-resistant CNE-2R cells. As a result, 24 differentially expressed proteins were identified, including 11 proteins with increased expression and 13 proteins with decreased expression. These proteins function in diverse biological processes such as metabolism, signal transduction, calcium ion binding, immune response, proteolysis, and so on. Among these, &agr;-enolase (ENO1), significantly upregulated in CNE-2R, was selected for detailed analysis. Inhibition of ENO1 by shRNA restored CNE-2R cells' sensitivity to docetaxel. Moreover, overexpression of ENO1 could facilitate the development of acquired resistance of docetaxel in CNE-2 cells. Western blot and reverse-transcription PCR data of clinical samples confirmed that &agr;-enolase was upregulated in docetaxel-resistant human NPC tissues. Finding such proteins might improve interpretation of the molecular mechanisms leading to the acquisition of docetaxel chemoresistance.


The potential tailoring of radiotherapy modalities to the biological characteristics of individual tumours and normal tissues appears to be an exciting way to improve the therapeutic, ratio in radiation therapy patients. Numerous assays have been proposed to provide the clinician with the biological information necessary to predict the outcome after irradiation and to guide the treatment prescription, but none of them has made its way to daily practice. Major difficulties are due to the technical burden of the procedures, the poor characterization of the assayed cells, and, moreover, the high complexity of tumour and normal tissues biology. The present paper reviews the present status of the assessment of tumour cells radiosensitivity, proliferation and oxygenation. Research remains extremely active in the field of biological predictors of response to irradiation. Future steps forwards are expected from progress in the available technologies, (re-)discovery of apoptosis and investigation of normal tissue tolerance.


According to the reports of WHO, NCRB-social-government organization 35%Women all over the world are facing a lot of unethical physical harassment in public places such as railway-bus stands, foot paths etc. In this paper the authors have reviewed of various existing systems on women security. The authors have felt a need of advanced women security system to provides the safety measure in public places as well as travelling alone through public transports (school buses, company vehicle etc). This paper proposed a new model for the women security in public places which aims to provide the 100% safe environment.


Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) represent a group of rare and heterogenous tumors that optimally should be diagnosed and treated within multidisciplinary teams. This thesis has studied various aspects ? pathological, genetical, and clinical ? of STS. In study I, we demonstrated that 20% of the patients in a population-based series of 818 STS developed second primary malignancies. An increased risk of developing a second malignancy was identified (SMR 1.3; 95% CI=1.0-1.5), with a particularly high risk of developing a second STS (SMR 17.6; 95% CI=8.1-33.5). Study II included 13 patients who had developed at least two primary STS and we applied array-based comparative genomic hybridization to study the genetic profiles of these tumors. Cluster anaysis and comparison between the genetic profiles suggested that 8 cases represented second primary STS, whereas 5 cases likely represented soft tissue metastases. In study III cDNA microarray was applied to 26 synovial sarcomas and identified differentially expressed genes in relation to gene fusion type. Among the discriminators were several genes that have previously been found to be up-regulated in SS, including AXL, ZIC2, SPAG7, AGRN, FOXC1, NCAM1. In study IV we assessed the impact of targeting peripheral versus central tumor areas using tissue microarray-based staining for Ki-67 in leiomyosarcomas and demonstrated that the Ki-67 expression was higher in the tumor periphery in 18/25 tumors. These observations suggest that Ki-67 evaluation for prognostic purposes should be standardized regarding the part of the tumor investigated. In study V, peripheral tumor growth pattern was evaluated on preoperative MRI with correlations to microscopical growth pattern and prognosis. All tumors with diffuse infiltration on MRI also showed microscopical infiltration, whereas MRI failed to identify infiltration in one-third of the microscopically infiltrative tumors. Diffusely infiltrative growth on MRI correlated with prognosis with a 2.5 times increased risk of metastases (p=0.01) and a 3.7 times higher risk of local recurrence (p=0.02). In summary, we have demonstrated that patients with STS are at increased risk of developing second primary tumors, including STS, with genetic profiles supporting independent tumor origin. We have also demonstrated that the underlying gene fusion type in synovial sarcoma influence the gene expression profile. Finally, the tumor periphery seems to provide the best information; our studies suggest that evaluation of Ki-67 staining should be standardized, perhaps to the periphery, and that MRI-based classification of the peripheral tumor growth pattern may provide prognostic information (Less)


Summary: The Drill Cover system was developed as a low-cost alternative to conventional surgical drills with specific applicability to low- and middle-income countries. However, the system may also be useful for the sterile placement of traction pins in the emergency department of high-income country hospitals. In September 2019, a US-based Level-1 trauma center began using the Drill Cover system to apply skeletal traction pins in patients with femoral shaft fractures. With these data, we performed a retrospective interrupted time series study to determine if the Drill Cover system was noninferior to conventional surgical drills in terms of infections at the traction pin site. The study included 205 adult patients with femoral shaft fractures initially placed in skeletal traction using a conventional surgical drill (n = 150, preintervention group) or the Drill Cover system (n = 55, postintervention group). The primary outcome was an infection at the site of skeletal traction pin placement that required surgery or antibiotics, which was compared between groups using a noninferiority test with a 1-sided alpha of 0.05 and a noninferiority margin of 3%. No infections at the site of skeletal traction pin placement were found in either the preintervention or the postintervention group (difference, 0%; 95% confidence interval: 0.0%–1.4%; noninferiority P value < 0.01). The results suggest that the Drill Cover system was noninferior to conventional surgical drills regarding infections at the site of skeletal traction pins. The Drill Cover system may be a safe alternative to the more expensive surgical drills for skeletal traction pin placement in the emergency room environment.


We consider the task of reinforcement learning with linear value function approximation. Temporal difference algorithms, and in particular the Least-Squares Temporal Difference (LSTD) algorithm, provide a method for learning the parameters of the value function, but when the number of features is large this algorithm can over-fit to the data and is computationally expensive. In this paper, we propose a regularization framework for the LSTD algorithm that overcomes these difficulties. In particular, we focus on the case of l1 regularization, which is robust to irrelevant features and also serves as a method for feature selection. Although the l1 regularized LSTD solution cannot be expressed as a convex optimization problem, we present an algorithm similar to the Least Angle Regression (LARS) algorithm that can efficiently compute the optimal solution. Finally, we demonstrate the performance of the algorithm experimentally.