Since the beginning of the new millennium, the concept of "energy landscape" is being discussed by academia from the environmental design domain while more and more practitioners have been contributing to sustainable energy transition. Yet, there remains some ambiguity as to what exactly is meant with the notion of "energy landscape" and, most importantly, how to shape landscapes that do not merely accommodate renewable energy technologies but that can be considered sustainable. The main objective of this entry is to advance a conceptual framework that can inform a sustainable implementation of energy transition in the physical realm. To this end, the ecosystem services framework provides useful structure because many energy technologies can be associated with particular services. However, not every aspect of sustainable energy transition can be expressed by means of that framework (e.g., access to affordable energy). The conceptual framework for the planning and design of sustainable energy landscapes proposed here consists of four dimensions (sustainable technical, environmental, sociocultural, and economical). Each dimension, in turn, contains a number of "core" sustainability criteria that are non-negotiable and other criteria that have to be discussed, weighted, and prioritized by stakeholders and experts for each specific situation.


The aims of this study were to assess the effects of drought stress on peroxidase (POD), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities as well as free proline content and growth parameters of Pistacia khinjuk seedlings under drought stress. Therefore, the one-year seedlings of Pistacia khinjuk subjected to water stress (25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% field capacity) for 8 months in greenhouse condition. Results showed that drought stress decreased height, collar diameter, shoot dry weight and root dry weight of P. khinjuk seedlings. But it had different effects on antioxidant enzyme activities in root and shoot of P. khinjuk seedlings. Drought stress increased CAT activity in shoot and root of seedlings and its activity was higher in 25% field capacity than other treatments. Also, the POD enzyme activity increased in root and shoot of seedlings subjected to drought stress. The SOD activity was at the lowest level in 100% FC than other treatments. The results also showed that free proline accumulation was lower in well watered seedlings and increased under drought stress.


This paper studies a novel sustainable ship routing problem considering a time window concept and bunker fuel management. Ship routing involves the decisions corresponding to the deployment of vessels to multiple ports and time window concept helps to maintain the service level of the port. Reducing carbon emissions within the maritime transportation domain remains one of the most significant challenges as it addresses the sustainability aspect. Bunker fuel management deals with the fuel bunkering issues faced by different ships, such as selection of bunkering ports and total bunkered amount at a port. A novel mathematical model is developed capturing the intricacies of the problem. A hybrid particle swarm optimization with a basic variable neighborhood search algorithm is proposed to solve the model and compared with the exact solutions obtained using Cplex and other popular algorithms for several problem instances. The proposed algorithm outperforms other popular algorithms in all the instances in terms of the solution quality and provides good quality solutions with an average cost deviation of 5.99% from the optimal solution.


ABSTRACT: This article addresses the fundamental question of what is ethical leadership by rearticulating relations between leaders and followers in terms of "affective leadership." The article develops a Spinozian conception of ethics which is underpinned by a deep suspicion of ethical systems that hold obedience as a primary virtue. We argue that the existing research into ethical leadership tends to underplay the ethical capacities of followers by presuming that they are in need of direction or care by morally superior leaders. In contrast, affective leadership advocates a profoundly political version of ethics, which involves people in the pursuit of joyful encounters that augment our capacity to affect and be affected by others. Instead of being led by people in leadership positions, we are led by active affections that enhance our capacity for moral action.


This study focuses on the value of the genetic lag associated with maintaining sows for additional parities in a commercial swine herd. Three traits were included in this study: number born alive (NBA), 21 day litter weight (W21), and days to market (D250). The economic values assigned to these traits were $22.00/pig, $0.70/lb., and $0.17/day, respectively. The genetic improvement per generation made for each trait was assumed to be 0.3 pigs, 3.0 lbs., and 3.0 days, respectively. It was estimated that the value of the genetic lag associated with retaining a sow to P3, P5, and P7 was $24.80, $46.89, and $73.97 in a herd whose seedstock supplier has a generation interval of 1.5 years. This minimal loss does not justify the costs of developing a gilt and decreased P1 production. Therefore, sows should remain in the breeding herd until culling for non-voluntary reasons or inferior production becomes necessary. INDEX WORDS: Genetic lag, Generation interval, Parity, Sow, Swine Copyright by Caitlyn E. Abell 2009 THE EFFECT OF GENETIC LAG AND ITS ASSOCIATED ECONOMIC VALUE ON GILT REPLACEMENT DECISIONS IN COMMERCIAL SWINE BREEDING HERDS


An investigation into flow boiling void fraction was conducted to observe its characteristics and to develop a new correlation of void fraction based on the separated model. The study used a natural refrigerant of R-290, flowed in a horizontal tube of 7.6 mm inner diameter under experimental conditions of 3.7 to 9.6 o C saturation temperature, 10 to 25 kW/m 2 heat flux, and 185 to 445 kg/m 2 s mass flux. The void fraction, calculated by the present experimental data, was used for comparison with 31 existing correlations, including model types as follows: homogeneous, slip ratio, Kαh correlation, drift flux, and a model based on the LockhartMartinelli correlation (Xtt). A new void fraction correlation, as a function of liquid and vapor Reynolds numbers, was proposed, based on the data. The measured pressure drop was compared with some pressure drop correlations that use the newly developed void fraction combination. The best prediction was shown by the homogeneous model.


This paper synthesizes a family of multilevel converters that is constructed by using multiple well-developed single-phase converters and/or three-phase converters as the building blocks. The resulting advantages include modular structure that leads to convenient construction, maintenance and control as well as extension to higher voltage levels. One successful example from this family is the cascaded H-bridge converter, which is now widely used in var compensation and motor drive applications for its many advantages. Another emerging member is the Hexagram converter, composed of six interconnected three-phase converter modules, which has many eminent features such as lowed component count and requirement compared to the cascaded H-bridge inverter, and thus, is a promising candidate for high power applications.


Three hundred seventy inpatient and outpatient substance abusers were divided according to presence and subtype of antisocial personality disorder (APD) into groups comparing: a) adult antisocial behavior (AAB) versus full APD; b) APD with low versus high sociopathy; c) APD with versus without lifetime depression; and d) APD with versus without other axis II disorders. Multivariate regression was used to predict the unique contribution to the variance in baseline and 12-month follow-up measures of substance use, psychiatric severity, and personality. The presence of comorbid axis II pathology was the strongest predictor of baseline severity in all three domains. APD substance abusers with lifetime depression exhibited greater baseline to follow-up reductions in psychiatric severity than those APD substance abusers without a history of depression. All APD subtypes improved over time with treatment, suggesting that this diagnosis does not necessarily indicate poor prognosis.


The occurrence of diffuse amyloidosis among patients suffering from chronic sepsis, tuberculosis, syphilis and certain malignant diseases has long been recognized, and it should be suspected in the presence of these conditions if hepatic or splenic enlargement or evidences of renal involvement are noted. In the absence of disease ordinarily bearing an etiologic relationship to amyloidosis, however, this condition probably often escapes recognition because it is not suspected. Atypical cases of amyloidosis which may be of obscure origin do occur. Three unusual cases of diffuse amyloidosis are herewith presented. Case 1 has been reported previously,1 and we are including only an abstract of it. REPORT OF CASES Case 1.—History. —A Mexican, aged 38, was admitted to the Mayo Clinic on Jan. 28, 1929, at which time a diagnosis of lymphosarcoma of Hodgkin's type was made. This was confirmed by histologic studies of one of the enlarged cervical nodes. Roentgen


Wireless sensor networks are subject to energy restriction compared with other wireless networks. To support a ubiquitous environment, a mobile sink has a lot of problems because it collects data while moving. TTDD is a representative routing protocol considering Mobile sink. It uses a lot of control packets, all of which are transmitted through agent nodes. This causes agent nodes to waste a lot of energy. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a Cluster Header-based Energy-efficient Mobile Sink supporting Routing Protocol. Our proposed protocol reduces the number of packets K + A√n times more than TTDD, lessens a sharp energy consumption of a constant node, and finally extends lifetime of networks.


This article reviews the current understanding of high transport status in the peritoneal dialysis population and emphasizes survival can be improved for high transporters. To address the current state of knowledge on high peritoneal membrane transport, the negative impact of an increased peritoneal solute transport rate is first discussed. The potential downside of high transport status, notably on survival outcomes (as supported by registry data and meta-analysis), is highlighted. Based on recent advances and clinical studies, ways of maximizing the success of peritoneal dialysis treatment in high transporters are discussed, and management strategies are proposed.


Most children in hospital have pain. Seeing your child in pain or discomfort is incredibly difficult. Pain in children is a public health concern of major significance in most parts of the world. We have learned that unrelieved pain causes the body to release certain chemicals that may actually delay healing, so it's important to work with child's nurses and doctors to help children for control the pain. On the other side, medication is not the only way to relieve pain. Pain in children should always be managed and pain expression is dependent on the child's age, cognitive development, and socio cultural context and it is important to pay particular attention to developmental variations in any behavioural manifestations of pain. In this study to explain some ways for parents and healthcare team to manage pain in children.


Objective 5C11 antibody is a novel monoclonal antibody against human BST2 and can be used to detect activation of interferon-producing cells (IPCs). Activated IPCs, which produce large amounts of interferon-α (IFNα), are considered to play an important role in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We investigated the characterization of 5C11-positive cells in patients with SLE. Methods The proportions of 5C11-positive cells among blood dendritic cell antigen 2 (BDCA-2)-, CD3-, CD19- and CD14-positive cells in peripheral blood from SLE patients (SLE-PBMCs) and healthy controls (control-PBMCs) were analyzed by flow cytometry. The effect of 5C11 antibody on IFNα production from SLE-PBMCs under stimulation with cytosine-phosphate-guanosine (CpG2216, bacterial oligonucleotide motif) was also examined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results The proportions of 5C11-positive cells among BDCA-2-, CD3- and CD19-, but not CD14-positive cells in SLE-PBMCs were significantly increased compared to those in control-PBMCs (p < 0.0001, all). Especially, the number of 5C11-positive cells among BDCA-2-positive cells was significantly increased in SLE-PBMCs by about six-fold compared to that in control-PBMCs (p < 0.0001). 5C11 antibody inhibited IFNα production by SLE-PBMCs induced by CpG and the inhibition rates was 27% (p < 0.001). Conclusion SLE patients had a significantly higher proportion of 5C11-positive cells among CD3 and CD19 cells, and especially BDCA-2 positive cells. The ability of 5C11 antibody to inhibit IFNα production from SLE-PBMCs warrants further investigation for its possible clinical application for the treatment of SLE.


This article presents a case study of the impact on student learning of introducing an electronic voting system (EVS) into large-group lectures for first-year undergraduate students undertaking degrees in marketing and business systems. We discuss the potential for using EVS-style interactive lectures in marketing and business programmes. We then describe how we planned the session and selected and implemented the EVS system. We go on to present an evaluative research project, which was undertaken on the innovation using case-study methodology, and assess its impact on student learning. Data for the evaluation were collected through questionnaire and focus groups with a sample of students. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings show how students perceived the use of EVS in large lectures and how their learning was affected. A 'threefold typology' emerged that explains how students related to the EVS and how their perceptions of EVS changed over time. The discussion links these findings to the literature on different paradigms of learning and teaching, using Renshaw's framework, and examines how the EVS-style lectures promote deep and active learning within the constructivist, social constructivist and metacognitive learning paradigms identified in Renshaw's model. The conclusions show how the use of a userfriendly EVS in large lectures motivates students, develops students' cognitive and social learning skills, and improves learning effectiveness. DOI: 10.1080/09687760600837090


Continental shelves around the world are subject to intensive bottom trawling. Demersal fish assemblages inhabiting these shelves account for one-fourth of landed wild marine species. Increasing spatial claims for nature protection and wind farm energy suppresses, however, the area available to fisheries. In this marine spatial planning discussion, it is essential to understand what defines suitable fishing grounds for bottom trawlers. We developed a statistical methodology to study the habitat preference of a fishery, accounting for spatial correlation naturally present in fisheries data using high-resolution location data of fishing vessels and environmental variables. We focused on two types of beam trawls to target sole using mechanical or electrical stimulation. Although results indicated only subtle differences in habitat preference between the two gear types, a clear difference in spatial distribution of the two gears was predicted. We argue that this change is driven by both changes in habitat preference as well as a change in target species distribution. We discuss modelling of fisheries' habitat preference in light of marine spatial planning and as support in benthic impact assessments.


We argue that the crossover from a metal-like to an insulator-like behavior in the conductance of a mesoscopic wire, resulting from a progressive depletion of electrons, is determined by the Coulomb interaction. Two models, corresponding to strong and weak fluctuations of the background electrostatic potential that forms the wire, are discussed. In the first case, the crossover is determined by the Coulomb blockade effect in a sequence of conducting dots separated by tunnel barriers. In the opposite limit of weak potential fluctuations, formation of a quantum Wigner crystal and its pinning by residual impurities determines the crossover behavior.


In the midst of pandemic for respiratory illness, the call for non-pharmaceutical interventions become the highest priority for infectious disease and public health experts, while the race towards vaccine or medical intervention are ongoing. Individuals may modify their behavior and take preventative steps to reduce infection risk in the bid to adhere to the call by government officials and experts. As a result, the existence of relationship between the preliminary and the final transmission rates become feeble. This study evaluates the behavioral changes (mitigation and suppression measures) proposed by public health experts for COVID-19 which had altered human behavior and their day to day lives. The dynamics underlying the mitigation and suppression measures reduces the contacts among citizens and significantly interfere with their physical and social behavior. The results show all the measures have a significant impact on the decline of transmission rate. However, the mitigation measures might prolong the elimination of the transmission which might lead to a severe economic meltdown, yet, a combination of the measures show a possibility of rooting out transmission within 30 days if adhered to in an extreme manner. The result shows a peak period of infection for Ghana ranges from 64th day to 74th day of infection time period.


This guide directs patrons to selected electronic and print resources on the Battle of the Bulge (Ardennes offensive), General Patton and the Third Army.


The PKI has provided a strong platform for the RSA algorithm. In view to overcome limitations in this book a cryptographic method of key management has been proposed that uses the symmetric key algorithm over the asymmetric key algorithm. The symmetric key algorithms do not have any key management scheme. Further, the proposed work uses ant colony based evolutionary computing algorithm to meet the requirement in which the shared secret value changes dynamically with time and matures with the time as numbers of communications among the legitimate users increases. The method proposed has been found have system of key management, which apart from being faster has all the security features. The efficiency in time management in all the aspects namely Key Generation, key Transmission, Key Revocation, Encryption and decryption is found to be much better than the widely used PKI. This speed do not compromise the security aspects of the system, in fact this efficient time management.


We will present a simulation technique, by which the crystal structure of superballs can be analysed. Superballs are particles which can be defined by the implicit equation |x|ǫ + |y|ǫ + |z|ǫ <= 1, ǫ ∈ [0,∞[. These particles have been recently synthesized and analyzed by using experiments and simulations [6]. The study of such particles is therefore a hot topic. Using our [10] technique we have generated crystal structures which can be obtained for spheres and superballs. Moreover we have studied the relation between pressure and density in the liquid phase by determining the Equation of State. We also considered how the structure of the liquid deviates from that of spheres upon changing the pressure p, by constructing the Radial distribution function. We verified that the simulation we wrote, functions well within the numerical tolerances required for physical studies. Finally, our method may be easily extended upon to determine a phase diagram for superballs, for which the particles may interact with soft potentials in addition to their hard particle overlap.


This paper is aimed at furthering discussions about the properties which computational cognitive models of attentional control should have if they are meant to be applied in interactive human-computer systems, namely for predicting human attention shifts across control levels. The paper discusses a number of issues of attentional control and implications that follow for computational modeling. It concludes by proposing the term anticipatory cognitive computing for those computational approaches that incorporate cognitive processing mechanisms found to exist in humans and that employ these mechanisms to generate hypothesis about imminent human cognitive and external actions.


The in vitro susceptibility of 103 cultures of E. coli isolated from scouring and nonscouring pigs, and four cultures of Salmonella isolated from a case of necrotic enteritis was tested against Ampicillin contained in nutrient broth at concentrations of 0, 0.1, 1.0 and 5.0 uG per ml. of the medium. All but three cultures of E. coli were found to be susceptible to 5.0 uG/ml., all Salmonella isolates were also susceptible to this concentration of the antibiotic. Susceptibility of E. coli was also tested by plating dilutions of fecal samples obtained from either a scouring or a nonscouring pig, with E.M.B. agar containing 0, 0.1, 1.0, 2.5, 5.0 and 10.0 uG Ampicillin per ml. of the medium. No difference in the growth of E. coli was observed at 0, 0.1 and 1.0 uG concentrations. The three higher concentrations of the antibiotic inhibited the growth of E. coli proportional to the amount of Ampicillin in each concentration.Ampicillin proved very effective in alleviating the symptoms of hemorrhagic enteritis in a 11-week old pig. The disappearance of scours was associated with the replacement of the previously existing sero-biotypes of fecal E. coliwith another aberrant type of E.coli which produced H(2)S. No Ampicillin resistant strains of E. coli emerged following treatment of the animal with this antibiotic.


Some of the most challenging scenarios for peer-to-peer multimedia applications arise when the applications require real-time interactions among their users. In those cases, the expectation of sub-second responses prohibits the use of popular P2P IPTV software because those programs invariably use large video buffers to amortize the propagation delays of individual frames and thus cause notable and dispersed viewing latencies among their users. The performance of these programs degrade even further if the users are connected to home networks that offer narrow uplink channels or through wireless links that experience frequent throughput fluctuations. In order to overcome these shortcomings, we develop Trickle, a peer-to-peer real-time media streaming system that can transport H.264 video streams with low link stresses (less than 250Kb/s) and stable sub-second frame delays through the use of erasure correction codes along with the clever construction of multiple multicast trees and the recruitment of many peer helpers. This paper presents the first fruits of our work including the principles and mechanisms of Trickle, its simulated performance based on H.264 video traces and its merit comparisons against SplitStream, the first application layer multicasting protocol for video streaming, and CoolStreaming, a news-making P2P IPTV program that works like BitTorrent


The concept of tailored bioinstrumentation using rapid prototyping and three-dimensional CAD (3D-CAD) was proposed. This concept is to make individually designed and fabricated sensor unit to attach human body. Within the proposed concept, cuff-units for continuous blood pressure measurement were individually designed using 3D-CAD and fabricated automatically. As the result, blood pressure wave forms can be obtained using the finally developed cuff units. Using rapid prototyping device, the design and fabrication process were accelerated without any artisan-like high skilled persons.


Contemporary research on human sociality is heavily influenced by the social identity approach, positioning social categorization as the primary mechanism governing social life. Building on the distinction between agency and identity in the individual self ("I" vs. "Me"), we emphasize the analogous importance of distinguishing collective agency from collective identity ("We" vs. "Us"). While collective identity is anchored in the unique characteristics of group members, collective agency involves the adoption of a shared subjectivity that is directed toward some object of our attention, desire, emotion, belief, or action. These distinct components of the collective self are differentiated in terms of their mental representations, neurocognitive underpinnings, conditions of emergence, mechanisms of social convergence, and functional consequences. Overall, we show that collective agency provides a useful complement to the social categorization approach, with unique implications for multiple domains of human social life, including collective action, responsibility, dignity, violence, dominance, ritual, and morality.


This paper proposes a new generative model for flexible editing of human motion. Different from previous work, three intuitive factors of motion, namely, content, identity and style, can be manipulated directly with the new model. With the new generative model, motion editing can be achieved in various aspects, including transferring an unknown style from an actor to another, synthesizing other styles for an unknown actor and generating a new motion with other content. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In this paper, I study how a housing project is designed and show the architects in conversation with the residents talking about living in a community with lower impact, to reveal different conceptual understandings of building technologies and systems within the home. In this account, it can be seen that building systems and technologies become entangled with dwelling, patterns of living and maintenance scenarios on a housing estate. Shown are several ways that these design interactions can be considered pedagogic and transformative. It is proposed that similar events between architects and users are established in the design stage for other building types and for more of the UK housing stock.


The product replacement algorithm is a heuristic designed to generate random group elements. The idea is to run a random walk on generating /spl kappa/-tuples of the group, and then output a random component. The algorithm was designed by C.R. Leedham-Green, and further investigated by F. Cellar et al. (1995). It was found to have an outstanding performance, much better than the previously known algorithms (P. Diaconis and L. Saloff-Coste, 1996). The algorithm is now included in two major group algebra packages: GAP (M. Scheonert et al., 1995) and MAGMA (W. Bosma et al., 1997). In spite of the many serious attempts and partial results, the analysis of the algorithm remains difficult at best. For small values of /spl kappa/, even graph connectivity becomes a serious obstacle. The most general results are due to Diaconis and Saloff-Coste, who used a state of the art analytic technique to obtain polynomial bounds in special cases, and (sub)-exponential bounds in the general case. The main result of the paper is a polynomial upper bound for the cost of the algorithm, provided /spl kappa/ is large enough.


The supermolecular structure of blown HDPE films, which were obtained by a combination of film blowing under a very low blowup ratio and slow takeoff velocity with subsequent uniaxial drawing, is characterized using WAXS texture and profile analysis, EM and mechanical investigations. Samples with low uniaxial drawing ratios (λ ≲ 1.5) contain low stress crystalline and transcrystalline material and show an a-texture, while samples with higher uniaxial drawing ratios only consist of high stress crystalline material and show a c-texture. With one exception the results of texture investigations can be related to the results of the mechanical investigations.


Polymers based on methacrylates bearing short oligo(ethylene glycol) side parts constitute a modern class of stimuli-responsive, biocompatible materials exhibiting several important biological applications. A study of their polymerization kinetics considering also the effect of functional (such as hydroxyl) groups in the macromolecular chain is very important in order to set the appropriate reaction parameters (such as time, temperature, etc.). The materials investigated were based on oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate with 4–5 ethylene oxide units, POEGMMA300 and oligo(ethylene glycol) hydroxyethyl methacrylate with nearly 5 ethylene oxide units and a terminal hydroxyl group, POEGHEMA. Experimental data on their bulk radical polymerization were collected under both isothermal and non-isothermal reaction conditions and compared with the corresponding data from polymers without PEG units. An appropriate theoretical model was also developed taking into account the effect of diffusion controlled phenomena on the reaction kinetic rate constants and used to simulate the experimental data over the whole conversion range. From the experimental data the term that combines the kinetic rate coefficients of the propagation and termination reaction, i.e. kp2/kt, was evaluated. It was found that these values increase with the increasing size of the ester group for both POEGMMA300 compared to PMMA and POEGHEMA compared to PHEMA. The presence of the hydroxyl group in POEGHEMA resulted in a higher polymerization rate compared to POEGMMA300. In contrast, verifying similar literature findings, the effective activation energy, as well as the activation energies of the propagation and termination reactions were found not to be significantly affected by the presence of the side groups. Furthermore, the presence of the hydroxyl groups leads to slightly higher critical free volumes for the onset of the gel- and glass-effect, meaning an earlier effect of the diffusion-controlled phenomena on both the termination and propagation reactions. Using appropriate equations correlating all parameters with temperature, the predictive capabilities of the model were tested in non-isothermal runs and the simulation of the experimental data was found to be very good. Depropagation reactions were not found to play a significant role, since all non-isothermal experiments were completed at temperatures less than 120 °C, below the ceiling temperature of the systems.


Journal of European Industrial Training V. 35 (8) 2011. Purpose – This paper seeks to argue that workplace learning evaluation theory and practice is still an emergent field and that this creates a number of challenges for practitioners and researchers alike.
Design/methodology/approach – This is a descriptive paper based on a critical review of existing approaches and the research literature.
Findings – While programme evaluation has a long history, workplace learning evaluation is yet to establish itself as a distinct field. This has a number of consequences including the lack of a single or settled view on how workplace learning should be evaluated or what specific aspects of learning should be investigated.
Practical implications – The need to demonstrate a return on investment in organisational learning is as pressing as ever. To become more effective training evaluation methods need to be grounded in a theory. This article aims to provide an informed perspective on the current state of workplace evaluation along with insights into how evaluation can be placed on firmer theoretical foundations in order to produce robust findings in a practitioner friendly way.
Originality/value – This paper provides original insights into the development of workplace evaluation approaches and the challenges the field faces.


Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide and a major cause of ill health. Without treatment, the mortality rate of TB is approximately 50%; with treatment, most patients with TB can be cured. However, anti-TB drug treatments may result in many adverse effects. Therefore, it is important to detect and predict these adverse effects early. Our study aimed to build models using an artificial intelligence/machine learning approach to predict acute hepatitis, acute respiratory failure, and mortality after TB treatment. Materials and Methods: Adult patients (age ≥ 20 years) who had a TB diagnosis and received treatment from January 2004 to December 2021 were enrolled in the present study. Thirty-six feature variables were used to develop the predictive models with AI. The data were randomly stratified into a training dataset for model building (70%) and a testing dataset for model validation (30%). These algorithms included XGBoost, random forest, MLP, light GBM, logistic regression, and SVM. Results: A total of 2248 TB patients in Chi Mei Medical Center were included in the study; 71.7% were males, and the other 28.3% were females. The mean age was 67.7 ± 16.4 years. The results showed that our models using the six AI algorithms all had a high area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) in predicting acute hepatitis, respiratory failure, and mortality, and the AUCs ranged from 0.920 to 0.766, 0.884 to 0.797, and 0.834 to 0.737, respectively. Conclusions: Our AI models were good predictors and can provide clinicians with a valuable tool to detect the adverse prognosis in TB patients early.


In this review a complex signaling in human neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) in nervous system and other tissues is discussed. The neurofibromatosis type 2 (Nf2) gene, known as a tumor suppressor, encodes a protein Merlin, which is closely related to the ezrin, radixin, and moesin (ERM) proteins of the band 4.1 protein superfamily. Mutations of the NF2 gene cause an autosomal dominant disorder neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2). Merlin's function as a growth suppressor depends on its structural conversion from an inactive to an active form caused by changes in its phosphorylation status. Depending on its structural conformation Merlin binds to numerous interacting proteins, which are either required for Merlin's tumour suppressor function or impair Merlin's growth suppressor activity contributing to tumorigenesis. Despite significant progress made in the NF2 study for the last two decade, the molecular mechanisms of the tumor suppressor function of Merlin are still little understood. Loss of the Nf2 function leads to aberrant activation of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) and the downstream mitogenic signaling pathways. Overexpression of ErbB receptors has been reported in NF2-related and sporadic vestibular schwannomas (VS) and many other human cancers. Studies have shown that inhibition of the ErbB family RTKs can serve as an alternative approach for the treatment of sporadic and NF2-related VS through inhibition of ERK1/2 and PI3K/AKT signaling pathways. Preclinical and clinical studies of the potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of VS, and other brain tumors are underway. A better understanding of Merlin's deregulated signaling in NF2 can provide useful therapeutic strategies for treatment of human VS and other brain tug -


Ingrown toenail is a relatively frequent condition of the great toe affecting usually young adults. Surgery is most often required but the rate of recurrences is high with the risk of definitive functional and esthetical consequences. Among the numerous surgical procedures described, none is unanimously considered as the most effective. As for all dermatological surgery, the procedure must be not only curative but also esthetically acceptable. The surgeon's skills and experience are determining factors. A review of the most common procedures is presented.


The occurrence and proliferation of reef-forming corals is of vast importance in terms of the biodiversity they support and the ecosystem services they provide. The complex three-dimensional structures engineered by corals are comprised of both live and dead coral, and the function, growth and stability of these systems will depend on the ratio of both. To model how the ratio of live : dead coral may change, the 'Goldilocks Principle' can be used, where organisms will only flourish if conditions are 'just right'. With data from particle imaging velocimetry and numerical smooth particle hydrodynamic modelling with two simple rules, we demonstrate how this principle can be applied to a model reef system, and how corals are effectively optimizing their own local flow requirements through habitat engineering. Building on advances here, these approaches can be used in conjunction with numerical modelling to investigate the growth and mortality of biodiversity supporting framework in present-day and future coral reef structures.


The data from the investigation of hollow superconducting cable based on keystoned NbTi wires are presented. The cable sample, consisting of 15 wires wound around a cooper-nickel tube 5 mm in diameter and cooled with two-phase helium flow has operated inside the magnet aperture at a current of 13.4 kA and the current ramp rate of 26.8 kA/s. The external magnetic field value was about 2 T and the field ramp rate of 4 T/s. The pulse repetition rate of 1 Hz was provided. The first 650 m of the new wire was manufactured based on the improved technology. A piece of hollow cable 40 m in length was fabricated. The outer cable diameter with electric insulation is 7.34 mm. A test winding for a 1.4 m superferric nucleotron-type window frame model dipole for SIS100 as part of the FAIR-project of GSI was fabricated and tested. The obtained results are discussed. The new approach to a 'cable-in-conduit' conductor cable design, based on the use of keystoned wires, is described.


This paper studies the optimal use of limited-rate feedback of channel state information (CSI) in the case of a wideband multicarrier channel with multiple transmit antennas and a single receive antenna. With full knowledge of the CSI, the receiver should compute the optimal beamforming vectors, jointly quantize them, and feed them back to the transmitter. The achievable forward data rate depends on the rate of the feedback link. The optimal tradeoff between the forward and feedback rates is characterized using rate distortion theory in the limit of infinite number of subcarriers with fixed amount of feedback per subcarrier. The distortion metric is the difference between the forward rate achieved with limited feedback and the capacity with perfect CSI at the transmitter. The rate distortion function gives the forward rate as a function of the feedback rate. Numerical results show that to achieve a target forward rate, the required feedback rate can be substantially reduced by joint quantization of the beamformers across subcarriers. A simple quantizer amenable to practical implementation is shown to approach the rate distortion bound with near-linear computational complexity.


This study tries to construct an accurate ranking method for five team ball games at the Olympic Games. First, the study uses a statistical rating method for team ball games. A single parameter, called a rating, shows the strength and skill of each team. We assume that the difference between the rating values explains the scoring ratio in a match based on a logistic regression model. The rating values are estimated from the scores of major international competitions that are held before the Rio Olympic Games. The predictions at the Rio Olympic Games demonstrate that the proposed method can more accurately predict the match results than the official world rankings or world ranking points. The proposed method enabled 262 correct predictions out of 370 matches, whereas using the official world rankings resulted in only 238 correct predictions. This result shows a significant difference between the two criteria. key words: sports, ball games, prediction model, rating rand ranking method


In this study, a fuzzy-logic based control system was designed to ensure that time and energy is saved during the operation of load elevators which are used during the construction of tall buildings. In the control system that was devised, for the load elevators to work more efficiently, the energy interval where the motor worked was taken as the output variable whereas the amount of load and the building height were taken as input variables. The most appropriate working intervals depending on the characteristics of these variables were defined by the help of an expert. Fuzzy expert system software was formed using Delphi programming language. In this design, mamdani max-min inference mechanism was used and the centroid method was employed in the clarification procedure. In conclusion, it is observed that the system that was designed is feasible and this is supported by statistical analyses.. Keywords—Fuzzy Logic Control, DC Motor, Load Elevators, Power Control.


The world fauna of Aulacigastridae (sensu D. McAlpine 1983), particularly Aulacigaster Macquart, is discussed, and the antennal structure of the Afrotropical species reviewed. Two new species of Aulacigaster are descriptionbed: africana (Royal Natal National Park, Natal, South Africa) and perata (Bamenda highlands, Cameroon). A third species, based on a single damaged male from Cathedral Peak (Natal, South Africa) is left undescriptionbed and is considered to have closer affinity with the Palaearctic species A. leucopeza (Meigen, 1830) than with the former two species. All three African species of Aulacigaster were taken at relatively high altitude (1500 m). It is possible that the southern African species have a life history comparable to that of the Holarctic species of Aulacigaster, which are associated with, and breed in, the sap flows of a wide variety of trees. A. africana sp. n. and A. perata sp. n. are the first named species of Aulacigaster and of the subfamily Aulacigastrinae from the Afrotropical Region. Ningulus simatus D. McAlpine, 1983 (eastern Cape, South Africa) and a second undescriptionbed congener from eastern Zimbabwe are the only other African species of Aulacigastridae, and belong to the subfamily Nemininae. A key to the three Afrotropical species of Aulacigaster is presented; the distribution and affinities of these species are discussed.


Mirror-prox (MP) is a well-known algorithm to solve variational inequality (VI) problems. VI with a monotone operator covers a large group of settings such as convex minimization, min-max or saddle point problems. To get a convergent algorithm, the step-size of the classic MP algorithm relies heavily on the problem dependent knowledge of the operator such as its smoothness parameter which is hard to estimate. Recently, a universal variant of MP for smooth/bounded operators has been introduced that depends only on the norm of updates in MP. In this work, we relax the dependence to evaluating the norm of updates to Bregman divergence between updates. This relaxation allows us to extends the analysis of universal MP to the settings where the operator is not smooth or bounded. Furthermore, we analyse the VI problem with a stochastic monotone operator in different settings and obtain an optimal rate up to a logarithmic factor.


Abstract : Distributed decision problems arise whenever two or more sensors and their associated computers must work cooperatively to make a decision about a commonly observed event. Typical examples are in target detection and classification. The problem is usually characterized by a limited bandwidth of the communication link between the sensors. This thesis develops and evaluates an algorithm for distributed decision and compares it to a non-distributed or centralized form of the algorithm. Analysis of the algorithm is carried out for some low-dimensional cases. Computer simulations were carried out for higher dimensional cases. The simulation work was done in Fortran under CMS on an IBM 370/3033 computer. (Thesis). Keywords: Centralized Decision Algorithm; Distributed Decision Algorithm A; Distributed Decision Algorithm B.


With globalization and people continually traveling abroad to and from different countries, the hotel industry faces many challenges in accommodating these different cultural influences. The hotel industry is a very competitive business in which customers place great emphasis on reliability, thus improving the housekeeping services will help in minimizing cost and time investment. Customer satisfaction has been identified as a key performance indicator in hotel industry. Service quality and customer satisfaction have increasingly been identified as key factors in the battle for competitive differentiation and customer retention. Hotels must enhance customer satisfaction by training the housekeeping to work efficiently with friendly manner. The aim of this study is to evaluate the housekeeping performance and its impact on guest satisfaction and determine the strength and weakness points in employee's performance.


Thomas Aquinas, the Western contemporary of Persian mystic and poet, Rumi, identified Divine love as the medium through which Divine law is executed by human beings, thereby denoting the necessity of love in religion. This essay aims to explain the doctrine of love, as expounded in the verses of Rumi, in relation to the religious order with which he was affiliated, Sufism. Sufism is a separately designated esoteric branch of Islam originating in the East, with its ascetic followers renowned for their spellbound states of rapture. The majority of the original Sufis were public figures in positions of political authority, but attempting to pinpoint an accurate chronological origin for Sufism proves difficult, as the traits which define the Sufis were present even in the earliest centuries of Islam. Nile Green, however, attributes the appearance of Sufism as a collective movement to the ninth century CE, with the earliest Sufis to be the likes of Rabi'ah al-Basriyyah and Ibrahim ibn Adham. The study of Sufism without experience of its devotional practices was classed as deeply restrictive by al-Ghazali, the Muslim intellectual who declared Sufism to be the only manner of understanding the meaning of life. He says, 'how great a difference there is between your knowing the definition and causes and conditions of health and satiety and your being healthy and sated' ( Path to Sufism, 52). Rumi is now one of the most widely translated poets in the world, his poems are routinely filleted for 'life-lessons' which are devoid of their original Sufi context. This essay aims to restore the philosophico-religious context for Rumi's teachings and explain the significance of his discourse on love with respect to Sufist doctrine. Keywords: Persian Poetry, Rumi, Sufism, Mathnawi, Divine Love, Oneness, Philosophy of Love, Self-renunciation.


SIR, Cyclosporin A (CsA) has a remarkable beneficial effect in patients with psoriasis.'"^ However, CsA may not be randomly used in clinical practice because of its side-effects, which include hepatotoxicity, nephrotoxicity, hirsutism, hypertension and toxic effects on the central nervous system.' We present here a case of erythrodermie psoriasis in which CsA therapy caused rapid development of cutaneous squamous-cell carcinomas. A 50-year-oId man had suffered from erythrodermie psoriasis for over 30 years. He was treated with corticosteroid creams, and the combination of psoralens with artificial ultraviolet A (PUVA) for over 14 years. Due to this therapy he had developed an atrophic skin with PUVA-induced pigmented macules. The skin changes were most severe on the legs. After he had developed three cutaneous squamouscell carcinomas, which were treated with cryosurgery, PUVA therapy was discontinued. Since the psoriasis could not be controlled with etretinate or methotrexate in combination with corticosteroid creams, CsA treatment was started. The psoriasis cleared within 3 weeks with CsA (10 mg/kg/day; CsA trough level 250 ng/1). Hereafter CsA dose was lowered to 5 mg/kg day (CsA trough level 100 ng/1). Unfortunately, the psoriasis relapsed. Etretinate (0-8 mg/kg/day) was added. With this combination the psoriasis nearly cleared completely. In a period of 16 months, since CsA therapy started, 21 cutaneous squamous-cell carcinomas were noticed (one on the lower lip, three on the arms, 17 on the legs). All tumours were removed by excision and the diagnosis was confirmed by histology. Other side-effects were not observed. The patient was treated in another hospital until 2 years ago. We do not know the cumulative UVA dose. However, since the patient was treated with PUVA for over 14 years, the cumulative dose seems likely to have been very high. Long-term exposure to PUVA substantially increases the risk of squamous-cell carcinoma.'* However, this can not explain the rapid explosive development of squamous-cell carcinomas in our patient. Since retinoid therapy inhibits the growth of a variety of carcinomas,'•' the rapid development of squamous-cell carcinomas seems most likely to be due to CsA. A high incidence of cutaneous malignancy associated with sun exposure,' and a high incidence of non-cutaneous malignancy has been reported in patients treated with immunosuppressive drugs including CsA.*' Therefore, CsA therapy should be avoided unless absolutely essential in patients with an increased risk for neoplasms. Since patients with a high cumulative dose of UVA have an increased risk from skin cancers, CsA therapy in such patients is best avoided where possible. Similarly combination therapy with CsA-PUVA would also be best avoided.


This article focuses on some of the problems presented by alcohol and drug dependent patients and how physiotherapists can respond to them. Approaches used on the Medical Ward of the Clinical Institute of the Addiction Research Foundation (ARF) are presented. The attitude of the physiotherapist toward addictions is important, both in the rehabilitation of the patient's physical problem and in the treatment of his/her alcohol or drug problem. Questions about drug or alcohol use in a physiotherapy assessment can reveal important information about how the patient manages pain and add to understanding of other psycho-social considerations. A brief overview of the types of patient conditions commonly seen on the Medical Ward is given. This is followed by an outline of the ways in which withdrawal from drugs and alcohol is managed. Information is included about pathology related to alcohol abuse. Evidence that many alcohol-related neurological conditions are often reversible suggests that physiotherapists should be optimistic in their expectations about successful alcohol and drug treatment outcomes and should convey this optimism to their patients.


A prospective randomized trial was performed to evaluate the role of adjuvant local immunostimulation with bacillus Calmette‐Guérin (BCG) in resected Stage I and Stage II non‐small cell bronchogenic carcinoma. The patients were stratified according to extent of resection and surgical stage, and randomized to treatment or placebo. Adjuvant treatment consisted of a single dose of BCG (Tice) injected into the pleural space between days 6 and 12 postoperatively. Isoniazid was given by mouth for 12 weeks. In the control group saline was injected intrapleurally. Of 441 patients included in the study, 407 were evaluable, 198 of them in the BCG group and 209 in the control group. The average follow‐up was 4.7 years. A high rate of complications was noted in the BCG group; after pneumonectomy 22% of these patients developed pleural empyema necessitating further surgical procedures, in comparison with 3% in the placebo group. There was no significant difference between the two randomized groups with respect to survival. There was, however, a significant decrease in the disease‐free interval in patients who received BCG (P = 0.044). This detrimental effect with BCG was especially pronounced in pneumonectomized patients (P = 0.028). There was no significant difference between treatment and placebo in patients with lobectomies. Because of no proved benefit of regional administration of BCG (and even of detrimental effects after pneumonectomy) and a high rate of severe complications, the authors advise against the use of BCG intrapleurally as local adjuvant immunostimulation.


To the Editor:

In Friedreich ataxia (FA), cardiac disease is the major cause of premature mortality1 and a common cause of symptoms, yet our understanding of the nature of the myocardial involvement in FA remains incomplete. Weidemann et al2 are therefore to be congratulated for their report on comprehensive cardiac data acquired from a large cohort of FA subjects. The main aim of the study was the development of criteria for staging of the cardiomyopathy in FA; however, there are assumptions underlying the analysis that merit further consideration.

One assumption of Weidemann et al is that an increase in left ventricular (LV) mass is the main cardiac feature in FA.2 This then led to investigation of the univariate correlates of …


OBJECTIVE To correlate Computed Tomography (CT) findings with Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) in patients with acute traumatic brain injury attending in Chitwan Medical College teaching hospital Chitwan, Nepal. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross-sectional study was performed among 50 patients of acute (less than24 hours) cases of craniocerebral trauma over a period of four months. The patient's level of consciousness (GCS) was determined and a brain CT scan without contrast media was performed. A sixth generation General Electric (GE) CT scan was utilized and 5mm and 10mm sections were obtained for infratentorial and supratentorial parts respectively. RESULT The age range of the patients was 1 to 75 years (mean age 35.6± 21.516 years) and male: female ratio was 3.1:1. The most common causes of head injury were road traffic accident (RTA) (60%), fall injury (20%), physical assault (12%) and pedestrian injuries (8%). The distribution of patients in accordance with consciousness level was found to be 54% with mild TBI (GCS score 12 to 14), 28% with moderate TBI (GCS score 11 to 8) and 18% with severe TBI (GCS score less than 7). The presence of mixed lesions and midline shift regardless of the underlying lesion on CT scan was accompanied by lower GCS. CONCLUSION The presence of mixed lesions and midline shift regardless of the underlying lesion on CT scan were accompanied with lower GCS. Patients having single lesion had more GCS level than mixed level and mid line shift type of injury. Journal of College of Medical Sciences-Nepal, 2014, Vol.10(2); 4-9


Background: Salvia miltiorrhiza (Danshen), a traditional Chinese herbal medicine, can effectively improve the high-altitude adverse reactions of high-altitude patients. While, the mechanism of how they exert neuroprotective effect to intervene the hypoxic at high altitudes is still not well understood.Methods: The study established high altitude hypoxia mouse model and CoCl2 -induced PC12 cell hypoxia model , the protective effects of S. miltiorrhiza radix extract (SE), Tanshinone IIA (Tan IIA) and salvianic acid A sodium (SAS) on hypoxia model were studied in vitro and in vivo.Results: The results showed that SE, TanⅡA, and SAS are able to improve biochemical level in high altitude hypoxia mouse model, increase in Ca2+ concentration, and decrease in MMP, inhibit apoptosis in CoCl2 -induced PC12 cell hypoxia model by activating Akt signaling pathway, protecting neurons, thus improving the oxygen carrying capacity of brain tissue.Conclusion: This study confirms the efficacy of SE, Tan Ⅱ A, and SAS with respect to therapeutic treatment of hypoxia, shown that S. miltiorrhiza and its active monomers can protect neurons by activating Ngb/Akt intracellular signaling pathway, and attenuate cerebral anoxia and neuronal damage, subsequently nerve injury caused by hypoxia at high altitude. Providing important information for the clinical treatment of nerve injury caused by hypoxia at high altitude.


ABSTRACT Ovarian cancer remains the leading cause of death from a gynecologic malignancy, and treatment of this disease is harder than any other type of female reproductive cancer. Improvements in the diagnosis and development of novel and effective treatment strategies for complex pathophysiologies, such as ovarian cancer, require a better understanding of disease emergence and mechanisms of progression through systems medicine approaches. RNA-level analyses generate new information that can help in understanding the mechanisms behind disease pathogenesis, to identify new biomarkers and therapeutic targets and in new drug discovery. Whole RNA sequencing and coding and non-coding RNA expression array datasets have shed light on the mechanisms underlying disease progression and have identified mRNAs, miRNAs, and lncRNAs involved in ovarian cancer progression. In addition, the results from these analyses indicate that various signalling pathways and biological processes are associated with ovarian cancer. Here, we present a comprehensive literature review on RNA-based ovarian cancer research and highlight the benefits of integrative approaches within the systems biomedicine concept for future ovarian cancer research. We invite the ovarian cancer and systems biomedicine research fields to join forces to achieve the interdisciplinary caliber and rigor required to find real-life solutions to common, devastating, and complex diseases such as ovarian cancer. Abbreviations: CAF: cancer-associated fibroblasts; COG: Cluster of Orthologous Groups; DEA: disease enrichment analysis; EOC: epithelial ovarian carcinoma; ESCC: oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma; GSI: gamma secretase inhibitor; GO: Gene Ontology; GSEA: gene set enrichment analyzes; HAS: Hungarian Academy of Sciences; lncRNAs: long non-coding RNAs; MAPK/ERK: mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinases; NGS: next-generation sequencing; ncRNAs: non-coding RNAs; OvC: ovarian cancer; PI3K/Akt/mTOR: phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/protein kinase B/mammalian target of rapamycin; RT-PCR: real-time polymerase chain reaction; SNP: single nucleotide polymorphism; TF: transcription factor; TGF-β: transforming growth factor-β


The volume of the extracellular fluid has been measured by estimating the thiocyanate 'space' and correcting for the penetration of thiocyanate into the erythrocytes. The total body water has been determined by measuring the volume of the body into which a known amount of urea distributed itself and the fat has been determined by difference after making an allowance for minerals. The accuracy of the method has been tested in a number of ways. The composition of the bodies of twenty-one normal and obese men and women have been investigated. A person of standard weight for height contains 16 to 17% of fat. The bodies of ten undernourished Germans recently repatriated from camps for prisoners of war in Russia have been analyzed before and after rehabilitation and the effects have thereby been demonstrated. This method should help to solve a number of physiological, nutritional and medical problems; some of its applications have been indicated and discussed.


The administration of pharmaceuticals presents a challenge for the healthcare system, as inappropriate drug or dose selection can result in diminished therapeutic efficacy or adverse drug reactions. Genetic variability is a major regulator of drug action which should be taken into account during drug and dose selection. The correlation of drug responses (phenotypes) to specific polymorphisms (genotype) has contributed to the development of many targeted genotyping approaches. Incorporation of such testing into the clinical laboratory requires the evaluation of current testing platform characteristics as well as the selection of appropriate polymorphisms to be tested. Here we describe known genotype – phenotype relationships pertinent to drug action and present currently available targeted genotyping platforms for pharmacogenetics (PGx) testing. We additionally discuss considerations regarding platform and polymorphism selection for successful integration of PGx testing into the clinical laboratory and attainment of clinically useful results.


Organ engineering remains a challenge to researchers. We tried to reconstruct kidney-like tissue using tissue engineering technique. Kidney fragments were isolated from rat E16 embryonic kidneys and seeded on either ECM gel or on polyglycolic acid (PGA) fibers, then implanted in vivo into the subcutaneous tissue of nude mice for 2 and 3 weeks, respectively. As a negative control, ECM alone was implanted. Results showed that kidney like tissue could be formed in ECMfragment constructs after 2 or 3 weeks of implantation, including the formation of glomeruli, tubules and collecting ducts. In addition, these structures seemed more mature in 3 weeks specimens than that of 2 weeks. Further development of this model may lay a solid foundation for kidney tissue engineering.


Every auto-tuning method for PID controllers has two steps: a) identification of the plant and b) tuning of the controller parameters. This paper presents a procedure for plant identification based on two points of its frequency response, namely, the ultimate and the crossover frequency. A novel technique is presented for estimating the ultimate frequency: the Amplitude Dependent Gain (ADG) feedback. This method gives better results than the well-known relay feedback method. The crossover frequency is estimated using a variation of the method proposed by Schei [1], substituting the relay block for the ADG block presented in this paper. Plant identification using two points of its frequency response is better than using only one point, so improved auto-tuning of the controller can be achieved.


Genetic parameters and components of (co)variance for birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), scrotal circumference (SC), weight gain at post-weaning (WG), and muscle score (MUSC) were obtained with univariate, bivariate and multivariate models, using a dataset of 69,525 Nellore cattle. The parameters were estimated by restricted maximum likelihood method. Direct and maternal additive genetic effects, group of management, and maternal permanent environmental effect were adjusted as random effects, while contemporary group was adjusted as fixed effect. Multivariate approach allowed higher estimate heritability for postweaning traits (0.45; 0.31 and 0.25, respectively for SC, WG and MUSC) than univariate (0,42; 0,21 and 0,22) and bivariate models (0,39; 0,25 and 0,24). Similarly, the genetic correlations were higher in the multivariate approach. These results indicate that reducing the bias provided by the mutivariate model improves the estimates of genetic parameters and shows that the results of bivariate and univarite models are underestimated. Selection for muscle score presented great potential for correlated response in other traits and its use in selection programs can be a useful tool for breeders.


There can be no doubt that to the scientist of the future the first half of this century will be marked down as the period in which the subject of atomic physics was born. Fifty years ago the suggestion that an atom had a complex structure would have been regarded with suspicion, while to-day we not only know an immense amount about that structure but we know many of its details with astonishing accuracy. We actually know the diameters and periods of the electron orbits with greater accuracy than we know the dimensions and orbits of the planets of our solar system, and from movement of these electrons we are able to unravel with absolute precision the vast complexity of the lines of the spectrum. Moreover, there is scarcely any scientific investigation of the present day which does not make use of atomic physics; it is the basis of wireless reception, it is fundamental in the development of x rays, and it is the whole secret of radium. Yet its comprehension involves physical concepts of the greatest difficulty, which can really only be fully explained by the most advanced and intricate mathematics. The World atnd the Aotot is an attempt, and a very successful attempt, to explain in non-mathematical language the essential physics of the atom as it has been revealed by the work of physicists of the last forty years. Beginning with a general statement of atomic structure, it enters at once upon a historical account of the work of Becquerel and Rutherford on radium, and shows how this gave the first insight into the structure of the atom, and it explains how this structure accounts for the production of spectra and of x rays. The next chapter deals in greater detail with the minute structure of the atom and describes how this has been investigated and how the whole of the elements have been classified and indexed. The remainder of the volume deals with the extremely difficult problem of the structure of the atomic nuclei and the revolutionary methods by which this has been investigated, and with some of the implications in cosmic physics that are involved. The whole book forms the clearest possible account of atomic structure, and it deserves careful study by all those who are to make use of modern physical methods. Even those who are fortunate enough to possess a good mathematical equipment will find it well worth while to look at those subjects from a more popular aspect and to realize that the problems they have been accustomed to express in mathematical formulae can, at least in outline, be described in simple terms.


Kamaluddin Vahshi Bafqi is the poet in the sixteenth century in Safavi era. He was not indifferent as the poet's Shiite Muslim religion and their beliefs and commitment towards ethical and cultural and religious situation in your community. According to his thoughts, desires and beliefs of many religious concepts is reflected in his poems. The works of the poet reflects on religion, morality, religious, political and social policies of the poet and his community. Vahshi Bafqi as the religious poet and committed has beautifully reflected many religious teachings such as ethics and wisdom, prayer, Ascension of the Prophet (PBUH), influence of the Qur'an and the sayings and teachings of pure Imams (AS), prophets and imams appearance, jurisprudence, Thanksgiving, mysticism and mystical love, believe in the Hereafter and heaven and Hell, belief in fate and so on poetry and his works and sometimes it's exquisite illustrations, and content creation which has been influence and attract the audience and his readers word.


Demand response is a key component of existing and future grid systems facing increased variability and peak demands. Scaling demand response requires efficiently predicting individual responses for large numbers of consumers while selecting the right ones to signal. This paper proposes a new online learning problem that captures consumer diversity, messaging fatigue and response prediction. We use the framework of multi-armed bandits model to address this problem. This yields simple and easy to implement index based learning algorithms with provable performance guarantees.


This paper explores the use of visual operators for solids modeling. We focus on designing interfaces for free-form operators such as blends, sweeps, and deformations, because these operators have a large number of interacting parameters whose effects are often determined by an underlying parameterization. In this type of interactive modeling good solutions to the design problem have aesthetic as well as engineering components. Traditionally, interaction with the parameters of these operators has been through text editors, curve editors, or trial-and-error with a slider bar. Parametric values have been estimated from data, but not interactively. These parametersare usually oneor two-dimensional,but the operators themselves are intrinsically three-dimensional in that they are used to model surfaces visualized in 3D. The traditional textual style of interaction is tedious and interposes a level of abstraction between the parameters and the resulting surface. A 3D visual interface has the potential to reduce or eliminate these problems by combining parameters and representing them with a higherlevel visual tool. The visual tools we present not only speed up the process of determining good parameter values but also provide visual interactions that are either independent of the particular parameterizations or make explicit the effect of the parameterizations. Additionally, these tools can be manipulated in the same 3D space as the surfaces producedby the operators, supporting quick, interactive exploration of the large design space of these free-form operators. This paper discusses the difficulties in creating a coherent user interface for interactive modeling. To this end we present four principles for designing visual operators, using several free-form visual operators as concrete examples. CR Categories: I.3.5 [Computer Graphics]: Computational Geometry and Object Modeling, Curve, surface, solid, and object representations, Splines; Additional


This book reported the literature survey of the chemistry of dibenzobarallene. The activity of dibenzobarallene and their synthetic importance were investigated. Syntheses, reactions and the biological importance of dibenzobarallene were also investigated. Furthermore, the obtained results were discussed, 51 novel compounds and some related analogues were synthesized, the synthetic mechanisms were investigated and compounds were established by elemental analyses and spectral data. Such novel compounds were prepared in this book based on dibenzobarallene namely; thiocarbamoyl, thiazolidin-5-one, 4-arylazo-1,3-thiazolidin-5-one, N-substituted isonidole, thiazole, thiophene, S,N-acetal and thiazolidinone derivatives. The investigated compounds exhibited good antibacterial activities. The color measurements and fastness properties were evaluated for some of the prepared aryl azo derivatives on some synthetic fabrics. Finally, the experimental methods were included.


Wilson and Bowman (1986) classified and mapped vegetation in a complex mosaic at Howard's Peninsula, Northern Territory. The relationship of bird distribution to this vegetation classification was considered through 10 repeat censuses of 5 replicate quadrats in each of 20 vegetation units. Censusing period was April-May. 118 bird species were recorded. Closed forests (3 units), mangroves (2 units) and swamplands (3 units) all had distinctive bird species compositions, but bird species showed a relatively poor relationship with the classification of woodland and grassland units. Eucalyptus woodlands regrowing after devastation by a cyclone in 1974 had similar bird species diversity and density to undamaged woodlands, though somewhat different bird species composition. Eucalyptus woodlands with a dense shrubby understorey had significantly greater bird density and species diversity than those with open or grassy understories and their bird species composition showed appreciable association with that of closed forests. Closed forest and, less so, mangrove units had highest diversity and density (despite their relatively small proportion in the study area and in the region generally), probably because they offered a wider range of foraging possibilities.


Abstract The northwestern Deccan volcanic province in India is one of the most seismically active intraplate regions of the world. In addition, the region is associated with episodic swarm activity and reports of sounds, whose linkage hitherto remains elusive. During the month of January 2016, a swarm activity occurred in the Kachchh and Saurashtra regions and continued for about two months. Many of the events were accompanied by audible sounds, like blasting, that caused severe panic among local residents, prompting us to investigate the causative mechanism. The events were recorded by our seismic stations and an additional five stations that we were able to deploy at the onset of the swarm. The activity produced sounds with good energy in the audible frequency range of humans. Spectrogram analysis of the events with associated sounds revealed frequencies ≥20  Hz, in contrast to the lower frequencies for those that did not generate the sounds. In addition to the higher frequencies, we observed horizontal particle motion that was dominated by retrograde elliptical motion consistent with Rayleigh waves. These observations were not recorded from any of the events that did not generate sounds. Audible sounds generated by earthquakes are consistently reported from shallow earthquakes that generate high‐frequency surface waves.


The paper presents a nonlinear adaptive controller (NAC) for single-input single-output feedback linearisable nonlinear systems. A sliding-mode state and perturbation observer is designed to estimate the system states and perturbation which includes the combined effect of system nonlinearities, uncertainties and external disturbances. The NAC design does not require the details of the nonlinear system model and full system states. It possesses an adaptation capability to deal with system parameter uncertainties, unmodelled system dynamics and external disturbances. The convergence of the observer and the stability analysis of the controller/observer system are given. The proposed control scheme is applied for control of a synchronous generator, in comparison with a state-feedback linearising controller (FLC). Simulation study is carried out based on a single-generator infinite-bus power system to show the performance of the controller/observer system.


A new synthetic approach to polyfunctional hexahydropyrrolo[3,4-b]pyrroles was developed based on cyclization of N-arylbromomaleimides with aminocrotonic acid esters. A highly chemo- and stereoselective reaction is a Hantzsch-type domino process, involving the steps of initial nucleophilic C-addition or substitution and subsequent intramolecular nucleophilic addition without recyclyzation of imide cycle.


Students enrolled in a college preparatory reading class were categorized based on language origin. Native English speakers comprised one group and foreign students were dichotomized into Latin-based (for example, Spanish) and non Latin-based (for example, Japanese) language groups. A pretest assessment quantified existing knowledge of Latinate word parts and morphologically complex vocabulary; the identical instrument served as a posttest. Two sections on both the pretest and posttest yielded a total of four distinct mean scores that formed the primary basis for comparison. Categorizing students within the college preparatory reading class based on language origin revealed distinct strengths and weaknesses relative to L1 status. The results of this study suggest that college preparatory students enter higher education with limited knowledge of Latinate word parts and related vocabulary. Additionally, the results evince the utility of morphological analysis as a vocabulary acquisition strategy—regardless of language origin.


Abstract In this research, experimental investigations of foam-assisted water alternating gas and water alternating gas processes in carbonate cores are studied in order to estimate the increases in the oil recovery in the gas and water invaded zones. Core flooding experiments were performed for low-temperature fractured carbonate cores, chosen from one of the Iranian carbonate oil reservoirs, under tertiary recovery conditions. The experiments were conducted on 1.5-in. diameter carbonate cores, using live oil and synthetic/field brine (with 5,000 ppm of salts) as the water formation and also sodium lauryl sulfate as an anionic surfactant along with pure CO2 as the injection gas. The samples were initially saturated with live oil and connate water and then flooded with brine to reach residual oil saturation at reservoir conditions (115°F and 1,700 psia) to imitate the water invaded zone in the core. In addition to that, since the reservoir has a secondary gas cap, the same procedure was used to provide the gas invaded zone with methane as well. After performing water and gas flooding processes, several cycles of foam-assisted water alternating gas and water alternating gas were injected into the core. The experimental results indicated that a better swept efficiency and, consequently, a higher improved oil recovery can be achieved by the foam-assisted water alternating gas process. The recoveries are shown to be 19.2 and 28.7% of the residual oil in place for gas and water invaded zones, respectively. Furthermore, the results indicate that in the foam-assisted water alternating gas process, the produced free gas decreases due to foam generation inside the core.


The Noble Role for SF. Mark Rich. C. M. Kornbluth: The Life and Works of a Science Fiction Visionary. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2010. 451 pp. ISBN 9780786443932, $39.95 pbk.Reviewed by Donald M. HasslerI write this review with some sadness shortly after the death of Fred Pohl, who survived his friend and co-worker by over half a century. As we know, Kornbluth and Pohl both began to work very young as writers and might have borne as their common motto the famous statement from Keats' letters: "what, if I live, I hope to do." And, like Keats, both triumphed over mortality and did very much in spite of the gradient in duration between their two stretches of activity. This excellent book by Rich makes it clear over and over how active Pohl was and how fine and careful a writer Kornbluth had become in the short time allotted to him. There is much else in the book on the whole circle of writers around the Futurians, as they called themselves, from Asimov and Wollheim to Judith Merril and James Blish. It was truly a seedbed for modern sf, and Rich touches on most of the seeds here. The interesting yoking and dynamic of Kornbluth and Pohl, however, may be most representative both of the Futurian program (for sf and for fandom) and of how writing and literature, indeed, may be a breeding ground for new developments-even the evolution of culture.Kornbluth was only fifteen and Pohl three years older when the "Futurian Science Literary Society" held its first organizational meeting in Manhattan on 18 September 181938 and the turbulent history began of trying to make fandom and stories themselves practical and instrumental in social progress. These teenage writers loved the literature produced in the pulp magazines, but they were serious activists too. They labeled their political purposefulness "Michelism" after an original member, John Michel, who was the most adamant about Marxism of the time and about "the people." By early 1957, just a little over a year before his death, Cyril Kornbluth gave a speech at the University of Chicago, later published in The Science Fiction Novel (edited by Basil Davenport) in which he lamented the failure of sf as social criticism. He said he did not want their work to be socially impotent but acknowledged some glimmer of hope for Michelism, noting that The Space Merchants (1952) had received a long review in The Industrial Worker. The novel, of course, is a collaborative work by Pohl and him. So the story between those two poles- almost two "Pohls," to allow myself the cheapest of puns-is fascinating. It is one of the key rich stories in this valuable book. I ought to have posted my review of the book when it first appeared from McFarland. But in a way, I am glad I delayed in order to get a deeper perspective.We have come to understand that at least two forces are necessary for active evolutionary development: on the one hand, a rich and even massive proliferation of detail and possibility, and on the other, a selection and survival process. Kornbluth learned to focus and to hone his major satiric motif, which Rich identifies as irony in the face of attacks on "the people" by large and powerful conglomerates. It was the combination of the fascist juggernaut that he fought against as an American infantryman as well as the high technology of the bomb that helped him focus this sense of the haunt of the conglomerate. Another huge conglomerate force was simply the commercial and word power of the hackish writer as Kornbluth knew that power. From the start, the Futurians believed in collaborative writing. Several of them continually positioned themselves as editors and agents for saleable stories. …


Although mainstream grating writing, more often than not using single photon excitation of germanosilicate based defects with CW 244nm light, remains the key technology for complex devices it is now being complemented by a whole host of processes which can enhance and tailor the properties of both conventional and not-so-conventional fibre Bragg gratings. Further, processes for writing in non-germanosilicate based gratings have also continued to develop and include multi-photon excitation directly into the band edge of the glass. It is now possible to custom tailor a gratings property based on the application and the nature of production as well as custom tailor the grating writing process to suit the type of fibre and application.


The LHCb detector at CERN is scheduled to undergo an upgrade during the second long shutdown of the LHC. As part of this upgrade, the vertex detector (VELO) will be replaced with a new hybrid pixel detector, based on an evolution of the Timepix ASIC. The performance of this detector should improve upon that achieved by the current VELO, in addition to facilitating the complete detector readout at 40 MHz.

As part of the preparation for this upgrade, this thesis presents the results of studies carried out on the single hit resolution of silicon hybrid pixel detectors. The development of a particle beam telescope has been carried out to allow these studies, shown to operate with track rates in excess of 45 kHz and with a pointing resolution at the device under test of less than 2 μm. A wide range of sensor types, thicknesses and resistivities have then been tested under different operating conditions and the results presented, with single hit resolutions varying between 4 μm and 12 μm depending on the conditions and incident angle. The resistivity of the devices is observed to have a significant effect on the single hit resolution, with high resistivity substrates allowing operation at lower bias voltages. This facilitates increased charge sharing, and the corresponding improvement in resolution. At sufficiently large incident angles however, the resolution becomes independent of the electric field, being instead dominated by the sensor geometry and variations in the charge deposited along the track length. No significant differences were found between the various detector technologies (n-on-n, n-on-p and p-on-n) though a difference in performance is expected for low-voltage operation of higher resistivity samples. A simplified model of the physical processes contributing to the detector resolution has been constructed, shown to reasonably reproduce the observed resolution as a function of angle and bias voltage. This model is extrapolated to potential future directions in the design of pixel sensors, highlighting the differences between various technology choices.

The integration of the ATLAS FE-I4 ASIC into the telescope has been carried out, and the performance of an unirradiated planar silicon sensor was shown in order to verify this. Efficiency measurements show that the device is fully efficient in the angular range measured. The tracking performance of two irradiated sensors mounted on FE-I4 ASICs has been investigated, in addition to the mapping of collected charge over the pixel unit cell under various biasing conditions and at varying incident angles with respect to the incoming particles. For the sample irradiated to 2e15 1 MeV neq /cm2 the single hit resolution was 12.5 μm at perpendicular incidence, dropping to 8 μm at 22 degrees. The sample irradiated to 4e15 1 MeV neq /cm2 was found to have a resolution of around 13.5 μm, which remained relatively insensitive to the incident track angle. The conclusions drawn suggest that the upgraded VELO detector will be able to overcome the difficult radiation environment if it is able to reach the high voltage operation required.

The implementation of these observations in the LHCb simulation environment has allowed some initial studies on the likely degradation of the detector performance to take place, showing that the high tracking efficiency (99.4 % for Long tracks) is likely to be maintained throughout the full lifetime of the upgrade. The impact parameter resolution was not observed to vary significantly. These studies have been carried out alongside simulations to gauge the expected compression that can be achieved in the data transmission of the VELOPix ASIC. Different designs of the front-end have been implemented, leading to the adoption of binary readout for the upgraded VELO. The uniformity of the pixel pitch across the detector has additionally been used to show the sensitivity of the system to multiple scattering, shown to be a credible tool with which to control the event reconstruction in the online LHCb trigger. A reduction of the number of VELO tracks passed to the forward reconstruction of almost 50 % has been shown, for the loss of only 5 % of tracks with momentum above 20 GeV/c. This could potentially replace the lifetime biasing cuts currently envisaged in the trigger.


Efficient sharing of system resources is critical to obtaining high utilization and enforcing system-level performance objectives on chip multiprocessors (CMPs). Although several proposals that address the management of a single microarchitectural resource have been published in the literature, coordinated management of multiple interacting resources on CMPs remains an open problem. We propose a framework that manages multiple shared CMP resources in a coordinated fashion to enforce higher-level performance objectives. We formulate global resource allocation as a machine learning problem. At runtime, our resource management scheme monitors the execution of each application, and learns a predictive model of system performance as a function of allocation decisions. By learning each application's performance response to different resource distributions, our approach makes it possible to anticipate the system-level performance impact of allocation decisions at runtime with little runtime overhead. As a result, it becomes possible to make reliable comparisons among different points in a vast and dynamically changing allocation space, allowing us to adapt our allocation decisions as applications undergo phase changes. Our evaluation concludes that a coordinated approach to managing multiple interacting resources is key to delivering high performance in multiprogrammed workloads, but this is possible only if accompanied by efficient search mechanisms. We also show that it is possible to build a single mechanism that consistently delivers high performance under various important performance metrics.


Abstract The deep-sea anglerfishes of the suborder Ceratioidei (Lophiiformes) are represented by about 170 valid species with some of the most extraordinary morphological and reproductive adaptations among vertebrates, including extreme sexual dimorphism and male parasitism. Here we report on the diversity and distribution of rare ceratioids collected during the ABRACOS (Acoustics along the BRAzilian COaSt) expeditions off northeastern Brazil and the Fernando de Noronha Ridge (Rocas Atoll, Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, and associated seamounts). Chaenophryne ramifera, Oneirodes anisacanthus, O. carlsbergi, Gigantactis watermani, and unidentified specimens of Caulophryne, Dolopichthys, and Rhynchactis are recorded for the first time in the Brazilian Exclusive Economic Zone. Ceratias uranoscopus, Melanocetus johnsonii, and Chaenophryne draco have their distributions extended in Brazilian waters. Caulophryne, O. anisacanthus, and G. watermani are also recorded for the first time in the western South Atlantic. The specimen of G. watermani reported here represents the third known specimen of the species, and variations of its escal anatomy in relation to the holotype are described. Based on specimens examined and a review of records in the literature, 20 species of the Ceratioidei, in addition to unidentified species of Caulophryne, Dolopichthys, and Rhynchactis, are confirmed in the Brazilian Exclusive Economic Zone.


The effects of a learning strategy to prompt deeper thinking and the incorporation of more UDL instructional differentiations and adaptions in the lesson plans by pre service and early career teachers were examined. Class 1 (control) received a 2.5 hour lecture with guided practice about Universal Design for Learning. Class 2 (experimental) received a 2.5 lecture with guided practice about Universal Design for Learning with the ADAPT Strategy incorporated. A modeled thinking process of the ADAPT strategy was provided. The participants' (n = 43) application of Universal Design strategies to adapt lesson plans for diverse learners was compared using a rubric. Three lesson plans for each participant was collected for both Class 1 and Class 2. The first lesson plan was collected in the beginning of the course prior to instruction; the second, after the 2.5 lecture with guided practice for Class 1 (control) and the UDL training with the ADAPT strategy for Class 2 (experimental). The third lesson plan was collected four weeks after for both Class 1 and 2 as a second posttest. Class 2 (experimental) employed more UDL strategies and scored significantly higher than Class 1 (control) on the second and final lesson plan. Moreover, Class 2 participants had adaptions which were well connected to the lesson, evidenced by explicit explanations of where, when and why the adaption would be used. Additionally, more evidences of tying the lesson to the learners in the case study were noted. The results suggest that experience in thinking about "how" to create adaptions may be a necessary opportunity required by pre-service and early career teachers to practice differentiating instruction and making adaptation.


In this article, I analyse empirically whether the audience attending classical concerts can be subdivided into three segments - following the lead of Howard Becker's Art Worlds (1984). Moreover, I investigate how far these groups have different aesthetic dispositions towards classical music. Based on an extensive audience survey in five institutions staging both symphonic and chamber music in Flanders, Belgium (2005), three groups are distinguished based on the frequency of attendance: the passers-by, the interested participants and the inner circle. It is found that these segments differ in socio-demographic composition, have different motives for attendance and have different aesthetic dispositions towards classical music. Yet, all segments share the wish to be emotionally moved and affected by music. Implications for cultural policy and marketing the arts are discussed.


Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) was used for rutin (quercetin-3-rutinoside) determination in selected buckwheat products (whole meal flour, broken seeds, seed hulls, herbs and baked cereal breads). The effect of various thermal procedures on content of rutin was evaluated using calcium as an internal tracker to correct changes in mass and composition of the buckwheat products. These factors are very seldom taken into account. The results show non-significant changes in rutin levels obtained in whole meal flour and broken seed samples after thermal treatment up to 150°C. Higher temperature already caused sudden fall in the observed rutin concentrations. The evaporation of some volatile compounds and degradation products can decrease the mass of the samples and formally increase the content of rutin (35.5 ±4.7 mg per 100 g for whole meal flour and 10.2 ±0.4 mg per100 g for broken seeds at 150°C). Serious decrease of rutin contents at elevated temperatures (>150°C) can be explained by its degradation (by breaking off the C-C bond in quercetin-3-rutinoside moiety) and/or evaporation (24.3 ±1.4 mg per 100 g for whole meal flour and 3.06 ±0.3 mg per100 g for broken seeds at 180°C). In case of baked cereal breads the level of rutin changed in dependence on the ratio between buckwheat and corn flour. Longer time leaching and higher temperature implicate higher rutin content in infusions prepared from buckwheat seed hulls and herbs.


Universal Extra Dimension (UED) is a well-motivated and well-studied scenario. One of the main motivations is the presence of a dark matter (DM) candidate namely, the lightest level-1 Kaluza-Klein (KK) particle (LKP), in the particle spectrum of UED. The minimal version of UED (mUED) scenario is highly predictive with only two parameters namely, the radius of compactification and cut-off scale, to determine the phenomenology. Therefore, stringent constraint results from the WMAP/PLANCK measurement of DM relic density (RD) of the universe. The production and decays of level-1 quarks and gluons in UED scenarios give rise to multijet final states at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment. We study the ATLAS search for multijet plus missing transverse energy signatures at the LHC with 13 TeV center of mass energy and 139 inverse femtobarn integrated luminosity. In view of the fact that the DM RD allowed part of mUED parameter-space has already been ruled out by the ATLAS multijet search, we move on to a less restricted version of UED namely, the non-minimal UED (nmUED), with non-vanishing boundary-localized terms (BLTs). The presence of BLTs significantly alters the dark matter as well as the collider phenomenology of nmUED. We obtain stringent bounds on the BLT parameters from the ATLAS multijet plus missing transverse energy search.


Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) causes a serious disease of tomato in many countries throughout the world. Preliminary reports suggested that TYLC disease was present in 1997 in South Africa. In 1998 140 ha of tomato fields in the Onderberg area were assessed for possible presence of TYLCV. Symptoms like those caused by TYLCV isolates in Israel were observed in most fields, and disease incidence ranged from <1 to 50%. Yield losses in individual plants ranged from negligible to 100% and appeared related to the age of the plants at time of infection. Two isolates of the suspect virus were experimentally transmitted from symptomatic tomato to virus-free, glasshouse-grown tomato seedlings by colony. Field and colony whiteflies were identified as the Bemisia tabaci based on mt COI sequence analysis (1). Attempts to transmit the suspect begomovirus by sap inoculation between tomato plants were unsuccessful. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification with degenerate PCR primers (2) that permit detection of the coat protein gene (AV1) and the common region (CR) of other begomoviruses yielded an amplicon of the expected size (2,100 bp), suggesting begomovirus association with diseased tomato plants. Nucleotide (nt) sequence analysis of AV1 for both tomato isolate AF261885 indicated that they were indistinguishable and shared less than 78% sequence identity with other well-studied begomoviruses, indicating a distinct, previously undescribed begomovirus species. AV1 sequence comparisons also revealed that its closest relatives were members of the TYLCV cluster, which includes South African cassava mosaic virus (77.4%) (AF11785), East African cassava mosaic virus (77.3%) (AJ006459), and TYLCV-IS (76.2%) (X15656). The theoretical Rep binding element in the CR, TCGGT, was identical to TYLCV-IS and Cotton leaf curl virus-Pakistan (AJ002448) (AJ002449). Here, we provisionally designate this new tomato-infecting begomoviral species, Tomato curly stunt virus from South Africa (ToCSV-SA). References: (1) D. R. Frohlich et al. Mol. Ecol. 8:1683, 1999. (2) A. M. Idris and J. K. Brown. Phytopathology 88:648, 1998.


Abstract Received histories present national accounts as universal, purely economic measures based mostly on theoretical foundations. This paper argues that this is an anachronistic approach to the long and uneven development of these estimates and builds on geopolitical economy to examine national income estimates as quantifications of state power. First, it reveals national income accounts to be historically and geographically contingent rather than universal, suggesting contestation instead of any hegemony or dominance of one central ideology. Second, the economic power and motivations of nation-states, rather than economic theory, are at the core of the design of national income estimates, which are used to promote states' position in international competition as well as advocate for particular national economic policies. The history of national accounting closely tracks the rise of the nation-state, the unique phase of British hegemony, the two World Wars, the east-west competition of the Cold War, and the north-south competition of the recent two decades. To this day, revisions to national accounting systems reflect the shifting balance of power and incessant international competition.


We tackle the problem of forecasting network-signal snapshots using past signal measurements acquired by a subset of network nodes. This task can be seen as a combination of multivariate time-series prediction and graph-signal interpolation. This is a fundamental problem for many applications wherein deploying a high granularity network is impractical. Our solution combines recurrent neural networks with frequency-analysis tools from graph signal processing, and assumes that data is sufficiently smooth with respect to the underlying graph. The proposed approach outperforms state-of-the-art deep learning techniques, especially when only a small fraction of the graph signals is accessible, considering two distinct real world datasets: temperatures in the US and speed flow in Seattle. The results also indicate that our method can handle noisy signals and missing data, making it suitable to many practical applications.