Bullwhip Effect, Particle Swarm Optimization, Supply Chain, Demand Information Abstract. A deformation phenomenon occurring in business activity, called the bullwhip effect which comes from the demand information is not fully shared among the members of a supply chain, conducts the upstream manufacturer to excessively anticipate the demand capacity of the downstream retailer. The manufacturer improperly decides the amount of the products not only to raise the inventory cost on the way of poorly handling the actually downstream demand, but also to lose the chance of business deals due to its backordering. To cope with the bullwhip effect by taking into account the holding and backorder costs, an evolutionary method based on the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm to estimate the critical parameter, mean downstream demand, is proposed and computer validated in this paper such that the estimated inventory level could be close the really batch ordering of the manufacturer.


A small, juvenile rorqual live-stranded on Qeshm Island, Iran, in the northern Strait of Hormuz (Persian Gulf) in September 2007. Cause of stranding remains unknown but the whale (QE22.09.2007) showed no severe traumatic injuries nor was emaciated. Based on at least seven morphological features, considered diagnostic in combination, allowed a positive identification as Omura's whale Balaenoptera omurai. Features included diminutive body size (397 cm), a large number of ventral grooves (n=82) extending caudad of the umbilicus, a strongly falcate dorsal fin, asymmetric colouration of the head (especially lower jaws) reminiscent of fin whale, including three unilateral dark stripes, faint/incomplete lateral rostral ridges, record low number of short, broad baleen plates (204 in right jaw). The likelihood for the existence of a local B. omurai population in the eastern Persian Gulf or northern Arabian Sea seems higher than the wandering of a very young animal or mother/calf pair from any of the known distant distribution areas in the eastern Indian Ocean or SW Indian Ocean (Madagascar). This is the first record of B. omurai in the NW Indian Ocean.


Throughout the last decades the anatomical and/or geochemical properties of marine biogenic hard-parts (e.g., mollusc shells, fish otoliths or coralline algae) became a valuable source for palaeoenvironmental information. Regular growth patterns are an important characteristic of these bioarchives, which allow proxy-information to be generated with distinct and high temporal resolution. However, standard methods of growth pattern visualization may fail in fossil bio-archives owing to alterations of the organic compounds within the biogenic materials with time.
We demonstrate that confocal Raman microscopy (CRM) can identify and visualize growth patterns of mollusc shells from different geological ages with high spatial resolution (300 nm). In contrast to standard staining techniques (e.g., Mutvei's solution) CRM has been be applied successfully to samples in which the organic components are altered. Furthermore, CRM is ideal to identify mineral (and organic) phases and potential taphonomic alterations (e.g., recrystallization from aragonite to calcite) in marine biogenic carbonates. Checking for such alterations should be a mandatory step prior to any kind of biogeochemical analysis (e.g., stable isotopes or trace elemental ratios) of fossil samples. Therefore, CRM can play an important role in the quality control of biogenic carbonate studies. Here we use CRM to visualize growth structures in the umbonal and the ventral shell portion of the marine bivalve Arctica islandica at different spatial resolutions (μm to mm). The reliability of the method has been tested and proven by comparing the growth structures in Mutvei and CRM derived images of the same modern A. islandica specimen. In addition, CRM has been applied to fossil samples in which staining techniques failed. Derived growth trends are shown and all CRM results are compared to reflected light microscopy and staining methods in the same specimens.


Objective: Perimodiolar electrode arrays were developed in an attempt to improve stimulation of specific neural populations and to decrease electrical thresholds, thereby decreasing power consumption. Postoperative radiographs show that coiling of the arrays is variable. Our previous study explored the relationship between the angle of coiling, threshold levels, and functional outcomes using the Nucleus Contour electrode array. This study compares coiling angle, electrical threshold levels, and speech perception measures with the Nucleus Contour Advance electrode array implanted using the new advance off stylet technique versus the Nucleus Contour electrode array implanted using the standard technique. Study Design: Retrospective review. Setting: University medical center. Patients: Forty-two adults and children with normal cochlear anatomy implanted with the Nucleus CI24RCA electrode using the advance off stylet technique with at least 1-year follow-up. Intervention: Therapeutic. Main Outcome Measures: Computer-aided radiographic analysis of perimodiolar electrode placement, electrical threshold measurements, and speech perception outcome measures at 1 year postimplantation. Results: The degree of modiolar coiling was tighter using the new electrode and technique in comparison with standard insertion technique using the Nucleus Contour electrode array. The tighter coiling tended to result in higher electrical thresholds. Lower speech perception outcome measures tended to correlate with a higher degree of coiling. Conclusion: The Nucleus Contour Advance electrode array combined with the advance off stylet technique resulted in a more consistent perimodiolar position. However, the tighter coiling resulted in statistically significant increased electrical thresholds and decreased speech perception outcomes. This finding may be secondary to multiple factors, not just coiling angle.


Abstract. Physics-based understanding of the effects of paleoclimate and paleogeography on the thermohaline circulation of the Mediterranean Sea requires an ocean model capable of long integrations and involving a minimum of assumptions about the atmospheric forcing. Here we examine the sensitivity of the deep circulation in the eastern Mediterranean basin to changes in atmospheric forcing, considered a key factor in the deposition of organic-rich sediments (sapropels). To this extent we explore the setup of an ocean general circulation model (MOMA) with realistic (present-day) bathymetry and highly idealized forcing. The model proves able to qualitatively capture some important features of the large-scale overturning circulation, in particular for the eastern basin. The response to (i) a reduction in the imposed meridional temperature gradient, or (ii) a reduction in net evaporation, proves to be non-linear and, under certain conditions, of transient nature. Consistent with previous model studies, but now based on a minimum of assumptions, we find that a reduction in net evaporation (such as due to an increase in freshwater input) may halt the deep overturning circulation. The ability to perform long model integrations allows us to add the insight that, in order to have the conditions favourable for sapropel formation persist, we must also assume that the vertical mixing of water properties was reduced. The "minimal" model here presented opens the way to experiments in which one truly follows the basin circulation into, or out of, the period of sapropel formation and where forcing conditions are continously adjusted to the precession cycle.


The United States (US) Export Enhancement Program (EEP) was introduced in May 1985 with the goal of alleviating the agricultural sector's financial stress, through a restoration of export performance. Recently, the objectives of the policy have become more political in nature. The EEP is now considered to be an important means to pressure the European Community (EC) into offering concessions at multilateral trade negotiations. Under the EEP, payment inkind of export subsidies are authorized for selected or "targeted" markets. The EEP sales are supposed to be additional to commercial sales and should displace subsidized EC exports. Trade theory indicates that targeted export subsidies can be welfare increasing for the subsidizing country, but are likely to cause disruptions in international trade flows, and may reduce world prices. The effectiveness of using export subsidies to increase export volume is reduced when other exporters retaliate. Many other factors may affect the performance of the EEP, including import demand elasticity, importer behavior, and market supply and demand conditions. The EEP has not significantly increased US export or market share. The effectiveness of the program been limited because the EC increased its use of export restitutions in response to the EEP. Oth er agricultural exporters strongly oppose the EEP, and the policy has caused diplomatic tension between the US and other agricultural porters. This negative side-effect of the EEP acted to undermine the US position at international trade talks. When the EEP comes up for reauthorization in 1995, policymakers will need to reexamine this policy to determine if it is an essential element of US agricultural trade policy. If it continues to perform as it did during the 1985-1990 period, legislators should consider eliminating the policy.


This paper deals with the international effects of budget deficits arising from distortionary tax and transfer policies. The analysis demonstrates that the consequences of tax policies and the characteristics of the international transmission mechanism depend critically on the precise composition of taxes. Specifically, the international effects of budget deficits of a given size differ sharply according to the types of taxes used to generate the deficit. We show that in determining the effects of taxes it is useful to divide the various distortionary taxes into two groups: those that stimulate current external borrowing (national dissaving) and those that stimulate current external lending (national saving). A pro-borrowing tax policy raises the world rate of interest while a pro-lending tax policy lowers it. The resulting change in the rate of interest is the channel through which the effects of budget deficits are transmitted to the rest of the world. The key propositions are illustrated by a series of examples involving consumption taxes (VAT), taxes on income of labor and capital and taxes on international borrowing.


The static failure can be seen as a special fatigue failure, which means the static failure is the fatigue failure only bearing one cycle under the ultimate-strength loading. By learning from the analysis of fatigue damage, the stress- strain curve and damage of steel fiber reinforced concrete under uniaxial loading have been studied in this paper. The damage evolution equation can be derived from the damage theory, and it can be used to describe the relationship between the damage variable and strain. According to the strain equivalence principle, the corresponding constitutive equation considering damage can be obtained. Finally, comparisons among test results, the model and ansys simulation results show that the model is suitable to describe the uniaxial stress-strain curves of steel fiber reinforced concrete.


Samples of the anaerobically stabilized sewage sludge from four large wastewater treatment plants and their ash were subjected to detailed chemical, fuel, and mineralogical examinations. Owing to their very high water contents, mechanically dewatered sewage sludge cannot be incinerated. Peculiar characteristics of the dried sewage sludge include very high proportions of volatile matter, high contents of the fuel-bound nitrogen and ash, which can affect their combustion. Drying and devolatilization of sewage sludge were quite rapid even at moderate temperatures. Up to 80 % of the sludge carbon can be released with the volatiles. Due to nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium contents, municipal sludge exhibits good fertilizer properties. However, the presence of heavy metals such as As, Cd, Hg, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu and Zn in sludge is a serious concern. The ash from sewage sludge consists of quartz, hematite, spar, mica, apatite, and anhydrite. It does not soften or becomes sticky at temperatures up to 950 °C.


Porcine aortic endothelial cells were isolated and maintained in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DME medium)/10% citrate-treated human plasma. They were stimulated by DME medium/10% human serum to grow from a density of 10,100 +/- 500 per well to a final density of 83,000 +/- 1,800 per well over a 9-day period. On the other hand these cells grew poorly (11% increase) in DME medium/10% human platelet-poor plasma prepared without chelating agents and containing platelet factor 4 at 18 ng/ml by radioimmunoassay. Dialysis of the human serum (M(r) cutoff, 3,500) eliminated all the stimulatory activity. The activity recovered from the dialysate stimulated growth when added to endothelial cultures in conjunction with either dialyzed serum or platelet-poor plasma alone. The dialyzable factor could be obtained directly from platelets; both acetic acid extracts and boiled NaCl extracts stimulated porcine aortic endothelial cell replication. Gel filtration chromatography on Sephadex G-15 showed that the endothelial growth factor had a molecular weight of 700. Partially purified material induced a concentration-dependent stimulation of porcine aortic endothelial cell replication in the presence of DME medium alone; however, simultaneous incubation with platelet-poor plasma resulted in a much greater response. Fibroblast growth factor isolated from bovine brain was found to be mitogenic only in the presence of nondialyzed serum or of the dialyzable factor together with plasma. In the absence of this serum factor, fibroblast growth factor had no effect. We conclude that human serum contains a potent endothelial cell mitogen of platelet origin. Human plasma that is devoid of platelet content does not stimulate endothelial cell growth. This growth factor may be an important stimulant of the endothelial cell response to vascular wall injury.


The work presented here resulted in a valuable innovative technology tool for automatic detection of catastrophic errors in cancer radiotherapy, adding an important safeguard for patient safety. We designed a tool for Dynamic Modeling and Prediction of Radiotherapy Treatment Deviations from Intended Plans (Smart Tool) to automatically detect and highlight potential errors in a radiotherapy treatment plan, based on the data from several thousand prostate cancer treatments at Moore Cancer Research Center at University of California San Diego. Smart Tool determines if the treatment parameters are valid, against a previously built Predictive Model of a Medical Error (PMME). Smart Tool has the following main features: 1) It communicates with a radiotherapy treatment management system, checking all the treatment parameters in the background prior to execution, and after the human expert QA is completed, 2) The anomalous treatment parameters, if any, are detected using an innovative intelligent algorithm in a completely automatic and unsupervised manner, 3) It is a self-learning and constantly evolving system, the model is dynamically updated with the new treatment data, 4) It incorporates expert knowledge through the feedback loop of the dynamic process which updates the model with any new false positives (FP) and false negatives (FN), 4) When an outlier treatment parameter is detected, Smart Tool works by preventing the plan execution and highlighting the parameter for human intervention, 5) It is aimed at catastrophic errors, not small errors.


We introduce a new online learning framework where, at each trial, the learner is required to select a subset of actions from a given known action set. Each action is associated with an energy value, a reward and a cost. The sum of the energies of the actions selected cannot exceed a given energy budget. The goal is to maximise the cumulative profit, where the profit obtained on a single trial is defined as the difference between the maximum reward among the selected actions and the sum of their costs. Action energy values and the budget are known and fixed. All rewards and costs associated with each action change over time and are revealed at each trial only after the learner's selection of actions. Our framework encompasses several online learning problems where the environment changes over time; and the solution trades-off between minimising the costs and maximising the maximum reward of the selected subset of actions, while being constrained to an action energy budget. The algorithm that we propose is an efficient and very scalable unifying approach which is capable of solving our general problem. Hence, our method solves several online learning problems which fall into this general framework.


HIV prevalence has recently begun to decline in Zimbabwe, a result of both high levels of AIDS mortality and a reduction in incident infections. An important component in understanding the dynamics in HIV prevalence is knowledge of past trends in incidence, such as when incidence peaked and at what level. However, empirical measurements of incidence over an extended time period are not available from Zimbabwe or elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. Using mortality data, we use a back-calculation technique to reconstruct historic trends in incidence. From AIDS mortality data, extracted from death registration in Harare, together with an estimate of survival post-infection, HIV incidence trends were reconstructed that would give rise to the observed patterns of AIDS mortality. Models were fitted assuming three parametric forms of the incidence curve and under nine different assumptions regarding combinations of trends in non-AIDS mortality and patterns of survival post-infection with HIV. HIV prevalence was forward-projected from the fitted incidence and mortality curves. Models that constrained the incidence pattern to a cubic spline function were flexible and produced well-fitting, realistic patterns of incidence. In models assuming constant levels of non-AIDS mortality, annual incidence peaked between 4 and 5% between 1988 and 1990. Under other assumptions the peak level ranged from 3 to 8% per annum. However, scenarios assuming increasing levels of non-AIDS mortality resulted in implausibly low estimates of peak prevalence (11%), whereas models with decreasing underlying crude mortality could be consistent with the prevalence and mortality data. HIV incidence is most likely to have peaked in Harare between 1988 and 1990, which may have preceded the peak elsewhere in Zimbabwe. This finding, considered alongside the timing and location of HIV prevention activities, will give insight into the decline of HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe.


Thermal conductance measures the ease with which heat leaves or enters an organism's body. Although the analysis of this physiological variable in relation to climatic and ecological factors can be traced to studies by Scholander and colleagues, only small advances have occurred ever since. Here, we analyse the relationship between minimal thermal conductance estimated during summer (Cmin) and several ecological, climatic and geographical factors for 127 rodent species, in order to identify the exogenous factors that have potentially affected the evolution of thermal conductance. In addition, we evaluate whether there is compensation between Cmin and basal metabolic rate (BMR)—in such a way that a scale-invariant ratio between both variables is equal to one—as could be expected from the Scholander–Irving model of heat transfer. Our major findings are (i) annual mean temperature is the best single predictor of mass-independent Cmin. (ii) After controlling for the effect of body mass, there is a strong positive correlation between log10 (Cmin) and log10 (BMR). Further, the slope of this correlation is close to one, indicating an almost perfect compensation between both physiological variables. (iii) Structural equation modelling indicated that Cmin values are adjusted to BMR values and not the other way around. Thus, our results strongly suggest that BMR and thermal conductance integrate a coordinated system for heat regulation in endothermic animals and that summer conductance values are adjusted (in an evolutionary sense) to track changes in BMRs.


ABSTRACT Xu, S.; He, X., and Li, X., 2020. An improved method on U-net near coastal areas. In: Zheng, C.W.; Wang, Q.; Zhan, C., and Yang, S.B. (eds.), Air-Sea Interaction and Coastal Environments of the Maritime and Polar Silk Roads. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 99, pp. 48-53. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Object recognition near coastal area is the hotspot in recent years. However, the problems such as lack of precision, low efficiency and low fault tolerance of these traditional methods are an obstacle of hyperspectral image. This paper proposes an improved method on U-net deep learning model to identify these categories. Firstly, data enhancement processing is implemented on mini-batch×mini-batch×3 patches of cropped randomly images to improve the generalization ability of training network. Secondly, an improved U-net deep learning model is developed to extract the feature information automatically. Next, the improved model can be trained repeatedly by the cross-entropy loss function and INadam optimization algorithm to seek better results. Finally, obtained optimal model is used to extract the object information accurately. Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed method has better detection performance, higher training accuracy with lower loss fluctuation than state-of-the-art methods.


The aim of the study was to obtain a smart textile material with shape memory alloys. NiMn-based shape memory alloy was produced by arc melting system for this purpose. Phase transition temperatures of the fabricated alloy were determined by using differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The crystallographic structure of the fabricated alloy was characterized by x-ray diffractometer (XRD). The fabricated shape memory alloy was converted to the particle form and filled into polymer matrix to obtain shape memory effect of this polymeric composite material. Polymeric composites (PCs) were produced in film form and shape training of PCs were studied under different conditions. The shape memory behavior of samples was investigated into the water for fast response during applying heat. Damping capacity of composites was measured by using dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) according to temperature rising. The shape recovery was observed under certain stimuli on the SMA filled polymeric composites.


WirelessHART: Real-Time Mesh Network for Industrial Automation presents the WirelessHART Standard in detail and wireless industrial automation in general. This book strives to facilitate the adoption of wireless technology in industrial automation, and introduces the research potential of the wireless industrial automation to the academics. This book is designed for practitioners and researchers working in the wireless process industry. Advanced-level students and researchers focusing on engineering and computer science will find this book valuable as a secondary text or reference book. "This is the first book in the area. I can anticipate a large international market for it that would include any company with process controls operations: Petrochemical, Chemical companies, Food and Beverage, Pulp and Paper, Pharmaceuticals, etc," - Dr. Jose A. Gutierrez of Emerson About WirelessHART: WirelessHART is a cutting-edge standard for the wireless process industry (such as oil, gas, pharmaceutical, chemical, pulp & paper, power plant, and companies such as ABB, Emerson Process Management, Endress+Hauser, MACTek, Pepperl+Fuchs, Siemens and more). This new standard provides a robust wireless mesh network protocol, and assists users with a quicker and smoother experience when operating their wireless technologies.


The integration of behavioral and population ecology is necessary when behavior both feeds into demographic parameters and depends on population parameters. We show that scrounging behavior, the exploitation of others' resources, can affect both demographic parameters and population dynamics, including the stability of interactions with prey. Scrounging is a common tactic and its pay-offs exhibit both density- and frequency-dependence. We demonstrate that scrounging can act as a population regulator through its effects on individuals' reproductive rate and mortality. We also explore its effects on predator-prey population dynamics and show that the presence of scrounging predators allows an increased predator population size and contributes to the regulation of both predator and prey populations. Behavioral ecologists will appreciate that although scrounging is often pictured as imposing a social foraging cost to group membership, at the population level it also allows higher numbers of both prey and predators to coexist at equilibrium.


In patients with cystinosis, the concentration of free cystine in leukocytes was 80 times greater than normal, and six times the normal content for their parents. This is the first demonstration of an abnormality in heterozygotes for this rare inherited disease of childhood. Three-quarters of the cystine was recovered in the granular fraction of cystinotic leukocytes.


Construction process analysis is the difficult problem of the cable dome. A new method lifting the strut layer by layer is presented. The structure is shaped by lifting struts layer by layer from outer to inner hoop. Besides, pulling cables are installed during the construction process, large deformation can be avoided effectively and the construction can be controlled easily. To compare new construction method of lifting struts layer by layer with traditional method of tensioning diagonal cables, construction process simulations of two kinds of methods are carried out in a numerical example using the nonlinear time-varying mechanics analysis program. Results show that the new method is feasible and can be used in the actual construction. At last, some suggestions for design and construction of cable dome are made in the paper.


Due to high renewable energy share in the distribution networks, reverse power flows can be observed, leading to challenges for the distribution network operators (DNOs). In case of high photovoltaic (PV) penetration in low voltage (LV) level, the LV networks are susceptible to voltage violations and overloading problems, especially at peak feed-in hours. This raises the necessity to undertake reinforcement measures by DNOs in order to maintain normal operation conditions. This paper analyzes the economic viability of the preemptive implementation of network reinforcement under consideration of the future PV penetration scenarios. To this end, the investment costs of reinforcement with four exemplary LV networks are calculated for 20 year scenarios of high PV penetration. The costs are calculated utilizing preemptive strategy and also a non-preemptive reference strategy. The cost saving potential with preemptive strategy considering theoretical perfect prediction of future scenarios as well as with inaccurate prediction is evaluated. The results show that the preemptive reinforcement has high potential for cost saving in the case of accurate prediction. Nevertheless, the cost saving drops when the accuracy decreases, hence it can be even higher than the reference strategy if the prediction certainty is too low.


The three-gluon glueball states are studied with the generalization of a semirelativistic potential model giving good results for two-gluon glueballs. The Hamiltonian depends only on 3 parameters fixed on two-gluon glueball spectra: the strong coupling constant, the string tension, and a gluon size which removes singularities in the potential. The Casimir scaling determines the structure of the confinement. Low-lying J{sup PC} states are computed and compared with recent lattice calculations. A good agreement is found for 1{sup --} and 3{sup --} states, but our model predicts a 2{sup --} state much higher in energy than the lattice result. The 0{sup -+} mass is also computed.


Since last couple of decades, make or buy decision becomes more critical. Because companies more focused on their core products and try outsource or buy items that are not very core for their products. While the manufacturing of an item or buy from the outside can be applied to a variety of decisions on the following: a new building, instruments need for the manufacturing of goods, equipment and tooling etc. This research paper mainly covers a buy or makes decision analysis involving imprecise data. We adopted the propagation of errors techniques to evaluate and check alternative (buy or make decision) with estimate errors. The examples of our numerical represent how the proposed error analysis creates more accurate discerning power. When assessing competing alternatives.


We investigate consumption inequality in China both theoretically by constructing a theoretical model that delineates the transmission channels by which income shocks affect consumption and empirically through an Unequally Spaced Dynamic Panel Data model estimation. We find that China is experiencing consumption inequality with the full partial insurance of consumption against both permanent and transitory income shocks, although the impact of both types of shock are larger than the case of the United States. The results are due to precautionary savings motives of the Chinese. We further document how income becomes more dispersed in China and show how the family background of a child affects his outcome to a large extent. Policy implications based on our findings are proposed.


Artificial Intelligence (AI) has potential to fundamentally change the way we work, live, and interact. There is however no general AI out there and the accuracy of current machine learning models largely depend on the data on which they have been trained on. For the coming decades, the development of AI will depend on access to ever larger and richer medical and behavioral datasets. We now have strong evidence that the tool we have used historically to find a balance between using the data in aggregate and protecting people's privacy, de-identification, does not scale to big data datasets. The development and deployment of modern privacy-enhancing technologies (PET), allowing data controllers to make data available in a safe and transparent way, will be key to unlocking the great potential of AI.


The article discusses the classification of intransitive verbs into two distinct classes, i.e. unaccusative and unergative (Perlmutter 1978, Burzio 1981, 1986). Burn, fall, drop, sink etc. having patient/theme subject, are supposed to be unaccusative verbs. Work, play, speak, smile etc., having agentive subject, are supposed to be unergative verbs. The unergative/unaccusative distinction has been shown to exist crosslinguistically and language specific tests have been proposed as diagnostics. We find tests for unaccusativity/unergativity distinction for Urdu/Hindi too. On the other hand, we find that there are many Urdu/Hindi intransitives that act both like unaccusatives as well as unergatives in different semantic contexts. Different authors have pointed out this fact for other languages especially of Romance and Germanic families ((Van Valin 1990, Zaenen 1993, Keller and Sorace 2003). This article therefore proposes to abandon a strict two-way distinction between unaccusatives and unergatives and proposes semantic features to model the validity/invalidty of different syntactic constructions involving intransitive verbs.


Engineers constructing roads in upland areas derive much information from soil-vegetation survey data. Soil series characterized as to their behavior for road construction enable the engineer to lay out roads that pass through the areas of better soils and avoid the difficult ones. Vegetation data guide the engineer in routing his road to mature timber stands. They show him what problems will be involved in clearing rights-of-way. Much more work must be done in testing laboratories to determine bearing ratios, optimum moisture percentages, swell percentages, and other characteristics for soil series. However, field approximations of these data can be made, and these are all valuble aids to the engineer.


In this paper, we propose phraseNet, a neural machine translator with a phrase memory which stores phrase pairs in symbolic form, mined from corpus or specified by human experts. For any given source sentence, phraseNet scans the phrase memory to determine the candidate phrase pairs and integrates tagging information in the representation of source sentence accordingly. The decoder utilizes a mixture of word-generating component and phrase-generating component, with a specifically designed strategy to generate a sequence of multiple words all at once. The phraseNet not only approaches one step towards incorporating external knowledge into neural machine translation, but also makes an effort to extend the word-by-word generation mechanism of recurrent neural network. Our empirical study on Chinese-to-English translation shows that, with carefully-chosen phrase table in memory, phraseNet yields 3.45 BLEU improvement over the generic neural machine translator.


Embryonic stem (ES) cells have the remarkable ability to differentiate into all cells comprising the three germ layers of the developing embryo. It is this pluripotency that makes them attractive for use in regenerative medicine. However, in order to harness this potential, we must understand the molecular mechanisms regulating the ability of ES cells to self-renew and thereby generate identical pluripotent daughter ES cells. The Welham laboratory has previously described a requirement for PI3K signalling in maintaining self-renewal of murine ES (mES) (Paling et al., 2004; Storm et al., 2007). To identify the molecular mechanisms involved in regulating mES cell self-renewal downstream of PI3K signalling, an Affymetrix microarray screen was carried out prior to the start of this PhD. For the screen, mES cells were grown in the presence of LIF and treated with the reversible PI3K inhibitor LY294002 (LY) or a DMSO control for 24, 48 and 72 hours. A total of 646 statistically significant transcriptional changes were detected and subsequently divided into 12 clusters using k-means clustering. Experiments using pharmacological inhibitors suggest that genes within the same cluster are regulated by common mechanisms. To identify potential candidates involved in regulation of mES cell pluripotency, further analyses concentrated on transcription factors and genes with unknown functions. In our microarray data Zscan4c, a member of a SCAN-domain containing Zinc finger protein family, is one of the earliest down-regulated probe-sets. Loss-of-function experiments using siRNA approaches highlight a role for Zscan4 downstream of PI3Ks in regulation of ES cell self-renewal. Immunohistochemical staining of cells overexpressing Zscan4c showed nuclear accumulation of the protein. This, together with the fact that Zscan4c was mainly detectable in the nuclear protein fraction, strengthens a role of Zscan4c in transcriptional regulation. Potential Zscan4c protein interaction partners were identified by applying a combined immunoprecipitation (IP) - mass spectrometry strategy. Interestingly, the majority of potential Zscan4c interacting proteins identified are associated with functions related to transcriptional regulation and DNA damage response, all characteristics linked with Zscan4. Furthermore, the Class IA PI3K catalytic isoforms were genetically activated in mES cells, and liberation of the requirement for LIF was found upon over-expression of an activated p110 catalytic subunit.


One of the emerging technologies in molecular diagnostics of the last two decades is the use of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) for biosensors. AuNPs can be functionalized with various biomolecules, such as nucleic acids or antibodies, to recognize and bind to specific targets. AuNPs present unique optical properties, such as their distinctive plasmonic band, which confers a bright-red color to AuNP solutions, and their extremely high extinction coefficient, which makes AuNPs detectable by the naked eye even at low concentrations. Ingenious molecular mechanisms triggered by the presence of a target analyte can change the colloidal status of AuNPs from dispersed to aggregated, with a subsequent visible change in color of the solution due to the loss of the characteristic plasmonic band. This review describes how the optical properties of AuNPs have been exploited for the design of plasmonic biosensors that only require the simple mixing of reagents combined with a visual readout and focuses on the molecular mechanisms involved. This review illustrates selected examples of AuNP-based plasmonic biosensors and promising approaches for the point-of-care testing of various analytes, spanning from the viral RNA of SARS-CoV-2 to the molecules that give distinctive flavor and color to aged whisky.


La fórmula secreta (1965) is a film with an approximate duration of 45 minutes, directed by Rubén Gámez, winner of the First Experimental Film Contest organized the same year in Mexico City. After making the film, Rubén Gámez asked the writer Juan Rulfo to intervene with a text of his own. The voice of Jaime Sabines was what gave life to the poem within the film. This intervention aims to generate a visual analysis of the 10 seconds contained in the first stanzas of the poem. The objective is to reflect on the symbolic power of the word, visuality and silence from the philosophical approaches of Gilles Deleuze around the cinema influenced by the narrative of Juan Rulfo and its current reception. These seconds to analyze have the subversive ability to encode new visuals in relation to the landscape, to an ontological enunciation of the peasant, to a different use of sound and silence within the film. The collective work between Gámez and Rulfo deserves to be investigated to offer new theoretical approaches related to the literary field, as well as to those images that characterize Mexican cinematography belonging to the second half of the twentieth century, which are mostly currently unknown.


A binary neutron star (BNS) merger can lead to various outcomes, from indefinitely stable neutron stars, through supramassive neutron stars (SMNSs) or hypermassive neutron stars supported only temporarily against gravity, to black holes formed promptly after the merger. Up-to-date constraints on the BNS total mass and the neutron star equation of state suggest that a long-lived SMNS may form in ∼0.45–0.9 of BNS mergers. A maximally rotating SMNS needs to lose ∼(3–6) × 1052 erg of its rotational energy before it collapses, on a fraction of the spin-down timescale. An SMNS formation imprints on the electromagnetic counterparts to the BNS merger. However, a comparison with observations reveals tensions. First, the distribution of collapse times is too wide and that of released energies too narrow (and the energy itself too large) to explain the observed distributions of internal X-ray plateaus, invoked as evidence for SMNS-powered energy injection. Second, the immense energy injection into the blast wave should lead to extremely bright radio transients, which previous studies found to be inconsistent with deep radio observations of short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Furthermore, we show that upcoming all-sky radio surveys will constrain the extracted energy distribution, independently of a GRB jet formation. Our results can be self-consistently understood, provided that most BNS merger remnants collapse shortly after formation (even if their masses are low enough to allow for SMNS formation). This naturally occurs if the remnant retains half or less of its initial energy by the time it enters solid-body rotation.


Gardening offers a range of benefits, from food production to social connection to improved mental and physical health. When COVID-19 struck, interest in gardening soared, but it was unclear whether and how gardens would deliver these benefits in the midst of a global pandemic. We analyzed survey responses from 603 home and community gardeners across California, collected between June and August 2020, to assess trends in pandemic gardening. Gardeners highlighted the importance of gardens as therapeutic spaces where they could escape the stress of the pandemic, and as safe outdoor places for socializing. The study also revealed people's concerns about food supply, along with an accompanying interest in growing their own food to increase food security and self-sufficiency. The pandemic posed challenges for home gardeners, though, with 62% struggling to access gardening supplies. These findings suggest the importance of providing garden space, resources, and support, especially to those populations with the least access to green space, so that gardens can serve as resources to improve community health, food security, and resiliency during future disasters.


Tissue repair is essential for the survival of any organism. However, when physiological repair processes fail, a pathological condition known as fibrosis arises, which compromises tissue architecture and ultimately results in loss of organ function. Despite decades of research that significantly advanced our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of organ fibrosis, effective antifibrotic therapies currently do not exist. Biomedical research devoted to treat human diseases has, to date, resulted in limited clinical success when relying on conventional culture systems and animal models. The search for new, predictive and translational preclinical models sets the objective of this thesis, in which we explored the use of precision-cut tissue slices (PCTS), three-dimensional mini-organs, in fibrosis research. When prepared from human tissues, these thin slices, only 5 mm in diameter, eliminate the need for animal-to-human extrapolation and, along with animal tissue slices, significantly contribute to the refinement, reduction and replacement of animal experiments (3Rs). This thesis encompasses three different parts: 1) extensive characterization of the molecular processes in the PCTS culture system; 2) suitability of PCTS as preclinical drug screening tool with high predictivity and clinical relevance; and 3) optimization of PCTS culture conditions to improve tissue longevity. This work emphasizes the value of using human tissue for advancing fibrosis research and drug development. Beyond conventional preclinical tools, thin tissue slices represent a major step towards understanding and treating human fibrosis.


This paper performs molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the role of the monovalent cations K, Na and the divalent cation Ca on the stability and swelling of montmorillonite. The recently developed CLAYFF force field is used to predict the basal spacing as a function of the water content in the interlayer. The simulations reproduced the swelling pattern of these montmorillonites, suggesting a mechanism of their hydration different (K+ < Na+ < Ca2+) from that of K+-, Na+-, and Ca2+-montmorillonites. In particular, these results indicate that the valence of the cations has the larger impact on the behaviour of clay-water systems. It also finds that the differences in size and hydration energy of K+, Na+ and Ca2+ ions have strong implications for the structure of interlayer. This leads to the differences in the layer spacings of the simulated K+-, Na+-, and Ca2+-montmorillonites. Furthermore, these simulations show that the K cations interact strongly with the clay sheets for the dehydrated clay sheets, but for the hydrated clays the Ca cations interact clearly strongly with the clay sheets.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To evaluate to what extent physicians on a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) adhered to a newly implemented ventilation algorithm.

BACKGROUND
PICUs worldwide use different ventilators with a wide variety of ventilation modes. We developed an algorithm, as part of a larger protocol, for choice of ventilation mode at time of admission.

DESIGN
This study was performed in a level III PICU of a university children's hospital and had an uncontrolled, pre-post test design with a period before implementation (T0) and two periods after implementation (T1 and T2).

METHODS
An invasive ventilation algorithm targeted at two patient groups was implemented in October 2008. The algorithm distinguished between lung disease, in which pressure control was considered as the preferred mode, and no lung disease, in which pressure-regulated volume control was preferred. Nurses and physicians were instructed in the use of the algorithm before implementation.

RESULTS
During three test periods, a total of 507 children with a median age of 5 months [interquartile range (IQR) 0-50] on conventional invasive mechanical ventilation were included. In patients with lung disease, pre-implementation adherence rate was 79% (67/85). At T1 it was 71% (51/72); at T2 84% (46/55). The slight improvement from T1 to T2 was statistically not significant (p = 0·092). In patients with no lung disease, the adherence rate rose statistically significantly from 66% at T0 (62/93) to 78% (79/101) at T1, and 84% at T2 (85/101) (p = 0·015).

CONCLUSION
Implementation of a new ventilation algorithm increased physicians' adherence to this ventilation algorithm and the effect was sustained over time. This was achieved by education, reminders and organizational changes such as admission of postcardiac surgery patients with protocolized nursing care including preset ventilator settings.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
Interdisciplinary collaboration, effective communication, leadership support and organizational aspects may be effective strategies to improve adherence to protocols.


We present a complete three-dimensional (3-D) ear recognition system combining local and holistic features in a computationally efficient manner. The system is comprised of four primary components, namely: 1) ear image segmentation; 2) local feature extraction and matching; 3) holistic feature extraction and matching; and 4) a fusion framework combining local and holistic features at the match score level. For the segmentation component, we introduce a novel shape-based feature set, termed the Histograms of Indexed Shapes (HIS), to localize a rectangular region containing the ear. For the local feature extraction and representation component, we extend the HIS feature descriptor to an object-centered 3-D shape descriptor, the Surface Patch Histogram of Indexed Shapes (SPHIS), for local ear surface representation and matching. For the holistic matching component, we introduce a voxelization scheme for holistic ear representation from which an efficient, voxel-wise comparison of gallery-probe model pairs can be made. The match scores obtained from both the local and holistic matching components are fused to generate the final match scores. Experimental results conducted on the University of Notre Dame (UND) collection G dataset, containing range images of 415 subjects yielded a rank-one recognition rate of 98.3% and an equal error rate of 1.7%. These results demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms state-of-the-art 3-D ear biometric systems. Additionally, the method is considerably more efficient compared to the state-of-the-art because it employs a sparse set of features rather than using the dense model.


To support parallel processing of data-intensive applications, the interconnection network of a parallel/distributed machine must provide high end-to-end communication bandwidth and handle the bursty and concentrated communication patterns generated by dynamic load balancing and data collection operations. A large-scale interconnection network architecture called a virtual bus is proposed. The virtual bus can scale to terabits-per-second end-to-end communication bandwidth with low queuing delay for nonuniform traffic. A terabit virtual bus architecture can be efficiently implemented for less than 5% of the total cost of an eight-thousand-node system. In addition, the virtual bus has an open system parallel interface that is flexible enough to support up to gigabytes per second data transfer rates, different grades of services, and broadcast operation. Such flexibility makes the virtual bus a plausible open system communication backbone for a broad range of applications. >


[1] Coral reefs are characterized by high gross productivity in spite of low nutrient concentrations. This apparent paradox may be partially reconciled if seawater recirculation in permeable sediments over large (meters) and long (hours to days) scales is an important source of recycled nitrogen and phosphorus to coral reefs. In this paper we use radon (222Rn, a natural tracer) to quantify tidally driven pore water (or groundwater) exchange between (1) an offshore coral cay island and its fringing reef lagoon and (2) a reef lagoon and the surrounding ocean. As seawater infiltrates Heron Island at high tide, it acquires a radon signal that can be detected when pore waters emerge from carbonate sands at low tide. A nonsteady state model indicated that vertical pore water upwelling rates (or saline submarine groundwater discharge) were >40 cm/d within the reef lagoon and >100 cm/d outside the lagoon at low tide. Within the lagoon, tidal pumping and temperature-driven convection were the main driving forces of pore water advection. At low tide, the reef lagoon level is about 1 m higher than the surrounding ocean. As a result, a steep hydraulic gradient develops at the reef edge, driving unidirectional filtration through the reef framework. Groundwaters were highly enriched in nitrate (average of 530 μmol, likely influenced by bird guano) relative to lagoon waters (1.9 μmol). Rough but conservative estimates indicated that groundwater-derived nitrate fluxes (7.9 mmol/m2/d) can replace the entire lagoon nitrate inventory every <19 days. We speculate that as offshore coral islands "breath" (inhale seawater at high tide and exhale groundwater at low tide), they release nutrients that lead to sustained productivity within coral reefs.


Professional development is a continuous improvement process, on job training and support needed to improve teaching, it encompasses the processes that educators engage in to initially prepare themselves, continuously update themselves, and review and reflect on their own performance. The experiences suggest that continuing professional development is needed to reinforce learning and support educational change process. This paper encompass on strengthening the professional development for teachers at Union Council Tehsil Resource Center (UC-TRCs). Teacher Mentors, developed by AKU-IED, STEP Project initiated the Cluster-based Mentoring Programme (CBMP) and also providing teachers follow-up support through Schools visits. Teachers professionally support each other, which bring some positive change in classroom teaching practice. They were provided opportunity to learn about and enhance their pedagogical skills in working with different approaches to professional development. It is critical for teachers to have ongoing and regular opportunities to learn from each other. The best professional development is ongoing, experiential, collaborative, and connected to and derived from working with students and understanding their culture. UCTRCs working as a hub for teachers' professional development at Tehsil level in selected Districts of Sindh and Balochistan. This paper highlighted some of the experiences of District Killa-Saifullah in Balochistan. Professional Development opportunities provided for primary and elementary School's teachers (male & female) at UC-TRCs level, specifically focused to enhance the subject-based pedagogical content knowledge, skills, integrating the gender perspectives in their work, with special emphasis on mentoring skills. These professional development activities provided support to mentors and cluster schools' teachers, which show a change in their classroom practices. These initiatives help to enhance the mentors' capacity to work with their cluster school teachers for improving their performance and impacting student learning.


This paper proposes the assessment of sustained superior performance by means of two measures called Static Performance and Dynamic Performance. The first evaluates the attained superior performance, and the second gauges its sustainability over time. This proposal builds primarily on the fact that, under the strategic management perspective, a firm's prevalent objective is the pursuit of sustained superior performance. Three basic conceptual dimensions stem from this objective: relativity, sign dependence, and dynamism. They serve as the foundation to the two performance measures presented. In contrast to the measures and methods in extant literature, our proposal provides: (i) a dynamic approach by considering the progress or regress in performance over time; and (ii) a cardinal measurement of performance differences and its changes over time. The paper also develops an axiomatic framework that any measure of strategic performance should comply to be theoretically and managerially sound. Finally, an empirical application to the Spanish banking sector during 1987-1999 is used to illustrate the measures.


Schools are considered ideal venues to promote physical activity (PA) in children. However, a knowledge gap exists on how to adequately integrate PA into the school day and in particular, on the preferences of children regarding additional PA in school. Therefore, the aim of our qualitative study was to gain comprehensive insight into 10–13-year-old primary schoolchildren's perspectives on how to increase PA in the school setting. We conducted nine focus groups (32 girls and 20 boys) with children attending the final two grades of primary school in the Netherlands. We used inductive thematic analysis to analyze the data. The results showed that children were enthusiastic about additional PA in school. Children suggested various ways to increase PA, including more time for PA in the existing curriculum, e.g., physical education (PE), recess, and occasional activities, such as field trips or sports days; school playground adaptation; improving the content of PE; and implementing short PA breaks and physically active academic lessons. Children emphasized variation and being given a voice in their PA participation as a prerequisite to keep PA enjoyable and interesting in the long term. Finally, children mentioned the role of the teacher and making efforts to accommodate all children and their different preferences as important. Children have concrete ideas, acknowledging the challenges that accompany integrating additional PA in school. We therefore recommend actively involving children in efforts to increase school-based PA and to make "additional PA in school" a shared project of teachers and students.


Information security using chaotic dynamics is a novel topic in the wireless sensor network WSN research field. After surveying analog and digital chaotic security systems, we give a state of the art of chaotic S-Box design. The substitution tables are nonlinear maps that strengthen and enhance block crypto-systems. This paper deals with the design of new dynamic chaotic S-Boxes suitable for implementation on wireless sensor nodes. Our proposed schemes are classified into two categories: S-Box based on discrete chaotic map with floating point arithmetic cascading piecewise linear chaotic map and a three-dimensional map and S-Box based on discrete chaotic map with fixed-point arithmetic using discretized Lorenz map and logistic-tent map. The security analysis and implementation process on WSN are discussed. The proposed methods satisfy Good S-Box design criteria and exceed the performance of Advanced Encryption Standard static S-Box in some cases. The energy consumption of different proposals and existing chaotic S-Box designs are investigated via a platform simulator and a real WSN testbed equipped with TI MSP430f1611 micro-controller. The simulations and the experimental results show that our proposed S-Box design with fixed-point arithmetic Lorenz map has the lowest energy-consuming profile compared with the other studied and proposed S-Box design. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Background: Cyathula officinalis Kuan is widely used in the clinics for the treatment of blood stasis in China. Objective: To evaluate the improving blood rheology and anti-inflammatory properties of C. officinalis Kuan extract (CO) and its active fraction (ACO) on acute blood stasis model Wistar rats and characterize the correlative constituents. Materials and Methods: CO at 0.26, 0.53, and 1.04 g/kg and ACO at 0.38, 0.75, and 1.5 g/kg were administered to acute blood stasis model Wistar rats for 3 days. Whole blood viscosity, plasma viscosity, and the levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), nitric oxide (NO), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in the plasma were measured. HPLC-QTOF/MS/MS method was used to identify the major constituents of ACO; the properties of two representative components (cyasterone and chikusetsusaponin IV) from ACO on thrombin-induced human umbilical vein endothelial cells damage model were also assessed by the levels of thromboxane A2 (TXA2), endothelin (ET), malondialdehyde (MDA), COX-2, endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), and superoxide dismutase (SOD). Results: CO and ACO significantly reduced whole blood viscosity, plasma viscosity, and levels of IL-6, NO, TNF-α, and COX-2 in vivo. Forty compounds were identified from ACO, mainly as phytoecdysteroids and saponins. Cyasterone and chikusetsusaponin IV could significantly inhibit levels of TXA2, ET, MDA, and COX-2 and promote the activities of eNOS and SOD in vitro. Conclusion: CO and ACO possessed significant improving blood rheology and anti-inflammatory effects on acute blood stasis model rats and the representative components Cyasterone and chikusetsusaponin IV showed significant anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anticoagulant effects in vitro. Abbreviations used: TCM: Traditional Chinese Medicine, CO: Cyathula officinalis Kuan extract, ACO: Active fraction of Cyathula officinalis Kuan, ROS: Reactive oxygen species, IL-6: Interleukin-6, TNF-α: Tumor necrosis factor alpha, NO: Nitric oxide, COX-2: Cyclooxygenase-2, TXA2: Thromboxane A2, ET: Endothelin, MDA: Malondialdehyde, eNOS: Endothelial nitric oxide synthase, SOD: Superoxide dismutase, ESI: Electronic spray ionization, ELISA: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, HUVECs: Human umbilical vein endothelial cells, DMEM: Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium, MMP: Matrix metalloproteinase.


Jan Patočka holds that both the Husserlian and the Heideggerian descriptions of history remain abstract because they lack an authentic reflection on historical sense's appearing, which presupposes a description of the transition from the nonhistorical and prehistorical states of humanity to its final historical state. Nevertheless, it seems that Patočka would confront an internal aporia here because, even if he sought to think the continuity of these three movements, he tends to affirm the rupture between them. To overcome that aporia, it becomes necessary to formulate the hypothesis according to which the prehistorical is characterized by a repression of sense's problematic character, whereas the historical as such is characterized by a conversion of consciousness toward this problematic character. Justifying this hypothesis requires exploring Patočka's anthropology, confronting it with Arendt's anthropology, and formulating metaphysical perspectives.


Abstract Vagueness is a linguistic phenomenon as well as a property of physical objects. Fuzzy set theory is a mathematical model of vagueness that has been used to define vague models of computation. The prominent model of vague computation is the fuzzy Turing machine. This conceptual computing device gives an idea of what computing under vagueness means, nevertheless, it is not the most natural model. Based on the properties of this and other models of vague computing, an attempt is made to formulate a basis for a philosophy of a theory of fuzzy computation.


: The effect of mechanically separated turkey (MST), ascorbate, and vacuum packaging on rates of lipid oxidation in chicken doner kebab during storage at 4 °C or -20 °C was investigated. MST and MST/ascor-bate accelerated lipid oxidation compared to control kebab. Ascorbate application and vacuum packaging inhibited lipid oxidation. The antioxidative effect of ascorbate in the absence of MST was converted to a pro-oxidative effect in the presence of MST. This suggests that the excess lipid hydroperoxides and iron complexes in MST were activated as lipid oxidation catalysts by ascorbate to overwhelm the ability of ascorbate to inhibit lipid oxidation at lower concentrations of hemoglobin, iron, and peroxides.


Over the course of the half century from 1865 to 1915, the British and Dutch delineated colonial spheres, in the process creating new frontiers. This book analyses the development of these frontiers in Insular Southeast Asia as well as the accompanying smuggling activities of the opium traders, currency runners, and human traffickers who pierced such newly drawn borders with growing success. The book presents a history of the evolution of this 3000 km frontier, and then inquires into the smuggling of contraband: who smuggled and why, what routes were favoured, and how effectively the British and Dutch were able to enforce their economic, moral, and political will. Examining the history of states and smugglers playing off one another within a hidden but powerful economy of forbidden cargoes, the book also offers new insights into the modern political economies of Southeast Asia.


Petrographic and major and trace element compositions of Tanis sandstones from Tall San Al Hagr, Al Sharqiya Governorate, Egypt, have been investigated to determine their source, provenance, intensity of paleoweathering of the source rocks, and tectonic setting. Tanis sandstones are yellowish brown in color, siliceous, partly calcareous, and originated from sands deposited in fluvial channels. Texturally, Tanis sandstones are medium- to very coarse-grained, mature, and moderately sorted. Scarcity of feldspars indicates that the sandstone is extensively recycled from a distant source. Their average modal composition (Q99.75F0.03L0.22) classifies them as quartz arenites (quartzite), which is consistent with the geochemical study. Chemical analyses revealed that sandstones have high SiO2 and Fe2O3t and low Al2O3 and TiO2 values, which are consistent with the modal data. Sandstone samples are enriched in most trace elements such as Zr and Ba, and they are depleted in V, Pb, Sc, Rb, U, and Th. The petrography and geochemistry results suggest that Tanis sandstones were deposited in an intracratonic basin or a passive continental margin of a synrift basin. They were mainly derived from deeply weathered granitic-gneissic sources, supplemented by recycled sands from an associated platform. The CIA and CIW values (60.2 and 87.74, respectively) of the Tanis sandstones indicate moderate to intensive weathering either of the original source or during transport before deposition, and may reflect low-relief and warm humid climatic conditions in the source area. The heavy-mineral and trace element results reveal that the Gebel Ahmar quarry is the probable source for the Tanis sandstones.


Object: The Remission in Schizophrenia Working Group proposed in 2005 criteria for remission in patients with schizophrenia. This composite criterion consists of eight PANSS items and is reached when none of those has a score of more than 3 during a period of 6 months. The present study was done to elucidate the clinical relevance of this concept. Method: A group of 65 patients with schizophrenia was treated with atypical antipsychotics for 14 weeks. At baseline and endpoint, severity of symptoms was assessed with the PANSS, the BPRS, a cognitive subscale derived from the PANSS, and the CGI. A reduction of at least 50% on the BPRS total score was considered to be clinically relevant. Results: At endpoint, 18 patients (28%) had a reduction of 50% or more on the BPRS and 25 patients (39%) reached the severity criterion of remission. No correlation was found between the summed scores of the remission items and those of the cognitive subscale. Remitters and non-remitters did not differ with respect to the total score on the cognitive subscale. Predictors for remission were the PANSS positive and negative sum scores and age. Remission was reached by an only marginal symptomatic improvement. Conclusions: In this patient group, remitters are still symptomatically (e.g. cognitively) impaired and definitely not recovered, which implies that the term remission should be better replaced by partial symptomatic remission.


Abstract : The biomechanical response of a finite element model of the human thorax and a protective body armor system was studied under impact loading from a projectile. The objective of the study was to create a viable finite element model of the human thorax. The model was validated by comparing the results of tests of body armor systems conducted on cadavers to results obtained from finite element analysis. A parametric study was undertaken to determine the essential components of the model. The results from this investigation determined that the path of force propagation from a body armor system to the thorax upon bullet impact is directly through the vest to the sternum and then through the skeleton to the rest of the body. Thus, any parameters that affect the components in this pathway were essential to the model. This included the muscles, their geometries, material properties, and viscosity, as well as the Young's modulus of the sternochondral cartilage and the bones themselves.


This paper describes a neural network based controller for allocating capacity in a telecommunications network. This system was proposed in order to overcome a "real time" response constraint. Two basic architectures are evaluated: 1) a feedforward network-heuristic and; 2) a feedforward network-recurrent network. These architectures are compared against a linear programming (LP) optimiser as a benchmark. This LP optimiser was also used as a teacher to label the data samples for the feedforward neural network training algorithm. It is found that the systems are able to provide a traffic throughput of 99% and 95%, respectively, of the throughput obtained by the linear programming solution. Once trained, the neural network based solutions are found in a fraction of the time required by the LP optimiser.


AIMS
The BIOFLOW-IV clinical trial was designed for regulatory submission in Japan. It assessed the safety and efficacy of a new third generation sirolimus-eluting stent system with bioresorbable polymer (Orsiro, BP-SES) compared with an everolimus-eluting stent system with permanent polymer (Xience Prime/Xpedition, PP-EES).

METHODS AND RESULTS
This prospective, international, multicenter, 2:1 randomized, non-inferiority trial enrolled 575 patients (385 BP-SES and 190 PP-EES) with 659 stenotic de novo lesions. Of these, 137 patients (23.8%) were Japanese. Follow-up until 5 years is ongoing, we herein report outcomes at 12 months. Baseline parameters were well balanced. Device success was 98.9% for BP-SES versus 99.6% for PP-EES, p=0.670. Non-inferiority related to 12-month target vessel failure was met (pnon-inferiority<0.001). Further, there was no significant difference in clinical outcomes between the groups. Target vessel failure rate was 5.5% for BP-SES and 7.5% for PP-EES, target lesion failure rate was 4.2% versus 5.4%, and the definite or probable stent thrombosis rate was 0.8% versus 0%.

CONCLUSION
The randomized BIOFLOW-IV trial provides further evidence on the safety and efficacy of the Orsiro BP-SES and its non-inferiority to the current benchmark, an everolimus-eluting permanent polymer stent.


Objective: In this trial, we intend to assess the effect of simulation-based education approach on advanced cardiovascular life support skills among medical students.
 Methods: Through convenient sampling method, 40 interns of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in their emergency medicine rotation (from September to December 2012) participated in this study. Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) workshops with pretest and post-test exams were performed. Workshops and checklists for pretest and post-test exams were designed according to the latest American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines.
 Results: The total score of the students increased significantly after workshops (24.6 out of 100 to 78.6 out of 100). This demonstrates 53.9% improvement in the skills after the simulation-based education (P< 0.001). Also the mean score of each station had a significant improvement (P< 0.001).
 Conclusion: Pretests showed that interns had poor performance in practical clinical matters while their scientific knowledge, such as ECG interpretation was acceptable. The overall results of the study highlights that Simulation based-education approach is highly effective in Improving ACLS skills among medical students.


Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is a well thermal transport nano materials, however, the thermal conductivity of CNTs has not been well established, only a few groups had reported experimental data and the existed simulation results ranged widely. Specially, the conclusions in low temperature section and dynamic structures were not very clearly. In this paper, the methods based on phonon scattering theory were applied to explore the thermal transport properties CNTs. The investigation was carried out under the conditions of temperature and axial strain. In the consideration of quantum effect, the thermal conductivity increased linearly with the growth of temperature in low-temperature section, and began to decrease gradually when the temperature exceeded a definite value. If an axial strain was concerned, there was an increasing trend of thermal conductivity as the stretch strain increases. However, after the strain exceeded a particular value the thermal conductivity decreased significantly. In addition, the high frequency phonon peak in PDOS was found to be an important parameter in describing thermal transport properties of dynamic structures.


In the 2009 in some experimental sites in Veneto (Vicenza and Treviso Provinces) has been
collected 36 samples of soils in order to define, through XRF analysis, the content (wt%) of major
elements (Si, Ti, Al, Fe, Mn, Mg, Ca, Na, K, P) and the concentration (ppm) of trace elements
(Ba,Ce, Co, Cr, La, Nb, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sr, Th, V, Y, Zn, Zr, Cu, Ga, Nd, S, Sc). Moreover on 4 samples
of grape juices, 4 samples of wines (cultivars Fiano, Verdicchio, Nero D'Avola e Refosco p.r.) and 2
samples of grapes (Nero D'Avola e Refosco p. r.) has been determined, using ICP-MS technique,
the concentration of the most important trace elements (Li, Be, B, Na, Al, K, Rb, Ca, Sr, Ba, Mg,
Mn, Fe, V, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, As, Se, Mo, Ag, Cd, Sb, Te, Hg, Tl, Pb, Bi, U). These analysis
has been useful to define quality of wines and grapes, typical ratios of every soils considered and to
identify the geochemical fingerprint in an area where climatic differences are slightly important to
influence the assimilation dynamics. In this work has been defined the relationship between soil
matrix and wines through the comparison of the heavy metals concentration.
Also for the purposes of food security, for both provinces concerned, were performed in gamma
spectrometry analysis to determine the levels of natural radionuclides (U-238, Th-232 e K-40) and
Cs-137.
All venetian samples were compared with same samples coming from the plane of Marsala, an ideal
area with regard to the monitoring of the climatic influence on an extreme environment (SIAS –
Sicilian Agronomical and Meteorological Information Centre). In 2006, four properties belonging to
an experimental vineyard were selected because of the similarities of their bio-agronomical factors
(age of the vineyard and cultivation methods). They were cultivated respectively with Nero
D'Avola, Refosco , Fiano and Verdicchio. Their soil samples together with the wines of 2006 have
been collected and analysed at the Department of Earth Sciences. The following elements have been
compared when analysing the soils and wines: the concentrations of alkaline elements (NA, K and
Rb) and the alkaline earth ones (Mg, Sr and Ba). The relations among the transition metals (Fe, Mn,
Co, Cr, Nb, Ni, Y, V, Zr, Zn e Cu) and the rare earth metals have been analysed, too.
Refosco and Nero D'Avola assimilate the alkaline metals more than white wines. With regard to the
alkaline earth metals the assimilation capacity is substantially the same. All wines have the same
assimilation capacity of manganese, cobalt, chrome, nickel and yttrium. Nero D'Avola assimilates
iron more than Fiano and Verdicchio while Fiano assimilates more vanadium and niobium, cerium
and neodymium.
The final result about comparison af two set of samples is that all sicilian samples assimilate more
than venetian samples.
29 Honey samples have been collected and analysed by using ICP-MS with the support of CRA
from all Italy. The botanical range taken into account has been as follows: acacia, chestnut tree,
"millefiori", lime tree, thistle, rosemary, tree of heaven and citrus tree. The honey from a chestnut
tree was among all samples the one with the highest assimilation capacity of potassium, magnesium
and calcium. Sodium assimilation had its highest rate at the coastal area of Sardinia where there are
big marshy areas and currently active salt mines. The manganese clearly discriminates the honey
from a chestnut tree and the sample from Lunigiana has an assimilation capacity higher than all
other kinds of honey. The honey from "acacia" is the variety with the lowest assimilation capacity
of metallic elements.A detailed study has been carried out on 4 honey samples supplied by a
beekeeper from Campania. At the same time the soils close to the beehive have been analysed. In
this area the following kinds of honey were found out: chestnut tree, eucalyptus, "millefiori" and
orange tree. The chestnut tree together with the eucalyptus were proven to be the two varieties with
the highest assimilation rate of potassium, rubidium and strontium. The honey of eucalyptus from
the Cilento Coast close to Eboli has a good assimilation capacity of sodium.
Honey as well as wine has been analysed with regard to the natural radioactivity. No particular
anomalies were found, even for honey produced in the areas with high radioactive soils (samples
from Campania). Concentrations of CS-137 over the average have been detected in two honey
samples from northeast Italy.


BACKGROUND
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which still occurs with high prevalence worldwide. In addition, cases of drug resistance are frequently observed. In the search for new anti-TB drugs, compounds with antimycobacterial activity have been developed, such as derivatives of pyrazinoic acid, which is the main pyrazinamide metabolite. In previous study, the compounds were evaluated and showed moderate antimycobacterial activity and no important cytotoxic profile, however information about their pharmacokinetic profile is lacking.

OBJECTIVE
The aim of this work was to perform physicochemical, permeability, and metabolic properties of four pyrazinoic acid esters.

METHOD
The compounds were analyzed for their chemical stability, n-octanol:water partition coefficient (logP) and apparent permeability (Papp) in monolayer of Caco-2 cells. The stability of the compounds in rat and human microsomes and in rat plasma was also evaluated.

RESULTS
The compounds I, II and IV showed to be hydrophilic, while compound III was the most lipophilic (logP 1.59). All compounds showed stability at the three evaluated pHs (1.2, 7.4 and 8.8). The apparent permeability measured suggests good intestinal absorption of the compounds. Additionally, the compounds showed metabolic stability under action of human and rat microsomal enzymes and stability in rat plasma for at least 6 hours.

CONCLUSION
The results bring favorable perspectives for the future development of the evaluated compounds and other pyrazinoic acid derivatives.


Deeply fascinated by the scientific developments of his own time, Kant has offered numerous philosophical insights into the methodological and metaphysical foundations of the sciences. First and foremost, Kant is famous for his appraisal of Newtonian physics, which for him was the paradigm case for all sciences properly socalled. Yet Kant by no means only focused on the physical sciences; rather, he pursued more broadly questions of the earth, life, and human sciences and made intriguing observations that have fostered a better understanding of their special character. This special issue is motivated by the belief that Kant's insights have remained relevant from his own time up to the present as a perennial source of inspiration as well as of controversy. A major goal of this special issue is to continue this dialogue between Kant and the sciences, by contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of Kant's philosophy of science with a view to bridging the gap between the natural and the human sciences. This dialogue, we will suggest, can provide a highly promising point of reference for integrating history and philosophy of science.


In this paper we will examine the effect of different parameters in the quality of real compressively sampled images in the compressed sensing framework. We will select a variety of different real images of different types and test the quality of the recovered images, the recovery time, and required resources when different measurement methods with different parameters are used or when different recovering methods are applied. Then we will propose an algorithm to reduce the noise in the recovered images and sharpen them simultaneously. The algorithm exploits a well-known bilateral filtering in order to increase the confidence in margins and edges, and then uses an adaptive unsharp mask method to sharpen the images. The adaptive unsharp mask method extends the ordinary unsharp mask method and uses machine learning square loss minimization and regression in order to learn the optimal unsharping parameters. We will argue why both bilateral filtering and unsharp mask methods should be used in the algorithm simultaneously. Finally, we will show the results of applying the algorithm on real images that are recovered using the compressed sensing method and we will interpret the experimental results.


Sentinel node (SN) biopsy is a staging technique used to select patients for regional lymphadenectomy in melanoma. We compared the two most widely used radioactive tracers, 99mTc-colloidal albumin (99mTc-CA) and 99mTc-sulphur colloid (99mTc-SC), with respect to scintigraphy, success rate in gamma probe guided biopsy and absolute uptake in the SN. Scintigraphy was performed in six volunteers after simultaneous injection of the respective tracers in each leg. Comparison of uptake of both tracers showed a higher uptake on the 99mTc-CA side. The scintigraphic count ratio of SNs labelled with 99mTc-SC compared with 99mTc-CA was 1 to 9-28. Next, 20 patients with biopsy-proven melanoma were randomized for injection of 99mTc-CA or 99mTc-SC followed by SN biopsy. Within 20 min after the injection, focal uptake was seen in all cases of the 99mTc-CA group but in only seven of the 10 patients in the 99mTc-SC group (P<0.05). Focal accumulations were seen in all patients of both groups after 2 h. Spill to non-SNs was seen in five of the 99mTc-CA patients and three of the 99mTc-SC patients. In all patients the SNs could be retrieved under the guidance of a gamma probe and blue dye. The uptake in the SN was significantly higher (P<0.001) after the injection of 99mTc- CA (0.92 ± 0.40%) compared with 99mTc-SC (0.34 ± 0.34%). When dynamic scintigraphy is performed, 99mTc-CA is preferable. SN uptake of 99mTc-SC is less than that of 99mTc-CA but this does not adversely affect the surgical procedure.


Women with fish tails are among the oldest and still most popular of mythological creatures, possessing a powerful allure and compelling ambiguity. They dwell right in the uncanniest valley of the sea: so similar to humans, yet profoundly other. Mermaids: Art, Symbolism and Mythology presents a comprehensive, interdisciplinary and beautifully illustrated study of mermaids and their influence on Western culture. The roots of mermaid mythology and its metamorphosis through the centuries are discussed with examples from visual art, literature, music and architecture—from 600 BCE right up to the present day. Our story starts in Mesopotamia, source of the earliest preserved illustrations of half-human, half-fish creatures. The myths and legends of the Mesopotamians were incorporated and adopted by ancient Greek, Etruscan and Roman cultures. Then, during the early medieval period, ancient mythological creatures such as mermaids were confused, transformed and reinterpreted by Christian tradition to begin a new strand in mermaid lore. Along the way, all manner of stunning—and sometimes bizarre or unsettling—depictions of mermaids emerged. Written in an accessible and entertaining style, this book challenges conventional views of mermaid mythology, discusses mermaids in the light of evolutionary theory and aims to inspire future studies of these most curious of imaginary creatures.


Subject classification schemes and vocabularies for subject indexing, i.e. subject vocabularies, have a crucial role in the development of subject gateways. From our experiences on a few subject gateway projects which are designed for regional and domainspecific communities, we learned that the subject gateways require a subject vocabulary which is reasonably small and tailored in accordance with the resources in the domain and the audience. The goal of this paper is to discuss underlying issues for the small "core" subject vocabularies defined as a subject description/classification scheme for community oriented resources. First, this paper describes some basic aspects for metadata schema and requirements for the region/domain-specific subject gateways. Second, we show three subject gateway projects which are resources designed primarily for libraries and public library users. And then, we show a few examples of small vocabularies designed for regional resources. This paper compares some vocabularies designed for regional resources and discusses issues for the core subject vocabularies. Costs to develop and maintain the vocabularies can not be neglected even if they are small. We consider the Semantic Web technologies will help develop software tools to support development and maintenance of the subject vocabularies and to enhance their interoperability and reusability.


Four metal speciation and fractionation techniques – DGT (diffusive gradients in thin films), 1-kDa ultrafiltration, 0.22-µm membrane filtration and aquatic moss – were simultaneously applied to a small, contaminated freshwater stream in northern Sweden to investigate differences and similarities between the methods regarding trace metal speciation and their dependence on geochemical water properties. The investigated metals comprise Al, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, and Zn. The normal DGT devices with Chelex cation exchanger were used. Shoots from the aquatic moss Fontinalis antipyretica L ex Hedw. were collected in a non-polluted brook and transplanted to the sampling site for exposure. It was evident that 0.22-µm membrane filtration, 1-kDa ultrafiltration and DGT generally measured different metal fractions where <1-kDa ultrafiltered concentrations were lower than DGT labile concentrations which in turn were lower than <0.22-µm concentrations. The differences between DGT and <1-kDa concentrations indicate the occurrence of labile colloids discriminated by ultrafiltration. Strong correlations between DGT and <1 kDa concentrations were found for Al, Cu, Cd, Co and Zn. Despite a rigorous sample cleaning, retention of particulate matter on the moss samples was revealed by a significant correlation between metal concentrations in moss and particulate Fe. Generally, elevated trace metal concentrations were found in moss exposed at the sampling site compared to reference moss from the non-polluted brook. No significant correlations were found between DGT-labile concentrations and moss concentrations. Supplementary material: DGT – labile concentrations of Al, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni and Zn from deployments in Gråbergsbäcken Stream is available online at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18566. A hard copy can be obtained from the Society Library.


At the nanoscale, surface effect could cause atomistic structures a pre-stressed or pre-deformed state, which would consequently have a great dependence on their bulk mechanical properties. Besides, according to molecular mechanics [1,2], the effect of the non-bonding interactions among the atoms that are separated by equal or more than two bonds, say, van der Waals (vdW) forces, should be taken into account. Thus, the underlying objective of the study attempts to explore the extent of the surface effect and the in-layer vdW interactions on the mechanical properties of single/multi-walled carbon nanotubes(S/MWCNTs) with two different types of chiralities, including zigzag and armchair. To deal with the problem, an atomistic-continuum modeling (ACM) approach is introduced. The ACM is established by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and equivalent continuum modeling (ECM). MD simulation is adopted to derive the initial equilibrium state of CNTs due to the surface effect, and the ECM is applied to calculate the mechanical properties of CNTs. The ECM is formulated based on the finite element (FE) approximations, which are composed of three-dimensional beam elements and one-dimensional non-linear spring elements. They basically represent the bonding and non-bonding interactions, respectively. The equivalent material constants of these two types of elements are derived from classical molecular mechanics and beam theory. The present results are also compared with those obtained from other simulations and experiments.


Alzheimer's disease is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder, the most common among the dementing illnesses. Acetaminophen has gaining importance in neurodegenerative diseases by attenuating the dopaminergic neurodegeneration in Caenorhabditis elegans model, decreasing the chemokines and the cytokines and increasing the anti apoptotic protein such as Bcl-2 in neuronal cell culture. The low concentration acetaminophen improved the facilitation to find the hidden platform in Morris Water Maze Test. Also some data suggest that acetaminophen could contribute in neurodegeneration. The present study was aimed to evaluate the effect of acetaminophen against colchicine induced cognitive impairment and oxidative stress in wistar rats. The cognitive learning and memory behaviour was assessed using step through passive avoidance paradigm and acetylcholine esterase activity. The parameters of oxidative stress were assessed by measuring the malondialdehyde, reduced glutathione and catalase levels in the whole brain homogenates. There was a significant memory improvement in the rats received acetaminophen treatment and it has also decreased the acetylcholine esterase enzyme level, confirming its nootropic activity. Acetaminophen neither increases nor decreases the reduced glutathione and catalase in the whole brain homogenates, showing that acetaminophen is devoid of any adverse effect on brain antioxidant defense system.


The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is a joint ESA-NASA mission designed to observe gravitational waves in the frequency range between 10?4 to 1 Hz, where ground-based detectors are limited by terrestrial noise. Sources in this frequency range include supermassive black holes and galactic binary stars. LISA consists of three identical spacecraft separated by 5 million kilometers carrying a total of six free flying proof masses in heliocentric drag-free orbit. The fluctuations in separation between two test masses located in different satellites will be measured by laser interferometry with picometer precision. LISA Pathfinder is a technology demonstration mission for LISA consisting of only two test masses in one single satellite. It will be launched in 2009, five years before LISA. We provide here an overview of the development of LISA and LISA Pathfinder with particular emphasis on the interferometry.


This paper presents the usage of vibration in laser direct deposition of Ti64. The vibration is used to refine the crystalline structure of the deposition. The vibration device vibrates in the laser deposition system along the Z axis. A design of experiments approach is applied in studying the effect of vibration on the deposited material. Vibration during deposition led to grain refinement and an increase in microhardness over that of samples from no-vibration. Also, vibration frequency is a significant factor. From the experiment results, it is found that a vibration frequency greater than 20Hz is desirable.


Norms of justice are often invoked to justify the globalisation of forest policies but are rarely critically analysed. This paper reviews elements of justice in the values, knowledge, access and property rights relating to forests, especially in developing countries. Rather than defining justice in general terms of distribution of benefits and recognition of stakeholders, we argue that these processes are mutually defining, and can foreclose what is distributed, and to whom. Much recent forest policy, for example, emphasises forest carbon stocks and the benefits to indigenous peoples; but these terms de-emphasise livelihood outcomes for forests, and non-indigenous smallholders. Accordingly, we argue that current operationalisations of justice in forest policy based on John Rawls' principles of fair allocation to known actors need to be replaced by Amartya Sen's more deliberative and inclusive vision of justice that focuses instead on how different users experience different benefits, and seek to achieve multiple objectives together.


The medial patellofemoral ligament (MPFL) is essential to maintain patella stability; however, its role in total knee replacement (TKR) has not been studied. Forty-six consecutive TKRs in 40 patients were reviewed. Standard closure was performed in 29 TKRs. The MPFL was isolated and anatomically re-approximated in 17 subsequent TKRs. Blinded radiographic evaluation of patellar tilt and subluxation was performed preoperatively and 4 months postoperatively. Despite greater preoperative lateral tilt, the MPFL repair group demonstrated greater correction in patellar tilt compared with the standard closure group (p = 0.02). Patellar tracking also was optimized in the MPFL group, despite equivalent preoperative lateral patellar subluxation in the two groups. Simple repair of the MPFL at arthrotomy closure appears to optimize patellar stability radiographically and may improve long-term results by minimizing patellar complications and wear.


When deep learning meets big code, a key question is how to efficiently learn a distributed representation for source code that can capture its semantics effectively. We propose to use tree-based convolution over API-enhanced AST. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, we apply it to detect semantic clones---code fragments with similar semantics but dissimilar syntax. Experiment results show that our approach outperforms an existing state-of-the-art approach that uses tree-based LSTM, with an increase of 0.39 and 0.12 in F1-score on OJClone and BigCloneBench respectively. We further propose architectures that incorporate our approach for code search and code summarization.


Recent studies validated the feasibility of estimating heart rate from human faces in RGB video. However, test subjects are often recorded under controlled conditions, as illumination variations significantly affect the RGB-based heart rate estimation accuracy. Intel newly-announced low-cost RealSense 3D (RGBD) camera is becoming ubiquitous in laptops and mobile devices starting this year, opening the door to new and more robust computer vision. RealSense cameras produce RGB images with extra depth information inferred from a latent near-infrared (NIR) channel. In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate, for the first time, that heart rate can be reliably estimated from RealSense near-infrared images. This enables illumination invariant heart rate estimation, extending the heart rate from video feasibility to low-light applications, such as night driving. With the (coming) ubiquitous presence of RealSense devices, the proposed method not only utilizes its near-infrared channel, designed originally to be hidden from consumers; but also exploits the associated depth information for improved robustness to head pose.


Background Turning is a challenging mobility task requiring proper planning, coordination, and postural stability to be executed efficiently. Turn deficits can impair mobility and lead to falls in patients with neurodegenerative disease, such as Parkinson's disease (PD). It was previously shown that the cranio-caudal sequence involved during a turn (i.e., motion is initiated by the head, followed by the trunk) exhibits a signature that can be captured using an inertial system and analyzed through the Kinematics Theory. The so-called cranio-caudal kinematic turn signature (CCKS) metrics derived from this approach could, therefore, be a promising avenue to develop and track markers to measure early mobility deficits. Objective The current study aims at exploring the discriminative validity and sensitivity of CCKS metrics extracted during turning tasks performed by patients with PD. Methods Thirty-one participants (16 asymptomatic older adults (OA): mean age = 69.1 ± 7.5 years old; 15 OA diagnosed with early PD ON and OFF medication, mean age = 65.8 ± 8.4 years old) performed repeated timed up-and–go (TUG) tasks while wearing a portable inertial system. CCKS metrics (maximum head to trunk angle reached and commanded amplitudes of the head to trunk neuromuscular system, estimated from a sigma-lognormal model) were extracted from kinematic data recorded during the turn phase of the TUG tasks. For comparison purposes, common metrics used to analyze the quality of a turn using inertial systems were also calculated over the same trials (i.e., the number of steps required to complete the turn and the turn mean and maximum velocities). Results All CCKS metrics discriminated between OA and patients (p ≤ 0.041) and were sensitive to change in PD medication state (p ≤ 0.033). Common metrics were also able to discriminate between OA and patients (p < 0.014), but they were unable to capture the change in medication state this early in the disease (p ≥ 0.173). Conclusion The enhanced sensitivity to change of the proposed CCKS metrics suggests a potential use of these metrics for mobility impairments identification and fluctuation assessment, even in the early stages of the disease.


An 8 order magic square is 8×8 matrix containing integers and addition result of each row, column and diagonally get the same value. We utilize the generalized form of a 8×8 matrix with the help of a special geometrical figure. With the help of 8×8 Magic Square, the process established a new platform to generate key and encrypt the data using ORDES.


Abstract Obtaining informed consent can be challenging in stressful and urgent circumstances. One example is when potential participants have recently had their child removed into care; intervention is urgent and mandatory whereas participation in associated research is voluntary. Using a nested qualitative study, we examined experiences of consent processes in a randomised controlled trial of a family assessment and intervention service for maltreated young children. Some potential participants found it difficult to use information; some believed consenting might influence the return of their child. In response to these ethical challenges, we propose reversing the typical process of securing consent, so that randomisation to an intervention occurs before inviting potential participants to consider the trial. This will avoid delays, delineate research from intervention, and make it easier to consider information. We suggest that this innovation could be useful in trials across service areas that incorporate urgent and complex interventions.


In Winged Words Laura Coltelli interviews some of America's foremost Indian poets and novelists, including Paula Gunn Allen, Michael Dorris, Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Linda Hogan, N. Scott Momaday, Simon Ortiz, Wendy Rose, Leslie Marmon Silko, Gerald Vizenor; and James Welch. They candidly discuss the debt to old and the creation of new traditions, the proprieties of age and gender; and the relations between Indian writers and non-Indian readers and critics, and between writers and anthropologists and histo-rians. In exploring a wide range of topics, each writer arrives at his or her own moment of truth. Laura Coltelli is an associate professor of American literature at the University of Pisa.