Summary: Using controlled shear-rate testing ramps, this study investigates the rheological properties of carboxymethycellulose (CMC)/starch blends, with and without zinc oxide (ZnO). Viscosity decreased as the amount of starch increased and after adding 1% ZnO. The creep and recovery tests indicated that, with increasing starch content, there was a decrease in elasticity and the viscosity zero shear rate. The results also showed, in the temperature range between 25 and 70 °C, an inversion occurred in the elastic and viscous moduli behavior, obeying the Arrhenius equation. The addition of ZnO affects the viscoelastic behavior and the morphology of the blends. The best survival results were obtained for samples 50/50 and 60/40 wt% (CMC/starch).


Asmare B, Meheret F. 2018. Smallholder farmers livestock production on the face of climate change in Bahir Dar, Zuria District, Northwestern Ethiopia. Biodiversitas 19: 2329-2334. The objective of the study was to assess the livestock production and marketing system in smallholder systems of the area Bahir Dar Zuria district. Three kebeles were selected from Bahir Dar Zuria district based on livestock production experience and accessibility to the road. A total of 90 respondent farmers were used to conduct the assessment, and 4 key informants in each Kebele were used to get additional information. Primary data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire and supplemented with key informants and secondary data sources. Descriptive statistics such as frequency (%) and mean were employed to present the qualitative variables obtained from the survey. The average land holding in the area was 0.73 ha of total land with 0.53 ha cropland and 0.2 ha private grazing land. With regard to labor allocation for livestock, family labor was involved in 91.18% of respondents while in the rest hired labor herded, fed, and watered livestock. With regard to water sources, the major source of water for livestock in the households was river (89%) while the remaining respondents use dug well for their livestock. The frequency of watering livestock was twice a day (51%) in the dry season and once a day (44.3%) in the wet season. Most of respondents (53.65%) sell their live animals during religious festivities followed by selling during the season of critical feed shortage (24.45%). Although smallholder farmers are vulnerable groups to climate change the majority (42%) had no information about climate change problem in the study area. The perception of household heads indicated that the livestock holding in the last five years of the family increased in most of the respondents (51%), followed by decreased condition (33%) and remained constant for the rest of the respondents (16%). Overall, it is important to assist livestock producer in enabling them benefit most from livestock and their products.


Abstract. A high-resolution
seismic tomography survey was acquired to obtain a full 3-D P-wave seismic
velocity image in the Záncara river
basin (eastern Spain). The study area consists of lutites and gypsum from a
Neogene sedimentary sequence. A regular and dense grid of 676 shots and 1200
receivers was used to image a 500 m×500 m area of the
shallow subsurface. A 240-channel system and a seismic source, consisting of
an accelerated weight drop, were used in the acquisition. Half a million
travel-time picks were inverted to provide the 3-D seismic velocity
distribution up to 120 m depth. The project also targeted the geometry of
the underground structure with emphasis on defining the lithological contacts
but also the presence of cavities and fault or fractures. An extensive
drilling campaign provided uniquely tight constraints on the lithology; these
included core samples and wireline geophysical measurements. The analysis of
the well log data enabled the accurate definition of the lithological
boundaries and provided an estimate of the seismic velocity ranges associated
with each lithology. The final joint interpreted image reveals a wedge-shaped
structure consisting of four different lithological units. This study
features the necessary key elements to test the travel time tomographic
inversion approach for the high-resolution characterization of the shallow
subsurface. In this methodological validation test, travel-time tomography
demonstrated to be a powerful tool with a relatively high capacity for
imaging in detail the lithological contrasts of evaporitic sequences located
at very shallow depths, when integrated with additional geological and
geophysical data.


A WiMedia ultrawideband (UWB) frequency synthesizer is designed for band group #1. A very fast hopping is achieved by using a delay-locked loop (DLL) architecture which utilizes a novel variable gain voltage-controlled delay line (VCDL) scheme to compensate the phase error generated at the hopping instant. Fast-settling DLL allows an injection-locked oscillator (ILO) to be employed to reduce the current consumption in the edge combiner (EC). Simulated in STM 65-nm CMOS technology, synthesizer hopping time is less than two reference cycles. Phase noise at 3432 MHz is -124 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset. The adjacent spur level from the Monte Carlo simulation is -34 dBc. Excluding CML divider, the synthesizer draws 6.7 mW from a 1.2 V supply.


Background. Repetitive and restricted behaviors and interests (RRBI) are core symptoms of autism with a complex entity and are commonly categorized into 'motor-driven' and 'cognitively-driven'. RRBI symptomatology depends on the individual's clinical environment limiting the understanding of RRBI physiology, particularly their associated neuroanatomical structures. The complex RRBI heterogeneity needs to explore the whole RRBI spectrum by integrating the clinical context (autistic individuals, their relatives and typical developing (TD) individuals). We hypothesized that different RRBI dimensions would emerge by exploring the whole spectrum of RRBI, and that these dimensions are associated with neuroanatomical signatures - involving cortical & subcortical areas. Method. A sample of 792 individuals composed of 267 autistic subjects, their 370 rst-degree relatives and 155 TD individuals was enrolled in the study. We assessed the whole patterns of RRBI in each individual by using the Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised and the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale. We estimated brain volumes using MRI scanner for a subsample of the subjects (n=152, 42 ASD, 89 relatives and 13 TD). We �rst investigated the dimensionality of RRBI by performing a principal component analysis on all items of these scales and included all the sampling population. We then explored the relationship between RRBI-derived factors with brain volumes using linear regression models. Results. We identi�ed 3 main factors (with 30.3% of the RRBI cumulative variance): Factor 1 (FA1, 12.7%) re�ected mainly the 'motor-driven' RRBI symptoms; Factor 2 and 3 (respectively 8.8% and 7.9%) gathered mainly Y-BOCS related items and represented the 'cognitively-driven' RRBI symptoms. These three factors were signi�cantly associated with the right/left putamen volumes but with opposite effects: FA1 was negatively associated with an increased volume of the right/left putamen conversely to FA2 & FA3 (all uncorrected p<0.05). FA1 was negatively associated with the left amygdala (uncorrected p<0.05), and FA2 was positively associated with the left parietal structure (uncorrected p=0.001). Conclusion. Our results suggested 3 coherent RRBI dimensions involving the putamen commonly and other structures according to the RRBI dimension. The exploration of the putamen's integrative role in RSBI needs to be strengthened in further studies.


Objective: Physiological and biochemical changes during aging alter drug metabolism. Drug intake is increased with age because of cumulative morbidity, in particular, high prevalence of cardiovascular diseases. Antihypertensive medications are the most commonly used drugs. Individual drug sensitivity or resistance may be influenced by the variance of the "pharmacological response" genes. Our purpose was to search for the polymorphic variants of "pharmacological response" genes associated with survival in different age periods. Design and Method: The study group consisted of 832 healthy persons aged between 21 and 109 years from the Republic of Bashkortostan (Russia). Participants were divided into three age subgroups: middle-age, elderly and long-livers. Polymorphic markers of ITGB3 (rs5918), ABCB1 (rs1045642), PTGS1 (rs3842787), PTGS2 (rs20417), F5 (rs6025) and VKORC1 (rs9934438) genes were analyzed by PCR method. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS V.21.0. Results: ABCB1*Т allele was detected with high frequency (58.87%) in the study group, comparable to the majority of Caucasian populations. ABCB1*Т allele is associated with increased absorption and slow excretion of xenobiotics, and therefore testing for this polymorphism is important for selecting medications and dosage. Similarly high frequency of PTGS2* C allele was observed in the study group (18.63%). PTGS2* C allele is associated with aspirin resistance, which makes it an important pharmacogenetic marker. ITGB3*C allele frequency was decreased in the elderly subgroup compared to the middle-age subgroup (6.44% vs. 17.95%, p = 0.0003). ITGB3* C allele is associated with low response to anticoagulants, and the carriers of ITGB3* C allele have an increased risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, sudden cardiac death, hypertension. Thus, we suggest that the frequency of ITGB3* C allele is diminished with age due to negative selection. Conclusions: The results of our study demonstrate the age-related trend for decreased frequency of polymorphic markers associated with impaired sensitivity to anticoagulants.


Bird atlases have become an important source of distribution data for broad-scale analyses in ecology, biogeography and conservation. However, national bird atlases are undertaken in different ways in different countries, usually with little formal assessment of alternatives. Existing research suggests that the differences in accuracy between line and point transects are influenced by context, habitat and other details of the sampling protocol. To determine the best approach to use for southern Africa, where collection of data for atlases must cope with a wide range of field conditions, we compared data from a point-count approach to data from line transects on 302 routes in 19 South African National Parks. Data were analysed using paired sample tests, linear models, qualitative assessment and a Bayesian multispecies occupancy model to estimate species richness, while accounting for imperfect detection. On average, five more bird species were recorded along a route using point counts, even though the line transects covered three times more area. There was no obvious difference in the kinds of species recorded. Occupancy models showed that point counts consistently and substantially outperformed transects in estimating species richness. In transects, low detection probability leads to highly biased and imprecise estimates. For almost identical observer effort, standardised point counts along a route provided significantly higher quality data than transects.


Abstract Recent developments in X-ray optics have allowed the development of a range of commercially available benchtop micro-XRF (μ-XRF) instruments that can produce X-ray spot sizes of 20-30 μm on the sample, allowing major- and trace-element analysis on a range of sample types and sizes with minimal sample preparation. Such instruments offer quantitative analysis using fundamental parameter based 'standardless' quantification algorithms. The accuracy and precision of this quantitative analysis on geological materials, and application of micro-XRF to wider geological problems is assessed using a single benchtop micro-XRF instrument. Quantitative analysis of internal reference materials and international standards shows that such instruments can provide highly reproducible data but that, for many silicate materials, standardless quantification is not accurate.Accuracy can be improved, however, by using a simple type-calibration against a reference material of similar matrix and composition. Qualitative analysis with micro-XRF can simplify and streamline sample characterization and processing for subsequent geochemical and isotopic analysis.


This paper attempts to present a review of Facebook group pages as an educational tool for language learning. One of the primary needs of foreign language learners is to gain the opportunity to use the target language outside the classroom practice. Social media communication provides occasions for learners to receive input and produce output while engaging in negotiation of meaning. In line with this point, teachers can instigate class group pages in the social media in an attempt to provide a space for practice and communication free of the traditional pedagogic concerns of a typical classroom. The distinctive discursive behaviour of Facebook group pages helps one to achieve that attempt. In light of these views, the researcher, in this study, formed a group page to understand the dynamics of social media environment as a supporting tool for language classrooms. This paper addresses various features which make social media a unique place to contribute to the sense of class community and collaboration outside the classroom. The face-to face classroom is a controlled communication event, that is, teachers and students are required to be in the classroom at the same time but a teacher's use of Facebook is an attempt to communicate with students outside of that controlled environment where teachers can meet students in their territory. When compared to its disadvantages, the advantages of setting a class group page on the social media outweigh. Students can feel motivated to contribute to an online community if they subsequently receive support or help. It also leads students to feel that they are being supported by a whole portion of their class community and promotes students' desire to maintain a valued relationship with others. Students continue developing and strengthening relationships with others.


We have studied anisotropic Heisenberg antiferromagnets by using a real space renormalization-group analysis and exact diagonalization approach. For the spin-1 case, the ground-state energy and Haldane gap at the Heisenberg point are estimated, and they are in good agreement with that obtained by other methods. The critical point is identified where the gap phase changes into a gapless phase. For spin-2 case, the calculated Haldane gap supports a recent prediction suggested by a quantum O(N) nonlinear sigma model study.


Stability of planar "frozen" fronts propagating through a cylindrical shell reactor in reaction-diffusion and reaction-diffusion-advection systems is studied numerically using the reactor perimeter (S) as a bifurcation parameter. For both systems rigid rotating patterns superimposed on axially propagating fronts were shown to emerge in S gaps between one-wave and two-wave solutions. The rotating motion is surprising since the linear analysis predicts formation of stationary patterns which are sustained in the plane, and emerges due to the periodic azimuthal boundary conditions.


The closed-form expressions of strip reflection coefficients of tetragonal 4/mmm, hexagonal 6/mm and trigonal 3m crystal etc are derived, which are different from that of cubic m3m crystal published. The reflection coefficients for short-circuited Al grating and groove grating on 112° rotated X-cut Y-propagation LiTaO3 are then given by our theory. The reflection property of the groove grating on 112°LiTaO3 in which short-circuited Al grating was placed has been studied by an experimental method and the condition that internal reflection is close to zero was achieved. It concluded that the structure of single finger without internal reflection can be realized by placing short-circuited Al strip in groove grating on 112°LiTaO3 and thereafter a pass-band filter with central frequency 255 MHz, bandwidth about 10 MHz, pass-band ripples less than 0.4 dB are yielded by utilizing those results in the study of single finger without internal reflection.


Anthropogenic noise emission in the marine environment is a key issue nowadays and has drawn the attention of regulatory bodies in various nations. In particular, the noise generated during the installation of foundation piles for the offshore wind industry is considered to be harmful for aquatic species. A reliable prediction of the underwater noise during the installation of a foundation pile is thus essential for the proper assessment of the ecological impact. In this paper, the structure-borne wave radiation is investigated with the help of a semi-analytical model for two cases. The first case considers a pile that is installed with the help of an impact hammer, whereas the second one deals with a pile that is driven into the seabed with the help of a vibratory device. The spatial distribution and the frequency content of the radiated sound are analyzed, and the differences are highlighted between the two cases. The model is validated with data available in the literature that were collected during several measurement campaigns. Subsequently, the predicted noise levels are converted into an equivalent index that reflects the auditory damage to certain marine species, and a method is presented for the derivation of zones of impact around the pile that are based on the noise predictions by the models and the chosen method of installation. This approach can be used to define critical zones within which a predefined level of auditory damage is to be expected based on a specific installation scenario.


Background: Presently, less than 1% of the nursing workforce possesses a doctoral degree [1]. Characteristics of nurses who seek doctoral education are poorly understood. This research describes the motivational orientation and factors of Registered Nurses (RN's) pursuing doctoral education. Methods: A descriptive correlational design was utilized to examine concepts relating to the motivational orientation of Registered Nurses (RN's) pursuing doctoral education. Participants included (1) RN's seeking the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD); and (2) RN's pursuing the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). A total of 178 RN's comprised the final sample. Results: Results of the study indicated that participants self-identified with the motivational orientation of intrinsic motiva - tion-to know, a self-determined motivational orientation. Positive correlates included geographical locale, age and race. Conclusion: The innate benefits perceived by RN's as reflected in the intrinsically motivated orientation provides insight into potential innovative strategies to recruit and retain RN's seeking doctoral degrees.


Educational software systems have an increasingly significant presence in engineering sciences. They aim to improve students' attitudes and knowledge acquisition typically through visual representation and simulation of complex algorithms and mechanisms or hardware systems that are often not available to the educational institutions. This paper presents a novel software system for CryptOgraphic ALgorithm visuAl representation (COALA), which was developed to support a Data Security course at the School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade. The system allows users to follow the execution of several complex algorithms (DES, AES, RSA, and Diffie-Hellman) on real world examples in a step by step detailed view with the possibility of forward and backward navigation. Benefits of the COALA system for students are observed through the increase of the percentage of students who passed the exam and the average grade on the exams during one school year.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the clinical efficacy and advantage of minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion under microscope-assisted Zista channel in the treatment of degreeⅠandⅡdegenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis.

METHODS
The clinical data of 18 patients with degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis treated by microscope-assisted Zista channel MIS-TLIF operation from January 2017 to March 2018 were analyzed retrospectively. There were 10 males and 8 females with an average age of 59 years (48 to 70). The course of spondylolisthesis ranged from 6 months to 5 years with an average of 33 months. The segment of spondylolisthesis was L4 in 13 casesand L5 in 5 cases. According to Meyerding spondylolisthesis criteria, 11 cases were degreeⅠand 7 cases were degreeⅡ. The perioperative observation indexes were recorded. The VAS score and JOA score of lumbago and leg pain before and after operation were compared to evaluate the clinical efficacy. At 12 months after operation, the height of intervertebral space was measured by imaging data, the intervertebral fusion was evaluated by Brantigan-Steffee standard, and the curative effect was evaluated according to the modified Macnab standard.

RESULTS
All the patients completed the operation successfully and were followed up more than 12 months after operation. Operation time was(160.45±34.98) min, intraoperative blood loss was (88.32±21.12) ml, postoperative drainage volume was (50.34 ±18.22)ml, and walking time after operation was (20.65±6.25) h. Preoperative and postoperative at 7 days, 3 months, 12 months, VAS score of low back pain was 7.81±2.16, 4.19±1.17, 2.25±0.62 and 1.53±0.58 respectively, VAS score of leg pain was 8.47± 2.21, 3.45±0.86, 2.31±0.73 and 1.43±0.47, JOA score was 12.01±2.33, 18.56±3.12, 23.54±3.31 and 26.34±2.65. There were significant differences in VAS and JOA scores between preoperative and postoperative (P<0.05). The height of intervertebral space increased from (4.46±0.72) mm preoperative to (10.24±1.48) mm at 12 months after operation (P<0.05). All operative segments got fusion (16 cases of grade E and 2 cases of grade D). According to Macnab standard, 15 cases obtained excellent results, 2 cases good, 1 case fair.

CONCLUSION
MIS-TLIF under microscope-assisted Zista channel has obvious minimally invasive advantages in the treatment of degreeⅠandⅡdegenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis, and it is a safe and effective method.


The purpose of this report is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of combined intravitreal injection of bevacizumab and intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide (IVTA) for recurrent inflammatory choroidal neovascular membrane (CNVM). It was a prospective interventional study of a young female, who was a known case of Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada syndrome. She presented with an inflammatory choroidal neovascualar membrane and signs of panuveitis in the right eye. She underwent a complete ophthalmic examination. She was given intravitreal injection of bevacizumab and IVTA at different sites. There was complete regression of CNVM and ocular inflammation within a week. After six months, she had recurrence of CNVM in the same eye, which was treated similarly. There was a complete resolution of CNVM and ocular inflammation after the combination therapy and systemic steroids, until one year of follow-up. No serious systemic or ocular adverse events were noted. Combination therapy appears to be an effective and safe method in the management of recurrent inflammatory CNVM.


The prospects of future galaxy surveys for non-Gaussianity measurements call for the development of robust techniques for computing the bispectrum of primordial cosmological perturbations. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to the calculation of the squeezed bispectrum in multiple-field inflation. With use of the δ N formalism, our framework sheds new light on the recently pointed out difference between the squeezed bispectrum for global observers and that for local observers, while allowing one to calculate both. For local observers in particular, the squeezed bispectrum is found to vanish in single-field inflation. Furthermore, our framework allows one to go beyond the near-equilateral ("small hierarchy") limit, and to automatically include intrinsic non-Gaussianities that do not need to be calculated separately. The explicit computational programme of our method is given and illustrated with a few examples.


The majority of ICU deaths are preceded by a decision to limit treatment in some way. Decisions to withhold or withdraw treatment vary considerably depending on many factors including local practice, cultural and religious background, family and peer pressure. Here we will discuss the current situation across Europe, based on the findings from three large international studies.


Esters of cellulose and starch are well known commercial materials. Cellulose acetate, for example, is a major product with annual global production of over 1.5 billion pounds. The conventional acetylation processes involve solvents such as methylene chloride or high temperature with sulfuric or perchloric acid as a catalyst. A review is provided here of the recent reports concerning rapid, alternative preparation of cellulose and starch esters. The process entails reaction of the cellulose or starch with acetic anhydride in the presence of a catalytic level of iodine, and in the absence of additional solvents. The reactant stoichiometry, reaction temperature, and reaction time all have effects on the degree of substitution of the ester and the reaction yield. Included in the review are the proposed modes of action for iodine, the mechanism, and assessment of the utility of this approach.


In this paper we describe an extended Kalman filter algorithm for estimating the pose and velocity of a spacecraft during entry, descent, and landing. The proposed estimator combines measurements of rotational velocity and acceleration from an inertial measurement unit (IMU) with observations of a priori mapped landmarks, such as craters or other visual features, that exist on the surface of a planet. The tight coupling of inertial sensory information with visual cues results in accurate, robust state estimates available at a high bandwidth. The dimensions of the landing uncertainty ellipses achieved by the proposed algorithm are three orders of magnitude smaller than those possible when relying exclusively on IMU integration. Extensive experimental and simulation results are presented, which demonstrate the applicability of the algorithm on real-world data and analyze the dependence of its accuracy on several system design parameters. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The chromosome of S. typhi, similarly to those of Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium, was found to contain ogt gene. Using Cmr gene, flanked by the corresponding sites of Salmonella chromosome, we managed to create S. typhi ogt deletion mutant strain. As shown in this study, ogt gene, together with giving protection against alkylating, methylating, ethylating and propylating agents, played an important role in protection against other mutagenic factors. In contrast to the wild strain, S. typhi ogt deletion mutant strain was found to be sensitive to UV radiation, pesticides and antimicrobial preparations.


We describe how the effect of charge noise on a pair of spins coupled via the exchange interaction can be calculated by modelling charge fluctuations as a random telegraph noise process using probability density functions. We develop analytic expressions for the time dependent superoperator of a pair of spins as a function of fluctuation amplitude and rate. We show that the theory can be extended to include multiple fluctuators, in particular, spectral distributions of fluctuators. These superoperators can be included in time dependent analyses of the state of spin systems designed for spintronics or quantum information processing to determine the decohering effects of exchange fluctuations.


Aim: To assess and study parents' knowledge and awareness of orthodontics and orthodontic treatment of their children. Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from October to November 2020. A total of 218parents were included in this study. Demographic variables such as age, family status, occupation, nationality, education level and parents' knowledge as well as their awareness of orthodontics and orthodontic treatment were collected using a standardized, validated questionnaire consisting of 32 different statements. Results: The overall finding of the study showed a high level of knowledge and awareness of orthodontics and orthodontic treatment among parents although only 32.1% had previous orthodontic treatment, the majority of parents were university graduate (57.3%) and/or masters' graduates (31.2%) which may be correlated to their high knowledge of orthodontics. Most parents (93.6%) stated that a beautiful smile is essential for the healthy development of the child's personality. More than 75% of parents reported that orthodontic treatment usually takes years and more than 84% of parents stated that poor oral hygiene usually leads to failure of orthodontic treatment. A higher percentage(93.6%) of parents knew it is not advisable to start the orthodontic treatment before treating carious teeth, and59.2% of parents reported orthodontic treatments are usually expensive. A higher percentage (95%) of parents stated that orthodontic treatment should be provided by a specialist orthodontist only, 77.5% stated that patients with braces can visit the hygienist during the orthodontic treatment and 88.5% stated that diagnosis and treatment plan could not be formulated without taking dental impressions and x-rays. Approximately 55% stated that the best age of orthodontic treatment depends on child's gender and orthodontic problem, and a higher percentage (86.2%) of parents stated that orthodontic treatment could be done at any age with adequate oral and dental health. A higher percentage (81.7%)of parents stated that the most important factor in choosing their orthodontist is his/her reputation, more than the cost or the brand of the hospital or polyclinic and91.3% of the parents will treat their children that need the most treatment regardless of their gender, no preferential treatment between the boys or the girls. Around 60% said that if they cannot afford the treatment they delay it, and 40% said they may take a loan to pay for it, the numbers were close for boys and girls. Conclusion: It is concluded that there is a relatively high level of awareness and knowledge among parents in Saudi Arabia about orthodontics and orthodontic treatment. However, well designed randomized controlled trials with higher sample sizes are essential to validate our findings.


We assessed the effectiveness of various aerosol-generating systems. Taplin's settling method and Venticis generators had a lower efficiency (37.3 +/- 3.8% and 51.8 +/- 9.6%, respectively) than the Syntevent (88.8 +/- 6.9%, p less than 0.001), Cadema (89.8 +/- 9.9%, p less than 0.001) and Mefar (85.3 +/- 19.4%, p less than 0.001) generators. The Mass Median Aerodynamic Diameter of the particles produced by the Mefar nebulizer (2.05 +/- 0.27 micron) was larger than that of any other generators (p less than 0.001). The Syntevent (0.54 +/- 0.09 micron) generator produced smaller particles than the Mefar, Taplin (0.89 +/- 0.10 micron, p less than 0.01) and Venticis (0.79 +/- 0.06 micron, p less than 0.02) generators. Particles produced by the Cadema system (0.69 +/- 0.06 micron) were smaller than those generated by the Taplin system (p less than 0.05). We conclude: that the Syntevent, Mefar and Cadema aerosol generators are more efficient than the others, and that all the generators tested except the Mefar may be used for studies that depend on the peripheral deposition of small particles within the lungs.


People with dementia often report experiencing a 'shrinking world' connected with reduced opportunities to access physical and social spaces. This article applies the framework of social health (Droes et al., 2017; Huber et al., 2011) as a theoretical lens through which to consider how inclusive walking groups can facilitate access to places and spaces to support people with dementia to remain connected in their communities. Findings are reported from walking interviews and focus group discussions with people with dementia, family carers, volunteers and walk leaders who participated in a national programme of dementia-friendly walking groups in Scotland. Thematic analysis of the data demonstrates that participation has a positive impact on social health, supporting people living with dementia to fulfil their potential, to engage in meaningful activity and to manage both their condition and their wider lives. Benefits include providing a context for continuing social participation and relationships for people with dementia and family carers. Additionally, groups provide a safe space where people with dementia can walk with autonomy and help to reinforce a sense of capacity and agency. Wider implications include the role of walking groups in fostering interdependencies between people with dementia and their wider communities by promoting an enabling ethos of dementia 'inclusiveness.' The benefits of developing an inclusive and supportive approach to involving people living with dementia in walking groups could extend more broadly to the wider community, with such initiatives acting as a catalyst for growing levels of social participation.


Efficiently optimizing multi-model inference pipelines for fast, accurate, and cost-effective inference is a crucial challenge in ML production systems, given their tight end-to-end latency requirements. To simplify the exploration of the vast and intricate trade-off space of accuracy and cost in inference pipelines, providers frequently opt to consider one of them. However, the challenge lies in reconciling accuracy and cost trade-offs. To address this challenge and propose a solution to efficiently manage model variants in inference pipelines, we present IPA, an online deep-learning Inference Pipeline Adaptation system that efficiently leverages model variants for each deep learning task. Model variants are different versions of pre-trained models for the same deep learning task with variations in resource requirements, latency, and accuracy. IPA dynamically configures batch size, replication, and model variants to optimize accuracy, minimize costs, and meet user-defined latency SLAs using Integer Programming. It supports multi-objective settings for achieving different trade-offs between accuracy and cost objectives while remaining adaptable to varying workloads and dynamic traffic patterns. Extensive experiments on a Kubernetes implementation with five real-world inference pipelines demonstrate that IPA improves normalized accuracy by up to 35% with a minimal cost increase of less than 5%.


Mainstream views only admit two solutions to social order-separation and coercion. Understanding why association, as a principle of order came to be excluded calls for an incursion into the history of economic ideas. Association was dismissed because it depends on commitment-a human capacity that cannot be accommodated within the rational choice framework. The classics were aware of that. We argue that rational choice, as it was originally conceived, was not meant to be applied to contexts charged with moral force and social dilemmas. We next highlight sympathy in the work of Adam Smith as the basis for normative commitment and association. Finally, we discuss association in the light of several classic contributions and stress the relevance of these contributions to present-day debates and socio-economic challenges.


We propose a simple protocol exploiting the thermalization of a storage bipartite system S to extract work from a resource system R. The protocol is based on a recent work definition involving only a single bath. A general description of the protocol is provided without specifying the characteristics of S. We quantify both the extracted work and the ideal efficiency of the process, also giving maximum bounds for them. Then, we apply the protocol to two cases: two interacting qubits and the Rabi model. In both cases, for very strong couplings, an extraction of work comparable with the bare energies of the subsystems of S is obtained and its peak is reached for finite values of the bath temperature, T. We finally show, in the Rabi model at T=0, how to transfer the work stored in S to an external device, permitting thus a cyclic implementation of the whole work-extraction protocol. Our proposal makes use of simple operations not needing fine control.


Background : Puerperal sepsis is a common pregnancy related complication and is one of the leading causes of maternal morbidity and mortality in Sub Saharan Africa. There is paucity of regional data on the antibiogram and risk factors associated with this condition, Aim : To determine the risk factors, aetiological organisms and antibiogram pauems in patients with puerperal sepsis at a Universi ty Teaching Hospital in Nigeria. Method : A descriptive cross sectional study of patients who presented with puerperal sepsis at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. Relevant biodata, pregnancy history types of organisms isolated from the endocervical swabs and their antibiogram were collated into a pre-structured proforma, Statistical analysis was done using statistical software SPSS for windows' version 19.0. Chi square test was used to explore the association of risk factors with P value <0,05 at 95% confidence interval. Result : The incidence of puerperal sepsis was 9.34%. The mean age of the women was 27 ± 5 years. There was a strong association between unbooked status, emergency caesarean section, labour initially monitored outside the health facility and prolonged labour with puerperal sepsis (p=0.00); OR (68.60. 166.79. 102.73 and 3774) respectively. The commonest microorganism isolated in this study was Klebsiella species  (57.7%), which were highly susceptible to ceftriaxone, eiftazidime. ciprofloxacin ofloxacin and gentamycin. Conclusion : Thc risk of puerperal sepsis is increased in the unbooked patient during prolonged labour during emergeney caesarean section and unsupervised labour. The third generation cephalosporin and quinolones (in the absence of breastfeeding) were identified as the choice of regimen for empirical treatment of puerperal sepsis pending the availability of the endocervical swab sensitivity results. Keywords : puerperal sepsis antibiogrum. risk factors. UPTH


Background: The perturbation of phosphate homeostasis portends unfavorable outcomes in chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, the absence of randomized clinical trials (RCT) fuels the discussion of whether phosphate or some other phosphorous-related factor(s) such as fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF-23) mediates the cardiovascular and systemic toxicity. We herein test whether the fractional excretion of phosphate (FeP) as a marker of renal stress to excrete phosphorous predicts unfavorable outcomes in CKD patients. Methods: Retrospective, cross-sectional observational study. For current analysis, an historical cohort of 407 records of CKD stage 3b-5 patients attending between January 2010 and October 2015 at the Nephrology Unit of Solofra (AV), Italy were utilized. Demographic, clinical, laboratory, and outcome data were identified through the subjects' medical records. We tested whether quartiles of FeP are associated with the risk of CKD progression or all causes of death. Parametric as well as non-parametric tests, linear and logistic regression, as well as survival analysis were utilized. Results: Overall, we investigated middle-age (mean 66.0, standard deviation 12.3 years) men and women (male 43%) with CKD stage 3b to 5 (creatinine clearance 32.0 (13.3) mL/min). Older age, lower diastolic blood pressure, poor renal function, as well as higher serum phosphate were associated with FeP. Patients with higher FeP were at an increased risk of starting dialysis or dying (hazard ratio 2.40; 95% confidence interval (1.44, 3.99)). Notably, when the two endpoints were analyzed separately, FeP was associated with renal but not all-cause survival. Conclusion: FeP is associated with ESRD, but not all-cause mortality risk in a large cohort of moderate to advanced CKD patients. Future efforts are required to validate FeP as a marker of nephron stress and risk factor for CKD progression in this high-risk population.


In vertebrate species, the innate immune system down-regulates protein translation in response to viral infection through the action of the double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-activated protein kinase (PKR). In some teleost species another protein kinase, Z-DNA-dependent protein kinase (PKZ), plays a similar role but instead of dsRNA binding domains, PKZ has Zα domains. These domains recognize the left-handed conformer of dsDNA and dsRNA known as Z-DNA/Z-RNA. Cyprinid herpesvirus 3 infects common and koi carp, which have PKZ, and encodes the ORF112 protein that itself bears a Zα domain, a putative competitive inhibitor of PKZ. Here we present the crystal structure of ORF112-Zα in complex with an 18-bp CpG DNA repeat, at 1.5 Å. We demonstrate that the bound DNA is in the left-handed conformation and identify key interactions for the specificity of ORF112. Localization of ORF112 protein in stress granules induced in Cyprinid herpesvirus 3-infected fish cells suggests a functional behavior similar to that of Zα domains of the interferon-regulated, nucleic acid surveillance proteins ADAR1 and DAI.


A comparative hydrogeochemical study was carried out in West Bengal covering three physiographic settings of deltaic floodplains to demonstrate the control of geogenic and anthropogenic influences on groundwater arsenic (As) mobilization. The low redox potential (Eh = -185 to -86 mV) and the presence of low sulfate (SO 4 2-) and high Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC), phosphate (PO 4 3-) and bicarbonate) (HCO 3 -) concentrations in groundwater signifies microbially mediated redox processes controlling As release in the aquifer. The release of As is influenced by both geogenic (i.e. geomorphology and/or landform features) and anthropogenic (i.e. unsewered sanitation and domestic wastes) factors.


After decades of research, we are starting to understand more about why the number of species varies from place to place on the planet. However, little is known about spatial variation in abundance, especially for soil-dwelling organisms. In this study, we aimed to disentangle the relative influences of climatic factors, soil properties, and plant diversity on the abundance of soil-dwelling invertebrates (i.e., nematodes and soil arthropods) at 48 alpine grassland sites on the Tibetan Plateau. We found that the abundance of these two groups of soil organisms was negatively correlated with soil pH and temperature seasonality, and was positively correlated with soil organic carbon (SOC), mean annual precipitation, and plant species richness; there was no effect of mean annual temperature or seasonality in precipitation on the abundance of nematodes or soil-dwelling arthropods. When we considered only the nematodes, we found that soil pH, mean annual precipitation, temperature seasonality, and SOC were the best predictors of abundance. However, plant species richness was the best predictor of the abundance of soil-dwelling arthropods. Different orders within the arthropods responded differently to the suite of factors we examined. Taken together, our results suggest that increases in temperature alone might not alter the abundances of soil organisms in these alpine grasslands. Instead, altered precipitation regimes and increases in intra-annual variation in temperature, changes in plant community diversity, and the resulting changes in soil characteristics (e.g., pH and organic carbon) could reshape soil communities in the Tibetan grassland ecosystems, and likely elsewhere on the planet.


This article is concerned with the on-line counting of some harmful insects in videos in the framework of in situ video-surveillance that aims at the early detection of pest attacks in greenhouse crops. The challenges mainly concern the tiny resolution and color contrast of the insects of interest in the videos, the outdoor issues and the quasi-real time constraints. Thus, we propose a complete video-processing chain that can cope with such challenges quite satisfactorily while yielding an acceptable performance. The system has been validated off-line against many recorded videos for the whiteflie species (one potential harmful pest species).


Similar to the general trend, Spain and its minority nation, Catalonia, increasingly rely on indigenous acquisition as a growth strategy for the internationalization of its communication industries (de Moragas, Garitaonandia, & Lopez, 1999; de Mateo, 2000; Folch-Serra, & Nogue-Font, 2001). Due to the affect of media on cultures (Schramm, 1964; Rogers, 1988), media internationalization and convergence often result in direct influence on national cultures. Through content creation and distribution, large media conglomerates tend to transform local cultural traditions as consumers tend to mimic transmitted media content (Boyd-Barrett, 2003). The case might be somewhat different in minority-owned media companies.This leads to the main question of this research: does a minority-owned host firm interfere with the culture of its foreign audience through the content creation and distribution of its subsidies? This interdisciplinary critical case study chose to explore the aspect of globalization in the FDI practices of Grupo Planeta, a Catalan minority media conglomerate. As both functionalist (e.g. Hofstede, 1981) and interpretivist (Bormann, 1983; Glaser, Zamanou, & Hacker 1987; Keyton, 2005) researchers agree that organizational structure and culture are strongly influenced by the owner's identity and tied to their values, norms, and ethics. Thus, this research concentrates on the effect of the multicultural identity of Grupo Planeta's owner, Lara, on the FDI and post-merger practices of his organization. While trying to reveal emerging forms of power and culture aspects of globalization, the overarching goal for this research is the advancement of equity and justice in media communication practices globally.


Tension stiffening is a characteristic behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) beams which is directly affected by the bond-slip property of steel bar and concrete interfaces. A beam strengthened with a near-surface mounted (NSM) technique would be even more affected by tension stiffening, as the NSM reinforcement also possess a bond-slip property. Yet assessing how much the tension stiffening of NSM contributes to the behavior of RC beams is difficult due to the fact that bond-slip effects cannot be directly incorporated into a strain-based moment-curvature analysis. As such, the tension stiffening is typically incorporated through various empirical formulations, which can require a great deal of testing and calibrations to be done. In this paper a relatively new method, which can be called the mechanics-based segmental approach, is used to directly simulate the tension stiffening effect of NSM reinforcements on RC beams, without the need for empirical formulations to indirectly simulate the tension stiffening. Analysis shows that the tension stiffening of NSM fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) contributes a significant portion to the stiffness and strength of the strengthened RC beam not only during serviceability, but at all load levels.


A novel adaptive call admission control algorithm for multimedia low orbit satellite networks was proposed. Based on real-time call dropping probability of destination cell, the algorithm is able to reserve bandwidth for handoff calls combining probability threshold method and fair utility allocation scheme. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm presents satisfactory new call blocking probability and greatly reduces handoff call dropping probability, while guarantees the high bandwidth utilization.


Revealing the British coalition government's plans, this examination demonstrates how a small "policy community" inside and outside the department of health have schemed for 10 years to replace the National Health Service (NHS) with a U.S.-style health care market without informing parliament or the public. While ex-ministers, officials, and the like profit from lucrative positions in private health companies, the population must cope with the increasing health care costs and the diminishing quality of care. With accounts from NHS patients and doctors, the key strategies of implementation are uncovered and the companies involved--their lobby, their businesses, their fortunes, and, in some cases, their crimes--exposed.


The COVID-19 pandemic has posed notable challenges to post-secondary students, causing concern for their psychological well-being. In the face of school closures, academic disruptions, and constraints on social gatherings, it is crucial to understand the extent to which mental health among post-secondary students has been impacted in order to inform support implementation for this population. The present meta-analysis examines the global prevalence of clinically significant depression and anxiety among post-secondary students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several moderator analyses were also performed to examine sources of variability in depression and anxiety prevalence rates. A systematic search was conducted across six databases on May 3, 2021, yielding a total of 176 studies (1,732,456 participants) which met inclusion criteria. Random-effects meta-analyses of 126 studies assessing depression symptoms and 144 studies assessing anxiety symptoms were conducted. The pooled prevalence estimates of clinically elevated depressive and anxiety symptoms for post-secondary students during the COVID-19 pandemic was 30.6% (95% CI: 0.274, 0.340) and 28.2% (CI: 0.246, 0.321), respectively. The month of data collection and geographical region were determined to be significant moderators. However, student age, sex, type (i.e., healthcare student vs. non-healthcare student), and level of training (i.e., undergraduate, university or college generally; graduate, medical, post-doctorate, fellow, trainee), were not sources of variability in pooled rates of depression and anxiety symptoms during the pandemic. The current study indicates a call for continued access to mental health services to ensure post-secondary students receive adequate support during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Systematic Review Registration: PROSPERO website: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier: CRD42021253547.


The age of some striking Arizona petroglyphs is being called into question in a Technical Comment in this issue (p.
 2132) challenging the validity of the technique used. The method uses accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon analysis to date microscopic quantities of carbon-rich organic material that are believed to become trapped beneath a thin layer of natural varnish on rocks. The researcher who pioneered the method acknowledges that his technique is flawed and produces "ambiguous" results but counters that faulty lab technique explains why other researchers have been unable to replicate his results. The controversy has sparked inquiries by the National Science Foundation and the university where the research was performed and is likely to cast a cloud over rock-varnish science as a whole.


A novel Au nanoparticle (AuNP)-biopolymer coated carbon screen-printed electrode (SPE) sensor was developed through the co-electrodeposition of Au and chitosan for mercury (Hg) ion detection. This new sensor showed successful Hg2+ detection in landfill leachate using square wave anodic stripping voltammetry (SWASV) with an optimized condition: a deposition potential of −0.6 V, deposition time of 200 s, amplitude of 25 mV, frequency of 60 Hz, and square wave step voltage of 4 mV. A noticeable peak was observed at +0.58 V associated with the stripping current of the Hg ion. The sensor exhibited a good sensitivity of ~0.09 μA/μg (~0.02 μA/nM) and a linear response over the concentration range of 10 to 100 ppb (50–500 nM). The limit of detection (LOD) was 1.69 ppb, which is significantly lower than the safety limit defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). The sensor had an excellent selective response to Hg2+ in landfill leachate against other interfering cations (e.g., Zn2+, Pb2+, Cd2+, and Cu2+). Fifteen successive measurements with a stable peak current and a lower relative standard deviation (RSD = 5.1%) were recorded continuously using the AuNP-biopolymer-coated carbon SPE sensor, which showed excellent stability, sensitivity and reproducibility and consistent performance in detecting the Hg2+ ion. It also exhibited a good reliability and performance in measuring heavy metals in landfill leachate.


A programmable active-RC complex filter synthesized from Tow-Thomas Low-Pass prototype is proposed in this paper. The filter features tunable Intermediate Frequency (fIF), and can be programmed by the external. In addition a tunable damping structure allows to guarantee a minimum image rejection for any value of the tunable range. The filter is implemented in a 0.18µm CMOS technology, consumes 0.36mW and its response ranges from 40kHz to 100kHz (5kHz per step), the minimum image rejection is 62dB. The maximum in-band integrated output noise is 132µVrms, while an in-band IM3 of 20dBc is obtained with vin=140mVrms.


An accurate method of determining the maximum power point (Vm, Im) of an energy conversion device like a solar cell, based on simple geometrical considerations, is given. Two additional checks on the correctness of the point are also possible by the method. The procedure holds irrespective of the values of parameters like the diode ideality factor (A), the series resistance (Rs) and the shunt resistance (Rsh), and enables an accurate evaluation of the fill factor (FF). The reliability of the method is established using the V against I curves for an Si homojunction, a Cu2S/CdS heterojunction and Al/Si, MIS Schottky barrier cells. It is shown that possibilities exist of quite accurate, consistent and comprehensive measurement of the light generated current IL, A and Rs if the effect of Rsh is negligible, and the reverse saturation current Io determined from the characteristics without illumination. Typical examples of the application of the method are given. It is found that the value of Rs, determined by the method, is always larger than that obtained from the slope of the V against I curve near the V-axis. This is shown to be expected on physical grounds. However, on the same basis, it is found that the value of Rsh, as obtained from the slope of the reverse characteristic under illumination, should not differ much from the value at the operating point, i.e. (Vm, Im)


Federated Averaging (FedAvg) is the most common aggregation method used in Federated learning, which performs a weighted averaging of the updates based on the sizes of the individual datasets of each client. A raising discussion in the research community suggests that FedAvg might not be the optimal method since, for instance, it does not fully take into account the variety of the client data distributions. In this paper, we propose a label-aware aggregation method FedLA, that addresses the biased models issue by considering the variety of labels in the weighted averaging. It combines two main properties of the client data, namely data size and label distribution. Through extensive experiments, we demonstrate that FedLA is particularly effective in several heterogeneous data distribution scenarios. Especially when only a small group of the clients is participating in the Federated Learning process. Furthermore, we argue that accurately describing the data distribution is crucial in selecting the appropriate aggregation method. In this regard, we discuss various properties that can be used to describe data distribution and illustrate how these properties can guide the choice of an aggregation method for specific data distributions.


This paper reports the first results of the 5G- ALLSTAR project [1] aiming at providing solutions and enablers for spectrum sharing in a 5G cellular and satellite multi-connectivity context. First, we present an exhaustive study of the frequency bands eligible for these systems in the short and medium term. A ray-tracing based and a geometry-based stochastic channel models developed in the project are then described. These models can be used to simulate systems involving terrestrial and non- terrestrial networks. We then describe three different ways investigated in the project for managing interference: signal processing (hardware implementation of a 5G New Radio compatible physical layer), beamforming (steering and switching beams in order to avoid the interference while preserving the spectral efficiency) and radio resource management (tool designed for joint optimization of satellite and terrestrial resource sharing).


Here are various virtues of learning the description text for the seventh grade students, especially students of VII-C SMPN 1 Trowulan. First, an understanding of the description text is required so that students do not consider that the same description text with the text of the report on the observation. Second, learning compose the text of fiction in the novel, the structure of the text descriptions into one filler. Therefore, preparation of the text descriptions into something that must be understood by the students of VII-C SMPN 1 Trowulan. In addition to learning the primacy of the text, there is a map technique causes life with photo media should be applied in the preparation of instructional text description. First, psychologically, individuals experiencing different events that can be captured through photos. These events may be applied to various text, one text description. Second, map the life of the photo media is one way to visualize events that never happened clearly in your mind quickly. Based on the significance and cause of the research aimed to assess the accuracy of the activities of teachers and students as well as the thoroughness of learning outcomes on student learning preparation of the text description VII-C SMPN 1 Trowulan the academic year 2016/2017. This research uses experimental research design with quantitative descriptive method. Therefore, the data presentation in the form of pemerian or breakdown with numbers as supporting data. In addition, the data in this study were collected by the teacher activity assessment sheets, assessment sheets student activities, and student learning test result sheet. The results of this study as follows. First, the activity of teacher in the preparation of the text descriptions in class VII-C SMPN 1 Trowulan very appropriate because the activity score of 87. Second, the activities of students in the preparation of the description text in class VII-C SMPN 1 Trowulan appropriate because the activity score of 80. Third learning outcomes preparation of the text description of class VII-C SMPN 1 Trowulan complete because the average value of students was 74,81.


We investigate the hypothesis that large-scale (≈ 100 km) plasma density enhancements (or "blobs") found in the auroral F layer become structured via a magnetic-flux-tube interchange (MFTI) process. In such a process, plasma structure is produced when spatially irregular electric fields transport higher number density plasma (from within the blob) into a region containing lower number density plasma (the background ionosphere), and vice versa. Direct experimental evidence of this process can be obtained by measuring concurrently the spatial distributions of F region plasma density and electric field. Using the tristatic EISCAT radar facility, we measured these quantities in a two-dimensional plane transverse to the geomagnetic field, at 300-km altitude. We show, in a case study, that plasma density structure found along the poleward wall of a blob was indeed accompanied by similar-scale variations in the ionospheric electric field, and that the sense of relative motion between high and low number density plasma is consistent with ongoing structuring of the plasma via an MFTI process. From the estimated growth rate of 3×10−3 s−1, the observed plasma structure could have been produced in several minutes by the irregular electric field pattern. The source of the MFTI process, however, is not clear. The MFTI process did not appear to be driven by F region polarization electric fields, a conclusion based on (1) the apparent lack of inverse correlation between plasma density and "slip" velocity (i.e., difference velocity between plasma and neutrals) patterns, and (2) the positive growth rate found along the poleward wall of the blob in the presence of a westward Pedersen current. This conclusion excludes (at least for this data set) the gradient drift and current-convective instabilities as primary sources of the ongoing structuring process.


Closed reduction of the symphysis pubis in a patient with an open-book type disruption of the pelvic ring failed because of interposition of the bladder and retroperitoneal fat. The problem of maintaining reduction with an external fixation device is discussed.


It is well known that mahatma gandhi felt that sexuality and desire were intimately connected to social life and politics, and that self-control translated directly into power of various kinds, both public and private. Gandhi's enigmatic genius and his popular appeal among India's masses may be attributed, at least in part, to the degree he was able to embody a powerful ideal of sexual self-control that linked his sociopolitical projects to pervasive Hindu notions of renunciation (S. Rudolph 1967). Affecting the persona of a world-renouncer, Gandhi was able to mix political, religious, and moral power, thus translating personal self-control into radical social criticism and nationalist goals. Gandhi's mass appeal was partly effected on a visceral level at which many Hindu men were able to fully appreciate the logic of celibacy as a means to psychological security, self-improvement, and national reform. Although my concern in this paper is not directly with Gandhi's notion of self-control, it is against the larger backdrop of his political legacy that I situate this discussion of sexuality, gender, and nationalism in contemporary India.


Abstract Critical thoughts about tourist destinations overcoming and mitigating impacts from COVID-19 lie in the opportunities created by the pandemic. In this paper, an innovative way to attract tourists to Madeira Island and specifically for the Caminho Real (CR) is proposed, assisted by augmented reality. There are important considerations for developing software suitable for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets; values and benefits for sustainable tourism development and for being an educational experience respecting social distancing; and services included in the augmented reality application. Therefore, some propositions are presented to evaluate the possibility of augmented reality as a secure opportunity to show historical, cultural, and ethnographic aspects when visiting a tourist destination, while respecting social-distancing constraints.


Nowadays Augmented Reality (AR) is an emerging technology that promises significant results in a variety of applications. Despite the great advances in computer graphics and multimedia technologies, there is still a lack in the definition and building of a complete 3D object management system, in order to efficiently store, manage and retrieve such objects. In this paper a novel data model and a building and querying language for 3D objects are presented. This preliminary environment has been properly designed to be sufficiently powerful for including the functionalities and characteristics of modern 3D description languages, such as X3D and Collada, and at same time provides a formalism for optimization aims. Several examples from real Italian Cultural Heritage sites are provided and preliminary results are commented and discussed, showing the main advantages of the proposed system for both creation and information retrieval goals.


A 10-year retrospective review of epithelial carcinoma of the ovary was performed about 95 patients which were diagnosed and treated at the Oita Medical University Hospital. The patients' ages at the first diagnosis ranged from 15 to 85 years with a mean of 51.6 years. Twenty-two of 95 patients (23.2%) were below the age of 40. Most patients analysed in this study complained of lower abdominal pain, lower abdominal mass, and/or lower abdominal fullness. Sixteen of 22 patients under the age of 40 (72.7%) and 27 of 73 patients over the age of 40 (37.0%) were diagnosed as having mucinous cystadenocarcinoma. The incidence of mucinous cystadenocarcinoma below the age of 40 was significantly higher than that over the age of 40 (p < 0.005, chi 2-test). Eleven patients below the age of 40 had FIGO stage Ia grade 1 disease and 2 of these patients were pregnant. The incidence of stage Ia disease under the age of 40 was significantly higher than that over the age of 40 (p < 0.005, chi 2-test). Both pregnant patients and 5 other patients with stage Ia disease were treated with only unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. All patient with stage Ia disease had no evidence of recurrence within 5 years. This suggests that conservative surgery may be considered as the treatment for the FIGO stage Ia grade 1 ovarian cancer.


L2 listening can involve the phantom activation of words which are not actually in the input. All spoken-word recognition involves multiple concurrent activation of word candidates, with selection of the correct words achieved by a process of competition between them. L2 listening involves more such activation than L1 listening, and we report two studies illustrating this. First, in a lexical decision study, L2 listeners accepted (but L1 listeners did not accept) spoken non-words such as groof or flide as real English words. Second, a priming study demonstrated that the same spoken non-words made recognition of the real words groove, flight easier for L2 (but not L1) listeners, suggesting that, for the L2 listeners only, these real words had been activated by the spoken non-word input. We propose that further understanding of the activation and competition process in L2 lexical processing could lead to new understanding of L2 listening difficulty. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Opticks is an open source project that integrates the NVIDIA OptiX GPU ray tracing engine with Geant4 toolkit based simulations. Massive parallelism brings drastic performance improvements with optical photon simulation speedup expected to exceed 1000 times Geant4 with workstation GPUs. Optical physics processes of scattering, absorption, scintillator reemission and boundary processes are implemented as CUDA OptiX programs based on the Geant4 implementations. Wavelength-dependent material and surface properties as well as inverse cumulative distribution functions for reemission are interleaved into GPU textures providing fast interpolated property lookup or wavelength generation. OptiX handles the creation and application of a choice of acceleration structures such as boundary volume hierarchies and the transparent use of multiple GPUs. A major recent advance is the implementation of GPU ray tracing of complex constructive solid geometry shapes, enabling automated translation of Geant4 geometries to the GPU without approximation. Using common initial photons and random number sequences allows the Opticks and Geant4 simulations to be run point-by-point aligned. Aligned running has reached near perfect equivalence with test geometries.


Support Vector Machines (SVM) are widely used as supervised learning models to solve the classification problem in machine learning. Training SVMs for large datasets is an extremely challenging task due to excessive storage and computational requirements. To tackle so-called big data problems, one needs to design scalable distributed algorithms to parallelize the model training and to develop efficient implementations of these algorithms. In this paper, we propose a distributed algorithm for SVM training that is scalable and communication-efficient. The algorithm uses a compact representation of the kernel matrix, which is based on the QR decomposition of low-rank approximations, to reduce both computation and storage requirements for the training stage. This is accompanied by considerable reduction in communication required for a distributed implementation of the algorithm. Experiments on benchmark data sets with up to five million samples demonstrate negligible communication overhead and scalability on up to 64 cores. Execution times are vast improvements over other widely used packages. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm has linear time complexity with respect to the number of samples making it ideal for SVM training on decentralized environments such as smart embedded systems and edge-based internet of things, IoT.


In this paper we are interested in the problem of book splitting or more generally of indexing the logical parts of a document. This involves determining the boundaries of these parts as well as their label. We report here on the combined use of generic methods published in previous papers. We discuss the effect of combining several methods, also from a quality assurance perspective. Our experiments ground on real case studies of technical documents, such as books of specifications.


Earnings management has its inevitability as it can provide more information for the accounting information users so that they can understand the meaning of accounting earnings better. This paper mainly focuses on the causes of earnings management from two aspects: Economics and Accounting. Finally, the paper offers some suggestions on how to standardize earnings management.


Mesoscale eddies play a significant role in marine energy transport, marine biological environment and marine climate. Due to their huge impact on the ocean, mesoscale eddy detection has become a hot research area in recent years. Therefore, more and more people are entering the field of mesoscale eddy detection. However, the existing detection methods mainly based on traditional detection methods typically only use Sea Surface Height (SSH) as a variable to detect, resulting in inaccurate performance. In this paper, we propose a mesoscale eddy detection method based on multivariate fusion data to solve this problem. We not only use the SSH variable, but also add the two variables: Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and velocity of flow, achieving a multivariate information fusion input. We design a novel symmetric network, which merges low-level feature maps from the downsampling pathway and high-level feature maps from the upsampling pathway by lateral connection. In addition, we apply dilated convolutions to network structure to increase the receptive field and obtain more contextual information in the case of constant parameter. In the end, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our method on dataset provided by us, achieving the test set performance of 97.06% , greatly improved the performance of previous methods of mesoscale eddy detection.


ABSTRACT A 66-year-old woman presented with agrammatism and apraxia of speech, meeting criteria for non-fluent/agrammatic variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA). However, three years later, she developed frontal/executive, short-term phonological memory, visuospatial, and visual memory deficits suggesting involvement of multiple brain networks. Multimodal neuroimaging showed damage of both fronto-striatal and posterior brain regions. She was found to have multiple pathological processes: corticobasal degeneration (CBD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), and TAR DNA-binding protein (TDP)-43 type A. We hypothesize that cognitive and neuroimaging findings consistent with damage to multiple brain networks, each associated with vulnerability to certain molecular disease subtypes, could indicate mixed pathology.


At present, the fruit picking in most countries still largely relies on manual operation. Manual fruit picking can protect the fruits from damage during the operation process. However, it is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and poses a potential safety risk to the workers while working at heights not reachable. Therefore, a variety of fruit picking machines and platforms have been developed and incorporated into fruit production to improve the fruit picking efficiency. However, they are very costly in manufacturing and frequently cause damages to fruit during the fruit picking process. Recently various relatively simple mechanical fruit picking devices have been designed and developed as an alternative for these automatic fruit-picking systems to reduce the manufacturing costs. These devices have been used in fruit production. However, they still have some shortcomings such as poor portability and complex operation. They also lack mechanisms sufficient to avoid damages to fruit to ensure fruit appearance and quality.This study was to invent a portable and convenient mechanical tool that could be used in combination with manual operation for fruit picking. A portable scissors-type fruit picking device has been developed, which has two hinged levers designed to drive the closure of the shear blades at the top of fruit picking bowl to cut the fruit pedicel, achieving rapid and safe fruit picking. The portable scissors-type fruit picking device invented here is an innovation, with a purely mechanical design that has the advantages of ingenious design, simple structure, good portability, ease of operation, and low costs of use. This device is suitable for large-scale application in the field of fruit picking in many countries.


It seems obvious that economic growth should reduce poverty, yet the issue remains controversial. Some scholars assert that economic growth does not eliminate poverty and may exacerbate the problems of the poor (United Nations 1997). For example, Dreze and Sen (1990) claim that economic growth does not generate benefits in terms of numerous nonpecuniary measures of well-being. Calls for increased government spending (Squires 1993) or other redistributions of wealth (Todaro 1997) are the logical extension of the argument that growth does not ensure the elimination of poverty. Todaro (1997) labels the contention that growth actually reduces poverty as the "trickle-down theory." In the less than idealized state of affairs, there is not even a "trickle" downward. Simply put, general economic progress does not "improve the levels of the very poor" (Todaro 1997: 155). In fact, some development economists contend that the "growth processes" typically "trickle-up" to the middle classes and "especially the very rich" (Todaro 1997: 163). A largely unexamined issue is the impact of the relative wealth of the rich and poor on the level of well-being. There is a substantial literature that asserts that improving the incomes of the poor has a greater effect on the average level of well-being in a country than on improving the incomes of the rich (Todaro 1997). That proposition, however, has not been exhaustively examined, and more careful analysis constitutes an important research agenda. Wealth Distribution and Poverty The first question regarding the relationship between the rich and the poor can be examined by estimating the relation of the incomes of the poor and rich to each other. For example, we can estimate the following equations: (1) [Y.sub.ip] = [alpha] + [[beta].sub.r][Y.sub.ir] + [[epsilon].sub.i] (2) [Y.sub.ir] = [alpha] + [[beta].sub.p][Y.sub.ip] + [[epsilon].sub.i], where [Y.sup.p] and [Y.sub.r] represent the per capita incomes of the poor and rich, respectively, and [[beta].sub.p] and [[beta.sub.r] represent "class income transfer" coefficients. The [beta]s show the proportionate increase in one group's per capita GDP as a function of the other group's per capita GDP. For example, [[beta].sub.r] represents the change in the income of the poor attributable to the change in the income of the rich. If trickle-down is true, [[beta].sub.r] should be positive. If trickle-up is true, the coefficient should be negative. In estimating equations 1 and 2, there is the potential problem of additional variables that conceivably also affect incomes. Variables that are important are examined in Barro and Sala-I-Martin (1995), and include human capital, institutions, and other variables. Presumably, those influences are reflected in the income of the other class. Thus, the only required additional variables would be variables often omitted in cross-national growth equations. The most conspicuous variables are geographic. Many of the poor countries of the world are located in tropical environments and are landlocked. Sachs (1997), Sachs and Warner (1997), and Sowell (1994) argue that these factors are especially debilitating for human well-being. Landlocked countries are often isolated from commercial practices, ideas and innovations, and market enhancing institutions. Tropical countries frequently experience diseases, lack of sanitation, and famine. Those conditions threaten the inhabitants' survival, adversely affect incomes, and perpetuate poverty. Finally, Lucas (1988) argues that urban economies entail higher productivity than rural economies because of externalities attributable to more productive human capital. The second question regarding trickle-down is more direct and entails the relationship between poverty and the relative incomes of the poor and rich. Consider a simple model of the average level of human poverty (HP) in a country: (3) H[P. …


This study is an attempt to read Evelyn Underhill's Mysticism: The Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness, her premier work on mysticism, through the hermeneutical lens of dialecticism and sublimity. The book constitutes a documentation of Underhill's extensive investigation into the field of mysticism with a prominent attention given to Christian mysticism. By combining a reliance upon the testimonies of Christian mystics and the philosophical meditations of some eminent thinkers, with a definition of mysticism as fundamentally a profound relationship between the self and God as infinite reality, Underhill deftly constructs a theoretical edifice that preserves the distinctiveness of Christian mysticism while appealing to the rational sensibilities of those seeking a more non-sectarian, universal mysticism. Notwithstanding the developed and variegated intellectual histories of the concepts of the dialectic and the sublime, I have selected the dialectics of Hegel, and Kant's aesthetic theory of the sublime as most suitably capable of illuminating the many valuable features significant to mysticism as well as addressing two important questions that arise from some of these features. One question concerns the nature of apparently contradictory statements in the writings of mystics, and another is connected to the uniqueness of mystical experiences. While the theme of dialecticism helps with responding to the former question, plausible answers to the latter question are derivable from a comparative analysis of mystical and sublime experiences as analogues. A salient component of Underhill's Mysticism is her detailed exposition of the stages of mystical development as gleaned through her familiarity with the vast collection of mystical literature. My study is divided into two main divisions. The first division consists primarily of an endeavour to delineate a metaphysical structure that underpins the general notion of mystical relationship as a transformative one between the finite self and infinite being. The second division delves into discussions revolving around relevant ideas that pervade each of the five stages of mystical development. Throughout these divisions, the frames of Hegel's dialectics and Kant's theory of the sublime will be applied to areas amenable to such interpretive analysis. It is the hope of this research that, from it, some enlargement of scholarship in mysticism in general as well as Underhill studies in particular will ensue. Moreover, from a discourse that engages mysticism, dialecticism, and sublimity, a greater appreciation of the apparently paradoxical mystical vocabulary that seemingly lacks rational justification can possibly emerge. A strange harmony lurks between that which is open to rationalization and that which hides from the peering gaze of reason. Is it any wonder that the more a mystic complains about the ineffability of her experience the more she writes about it?


Physics-based character animation has seen significant advances in recent years with the adoption of Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL). However, DRL-based learning methods are usually computationally expensive and their performance crucially depends on the choice of hyperparameters. Tuning hyperparameters for these methods often requires repetitive training of control policies, which is even more computationally prohibitive. In this work, we propose a novel Curriculum-based Multi-Fidelity Bayesian Optimization framework (CMFBO) for efficient hyperparameter optimization of DRL-based character control systems. Using curriculum-based task difficulty as fidelity criterion, our method improves searching efficiency by gradually pruning search space through evaluation on easier motor skill tasks. We evaluate our method on two physics-based character control tasks: character morphology optimization and hyperparameter tuning of DeepMimic. Our algorithm significantly outperforms state-of-the-art hyperparameter optimization methods applicable for physics-based character animation. In particular, we show that hyperparameters optimized through our algorithm result in at least 5x efficiency gain comparing to author-released settings in DeepMimic.


In 1947 John von Neumann had the idea of converting ENIAC to the new style of programming first described in his celebrated "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC." By April 1948, Nick Metropolis, building on plans developed by Adele Goldstine and others, had implemented the conversion, making ENIAC the first computer to execute programs written in the new style, which we call the "modern code paradigm." Treating this as a case of user-driven innovation, the authors document the conversion process and compare capabilities of the reconstructed machine to those of the first modern computers. This article is the second in a three-part series. The first article, "Reconsidering the Stored Program Concept" (published in IEEE Annals, vol. 36, no. 1, 2014; http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MAHC.2013.56), examined the history of the aforesaid idea and proposed a set of more specific alternatives. The third, "Los Alamos Bets on ENIAC: Nuclear Monte Carlo Simulations, 1947-1948" (to appear in IEEE Annals, vol. 36, no. 3, 2014; http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MAHC.2013.56), will examine in detail the first program run on the machine after its conversion to the new programming method.


Summary
Infection of chicken embryonic heart, lung and liver cells with parainfluenza 1 and 3 viruses revealed that the most susceptible (S) cell is the heart cell and the least susceptible (LS) cell is the liver cell. The results of these experiments are similar to observations where the S and LS cell for another paramyxovirus, mumps virus, were also cultivated from the chicken embryonic heart and liver, respectively.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of reliable leadership and Job crafting on customer orientation and service recovery performance in Sepah Bank in Khuzestan province. The present research is practical in terms of purpose and is descriptive survey research in terms of research method. Research data using a standard integrated questionnaire to measure reliable leadership variable with 16 items of standard questionnaire of Walumbwa et al. (2008), to measure customer-oriented performance variable with 7 items of Dimitriadis standard questionnaire (2007) to measure performance variable Service retrieval with 5 items of the standard questionnaire of Babakos et al. (2003) and to measure the variable of Job crafting with 21 items of the standard questionnaire of Thames et al. (2012) were collected in the form of Likert scale. The statistical population of the study was 605 employees of Sepah Bank in Khuzestan province, which according to Cochran's formula, 235 people randomly formed the volume of the research sample. Cronbach's alpha of the numerical value of this coefficient for the standard questionnaire was generally 0.835. SPSS and AMOS statistical software were used for an inferential analysis of research data. The results showed that, given that the critical ratio is equal to 4.486, which is more than 1.96, reliable leadership has a positive effect on customer orientation; also, given that the critical ratio is 2.646, we conclude that reliable leadership has a positive effect on service recovery performance; given that the critical ratio is 6.158,


906 Murine NIH-3T3 cells are poorly infected by mammalian reovirus but support productive infection upon cell transformation by H-Ras(G12V), leading to the idea that reovirus could be used as an "oncolytic" virus. It was initially believed that the inhibition of cellular interferon-inducible RNA-dependent protein kinase, PKR, was responsible for increased permissivity of Ras-transformed cells to reovirus. Other data later suggested an enhanced uncoating of the virions, due to increased levels of lysosomal proteases in transformed cells. Literature data also indicate that Ras activation is neither sufficient nor necessary for productive reovirus infection, depending on the cell types. --- Additional studies are thus needed to better comprehend the cellular and viral factors that ultimately determine the ability of reovirus to productively infect "normal" and/or "transformed" cells. --- A mutant reovirus (P4L-12) was previously isolated in our laboratory, based on increased sensitivity of this virus to interferon and on its better ability to discriminate between parental and Ras-transformed NIH-3T3 cells. Another mutant (SC1-PV) was obtained from persistently-infected murine fibroblasts; this virus requires only low levels of proteases to be uncoated, compared to the wild type virus. Our recent sequencing data revealed that both mutant viruses exhibit amino acid substitutions in their σ3 protein. This is consistent with the known importance of σ3 in the virus' ability to be uncoated, as well as accumulating evidence suggesting the central role of σ3 in determining reovirus' susceptibility to PKR. Mutant and wild-type viruses were used to infect a panel of murine and human cell lines; viral titers were then determined by TCID50 and plaque assays. Interestingly, both mutant viruses can infect cell lines that are relatively resistant to the wild type virus due to inefficient uncoating in these cells. Furthermore, the infectivity of P4L-12 was either unaffected or even slightly decreased by prior chymotrypsin treatment, while infectivity of wild type and SC1-PV was increased, as judged by virus titer and viral plaque size. However, P4L-12 was strongly restricted in cells that produce and respond to interferon, and thus this virus does not form plaques on these cells. We also observed a correlation between the ability of a given cell line to form colonies in soft agar and its ability to support reovirus replication, rather than a correlation with the Ras activation status of the cells. --- Altogether, our data thus support the idea that cellular factors affecting reovirus replication are complex and linked to pathways leading to cellular transformation. We further suggest that viral strains should be chosen or manipulated to optimize their oncolytic potential. The σ3 protein appears as the most likely viral factor to be involved in modulating the virus' ability to replicate in different normal or transformed cell types.


ABSTRACT Effective interprofessional collaboration is a required competency for all health professionals including physiotherapists. Little is known about new graduate physiotherapists' self-efficacy and readiness for interprofessional collaboration. A sequential mixed-methods design was used to examine and explore (a) new graduate self-efficacy and (b) new graduate perception of the role and influence of curricular activities on their readiness for interprofessional collaboration. New graduate physiotherapists completed a self-efficacy measure based on the Interprofessional Care Core Competencies Global Rating Scales, and semi-structured interviews were undertaken and subjected to framework analysis. 150 surveys were completed (response rate 91%). Less than one quarter of all participants agreed or strongly agreed that they were confident in relation to all interprofessional competencies. New graduates attributed their self-efficacy to being directly exposed to interprofessional collaboration in a clinical setting during their placement year. The results demonstrate that new graduate physiotherapists have high self-efficacy communicating with other professionals and understanding their roles, however they have low self-efficacy with interprofessional conflict resolution and providing feedback to others. This study has implications for supporting new graduates in practice, and for preparing physiotherapy students for interprofessional collaboration.


Diversed types of fossil leaf impressions have been collected in abundance on reddish-pinkish clay from the Chui Hill, Jabalpur Formation of Satpura Basin. The flora has dominance of conifers followed by bennettitales and pteridophytes, e.g., Elatocladus jabalpurensis, Elatocladus sp., Brachyphyllum jabalpurensis sp. nov., Pagiophyllum chawadensis, Araucarites minutes, Satpuria sehoraensis, Taeniopteris spatulata, Ptilophyllum cutchense and Anomozamites sp. These taxa are commonly found in Early Cretaceous floral assemblages of India. The floral assemblage is compared with other contemporaneous deposits of Satpura and South Rewa basins.


Reliable and efficient perception in dynamic environments especially in densely cluttered environments is still a challenge today. Most of the systems used for target tracking are based on object models. Such approaches usually fail in complex environments with a variety of different moving obstacles. In this report, we propose a new non object based model to perform tracking in such environments. The approach is called Bayesian Occupancy Filtering (BOF). It basically consists of regular grids where each cell contains information on the distribution on the grid occupancy and velocity. The cells are assumed to be independent from one another to avoid combinatorial explosion. The estimation of cell occupancy and cell velocity are performed in a manner similar to classical filtering, where there is a prediction and estimation stage. Sensory data from different sensors can be fused onto BOF cells and since cells are independent from one another, the notion of physical objects does not exist in this space. Doing so avoids the problem of data association which have to be often resolved in object based tracking systems. This report describes how the filtering is performed on this grid space in the context of target tracking. The disadvantage of tracking in grid space is when the cells move with a velocity which results in a cell position that does not end in only one single cell. A proposed method of handling such discretisation by staggering the updates of the cell such that cells are updated only when the fit is perfect. This corresponds to the intuitive notion of updating cells with higher velocity at a higher frequency. Such attention focusing enables the reduction of computation burden.


This article problematizes cultural studies' recent return to the "thing," assessing the archive's position in research work. I draw on my experience of consultation of the surviving records of the Lord Chamberlain's theater censorship office in order to demonstrate that the archive's seductive charms often serve to conceal its flaws. This archive's undeniable allure obscures the contingency of its construction, its destructive powers, and the way in which its contents remain vulnerable to interpretative violence. These observations are measured against the metaphorical and theoretical frameworks which continue to condition our approach to the archive, coming to rest at the place where the procedures and concerns of psychoanalysis overlap with those of archaeology. I conclude that any study of this archive requires both a theoretical redefinition of the concept of the archive and the introduction of a rigorous ethical framework which foregrounds the interpretative investment of the researcher.


Asparagus acutifolius L. (wild asparagus) is an edible plant species that is widely distributed throughout the Mediterranean. This study was designed to investigate the phenolic compounds, antioxidant, and cytotoxic activities of ethanol and water extracts of different parts (fruits and leaves) of A. acutifolius. The antioxidant activities of these extracts were analyzed using scavenging methods (DPPH and ABTS scavenging activity), the β-carotene/linoleic acid test system and the phosphomolybdenum method. Among the evaluations of the ethanol and water extracts of the different parts of A. acutifolius, the ethanol extract of the leaves was shown to have the highest amount of radical scavenging activities (DPPH, 0.383 mg/mL and ABTS, 0.145 mg/mL). Each extract of A. acutifolius exhibited strong antioxidant capacities with the β-carotene/Linoleic acid test system. For the phosphomolybdenum method, the antioxidant capacity of the extracts was in the range of 8.89-45.29 µg/mg and each extract exhibited high cytotoxic activities. The results will provide additional information for future studies on the biological activities of A. acutifolius, while also helping us to understand the importance of this species.


CoSn is a Pauli paramagnet with relatively flat d-bands centered about 100 meV below the Fermi energy Ef. Single crystals of CoSn lightly doped with Fe, In, or Ni are investigated using x-ray and neutron scattering, magnetic susceptibility and magnetization, ac susceptibility, specific heat and resistivity measurements. Within the rigid band approximation, hole doping with a few percent of Fe or In should move the flat bands closer to Ef, whereas electron doping with Ni should move the flat bands further away from Ef. We provide evidence that this indeed occurs. Fe and In doping drive CoSn toward magnetism, while Ni doping suppresses CoSn's already weak magnetic response. The resulting ground state is different for Fe versus In doping. For Fe-doped crystals, Co1-xFexSn, with 0.02 < x < 0.27, the magnetic and specific heat data are consistent with the formation of a spin glass, with a glass transition temperature, Tg, ranging from 1 K for x=0.02 to 10 K for x= 0.27. Powder and single crystal neutron diffraction found no evidence of long-range magnetic order below Tg with x = 0.17. For In-doped crystals, CoSn1-yIny, both the magnetic susceptibility and the Sommerfeld coefficient, gamma, increase substantially relative to pure CoSn, but with no clear indication of a magnetic transition for 0.05 < y < 0.2. CoSn crystals doped with Ni (Co0.93Ni0.07Sn) have a significantly smaller magnetic susceptibility and gamma than pure CoSn, consistent with the flat bands further from Ef.


Abstract This paper integrates the sequence stratigraphic and tectonic data related to the Neogene geodynamic and palaeogeographic development of the African-Iberian plate boundary zone between Spain and Morocco. Though the dating of individual tectonostratigraphic sequences and their delimiting sequence boundaries varies in accuracy and precision, their apparent correlation strongly suggests contemporaneous development of the Betic and Rif basins. This may likely be attributed to regional changes of the overall compressional intra-plate stress field. This, in turn, was governed by coeval plate-kinematic changes related to the ongoing collisional convergence of Africa and Iberia. The Neogene succession is characterised by brief tectonic pulses that governed the sequence stratigraphic development of the Betic-Rif basins (NBR phases). It broadly correlates with the coeval sequences in the compressional foreland basins and extensional rift basins in front of the collisional Alpine and Pyrenean orogens (CRF phases). These regionally correlatable basinal deformation events indicate that stress-related episodic changes at the African-Iberian plate-boundary zone resulted in an essentially direct cause-and-effect relationship between the tectonostratigraphic evolution of Neogene basins in northern African (Morocco), southern Europe (Spain) and western Europe (France, Switzerland, Germany).


An 84-year-old man with hypertension and type 2 diabetes presented with recurrent transient loss of consciousness within 2 hours after dinner at home. Physical examination, electrocardiogram, and laboratory studies were unremarkable except hypotension. Blood pressures were measured in different postures and within 2 hours after meal, but neither orthostatic hypotension nor postprandial hypotension was detected. Further, history taking revealed that the patient was tube-fed with a fluid food pump with an inappropriate rapid infusion rate of 1500 mL per minute at home. He was eventually diagnosed as having syncope due to postprandial hypotension, which was caused by the inappropriate way of tube feeding. The family was educated about appropriate way of tube-feeding and the patient did not develop any episode of syncope during a two-year follow-up. This case highlights the importance of careful history taking in the diagnostic evaluation of syncope and the increased risk of syncope due to postprandial hypotension in the elderly.