The fundamentals characterizing agricultural commodity prices have often been debated in research and policy circles. Building on limitations in the existing literature, the present study conducts an integrated test and empirically analyses the international price of palm and soybean oil from 1960(1) to 2016(8). For this purpose the univariate Structural Time Series Model based on the state space framework is applied. This approach allows flexibility to model complex stochastic movements, seasonality, cyclical patterns and incorporate intervention analysis. Estimation is based on the Maximum Likelihood method via the Kalman Filter. The results establish that both series exhibit a stochastic long term trend punctuated by multiple breaks. The findings also uncover the presence of cyclicality which results in price swings of varying duration and amplitude. The model works well as a description of oilseed prices and improves awareness of their separate structural components. These are fundamental to design country and commodity specific policy strategies and respond to volatile market conditions. The results underscore that contrary to previous price spikes most of the drivers of the mid 2000s price spikes are structural and on the demand side. These new drivers in oilseed markets suggest the possibility of fundamental change in price behaviour with longer-lasting effects.


Anthony Atkinson Anaesthetist . Melbourne. VIC A day in the life of an anaesthetist . I am bending to peer at the security panel, whose numbers, if correctly keyed, will allow me to enter the changing room. From behind, a voice says, " Com e and see me Tuesday. 1 can improve that vision and introduce you to my new laser machine." 1nod. Later 1am removing my coat and shirt when a surgeon, who is also undressing, spots a large lump on my back. It and 1 have lived together happily for years. He presses, prods, pinches and pummels, and diagnoses a lipoma. "Does it hurt?" "It does now." Present is a cosmetic surgeon with whom 1 also work. He too suggests that my appearance could be improved by the removal of the bags under my eyes. 1 don't tell him that I've been up half the night giving anaesthetics. An orthopaedic surgeon, not well known for his communication skills, sees me limping. He merely draws an indelible cross on my left hip. 1 bolt to the tinkling safety of the toilet. Pause, tinkle, tinkle, pause .. . When 1 emerge 1 find myself sharing the washbasin with a friendly urologist. "T U R, T U R", he sings to the tune of the ABC jingle that makes me want to demand the return of my eight cents a day. "How many times do you get up at night?" "Three", 1 say, " but two of those ar e to let the dog out." He seems disappointed . Back in the changing room 1 am removing my trousers when a vas cular su rgeon , fitting in a sm oke between cases, spots a bulging saphenous vem. "That needs stripping" , he says. "Come in on Tuesday." 1 hurriedly pull my trousers up as a colorectal surgeon puts his head around the door. "I need an anaesthetist next week." "How about Tuesday?" 1 am quick to reply. 1. Kennedy DS. Spinabifida [editorial). MedJAust 1998; 169: 182-183. 2. Marsack CR, Alsop CL, KurinczukJJ, Bower C. Pre-pregnancy counselling for the primary prevention of birth defects: rubella vaccination and folate intake [published erratum inMad J Aust 1996; 165: 130J.Med J Aust 1995; 162: 403-406. 3. Bower C, Blum L, Watson C, Stanley F. Folate and the prevention of neural tube defects: a health promotion project in Western Australia. Health Promotion International 1996; 11: 177-187. try are marketed by an American company, and she hopes that"... local companies will develop the vision to playa role in public health, and adopt voluntary food fortification policies". As a matter of interest, the first two breakfast cereal products fortified with folate available on the Australian market were Sanitarium ~etbix and Uncle Toby's Lite Start both made by Australian-owned companies. We concur with Kennedy in the hope that many more will follow suit.


This study investigated how older adults adopted new technologies in response to sudden social isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and how this adoption was related to their long-term psychosocial well-being. The study involved a 6-month longitudinal survey of 151 older adults and two phone-based focus groups, which informed a semi-structured interview guide and purposive sampling of diverse community-dwelling older adults. We then conducted twenty qualitative interviews and thematic analysis and mapped themes to 6-month quantitative trajectories of psychosocial health. Three themes emerged: first, most participants adopted multiple technologies to maintain social connection and psychosocial well-being. Second, participants felt left behind by certain technologies due to complicated systems or ageist societal norms. Third, pandemic-related community resources promoted technology independence among isolated older adults and those wanting to avoid "burdening" family. Results challenge ageist stereotypes and provide a framework for encouraging access and comfort with multiple technologies to adapt to sudden health crises or disruptive events.


Haul dumptruck is a heavy-duty vehicles which is used to haul the overburden from loading point to disposal area. Haul dumptruck is driven by operators who have a high enough workload risk, especially on mental activity. The purpose of this study was to learn the correlation between mental workload with fatigue complaints of PT. MKP haul dumptruck operators at PKP2B PT. Mandiri Intiperkasa Site Krassi, Tarakan, Kalimantan Utara.
      This research was an analytic observational research with cross sectional design. The Sample of this research was 110 PT. MKP haul dumptruck operators at PKP2B PT. Mandiri Intiperkasa Site Krassi. The Variables of this research were individual factors (age, gender, and years of service), mental workload, and fatigue complaints. The data were analyzed by spearman correlation test to analyze the correlation between variables.
      The results showed 50% of haul dumptruck operators were 35-44 years old, 100% male, and 32.7% had 7-10 years of service. Most of haul dumptruck operators (58.2%) had very high mental workload levels and 68.2% was having low-grade fatigue complaints. The significant ρ value of the spearman test between mental workload and fatigue complaints was 0,400, while the correlation coefficient value was -0,081.
      The conclusion of this reasearch indicated that there was not a significant correlation between mental workload and fatigue complaints on haul dumptruck operators. Recommendation for the company are forming a labor unions, fixing cottage rest areas, giving co-worker when haul dumptruck operators complain of fatigue and mental workload on high level, and maintainin-developing a fatigue management as well as raising workers' awareness on its application.


Pasteurella multocida is one among the potent pathogen, which possess the ability to cause a range of pathogenic diseases in zoonotic organisms such as chicken, swine, cattle etc. Currently many research studies convey that there is a potential relationship between P. multocida infections to leukemia. Leukemia is the condition of cancer which is characterised by the increased number of White Blood Cells. There is paucity of knowledge about Etiology of Pasteurella multocida infections associated Leukemia and its earlier detection by genetic markers.


Background: Antonovsky's concept of ''sense of coherence'' (SOC) has been shown to be related to health. The aim of this study was to describe the distribution of SOC scores and their components in an adult Swedish population aged 20—80 years. Methods: A random sample of 910 individuals from Jönköping, Sweden, aged 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 and 80 years, of which 589 agreed to participate in an oral health examination. The participants answered Antonovsky's 13-item version of ''the life orientation questionnaire scale''. The response to the items and the distribution of the three components of comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness were analyzed for different age groups and genders using mean values and standard deviations, Student's t-test and ANOVA. Results: A total of 526 individuals, 263 men and 263 women, answered all 13 questions and constituted the final material for the study (response rate 89%). The individual SOC score increased with age. The 20 year olds had a statistically significantly lower SOC score compared with the other age groups and 55% of them had a low SOC (≤66 points) compared with 17% of the 80 year olds. Men in the 60 and 70 year age groups had a statistically significantly higher SOC score compared with women of the same age. Conclusions: The individual distribution of SOC varied with age and gender. Twenty year olds had a significantly lower SOC score compared with elderly age groups. Elderly men had a statistically significantly higher SOC score compared with women of the same age.


Metformin-associated lactate acidosis is rare but serious and characterized by metabolic acidosis and elevated lactate. We describe a single-institution experience of four cases in one year. Despite pH levels of 6.85 to 7.12 and lactate levels of 11-28 mmol/l three of the patients survived. Two of the patients had normal kidney function previous to hospitalization. Treatment includes fluid replacement, IV sodium bicarbonate and haemodialysis.


There are many methods to treat keratoacanthoma. Surgical excision is the treatment of choice for majority of keratoacanthoma. However, significant cosmetic defects can result if large or cosmetically important location are involved. Intralesional therapy with 5-fluorouracil, bleomycin, methotrexate or interferon- α has been shown to be effective in treatment in these cases. We report a case of keratoacanthoma on nasal ala with extension to nasal cavity resolved in 3 weeks after treated with intralesional methotrexate after 2 injections. We concluded that intralesional methotrexate is a simple and effective treatment for solitary giant keratoacanthoma. It offers greater efficacy, more rapid course, decreased pain and lower cost compared with other intralesional agents and deserves recommendation.


The use of helicopters for maintenance on live overhead transmission lines has become a realistic option. The helicopter blades, body and working platform can be seen as creating an incomplete Faraday cage, which may be an enhancement to live-line worker safety. This paper simulates the condition using a Faraday cage which can be dismantled, in a controlled laboratory environment to ascertain the effectiveness of apparatus.


The current paper presents an overview of the poetic texts of Gabriel Jan Mincewicz (1938–2016) (PhD in the field of humanities, branch of theology). Merits of Gabriel Jan Mincewicz as the director of the song and dance ensemble "Wileńszczyzna" are emphasized. The poetic works of G. J. Mincewicz were divided into several thematic groups, among them the cultural determinants of the Polish identity and the linguistic image of the homeland were analyzed. The works were discussed in the sacred, historical, social, and linguistic contexts. The article emphasizes as well the social impact that G. J. Mincewicz's songs have on the society of Vilnius region.


Background: Little is known about the community management of hypertension among different gender, age, even though much of the long-term treatment takes place within primary care. Nowadays, guideline of W.H.O 2003 for hypertension management still the most actual in practice of health care today, but in some point there are no clear recommendations. Aim: Our aim was to determine whether important gender, age exist in the primary care management of hypertension. Methods: A 41 cases-history were taken from the therapeutic department of scientific practical medical center of Kharkov state medical university from September to December 2011. Informative and detailed history was obtained concerning hypertension and its complication, concomitant disease and essential demographic data, received different classes of antihypertensive treatments [thiazides, &bgr;-blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, calcium channel blockers];and received other cardiovascular protective treatments like cholesterol lowering drug (mainly nicotinic acid) and/or antiplatelet. Results: Compared with males, females hypertensive patients were more likely received an ACE inhibitor (56%), diuretics (44%),and slightly more to receive calcium channel blocker (21.9%patients received this drug) and &bgr;-blockers (46.9% patients received this drug), and equally to receive sartans (12.5%patients received this drug). Elderly hypertensive patients were more likely to receive ACE inhibitor + thiazide, younger patients were more likely receive &bgr;-blockers and or ACE inhibitor, and few patients were received only antiplatelet and sedative and antihyperlipidemic. Conclusions: Thus, as a result of our study it has been showed that age and gender is important in the choice of antihypertensive treatment in the therapeutic hospital. So, we need to develop a new and different strategies guideline for hypertension patients according to age and gender because women hormonal changes affect blood pressure control.


The objectives of this study is to examine consumer's perception towards green issues, to examine factors that influence green purchasing intention and to examine factors related to usage of recycle bags. The respondents in this study comprised of 170 university students. The study reflects that young Malaysian customers displayed positive attitudes towards environmental protection issues and usage of recycling bags. "Perceived environmental responsibility" dimension, recognized as the top predictor of green purchasing intention followed by "Social influence". The third most important predictor is "Concern for self-image". It is recommended that future research should utilize a larger sample size and enlarge the study scope to include other countries in order to compare their attitude towards green issues and green purchasing behaviour.


MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been demonstrated that play a critical role in tumorigenesis. The aim of this study is to identify the functional role of miR-378 in cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to measure the expression levels of miR-378 in human CCA tissue samples and CCA cell lines. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was established, and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was calculated to estimate the capacity of miR-378 in distinguishing CCA patients with different TNM stages. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox regression assay were performed to explore the prognostic value of miR-378. Cell proliferation capacity was assessed by MTT assay. Cell migration and invasion were identified by Transwell assays. miR-378 was significantly elevated in CCA tissues when compared with adjacent normal tissues, and in CCA cell lines compared to HIBEC cells. And we found that the expression of miR-378 was significantly associated with TNM stage (P= 0.030) and lymph node metastasis (P= 0.018). ROC curve analysis result showed miR-378 could distinguish CCA patients with TNM stages III and IV from those with stages I and II, with the AUC was 0.816. Patients with high expression of miR-378 had a shorter overall survival rate (Log-rank P= 0.030). The miR-378 was proven to be an independent prognostic predictor for the CCA patients (HR = 1.735, 95% CI = 1.007-2.988, P= 0.041). Downregulation of miR-378 could inhibit cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. These results indicated that miR-378 function as an oncogene and promote CCA cells proliferation, migration, and invasion. The miR-378 could be a novel prognostic marker for CCA.


High-rate data communication over a multipath wireless channel often requires that the channel response be known at the receiver. Training-based methods, which probe the channel in time, frequency, and space with known signals and reconstruct the channel response from the output signals, are most commonly used to accomplish this task. Traditional training-based channel estimation methods, typically comprising linear reconstruction techniques, are known to be optimal for rich multipath channels. However, physical arguments and growing experimental evidence suggest that many wireless channels encountered in practice tend to exhibit a sparse multipath structure that gets pronounced as the signal space dimension gets large (e.g., due to large bandwidth or large number of antennas). In this paper, we formalize the notion of multipath sparsity and present a new approach to estimating sparse (or effectively sparse) multipath channels that is based on some of the recent advances in the theory of compressed sensing. In particular, it is shown in the paper that the proposed approach, which is termed as compressed channel sensing (CCS), can potentially achieve a target reconstruction error using far less energy and, in many instances, latency and bandwidth than that dictated by the traditional least-squares-based training methods.


Many analysts point out that in recent years, to maintain its steady economic growth, China has been carrying out farsighted plans to strengthen its control of natural resources in the world, especially in the energy sphere. The article examines joint projects of China, Russia, and Kazakhstan in the energy field and how advantageous they are for our country.


The goal of this study was to examine sources of variation in the utilities assigned to health states. The authors selected a common clinical problem, carcinoma of the rectum, and examined the utilities assigned to colostomy, a common outcome of treatment for that disease. After preparing and validating a description of colostomy and its effects on patients' lives, utilities for the state were obtained from five groups of individuals. These comprised two groups of patients who received treatment for rectal cancer, a group of physicians and surgeons specializing in the treatment of this disease, and two groups of healthy subjects, none of whom were health professionals. Of the patients who had been treated for rectal cancer, one group had been treated surgically with the formation of colostomies and the other had been treated with radiotherapy and none had a colostomy. Utilities for colostomy were elicited using the standard gamble, category rating, and a treatment choice question naire. The groups differed substantially in the utilities assigned to colostomy. In general, patients with colostomies and physicians assigned significantly higher utilities than did pa tients who did not themselves have a colostomy. The clinical significance of these differences was examined in a simplified clinical decision problem that compared surgery (with colostomy) and radiotherapy (without colostomy) as primary treatment. The expected clinical value of these treatment alternatives was substantially influenced by the differences observed in utilities for colostomy. These results emphasize the importance of patient utilities in clinical decision making and the need to gain greater understanding of the factors that influence the utilities that patients assign to health states. Key words: utilities; decision analysis; oncology. (Med Decis Making 1990;10:58-67)


Abstract Global warming is often predicted to increase damage to plants through direct effects on insect herbivores. However, the indirect impacts of rising temperatures on herbivores, mediated through interactions with their biotic environment, could dampen these effects. Using a series of reciprocal density experiments with gravid females and developing nymphs, we examined interspecific competition between two coexisting phloem feeders Nilaparvata lugens (BPH) and Sogatella furcifera (WBPH), on rice at 25 and 30°C. WBPH performed better (i.e. adults survived longer, nymphs developed faster and grew larger) at 25°C and BPH (i.e. nymphs developed faster) at 30°C. However, contrary to predictions, WBPH had a greater effect in reducing oviposition and nymph performance in BPH at 30°C. A decoupling of resource use by WBPH and its antagonistic effects on BPH at the higher temperature suggests that WBPH feeding induces host defences that reduce BPH fitness (i.e. interference competition). Meanwhile, BPH facilitated WBPH oviposition at 30°C and facilitated WBPH nymph performance at 25 and 30°C. Greater facilitation of feeding in WBPH nymphs by BPH at high densities suggests that mechanical damage and host responses to damage increased the fitness of the heterospecific nymphs. Although BPH also facilitated egg‐laying by WBPH, intra‐ and interspecific crowding countered this facilitation at both temperatures. Simulated life tables for planthoppers at 25 and 30°C depicted significantly lower offspring numbers on rice infested by WBPH alone and from mixed BPH‐WBPH infestations than from infestations by BPH alone. Our results indicate how interference competition—mediated through host plant defences—can increase ecosystem resilience to the warmer temperatures predicted under global climate change. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.


This paper tackles the problem of using formal methods for practical real-time system development and verification, and is based on a real example. Many formal methods for real-time systems have been proposed but this technique (AORTA) is one of the few to address the issue of how formal designs are to be implemented. Earlier papers on AORTA have been based on providing the formal semantics of the language, and on particular aspects of implementation or verification. This paper concentrates on setting AORTA within the development life cycle, and demonstrating that the approach can be adopted for non-trivial examples.


BACKGROUND
Isotretinoin (13-cis retinoic acid) is used for treatment of nodular cystic acne unresponsive to conventional therapy. It is an expensive, potent teratogenic drug with serious adverse drug reaction (ADRs). Recently, use of this drug has increased in Iran. To date, there are no published data about the use of isotretinoin in Iran; therefore, this study aims to assess its use in this country.

METHODS
This was a prospective, drug utilization evaluation (DUE) study conducted in an institutional community pharmacy affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS). Drug prescription, administration, and evaluation of appropriateness were recorded and compared with standard protocols. Collected data were analyzed by SPSS software.

RESULTS
A total of 274 outpatients treated with isotretinoin enrolled in the study. Of these, 51.3% were prescribed isotretinoin under the usual recommended daily doses of 0.5mg/kg/day. Data also indicated that 33.5% of the patients were given total doses of less than 100 mg/kg (72.4 ± 17.2 mg/kg) and 12.2% received more than 150 mg/kg. With regards to the teratogenic effects of isotretinoin, only 6.8% of couples simultaneously used two methods of contraception (P = 0.001). In addition, we detected improper use of isotretinoin for mild and moderate acne in about 20% of cases.

CONCLUSION
The most important finding of this study is that the doses of isotretinoin are incorrect in many cases. Incorrect dosages would decrease drug efficacy and increase the risk of relapse. In addition, patients have not been adequately counseled about isotretinoin's teratogenicity and the seriousness of its adverse effects.


Here, intelligence is taken to mean scores from psychometric tests of cognitive functions. This essay describes how cognitive tests offer assessments of brain functioning—an otherwise difficult-to-assess organ—that have proved enduringly useful in the field of health and medicine. The two "consequential world problems" (the phrase used by the inviters of this essay) addressed in this article are (i) the ageing of modern societies (and the resulting increase in the numbers of people with ageing-related cognitive decrements and dementias) and (ii) health inequalities, including mortality. Cognitive tests have an ubiquitous place in both of these topics, i.e., the important fields of cognitive ageing and cognitive epidemiology, respectively. The cognitive tests that have sprouted in these fields are often brief and not mainstream, large psychometric test batteries; I refer to them as 'irregulars'. These two problems are not separate, because results found with mental/cognitive/intelligence tests have produced a growing understanding that intelligence and health have a reciprocal, life-long relationship. Intelligence tests contribute to the applied research that is trying to help people to stay sharp, stay healthy, and stay alive.


This study investigated the relationship between five teaching styles and emotional intelligence among 102 Iranian English instructors from different universities in Tehran, Iran. To this end, the data were obtained through two phases of quantitative and qualitative data collection. To achieve quantitative data, the participants were asked to fill in two questionnaires, including the Teaching Styles Inventory (version 3.0) and the Emotional Intelligence Scale. The second phase of data collection was performed through collecting qualitative data by conducting a semi-structured interview on 10 English instructors. To analyze quantitative data, multiple regression analyses were run. Likewise, the qualitative data was analyzed through data reduction process in order to realize the instructors' attitudes toward the different aspects of teaching styles and to find out to what extent their attitudes were similar to one another. The results demonstrated that among various teaching styles, including expert, formal authority, personal model, facilitator, and delegator, merely the delegator style had statistically significant association with emotional intelligence. Furthermore, the relationship between personal model style and emotional intelligence was considerable, though not statistically significant. The findings and their implications are fully discussed.


Recent theoretical studies predict that structural disorder, serving as a bridge connecting a crystalline material to an amorphous material, can induce a topological insulator from a trivial phase. However, to experimentally observe such a topological phase transition is very challenging due to the difficulty in controlling structural disorder in a quantum material. Given experimental realization of randomly positioned Rydberg atoms, such a system is naturally suited to studying structural disorder induced topological phase transitions and topological amorphous phases. Motivated by the development, we study topological phases in an experimentally accessible one-dimensional amorphous Rydberg atom chain with random atom configurations. In the single-particle level, we find symmetry-protected topological amorphous insulators and a structural disorder induced topological phase transition, indicating that Rydberg atoms provide an ideal platform to experimentally observe the phenomenon using state-of-the-art technologies. Furthermore, we predict the existence of a gapless symmetry-protected topological phase of interacting bosons in the experimentally accessible system. The resultant many-body topological amorphous phase is characterized by a Z_{2} invariant.


Composing Web services is a convenient means of dealing with complex requests. However, the number of Web services on the Internet is increasing. This explains the growing interest in composing Web services automatically. Nevertheless, the Web services' semantics is necessary for any dynamic composition process. In this article, we present an MDA approach to develop and compose SAWSDL semantic Web services. To model Web services, we use a UML profile which is independent of the description standards. The SAWSDL interface files are generated by using transformation rules. To model the behavior of a composite Web service and generate its executable BPEL file, we use the BPMN notation in a platform of modeling and implementing business process. The main contribution of this work is the easy and extensible solution to a model-driven development of the semantic atomic and composite Web services.


Leading Finnish telecom research institutions, IDC and VTT, and local industry are starting a new large research project to study the data security of mobile technologies and services in and beyond 3G. Six research areas are included. Radio engineering focuses on parasitic radiation from portable devices and data cables and unwanted coupling through antennas. Field programmable gate arrays are the subject of the second hardware theme which concentrates on linear cryptanalysis and biometric recognition. The goal of the third hardware group is to study data security in optical transport network equipment. The aim of the fourth sub-project is encryption in commercial and military frameworks. This area has two subtopics, studying the security of standard 3G algorithms and of newer cryptographic algorithms with respect to their implementability in 3G. Sub-project five deals with security aspects of the Ubik software architecture. The main objective is to track what kind of security support is required to enable versatile multimedia services and business. Finally, the business aspects related to digital rights management solutions supporting mobility are covered.


Abstract We studied breeding bird communities in extensive bottomland hardwood forests along the lower Roanoke River in North Carolina during 1992 and 1993. We documented a rich avian community and recorded exceptionally high densities of two species (Prothonotary Warbler Protonotaria citrea, Acadian Flycatcher Empidonax virescens), as well as modest densities of three species rarely encountered elsewhere in the region (Cerulean Warbler Dendroica cerulea, Swainson's Warbler Limnothlypis swainsonii, American Redstart Setophaga ruticilla). The effects of patch size and edge on bird abundance were small in this forested landscape, but forest type had a large effect. We found half of the species analyzed to differ in abundance between the two primary habitat types, swamp forest and levee forest. In contrast, no species was consistently more abundant at patch interiors than near edges, and only two forest birds were more common in large compared with small patches. Species analyzed included permanent residents, short-distance migrants, Neotropical migrants, and those identified as forest-interior and area-sensitive species in other studies. Our results suggest that the Roanoke River bottomland forests may be functioning effectively as a reserve for a number of bird species.


When we examine the problems of involuntary admissions, CRPD (the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities-2006) must be considered within the context of the problems. The principle of the convention is based on enjoyment of legal capacity of persons with disabilities. So, it is necessary to recognize the relation and the contradiction between disease-disorder-disability spectrum and capacity-ability spectrum. The two spectrums have been developed after the Second World War with development of societies of the world. Author presents the recognition of involuntary admissions of Japan. So, Japanese psychiatry must select the road to community psychiatry to solve the problems.


The solution of noisy nonlinear optimization problems with nonlinear constraints and derivative information is becoming increasingly important, as many practical applications can be described by this type of problem in e.g., engineering applications. Existing local optimization methods show good convergence properties. However, they often depend on sufficiently good starting points and/or the approximation of gradients. In turn, global derivative free methods, which need no starting values to be initialized, require many evaluations of the objective function, particularly in the vicinity of the solution. A derivative free optimization algorithm is developed that combines advantages of both local and global methods. The DIRECT algorithm, which is often used for problems where no prior knowledge is available as kind of a brute force start, is extended by an inner loop using a surrogate based optimization method. The local search on the surrogate function determines better candidates for sampling than the hypercube center points chosen by DIRECT, especially if constraints are arising. This inner loop needs no additional evaluation of the original problem. Standard test problems and a computational more expensive test problem are chosen to show the performance of the new algorithm.


This thesis describes work carried out in the Mining Department of the Royal College of Science and Technology, Glasglow, during an investigation into disturbances in the mine ventilation circuit caused by single cage winding. Finding with a single cage instead of two smaller balanced cages had a very noticeable effect on the ventilation of a North of England colliery and the substance of a report by the Area ventilation staff, describing these effects, is included in the thesis in order that these effects may be more clearly understood. The colliery, the ventilation of which is described in the report, is Ryhope colliery and is referred to in the thesis as colliery R. The investigation described in the report was, naturally very limited in scope, due to the small number of factors which could be varied, so it was decided to construct a model in which the effects could be simulated, and in which more factors could be varied. The considerations influencing the design of the model are explained and the model is described. The methods of measurement used and the instruments involved are described, and tests which were performed to assess the limitations of the pressure recorded are included, together with the conclusions to which they lead. The tests carried out on the model fall into two groups. The first is concerned with the pressure drop produced by the cage, and the factors which affect it. The second deals with the effects on the ventilation systems of communicating this pressure drop to the large volume of air contained in the underground workings. The tests in each group are described in full and the conclusions are drawn. Having described in the work connected with the model the thesis then deals with theoretical methods of predicting the effects. The investigation leading to the method used is fully explained and the method is given in detail. Many examples have been solved using the method and the results and conclusions have been given. An alternative method of solution is indicated and its advantages and limitations discussed. In the conclusions an assessment is made of the phenomenon in the light of the knowledge which has been gained from both actions of the work. All factors which may influence the effects are considered and their relative merits discussed. The limitations of the present investigation are indicated and suggestions are made as to how the work may be extended.


In this work, we present quasi-monostatic Radar Cross Section measurements of different Unmanned Aerial Vehicles at 26-40 GHz. We study the Radar Cross Section signatures of nine different multi-rotor platforms as well as a single Lithium-ion Polymer battery. These results are useful in the design and testing of radar systems which employ millimeter-wave frequencies for superior drone detection. The data shows how radio waves are scattered by drones of various sizes and what impact the primary construction material has on the received Radar Cross Section signatures. Matching our intuition, the measurements confirm that larger drones made of carbon fiber are easier to detect, whereas drones made from plastic and styrofoam materials are less visible to the radar systems. The measurement results are published as an open database, creating an invaluable reference for engineers working on drone detection.


The environmental factors affecting flavonoid biosynthesis and accumulation from Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba L.) plants in production plantation settings is investigated to maximize their production.
Objectives: To develop an understanding of the environmental factors (temperature and available soil moisture and their inter-relationship) affecting flavonoids biosynthesis and accumulation in Ginkgo leaves for selection, development, and production purposes for commercial production.
Methods: A factorial experiment (temperature: 15/5, 25/15 and 35/25°C (day/night) and soil moisture: 55-60, 40-45 and 30-35% of field capacity) using 2-year-old Ginkgo seedlings to estimated flavonoids content and their expression level in leaves sampled 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50days using high performance liquid chromatography and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) of seven flavonoid biosynthesis-related genes, respectively.
Results: Flavonoid accumulation was significantly higher under lower temperature (15/5°C) and available soil moisture (40-45 and 30-35%) while it was severely suppressed under high temperature. qRT-PCR indicated that flavonoid biosynthesis differed greatly among the studied genes with some genes being up-regulated under lower or higher temperature and/or moisture.
Conclusion: Total flavonoid content was greatly affected by temperature and soil moisture content and their biosynthesis varied among the studied genes suggesting the presence of a synergistic effect on the expression of genes within the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway. The results contributed to the understanding of the environmental factors needed for the successful production of flavonoid from Ginkgo leaves harvest plantations.


The emerging discipline of pharmacogenetics (PGx) has the goal of aiding the selection of effective therapies and personalized dosing, decreasing the likelihood of adverse drug reactions and optimizing resource utilization. Simultaneously, the rapid evolution of economically feasible genetic testing technologies has resulted in a raft of commercial entities that provide genetic data to providers for use with their complex patients. The adoption of pharmacogenomics in psychiatry is growing, but it is limited by several factors, including the limitless permutations of drugs, comorbid conditions and concomitant medications and provider understanding of phenomena such as phenoconversion. We established an expert PGx consultation service for psychiatric providers who utilize our commercial PGx assay. To date, this service has provided ∼16,000 consults with extremely high levels of satisfaction; in an anonymous survey, 96% of respondents reported a rating of "very helpful" or "extremely helpful".


Electrolyte and renal hemodynamic imbalance, acute interstitial nephritis with nephrotic-range proteinuria, papillary necrosis, tubular necrosis, and vasculitis are complications after intake of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID). We report on 2 cases of biopsy-proven granulomatous interstitial nephritis with rapidly progressing renal insufficiency. Patient 1 was on ketoprofen for 7 months and indomethacin for 10 weeks before admission to hospital. The medication was not discontinued and renal insufficiency progressed to end-stage renal failure. Renal function did not respond to steroid and tuberculostatic treatment. Patient 2 was on diclofenac for 6 months and indomethacin for 7 weeks before admission to hospital. These drugs were withdrawn at diagnosis and renal function rapidly improved. We conclude that granulomatous interstitial nephritis may be a complication of NSAID medication indicating a cell-mediated immunologic disorder. False diagnosis (sarcoidosis, tuberculosis) may lead to end-stage renal disease (case 1). Discontinuation of medication obviates further therapy (case 2).


Background: Major depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders worldwide, inflicting suffering, significant reduction in life span, and financial burdens on families and society. Mounting evidence implicates that exposure to chronic stress can induce the dysregulation of the immune system, and the activation of brain-resident innate immune cells, microglia, leading to depression-like symptoms. However, the specific mechanisms need to be further elucidated. Method: Animal models of depression were established by chronic restraint stress (CRS), and depression-like behavior was assessed by sucrose preference test (SPT), open field test (OFT), tail suspension test (TST) and forced swimming test (FST). Microglial activation was visualized by immunofluorescent and immunohistochemical staining, and microglial morphological changes were further analyzed by skeleton analysis. The levels of inflammatory cytokines were detected by western blotting and qPCR. Result: Microglial Dlg1 knockout ameliorates CRS-induced mice depression-like behavior. In contrast to the effect of Dlg1 in the LPS-induced mouse model, Dlg1 knockout had little effect on microglial density, but significantly decreased the number of activated microglia and reversed microglia morphological changes in mice challenged with CRS. Moreover, the upregulation of inflammatory cytokines following CRS exposure was partially reversed by Dlg1 deletion. Conclusion: Our study provides the evidence that Dlg1 ablation in microglia remarkedly reverses microglial activation and depression-like behavior in mice exposed to CRS, implicating a potential target for the treatment of clinical depression.


In this paper, the design and implementation of a systematic process for students outcomes (SO) assessment in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) program at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) in Oman is described. Unlike most programs aiming for ABET accreditation, the process is based on a collective and acquiescent approach that involves most of the program faculty members: All Faculty members take part in the assessment of SOs pooled among selected program courses, while a majority of faculty members take part in the evaluation process. For this end different group of faculty members have been formed namely: Student Outcomes Champions composed of 11 faculty members each of those is coordinating an SO focus group. Each SO focus group is composed of three to four members that coordinate the evaluation of one SO. Moreover for each course, course focus groups composed of three to four members are formed to take the responsibility of implementing the recommendations on the respective courses.


The choice of colloid or crystalloid solutions for fluid resuscitation of critically ill patients remains controversial. Marked reduction of extracellular water is considered an important defect in shock by proponents of crystalloid fluid therapy. Large volumes of crystalloid replenish this extracellular deficit. Hypovolemia is regarded as the primary defect in shock by those favoring colloid fluid therapy. Colloidal fluids promptly restore plasma volume and reestablish hemodynamic stability with substantially lesser volumes of fluid. However, only 8% of infused water and less than 25% of infused saline are retained in the intravascular fluid compartment after 1 h. On the other hand, almost the entire volume of iso-oncotic colloid is retained with the intravascular space after 1 h. Hypertonic saline decreases intracellular fluid volume. Hyperoncotic colloid decreases both interstitial and intracellular fluid volumes as it disproportionately expands intravascular volume. The choice of fluid is not only contingent on the restoration of intravascular volume, the rapidity with which it is accomplished and the duration of its effect, but also on the adverse effects that follow fluid resuscitation. This is of greatest moment in the fluid resuscitation of patients in whom circulatory shock follows volume depletion. Crystalloid fluid repletion which requires between 2- and 4-fold as much volume as colloidal fluid is of little risk in the young, traumatically injured patient. However, in older patients, the risk of pulmonary edema is increased.


In terms of the numbers of examinees involved, test repetition is a significant phenomenon in standardized admission testing. Although it is readily acknowledged that those who repeat admissions tests are a self-selected group of test takers, there are continuing questions about the bases on which examinees decide to retake a test.

Through a survey of examinees who had repeated the GRE General (Aptitude) Test, this study documents some of the factors involved in GRE test takers' decisions to repeat the test and examines the relationships of these factors to test score changes. Implications are drawn for advising examinees who contemplate retaking the GRE as well as graduate admissions staff who are confronted with multiple test scores.


1 The effects of the naturally occurring neurosteroid tetrahydrodeoxycorticosterone (THDOC) on GABAA receptor‐mediated miniature, spontaneous and evoked IPSCs was tested using patch‐clamp techniques in slices of hippocampus and cerebellum from rats at two developmental stages (≈10 and ≈20 days postnatal). The cells studied were hippocampal granule cells and cerebellar Purkinje and granule cells. 2 Most miniature GABAergic currents (mIPSCs) decayed with two exponentials and neurosteroids caused a ≈4‐fold increase in the decay time constant of the second exponential at the highest concentration used (2 μm). Similar effects were seen at high concentrations of THDOC (1‐2 μm) in all cell groups tested. No effects were seen on amplitude or rise time of mIPSCs. 3 The effects of THDOC (1 μm) were shown to be stereoselective and rapidly reversible, indicating that the neurosteroid binds to the GABAA receptor, rather than acting genomically. 4 At concentrations of THDOC likely to occur physiologically (50‐100 nm), the decay time of IPSCs was also enhanced (25‐50 %) in all cerebellar cell groups tested. In contrast, at 100 nm THDOC, seven of 11 hippocampal granule cells were sensitive from the 10 day group but the 20 day hippocampal granule cells showed no significant enhancement in the presence of these lower concentrations of THDOC. 5 The differences in sensitivity of hippocampal and cerebellar cells to THDOC are compared to data reported in the literature on regional development of expression of different receptor subunits in the brain and it is suggested that the progressive relative insensitivity of the 20 day hippocampal cells may depend on increasing expression of the δ subunit of the GABAA receptor and possibly an increase in the α4 subunit.


Abstract Crisis is normally conceived of as an isolated period of time in which our lives are shattered. It defines the loss of balance and the inability to control the exterior forces influencing our possibilities and choices. The phenomenon is seen as a temporary disorder, a momentary malformation in the flow of things. Yet, for a great many people around the world crisis is endemic rather than episodic and cannot be delineated as an aberrant moment of chaos or a period of decisive change. For the structurally violated, socially marginalised and poor, the world is not characterised by balance, peace or prosperity but by the ever-present possibility of conflict, poverty and disorder. In this introductory article I examine the social and experiential consequences of chronic crisis and investigate how it challenges and furthers our analytic apparatus. Instead of placing crisis in context I argue that we need to see crisis as context – as a terrain of action and meaning – thereby opening up the field to ethnographic investigation.


Ageing is often described as a crisis. It brings about a rupture with a previous balance. Physical activities can enable people to adapt to growing old as a dynamic process of self-investment. They are also methods of non-medication treatment for Alzheimer's and related diseases. Wandering, so frequent in patients suffering from cognitive disorders, would appear to signify the importance of movement as a principle of returning to the body and preverbal functionality.


Introduction: Inspite of the fact that the medical students have a greater awareness about a healthy lifestyle; their academic stress to perform well may poorly affect their pattern of physical activity and thus, compromise their overall health. Aim: To assess the level of physical activity among undergraduate medical students studying in various institutions across the state of Bihar and to evaluate the Metabolic Equivalent Task (MET) score so as to measure the intensity of physical activity performed by the participants. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among the undergraduate students, studying in different medical colleges across Bihar, India. An Online Google Form was created using a short version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). The collected data was analysed using Stata (Version 13) software. Results were presented as frequencies, mean and standard deviation. Chi-square test was applied to test for significant association at 0.05 level of significance. To identify the predictors of physical activity, multiple logistic regression analysis of the data was done. Results: A total of 1200 students participated in the study. Among these, 64.3% were males and 35.7% were females. More than half of the participants (57.6%) were aged <21 years. Majority of the participants (67.7%) had normal weight followed by overweight/obese (22.8%). Approximately, half of the participants (54.4%) reported availability of gym in their campus and only 26.7% of the participants were following regular routine of physical exercise. Maximum students under the study were residing in the hostel (89.4%); who were reaching college mainly by walking (74.8%), {OR=17.5 (12.9-23.5)}. On multivariate analysis; Body Mass Index (BMI), age, having an availability of gym in the campus and following a regular routine of physical exercise were found to be significant predictors of physical activity. Conclusion: In present study, the majority were sufficiently physically active. However, the low physical activity was observed among the overweight/obese participants is a distressing fact which may reflect the need to integrate the physical education electives in the curriculum


This paper offers a preliminary investigation of the interconnection between identity, translingualism and split-self in the non-fictional production of Jhumpa Lahiri, a Bengali American author, focusing in particular on her In altre parole (2015), a text originally written in Italian. Moving across languages and cultures, Lahiri interrogates her own sense of identity by considering the nodes of tradition and transformation, in particular through her crucial translingual practice, thus shifting away from English and adopting Italian as a professional literary language. The outcome is a hybrid text that can be approached via the notion of "split self" (Emmott 2002), i.e. the plural manifestations of consciousness in its various expressive forms. The investigation will be conducted by applying an interdisciplinary approach that integrates the methodological tools and frames of postcolonial studies, narratology and cognitive poetics.


The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report was published in 1999. This article reviews the impact of the Report on agency responses to racially motivated crime and hate crime over the last ten years. While there have been improvements arising from implementation of the Report's recommendations, there have equally been unintended outcomes, including: compliance with the Report as a superficial measure of performance; media ridicule of its underlying principles; and unanticipated inversions of the common pattern of white perpetrators and black and minority ethnic (BME) victims. In order to do justice to the tenets of the Report, agencies need to fully understand its intent and locate the tackling of racially motivated crime and hate crime within a broader social justice agenda.


Inland valleys (IVs) in West African countries have increasingly been used for crop production, including rice cultivation. Though it is widely assumed that IVs have a high potential to contribute to food security of West African countries, a comprehensive assessment of farming systems addressing agricultural, institutional, food security, poverty, and ecosystem indicators is still lacking. This study characterizes IVs' smallholder farm households at the regional and farm type level using Rural Household Multiple Indicator Survey (RHoMIS) data collected from 733 randomly selected farm households in four agro-ecological regions, i.e., Bouaké and Gagnoa in Cote d'Ivoire, and Ahafo Ano North and Ahafo Ano South in Ghana. A farm typology is developed, and farm households are characterized with regard to demographic, agricultural, economic, and institutional indicators. Furthermore, farm households' food security and poverty status, and the importance of rice in the portfolio of crops, is assessed. Finally, farmers' awareness of different ecosystem services (ES) for their food security is examined. Four farm types are identified, i.e., farmers who rent all the land cultivated, farmers who own some land and rent extra land, farmers who own and cultivate all their land, and farmers cultivating only a part of the land they own. We find that the variation in farm households' demographic, economic, and institutional characteristics is greater between regions than within regions. Crop production, either for direct consumption or marketing, especially rice production, is the main contributor to daily energy intake, followed by wild food consumed. Still, a substantial percentage of the farm households (16–38%) in all regions cannot meet minimum daily energy requirements. Farmers of all farm types, and in all regions, attach high relevance to IVs' provisioning ES, particularly the ability to provide food. A majority of farmers in all regions highlighted the relevance of regulating ES, including climate regulation, water storage, and groundwater values for their wellbeing. In contrast, farmers attached relatively lower relevance to cultural ES. Interventions to improve national rice production need to acknowledge and preserve the diversity ES that IVs provide to smallholder farm households.


In the present paper, we address the problem of automatically synthesizing component abstractions by taking into account the level of observability of the system as well as restrictions on its operating conditions. Compared with previous work, the proposed approach can be applied to a significantly wider class of systems, namely those whose nominal and faulty behaviors can be modeled with finite-domain relations.The computed abstractions are specifically tailored for the Model-Based Diagnosis task, with the main goal of getting fewer and more informative diagnoses through the use of abstract models. To this end, we define a spectrum of indiscriminability relations among the states of subsystems, and formally prove that respecting indiscriminability is both a necessary and sufficient condition for abstracting the original model without losing any relevant diagnostic information.We present an algorithm for the computation of abstractions that implements two specially important cases of indiscriminability, namely local and global-indiscriminability. The implemented system is exploited to collect experimental results that confirm the benefits of using the abstractions for diagnosis, in terms of both the number of returned diagnoses and the computational cost.


We consider a collection of robots sharing a common environment, each robot constrained to move on a roadmap in its configuration space. To program optimal collision-free motions requires a choice of the appropriate notion of optimality. We work in the case where each robot wishes to travel to a goal while optimizing elapsed time and consider vector-valued (Pareto) optima. Earlier work demonstrated a finite number of Pareto-optimal classes of motion plans when the robots are subjected to velocity bounds but no acceleration bounds. This paper demonstrates that when velocity and acceleration are bounded, the finiteness result still holds for certain systems, e.g., two robots; however, in the general case, the acceleration bounds can lead to continua of Pareto optima. We give examples and explain the result in terms of the geometry of phase space.


It is well known that the activities of the lysosomal cysteine proteinases are tightly regulated by their endogenous inhibitors, cystatins. Here we report a new inhibitor of cysteine proteinases isolated from sea anemone Actinia equina. The inhibitor, equistatin, is an acidic protein with pI 4.7 and molecular weight of 14,129. It binds tightly and rapidly to cathepsin L (k a = 5.7 × 107 m −1 s−1, K i = 0.051 nm) and papain (k a = 1.2 × 107 m −1 s−1,K i = 0.57 nm). The lower affinity for cathepsin B (K i = 1.4 nm) was shown to be due mainly to a lower second order association rate constant (k a = 0.04 × 106 m −1 s−1). The inhibitor is composed of 128 amino acids forming two repeated domains with 48% identity. Neither of the domains shows any sequence homology to cystatins, but they do show a significant homology to thyroglobulin type-1 domains. A highly conserved consensus sequence motif of Cys-Trp-Cys-Val together with conserved Cys, Pro, and Gly residues is present in major histocompatibility complex class II-associated p41 invariant chain, nidogen, insulin-like growth factor proteins, saxiphilin domain a, pancreatic carcinoma marker proteins (GA733), and chum salmon egg cysteine proteinase inhibitor. In each of the domains of the equistatin, the three residues are similarly conserved, and the sequences Val-Trp-Cys-Val and Cys-Trp-Cys-Val are present in domains a and b, respectively. We suggest that equistatin belongs to a new superfamily of protein inhibitors of cysteine proteinases named thyroglobulin type-1 domain inhibitors. This superfamily currently includes equistatin, major histocompatibility complex class II- associated p41 invariant chain fragment, and chum salmon egg cysteine proteinase inhibitor.


The theory and practice of revolutionary social transformation, Bruce Brown argues, cannot rest content with the exclusive emphasis of traditional Marxism on world-historic processes and the struggle of the working classes for their collective emancipation. This means to discover how capitalist rule becomes internalized in individuals who suffer not only from economic and political oppression, but also from forms of specifically psychological oppression that any revolutionary worthy of the name must address. Toward this end of reconciling the personal and the political, the author surveys not only the lessons learned in the New Left during the 1960s, but also the contributions of critical Marxists who have sought to reconstitute Marxism as a critique of everyday life through a critical assimilation of Freudianism into the broader structure of historical materialism.


The Time Transfer by Laser Link (T2L2) experiment has been developed in close collaboration between Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales and Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur. The aim is to synchronize remote ultra-stable clocks over large-scale distances using two laser ranging stations. This ground to space time transfer has been derived from laser telemetry technology with dedicated space equipment designed to record arrival time of laser pulses on board the satellite. For 3 years, specific campaigns have been organized to prove T2L2 performance. In April 2012, we performed a 2-week campaign with our two laser ranging stations, Métrologie Optique and French Transportable Laser Ranging Station, to demonstrate the T2L2 time transfer accuracy in co-location. We have compared three independent time transfer techniques: T2L2, GPS, and direct measurement, with both an event timer and an interval counter. The most important result obtained in this campaign was a mean agreement between T2L2 and a direct comparison better than 200 ps. This is the first major step to validate the uncertainty budget of the entire T2L2 experiment. This paper focuses on this campaign setup and the obtained results.


Authenticated key agreement protocol is the fundamental building block for secure communication in the open network to ensure authentication and confidentiality of e-Commerce and e-Government applications. Certificateless public key cryptography combines the advantage of the identity-based public key cryptography ID-PKC) and the traditional PKI. In this paper, we present a secure and efficient two-party authenticated key agreement protocol based on an efficient and secure certificateless public key encryption scheme. It achieves almost all the known security attributes for authenticated key agreement protocol, such as perfect forward secrecy, PKG forward secrecy, key-compromise impersonation resilience, unknown key-share resilience, message independence and no key control. Compared to other comparable schemes, it is more secure and has nice efficiency.


Solid particle erosion at room and elevated temperatures of filled and unfilled hot-cured epoxy resin using an anhydride hardener were experimentally tested using an accelerated method on a special bench. Micro-sized dispersed industrial wastes were used as fillers: fly ash from a power plant and spent filling material from a copper mining and processing plant. The results showed that the wear of unfilled epoxy resin significantly decreases with increasing temperature, while the dependence on the temperature of the wear intensity at an impingement angle of 45° is linear and inversely proportional, and at an angle of 90°, non-linear. The decrease in wear intensity is probably due to an increase in the fracture limit because of heating. Solid particle erosion of the filled epoxy compounds is considerably higher than that of unfilled compounds at impingement angles of 45° and 90°. Filled compounds showed ambiguous dependences of the intensity of wear on temperature (especially at an impingement angle of 45°), probably as the dependence is defined by the filler share and the structural features of the samples caused by the distribution of filler particles. The intensity of the wear of the compounds at impingement angles of 45° and 90° has a direct and strong correlation with the density and the modulus of elasticity, and a weak correlation with the bending strength of the materials. The data set for determining the correlation between the mechanical properties and the wear included compound filling characteristics and temperature.


Femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy was combined with photoelectron-photoion coincidence detection to investigate the electronic structure and dynamics of isolated adenine (A) and thymine (T) dimers and the adenine-thymine (AT) base pair. The photoelectron spectra show that pipi* and npi* states are only weakly perturbed in the hydrogen-bound dimers as compared to the monomers. For cationic base pairs with internal energies greater than 1 eV, we observed considerable cluster fragmentation into protonated monomers. This process selectively removed signals from the npi* --> n-1 ionization channel in all dimers. The photoelectron spectra are compared to time-resolved mass spectra and confirm the assignment of short-lived pipi* and npi* populations in the adenine, thymine, and mixed AT dimers.


Current regulation plays an important part in the protection of solid-state drives operating from stiff voltage sources. Certain types of pulsewidth modulated (PWM) inverters, however, are not directly suited for peak or average output current regulation with induction motor loading. It is established in the paper that the typical output voltage response times of defined voltage waveform PWM inverters are 1) too high for peak output current regulation, and 2) too low for average output current regulation---i.e., for stable current regulation, the control system must limit the rate of inverter output voltage reduction. Inverter voltage control requirements and inverter deratings necessary to implement average output current regulation are presented. Experimental results from a 15-hp bread-board are included.


A solution of Einstein's equations obtained previously by the author, representing a cylindrically symmetric rigidly rotating perfect fluid of finite radius, is matched to a vacuum exterior using the stationary vacuum metric derived by Lewis. Two forms of the Lewis metric are required, depending on the range of a parameter s. The boundary matching conditions employed are those of Lichnerowicz. The matching process is outlined and the properties of the exterior metric are presented in some detail. These provide, according to the model, significant results concerning the physical and geometric consequences of rigid mass rotation in general relativity.


Abstract : Accurate methods are presented for estimating the acoustic loading, structural response, and fatigue life of military aircraft structures. This report presents over sixty tables, 110 charts and nomographs, five computer programs and forty worked examples illustrating the use of the different methods. These results stem from a review and evaluation of over 300 references related to the various topics associated with sonic fatigue. This report is organized into independent sections with the subject classification allowing for ease of identification and future extension as required. Sufficient detail is provided so that the entire handbook stands as an independent source of sonic fatigue design data.


The paper combines insights from the recent research programs on constitutions and economic policy, and on history, institutions and growth. Drawing on cross-sectional as well as panel data, it presents new empirical results showing that the form of democracy (rather than democracy vs. non-democracy) has important consequences for the adoption of structural polices that promote long-run economic performance. Reforms into parliamentary (as opposed to presidential), proportional (as opposed to majoritarian) and permanent (as opposed to temporary) democracy appear to produce the most growth-promoting policies.


To most Palestinians, 1948, the year of al-Nakba, is the formative year of their lives. This is true irrespective of age, background, or occupation, or whether the person is a refugee or not, or lives in Palestine or the diaspora. On this fiftieth anniversary of al-Nakba, JPS asked a number of Palestinians of different generations and walks of life to write short pieces on what this event has meant to them. In JPS9s letters of invitation, the "guidelines" suggested were to avoid political and historical analysis in favor of personal reflections. The following are the results.


We performed experiments to study the effects of electrolytic lesions of periaqueductal gray matter on mean blood pressure, heart rate, and cardiac baroreflex in adult male spontaneously hypertensive rats. Cardiac baroreflex was assessed by the administration of randomly assigned doses of phenylephrine (0.3 to 5.0 micrograms/kg i.v.) or sodium nitroprusside (1.5 to 5.0 micrograms/kg i.v.) to unanesthetized rats. Bilateral lesions of the periaqueductal gray matter (0.5 mA/5 s) were then performed with rats under sodium pentobarbital anesthesia (35 mg/kg i.p.). Twenty hours after lesion, cardiac baroreflex was retested. Baroreflex data were analyzed by sigmoidal curve fitting. Lesion rats (n = 12) showed a significant decrease in both the gain (delta = -0.89 +/- 0.38 beats per minute [bpm]/mm Hg, P < .05) and curve midpoint (delta = -15 +/- 6 mm Hg, P < .05) of the cardiac baroreflex. Moreover, despite a moderate increase in heart rate (delta = 34 +/- 10 bpm, P < .01), resting mean blood pressure was significantly decreased 24 hours after the lesions (delta = -19 +/- 5 mm Hg, P < 01). No significant changes in cardiac baroreflex were observed in sham-lesion rats (n = 12). Histological examination showed circumscribed bilateral damage of dorsolateral periaqueductal gray matter. Dorsolateral periaqueductal gray matter is an area of the brain putatively related to fear and anxiety. It also projects onto premotor sympathetic neurons in the medulla. Although electrolytic lesions damage neurons as well as fibers of passage, these data suggest that dorsolateral periaqueductal gray matter has a far greater influence on resting cardiovascular control in spontaneously hypertensive rats than was previously suspected.


Background and Aims:  The chemical composition and sensory properties of smoke-affected grapes and wine has been the subject of several recent studies. However, while this research has addressed early knowledge gaps surrounding the effect of smoke on grapes and wine, to date, no practical solutions that mitigate the incidence or severity of smoke taint have been reported. The current project therefore aimed to identify winery processing methods that minimise the sensory impact of smoke taint in wine.

Methods and Results:  Different winemaking techniques were used to process smoke-affected grapes, i.e. cold maceration, the use of different yeast strains for primary fermentation and the use of oak and tannin additives. The extent of smoke taint in the resulting wines was determined by quantification of volatile phenols using GC-MS, followed by descriptive sensory analysis.

Conclusions:  Applied winemaking practices showed significant impacts on reducing the negative implications of smoke exposure on the chemical composition and sensory properties of wines. Winery processing methods that reduced skin contact time enhanced fruit character, produced wines with reduced 'smoke' aromas and flavours and less apparent taint. Selected yeast strains can be used as a tool for altering smoke-related aromas, flavours, colour and chemical composition of wines. The addition of oak chips and tannin enhanced the complexity of wines thereby reducing the perception of smoke-related attributes.

Significance of the Study:  These findings will enable winemakers to make more informed decisions when processing smoke-affected grapes, in order to minimise the severity of smoke taint perception in resulting wine.


Introduction: Differences in neonatal insulin sensitivity/
resistance markers due to the maternal impaired
glucose tolerance (IGT) have not been tested. The
Healthy Eating Index (HEI) score has been employed for
evaluating pregnancy diet quality.
Aims: To study, the effect of neonatal insulinemia,
maternal IGT and diet HEI score upon insulin sensitivity/
resistance at birth.
Methods: 176 singleton, normoweight, full-term, Caucasian
Spanish neonates, delivered without fetal distress
whose mothers were screened for gestational IGT were
studied. Quantitative Insulin Sensitivity Check Index
(QUICKI) and Homeostatic Model Assessment (HOMAIR)
were calculated. Diet followed during the third month
of pregnancy was recorded and the respective HEI score
calculated in a sample of 29 mothers.
Results: As quartile for cord blood insulin levels
increased, glucose, the insulin/cortisol ratio and HOMA-IR
(all p < 0.001) and IGF-I (p < 0.01) increased while QUICKI
and the glucose/insulin ratio (both p < 0.001) and GH (p <
0.05) decreased. Neonates from IGT mothers had higher
insulin, HOMA-IR (both p < 0.01) and insulin/cortisol ratio
(p < 0.05) and lower GH, QUICKI (both p < 0.01) and glucose/
insulin ratio (p < 0.05) than their normal maternal glucose
tolerance (NGT) counterparts. Neonatal insulinemia
influences more than IGT on the insulin resistance/sensitivity
markers at birth. Mothers of hyperinsulinemic neonates
showed lower HEI scores (p < 0.05).
Conclusion: A large percentage of full-term normoweight
infants with hyperinsulinemia showed altered insulin resistance
markers. Their mothers consumed low quality diets.
Screening strategies focused on neonatal glycemia and insulinemia
together with maternal nutritional assessment and
advice during pregnancy should be considered.


A population of stromal vascular fraction (SVF) cells derived from autologous adipose tissue, with potential tissue regenerative activity. SVF cells are obtained through liposuction and contain multiple cell types, including adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs), mesenchymal and endothelial progenitor cells, leukocyte subtypes, lymphatic cells, pericytes, and vascular smooth muscle cells. The SVF cells are processed in such a way as to contain a reproducible and consistent composition of heterogeneous cells. Upon processing and administration, the adipose-derived SVF cells can differentiate into different tissue types, support neovascularization, replace cells and repair injured issue.


Abstract Standard Gini correlation plays an important role in measuring the dependence between random variables with heavy-tailed distributions. It is based on the covariance between one variable and the rank of the other. Hence for each pair of random variables, there are two Gini correlations and they are not equal in general, which brings a substantial difficulty in interpretation. Recently, Sang et al (2016) proposed a symmetric Gini correlation based on the joint spatial rank function with a computation cost of O(n2) where n is the sample size. In this paper, we study two symmetric and computationally efficient Gini correlations with the computational complexity of O(n log n). The properties of the new symmetric Gini correlations are explored. The influence function approach is utilized to study the robustness and the asymptotic behavior of these correlations. The asymptotic relative efficiencies are considered to compare several popular correlations under symmetric distributions with different tail-heaviness as well as an asymmetric log-normal distribution. Simulation and real data application are conducted to demonstrate the desirable performance of the two new symmetric Gini correlations.


Abstract If anger is the emotion of injustice, and if most injustices have prominent epistemic dimensions, then where is the anger in epistemic injustice? Despite the question my task is not to account for the lack of attention to anger in epistemic injustice discussions. Instead, I argue that a particular texture of transformative anger – a knowing resistant anger – offers marginalized knowers a powerful resource for countering epistemic injustice. I begin by making visible the anger that saturates the silences that epistemic injustices repeatedly manufacture and explain the obvious: silencing practices produce angry experiences. I focus on tone policing and tone vigilance to illustrate the relationship between silencing and angry knowledge management. Next, I use María Lugones's pluralist account of anger to bring out the epistemic dimensions of knowing resistant anger in a way that also calls attention to their histories and felt textures. The final section draws on feminist scholarship about the transformative power of angry knowledge to suggest how it might serve as a resource for resisting epistemic injustice.


With the widespread availability of media technologies, such as real-time streaming, new Internet-of-Thing devices and smart phones, multimedia data are extensively increased and the big multimedia data rapidly spread over various social networks. This has created complexity and information overload for users to choose the suitable multimedia objects. Thus, different multimedia recommender systems have been emerging to help users find the useful multimedia objects that are possibly preferred by the user. However, the evaluation of these multimedia recommender systems is still in an ad-hoc stage. Given the distinct features of multimedia objects, the evaluation criteria adopted from the general recommender systems might not be effectively used to evaluate multimedia recommendations. In this paper, we therefore review and analyze the evaluation criteria that have been used in the previous multimedia recommender system papers. Based on the review, we propose a generalized evaluation framework to guide the researchers and practitioners to perform evaluations, especially user-centric evaluations, for multimedia recommender systems.


We examine the macroeconomic factors associated with financialisation in Ireland and Iceland from the perspective of international capital flows. To understand financialisation in the two countries we construct three ARDL models using three aspects of financialisation: financial depth, credit growth and deposit liabilities of the financial sector. Focusing on the current account, we find that financialisation is associated with an increase in foreign rentiers' profit due to excessive international borrowing. Our measures of financialisation indicate that trade openness, also a measure of globalisation, has a negative relationship with financialisation in Iceland, while in Ireland the relationship is positive. Our results also suggest that both countries experienced an increase in the wage share along with rapidly increasing household debt in Ireland and increasing non financial corporate debt in Iceland. We conclude that institutional differences played a vital role in the solutions to the crises which destabilised the economies of Ireland and Iceland. We use the institutional differences between the two economies and suggest policy prescriptions to limit the scale and scope of similar crises in small open economies.


Computational Stratigraphy (CompStrat) is a state-of-the-art earth-modeling method that captures the key heterogeneities in subsurface reservoirs through modeling of the detailed flow and sediment transportation processes in various depositional environments. The method is fully based on physics and generates high-resolution 3D earth models that are much more geologically realistic than those generated by traditional earth-modeling methods. It can accurately predict and preserve those spatially continuous but vertically thin and volumetrically insignificant layers, such as shale layers, thus enabling a much more accurate representation of natural reservoir connectivity.
 In the past few years, CompStrat has been studied mainly within the earth science community and has yet been broadly applied in reservoir simulation research and practices. Our objective is to bridge this gap and allow this frontier technology to offer geologically realistic earth models for reservoir simulation to better understand how various geological features contribute and control subsurface flow patterns and performance, and subsequently leading to a better integration among earth modeling, flow simulation, and more reliable reservoir performance predictions.
 CompStrat models often have large number of cells (hundreds of millions or more). A large proportion of them are related to thin shale layers. These thin cells can often cause convergence difficulties in reservoir simulations. We developed a grid coarsening method to drastically reduce the cell number and the simulation time with minimum altering of overall model connectivity characteristics. The method reduces the cell number by 85% to 93% and the simulation time by 94% to 99.4% with limited loss of accuracy for representative examples. Without this method, the simulation may take impractically long time to run for large models with complex multiphase flow dynamics.
 The successful removal of the computational bottleneck enables the application of this frontier earth-modeling method in high-fidelity reservoir simulation. It also facilitates detailed understanding of the connection between geology and flow to offer valuable insight for reservoir modeling, production forecast uncertainty analysis, and history matching. We developed a method to label, evaluate, and rank geological features based on their influence on flow performance, with shale layers being the specific focus. The labeling is performed semi-automatically and the evaluation and ranking is done efficiently with a reduced-physics solver. The result is statistically consistent across multiple realizations.


A surveillance system needs to accurately locate and identify not only single targets, but also groups of targets engaged in a common activity. Most existing tracking systems are capable of tracking individual targets quite accurately; however, they fail to use information related to group behavior in order to improve these estimates. Furthermore, in wide area surveillance situations a military operator is required to sort through hundreds to thousands of individual targets in order to develop an understanding of the situation. Having the ability to collapse the behavior of individual targets into a common, coordinated motion can greatly enhance the productively and situational awareness of the operator. Our long-term approach to solving this problem is to develop an understanding of how to define a group and then to understand the inter-relationships between the various characteristics that describe a group. Then using this information, we will be able to partition the set of target into groups that can be aggregated over the entire military force hierarchy. This goal of this paper is to describe an approach that is based upon genetic algorithms for solving the military force hierarchy problem. This paper will describe the underlying genetic algorithm, scoring function, and some initial results.


Frequent droughts and their consequences result in the loss of groundwater, the deficiency of nutrients, the drying of surface water resources, and substantially more exploitation of the groundwater resources, which, altogether, cause the mobilization of saline waters to groundwater tables. This will impair the capacity of the aquifers and the quality of the water. The VIKOR method was applied to determine the best feasible solution according to the selected criteria including the local rainfall status in different years, soil permeability, land slope, and water quality indicators, including SAR, RSC, salinity for determination of groundwater resources quality and land-use restrictions in the Kashmar Plain in the northeast of Iran. The results of sampling performed on the Kashmar Plain showed that water quality was lost as one moved from the northern groundwater tables to the southern ones. The excessive use of groundwater resources, the downfall of the groundwater level, and subsequently, the increased salinity account for the loss of the agricultural water quality and the land-use restrictions. Furthermore, the results of the model within years 2010 and 2014 showed that if the current form of indiscriminate exploitation of groundwater resources is kept, it will lead to the mobilization of the salinity to the lowly-saline upstream regions. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on sustainable management of groundwater resources, control their indiscriminate exploitation, and minimize the damage to the groundwater tables in the study site. In addition, agronomists should work on limiting the use of agricultural land by modifying the cropping pattern and on using deficit-irrigation methods.


The HUMIRA® (adalimumab) Pen is a novel, integrated, disposable autoinjection delivery system for the subcutaneous injection of adalimumab. Adalimumab is a biological disease modifier for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic debilitating diseases mediated by tumor necrosis factor. Sustaining long-term efficacy with a biological therapy is influenced by patient adherence to the therapeutic regimen, which is often affected by the route of drug administration. Self-administered injectables offer several advantages over intravenous injections (i.e., portability, convenience and flexible scheduling). In particular, patients with chronic, debilitating diseases may need a self-administered medication available in an easy-to-use and convenient delivery device that minimizes pain and facilitates adherence to therapy. The adalimumab Pen offers these benefits and recent evidence indicates that patients overwhelmingly prefer the adalimumab Pen to the prefilled syringe.


Currently there is a debate in epidemiology about the contribution of overlapping sexual partnerships, and in particular polygamy, to the spread of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. Motivated by this debate we formulate a mathematical model for the dynamic sexual network corresponding to polygamy. Consider the following situation. Suppose we have a heterosexual population where men may have multiple wives and women at most one husband. If we also assume men and women to be faithful to each other, then this gives rise to a sexual network with multiple star-shaped components. This network is dynamic as partnerships are formed and broken over time and individuals enter and leave the population due to demographic turnover. We can describe this network with a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). We analyse the system and study existence and uniqueness of solutions and the steady state of the system. We are interested in how sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV, spread along the network. Therefore, the next part of the research is to superimpose an S(usceptible)-I(nfectious) infection on the dynamic sexual network and describe the infection model with a set of ODEs. Using the interpretation of the model we determine epidemic thresholds for the system. The thresholds allow us to determine what the conditions are for an infection to become endemic in the population. We end the analysis by comparing the basic reproduction numbers of the infectious disease models for the polygynous population with that of a monogamous population.


Natural language (NL) explanations of model predictions are gaining popularity as a means to understand and verify decisions made by large black-box pre-trained models, for tasks such as Question Answering (QA) and Fact Verification. Recently, pre-trained sequence to sequence (seq2seq) models have proven to be very effective in jointly making predictions, as well as generating NL explanations. However, these models have many shortcomings; they can fabricate explanations even for incorrect predictions, they are difficult to adapt to long input documents, and their training requires a large amount of labeled data. In this paper, we develop FiD-Ex, which addresses these shortcomings for seq2seq models by: 1) introducing sentence markers to eliminate explanation fabrication by encouraging extractive generation, 2) using the fusion-in-decoder architecture to handle long input contexts, and 3) intermediate fine-tuning on re-structured open domain QA datasets to improve few-shot performance. FiD-Ex significantly improves over prior work in terms of explanation metrics and task accuracy on five tasks from the ERASER explainability benchmark in both fully supervised and few-shot settings.


The purpose of this study was to examine the cinematic images of physical educators during the past decade. This study is approached from two perspectives: (a) framing and (b) social cognition. Framing, an approach to media studies most often reserved for critical analysis of news, provides useful generalities for a formative study of movie images, which directs explicit attention toward the construction and use of media frames. Contemporary social cognition theory blends social learning theory with an understanding of the power of media images. Media observers (i.e. movie viewers) can acquire symbolic representations of behavior through media images and these images are powerful and informative enough to inform subsequent behavior. Using the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), each researcher compiled a list of movies. After an initial list from the IMDB was compiled, researchers added films that they knew, from personal knowledge, included physical education teachers. A final list of 18 movies was distributed to each of the four coders, with a stipulation that the coding take place during a specified time period of no more than three months. Each researcher observed the videotapes independently while noting the dialogue and camera shots of all scenes involving physical educators for emerging frames of reference regarding physical education teachers. Ethnographic content analysis, a media studies variation of the constant comparative method, aided in the identification of frames (categories and themes) that emerged from the data. The researchers independently made notes concerning the video observations and then later developed a system of classification by comparing notes and discovering regularities within the data. The constant comparative method was used to assist in the assessment and grouping of framing approaches. Agreement between researchers had to be 100% for a frame to be included in research findings. It was agreed that frames had to be constructed by both verbal and visual indicators in the films, and it had to be strongly associated with at least three films. Although nuances in setting, plot and the personalities of characters might arguably make frames in each film studied 'unique', several frames emerged as characteristic of depictions of physical educators: (a) there is no distinction between physical educators and coaches, (b) physical educators are incompetent teachers, (c) physical educators are drill sergeants and are the proverbial 'bully from hell' who enjoys seeing a student humiliated, and (d) characteristics of physical educators are gendered: women are often depicted as 'butch' or lesbian; men, as buffoons devoid of 'masculine' leadership qualities. An understanding of these frames is important because it provides clues about social cognition and behavior in regard to issues of physical education--from the classroom to the school board meeting, from decisions made about participation in physical education class to decisions made about the priority of physical education in the school setting.


A detection algorithm of moving objects which is robust and effective is proposed for the problem of the chaos and variety scenes. The background model based color quickly is build during the nonrestraint learning. According to the background of the chaos, it updates the model. However, shadow is also detected as moving object because of the same characters between them, so the algorithm of shadow removal based on its characteristic of chroma, lightness and crossover entropy was presented too. Finally, the algorithm was simulated in real-time and experimental effect, and achieved better results.


Since the 1990s, there has been a rapid increase in the proportion of temporary workers in the Japanese workforce. This paper empirically explores a linkage between the shift from permanent to temporary workers in the Japanese manufacturing sector and economic globalization, using various industry level data. We find that FDI and/or outsourcing tend to encourage the replacement of permanent workers with temporary workers in home production. In addition, we find that industries with higher exports are the most aggressive in replacing permanent workers with temporary workers. However, some other measures of global market competition such as world share of value added are not always statistically significant. Our estimation suggests that the impact of these globalization channels is sizable relative to the impact of the Worker Dispatching Act in 2004.


The purpose of this paper is to analyze customers' purchasing behavior with respect to perceived benefit and the perceived risk towards customer competency in firms. In this research, the authors validate the concept of customer competency in eight dimensions (i.e. e-trust, quality of products and services, customer support, application design, reasonable price, availability of user-generated content, replacement and returns and risk in purchasing products) and examine empirically its impression on company's decision-making performance.,The findings are based on an empirical analysis of survey data from 69 respondents and demonstrate a large, significant and positive relationship between customer competency and firm's decision-making performance.,The results reveal that majorly three dimensions of competency, i.e. application design, reasonable price and user-generated content (UGC), will impact significantly the decision making performance of firm. This is the empirical study to conceptualize, operationalize and validate the concept of customer competency and to study its impact on decision-making performance. The validity of customer competency constructs as conceived and operationalized suggests the potential future scope by evaluating its relationship with possible antecedents and consequences. For practitioners, the result provides important guidelines for increasing firm's decision-making performance through the use of customer behavior.,Further in this research, it is critical to understand that other constructs of customer competency may likewise play an important part in the advancement of expectations of customers. These constructs comprise customers' self-effectiveness, encouragement and innovation thinking (i.e. observed comparative advantage, complexity and compatibility) of business-to-customer firms in e-commerce. Future research studying these constructs could improve the understanding of success factors for e-commerce firms. The model used in this study can further be extended to understand the variance in a firm's decision-making.,The prime target of this questionnaire was to gather all of the information about how consumers behave while interacting with e-commerce portals. The questions were based on the factors identified in literature reviews. Previous studies also look at consumer competency toward a particular internet portal and its vendors; however, through this survey, the authors want to look at how consumers behave while shopping on e-commerce portals. This was a clear representation of the authors' research strategy.


The effect of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) on diabetic retinopathy was studied in 19 patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). All had diabetes before age 30. Three patients had no retinal abnormalities at the start of the study, 12 had minimal or mild background retinopathy, and 4 had a preproliferative retinopathy. The follow-up period was 12–14 mo. Fundus photography and fluorescein angiography was performed every 2–6 mo. Despite marked improvement of metabolic control, none of the patients with retinopathy showed reversal of the fundal abnormalities. In seven patients with background retinopathy the abnormalities remained unchanged; in five patients a slight worsening was noted. Four patients with moderate-to-severe background retinopathy showed a rapid and severe progression of the fundal abnormalities into a florid proliferative diabetic retinopathy 3–6 mo after initiation of CSII. A higher incidence of hypoglycemic episodes could not be demonstrated in this group. Two of these patients showed a marked reduction in glomerular filtration rate (GFR), 34% and 38%, respectively, during the course of their follow-up. This is compared with a decrease in GFR by only 5.6% for the group as a whole. The four patients with rapidly progressive retinopathy all had long-standing poorly controlled diabetes with preproliferative retinal changes, diabetic neuropathy, and, with the exception of one patient, signs of nephropathy at the start of CSII. The incidence of these features was nil or very low in the remaining 15 patients. This study and similar ones raise the question of whether rapid improvement in glycemic control, after long periods of poor control, could result in rapid deterioration of retinopathy, especially in those with diabetes of long duration or with preproliferative changes.


An improvement in the assessment of harmonic emissions as contributed by renewable generation such as a Photovoltaic (PV) plant, at a Point of Connection (PoC) to a distribution network, is needed. Both the generating source and the distribution network contribute to the voltage harmonic distortion at the PoC and single-point measurements cannot be used to quantify the relative contributions of each source. IEC 61000-4-30 Class A PQ measurements are used as a reference dataset for engineers and can be obtained simultaneously at different points in a network in an attempt to better understand the relative contribution by the source of distortion and the voltage supply network. The opportunity to improve the CIGRE/CIRED C4.109 approach by means of multiple-point synchronized network data is shown to be significant in the qualification of the statistical method but lacks the quantification in calculating the harmonic emission of a non-linear load. The CIGRE/CIRED method can be improved by only considering those harmonic currents identified as emission as some harmonic currents could be the result of background harmonic voltages in the supply network. Constraints in using IEC 61000-4-30 time-aggregated rms voltage and current values to support the assessment of harmonic emission using field-measured data is lastly shown as the calculation method and measurement uncertainty influence the compliance to grid code requirements on harmonic emissions.


This paper reports the design and three dimensional (3D) simulation of a new photonic crystal (PC) pressure sensor. The device is constructed using a GaAs-based 2D PC slab on SiO2 substrate. The strain/stress simulations and also the spectral simulations are done using CST Studio Suite. In this investigation, the sensitivity of the proposed pressure sensor is calculated by considering the variation of the refractive index and also the deformation of the structure. The numerical results show that when pressure is applied, the refractive index variations cause an increment in the resonant wavelength of the transmission spectrum, but the deformation factor cause a decrease in the resonant wavelength. It has been shown that the relationship between the applied pressure and the resonant wavelength of the designed micro-cavity is linear. Based on the simulation results, the quality factor of the designed micro-cavity and the sensitivity of the pressure sensor are 2200 and 3.5 nm / GPa, respectively.


This paper introduces OLIMPO, an useful simulation tool for researchers who are developing wireless sensor communication protocols. OLIMPO is a discrete-event simulator design to be easily reconfigured by the user, providing a way to design, develop and test communication protocols. In particular, we have designed a self-organizing wireless sensor network for low data rate. Our premise is that, due to their inherent spread location over large areas, wireless sensor networks are well-suited for SCADA applications, which require relatively simple control and monitoring. To show the facilities of our simulator, we have studied our network protocol with OLIMPO, developing several simulations. The purpose of these simulations is to demonstrate, quantitatively, the capability of our network to support this kind of applications.