Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods are increasingly used to facilitate both rigorous analysis and stakeholder involvement in natural and water resource plan- ning. Decision-making in that context is often complex and multi-faceted with numerous trade-offs between social, en- vironmental and economic impacts. However, practical ap- plications of decision-support methods are often too techni- cally oriented and hard to use, understand or interpret for all participants. The learning of participants in these processes is seldom examined, even though successful deliberation de- pends on learning. This paper analyzes the potential of an in- teractive MCDA framework, the decision analysis interview (DAI) approach, for facilitating stakeholder involvement and learning in groundwater management. It evaluates the results of the MCDA process in assessing land-use management al- ternatives in a Finnish esker aquifer area where conflicting land uses affect the groundwater body and dependent ecosys- tems. In the assessment process, emphasis was placed on the interactive role of the MCDA tool in facilitating stake- holder participation and learning. The results confirmed that the structured decision analysis framework can foster learn- ing and collaboration in a process where disputes and diverse interests are represented. Computer-aided interviews helped the participants to see how their preferences affected the de- sirability and ranking of alternatives. During the process, the participants' knowledge and preferences evolved as they as- sessed their initial knowledge with the help of fresh scientific information. The decision analysis process led to the open- ing of a dialogue, showing the overall picture of the problem context and the critical issues for the further process.


The research was conducted to look into learner diversity in inclusive classrooms focusing on language of instruction, gender and disability issues, and their implications for education practices. It used a qualitative approach to obtain data addressing the research problem from two inclusive secondary schools in Dar es Salaam region, Tanzania. A purposive sampling was used to obtain the schools and research participants who were teachers and students. Open ended interviews, classroom observations, and focus group discussions were used in data collection. The findings have indicated challenges in teaching mixed classes by teachers as well as students in such classes; especially those with disability. However, interactions between girls and boys were generally positive although the latter dominated in some classroom conversations. It is recommended that all teachers in inclusive schools should be trained on how to handle students with special needs in particular, and knowledge of learner diversity generally, during their initial-teacher training and further enhanced through continued in-service trainings. Lastly, it is recommended that another study, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches, be conducted using a bigger sample involving other types of participants with special needs; the parents of children in special needs should participate in the proposed study.


The purpose of this study was to understand the varying effects of COVID-19 on the median house price in metropolitan areas in the USA. Recently, the demand for houses has increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic increased the desire to stay indoors and introduced working from home. Four different factors were tested for their impact on the housing market: number of COVID-19 deaths, number of available houses for sale, unemployment rate, and mortgage interest rates. The control in this study was 2018-2019 house price data. We hypothesized that the house supply would cause the greatest change in house prices. Ckmean clustering method was applied to separate 93 metropolitan areas of the USA into three groups with different median house price levels. We then conducted linear regression modeling for each group to determine the varying level of effect each of the variables had. The results suggested that unemployment rate had the largest correlation with house prices, especially for metropolitan areas with extremely high house prices. This result did not support the research hypothesis. Further research could clarify the findings of our study by using fine-turned modeling techniques and including more economic factors like immigration or tourism. Additionally, we can research the effect of COVID-19 on house prices globally.


Cystic fibrosis (CF) is characterized by progressive and ultimately fatal pulmonary disease although there are notable variations in clinical features. This heterogeneity is thought to lie outside the cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR) gene locus and may stem from deficiencies in the antiproteinase screen that protects the lung from proteolytic attack. One hundred and fifty seven patients were recruited from two UK CF centres. The serum concentrations of alpha1-antitrypsin, alpha1-antichymotrypsin and C-reactive protein (CRP) were determined and patients were screened for the common S and Z deficiency alleles of alpha1-antitrypsin and the G-->A mutation in the 3' noncoding region of the alpha1-antitrypsin gene (Taq-I G-->A allele). Alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency phenotypes were detected in 20 (16 MS, 1 S and 3 MZ) out of 147 unrelated tested CF patients and were, surprisingly, associated with significantly better lung function (adjusted mean forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) 62.5% of predicted for deficient group and 51.1% pred for normal alleles; p=0.043). The Taq-I G-->A allele was found in 21 out of 150 unrelated patients and had no significant effect on CF lung disease or on levels of alpha1-antitrypsin during the inflammatory response. We show here that, contrary to current thinking, common mutations of alpha1-antitrypsin that are associated with mild to moderate deficiency of the protein predict a subgroup of cystic fibrosis patients with less severe pulmonary disease. Moreover, the Taq-I G-->A allele has no effect on serum levels of alpha1-antitrypsin in the inflammatory response, which suggests that the previously reported association of the Taq-I G-->A allele with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is not mediated by its effect on the serum level of alpha1-antitrypsin.


Probabilistic program analysis aims to quantify the probability that a given program satisfies a required property. It has many potential applications, from program understanding and debugging to computing program reliability, compiler optimizations and quantitative information flow analysis for security. In these situations, it is usually more relevant to quantify the probability of satisfying/violating a given property than to just assess the possibility of such events to occur.
In this work, we introduce an approach for probabilistic analysis of open programs (i.e. programs with undefined identifiers) based on game semantics and model counting. We use a symbolic representation of algorithmic game semantics to collect the symbolic constraints on the input data (context) that lead to the occurrence of the target events (e.g. satisfaction/violation of a given property). The constraints are then analyzed to quantify how likely is an input to satisfy them. We use model counting techniques to count the number of solutions (from a bounded integer domain) that satisfy given constraints. These counts are then used to assign probabilities to program executions and to assess the probability for the target event to occur at the desired level of confidence. Finally, we present the results of applying our approach to several interesting examples and illustrate the benefits they may offer.


Introduction: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is the most common chronic and non-communicable disease, with many complications including renal failure, blindness and non traumatic amputation. Prevention of DM is possible through monitoring and control of blood glucose levels. Considering how easy home blood glucose monitoring is, we decided to evaluate the performance of two available glucometers for detection of blood glucose compared with standard laboratory methods. Material and Methods: In this study, we compared of capillary blood glucose levels of 402 patients as determined by test strips (Glucometer) with venous blood glucose levels measurements by the enzymatic method (the standard laboratory kit). Results: Of the 402 patients studied, there were 230 (57.2%) males and 172 (42.8%) females; 65 (16.2%) had past history of DM. Their mean age was 40.2 ± 14.9 years (range 3-70), mean BMI was 24.4±3.2 Kg/m2 and mean HCT was 45.4±4.1 percent. The mean blood glucose measurements reported using the Glucomen glucometer, the Prestic glucometer and the standard laboratory method were 128.0±45.2mg/dl, 127.4±45.9 mg/dL and 125.3±43.2 mg/dL, respectively with increase of HCT (polycytemia); sensivity of devices for detection of hyperglycemia (BS ≥ 126 mg/dl) was increased but specificity was decreased (64.7%). Results obtained using the 2 devices had no differences with the standard method levels. Conclusion: Good correlation was observed between the glucometer and the standard enzymatic method of blood glucose measurements, advocating usage of glucometers at home environments.


Column and plate compressive strengths of extruded 0-1HTA magnesium alloy were determined both within and beyond the elastic range from tests of flat end H-section columns and from local instability tests of H-, Z-, and channel section columns. These tests are part of an extensive research investigation to provide data on the structural strength of various aircraft materials. The results are presented in the form of curves and charts that are suitable for use in the design and analysis of aircraft structures.


In conversation with Fleming, Lum discusses the image/text relationship and addresses the issues of subjectivity and intent in his 1994 diptych series. Rhodes situates the artist's oeuvre within a postmodern return to the tradition of portraiture, establishing the shift from Warhol's approach to the genre.


Land degradation has not been comprehensively addressed at the global level or in developing countries. A suitable economic framework that could guide investments and institutional action is lacking. This study aims to overcome this deficiency and to provide a framework for a global assessment based on a consideration of the costs of action versus inaction regarding desertification, land degradation, and drought (DLDD). Most of the studies on the costs of land degradation (mainly limited to soil erosion) give cost estimates of less than 1 percent up to about 10 percent of the agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) for various countries worldwide. But the indirect costs of DLDD on the economy (national income), as well as their socioeconomic consequences (particularly poverty impacts), must be accounted for, too. Despite the numerous challenges, a global assessment of the costs of action and inaction against DLDD is possible, urgent, and necessary. This study provides a framework for such a global assessment and provides insights from some related country studies.


Kinematic regularities between independent principal parameters of baby's (8-9 months age) walking were analysed. For the initial period of walking with support two characteristic properties were revealed: the duration of step cycle was close to constant and the structure of cycle--relation between duration of the swing and support phases was constant as well. Due to these properties a child's walking is different from the adult's one characterized by decrement duration of the cycle and an increase of the cycle structure with an increase of walking speed. The principles of neurophysiological model of generator which provides initial primitive organization and the following complication of kinematic program of walking are discussed.


Ambitious World Health Organization targets for disease elimination require monitoring of epidemics using routine health data in settings of decreasing and low incidence. We evaluated two methods commonly applied to routine testing results to estimate incidence rates that assume uniform probability of infection between consecutive negative and positive tests based on: 1. the midpoint of this interval; and 2. a randomly selected point on this interval. We compared these with an approximation to the Poisson-binomial distribution which assigns partial incidence to time-periods based on the uniform probability of occurrence in these intervals. We assessed bias, variance and convergence of estimates using simulations of Weibull distributed failure times with systematically varied baseline incidence, and varying trend. We considered results for quarterly, half-yearly and yearly incidence estimation frequencies. We applied methods to assess human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) incidence in HIV-negative patients from the Treatment with Antiretrovirals and their Impact on Positive And Negative men study between 2012 and 2018. The Poisson-binomial method had reduced bias and variance at low levels of incidence and for increased estimation frequency, with increased consistency of estimation. Application of methods to real-world assessment of HIV incidence found decreased variance in Poisson-binomial model estimates, with observed incidence declining to levels where simulation results had indicated bias in midpoint and random-point methods.


We investigate the impact of the diffuse ionized gas (DIG) on abundance determinations in star-forming (SF) galaxies. The DIG is characterized using the H α equivalent width (WH α). From a set of 1 409 SF galaxies from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey, we calculate the fractional contribution of the DIG to several emission lines using high-S/N data from SF spaxels (instead of using noisy emission-lines in DIG-dominated spaxels). Our method is applicable to spectra with observed WH α ≳ 10 Å (which are not dominated by DIG emission). Since the DIG contribution depends on galactocentric distance, we provide DIG-correction formulae for both entire galaxies and single aperture spectra. Applying those to a sample of $\, \gt 90\, 000$ SF galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we find the following. (1) The effect of the DIG on strong-line abundances depends on the index used. It is negligible for the ([O iii]/H β)/([N ii]/H α) index, but reaches ∼0.1 dex at the high-metallicity end for [N ii]/H α. (2) This result is based on the ∼kpc MaNGA resolution, so the real effect of the DIG is likely greater. (3) We revisit the mass–metallicity–star formation rate (SFR) relation by correcting for the DIG contribution in both abundances and SFR. The effect of DIG removal is more prominent at higher stellar masses. Using the [N ii]/Hα index, O/H increases with SFR at high stellar mass, contrary to previous claims.


Melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) in paraventricular nucleus in hypothalamus (PVH) shows bidirectional characterization in modulating food intake and energy homeostasis. Here, we demonstrated that MC4R knock down (MC4R KD) in PVH could attenuate AMPA receptor (AMPAR) mediated postsynaptic responses by altering AMPAR GluA1 subunit phosphorylation via protein kinase A (PKA) dependent signaling cascade and simultaneously lead to rapid body weight gain. Further, PKA knock down (PKA KD) in PVH engendered similar electrophysiological and behavioral phenotypes as MC4R KD mice. Importantly, we observed that the reduction of AMPAR GluA1 expression not only led to attenuated synaptic responses but also caused body weight gain, suggesting that the aberration of synaptic responses may be one of the crucial pathogeny for obesity. Our study provided the synaptic and molecular explanations of how body weight is regulated by MC4R in PVH.


A total of 204 meningococcus strains were tested for the presence of hyaluronidase, and 45.5% of the strains were found to contain it. Strains penetrating into the cerebrospinal fluid were the ones which largely produced the enzyme (in 83% of the cases). The enzyme was revealed only in 25.5% of the strains habituating on the nasopharyngeal mucosa. Hyaluronidase was mostly found in the meningococcus strains referred to the serological group A; strains of other serological groups and ungrouped strains produced the enzyme in 23.7% of the case only. There was no correlation between the capacity to form hyaluronidase and the virulence determinable in intraperitoneal infection of mice.


Abstract : Recent speed and density advancements in microelectronics will now permit the development of powerful and affordable avionic architectural elements - viz. processing, memories and wide band data buses. An advanced architecture making use of these elements and coupled with highly flexible software, will enhance the capability to fully exploit information integration and automation processes. An abundance of real-time data is available for integration from diverse subsystems aboard advanced military aircraft. Dramatic improvements in avionic system availability, crew workload reduction, weapon system survivability and supportability are possible using this approach. The introduction of these system integration technologies into the force structure is needed at the earliest opportunity to meet expanding mission requirements. However, care must be exercised to ensure that concepts and standards have been matured through validation testing to avoid potentially costly mistakes. The Air Force has establishd the PAVE PILLAR Program to provide the need maturation of advanced avionic system architectural approaches, system elements and potential system standards during advanced development. This Program also initiates the concept of establishing system integration technology as a separate discipline within the Laboratory framework. This paper describes the PAVE PILLAR Program being pursued within the Avionics Laboratory of the Wright Aeronautical Laboratories. Enhancements to operational force effectiveness resulting from system integration will be described, along with advanced system technology elements and potential standards which will be developed and demonstrated. (Author)


Introduction: The most common health problem associated with the negative effect of heavy school bags is back pain, and non-specific back pain is frequently observed in childhood. The prevalence of back pain in schoolchildren varies from 12% to 92%, depending on the age and affected region of the back. To prevent the occurrence of back pain in schoolchildren, the weight of school bag should not exceed 10% of the child's body mass.Methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted in April 2017. We included 79 students of the fifth and sixth grade from the elementary school in Sarajevo. Information on the weight and type of school bag, method of carrying a school bag, and feelings of pain and tiredness due to school bag were obtained by questionnaire.Results: In the total sample, the majority of the students (64.6%) reported occasional back pain while carrying the bag, 20.3% of students reported no back pain, and 11.4% of students experienced frequent back pain. The mean school bag weight in the fifth grade was 4.01 ± 0.57 kg, and it was significantly higher (4.61 ± 0.86 kg) in the sixth grade. About 48.5% of the students in the fifth and 50% in the sixth grade carried school bags weighing more than 10% of the body mass. A higher mean weight of school bag was significantly more frequent in students who reported always feeling tired (11.03 ± 2.74%) compared to those who did not feel tired while carrying the school bag (8.41 ± 2%).Conclusions: Overall, more frequent occurrence of back pain and tiredness in schoolchildren was associated with heavier school bags (>10% of the body mass), and the occurrence of back pain due to school bag was related to gender (i.e., back pain was more common in girls compared to boys).


In this report, we provide information about composition species, distribution of land snails and difference of them about habitats and topographies on Nui Voi, Hai Phong. Based on analysis of land snail samples collected from Nui Voi hill in Hai Phong province, research results show that land snail fauna has 36 species belong to 28 genera, 14 families, 4 orders (Neritopsina, Architaenioglossa, Archaeopulmonata and Stylommatophora) and 2 subclasses Prosobranchia and Pulmonata. In which, Pulmonata occupied 72.2% of total recorded species in survey area. The most in number of species in Cyclophoridae, Ariophantidae, Camaenidae and Subulinidae. Distribution about habitat is very different. Number of landsnail species on the limestone mountains is more abundant than on feralit soil mountains. In this species composition, some species ( Opeas pyrgula, O. gracilia, O. filare, Diplommatina herziana, Coniglobus albius and Cyclophorus siamensis ) were also recorded on many islands in the Western Pacific Ocean region. Preliminary comments show that the landsnails fauna on this area close to fauna of many islands in the western Pacific Ocean (Hainan island, the Philippines, Malaysia...).


The objective of performance attribution is to explain portfolio performance relative to a benchmark, identify the sources of excess return, and relate those sources to active decisions by the portfolio manager. This review charts the development of attribution from its beginning with Fama decomposition in the 1970s, through its foundations in the 1980s, into its issues of multiperiod and multicurrency attribution in the 1990s, and ending on its more detailed models for fixed-income and risk-adjusted attribution in recent years. Types of attribution (including returns based, holdings based, and transaction based) are also discussed as is money-weighted attribution and developments associated with notional funds.


: A whole killed FeLV vaccine was developed. By use of a chromatography method of purification and concentration, the resulting vaccine has been shown to be significantly lower in bovine serum albumin and total protein contents than were the same ingredients in the starting materials. The virus was inactivated or killed as an essential part of the vaccine development process. Vaccination trials with the vaccine without use of adjuvants indicated appreciable virus-neutralizing serum titer (greater than or equal to 1:10) in 107 of 110 vaccinated cats. Of 43 cats vaccinated and subsequently challenge exposed with virulent FeLV, only 2 developed persistent virus antigenemia (longer than 1 month), whereas 14 of 22 nonvaccinated control cats developed persistent viremia. In field tests, 2,770 cats from 6 states were vaccinated and observed. Postvaccinal reactions were not observed.


The purpose of this study was to assess and investigate the relationship between coaches and federation, coaches and players and among players and suggest how to develop interaction in between them and its importance for Basketball development in Addis Ababa city administration. The researcher motivates to conduct his study on Coach -Federation and coach-player relationship because relationship is considered as one of the main determinant factor for Basketball development. Coaches, federation workers and three clubs form female, four from first division men and two from second division men of each six players were the participants if the study. They were selected by using simple random and stratified sampling methods. The major instruments in this study were questionnaire, interview, document Analysis and field observation. The findings of the study related to the interpersonal relationships among players of the team indicated that, 52% of the players' responded that there is a mutual respect and were made freely communicate and take responsibilities about each other and with the coaches. 88% of the Federation workers replied that there is no smooth relationship in between Basketball Coaches and Basketball federation; because coaches don't have any benefit that provided from the federation except the upgrade training that is given by the help of the federation. In general, the study confirmed that 88% of Basketball coaches have no good relationship with the Federation and; where as 58% of the Coaches have mutual respect with the players, which indicate that there is mutual respecting between majority of the coaches and players.


In this work, we present a systematic review on non-invasive HMIs employing hybrid wearable sensor modalities for recognition of upper limb intentions. Different combinations of the sensors are investigated. As sEMG is dominant in the applications of externally powered prosthetic hands, it is involved in most hybrid sensor combinations. The combined use of sEMG and IMU is most studied in the literature as IMU is easy to be integrated. Though limited, the investigation on other hybrid modalities has been drawing more and more research attention and efforts, especially those with FMG and NIRS. For all the reported hybrid sensors, it is verified that this strategy can enrich the information of user intention and help the pattern recognition and/or intensity regulation of robotic hand/arm prosthesis. Though it is the trend, the development of these hybrid-sensor-based HMIs are still at the preliminary stage. More dedicated sensor fusion models and system architectures as well as new hybrid features and algorithms need to be developed to make the best use of each sensing modality's strength to achieve robust and stable user intention recognition, which is essential for the progress and user acceptance of upper limb prosthesis.


Background: The main function of the immune system is to defence against infections and killing the tumor cells. It has been reported that smoking reduces the resistance to infections and increases the incidence of cancers. The aim of this study was to assess selected indices of immunity, inhealthy cigarette smoker men. Materials and Methods: Blood samples were collected from 68 healthy men, including, 32 subjects smoking for more than 5 years (case group), and 36 aged-matched men who never used to smoke (control group). The following parameters were studiedand compared in two groups: total and differential white blood cell (WBC) counts, serum concentration of immunoglobulins including: IgG, IgA, IgM and IgE, C3 and C4 complement components. Results: Decreased serum concentration of IgG, IgM and, IgA observed in smoker men compared to nonsmokers. Smokers had higher IgE concentration than non-smokers (522 IU/ml Vs 381 IU/ml; P<0.01). In smokers, the absolute count of circulating WBC, PMN cells and lymphocytes was significantly higher than those in nonsmokers. Conclusion: These results indicated that several significant immunological alterations were occurred in smoker men, compare to nonsmoker.


In April 2008, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) implemented the Public Access Policy (PAP), which mandated that the full text of NIH-supported articles be made freely available on PubMed Central - the NIH's repository of biomedical research. This paper uses 600,000 NIH articles and a matched comparison sample to examine how the PAP impacted researcher access to the biomedical literature and publishing patterns in biomedicine. Though some estimates allow for large citation increases after the PAP, the most credible estimates suggest that the PAP had a relatively modest effect on citations, which is consistent with most researchers having widespread access to the biomedical literature prior to the PAP, leaving little room to increase access. I also find that NIH articles are more likely to be published in traditional subscription-based journals (as opposed to 'open access' journals) after the PAP. This indicates that any discrimination the PAP induced, by subscription-based journals against NIH articles, was offset by other factors - possibly the decisions of editors and submission behaviour of authors.


With increasing number of open-source deep learning (DL) software tools made available, benchmarking DL software frameworks and systems is in high demand. This paper presents design considerations, metrics and challenges towards developing an effective benchmark for DL software frameworks and illustrate our observations through a comparative study of three popular DL frameworks: TensorFlow, Caffe, and Torch. First, we show that these deep learning frameworks are optimized with their default configurations settings. However, the default configuration optimized on one specific dataset may not work effectively for other datasets with respect to runtime performance and learning accuracy. Second, the default configuration optimized on a dataset by one DL framework does not work well for another DL framework on the same dataset. Third, experiments show that different DL frameworks exhibit different levels of robustness against adversarial examples. Through this study, we envision that unlike traditional performance-driven benchmarks, benchmarking deep learning software frameworks should take into account of both runtime and accuracy and their latent interaction with hyper-parameters and data-dependent configurations of DL frameworks.


We investigate the impact of financial liberalization on remittances to 84 countries over the period 1986–2005. Explicitly accounting for the multidimensionality of financial reform, we find that the various dimensions impact remittances differently: Increased economic freedom in the financial sector, as captured by absence of direct government control over the allocation of credit, has a positive and immediate impact. However, the improved robustness of financial markets, as captured by the development of security markets, improvement in the quality of banking supervision, and removal of stringent restrictions on interest rates and international capital, has a negative and lagged effect. The net combined effect reveals that financial liberalization may have a modest negative impact on remittances in the long run.


Programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) is a critical immune checkpoint ligand whose overexpression on tumor cells provides a mechanism of escape from immune surveillance. The interaction between PD-L1 and PD-1 on T cell lymphocytes suppresses both T cell activation and effector function and is engaged by cancers to dampen antitumor immunity. Here, we used mRNA display to engineer an 18-residue linear peptide that binds to human PD-L1. This peptide, which we term SPAM (signal peptide-based affinity maturated ligand), is nonhomologous to known PD-L1 binding peptides and mAbs, with dissociation constants (KD) of 119 and 67 nM for unglycosylated and glycosylated human PD-L1, respectively. The SPAM peptide is highly selective for human PD-L1 and shows no significant binding to either mouse PD-L1 or human PD-L2. Competition binding assays indicate that the SPAM peptide binding site overlaps with the binding site of PD-1 as well as therapeutic anti-PD-L1 antibodies. Taken together, these results suggest that the SPAM peptide specifically binds to human PD-L1 and could potentially serve as a PD-L1 affinity agent and PD-L1/PD-1 pathway modulator.


American Protestantism has been the dominant form of Christianity in United States since the colonial era and has had a profound impact on American society. Understanding this religious tradition is, thus, crucial to understanding American culture. This Companion offers a comprehensive overview of American Protestantism. It considers all its major streams – Anglican, Reformed, Lutheran, Anabaptist, Baptist, Stone-Campbell, Methodist, Holiness, and Pentecostal. Written from various disciplinary perspectives, including history, theology, liturgics, and religious studies, it explores the beliefs and practices around which American Protestant life has revolved. The volume also provides a chronological overview of the tradition's entire history, addresses its prominent theological and sociological features, and explores its numerous intersections with American culture. Aimed at undergraduate and graduate students, as well as an interested general audience, this Companion will be useful both for insiders and outsiders to the American Protestant tradition.


Article history: Received: March 2014 Received in the revised form: September 2014 Accepted: October 2014 Contemporary research and production activity require searching and collecting a variety of information, this also applies to issues in the field of agriculture. Today, the vast majority of resources are available in a digital form. FAO on the portal of the Agricultural Information Management Standards presents an AgroTagger, tool for indexing documents in the field of agriculture, which is designed for the English language. Extraction of knowledge is not very convenient in languages such as Polish language with a very extensive inflection. In Polish, the following parts of speech inflect: verbs, nouns, numerals, adjectives, and pronouns. Proper indexing requires an initial reduction of grammatical forms, to which the authors have used the dictionary of the Polish language and have developed a programme of reducing. Moreover the algorithms for determining weights corresponding to the validity of the appointments taking into account the prevalence of terms and their position in the document were developed and implemented.


The interest rate which corresponds to neutral monetary policy settings in New Zealand appears to have trended downwards since at least the stabilisation of inflation in 1992. We present several alternative estimates of a time varying neutral real interest rate (NRR) in state space models, which all show the same declining trend. We then test for a relationship between the Neo-Wicksellian real interest rate gap and future inflation. As in Neiss and Nelson (2003), these two are highly correlated.


A metasurface is an artificial nanostructured interface that has subwavelength thickness and that manipulates light by spatially arranged meta-atoms—fundamental building blocks of the metasurface. Those meta-atoms, usually consisting of plasmonic or dielectric nanoantennas, can directly change light properties such as phase, amplitude, and polarization. As a derivative of three-dimensional (3D) metamaterials, metasurfaces have been emerging to tackle some of the critical challenges rooted in traditional metamaterials, such as high resistive loss from resonant plasmonic components and fabrication requirements for making 3D nanostructures. In the past few years, metasurfaces have achieved groundbreaking progress, providing unparalleled control of light, including constructing arbitrary wave fronts and realizing active and nonlinear optical effects. This article provides a systematic review of the current progress in and applications of optical metasurfaces, as well as an overview of metasurface building blocks based on plasmonic resonances, Mie resonance, and the Pancharatnam-Berry phase.


The goal of this research is to develop a design and optimization methodology for the mechatronic modules of machine tools by treating all important characteristics from all involved engineering domains in one single process. In this study, a mechatronic system of machine tools was broken into a structure and control two-level systems. In the first stage for structure design process, the Pro/E was used to build up the 3D models and the AnSys was employed to design the mechanical structure and select the optimal components for the machine tools. Next, in the control design process, a common controller type was designed by MATLAB in this stage. Then, three important parameters were established for the machine tools design to achieve the overall system performance.


Two hundred and eighty four patients with Down Syndrome (DS) were seen between 1951-1989 with 114 (40.1%) having a cardiac murmur at presentation. A definitive cardiac diagnosis was established in 47 (41%) patients, of which 38 had long term follow-up. Fifteen (33%) patients had atrioventricular canals. There were 21 males and 17 females, with a mean age of 5.3 years. Fifteen (39%) patients were in functional class (FC) I, 16 (42%) in FC II, six (15%) in FC III, and one patient in FC IV at the time of presentation. There were 18 survivors (13 in the surgical group and five in the nonsurgical group) and 20 nonsurvivors (four in the surgical group and 16 in the nonsurgical group). Causes of death in the nonsurgical group included congestive heart failure, pneumonia, and pulmonary vascular disease, and occured at a mean age of 8.4 years. Post-operative complications accounted for deaths in three of the four surgical patients. The survivors in the surgical group are presently in FC I/II. In the nonsurgical group, there was increased mortality, especially in those who presented in an earlier era, and a deterioration in functional class on follow-up due to the development of pulmonary vascular disease. Our data suggest that a) patients with Down syndrome and heart disease are helped by cardiac surgery with stabilization and improvement of their functional class; b) deterioration in functional class is seen in patients with Down syndrome with cardiac lesions who are managed surgically and c) mortality remains high in such patients treated nonsurgically due to development of pulmonary vascular disease and congestive heart failure. Therefore, early diagnosis and surgical correction where appropriate is a key issue in the management of children with Down syndrome.


Competing pressures for global integration and local differentiation present many challenges and opportunities for international management. This paper explores the implications of global-local tensions for multinational enterprises (MNEs). The convergence-divergence debate in the international management literature is reviewed, with particular attention to the emic-etic distinction. We suggest that complex forces for convergence and divergence are influential across multiple levels and have implications for several areas of international management, including international marketing and strategic human resource management (SHRM). We review the development of theory and research related to SHRM, and suggest that the convergence-divergence influences on SHRM are also applicable to international marketing.


An evolutionary correlation between the effects of male seminal substances that reduce female sexual receptivity and female remating frequency was found among strains of the adzuki bean beetle, Callosobruchus chinensis. Variation in female remating frequency had been also previously documented in this species, together with the identification in males of low- and highmolecular weight substances that exhibited quick- and slow-acting effects on female sexual receptivity. Here, we examined the differences in the effects of both substances on female sexual receptivity between strains with high and low remating frequencies. We found that the female response to the quick-acting substances differed. Moreover, not only female response to the slow-acting substances but also the male effect of these substances differed between strains. In remating experiments, a difference in female response to mating was found, but no difference was found in the effect of males between strains. Thus, male sexual receptivityinhibiting substances are one of the reasons for the difference in female remating frequency between the 2 strains. Next, the relationship between the effect of male substances on female sexual receptivity and female remating frequency was examined among multiple strains. Correlations between the effect of mating and male substances were found for both molecular weight classes of male substances. These results suggest that both female response to male substances and the effect of male receptivityinhibiting substances reflect variations in female remating frequency among strains. Key words: coevolution, female choice, female remating, receptivity-inhibiting substance, seminal fluids, sperm competition. [Behav Ecol]


The present study was designed to find out the relationship between mental health and social support and moderating effect of age and personality. Mental Health Inventory (MHI; Khan, 2008), Provisions of Social Relations (Ayub, 2004) and translated Extrovert-Introvert subscale of Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R; Eysenck & Eysenck 1975) were used to explore the relationship. The research was carried out in two phases. Phase I was the translation of extrovert-Introvert subscale of Eysneck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R; Eysenck, 1975) into Urdu through priori (judgmental) approach. The pilot study was conducted to assess the psychometric properties of scales to be utilized. The Alpha reliability coefficients were .77, .75 and .75 respectively for the three scales, which was quite satisfactory. In the main study sample of 100 men and women was selected and sub divided into five age groups (n=20 in each group). Results showed that there is significant relationship between mental health and social support. It also indicated that there were significant relationship between mental health, Ext-Int personality trait and age. Moderating effect of Ext-Int personality trait is much stronger and significant than the age that seems to play non-significant role between mental health and social support. Effects of some demographic variables were also explored like gender.


Object orientation provides a flexible framework for the implementation of the convolution of arbitrary distributions of real-valued random variables. We discuss an algorithm which is based on the fast Fourier transform. It directly applies to lattice-supported distributions. In the case of continuous distributions an additional discretization to a linear lattice is necessary and the resulting lattice-supported distributions are suitably smoothed after convolution. We compare our algorithm to other approaches aiming at a similar generality as to accuracy and speed. In situations where the exact results are known, several checks confirm a high accuracy of the proposed algorithm which is also illustrated for approximations of non-central χ 2 distributions. By means of object orientation this default algorithm is overloaded by more specific algorithms where possible, in particular where explicit convolution formulae are available. Our focus is on R package distr which implements this approach, overloading operator + for convolution; based on this convolution, we define a whole arithmetics of mathematical operations acting on distribution objects, comprising operators +, -, *, /, and ^.


Vinylic supramolecular cross-linkers (VSCs) were prepared by mixing an α-cyclodextrin dimer or a trimer and a polyethylene glycol-type macromonomer. DOSY NMR study exhibited the size of VSC and its dependency on the concentration and the structure of the components. Polymerization of a vinyl monomer with VSC afforded rotaxane cross-linked polymers.


Stratospheric sulfate injections from explosive volcanic eruptions are a primary natural climate forcing. Improved statistical models can now capture and simulate dynamical relationships in temporal variations of binary data. Leveraging these new techniques, the presented analysis clearly indicates that the number of large eruptions in the most recent records of explosive volcanism cannot be considered to be fully random. Including dynamical dependence in our models improves their ability to reproduce the historical record and thus forms a strong basis for skill in statistical prediction. Possible geophysical mechanisms behind the identified multidecadal variations are discussed, including variations in the observed length of day.


Genes that establish the circadian clock have differential expression with respect to solar time in central and peripheral tissues. Here, we find circadian-time-induced differential expression in a large number of genes not associated with circadian rhythms in two brain regions lacking overt circadian function: the dorsal vagal complex (DVC) and the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA). These regions primarily engage in autonomic, homeostatic, and emotional regulation. However, we find striking diurnal shifts in gene expression in these regions of male Sprague Dawley rats with no obvious patterns that could be attributed to function or region. These findings have implications for the design of gene expression studies as well as for the potential effects of xenobiotics on these regions that regulate autonomic and emotional states.


In spite of a dramatic decrease in anthropogenic emissions, ambient concentrations of major pollutants have not changed within many urban locations. To clarify the relationship between ambient air quality trend and the population exposures, we compared the intraurban versus temporal variability of the collocated measurements of five major air pollutants including particulate matter (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter <10 µm (PM10), < 2.5 µm (PM2.5), tropospheric ozone (O3), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), in Kraków, Poland, during the 2000−2010 period. Strong seasonal trends and overall absence of spatial heterogeneity in PM10 and PM2.5, except in the traffic monitoring site, were observed across the monitoring network. The range of median PM2.5 concentrations during winter (54–64 µg/m3) was 3- to 4-times higher than the summer medians (15–26 µg/m3) across the sites during 2009−2010. Furthermore, large proportion of PM10 appears to be comprised of PM2.5 (PM2.5/PM10 concentration ratios range, 0.5–0.7). At each monitoring site, the Pearson's correlation coefficients between PM2.5 and PM10 ranged between 0.944 and 0.963, suggesting a health-relevance of PM10 monitoring. One ln-unit increase in PM10 was associated with 92%–100% increase in PM2.5 concentrations in the same location. While PM10 did not demonstrate a clear temporal trend, SO2 concentrations steadily declined by 40% during the 2000–2010 period. Summertime median NO2 concentration was acutely elevated (70 μg/m3 vs. 22 μg/m3) at the traffic oriented site compared to the city's central monitoring site. The traffic and the industrial sites were associated with highest number of days during which 24-hour mean PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations exceeded the European Union standard. Steadily growing contributions by vehicular emissions appear to be associated with the absence of clear trend in PM10. Current practices of air quality control within Kraków may not be adequate for the protection of the public's health.


Abstract The manufacturing sector is a major avenue for female employment in the urban labor market in Malaysia. Only two studies, both published more than two decades ago, have examined gender earning differentials in this sector. Since then, the percentage of women being educated has increased, along with their participation rate, and several laws protecting their rights have also been passed, making it timely to re-examine the earnings gap. We do this by drawing on more recent data from a larger representative survey of manufacturing employees. The Blinder-Oaxaca technique, utilized in the previous two studies, was used to estimate the existing earnings gap and to decompose it to differences attributable to endowments, coefficients (traditionally viewed as subsuming discrimination), and the interaction between the two. We found a smaller gap than previously reported, with better female endowments helping to narrow the gap, and unexplained differences in coefficients being responsible for the remaining gap. The interaction effect was not statistically significant. Contrary to the earlier studies, the differential treatment of women in the manufacturing sector, rather than endowment differences, is hampering the equalization of earnings. This calls for newer approaches to closing the earnings gap.


A study was carried out in the Mounts Mandara to assess the diversity of edible plant species, to identify the use of the edible products, and to determine their socio-economic value. Interviews of a sampling population were conducted randomly in 5 zones with 5 villages each and in rural and urban markets; a sample of 1020 persons was interviewed to evaluate and quantify the various products and determine their flows. The results showed that the edible plant products used in the area were: fruits, leaves, flowers, seeds, tubers, roots, barks and stems. These products were harvested from 61 plant species belonging to 29 families in which 54 species were fruit trees, 11 species produced leaves and / or flowers, 4 species produced seeds. The total annual quantity of products harvested was 1080.9 t in which: fruit (725.62 t); leaves (97.5 t), flowers (1.96 t), and seeds (255.82 t). The seeds of Parkia biglobosa were the most useful part by the populations of Mounts Mandara making "dawa-dawa†some traditional aromatic for a sauce. Exploited products were an important source of food and income for the people. Annually, exploited products generated at whole of 60 783 975 F CFA. The fruits were sold for 17 542 375 F CFA, the seeds yielded 36 676 900 F CFA, the contribution of the leaves was 5 452 820 F CFA and that of the flowers was 724880 F CFA, "dawa-dawa" brought, very popular, bring in a modest sum of 787 000 F CFA. Local people were developing interest in exploiting different bush products. The exploitation activities of the various products were intensifying; the requested species must be domestication to ensure the sustainable management.


This work answers the question for any Newton-like solver that is applied to nonlinear residual systems arising during the course of implicit Reservoir Simulations. We start by developing a mathematical foundation that characterizes the asymptotic convergence rate of infinite dimensional Newton methods applied to continuous form reservoir simulation problems. Using the fact that finite dimensional (discretized) methods are related to their infinite dimensional counterparts through the approximation accuracy of the underlying numerical discretization scheme, we translate the infinite dimensional characterizations to the finite dimensional world. The analysis reveals the asymptotic scaling relations between nonlinear convergence rate and time-step and mesh size. In particular, we show a constant scaling relation for elliptic problems, a set of super-linear relations for hyperbolic situations, and for mixed parabolic problems. Numerical examples are used to illustrate the theoretical results, and we compare the direct convergence results from this work to those obtained using existing convergence monitoring methods. This work should be of interest to any simulation practitioner or developer who previously relied on text-book quadratic local convergence rate characterizations that did not hold in simulation practice and that perhaps are never even observed. The practical applications of this work are in time-step selection for convergence, generalizing single cell safeguarding tactics, and building insight into asymptotic acceleration methods.


Cloud computing, undoubtedly, has become the buzzword in the IT industry today. Looking at the potential impact it has on numerous business applications as well as in our everyday life, it can certainly be said that this disruptive technology is here to stay. Many of the features that make cloud computing attractive, have not just challenged the existing security system, but have also revealed new security issues. This paper provides an insightful analysis of the existing status on cloud computing security issues based on a detailed survey carried by the author. It also makes an attempt to describe the security challenges in Software as a Service (SaaS) model of cloud computing and also endeavors to provide future security research directions.


The recently initiated Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey aims to map ∼7000 deg2 of the high Galactic latitude sky visible from Arecibo, providing a H I line spectral database covering the redshift range between -1600 and 18,000 km s-1 with ∼5 km s-1 resolution. Exploiting Arecibo's large collecting area and small beam size, ALFALFA is specifically designed to probe the faint end of the H I mass function in the local universe and will provide a census of H I in the surveyed sky area to faint flux limits, making it especially useful in synergy with wide-area surveys conducted at other wavelengths. ALFALFA will also provide the basis for studies of the dynamics of galaxies within the Local Supercluster and nearby superclusters, allow measurement of the H I diameter function, and enable a first wide-area blind search for local H I tidal features, H I absorbers at z < 0.06, and OH megamasers in the redshift range 0.16 < z < 0.25. Although completion of the survey will require some 5 years, public access to the ALFALFA data and data products will be provided in a timely manner, thus allowing its application for studies beyond those targeted by the ALFALFA collaboration. ALFALFA adopts a two-pass, minimum intrusion, drift scan observing technique that samples the same region of sky at two separate epochs to aid in the discrimination of cosmic signals from noise and terrestrial interference. Survey simulations, which take into account large-scale structure in the mass distribution and incorporate experience with the ALFA system gained from tests conducted during its commissioning phase, suggest that ALFALFA will detect on the order of 20,000 extragalactic H I line sources out to z ∼ 0.06, including several hundred with H I masses M < 107.5 M⊙.


This study investigated gender differences in the relationship between oral communicative competence and peer rejection in early childhood education. It was hypothesized that children with poorer oral communicative competence would be rejected by their peers more frequently and that the strength of this relationship would differ for boys and girls. A sample of N = 54 children was tested on the Nijmegen Test for Pragmatics (NPT) to measure their oral communicative competence, defined as their ability to use language appropriately in a particular situation. Further, a sociometric method was used to measure the level of peer rejection and peer acceptance. No relationship was found between oral communicative competence and peer rejection. However, a positive relationship was observed between oral communicative competence and peer acceptance. Interestingly, this relationship only applied to boys. It is suggested that early childhood education teachers trying to enhance peer acceptance should take the promotion of oral communicative competence into account.


Background : The failure to stem HIV in sub-Saharan Africa and the unique epidemiological modes of infection within this region have demonstrated that unique strategies for combatting the virus are required. This review article discusses why international AIDS campaigns in sub- Saharan Africa have largely been unsuccessful, and what, if any, strategies have worked. Methods : Articles were compiled using Web of Science and Google Scholar search  ngines. Results : Inspired by past successes in the West and in Southeast Asia, Western AIDS initiatives have attempted to replicate these results within the African continent through 'risk reduction' approaches, vying to reduce the probability of HIV transmission per coital act via physical or biochemical barriers such as condoms, male circumcision, antiretroviral therapy, post-exposure prophylactic drugs, and treatment of sexually transmitted infections. However, more than three decades of research have demonstrated that the most successful strategies were African-inspired, relied on local resources with minimal Western support, culturally relevant, and used social engineering programs that dismantled networks of sexual relationships by promoting the practice of abstinence, reducing the number of sexual partners, discouraging multiple and concurrent relationships, delaying sexual debut, and maintaining mutually monogamous relationships. Conclusion : Known through the mnemonic 'ABC' (Abstinence, Be faithful, Condoms), this strategy was first implemented in Uganda, yielding remarkable successes both in Uganda and thereafter in other African nations in stemming HIV. AIDS agencies should support and encourage programs that use this culturally sensitive, low cost, and effective strategy. Keywords : Sub-Saharan Africa, HIV/AIDS, ABC, Risk Compensation, Sexual Networks, Multiple and Concurrent Partnerships, Uganda.


Nanotechnology is the capability to build by controlling the arrangement of individual atoms and molecules. Such a technology would be founded on the ability to control, manipulate and investigate matter at the atomic scale. The invention of atomic force microscope (AFM) and the advances in microcantilever based scanning probe technology have significantly enhanced the experimental capability to probe and modify matter at the nanoscale. However, it is still severely limited in achieving the necessary bandwidth, sensitivity and resolution. To further the advances in this field an in-depth understanding of the nature and effects of the tip-sample interactions is imperative. A complementary approach involving theoretical investigations and experimental advances is best suited to overcome the current limitations of this technology. This thesis investigates the atomistic phenomena associated with material modification at the tipsample contact theoretically because such information is inaccessible to experimental observation. Molecular dynamics studies of nanoindentation of crystalline silicon and gold, representative of semi conductor and metallic substrates, shed light on the mechanics of plastic deformation and defect forma tion. Silicon undergoes a densification transformation to amorphous phase in the deformed region via the formation of interstitials. In gold a pyramidal defect structure is formed via a three step mechanism consisting of nucleation, glide and reaction of dislocations. This mechanism dictates the dependence of defect structure on the crystallography of the indented surface as observed in experimental studies performed by other researchers. The experimental studies develop a new small amplitude non-contact AFM technique. In this frequency modulation method, changes in the cantilever's resonance induced by the tip-sample inter actions are detected from its thermal noise response. By eliminating the need for positive feedback it enables maintaining an extremely small tip-sample separation for extended periods of time at room temperatures. Consequently, this technique is particularly suited for studying highly localized slowly evolving atomic or molecular scale phenomena at ambient temperatures. The experiments performed in ambient room conditions have achieved tip-sample separations less than 2 nm for time periods in excess of 30 min. At such small separations a narrowband signal at 250 Hz is imaged with a force sensitivity of 14 fN in a bandwidth of 0.4 Hz.


How migration affects labor markets in receiving countries is well understood, but less is known about how migration affects labor markets in sending countries, particularly the wages of workers who do not emigrate. Most studies find that emigration increases wages in the sending country but only for non-emigrants with substitutable skills similar to those of emigrants; non-emigrants with different (complementary) skills lose. These wage reactions are short-term effects, however. If a country loses many highly educated workers, the economy can become less productive altogether, leading to lower wages for everyone in the long term.


The yeast IMD2 gene encodes an enzyme involved in GTP synthesis. Its expression is controlled by guanine nucleotides through a set of alternate start sites and an intervening transcriptional terminator. In the off state, transcription results in a short non-coding RNA that starts upstream of the gene. Transcription terminates via the Nrd1-Nab3-Sen1 complex and is degraded by the nuclear exosome. Using a sensitive terminator read-through assay, we identified trans-acting Terminator Override (TOV) genes that operate this terminator. Four genes were identified: the RNA polymerase II phosphatase SSU72, the RNA polymerase II binding protein PCF11, the TRAMP subunit TRF4 and the hnRNP-like, NAB3. The TOV phenotype can be explained by the loss of function of these gene products as described in models in which termination and RNA degradation are coupled to the phosphorylation state of RNA polymerase II's repeat domain. The most interesting mutations were those found in NAB3, which led to the finding that the removal of merely three carboxy-terminal amino acids compromised Nab3's function. This region of previously unknown function is distant from the protein's well-known RNA binding and Nrd1 binding domains. Structural homology modeling suggests this Nab3 'tail' forms an α-helical multimerization domain that helps assemble it onto an RNA substrate.


The growth of English as a global lingua franca out of a national and then regional language is closely linked with the imperialism of Great Britain and the United States. The use of English in many countries was first imposed on mainly by using military force and is currently maintained by their dominant influence in politics, military, economy and education around the world. It is believed that the widespread of English is double-edged. English as a growing world language helps quicken exchanges between different cultures; on the other hand, world cultural diversity is thus endangered. The best way out is to make the most of English adopting language policies according to different circumstances.


Social media platforms are commonly used for the expression of suicidal thoughts and feelings, particularly by young people. Despite this, little is known about the ways in which social media can be used for suicide prevention. The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review to identify current evidence pertaining to the ways in which social media are currently used as a tool for suicide prevention.


The low temperature phase (LTP) of α-(BEDT-TTF)2KHg(SCN)4 salt is known for its surprising angular dependent magnetoresistance (ADMR), which has been studied intensively in the last decade. However, the nature of the LTP has not been understood until now. Here we analyse theoretically ADMR in unconventional (or nodal) charge density wave (UCDW). In magnetic field the quasiparticle spectrum in UCDW is quantized, which gives rise to spectacular ADMR. The present model accounts for many striking features of ADMR data in α-(BEDTTTF)2KHg(SCN)4.


Wilhelm, Gretchen Marie. M. Ed. Education Dept., Cedarville University, 2005. A Comparative-Qualitative Research Analysis of Character Education in the Christian School and Home Education Milieu. This qualitative study provides a phenomenological perspective and comparative analysis of character education within the Christian school and home education milieu. The study is based on semi-structured interviews of fifty-two individuals (N = 52) representative of a sampling of Christian educators from four private, evangelical Christian Schools (n = 26) and area home educating families (n = 26). The intent of the researcher was to bring attention to the importance for Christian educators to come to terms with the worldview from which the desire to educate Christian youth in a separate moral community originates. Although the purpose and intent of both sets of educators were in many instances similar, significant deviations in methodology and application were found. The results of this study are defined in four similarities and six differences, suggesting that character education and the juxtaposition of that goal along with the transference of faith was a major contributor to the obvious commitment and calling felt by Christian educators.


Rifampicin pharmacokinetics in rats with acute affection of the liver with carbon tetrachloride did not alter. Chronic affection with carbon tetrachloride resulted in retarded elimination of the antibiotic from blood. There was observed no relationship between increased activities of transamination enzymes such as alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase in blood serum of animals and changes in rifampicin pharmacokinetics.


Subiculum is the primary output area of the hippocampus and serves as a key relay center in the process of memory formation and retrieval. A majority of subicular pyramidal neurons communicate via bursts of action potentials, a mode of signaling that may enhance the fidelity of information transfer and synaptic plasticity or contribute to epilepsy when unchecked. In the present study, we show that a Ca2+ tail current drives bursting in subicular pyramidal neurons. An action potential activates voltage-activated Ca2+ channels, which deactivate slowly enough during action potential repolarization to produce an afterdepolarization that triggers subsequent action potentials in the burst. The Ca2+ channels underlying bursting are located primarily near the soma, and the amplitude of Ca2+tail currents correlates with the strength of bursting across cells. Multiple channel subtypes contribute to Ca2+ tail current, but the need for an action potential to produce the slow depolarization suggests a central role for high-voltage-activated Ca2+ channels in subicular neuron bursting.


Abstract. An operational assimilation system incorporating significant wave height observations in high resolution numerical wave models is studied and evaluated. In particular, altimeter satellite data provided by the European Space Agency (ESA-ENVISAT) are assimilated in the wave model WAM which operates in two different wave climate areas: the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. The first is a wind-sea dominated area while in the second, swell is the principal part of the sea state, a fact that seriously affects the performance of the assimilation scheme. A detailed study of the different impact is presented and the resulting forecasts are evaluated against available buoy and satellite observations. The corresponding results show a considerable improvement in wave forecasting for the Indian Ocean while in the Mediterranean Sea the assimilation impact is restricted to isolated areas.


In late 2005, the German energy companies E.ON and Wintershall and Russian Gazprom reached an agreement to build a new huge pipeline Nord Stream through the Baltic Sea. This pipeline will provide Russia for the first time ever with the direct access to its Western European customers. This pipeline will contribute to the security of the Western Europe's energy supply through creating an alternative supply opportunity for the case when conflicts with the current transit states lead to disruptions in supply. The realization of the project will also shift the bargaining power from the transit states to the benefit of both Russia and the Western European natural gas importers. Particularly, White Russia as well as the Ukraine will have to accept lower transit fees in the future and have fewer means left to enforce special conditions for their own natural gas imports. The decision to construct the pipeline can be viewed as a consequence of institutional and political weaknesses in the transit states.


Abstract Perhaps hundreds of survey experiments have shown that political party cues influence people's policy opinions. However, we know little about the persistence of this influence: is it a transient priming effect, dissipating moments after the survey is over, or does influence persist for longer, indicating learning? We report the results of a panel survey experiment in which US adults were randomly exposed to party cues on five contemporary US policy issues in an initial survey and gave their opinions. A follow-up survey 3 days later polled their opinions again. We find that the influence of the party cues persists at ∼50% its original magnitude at follow-up. Notably, our design rules out that people simply remembered how they previously answered. Our findings have implications for understanding the scope and mechanism of party cue influence as it occurs in the real world and provide a benchmark for future research on this topic.


Since the discovery of endogenous opioid peptides and opioid receptors in the brain, their has been considerable interest in their possible role in a variety of physiological and pharmacological processes. The endogenous opioids and opiate active substances have been clearly implicated in the regulation of male reproductive function. It has been demonstrated that opioid peptides inhibit gonadotropin and TSH secretion and enhance PRL, GH and ACTH. It is believed that opioids elicit their action at the hypothalamic level, most likely by modulating the liberation of hypothalamic releasing or inhibiting factors. In healthy male adults the endogenous opioid peptides (EOP) produce a decrease in serum levels of gonadotropins. Administration of specific opiate antagonists decreases luteinizing hormone (LH) release and increases the frequency and amplitude of the LH pulses. The effects of EOP and specific opiate antagonists are altered in some hypothalamic-hypophysis-testis axis pathologies.


Search-Based Software Engineering (SBSE) is about solving software development problems by formulating them as optimization problems. In the last years, combining SBSE and Model-Driven Engineering (MDE), where models and model transformations are treated as key artifacts in the development of complex systems, has become increasingly popular. While search-based techniques have often successfully been applied to tackle MDE problems, a recent line of research investigates how a model-driven design can make optimization more easily accessible to a wider audience. In previous model-driven optimization efforts, a major design decision concerns the way in which solutions are encoded. Two main options have been explored: a model-based encoding representing candidate solutions as models, and a rule-based encoding representing them as sequences of transformation rule applications. While both encodings have been applied to different use cases, no study has yet compared them systematically. To close this gap, we evaluate both approaches on a common set of optimization problems, investigating their impact on the optimization performance. Additionally, we discuss their differences, strengths, and weaknesses laying the foundation for a knowledgeable choice of the right encoding for the right problem.


Designing e-infrastructure is work conducted today with an eye toward long-term sustainability. Participants in such development projects find themselves caught with one foot in the demands of the present and the other in a desired future. In this paper we seek to capture participants' formulation of problems as they go about developing long-term information infrastructure. Drawing from cross-case ethnographic studies of four US e-infrastructure projects for the earth and environmental sciences (cyberinfrastructure), we trace nine tensions as they are framed and articulated by participants. To assist in understanding participants' orientations we abstract three concerns – motivating contribution, aligning end goals, and designing for use – which manifest themselves uniquely at each of the 'scales of infrastructure': institutionalization, the organization of work, and enacting technology. The concept of "the long now" helps us understand that participants seek to simultaneously address all three concerns in long-term development endeavors.


Modern sport has been epitomised as the most successful export of Western civilisation, being of even wider appeal than democracy, egalitarianism and capitalism. While for some factions within the world's societies, the meanings of representative political participation, equal employment opportunities, and even basic human rights are often the subject of heated debate, there seems to be almost unanimous consent to the beauty of sporting victory, the value of a gold medal, or the fascination of a new record. However, the celebration of sport as universal cultural property disguises the political economy of sport in contemporary society and the more down-to-earth corporate interests behind the spread of Western sport. First of all, both the wealth of nations and their inhabitants have great impact upon the diversity of sport opportunities, the quality of sport facilities and the issue of access rights. This is the case because a viable sport infrastructure requires a stable allocation of resources, either by public or by private bodies, and the arrangement of these players ultimately decides whether sport is rather regarded as public policy or private business. Even though mass sport politics and the sport industry are distinctive fields, they are actually mutually dependent and linked to each other by various channels, most noteworthy sport governing bodies and the media. Hence the development of sport into a key market for global capital accumulation, which started in line with the rise of the current neo-liberal paradigm in the early 1980s, left its marks on the non-profit sector of amateur sport. Dealing with the numerous social, political, and economic relationships and processes – including centres and peripheries, global labour migration, multinational corporations and transnational media industries, regionalism and nationalism, commercialism and consumerism – case studies from the field of large-scale sport events and football, the flagship of global sports, illuminate the interconnectedness between sport and the agents, structures, and processes of global capitalism.


The PACE trial of cognitive behavioural therapy and graded exercise therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis has raised serious questions about research methodology. An editorial article by Geraghty gives a fair account of the problems involved, if anything understating the case. The response by White et al. fails to address the key design flaw, of an unblinded study with subjective outcome measures, apparently demonstrating a lack of understanding of basic trial design requirements. The failure of the academic community to recognise the weakness of trials of this type suggests that a major overhaul of quality control is needed.


Web search is challenging partly due to the fact that search queries and Web documents use different language styles and vocabularies. This paper provides a quantitative analysis of the language discrepancy issue, and explores the use of clickthrough data to bridge documents and queries. We assume that a query is parallel to the titles of documents clicked on for that query. Two translation models are trained and integrated into retrieval models: A word-based translation model that learns the translation probability between single words, and a phrase-based translation model that learns the translation probability between multi-term phrases. Experiments are carried out on a real world data set. The results show that the retrieval systems that use the translation models outperform significantly the systems that do not. The paper also demonstrates that standard statistical machine translation techniques such as word alignment, bilingual phrase extraction, and phrase-based decoding, can be adapted for building a better Web document retrieval system.


Background: Systematic assessment of family caregivers' support needs and integrating these into service planning according to evidence-based research are vital to improving caregivers' outcomes and their capacity to provide care at end of life. Aim: To describe the experience with and feedback of nurses on implementing a systematic assessment of support needs with family caregivers in home-based palliative care, using the Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool. Methods: This study was conducted during 2012–2014 in Silver Chain Hospice Care Service in Western Australia. This article reports on one part of a three-part evaluation of a stepped wedge cluster trial. Forty-four nurses who trialled the intervention with 233 family caregivers gave their feedback via surveys with closed- and open-ended questions (70.5% response rate). Analyses of quantitative and qualitative data were undertaken. Results: The feedback of nurses was overwhelmingly positive in terms of perceived benefits in comparison to standard practice both from the family caregiver and service provider perspectives. Using the Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool was described by nurses as providing guidance, focus and structure to facilitate discussion with family caregivers and as identifying needs and service responses that would not otherwise have been undertaken in a timely manner. Conclusion: Our study has successfully addressed the call for alternatives to the professional assessment paradigm using the Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool approach as a caregiver-led intervention facilitated by health professionals. Integrating the Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool in existing practice is fundamental to achieving better caregiver outcomes.


This article investigates the gendered dynamics of motherhood and careers, as voiced by professionals in the knowledge-intensive business sector in Finland. It is informed by the CIAR method through 81 iterative, in-depth interviews with 23 women and 19 men. Among the women respondents with no children, one child, or two children, three dominant forms of discursive talk emerge: 'It takes two to tango', 'It's all about time management' and 'Good motherhood 2.0'. Though Finland provides a seemingly egalitarian Nordic welfare state context, with the 'Finnish Dream', women face contradictions between expectations of women as full-time ideal workers pursuing masculinist careers and continuing responsibilities at home, performing 'good motherhood'. The women's double strivings meet the double constraining demands of these ideals. The gendered pressures are imposed on the women by themselves, male colleagues, the organisation more broadly and society, leading the women to enact a form of 'bounded individualism'.


Knowledge management and critical thinking are two broad and important phenomena for contemporary society. Their concepts are both well-discussed in the literature. However, the existing conceptual links between them have not been analyzed, and the role of critical thinking in the process of effective knowledge management has not been revealed. This article aims to fill this gap by presenting the conceptual connections between knowledge management and critical thinking. In order to reveal the inner structure of each concept and identify the conceptual connections, a critical review was conducted. The results showed the links between the concepts of knowledge management and critical thinking within three dimensions: relationships, process, and goals. In conclusion, each dimension is presented and described, with a special focus on the unexpected and deep intersections revealed between the two concepts on a personal, interpersonal, and societal level. This research may be regarded as providing the basis for further analysis of the links between these two phenomena. Increased awareness of the existence of critical thinking in knowledge management can forge new directions in organizational strategies and staff training programs.


This paper investigates the determinants of international strategic alliances by pharmaceutical firms. When launching drugs onto the market, there are two choices: launching the drugs directly or forming marketing alliances including licensing agreements. Because these choices affect firm revenue structure and the international supply pattern of pharmaceuticals, the impact on world welfare is significant. We examine the determinants of supply mode choice (direct launch versus alliance) by Japanese pharmaceutical companies. Our estimation results reveal that in addition to firm heterogeneity, product - and market - specific determinants of strategic alliances are important: firms with smaller scope economies prefer alliances for drugs with less market potential when intellectual property rights protection (IPP) is strong.


Adaptive streaming addresses the increasing and heterogeneous demand of multimedia content over the Internet by offering several encoded versions for each video sequence. Each version (or representation) is characterized by a resolution and a bit rate, and it is aimed at a specific set of users, like TV or mobile phone clients. While most existing works on adaptive streaming deal with effective playout-buffer control strategies on the client side, in this article we take a providers' perspective and propose solutions to improve user satisfaction by optimizing the set of available representations. We formulate an integer linear program that maximizes users' average satisfaction, taking into account network dynamics, type of video content, and user population characteristics. The solution of the optimization is a set of encoding parameters corresponding to the representations set that maximizes user satisfaction. We evaluate this solution by simulating multiple adaptive streaming sessions characterized by realistic network statistics, showing that the proposed solution outperforms commonly used vendor recommendations, in terms of user satisfaction but also in terms of fairness and outage probability. The simulation results show that video content information as well as network constraints and users' statistics play a crucial role in selecting proper encoding parameters to provide fairness among users and to reduce network resource usage. We finally propose a few theoretical guidelines that can be used, in realistic settings, to choose the encoding parameters based on the user characteristics, the network capacity and the type of video content.


There is growing interest in graph pattern mining (GPM) problems such as motif counting. GPM systems have been developed to provide unified interfaces for programming algorithms for these problems and for running them on parallel systems. However, existing systems may take hours to mine even simple patterns in moderate-sized graphs, which significantly limits their real-world usability. We present Pangolin, an efficient and flexible in-memory GPM framework targeting shared-memory CPUs and GPUs. Pangolin is the first GPM system that provides high-level abstractions for GPU processing. It provides a simple programming interface based on the extend-reduce-filter model, which allows users to specify application specific knowledge for search space pruning and isomorphism test elimination. We describe novel optimizations that exploit locality, reduce memory consumption, and mitigate the overheads of dynamic memory allocation and synchronization. Evaluation on a 28-core CPU demonstrates that Pangolin outperforms existing GPM frameworks Arabesque, RStream, and Fractal by 49×, 88×, and 80× on average, respectively. Acceleration on a V100 GPU further improves performance of Pangolin by 15× on average. Compared to state-of-the-art hand-optimized GPM applications, Pangolin provides competitive performance with less programming effort.


The design of vehicles, particularly hybrid and other advanced technology vehicles, is typically complex and benefits from systems engineering processes. Vehicle modeling and simulation have become increasingly important system design tools to improve the accuracy, repeatability, and flexibility of the design process. In developing vehicle computational models and simulation, there is an inevitable compromise between the level of detail and the development/computational cost. The tradeoff is specific to the requirements of each vehicle design effort. The assumptions and detail limitations used for vehicle simulations lead to a varying degree of result uncertainty for each design effort. This paper provides a literature review to investigate the state of the art vehicle simulation methods, and quantifies the uncertainty associated with components that are commonly allocated uncertainty. By understanding the inaccuracies and inconsistencies within these studies, improved simulation methods can be proposed. The consequences or accuracy of common assumptions are determined which will aid future simulation efforts as well as provide metrics for evaluating the appropriateness of past efforts. The results of this paper will aid future simulation design efforts and can begin to define standards by which simulation design studies are conducted. CITATION: Geller, B. and Bradley, T., "Quantifying Uncertainty in Vehicle Simulation Studies," SAE Int. J. Passeng. Cars Mech. Syst. 5(1):2012, doi:10.4271/2012-01-0506. ____________________________________ 381 Downloaded from SAE International by Colorado State Univ, Monday, November 14, 2016


Summary  There has been an increasing investment of taxpayer dollars in revegetation in Australia over the past 20 years, at both federal and state levels. The largest of these, the Australian Government's Biodiversity Fund, will invest A$946 million to revegetate, rehabilitate and restore landscapes to store carbon, enhance biodiversity and build environmental resilience under climate change. The universal challenge for restoration practitioners working within these programmes is species selection for both current and future environmental conditions at a given site. For policy makers, the challenge is to provide guidelines and tools for this process. The first paper in this series of two papers looked at scientific methods that could provide underpinning knowledge to improve the assessment of species vulnerability to climatic and atmospheric change. In this paper, the publically accessible Atlas of Living Australia is used to demonstrate how revegetation project leaders can assess whether the species and provenances used in their revegetation projects are likely to be suitable for changing environmental conditions. While using the Atlas can assist current selections, ways in which more reliable selections for changing climatic conditions could be made are also outlined.


Under the International Safety Management (ISM) Code, shipping companies are required to build a Safety Management System and develop procedures that will regulate the incident analysis process. By these procedures, the shipping companies develop an incident analysis form and use it on all ships within their fleets. Although these forms serve a common purpose, their structure shows some differences between companies. Thus, time may be wasted when transferring the data or insufficient data may be obtained. This paper examines incident analysis forms used for tanker ships whose hazardous cargos make them of particular importance. The features of incident analysis forms used on tankers of a shipping company were specified, and the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) method presented their importance levels. Expert opinion was collected by a questionnaire. The results revealed that the highest priorities belong to the sections allocated for details about the ship and environmental conditions and root cause analysis technique. The least essential sub-criteria were related to the structure and variety of the forms. Based on the study results, which captured the current practice and the sector's expectations, tanker shipping companies' existing incident analysis forms could be revised. The revised documents would help to achieve complete information and prevent loss of time in information exchange between companies. Bringing a common approach to the analysis of incidents in tanker shipping would increase safety in the shipping industry.


NGA is building a Content Maturity Model (CMM) to rate geospatial-intelligence (GEOINT) products, services and data. The CMM concept enables consumers of content to understand its quality and suitability for their mission, and also to have a conduit by which to provide feedback to NGA. The consumer rating capability will improve the feedback mechanism between consumers and producers of content, enabling NGA to provide rapid quality improvements and, subsequently, consumer application corrections. This initiative supports the NGA Strategic Objective on Content by creating and proliferating GEOINT content which is imperative to consumer requirements. CMM data quality components will be searchable, discoverable and provide indicators for consumers which informs them whether or not they are in possession of the best data available. The CMM also supports the Agency's transformation from a product-focused model to a data-focused provisioning solution. In this new data-centric environment, consumers will be serving or linking to many sources of GEOINT and a mechanism to receive and provide quality feedback will be critical. Consumers require indicators of data quality. The CMM is the means to benchmark geospatial data quality for consumer analysis as well as the data's own evolution.


Postural analysis has been traditionally assessed using linear methods such as standard deviation to track postural variability, however postural adjustment during dynamic movement is a function of nonlinear interactions of multiple systems including sensorimotor and vestibular systems that require nonlinear analysis. Kinesiology tape promoted as a means of improving physical performance by enhancing proprioception rather than providing support to joints such as the ankle and knee. In order to investigate whether kinesiology tape effects postural control, participants were assessed performing a dynamic balance task, whereby center of mass data would be analyzed using multifractal analysis in a repeated measures design. To gauge the potential influence of different neurophysiological or mechanical adaptations to the adhesion of tape to skin, and not necessarily the properties of a specific type of tape, static tape was also assessed. Four individuals, free of injury, performed the Y Balance Test without tape, and with the application of static tape and kinesiology tape applied at the quadriceps, triceps surae and ankle. Both tapes were applied to the lower limb during separate testing sessions. All participants completed the Y Balance Test. Using the Y Balance test as a surrogate measure of proprioception influences postural control, multifractal dimension analysis was used to quantify the dynamic changes in the center of mass whilst undertaking the Y Balance Test. Statistical analysis included the Kruskal Wallis test to allow for non-normally distributed data and a Bonferroni corrected pairwise T test as a post hoc test to ascertain pairwise differences between the three conditions. Significance was set at 0.05. The fractal analysis of the dynamic changes in center of mass showed a typical multifractal, nonlinear spectrum with significant differences between the control and both taping conditions (static and kinesiology tape conditions, p = 0.021 and 0.09 respectively). Proprioception as part of postural stability is a nonlinear mechanism that plays a role in postural control. Both kinesiology tape can potentially improve proprioception at the ankle joint.


Abstract Jimi Hendrix was often characterised by his exotic appearance and extravagant performance, but underneath these trappings was an extraordinary guitarist who managed to transform some of the key elements of blues and rhythm-and-blues traditions. An important feature of Hendrix's music is his characteristic use of the seventh chord with a sharp ninth, or the augmented ninth chord, now often referred to as the 'Hendrix chord'. This paper examines some ways in which Hendrix used this chord by surveying and drawing comparisons between various instances. It is not necessarily the fully voiced version of the chord that Hendrix used, but interval combinations drawn from or related to it, with particular timbres and articulations. Together these define what might be called a 'sharp ninth sound'. Through register placement, timbre, articulation, and chordal function, it is intimately tied to the blues idiom, adding a blues tonal element. This is one aspect of Hendrix's music, then, that shows his deep roots in the blues.


Valuable traits that are present in the cytoplasm can be used to improve plants. Using such traits has been demonstrated with cytoplasmic-genic male sterility. The purpose of this research was to determine if there were cytoplasmic effects due to the A1, A2, B1, or B2 cytoplasm in near-isogenic pearl millet, Pennisetum americanum (L.) Leeke, hybrids on dry matter yield, inflorescence characteristics, days to flower, and seed set and weight. Replicated field tests were grown in 1975, 1977, 1978, and 1981 on a Fuquay soil (loamy, siliceous, thermic arenic Plinthic Paleudults). Differences in dry matter yields were non-significant (P = 0.05). Plants with the B2 cytoplasm had significantly shorter inflorescences. No differences were observed in inflorescence width. The difference in days to flower was significant with 1 days being the maximum difference between cytoplasms which probably is of little economic significance. There were significant differences between cytoplasms for selfed seed set but not for openpollinated seed set indicating that differences in seed set were due to fertility restoration. 'Tift 239D2B2' was a better fertility restorer for the A, cytoplasm than 'Tift 23D2B2' was for the A2 cytoplasm. Seed weight differences were related to seed set with plants setting fewer seeds producing heavier seeds. No significant maternal or A and B line effects were detected in this study


This paper reviews the literature of polymer blends containing low and high molar mass liquid crystals. Low molar mass liquid crystals have been used as plasticizers for thermoplastic polymers and in applications such as electro-optics, optical recording media, and membranes. High molar mass liquid crystalline polymers have been primarily used in polymer blends as processing aids and as an incipient reinforcing phase for "self-reinforced" materials. This review discusses the phase behavior, rheology, and mechanical properties of these blends.


This paper proposes an algorithm that provides both dynamic voltage scaling and power shutdown to minimize the total energy consumption of an application executed on an on-chip multiprocessor. The proposed algorithm provides an extended schedule and stretch method, where task computations are iteratively stretched within the slack of a time-constrained dependent task set. In addition, the break-even threshold interval for amortizing the shutdown overhead is considered. By evaluating each set of stretched task computations, an energy-efficient set is obtained. The proposed dynamic voltage scaling efficiency metric is the ratio of the reduced energy to the increased cycle time when the supply voltage is scaled, which can be used to determine the task computation cycle to be stretched. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the traditional schedule and stretch method in the various evaluations of target real applications.


This paper studies a class of uncertain discrete event systems over the max-plus algebra, where system matrices are unknown but are convex combinations of known matrices. These systems model a wide range of applications, for example, transportation systems with varying vehicle travel time and queueing networks with uncertain arrival and queuing time. This paper presents computational methods for different robust invariant sets of such systems. A recursive algorithm is given to compute the supremal robust invariant sub-semimodule in a given sub-semimodule. The algorithm converges to a fixed point in a finite number of iterations under proper assumptions on the state semimodule. This paper also presents computational methods for positively robust invariant polyhedral sets. A search algorithm is presented for the positively robust invariant polyhedral sets. The main results are applied to the time table design of a public transportation network.


This workshop will expose participants to the utility of the ASU Java-DSP software technology in Signals and Systems courses. The session will be interactive and participants will use and assess an exercise that involves step-by-step online simulations on prepackaged online laboratory exercises that can be disseminated in their junior level signals and systems classes. Assessment forms and pre- and post-evaluation quizzes will be discussed


The concept of sustainable development includes the judicious use of natural resources, which in some areas are rapidly depleting, achieved by using industrial by-products and thereby reducing materials waste. In addition, it is necessary to reduce energy consumption that is associated with CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. The production of Portland cement also releases large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. For this reason supplementary cementitious materials are being used in concrete: one of these materials is fly ash, which is a by-product of thermal power generation. Fly ash exhibits pozzolanic activity, and, if not used, has to be disposed of in landfills at a considerable cost. The use of other non-renewable resources, such as virgin aggregates, also needs to be reduced by recycling rubble from demolished buildings, processed in such a way that they can be used to replace virgin fine and coarse aggregate in concrete. This replacement also allows for reduction in the volume of materials disposed of in landfills. According to the concept of sustainable development, the environmental load of a building must be evaluated throughout its life cycle, from design to construction, maintenance or repair, demolition, and rubble disposal. Therefore, from a holistic point of view, sustainable construction means designing a reinforced concrete structure with appropriate durability during a specified service life. This paper discusses the effect of partial and full replacement of natural aggregates by recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) in a fly ash concrete. Engineering properties and durability performance have been examined for mixtures designed with various proportions of the RCA by mass. Results obtained showed that while incorporating high RCA amount could lower concrete performance, the combined use of RCA and fly ash could allow us to achieve adequate engineering properties and durability.