BACKGROUND
Aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) represents approximately 60% of lymphomas in the West and even more in the developing world. cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone (CHOP) is recognized as the standard chemotherapy regimen and the addition of rituximab to B-cell subtypes has been shown to significantly improve treatment outcomes. Nevertheless, still a significant fraction of patients is not offered rituximab due to economic reasons. Thus, CHOP is still offered to these patients as well as those with T-cell subtypes. Data from the early 1990s have indicated that the dose intensity (DI) of doxorubicin is a key factor in predicting survival.

METHODS
A Medline and Cochrane library search was carried out using the search terms 'CHOP', 'lymphoma' and 'randomized trials'. Eligible trials had CHOP as a control arm and any regimen administering doxorubicin at a higher DI (16.6 mg/m(2)/week) as the investigational arm. Pooling of data was carried out using the mixed effect model.

RESULTS
Eight trials were eligible. Patients receiving DI doxorubicin-based regimens had a significantly better overall survival [summary hazard ratio (SHR) 0.82; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.71-0.96], event-free survival (SHR 0.86; 95% CI 0.75-0.99) and higher complete response rate (summary odds ratio 0.91; 95% CI 0.67-0.97).

CONCLUSION
High DI doxorubicin based should be considered in patients with aggressive NHL.


Purpose
This paper presents an analysis of how health intersects with the experience of housing insecurity and homelessness, specifically for migrant women. The authors argue that it is important to understand the specificities of the interplay of these different factors to continue the advancement of our understanding and practice as advocates for health and housing security.

Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory, qualitative, methodological approach was adopted, using a broad definition of housing insecurity: from absolute homelessness (e.g. residing rough) to invisible homelessness (e.g. couch surfing) to those at risk of homelessness. In total, 26 newcomer (foreign-born women who came to live in Canada during the previous ten years, regardless of their immigration status) women were recruited in Montreal, Canada. Participants were recruited directly through advertisements in public places and in collaboration with community organizations (women's centers, homeless shelters, crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, immigrant settlement agencies and ethnic associations) and they self-identified as having experienced housing insecurity. Efforts were made to include a diversity of immigrant statuses as well as diversity in ethnicity, race, country of origin, family composition, sexual orientation, age and range of physical and mental ability. Women were engaged in semi-structured, open-ended interviews lasting approximately 1 h. Interviews were conducted in English or French in a location and time of participants' choosing.

Findings
The findings are presented around three themes: how health problems instigate and maintain migrant women's housing insecurity and homelessness; ways in which women's immigration trajectories and legal status may influence their health experiences; and particular coping strategies that migrant women employ in efforts to maintain or manage their health. The authors conclude with implications of these findings for both policy and practice in relation to migrant women who experience or are at risk of housing insecurity and homelessness.

Originality/value
Intersections of women experiencing migration and housing insecurity in Canadian contexts have rarely been examined. This paper addresses a gap in the literature in terms of topic and context, but also in terms of sharing the voices of migrant women with direct experience with housing insecurity.


: Purpose: The young generation will soon decide about the development of international and global business, replacing the previously employed staff. One of the prerequisites of this development is effective collaboration with foreigners. Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper presents results of the research that aimed to investigate preferences and fears of young people that pertain to collaboration with foreigners in employee teams. The research has been conducted on a sample of 773 young people aged 19-24. Findings: The research has proved that only 18.2% of the young generation representatives are in favour of working in one team with foreigners. Even fewer young people (16.7%) are keen to lead a team consisting of foreigners. The majority of the research participants (88.3%) prefers teams that include up to 5 foreigners. The research demonstrates that 52.6% of young people have a fairly positive attitude to foreigners. A prospect of collaboration with foreigners is not a cause of anxiety for 63.0% of the respondents, and 62.1% believe that a risk of collaborating with foreigners does not occur or is low. Practical Implementation: More anxiety concerns the issue of foreigners fulfilling their commitments. Persons who believe that foreigners will fulfil their obligations constitute 44.5% of the investigated population. Originality value: The research has demonstrated a need to take measures aimed at preparing the young generation better to future work with foreigners in international and global enterprises, with a particular stress on cultural differences.


Background/aims To evaluate the clinical outcomes of deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty performed by stromal peeling in eyes that have previously undergone penetrating keratoplasty (PK) for keratoconus. Methods Standardised stromal exchange included (1) 9 mm trephination of the recipient bed outside the old PK wound, (2) creation of a partial anterior corneal flap through lamellar dissection across the PK wound, (3) opening the stromal component of the old PK wound using blunt-tipped Vannas scissors until a plane of separation is reached, (4) severing the attachment of the PK surgical scar from the recipient host, (5) peeling the stroma of the PK graft from the underlying tissue and (6) suturing the donor anterior corneal lamella prepared by microkeratome dissection (450 µm depth, 9 mm diameter). Main outcome measures were success rate, best spectacle-corrected visual acuity (BSCVA) and endothelial cell loss (ECL). Results Of 21 post-PK eyes, stromal exchange succeeded in all but three cases, which were converted to a two-piece mushroom PK. After complete suture removal, mean BSCVA significantly improved from 0.95±0.39 logMAR preoperatively to 0.23±0.17 logMAR (p<0.001). Mean ECL was 5.4±23.2%. Double anterior chamber formation occurred in eight cases (44%), which all resolved after a single re-bubbling. Conclusion In post-PK eyes, stromal exchange can be performed by means of simple peeling without deep anterior lamellar dissection of the previous PK graft. Large-diameter (9 mm) repeat keratoplasty through stromal peeling yields excellent visual outcomes and minimal ECL. Double anterior chamber formation may complicate the postoperative course, but prompt intervention allows successful management.


Modern web pages are becoming increasingly full-featured, and this additional functionality often requires greater use of asynchrony. Unfortunately, this asynchrony can trigger unexpected concurrency errors, even though web page scripts are executed sequentially. We present the first formulation of a happens-before relation for common web platform features. Developing this relation was a non-trivial task, due to complex feature interactions and browser differences. We also present a logical memory access model for web applications that abstracts away browser implementation details. Based on the above, we implemented WebRacer, the first dynamic race detector for web applications. WebRacer is implemented atop the production-quality WebKit engine, enabling testing of full-featured web sites. WebRacer can also simulate certain user actions, exposing more races. We evaluated WebRacer by testing a large set of Fortune 100 company web sites. We discovered many harmful races, and also gained insights into how developers handle asynchrony in practice.


On November 9, 2018, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice issued a joint interim rule in conjunction with a proclamation from the White House seeking to restrict the eligibility of persons applying for asylum protection in the United States. This interim rule, which is currently stayed by federal court litigation, is yet another attempt by the Administration to remove humanitarian protection for the most vulnerable in direct violation of both domestic and international legal obligations.


Mulberroside A is a major bioactive compound produced by Morus alba L., a medicinal plant of the family Moraceae that is used in traditional medicines and supplementary health products for various indications. In this study, cell suspension cultures of M. alba that produced mulberroside A and other phytochemicals were treated with 20 min UV-C irradiation to investigate the effect of time after UV-C treatment on levels of mulberroside A, oxyresveratrol, resveratrol, and rutin. The amount of mulberroside A produced from cell suspension cultures of M. alba that were treated with UV-C was significantly higher than the control. However, there were no significant differences in the levels of oxyresveratrol, resveratrol, and rutin. The effect of UV-C in combination with precursor feeding on phytochemical production of cell suspension cultures of M. alba was investigated. L-phenylalanine and L-tyrosine were used as precursors. The addition of 0.05 mM L-phenylalanine 5 d prior to UV-C irradiation doubled the content of mulberroside A in cell suspension cultures of M. alba as compared to the non-irradiated and untreated cells. The use of precursor feeding in combination with UV-C irradiation could be an alternative method for the production of mulberroside A in M. alba.


This study was to investigate the impact of artificial drying on the quality of Turkish hazelnuts by using a horizontal cylindrical type dryer. The hazelnut samples were dried in agitated heated air with a swirl flow in contrast to the conventional drying method. Drying characteristics of the hazelnuts were described as being in the range of 40-55 C air temperature with constant of dry air velocity 1.0 m/s. Specifying the artificial drying conditions for freshly reaped hazelnut, which has an initial high moisture content ratio, and experimentally researching the effects of drying conditions for hazelnuts were the main objectives of the study. The optimum conditions for drying fresh hazelnuts in an artificial dryer were determined as having maximum moisture content (5-6%) to facilitate long-term storage. The results showed that a normal drying time followed by hot air drying with the shortest drying time to be measured as a 10.5 hours.  2011 Trade Science Inc. INDIA


A reduced-complexity aeolian dune stratification model is developed and applied to explore the role of dune morphodynamics in the creation of synthetic sections of aeolian stratigraphy originating from three sets of environmental forcing: 1) steady wind transport capacity, 2) steady bed aggradation and variable wind transport capacity, and 3) steady wind transport capacity and bed aggradation. In each scenario, the forward motion of initial, highly disorganized dunes generates a significant record exclusively containing autogenic signals that arise from early dune growth, deformation, and merging. However, continued dune growth scours deeply, and shreds all records of early dunes. Afterward, dunes self-organize into quasi-stable groups. Forward motion of dune groups creates, truncates, and amalgamates sets and co-sets of cross-strata, quickly forming a second, significantly more robust stratigraphic record, which preserves a comingling of signals sourced from ongoing autogenic processes and each scenario's specific set of environmental forcings, the allogenic boundary conditions of the sand sea. Although the importance of self-organization on modeled aeolian stratification is clear in the few presented scenarios, self-organization may be throttled via variability in environmental forcings, as thoroughly documented in a companion paper (Cardenas et al., this issue). Therefore, additional work is warranted because this numerical experiment only begins to sample possible sets of environmental forcing, boundary conditions, and initial conditions, geomorphic responses, and consequential preservation possible in the presented surface-stratigraphic bedform modeling framework.


In this paper, a novel hexahedral refinement method is introduced which finds the optimal trade-off between the number of inserted elements and inserted singularities according to user-prescribed weighting. The input of our algorithm is the hexahedral mesh with quads tagged for refinement. The quad sets to be inserted by sheet inflation are determined by solving a integer optimization problem to minimize the number of inserted elements and inserted singularities while maintaining mesh consistency. Finally, we design the optimized sheet structures by selecting the optimal local shrink set at the cross section of intersecting quad sets to ensure the quality of mesh refinement. The refinement scheme can be applied iteratively until the mesh density meets the requirements. Experimental results for some mechanical parts verified the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Interleukin (IL)-6 is a pleiotropic cytokine associated with host defence, resolution of inflammation and chronic disease progression. During acute bacterial peritonitis, mice lacking IL-6 are unable to contain infection and display increased bacterial dissemination. To understand how IL-6 contributes to the local containment of infection, studies established an RNA-sequencing and bioinformatics pipeline to examine the role of the stromal tissue compartment in anti-microbial host defence. Investigations compared the host response to infection during both acute resolving peritoneal inflammation and under an inflammatory
situation where pro-fibrotic CD4 T-cells contribute to the immune response.
Molecular pathway analysis identified roles for IL-6 acting via the Jak-STAT signalling pathway in iron sequestration, complement regulation, and the control of leukocyte adhesion and activation. For example, stromal IL-6 signalling orchestrated responses relevant to the priming or activation of neutrophils, and infiltrating peritoneal neutrophils from infected Il6-/- mice displayed impaired
phagocytic and respiratory burst capabilities. Previously we have shown that the IL-6-mediated expansion of peritoneal interferon (IFN)-g-producing CD4 T-cells
(Th1 cells) promotes peritoneal fibrosis in response to recurrent bacterial peritonitis. To mimic this environment, acute resolving inflammation was established in mice receiving ex vivo expanded Th1 cells. The presence of Th1 cells promoted IFN-g-mediated STAT1 signalling in the peritoneum, which altered the expression of genes associated with the homeostatic turnover of extracellular
matrix. Importantly, the presence of these cells also rescued the defective antimicrobial activities observed in the membrane of Il6-/- mice. This recovery was
associated with a shift in the relative activation of STAT1 over that of STAT3. Taken together, these data provide a novel holistic view of IL-6 signalling in stromal tissue,
and highlights the importance of STAT1 and STAT3 in shaping the course of inflammation and the host response to infection.


Little is known about the family lives of male same-sex couples who become fathers via surrogacy. In a study of 52 male same-sex couples who became parents through surrogacy, we examined couples' reported division of unpaid labor, relationship quality, and the associations between these two factors. We found these men reported dividing both household and child care labor in an egalitarian manner. They also reported wanting this to be the case. Biological linkages between a father and child were not associated with couples' reports about how unpaid labor was divided. These male same-sex couples reported high levels of relationship quality overall, but those who experienced greater discrepancies between actual and ideal division of labor reported lower relationship quality, specifically less affectional expression and less relationship agreement between the partners. Our results add to the limited empirical research about male same-sex couples who become parents via surrogacy.


Background Students' injury surveillance is important in injury prevention and control. Therefore, we developed the primary and secondary school students injury surveillance system (PSSSISS) and evaluated it in primary and secondary schools of Shenzhen. Aims Aims of this study were to assess PSSSISS in Shenzhen, find out the problems existed in this system, provide feedback to guide injury prevention and intervention, and thus to reduce the injury rate among students. Methods A total of 22 schools (11 primary schools, seven junior high schools and four senior high schools) were included into the surveillance during the period 2006–2010. Quality and quantity methods were used to assess PMSSISS. Additionally, Updated Guidelines for Evaluating Public Health Surveillance Systems was also used as a reference. Results Results from PSSSISS showed that injury cumulative incidence in each academic year was between 0.80% and 1.16% from 2006 to 2010 among Shenzhen students. Injury rate of boys was higher than the rate of girls, and 37.52% of injuries occurred in sports. Furthermore, the leading cause of injuries was falls/trips (61.53%) and bone fracture was the leading result caused by injuries (30.91%). Using quality and quantity methods we found that PSSSISS was good in the following aspects: simplicity, flexibility, data quality, acceptability, stability and representativeness. However, sensitivity and timeliness of PSSSISS needed to be improved. Significance Although PSSSISS has some flaws needed to be improved, it is a feasible and effective injury surveillance system for primary and secondary school students' injury surveillance.


The present accent rating study investigates the interaction between accent strength and grammatical correctness on perceived accentedness. German native (L1) listeners rated German sentences produced by L1 and non-native (L2) speakers. Sentences either contained a grammatical error or were grammatically correct. Results showed that grammatical correctness affected the accent rating of sentences produced by L1 speakers, but not of those by L2 speakers. The inverse influence of grammatical errors on sentences spoken with stronger accents suggests that phonological information plays a more important role for global perception of speech accentedness than grammatical correctness does, revealing a hierarchical importance of factors that form an L2 accent. This finding is in line with recent findings from an online processing ERP study (Hanulı́ková, van Alphen, van Goch, & Weber, 2012) in which L1 listeners were tolerant towards grammatical errors made by L2 speakers, i.e. showed no P600 effect for grammatically incorrect sentences.


In previous research (Yus 2016, 2017), a classification of jokes was proposed depending on how the humorous incongruity-resolution strategy was achieved. Twelve cases were isolated resulting from the combination of several parameters: (1) a differentiation between discourse-based incongruities and frame-based incongruities; (2) the location of the incongruity-triggering element (setup or punchline); and (3) three types of resolution: discourse-, frame- and implication-based. This paper proposes a similar taxonomy of incongruity-resolution patterns for a specific type of internet discourse: the image macro meme. The resulting seven-case taxonomy inherits some of the features of that were proposed for verbal jokes, albeit exhibiting the extent to which the image plays a specific role in the successful meme-centred humorous strategy.


In this work, we report a new blue AIEgen, (9,9-dimethyl-7-(4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)phenyl)-9H-fluoren-2-yl)dimesitylborane (TPE-FB), composed of dimesitylboryl, fluorene and tetraphenylethene (TPE) groups. The thermal stability, electronic structure, optical properties, transient fluorescence decay and electroluminescence of TPE-FB are studied. TPE-FB shows high thermal stability and good aggregation-induced emission (AIE) properties. Due to the presence of the dimesitylboryl group, TPE-FB can interact with fluorine ions to cause a blue-shift in the absorption spectrum and an apparent decrease in the emission spectrum. TPE-FB also exhibits mechanochromic properties, and the fluorescence color of its solid can be reversibly switched between blue and sky-blue by simple grinding and heating (fuming). TPE-FB can function as a light-emitting layer in nondoped sky-blue OLEDs with good performances.


This paper presents a highly effective load adaptive drive system to control the speed of a travelling-wave ultrasonic motor. The motor driver was built based on the two-phase high-frequency inverter using the mechanical resonant frequency of the ultrasonic motor. To digitally control the drive system, a TMS320F243 digital signal processor was adapted to the driver. The developed system includes two feedback loops; speed control loop and feedback voltage-resonant frequency tracking loop. The driving frequency was used as a control input to control the motor. Direct pulse-width modulation (PWM) control was used to obtain the required driving frequency. The developed drive system was experimentally tested under several operating conditions. The obtained results demonstrated the effectiveness of the drive system for high performance drive applications.


We present a novel methodology for repairing neural networks that use ReLU activation functions. Unlike existing methods that rely on modifying the weights of a neural network which can induce a global change in the function space, our approach applies only a localized change in the function space while still guaranteeing the removal of the buggy behavior. By leveraging the piecewise linear nature of ReLU networks, our approach can efficiently construct a patch network tailored to the linear region where the buggy input resides, which when combined with the original network, provably corrects the behavior on the buggy input. Our method is both sound and complete -- the repaired network is guaranteed to fix the buggy input, and a patch is guaranteed to be found for any buggy input. Moreover, our approach preserves the continuous piecewise linear nature of ReLU networks, automatically generalizes the repair to all the points including other undetected buggy inputs inside the repair region, is minimal in terms of changes in the function space, and guarantees that outputs on inputs away from the repair region are unaltered. On several benchmarks, we show that our approach significantly outperforms existing methods in terms of locality and limiting negative side effects. Our code is available on GitHub: https://github.com/BU-DEPEND-Lab/REASSURE.


In previous research, we showed that 'texts that tell a story' exhibit a statistical structure that is not Maxwell–Boltzmann but Bose–Einstein. Our explanation is that this is due to the presence of 'indistinguishability' in human language as a result of the same words in different parts of the story being indistinguishable from one another, in much the same way that 'indistinguishability' occurs in quantum mechanics, also there leading to the presence of Bose–Einstein rather than Maxwell–Boltzmann as a statistical structure. In the current article, we set out to provide an explanation for this Bose–Einstein statistics in human language. We show that it is the presence of 'meaning' in 'texts that tell a story' that gives rise to the lack of independence characteristic of Bose–Einstein, and provides conclusive evidence that 'words can be considered the quanta of human language', structurally similar to how 'photons are the quanta of electromagnetic radiation'. Using several studies on entanglement from our Brussels research group, we also show, by introducing the von Neumann entropy for human language, that it is also the presence of 'meaning' in texts that makes the entropy of a total text smaller relative to the entropy of the words composing it. We explain how the new insights in this article fit in with the research domain called 'quantum cognition', where quantum probability models and quantum vector spaces are used in human cognition, and are also relevant to the use of quantum structures in information retrieval and natural language processing, and how they introduce 'quantization' and 'Bose–Einstein statistics' as relevant quantum effects there. Inspired by the conceptuality interpretation of quantum mechanics, and relying on the new insights, we put forward hypotheses about the nature of physical reality. In doing so, we note how this new type of decrease in entropy, and its explanation, may be important for the development of quantum thermodynamics. We likewise note how it can also give rise to an original explanatory picture of the nature of physical reality on the surface of planet Earth, in which human culture emerges as a reinforcing continuation of life.


Motivation: Business Architecture Models (BAMs) describe what a business does, who performs the activities, where and when activities are performed, how activities are accomplished and which data are present. The purpose of a BAM is to provide a common resource for understanding business functions and requirements and to guide software development. The cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG®) Life Science BAM (LS BAM) provides a shared understanding of the vocabulary, goals and processes that are common in the business of LS research. Results: LS BAM 1.1 includes 90 goals and 61 people and groups within Use Case and Activity Unified Modeling Language (UML) Diagrams. Here we report on the model's current release, LS BAM 1.1, its utility and usage, and plans for future use and continuing development for future releases. Availability and Implementation: The LS BAM is freely available as UML, PDF and HTML (https://wiki.nci.nih.gov/x/OFNyAQ). Contact: email@example.com; firstname.lastname@example.com Supplementary information: Supplementary data) are avaliable at Bioinformatics online.


With the existence of Law - Law No. 40 year 2003 on the Establishment of East Seram regency, West Seram regency and Aru Islands in Maluku Province (Republic of Indonesia State Gazette Year 2003 No. 155), is crucial when East Seram As the new District bloom on the aspirations of its people then the main role of parliament should be a legislative body that can express the aspirations of its people.
The author was interested in conducting research with the title of the Performance of Regional Representatives in the Establishment of Local Regulation in East Seram District, Maluku Province. This research used descriptive method with qualitative approache. The subjects of the study were East Seram district legislature. The sample was determined by using purposive sampling technique. The technique of data collection used interview, observation, and documentation.
From the analysis, East Seram district legislature has not played key roles in the formation of local regulations in the eastern district. Because there were factors that inhibited the performance of East Seram district legislature in the formation of local regulations, to improve the performance of the Parliament in East Seram district legislature in creating local regulations .
Based on these results, the author suggested: First, providing the technical expertise drawn from the nearest university experts (local and regional), Second workshops held regularly with current topics and bring in speakers from universities, NGOs, or government officials who were experts in their fields; next, specified explicitly three legislators education minimally high school or equivalent; then, legislators Recruitment with a rigorous selection; Fifth, Parliament was expected to channel the aspirations of the community; and finally, each Parliament recommended to follow the current development of political, economic, social, cultural, and had a dialogue with the community.


This paper examines retirement and related behavioral responses to policies that on average are actuarially neutral. Many conventional models predict that actuarially neutral policies will not affect retirement behavior. In contrast, our model allows those with high time preference rates to find that the promise of an actuarially fair increase in future rewards does not balance the loss from foregone current benefits. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, we find that from age 62 through full retirement age, the earnings test reduces full-time work by married men by about four percentage points, or by about ten percent of married men at full-time work. Abolishing the requirements on many jobs that an individual work full-time or not at all, what we term a minimum hours constraint on employment, would induce more than twice as many people to enter partial retirement as would leave full-time work, so that total full-time equivalent (FTE) employment would increase, although by a modest amount. If all benefits from personal accounts could be taken as a lump sum, the fraction not retired at age 62 would fall by about 5 percentage points compared to a system where there is mandatory annuitization of benefits.


A supply chain (SC) is a complex network of facilities with dissimilar and conflicting objectives. Discrete-event simulation is often used to model and capture the dynamic interactions in SCs and to provide performance indicators. However, a simulator by itself is not an optimizer. Optimization algorithms can be coupled with a simulation module in order to find the most suitable SC policies. Nevertheless, because the simulation of an SC can take a considerable amount of time, the optimization tool must be well chosen. This chapter considers the hybridization of evolutionary algorithms, well known for their multi-objective capabilities, with an SC simulation module in order to determine the inventory policy (order-point or order-level) of a single product SC, taking into account two conflicting objectives: maximizing customer service level and minimizing total inventory cost. Four algorithms (SPEA-II, SPEA-IIb, MOPSO and NSGA-II) are evaluated on five different SC configurations to determine which algorithm gives the best results and makes the best use of the simulator. The results indicate that SPEA-2 favours a rapid convergence and that modifying its crossover or its archive truncation rule (variant SPEA-IIb) may improve the results even further.


Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of potentially ectopic maxillary canines and associated dental features in a group of 11to 14-year-old children. Participants: Examination took place of a normal distribution of Irish schoolchildren aged between 11 and 14 years in order to record the number of subjects with indications for radiographic investigation of potentially ectopic maxillary canines. Methods: Those subjects identified subsequently underwent radiographic examination and the number of subjects with potentially ectopic maxillary canines was established. Correlations within the latter subsample with anomalous or missing laterals, type of occlusion and female:male ratio were investigated. Results: A total of 480 children were screened. Of the children aged 11 to 14 years, 32 (6.6%) had clinical indications for radiographic examination of potentially ectopic maxillary canines according to the criteria that had been set out. There were 11 maxillary canines, in 10 subjects, that had an unfavourable position for eruption and were considered to be potentially ectopic, and so 1.1% of the maxillary canines reviewed in this study showed a potential ectopic eruption position. Conclusions: The prevalence of potentially ectopic maxillary canines and associated dental features in an Irish population was found to be similar to those in other countries, and the practice of careful supervision and early diagnosis of any eruption disturbances of the permanent maxillary canines continues to be considered important due to the risks associated with their eruption. Journal of the Irish Dental Association 2016; 62 (3): 162-166. Dr Kieran T. Daly BDentSc MDentSc MFD MOrth FFD Professor June Nunn Dublin Dental University Hospital, Lincoln Place, Dublin 2 Correspondence Dr Kieran T. Daly HSE Orthodontic Department, Portlaoise Hospital, Block Road, Portlaoise, Co. Laois T: 087 132 5343 E: firstname.lastname@example.com


This paper compares the performance of three classes of scheduling algorithms for real-time systems in which jobs may overrun their allocated processor time potentially causing the system to be overloaded. The first class, which contains classical priority scheduling algorithms as exemplified by DM and EDF provides a baseline. The second class is the Overrun Server Method which interrupts the execution of a job when it has used its allocated processor time and schedules the remaining portion as a request to an aperiodic server. The final class is the Isolation Server Method which executes each job as a request to an aperiodic server to which it has been assigned. The performance of the Overrun Sewer and Isolation Server Methods are worse, in general, than the performance of the baseline algorithms on independent workloads. However under the dependent workloads considered, the performance of the Isolation Server Method, using a server per task scheduled according to EDF, was significantly better than the performance of classical EDF.


Dacryocystorhinostomy (DCRS) is indicated in saccal and postsaccal stenosis of nasolacrimal ways. This operation can be performed in endoscopic manner and in external manner. We present the clinical case of a 42-year-old female whom we performed external DCRS. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this method which we propose as a therapeutic alternative for patients with nasolacrimal duct stenosis. This surgical procedure, performed in a team with ophthalmologist, may represent a therapeutic alternative for patients with failure to previous surgical procedures.


Archean asteroid impacts, reflected in the presence of spherule beds in the 3.2–3.5 Ga Barberton greenstone belt (BGB), South Africa, generated extreme seismic waves. Spherule bed S2 provides a field example. It locally lies at the contact between the Onverwacht and Fig Tree Groups in the BGB, which formed as a result of the impact of asteroid (possibly 50 km diameter). Scaling calculations indicate that very strong seismic waves traveled several crater diameters from the impact site, where they widely damaged Onverwacht rocks over much of the BGB. Lithified sediments near the top of the Onverwacht Group failed with opening‐mode fractures. The underlying volcanic sequence then failed with normal faults and opening‐mode fractures. Surficial unlithified sediments liquefied and behaved as a fluid. These liquefied sediments and some impact‐produced spherules‐filled near‐surface fractures, today represented by swarms of chert dikes. Strong impact‐related tsunamis then swept the seafloor. P waves and Rayleigh waves from the impact greatly exceeded the amplitudes of typical earthquake waves. The duration of extreme shaking was also far longer, probably hundreds of seconds, than that from strong earthquakes. Dynamic strains of ∼10−3 occurred from the surface and downward throughout the lithosphere. Shaking weakened the Onverwacht volcanic edifice and the surface layers locally moved downhill from gravity accommodated by faults and open‐mode fractures. Coast‐parallel opening‐mode fractures on the fore‐arc coast of Chile, formed as a result of megathrust events, are the closest modern analogs. It is even conceivable that dynamic stresses throughout the lithosphere initiated subduction beneath the Onverwacht rocks.


Dichlorobromomethane (DCMB) and dibromochloromethane (DBCM) isolated from chlorinated drinking water were tested for toxicity, mutagenicity and carcinogenicity. Both agents proved mutagenic in a "dessicator" modification of the Ames test using Salmonella typhimurium TA98 and TA100 in the presence of exogenous metabolic activation. In aquarium Danio rerio fish tests, LD50/30 was 250 mg/l for both compounds. Both agents induced hepatocellular carcinoma in fish: DCMB--in 11 out of 29 animals (at 16.5 weeks) and DBCM--in 3 out of 16 (at 26.5 weeks). These data merit further investigation of the agents' carcinogenicity in chronic experiments in rodents.


In the context of infrastructure risk assessment, the application of fragility curves to elements such as bridges should mostly serve the purpose of quantifying the performance losses at the system level (e.g. disruption of traffic, additional travel times), since these losses usually outweigh the direct costs associated with the physical damage of infrastructure. To this end, a methodology is proposed for the derivation of probabilistic functionality curves for bridge systems: these curves directly provide the probability of exceedance of various loss metrics given the level of seismic intensity. The main steps of the proposed approach are the following:

- Identification of the failure modes for the various components of the bridge system (e.g. piers, bearings, deck, abutments, etc.).

- Derivation of specific component fragility curves for each component damage state.

- Estimation of the functionality losses that are associated with each component failure mode, through an expert-based survey.

- Construction of a Bayesian Network that describes the failure of the system, from the seismic intensity to the component damage states and the subsequent functionality losses.

- Use of the Bayesian Network to generate the joint probability of occurrence of various levels of functionality losses given the seismic intensity.

This approach is then applied to a generic multi-span simply-supported reinforced concrete bridge, for which component fragility curves are analytically derived through non-linear time-history analyses. The considered loss metrics are the repair duration, the proportion of closed lanes and the speed limit reduction, so that these parameters can be directly fed into traffic modelling tools for the computation of induced delays and the optimization of restoration strategies.


Modern diasporas have played vital roles in driving trade, investment, and ties between their countries of origin (COO) and countries of residence (COR). In this paper, we develop a multi- level theoretical framework that helps countries engage with their diasporas in a mutually beneficial relationship. It also explains how COR policies can affect this relationship. We use institutional theory and social identity theory to explain how this constantly evolving framework can be created and maintained, and how it relates to the diaspora's motivations and activities vis- a-vis the COO and the COR. The framework helps analyze and explain the setting up and maintaining of a diaspora management process in a dynamic setting that is constantly in a state of flux. It can be an important tool for COO and COR governments in leveraging the diaspora as a strategic asset that can help provide a competitive advantage in attracting global talent.


Every architectural design emerges from a process. The different tools and media constitutive of these processes in turn foster approaches to architecture, as well as the creation of new categories of knowledge. With the progressive development of computer-based design techniques, the contemplation of the procedural aspects of architecture becomes increasingly significant for the production and reception of architecture.
 It is from this perspective that this special issue sets out to examine the specific roles that processes and practices play in computer-based design by seeking to illuminate those techno-cultural contexts and historical and intellectual bonds that unite them. Which traditions and strategies, and what historical correlations among architecture, culture, and technology, have motivated and shaped the development of computer-based design processes?


[1] The variability of the precipitating cloud population of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is represented by statistics of echo features seen by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission's Precipitation Radar over the central Indian and west Pacific Oceans. Echo features include isolated shallow echoes, deep convective cores, wide convective cores, and broad stratiform regions. Isolated shallow echoes are ever present but most numerous during suppressed MJO phases. Broad stratiform regions dominate variability in areal coverage and maximize during active phases. Deep convective and wide convective cores are more common and variable in number than broad stratiform regions. The magnitude of variability is similar in both regions. In the central Indian Ocean, active MJO phases have synchronous maximization of deep convective entities. In the west Pacific, broad stratiform regions maximize prior to wide convective cores. Reanalysis indicates that isolated shallow echoes are most numerous in dry mid-tropospheric conditions and strong low-level (1000–750hPa) shear. Mid-tropospheric moisture increases before deeper convective features increase in number, maximizes as deep convective features maximize, and decreases as wide convective cores and broad stratiform regions decline in population. Active-stage deep and wide convective cores occur preferentially with moist mid-tropospheric conditions and strong low-level shear. Acute shear may favor downdraft momentum transport and consequently more robust gust-front convective triggering. Broad stratiform regions maximize with a moist mid-troposphere, strong low-level shear, and moderate upper-level (750–500hPa) shear that is not so strong that the stratiform region disconnects from its convective moisture source.


A teaching-learning sequence regarding the investigation of energy exchange by thermal radiation, conduction and convection is under development within the context of "Establish", a FP7 European Project aimed at promoting and developing Inquiry Based Science Education in European Secondary Schools. Here we present some relevant laboratory activities of this inquiry-oriented teaching/learning sequence for secondary school level students (or even first-level university ones), aimed at investigating the physics of energy transmission by thermal radiation. In traditional laboratory work, the focus of students activities is mostly dedicated on verifying information previously transferred by the teacher. Our teaching-learning sequence is instead organized by firstly engaging students by scientifically oriented questions about real life situations, such as thermal insulation of houses and the use of energy saving materials. This introductory phase of topic exploration, mainly based on students' prior knowledge, is followed by a discussion about the relevant physical quantities which should be taken into account in a contest of a laboratory activity of measurements. A scientific investigation on the energy exchange between a powered resistor and its surrounding environment during the heating and cooling processes is proposed. Students are stimulated to design and carry out their own laboratory activity by collecting, processing and analysing data, in order to discover new concepts or laws and obtain more meaningful conceptual understanding of the physics underlying the process of energy exchange by thermal radiation.


Objective: Mucormycosis infection of the paranasal sinuses is a rare disease that usually presents as an acute fulminant infection in immunocompromised patients. However, the chronic form of mucormycosis can be seen as well as an indolent and slowly progressive disease. Method: Case series of four patients diagnosed with chronic sinonasal mucormycosis. Results: A series of four consecutive patients treated at a tertiary care center with diagnosis of sinonasal mucormycosis based on histopathological and microbiological confirmation. The duration of symptoms before presentation varied from eight days to four months. Three patients were immunocompromised. Of these, two were rhino-orbito-cerebral form. Mucormycosis was successfully treated with endoscopic surgical debridement and antifungal therapy. Complete resolution reported in two patients and partial response in two patients. Conclusion: Chronic invasive sinonasal mucormycosis is an increasingly diagnosed form of invasive fungal rhinosinusitis, which necessitates further study to understand the natural history of the disease.


Effective extension work depends upon competent and well-trained extension personnel. Horticulture extension personnel (Horticulture Development Officers and Horticulture Technicians) occupy the focal position in transfer of technologies to the orchardists in Jammu and Kashmir. Given this a study entitled "Training needs of horticulture extension personnel in Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir" was undertaken. Data was collected from 200 horticulture extension personnel (30 horticulture development officers and 170 horticulture technicians) working at gross root level in all ten districts of Jammu region. Training need important score was categories in to three categories viz. least important, important, most important by using mean ± S.D technique. The finding reveals that horticulture development officer and horticulture technicians' categories Pests /disease identification and their control measures as most important training areas in technical skills where time and methods of planting was placed as least important. Similarly in case of communication skills demonstration technique was rated highest important training need area and script writing as least important. Motivation technique and programme planning were also categories as most important training need areas of supervisory skills by horticulture development officers. Two factors viz. trainings attended and information utilization sources were significantly affecting the training needs of horticulture extension personnel.


In this paper, we analyze the performance of decode-and-forward (DF) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relay networks in which the source and relay use the same orthogonal space-time block code (OSTBC) for transmission whereas the relay and destination use maximum - ratio-combining (MRC) for reception. In particular, by assuming that the DF relay operates over Nakagami-m fading channels in the presence of the keyhole, we derive the exact closed-form expressions of the outage probability (OP) and the symbol error probability (SEP) for MPSK modulation which enables us to analyze the performance of the considered system. Simulation results are presented to verify the theoretical analysis and show excellent agreement.


Analytical measurement plays a critical role in modern society.
'Millions of analytical measurements are made every day in thousands of laboratories around the world. There are innumerable reasons for making these measurements, for example: as a way of valuing goods for trade purposes; supporting healthcare; checking the quality of drinking water; analyzing the elemental composition of an alloy to confirm its suitability for use in aircraft construction … Virtually every aspect of society is supported in some way by analytical measurement'.
It should come as no surprise then that measurements often play an important role in legal disputes as well. In a Contract action, a measurement can determine whether the merchandise delivered by the defendant satisfied the specifications in the agreement between the plaintiff and the defendant. In a Patent lawsuit, a measurement could be dispositive of the question of whether the defendant's product infringes the plaintiff's patent. In a Property dispute, a measurement could well determine whether the structure that the defendant constructed trespasses onto the plaintiff's land.


High volatility in order patterns leads to supply chain wide inefficiencies and high operational costs. This issue is particularly common in the consumer goods industry due to large numbers of SKUs under management and frequent promotions. By leveling out the number of weekly shipments (containing constant quantitates of top selling SKUs), a company can potentially boost operational performance while reducing costs. The research question of this thesis was therefore "Will a consistent, pre-determined customer shipment profile based on the lean leveling principle reduce variability and enable improvements in transportation cost, service level and cash (i.e. reduce working capital tied up in inventory)?" In academic literature, lean principles have been applied extensively in manufacturing settings, while the logistics domain remains a relatively unexplored lean frontier. In this thesis the team sought to realize lean-based gains by replacing large, infrequent batch deliveries with frequent small shipments, as derived from lean theory. The team created a customer shipment profile based on historical shipping data, consumption data and forecast information. The top selling items, which were the core products of subsequent analysis, were derived from a SKU segmentation. The number of required units was calculated based on the service promise. The team simulated two inventory policies: a Fixed scenario (orders are derived from historical averages) and a hybrid scenario (a fixed component based on a percentage of the historical average and a variable component). The model was validated by comparing calculated transportation cost, service level and cash with the values derived from the actual company records. The study suggests that applying the lean leveling concept may lead to reduced shipment variability. Placing orders on a fixed shipment schedule can lead to lower transportation costs and higher service levels. Cash requirements for inventory may be higher with increasing implementation of lean leveling. The optimal result for buyer and seller could be obtained with the hybrid model: At 75% fixed orders, the benefits of transportation cost, cash and service level were equally balanced. Other companies across different industries may find the thesis model useful to possibly improve operational performance while reducing costs through lean leveling. Thesis Supervisor: James B. Rice, Jr. Title: Deputy Director, MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics


We consider relative equilibria in symmetric Hamiltonian systems, and their persistence or bifurcation as the momentum is varied. In particular, we extend a classical result about persistence of relative equilibria from values of the momentum map that are regular for the coadjoint action, to arbitrary values, provided that either (i) the relative equilibrium is at a local extremum of the reduced Hamiltonian or (ii) the action on the phase space is (locally) free. The first case uses just point-set topology, while in the second we rely on the local normal form for (free) symplectic group actions, and then apply the splitting lemma. We also consider the Lyapunov stability of extremal relative equilibria. The group of symmetries is assumed to be compact.


The New England region of the northeastern United States has a land use history characterized by forest clearing for agriculture and other uses during European colonization and subsequent reforestation following widespread farm abandonment. Despite these broad changes, the potential influence on local and regional climate has received relatively little attention. This study investigated wintertime (December through March) climate impacts of reforestation in New England using a high-resolution (4 km) multiphysics ensemble of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model. In general, the conversion from mid-1800s cropland/grassland to forest led to warming, but results were sensitive to physics parameterizations. The 2-m maximum temperature (T2max) was most sensitive to choice of land surface model, 2-m minimum temperature (T2min) was sensitive to radiation scheme, and all ensemble members simulated precipitation poorly. Reforestation experiments suggest that conversion of mid-1800s cropland/grassland to present-day forest warmed T2max 10.5 to 13K, with weaker warming during a warm, dry winter compared to a cold, snowy winter.Warmer T2max over forests was primarily the result of increased absorbed shortwave radiation and increased sensible heat flux compared to cropland/grassland. At night, T2min warmed 10.2 to 11.5K where deciduous broadleaf forest replaced cropland/grassland, a result of decreased ground heat flux. By contrast, T2min of evergreen needleleaf forest cooled –0.5 to –2.1K, primarily owing to increased ground heat flux and decreased sensible heat flux.


The high prevalence of cholesterol gallstones, the availability of new information about pathogenesis, and the relevant health costs due to the management of cholelithiasis in both children and adults contribute to a growing interest in this disease. From an epidemiologic point of view, the risk of gallstones has been associated with higher risk of incident ischemic heart disease, total mortality, and disease-specific mortality (including cancer) independently from the presence of traditional risk factors such as body weight, lifestyle, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. This evidence points to the existence of complex pathogenic pathways linking the occurrence of gallstones to altered systemic homeostasis involving multiple organs and dynamics. In fact, the formation of gallstones is secondary to local factors strictly dependent on the gallbladder (that is, impaired smooth muscle function, wall inflammation, and intraluminal mucin accumulation) and bile (that is, supersaturation in cholesterol and precipitation of solid crystals) but also to "extra-gallbladder" features such as gene polymorphism, epigenetic factors, expression and activity of nuclear receptors, hormonal factors (in particular, insulin resistance), multi-level alterations in cholesterol metabolism, altered intestinal motility, and variations in gut microbiota. Of note, the majority of these factors are potentially manageable. Thus, cholelithiasis appears as the expression of systemic unbalances that, besides the classic therapeutic approaches to patients with clinical evidence of symptomatic disease or complications (surgery and, in a small subgroup of subjects, oral litholysis with bile acids), could be managed with tools oriented to primary prevention (changes in diet and lifestyle and pharmacologic prevention in subgroups at high risk), and there could be relevant implications in reducing both prevalence and health costs.


A wireless network is not as secure as compare the wired network because the data is transferred on air so any intruder can use hacking techniques to access that data. Indeed it is difficult to protect the data and provide the user a secure information system for lifetime. An intrusions detection system aim to detect the different attacks against network and system. An intrusion detection system should be capable for detecting the misuse of the network whether it will be by the authenticated user or by an attacker. Cross layer based technique help to make decision based on two layer physical layer where we compute RSS value and on MAC layer where one compute RTS-CTS time taken. This will reduce the positive false rate.They detect attempts and active misuse either by legitimate users of the information systems or by external. The paper has higlighted the advances in intrusion detection in wireless local area network.


The design of campaigns for the improvement of intergroup attitudes requires innovative approaches that consider both the characteristics of the messages and the psychological processes they evoke. This work addresses the study of factors that increase the persuasive effectiveness of testimonial messages aimed at improving attitudes towards stigmatized immigrants. An experiment was conducted using a representative sample of 443 participants of Spanish origin on the effect of similarity to the protagonist and the narrative voice. Two mediating mechanisms (identification with the protagonist and cognitive elaboration) were evaluated, and the indirect effect of the two independent variables was studied with respect to two dependent variables: the attitude towards immigration and the intention to collaborate with NGOs to support immigrants. Similarity to the protagonist of the narrative message increased identification only when the participants read the version written in the first person. In addition, a conditional process model was tested, revealing that identification increased cognitive elaboration, which, in turn, was associated with a more favorable attitude towards immigration and a greater intention to collaborate with immigrant support organizations. This study highlights the relevance of the characteristics of narrative messages to increase affective (identification) and cognitive (elaboration) processes that explain their persuasive impact. The results are discussed in the context of research on narrative persuasion and the design of campaigns for the prevention of racism and xenophobia.


The reliability of fiberoptic bronchoscopy as a method to study the bacteriology of the lower respiratory tract was tested. The procedure used was suction aspiration through the inner channel after topical anesthesia with lidocaine. To detect contamination by oropharyngeal bacteria, the aspirates were cultured in patients with no evidence of active infection, comparison was made with results of transtracheal aspiration cultures, and the aspirate was tested for the presence of an oral dye marker. Results with all 3 methods of analysis indicated contamination with oropharyngeal bacteria that were presumably introduced during instrumentation through the upper airways. An additional factor studied was the effect of topical anesthetics. Analysis of aspirates showed that as much as 96 per cent of the specimen was anesthetic solution. Lidocaine also proved toxic to lower respiratory tract pathogens, although there were significant differences between bacterial species. It was concluded that fiberoptic bronchoscopy as performed in this study does not reliably reflect the bacteriology of the lower respiratory tract.


Current generation underwater remotely operated vehicles equipped with robotic manipulators are teleoperated and consequently place a large workload burden on the human operator. A greater degree of automation could improve the efficiency and accuracy with which underwater tasks are carried out. A hybrid position/force control scheme is proposed to control an industrial hydraulic underwater manipulator, modified to include a force/torque sensor, for tasks such as weld inspection. Modelling of the hydraulic actuation mechanism is performed and the resulting model is easily incorporated in the standard robot dynamic equations. An experimental facility using a PC-based digital signal processor is used to produce practical hybrid position/force results for a Slingsby TA9 hydraulic arm. Results are presented for the manipulator sliding across a planar surface in different parts of its work envelope. Good general agreement is obtained between the simulated and practical systems. A fixed gain control strategy is shown to work well, provided it is tuned for the arm configuration when sliding occurs.


The idea of bioabsorbable/biocorrodible stents has gained increasing attention in the last decade. Permanent coronary stents, traditionally made from 316L grade stainless steel, are routinely used for the treatment of blocked arteries. However, these stents can cause complications such as restenosis, thrombosis and the need for the patient to undergo prolonged antiplatelet therapy. Biodegradable metal stents provide an opportunity for the stent to remain in place for a period to ensure restoration of function and then degrade through a carefully controlled bio-corrosion process. Among the number of potentially suitable materials, Magnesium alloys have shown great promise as a stent material due to their non-toxicity [1] and the corrosion rates attainable in biological environments. However, a carefully controlled corrosion process is essential in order to avoid hyper hydrogen generation and the fatal consequences that follow. In addition uniform corrosion is a basic requirement to maintain the mechanical integrity and load bearing characteristics. Work being undertaken in our laboratories focuses on controlling the corrosion behaviour of magnesium in a simulated biological environment in the presence of protein. In the investigation reported here the Mg alloy has been examined using Scanning Electrochemical Microscope (SECM) to visualize the corrosion process and identify the corrosion pattern. Complementary bulk electrochemical techniques (EIS and potentiodynamic polarization) have been used to acquire kinetic and mechanistic information. Early results obtained by SECM have revealed the tendency towards pitting corrosion in the early stages which subsequently develops in to filiform corrosion.


Concentrated suspensions of nanoparticles subjected to transport or shear forces are commonly encountered in many processes such as precipitation, wet comminution or filtration. In these processes, particles are likely to undergo processes of aggregation and fragmentation under physico-chemical interactions and hydrodynamic forces. This study is focused on the analysis of the behaviour of colloidal silica in dense suspensions subjected to hydrodynamic forces in conditions of destabilization.
A colloidal silica suspension of particles with an initial size of about 80 nm was used. The silica suspension concentration was varied between 3 and 20% of weight. The phenomenon of aggregation was observed in the absence of any other process such as precipitation and the destabilization of the colloidal suspensions was obtained by adding sodium chloride salt.
Various techniques of characterization of the particle size (acoustic spectroscopy, laser diffraction) and of the physico-chemical properties of the suspensions were used allowing defining the silica dispersion properties (suspension stability, particle size, pH).
The experiments were proceeded in a batch agitated vessel. They were made in order to observe the influence of different parameters (silica concentration, temperature, agitation speed) on the behaviour of the suspended particles.
The evolution of the particle size distributions versus time during the processes of aggregation was particularly followed on line by acoustic spectroscopy in dense conditions. Samples were also analyzed after an appropriate dilution by laser diffraction. The results show the different stages of the silica aggregation process whose kinetic rates depend either on physico-chemical or hydrodynamics parameters. They allow understanding the mechanisms of the aggregation process under flowing conditions.


Node localizations techniques are a critical part in many wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. There are several challenges for building an efficient localization system that is suitable for wireless sensor networks, mainly, reducing computational complexity and communication overhead. For example, solving an over constraint set of linear equations via least square approximations and utilizing square root operations are computationally intensive. Moreover, flooding techniques used for transmitting the locations of the anchors wastes bandwidth and energy. In this context, the Trigonometric based Ad-hoc Localization System (TALS) is an anchor-based range-based localization system that utilizes trigonometric identities and properties to compute the position of the node. TALS is designed to address the above challenges without deteriorating the quality of the estimates by taking advantage of redundancy and data fusion techniques. TALS is simulated and compared against popular localization techniques where it presented superiority against those techniques.


We face grave global problems. One might think universities are doing all they can to help solve these problems. But universities, in successfully pursuing scientific knowledge and technological know-how in a way that is dissociated from a more fundamental concern with problems of living, have actually made possible the genesis of all our current global problems. Modern science and technology have led to modern industry and agriculture, modern medicine and hygiene, modern armaments, which in turn have led to habitat destruction, extinction of species, population growth, the lethal character of modern war, and the impending disasters of climate change. We urgently need to bring about a revolution in universities so that they put problems of living at the heart of the academic enterprise and take, as their basic task, to help humanity learn how to make progress towards as good a world as possible.


The first step in mining activities is rock excavation in both mine development and production. Constant pressure for cost reduction and creating an improved/safe work environment for personnel has naturally resulted in increased use of mechanical excavation systems in many mining operations. Also, mechanical excavation and mining is more compatible with automation, meaning possibility of reduction in number of people in the active underground mines. This factor plays a major role in selection of mining systems especially considering the dire shortage of skilled labour in the industry. While these systems are an integral part of mining activities in underground soft rock mining (coal, salt, potash, trona etc.), there is a need for developing new approaches and machinery for use in the underground hard rock mining. This paper will offer a review of current and emerging technologies for mechanical hard rock excavation, including disc cutting technology, drag picks, mini-disc, and activated/oscillating disc cutter. A review of general guidelines for assessment of the potentials of new research and development on this topic and evaluation of emerging technologies for a specific mining application will also be offered.


In most OECD countries, subsidised childcare is a key instrument to support maternal employment. Using a large reform implemented in Luxembourg in 2009, I study the effect of expanding access to subsidised childcare on childcare and employment decisions of women in a context where childcare is universal and heavily subsidised, but bound by capacity constraints. The identification relies on temporal variation across child age groups. The results show that, in response to the reform, the employment rate of mothers increased by 4-7 percentage points and their hours of work by around 3 hours per week. Studying heterogeneous effects reveals a differential impact of the reform for more vulnerable mothers. Parents whose youngest child is under the age of 3 are found to use more daycare services, for longer hours, while the use of informal care remains unchanged. These results suggest that there is no crowding out effect of the new policy.


This research on press communication uses a synchronic perspective concerning eighteen ministers, balanced by gender, in the Renzi government (in 2014), as well as a diachronic perspective concerning women ministers from five governments (from 2006-2014). The governments in 2014 and of 2013 were predominantly center-left, with the participation of center and center-right parties, whereas the previous governments had technical-professional rather than political ministers (in 2011), center-right (in 2008), and center-left (in 2006) ministers. In the synchronic analysis we explored the different ways in which the ministers are named, the relative presence of sexist/non-sexist, agentive/non-agentive, and abstract/concrete language in which they were presented. The first analysis comprised 332 headlines and the second comprised 1,356 headlines; we conducted a numerical and lexicographical analysis on the headlines. The results showed: more coverage for men than for women; gender biases in naming ministers involving a greater number of citations of women with both first and last name, whereas there were a greater number of citations of men with their first name only; the prevalence of sexist language that uses the generic masculine rather than the specific feminine (that is, the grammatical feminization of a typically masculine form) in representing women; an increment of the specific feminine in representing women in the last three governments over the previous two; no gender differences in the use of "I" and "We" as markers of agency; more quotations of direct discourse for women than for men; language slightly more abstract than concrete, for both men and women; more positive adjectives for women, and more negative adjectives for men. The results are discussed in relation to the international literature and to the Italian cultural-political context.


Bradypus variegatus (Xenarthra, Bradypodidae) and Choloepus hoffmanni (Xenarthra, Megalonychidae) are sloths from the tropical rain forest of the Caribbean and Pacific regions of Costa Rica. Because of their unique physiology and behavior, sloths have intrigued scientists, and several studies have already been conducted regarding blood pressure and heart rate variations. However, the use of transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) in these species has never been reported. The aim of the present study was therefore to determine the feasibility, and then the within-day (repeatability) and between-day (reproducibility) variability of TTE in sloths. A total of 36 TTE examinations (including a total of 1080 measurements) with continuous ECG monitoring were performed on 4 different days by a trained observer on 6 healthy, adult, sedated Choloepus hoffmanni (sexually intact females, age, mean ± SD [minmax] 5.1 ± 1.3 years [4.0-7.5]) from the Costa Rica Animal Rescue Centre. Standard transthoracic M-mode and two-dimensional mode measurements included left ventricular (LV) end-diastolic and endsystolic diameters and thicknesses, the LV fractional shortening, the E point-to-septal separation, the left atrium-to-aorta ratio, and the right atrial width-to-the left atrial width ratio. Pulsed-wave Doppler parameters included peak systolic aortic and pulmonary flow velocities as well as early and late diastolic mitral flow velocities. A general linear model was used to determine the within-day and between-day coefficients of variation (CV). The main results were the following: all measurements could be performed at each TTE examination. Most within- and between-day CV values (90%) were <15%, the lowest being observed for the right atrial width-to-left atrial width ratio (2.2%). These results suggest that TTE is feasible and reliable in sloths, and therefore can be part of the cardiovascular exploration in these species. Further studies are now required to determine the corresponding reference intervals.


Communication over a multiple access channel is considered. Each user modulates his signal as a superposition of redundant data streams where interconnection of data bits can be represented by means of a sparse graph. The receiver observes a signal resulting from the coupling of the sparse modulation graphs. Iterative interference cancellation decoding is analyzed. It is proved that spatial graph coupling allows to achieve the AWGN channel capacity with equal power transmissions.


Easy to take and use anywhere, the MySQL Pocket Reference provides instant reminders on how to use important MySQL functions in conjunction with key parts of the LAMP open source infrastructure. The book covers installation of MySQL and includes a description of SQL commands, data types, operators, and functions. In this small book, you get a handy reference to the enormous feature set of MySQL, the dominant database in the open source world.


ABSTRACT This qualitative study examines the pedagogical potential that a Cartography of Controversy (CoC) approach has in enabling secondary school students to unravel the complexity of socioscientific issues and to communicate about them. The aim was to examine the types of knowledge and the ways in which students approached uncertainty when asked to explore the badger-cattle controversy in England using the CoC approach. A learning sequence focusing on mapping controversies was designed and implemented across three lessons. Data collected from the students' cartographies and the audio-recordings of their group discussions during the mapping tasks showed that students were able to use scientific, economic, cultural, social, moral and political types of knowledge in their exploration of the controversy. Identifying tensions between different types of knowledge and becoming aware of their own uncertainties about the issue through posing and recording questions allowed students to identify where uncertainty existed within the SSI explored. The CoC approach allowed affordances for understanding the SSI depending on students' framing of the task (familiarisation, exploration, consolidation) and on the cartography's function as an observation, visualisation, and reflection tool at different stages of the learning sequence. Implications for further research and practice for developing students' socioscientific reasoning are discussed.


The aim of the article is to present the motives and implementation stages of ethnic cleansing and genocidal policy perpetrated towards the indigenous Armenian population during the 11th-20th centuries in the Eastern Cis-Caucasus – in the territory stretching from the Kur Valley to the Apsheron Peninsula, on the basis of various primary sources (archival documents, statistical materials, periodical press, theme related literature).
The work is written by a combined examination of facts, applying the principles of historical investigation and historical-comparative analysis. The level of reliability and validity of the sources through their comprehensive study has been verified.
Through the combination of facts the following phases of the history of the main issue are presented: the policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide of Armenians in the Eastern Cis-Caucasus were still implemented in the 11th-18th centuries when the region regularly appeared under the invasions and dominion of various conquering nomadic tribes (Turk-Seljuks, Mongol-Tatars, Tamerlane, nomadic Turkmen tribes of Kara-Koyunlu and Ak-Koyunlu, Kizilbash invasions followed by the Turkish-Persian wars, Sunni Lezgins, invasions of Nader Shah and Agha Mohammad Khan). As a result, some part of the Armenian population was deported and left native lands or forcedly accepted the Muslim religion of the conquerers. The next phase of ethnic cleansing and atrocities was the period of the Armenian-Tatar clashes (1905-1906). Later, the policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide was implemented at state level already during the Musavat regime of the artificial "Azerbaijan" formation (1918-1920), and finally during the Soviet regime (1920-1990).
The article substantiates the fact that the indigenous Armenian population of the region was subjected to ethnic cleansing and genocide in its cradle, just as the Young Turks carried out the extermination of the Western Armenians in 1915-1916 in Western Armenia. Therefore, this policy should be described as a continuation and an integral part of the Genocide of Armenians, as the Armenian Genocide with its geographical coverage (from Cilicia to Baku), was a consequence of the implementation of a comprehensive pan-Turkic program.
There are numerous references to the issue in the historical literature, though the comprehensive study of ethnic cleansing and genocidal policies of Armenians in the Eastern Cis-Caucasus – in the territory stretching from the Kur Valley to the Apsheron Peninsula, has not been the subject of a separate study.


This essay reads the scandal surrounding James Frey's memoir A Million Little Pieces as part of a developing brand, the American neoconfessional, and questions how memoirs, as part of this brand, present "reading in public" as a mode of civic engagement that teaches readers to consume and judge "similar others." The redemption narrative is the preferred story in this brand, with its links to the American dream, and its promotion centers normativity as an uninspected value in life narrative. The norming of life narrative away from the complexities of racial and gendered histories of harm influences the recent shift in the memoir market toward self-help discourse. Drawing on Lauren Berlant, autobiography studies, and scholarship on Oprah Winfrey, this essay theorizes how celebrity and sentimentality intersect with nonnormative life stories and anti-confessional discourse in recent memoirs.


Background Three-dimensional scans are increasingly used to quantify biological topographical changes and clinical health outcomes. Traditionally, the use of 3D scans has been limited to specialized centers owing to the high cost of the scanning equipment and the necessity for complex analysis software. Technological advances have made cheaper, more accessible methods of data capture and analysis available in the field of dentistry, potentially facilitating a primary care system to quantify disease progression. However, this system has yet to be compared with previous high-precision methods in university hospital settings. Objective The aim of this study was to compare a dental primary care method of data capture (intraoral scanner) with a precision hospital-based method (laser profilometer) in addition to comparing open source and commercial software available for data analysis. Methods Longitudinal dental wear data from 30 patients were analyzed using a two-factor factorial experimental design. Bimaxillary intraoral digital scans (TrueDefinition, 3M, UK) and conventional silicone impressions, poured in type-4 dental stone, were made at both baseline and follow-up appointments (mean 36 months, SD 10.9). Stone models were scanned using precision laser profilometry (Taicaan, Southampton, UK). Three-dimensional changes in both forms of digital scans of the first molars (n=76) were quantitatively analyzed using the engineering software Geomagic Control (3D Systems, Germany) and freeware WearCompare (Leeds Digital Dentistry, UK). Volume change (mm3) was the primary measurement outcome. The maximum point loss (μm) and the average profile loss (μm) were also recorded. Data were paired and skewed, and were therefore compared using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests with Bonferroni correction. Results The median (IQR) volume change for Geomagic using profilometry and using the intraoral scan was –0.37 mm3 (–3.75-2.30) and +0.51 mm3 (–2.17-4.26), respectively (P<.001). Using WearCompare, the median (IQR) volume change for profilometry and intraoral scanning was –1.21 mm3 (–3.48-0.56) and –0.39 mm3 (–3.96-2.76), respectively (P=.04). WearCompare detected significantly greater volume loss than Geomagic regardless of scanner type. No differences were observed between groups with respect to the maximum point loss or average profile loss. Conclusions As expected, the method of data capture, software used, and measurement metric all significantly influenced the measurement outcome. However, when appropriate analysis was used, the primary care system was able to quantify the degree of change and can be recommended depending on the accuracy needed to diagnose a condition. Lower-resolution scanners may underestimate complex changes when measuring at the micron level.


Chemical-looping combustion (CLC) is a new kind of efficient method to separate CO2. At present, most of CLC research focuses on the development of oxygen carriers. The sustainable capability is the one of important standards to evaluate performance of oxygen carrier. The iron- based and copper- based oxygen carrier were chosen in this paper. The comparative study between the analytically pure oxygen carriers and the prepared oxygen carriers with Al2O3 were made according to the reactivity of reduction and oxidation. The data was obtained by the TGA, SEM and XRD. The results show that the prepared carriers with Al2O3 are greatly improved both in reaction ratio and sustainable capability, and Fe- based oxygen carrier is better than the Cu- based oxygen carrier in the sustainable capability.


A novel combined power and cooling cycle based on the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) and the Compression Refrigeration Cycle (CRC) is proposed. The cycle can be driven by the exhaust heat from a diesel engine. In this combined cycle, ORC will translate the exhaust heat into power, and drive the compressor of CRC. The prime advantage of the combined cycle is that both the ORC and CRC are trans-critical cycles, and using CO₂ as working fluid. Natural, cheap, environmentally friendly, nontoxic and good heat transfer properties are some advantages of CO₂ as working fluid. In this paper, besides the basic combined cycle (ORC-CRC), another three novel cycles: ORC-CRC with an expander (ORC-CRCE), ORC with an internal heat exchanger as heat accumulator combined with CRC (ORCI-CRC), ORCI-CRCE, are analyzed and compared. The cycle parameters, including the coefficient of performance (cop), the cooling capacity (Qro) and expansion power of CRC (We) have been analyzed and optimized as the variation of the high pressure of ORC, the high pressure and the outlet temperature of gas cooler of CRC, and temperature drop of heat source in heat accumulator of ORC. The results indicate that there is an optimal high pressure of CRC (about 8.6 MPa to 8.8 MPa) for the combined cycles, at which the combined cycles achieve the optimal performance. The results also show that both the expander and heat accumulator could improve the system performance. The higher ΔTi could improve the system performance, but also resulting the more insufficiency of waste heat recovery.


Trip distribution is a very important step in transportation modeling context. Many decent researches have been dedicated to the importance of the models for this third step of transportation modeling. Entropy maximization model is one of thermodynamic models and is implemented in modeling various scientific Phenomenons. As the name implies, entropy maximization model tries to find the maximum entropy under which a system is supposed to be stable. Making pretty little changes to the thermodynamic nature, we can very easily use this phenomenon to distribute trips. As the problem here is an NP-hard one, simulated annealing as a meta-heuristic algorithm is used for solving the problem. At the end, a real case model of trip distribution for Iran states as an application of this algorithm is examined. © ) ! " # $% (


Rationale: Cardioprotective signaling mediates antiapoptotic actions through multiple mechanisms including maintenance of mitochondrial integrity. Pim-1 kinase is an essential downstream effector of AKT-mediated cardioprotection but the mechanistic basis for maintenance of mitochondrial integrity by Pim-1 remains unexplored. This study details antiapoptotic actions responsible for enhanced cell survival in cardiomyocytes with elevated Pim-1 activity. Objective: The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that the cardioprotective kinase Pim-1 acts to inhibit cell death by preserving mitochondrial integrity in cardiomyocytes. Methods and Results: A combination of biochemical, molecular, and microscopic analyses demonstrate beneficial effects of Pim-1 on mitochondrial integrity. Pim-1 protein level increases in the mitochondrial fraction with a corresponding decrease in the cytosolic fraction of myocardial lysates from hearts subjected to 30 minutes of ischemia followed by 30 minutes of reperfusion. Cardiac-specific overexpression of Pim-1 results in higher levels of antiapoptotic Bcl-XL and Bcl-2 compared to samples from normal hearts. In response to oxidative stress challenge, Pim-1 preserves the inner mitochondrial membrane potential. Ultrastructure of the mitochondria is maintained by Pim-1 activity, which prevents swelling induced by calcium overload. Finally, mitochondria isolated from hearts created with cardiac-specific overexpression of Pim-1 show inhibition of cytochrome c release triggered by a truncated form of proapoptotic Bid. Conclusion: Cardioprotective action of Pim-1 kinase includes preservation of mitochondrial integrity during cardiomyopathic challenge conditions, thereby raising the potential for Pim-1 kinase activation as a therapeutic interventional approach to inhibit cell death by antagonizing proapoptotic Bcl-2 family members that regulate the intrinsic apoptotic pathway.


BACKGROUND
Evidence-based clinical guidelines have attracted international interest as tools for improving the quality of health care. Attitudes toward these guidelines are of great importance because attitudes are proven to be important predictors of guideline use. Attitudes are also believed to be shaped by perceptions of others, which makes the role of organizational implementation interventions interesting.

AIMS
This article describes primary care nurses' attitudes toward guidelines among Finnish primary care nurses and the associations between attitudes, implementation interventions, and guideline use.

METHODS
This study was a cross-sectional survey using postal questionnaires. Participants (N = 409) were primary care nurses working in outpatient services of primary health care centers in Finland. They were selected for the study from two groups of Finnish health centers representing contrasting implementation styles, for example, disseminator and implementer health centers (N = 32).

RESULTS
Responses were received from 327 nurses. In general, nurses' attitudes toward guidelines were positive, especially those concerning the reliability and usefulness of guidelines. The utilization of any implementation intervention included in the questionnaire was associated with more positive attitudes. In addition, nurses working in health centers that used an active implementation strategy as opposed to a disseminator strategy also felt that others in their organization rated the guidelines more positively and that guidelines were more easily available. Further, nurses who were familiar or very familiar with the guidelines had more positive attitudes toward them. Attitudes were also associated with self-reported guideline use.

CONCLUSIONS
The evidence-based guidelines were accepted as a reliable source of advice in patient care in Finnish primary care. It seems that implementation interventions improve attitudes toward guidelines and enhance guideline use. These interventions might also be important from another point of view; they presumably improve familiarity with guidelines, which was also associated with guideline use.


Risk-informed flood risk management requires a comprehensive and quantitative risk assessment, which often demands multiple (thousands of) river and flood model simulations. Performing such a large number of model simulations is a challenge, especially for large, complex river systems (e.g., Mekong) due to the associated computational and resource demands. This article presents an efficient probabilistic modeling approach that combines a simplified 1D hydrodynamic model for the entire Mekong Delta with a detailed 1D/2D coupled model and demonstrates its application at Can Tho city in the Mekong Delta. Probabilistic flood-hazard maps, ranging from 0.5 to 100 year return period events, are obtained for the urban center of Can Tho city under different future scenarios taking into account the impact of climate change forcing (river flow, sea-level rise, storm surge) and land subsidence. Results obtained under present conditions show that more than 12% of the study area is inundated by the present-day 100 year return period of water level. Future projections show that, if the present rate of land subsidence continues, by 2050 (under both RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 climate scenarios), the 0.5 and 100 year return period flood extents will increase by around 15- and 8-fold, respectively, relative to the present-day flood extent. However, without land subsidence, the projected increases in the 0.5 and 100 year return period flood extents by 2050 (under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) are limited to between a doubling to tripling of the present-day flood extent. Therefore, adaptation measures that can reduce the rate of land subsidence (e.g., limiting groundwater extraction), would substantially mitigate future flood hazards in the study area. A combination of restricted groundwater extraction and the construction of a new and more efficient urban drainage network would facilitate even further reductions in the flood hazard. The projected 15-fold increase in flood extent projected by 2050 for the twice per year (0.5 year return period) flood event implies that the "do nothing" management approach is not a feasible option for Can Tho.


In an open distributed system, resources must be shared among various users. Security is one of the major issues in designing such a system. When a computer system is connected to a network, it is very important to ensure that the computer has the ability to manage its local resources securely. In this position paper, we will demonstrate that current computer architectures do give malicious users ways to penetrate computer systems and hence access the system or other user's secrets which are supposed to be well protected. We also propose some possible solutions to counterattack such security threats either at hardware or software level. The impacts of our countermeasures to system hardware and software are also discussed.


Proposes a novel way of representing curriculum knowledge. The representation allows greater flexibility in delivering adaptive learning advice in terms of tailor-made study plans. As the notion of Web-based learning keeps marching on triumphantly, more and more teaching/learning materials are accumulating on the servers, but the desperate need for a structured organization of these materials seems to have been overlooked by the community. This paper addresses this issue by proposing a hybrid scheme for representing curriculum knowledge which can cater both for the nominal learning prerequisite links as well as the sub-super inter-nodal relationships in the form of a course hierarchy. Once a course has been represented, different study plans can be generated, and they can be adapted to suit the learning styles of different students. The scheme is based on a combination of standard directed graphs and a modified form of statecharts.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
One major limitation of current functional MR (fMR) imaging is its inability to clarify the relationship between sites of cortical neuronal activation, small parenchymal venules that are in close proximity to these sites, and large draining veins distant from the active parenchyma. We propose to use gradient-echo blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) fMR time courses to differentiate large draining veins from parenchymal microvasculature.

METHODS
In eight research subjects, five of whom presented with space-occupying lesions near the central sulcus, gradient-echo fMR imaging was performed during alternating periods of rest and motor activation. MR signal time courses from parenchymal regions and draining veins of different diameters, which were identified using contrast-enhanced T1-weighted scans, were evaluated. Percent signal changes (deltaS) and the time to the onset of MR signal rise (T0) were calculated.

RESULTS
Mean delta(S) for all subjects was 2.3% (SD+/-0.7%) for parenchymal activation, 4.3% (SD +1.0%) for sulcal macrovasculature, and 7.3 (SD+/-1.1%) for large superficial bridging veins. The mean time to onset of MR signal increase was 4.4 seconds for parenchymal task-related hemodynamic changes and 6.6 seconds for venous hemodynamic changes, regardless of vessel size. Both the differences in delta(S) and T0 were statistically significant between venous and parenchymal activation (P < .0001).

CONCLUSION
Gradient-echo fMR imaging reveals hemodynamic task-related changes regardless of vessel size and therefore might show macrovascular changes distal to the site of neuronal activity. MR-signal time-course characteristics (delta(S) and T0) can be used to differentiate between small parenchymal and larger pial draining vessels, which is especially important in presurgical planning of neurosurgical procedures involving functionally important brain regions. The knowledge about the differences in (delta)S and T0 between micro- and macrovasculature might lead to a more accurate description of the spatial distribution of underlying neuronal activity.


Objective Health literacy is on the policy agenda. Accessible, high-quality health information is a major component of health literacy. Health information materials include print, electronic or other media-based information enabling people to understand health and make health-related decisions. The aim of the present study was to present the findings and recommended actions as they relate to health information of the Victorian Consultation on Health Literacy. Methods Notes and submissions from the 2014 Victorian Consultation workshops and submissions were analysed thematically and a report prepared with input from an advisory committee. Results Health information needs to improve and recommendations are grouped into two overarching themes. First, the quality of information needs to be increased and this can be done by developing a principle-based framework to inform updating guidance for information production, formulating standards to raise quality and improving the systems for delivering information to people. Second, there needs to be a focus on users of health information. Recommendation actions were for information that promoted active participation in health encounters, resources to encourage critical users of health information and increased availability of information tailored to population diversity. Conclusion A framework to improve health information would underpin the efforts to meet literacy needs in a more consistent way, improving standards and ultimately increasing the participation by consumers and carers in health decision making and self-management. What is known about the topic? Health information is a critical component of the concept of health literacy. Poorer health literacy is associated with poorer health outcomes across a range of measures. Improving access to and the use of quality sources of health information is an important strategy for meeting the health literacy needs of the population. In recent years, health services and governments have taken a critical interest in improving health literacy. What does this paper add? This article presents the findings of the Victorian Consultation on Health Literacy as they relate to needs, priorities and potential actions for improving health information. In the context of the National Statement for Health Literacy, health information should be a priority, given its centrality to the public's management of its own health and effective, standards-based, patient-centred clinical care. A framework to improve health information would underpin the efforts of government, services and consumer organisations to meet literacy needs in a more consistent way, improving standards and ultimately increasing the participation by consumers and carers in health decision making and self-management. What are the implications for practitioners? The development and provision of health information materials needs to be systematised and supported by infrastructure, requiring leadership, cultural change, standards and skills development.


Employing remote sensing method to interpret the building volumetric ratio and aerosol status in Guangzhou, China. The relation between them and identified characteristics of their spatial distribution was analyzed. Results showed that building density and aerosol status are strongly correlated. It is indicated that the resistance of building to aerosol diffusing is one of factors influencing air pollution in urban area. On the basis of calculated results, building voluminous ratio of 5.6 is taken as the threshold impacting on aerosol diffusing, so the building voluminous ratio of Guangzhou should be limited to less than 5.6 in order to alleviate air pollution.


Abstract. This paper aims at assessing the influence of the bone ornamentation and, specifically, the associated loss of bone mass on the mechanical response of the crocodylomorph osteoderms. To this end, we have performed three-dimensional (3D) modeling and a finite element analysis on a sample that includes both extant dry bones and well-preserved fossils tracing back to the Late Triassic. We simulated an external attack under various angles on the apical surface of each osteoderm and further repeated the simulation on an equivalent set of smoothed 3D-modeled osteoderms. The comparative results indicated that the presence of an apical sculpture has no significant influence on the von Mises stress distribution in the osteoderm volume, although it produces a slight increase in its numerical score. Moreover, performing parametric analyses, we showed that the Young's modulus of the osteoderm, which may vary depending on the bone porosity, the collagen fiber orientation, or the calcification density, has no impact on the von Mises stress distribution inside the osteoderm volume. As the crocodylomorph bone ornamentation is continuously remodeled by pit resorption and secondary bone deposition, we assume that the apical sculpture may be the outcome of a trade-off between the bone mechanical resistance and the involvement in physiological functions. These physiological functions are indeed based on the setup of a bone superficial vessel network and/or the recurrent release of mineral elements into the plasma: heat transfers during basking and respiratory acidosis buffering during prolonged apnea in neosuchians and teleosaurids; compensatory homeostasis in response to general calcium deficiencies. On a general morphological basis, the osteoderm geometric variability within our sample leads us to assess that the global osteoderm geometry (whether square or rectangular) does not influence the von Mises stress, whereas the presence of a dorsal keel would somewhat reduce the stress along the vertical axis.