Multiprocessor system on chip (MPSOC) have strongly emerged in the past decade in communication, multimedia, networking and other embedded domains. MPSOC became a new paradigm of high performance embedded application design. This thesis addresses the design and the physical implementation of a Network on Chip (NoC) based Multiprocessor System on Chip. We studied several aspects at different design stages: high level synthesis, architecture design, FPGA implementation, application evaluation and ASIC physical implementation. We try to analysis and find the impacts of these aspects for the MPSOC's final performance, power consumption and area cost. We implemented a NoC based 16 processors embedded system on FPGA prototyping. Three NoCs provide different functionalities for sixteen PE tiles. We also demonstrated the use of our performance monitoring system for software debugging and tuning. With the bi-synchronous FIFO method, our GALS architecture successfully solves the long clock signal distribution problem and allows that each clock domain can run at its own clock frequency. On the other hand we successfully implemented AES and TDES block cipher cryptographic algorithms on this platform and results show linear speedup in computation time. The network part of our architecture has been implemented on ASIC technology and has been explored with different timing constraints and different library categories of STmicroelectronics' 65nm/45nm technologies. The experimental results of ASIC and FPGA are compared, and we inducted the discussion of technology change impact on parallel programming.


Using an internal-variable formalism as a starting point, we describe the viscoelastic extension of a previously-developed viscoplasticity formulation of the complete potential structure type. It is mainly motivated by experimental evidence for the presence of rate/time effects in the so-called quasilinear, reversible, material response range. Several possible generalizations are described, in the general format of hereditary-integral representations for non-equilibrium, stress-type, state variables, both for isotropic as well as anisotropic materials. In particular, thorough discussions are given on the important issues of thermodynamic admissibility requirements for such general descriptions, resulting in a set of explicit mathematical constraints on the associated kernel (relaxation and creep compliance) functions. In addition, a number of explicit, integrated forms are derived, under stress and strain control to facilitate the parametric and qualitative response characteristic studies reported here, as well as to help identify critical factors in the actual experimental characterizations from test data that will be reported in Part II. Key'words: viscoelasticity, hereditary behavior, TIMETAL 21S, nonisothermal, deformation, multiaxial, thermodynamics "Researchfundedby NASA Lewisunder Grant NAG3-1747


In manufacturing processes, surface finish of a product is very crucial in determining the quality. Therefore, the surface quality including the surface roughness is still the most important obstacles against the incremental sheet metal forming (ISMF) process. As a consequence, the possibility to predict the surface roughness values in incremental forming and to correlate these values with the forming parameters can be useful in order to control this important target. Accordingly, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is used to predict the surface roughness of parts produced by single-point incremental forming (SPIF) process. The hybrid learning algorithm is applied in ANFIS to determine the most suitable membership functions (MFs) and to simultaneously find the optimal premise and consequent parameters by directly minimizing the root mean squared error (RMSE) as a performance criterion. In order to achieve this target, five forming parameters, namely (tool diameter, incremental step size, tool shape, rotational speed and slope angle) are studied to form pyramid like shapes for the purpose of roughness measurement. Experimental results show that the difference sigmoidal MF gives the minimum RMSE. The predicted surface roughness values using ANFIS are compared with actual data. The comparison indicates that the utilization of difference sigmoidal MF in ANFIS could achieve a satisfactory prediction accuracy using both training and testing data when this MF is adopted. The training and testing prediction accuracy are 95.972% and 85.799% respectively


Although gain of 1q occurs in 25% of Burkitt lymphomas (BLs) and 10% of pediatric high hyperdiploid acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALLs), little is known about the origin, molecular genetic characteristics and functional outcome of dup(1q) in these disorders. Ten dup(1q)-positive BLs/ALLs were investigated by tiling resolution (32k) array CGH analysis, which revealed that the proximal breakpoints in all cases were near-centromeric, in eight of them clustering within a 1.4 Mb segment in 1q12-21.1. The 1q distal breakpoints were heterogeneous, being more distal in the ALLs than in the BLs. The minimally gained segments in the ALLs and BLs were 57.4 Mb [dup(1)(q22q32.3)] and 35 Mb [dup(1)(q12q25.2)], respectively. Satellite II DNA on 1q was not hypomethylated, as ascertained by Southern blot analyses of 15 BLs/ALLs with and without gain of 1q, indicating that aberrant methylation was not involved in the origin of dup(1q), as previously suggested for other neoplasms with 1q rearrangements. Global gene expression analyses revealed that five genes in the minimally 57.4 Mb gained region--B4GALT3, DAP3, RGS16, TMEM183A and UCK2--were significantly overexpressed in dup(1q)-positive ALLs compared with high hyperdiploid ALLs without dup(1q). The DAP3 and UCK2 genes were among the most overexpressed genes in the BL case with gain of 1q investigated. The DAP3 protein has been reported to be highly expressed in invasive glioblastoma multiforme cells, whereas expression of the UCK2 protein has been correlated with sensitivity to anticancer drugs. However, involvement of these genes in dup(1q)-positive ALLs and BLs has previously not been reported.


The main objective of this research is to estimate internal and external wage effects associated with a changing share of college graduates in Canada. This paper uses data drawn from the Canadian 1991, 1996, and 2001 Public Use Microdata File for 25 to 65 years old individuals working full-time and full-year in metropolitan areas. These workers are then separated into four different levels of education groups in order to estimate the effect of change in the share of college-educated workers on their earnings. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimates, controlling for potential work experience, total years of schooling, individual occupation, employment industry, immigration status, visible minority status, show a significant positive relationship between the percentage change of the share of college-educated workers and the percentage change of individuals' real weekly wage rates. We found that one percentage point increase in a census metropolitan area's share of college-graduated workers was associated with a 0.35 percentage change in all workers' wage rates in that city. For separated education groups, our results showed that a one percentage expansion in the supply of college-graduated workers raised less than high schools' wage rate by 0.245 percent, raised high-school graduates' wage rate by 0.363 percent, raised more than college-educated workers' wage rate by 0.385 percent, and raised college-educated wage rate by 0.326 percentage. These results are consistent with the conclusion arrived at by E. Moretti, (2004) that all types of workers' earnings increased when a city's share of college graduates rose.


Measuring stable isotope fractionation of carbon, hydrogen, and other elements by Compound Specific Isotope Analysis (CSIA) is a new, innovative approach to assess organic pollutant degradation in the environment. Central to this concept is the Rayleigh equation which relates degradation-induced decreases in concentrations directly to concomitant changes in bulk (= average over the whole compound) isotope ratios. The extent of in situ transformation may therefore be inferred from measured isotope ratios in field samples, provided that an appropriate enrichment factor (epsilonbulk) is known. This epsilonbulk value, however, is usually only valid for a specific compound and for specific degradation conditions. Therefore, a direct comparison of epsilonbulk values for different compounds and for different types of reactions has in general not been feasible. In addition, it is often uncertain how robust and reproducible epsilonbulk values are and how confidently they can be used to quantify contaminant degradation in the field. To improve this situation and to achieve a more in-depth understanding, this critical review aims to relate fundamental insight about kinetic isotope effects (KIE) found in the physico(bio)chemical literature to apparent kinetic isotope effects (AKIE) derived from epsilonbulk values reported in environmentally oriented studies. Starting from basic rate laws, a quite general derivation of the Rayleigh equation is given, resulting in a novel set of simple equations that take into account the effects of (1) nonreacting positions and (2) intramolecular competition and that lead to position-specific AKIE values rather than bulk enrichment factors. Reevaluation of existing epsilonbulk literature values result in consistent ranges of AKIE values that generally are in good agreement with previously published data in the (bio)-chemical literature and are typical of certain degradation reactions (subscripts C and H indicate values for carbon and hydrogen): AKIEc = 1.01-1.03 and AKIEH = 2-23 for oxidation of C-H bonds; AKIEc = 1.03-1.07 for SN2-reactions; AKIEc = 1.02-1.03 for reductive cleavage of C-Cl bonds; AKIEc = 1.00-1.01 for C=C bond epoxidation; AKIEc = 1.02-1.03 for C=C bond oxidation by permanganate. Hence, the evaluation scheme presented bridges a gap between basic and environmental (bio)chemistry and provides insight into factors that control the magnitude of bulk isotope fractionation factors. It also serves as a basis to identify degradation pathways using isotope data. It is shown how such an analysis may be even possible in complex field situations and/or in cases where AKIE values are smaller than intrinsic KIE values, provided that isotope fractionation is measured for two elements simultaneously ("two-dimensional isotope analysis"). Finally, the procedure is used (1) to point outthe possibility of estimating approximate epsilonbulk values for new compounds and (2) to discuss the moderate, but non-negligible variability that may quite generally be associated with epsilonbulk values. Future research is suggested to better understand and take into account the various factors that may cause such variability.


Asking why many American intellectuals have had such difficulty accepting wholeheartedly the cultural dimensions of democracy, Robert Dawidoff examines their alienation and ambivalence, a tradition of detachment he identifies as "Tocquevillian." In the work of three towering American literary figures - Henry Adams, Henry James, and George Santayana -- Dawidoff explores fully this distancing and uneasy response to democratic culture.Linked together by common Harvard, Cambridge, and New England connections, and by an upper-class, Brahmin background, each of these three writers, Dawidoff argues, was at once self-critical and contemptuous of cultural democracy -- especially its indifference to them and what they represented. But their claims to detached observation of democratic culture must be viewed skeptically, Dawidoff warns, and borrowed with caution.An important contribution of the book is its integration of gay issues into American intellectual history. Viewing James's and Santayana's attitudes toward their homosexuality as affecting their views of American society, Dawidoff examines this significant and overlooked element in the American intellectual and cultural mix. Dawidoff also includes powerful new readings of Adams's "Democracy" and James's "The Ambassadors" and discusses Santayana's Americanist essays.In his foreward, Alan Trachtenberg notes the "taboo" that seems to have fallen over the word "democracy." "It is rarely encountered anymore in humanistic studies," he says, " snubbed in favor of gender, class, race, region." This trend, he says, may be in part due to an unease about "studying" the culture in which we participate because the posture of the cutural critic implies a certain detachment. ""The Genteel Tradition and the Sacred Rage" returns the question of democracy to centerstage," he concludes, "not as political theory alone but as cultural and personal experience."Originally published in 1992.A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.


The nonlinear temporal evolution of disturbances in compressible flow between infinitely long, concentric cylinders is investigated through direct numerical simulations of the full, three‐dimensional Navier–Stokes and energy equations. Counter‐rotating cylinders separated by wide gaps are considered with supersonic velocities of the inner cylinder. Initially, the primary disturbance grows exponentially, in accordance with linear stability theory. As the disturbances evolve, higher harmonics and subharmonics are generated in a cascading order, eventually reaching a saturation state. Subsequent highly nonlinear stages of the evolution are governed by the interaction of the disturbance modes, particularly the axial subharmonics. Nonlinear evolution of the disturbance field is characterized by the formation of high‐shear layers, extending from the inner cylinder toward the center of the gap in the form of jets similar to the ejection events in transitional and turbulent wall‐bounded shear flows.


PURPOSE
To develop a prenatal ultrasonographic (US) classification of cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL-P) and correlate the classification with fetal outcome.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
During a 5-year period (1988 to 1993), 65 fetuses with CL-P were identified with prenatal US at one of two referral centers for high-risk obstetric cases. Sonograms from each case were prospectively and retrospectively evaluated. Clefts were classified into one of five categories: type 1, cleft lip alone (n = 5); type 2, unilateral cleft lip and palate (n = 15); type 3, bilateral cleft lip and palate (n = 20); type 4, midline cleft lip and palate (n = 21); and type 5, facial defects associated with amniotic bands or limb-body-wall complex (n = 4).

RESULTS
The US classification correlated with severity of defect and fetal outcome. Type 4 and 5 clefts were universally associated with concurrent anomalies and a fetal outcome, type 1 clefts with a lower rate of anomalies (20%), and type 2 and 3 clefts with intermediate prognosis. Chromosome abnormalities also varied with the type of cleft as follows: type 1, 0%; type 2, 20%; type 3, 30%; type 4, 52%; and type 5, 0%.

CONCLUSION
Prenatal classification of fetal CL-P correlates with fetal outcome. This classification should help counseling and management.


Motivation
DNA N6-methyladenine (6mA) is associated with a wide range of biological processes. Since the distribution of 6mA site in the genome is non-random, accurate identification of 6mA sites is crucial for understanding its biological functions. Although experimental methods have been proposed for this regard, they are still cost-ineffective for detecting 6mA site in genome-wide scope. Therefore, it is desirable to develop computational methods to facilitate the identification of 6mA site.

Results
In this study, a computational method called i6mA-Pred was developed to identify 6mA sites in the rice genome, in which the optimal nucleotide chemical properties obtained by the using feature selection technique were used to encode the DNA sequences. It was observed that the i6mA-Pred yielded an accuracy of 83.13% in the jackknife test. Meanwhile, the performance of i6mA-Pred was also superior to other methods.

Availability
A user-friendly web-server, i6mA-Pred is freely accessible at http://lin-group.cn/server/i6mA-Pred.


Real Estate is seen by most Architects or Architects-to-be as a constraint to design and to the fulfillment of people's real spatial needs. Real Estate education within Faculties of Architecture has to face this. The key to attract Architects could be a research agenda that interprets Architectural design (urban design included) as the design of Real Estate goods. This presentation goes through a list of on-going research projects at the Faculty of Architecture of the Universidade de Lisboa to contribute to find a list of categories that might be common to the few European Faculties of Architecture that have a place for Real Estate education. The second tentative step is to transform those projects themselves into Real Estate research.


The Ctr1 family of integral membrane proteins is necessary for high affinity copper uptake in eukaryotes. Ctr1 is also involved in cellular accumulation of cisplatin, a platinum-based anticancer drug. Although the physiological role of Ctr1 has been revealed, the mechanism of action of Ctr1 remains to be elucidated. To gain a better understanding of Ctr1-mediated copper and cisplatin transport, we have monitored molecular dynamics and transport activities of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae Ctr1 and its mutant alleles. Co-expression of functional Ctr1 monomers fused with either cyan or yellow fluorescent protein resulted in fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), which is consistent with multimer assembly of Ctr1. Copper near the Km value of Ctr1 enhanced FRET in a manner that correlated with cellular copper transport. In vitro cross-linking of Ctr1 confirmed that copper-induced FRET reflects conformational changes within pre-existing Ctr1 complexes. FRET assays in membrane-disrupted cells and protein extracts showed that intact cell structure is necessary for Ctr1 activity. Despite Ctr1-dependent cellular accumulation, cisplatin did not change Ctr1 FRET nor did it attenuate copper-induced FRET. A Ctr1 allele defective in copper transport enhanced cellular cisplatin accumulation. N-terminal methionine-rich motifs that are dispensable for copper transport play a critical role for cisplatin uptake. Taken together, our data reveal functional roles for structural remodeling of the Ctr1 multimeric complex in copper transport and suggest distinct mechanisms employed by Ctr1 for copper and cisplatin transport.


Background

Approximately one-third of public health care costs in OECD countries arise from the hospital sector. Public disclosure of hospital performance data therefore tends to be viewed as key to improving public health care spending efficiency. Furthermore, such data may also provide essential information for policy development, benchmarking, monitoring of quality improve-ment and patient safety issues.
However, until recently, national comparative data on the quality of health care in Switzerland was scant. In 2011, ANQ (the National Association for Quality Development in Hospitals and Clinics) introduced the first annual National Point Prevalence Measurement (NPPM) of quality indicators for hospital acquired pressure ulcers (HAPU) and in-patient falls in Swiss acute care hospitals. ANQ consists of all important stakeholders in the Swiss health care system (e.g. gov-ernment, health insurances).
Public disclosure of this data may contribute significantly towards the promotion of perfor-mance based accountability and efficiency in the public hospital sector. Yet, there is a risk that these expectations may not be met if the process is not managed properly. Since performance data should support the movement towards providing safer and improved care, this workshop does not merely aim at presenting the data on trends of the first national prevalence measures (2011-2012). It also intends to provide information on hospital usage of national quality data in Swiss hospitals and best practices regarding the dissemination of such data.

Method

For the NPPM, the International Prevalence Measurement of Care Problems method from Maastricht University was utilized. This instrument captures the outcome, structure and process indicators on institutional, ward and patient levels regarding falls and pressure ulcers. Transla-tion and cross-cultural adaptation into German, French and Italian was completed according to ISPOR Guidelines.
The target population included all hospitalized patients 18 years of age and older. Data was analyzed utilizing descriptive and hierarchical logistic regression analysis (risk adjustment of outcome measures).
Public disclosure of quality performance data is a relatively new topic in Switzerland. An on-line survey was developed to determine how Swiss hospitals currently manage this issue. This survey is conducted annually and it explores hospital usage of performance data in order to support internal and external benchmarking and quality improvement strategies.

Results

In 2011, 112 hospitals (representing 159 hospital sites, N = 10'606 patients, response rate 68%) and in 2012, 132 hospitals (representing 186 hospital sites, N= 13'651 patients, response rate 75 %) participated. Descriptive analysis revealed a total prevalence of HAPU degree 2-4 of 2.1% for 2011 and of 1.7% for 2012. In-patient fall prevalence was 4.3% in 2011 and 3.8% in 2012.
National risk-adjusted outcome results revealed quite a homogeneous distribution among hos-pitals for both indicators. The confidence intervals (CI) of one hospital (2011 and 2012) differed significantly from the mean of all hospitals, indicating a higher HAPU rate degree 2-4. The CI of one hospital differed significantly for the in-patient fall indicator (2011 and 2012).
Approximately one fourth of the participating hospital coordinators did participate in the ex-ploratory survey regarding hospital data usage. Results seem to indicate that hospitals with well-established quality improvement systems tend to focus on national benchmarking rather than on internal improvement strategies.

Conclusion

The prevalence measurement results provide, for the first time on a national scale, important health care quality information related to the quality indicators HAPU and in hospital fall events. According to the international literature, the results of the HAPU and hospital falls seem to indicate a good level of quality in Swiss hospitals. However, due to the mandatory procedure of obtaining written informed consent, the response rate of participating patients in the first measurement (2011) was quite low. This must be considered as an important limitation. The results may underestimate prevalence rates especially since severely ill and older patients (at risk) could not have participated in the measurement. Nevertheless, the results are useful in gaining insight into quality indicators such as pressure ulcers and falls at institutional and na-tional levels.
Public disclosure of the results for both measurements has taken place in order to promote transparency of hospital performance for users (patients), society and stakeholders in healthcare (e.g. in decision making). As discussed above, adequate management of public disclosure of this data is crucial for a successful promotion of performance based accountability systems. In this context, the use and dissemination of quality data is discussed along with the importance of strategies such as user, practitioner and stakeholder involvement.


Summary Steel catenary risers (SCRs) on a large-heave-motion vessel are susceptible to compression in the riser touchdown zone (TDZ). Dynamic compression can lead to overstress under extreme or abnormal weather conditions. The response of an SCR under compression is highly nonlinear and sensitive to various factors. However, the current available industry design codes and practices do not provide a clear guidance to address the acceptability of compression, overstress, and the resulting plastic strains. In addition, the current analysis method used in industry common practice cannot capture accurately the nonlinear behavior of an SCR involving accumulated plastic deformation, hysteresis effects, and local buckling. In this paper, a finite-element-analysis modeling method that uses combined beam and solid elements is presented. This method enables simulation of large plastic deformation, pipe ovality, and local pipe buckling in the TDZ of a deepwater SCR. The model is developed with Abaqus (Dassault Systemes 2009). The SCR nonlinear response is examined through dynamic analysis of a deepwater SCR that is hung from a semisubmersible. The key analysis results are compared with a nonlinear beam-element model. Moreover, dynamic-ratcheting analysis under multiple plastic-strain cycles by use of the proposed solid-riser model is conducted to understand the plastic-strain accumulation and to check the acceptability of the survival response of a deepwater SCR under a series of severe hurricanes in its service life. This paper presents the methodology for evaluating the compression and plastic deformation that could be experienced by deepwater SCRs, including the modeling approach, analysis results, possible failure modes, and conclusions. The impact of the study findings on the robustness and suitability of SCRs for deepwater application is discussed.


Two experiments were conducted with weaned entire male Bali cattle (Bos javanicus) between 6 and 12 months of age. A randomised block design was used in both experiments, which consisted of four treatments (diets), with five replicates (animals) per treatment. In both experiments, the average daily liveweight gain (LWG), feed and water intake and diet digestibility were determined over 8 or 10 weeks, with chest girth and wither height measured at the commencement and end of the experiments. In Experiment 1, the treatments were fresh native grass, native grass supplemented with fresh sesbania, fresh sesbania and fresh sesbania supplemented with rice bran. In Experiment 2, the treatments were sole diets of leucaena hay, sesbania hay, moringa hay or gliricidia hay supplemented with sesbania hay. In Experiment 1, animals fed sesbania supplemented with rice bran had higher DM intake than did animals fed the other three diets. DM digestibility (DMD) was significantly lower for weaners fed the native grass diet than for those fed the other diets. Animals fed sesbania or sesbania supplemented with rice bran had a higher LWG (0.34 and 0.43 kg/day, respectively) and estimated metabolisable energy (ME) intake (0.71 and 0.80 MJ of ME/kg W0.75.day, respectively) than did animals fed native grass alone (0.03 kg/day; 0.58 MJ of ME/kg W0.75.day) or native grass supplemented with sesbania (0.07 kg/day; 0.64 MJ of ME/kg W0.75.day). In Experiment 2, animals fed gliricidia hay had the lowest DM intake. DM intake of animals fed moringa hay was higher than that of animals fed gliricidia hay, but lower than the intake of animals fed sesbania hay or leucaena hay. DMD of the sesbania and leucaena hay diets was lower than that of the gliricidia and moringa hay diets. Animals fed leucaena and sesbania hays had a higher LWG (0.47 and 0.43 kg/day, respectively) and estimated ME intake (0.75 and 0.78 MJ of ME/kg W0.75.day, respectively) than did animals fed moringa hay (0.22 kg/day; 0.66 MJ ME/kg W0.75.day) or gliricidia hay supplemented with sesbania hay (0.0 kg/day; 0.48 MJ ME/kg W0.75.day). In conclusion, tree legumes can safely be fed to growing Bali cattle as the sole component of the diet and some of them will increase LWGs above that of native grasses, which are typically fed to Bali cattle in villages.


Purpose: The Digitally Reconstructed Radio‐graph (DRR) is a fundamental computation task in cancerradiotherapy. It is used in 2D–3D patient registration, dose calculation, and iterative 3D and 4D cone‐beam CT reconstruction (CBCT). Most DRR algorithms are designed to run on a single processor (CPU). However, significant speed up factors are realized by running DRR algorithms on recently developed graphical processing units (GPUs). It is the goal of this work to systematically evaluate various DRR algorithms running on GPU with emphases on computational efficiency and reliability. Method and Materials: We have implemented and evaluated three different DRR algorithms on both CPU and GPU. To test the speed of each algorithm, we simulate DRR projections of a XCAT phantom data set at 360 directions in a full rotation about the superior‐inferior axis on an NVIDIA Tesla C1060 GPU card and a 2.27GHz Intel Xeon CPU. Speedup factors were then calculated. To test accuracy, the aforementioned projections were used as input to a Feldkamp‐Davis‐Kress 3D reconstruction, the current standard CBCT reconstruction algorithm. We then calculated the mean squared error (MSE) between the original and reconstructed data sets. In these tests we simulated a detector resolution of 512×384 and CBCT data resolution or 512×512×104. Results: We found a modified version Siddon's algorithm to run the fastest on GPU, with an average projection time of 30 ms. A distance‐driven algorithm had the smallest MSE of 3.11×10−6 cm2. A fixed stride ray‐casting algorithm had a speedup factor of 204. Conclusion: We found substantial speedup factors for DRR algorithms running on GPU. The accuracy of each algorithm has also been objectively tested. Having a clear picture of the behavior of each algorithm will enable researchers to make an informed decision about which algorithm to implement in their own future work.


This thesis examines the international political economy of China's exchange rate policymaking from a theoretical and an empirical perspective. The literature review identifies the limitations in the existing Economics studies on the RMB exchange rate and the research gap of the Comparative Political Economy (CPE) and International Political Economy (IPE) approaches to exchange rate politics. The author develops a three-level game framework for China's exchange rate policymaking based on revision and synthesis of the existing CPE and IPE approaches. Specifically, the three-level game framework refers to the Chinese leadership's negotiations with the international bargainers (mainly the U.S. government and the IMF) at the international level (level I), negotiations between central government's ministries (People's Bank of China and Ministry of Commerce) at the central governmental level (level II) and negotiations with the domestic interest groups and local governments at the local level (level III).

The main argument of the thesis is that the three-level game framework provides a richer portrait of the dynamism and complexity of China's exchange rate policymaking. The three-level game framework is applied empirically through an examination of China's exchange rate policymaking between 2003 and 2013. The empirical studies have four major findings. First, the level I game played an agenda-setting role in China's exchange rate policymaking before the 2005 exchange rate reform. Second, the level II game determined the limited scope of the initial reform and the subsequent gradual RMB appreciation. Third, the level III game provided the most important sources for China's exchange rate policy returning to the de facto dollar-pegged exchange rate regime during the global financial crisis. Lastly, the level I game once again played an agenda-setting role in the 2010 exchange rate reform, but the level II game was important as well, in which the Chinese leadership reached the consensus to allow the RMB to appreciate against the dollar in a gradual and steady manner to improve the confidence and promote the international use of RMB.

This thesis provides original and systematic research on China's exchange rate policymaking in the Hu-Wen era to the academic literature. It makes a modest theoretical contribution to the existing body of CPE and IPE literature by developing the three-level game framework to explain China's exchange rate policymaking. More importantly, this research sheds light on the international political economy of China's exchange rate policymaking based on documentary analysis and primary data from interviews and questionnaire surveys. Overall, this is a timely and rigorous study on the role that international and domestic politics play in forging China's exchange rate policymaking.


Contributions to this department must be in the form stated in the Algorithms Department policy statement Algorithms should be in the Reference form of ALGOL 60 and written in a style patterned after the most recent algorithms appearing in this department. For the convenience of the printer, please underline words that are delimiters to appear in boldface type. Although each algorithm has been tested by its contributor , no warranty, express or implied, is made by the contributor , the editor, or the Association for Computing Machinery as to the accuracy and functioning of the algorithm and related algorithm material, and no responsibility is assumed by the contributor, the editor, or the Association for Computing Machinery in connection there-with. The reproduction of algorithms appearing in this department is explicitly permitted without any charge. When reproduction is for publication purposes, reference must be made to the algorithm author and to the Communications issue bearing the algorithm. connnent MINIFUN is a subroutine to find the minimum of a function of n variables, using the method of steepest descent. The function must be a minimum in the region [ x(i)-xmin(i) I =< eps(i) 4. n, the number of variables (the dimension of the arrays) 5. ncnt, the maximum number of iterations. The routine searches for a minimum until Ix(i)-xmin(i) I =< eps(i) for all i, or until icnt= ncnt, whichever happens first. 1. fmin, the nfinimum value of the function 2. xmin(i), i = 1, ... , n, the point at which the minimum occurs 3. kl, an error code If kl = 1, a minimum has been found within the specified number of iterations and the nfinimum is less than all values of the function at the centers of the planes forming the boundary of the epsilon-cube If kl = 2, Ax(i) ~ eps(i) but a new minimum has been found If kl = 3, nent has been exceeded without Ax(i) ~ eps(i). In this case, a test is made to see if the current minimum is a minimum in the epsilon-cube. MINIFUN has been written as a FORTRAN II subroutine and is available from the SMSA Computation Center. It should be noted that the FORTRAN II deck has been tested only on some relatively simple functions of two variables, such as GFUN (x,y) = cos(xy). The writer does not claim that the algorithm has been thoroughly tested; comment start looking for …


C–O, C–N and C–C bonds are the most widespread types of bonds in nature, and are the cornerstone of most organic compounds, ranging from pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals to advanced materials and polymers. Cationic gold acts as a soft and carbophilic Lewis acid and is considered one of the most powerful activators of C–C multiple bonds. Consequently, gold-catalysis plays an important role in the development of new strategies to form these bonds in more convenient ways. In this review, we highlight recent advances in the gold-catalyzed chemistry of addition of X–H (X = O, N, C) bonds to C–C multiple bonds, tandem reactions, and asymmetric additions. This review covers gold-catalyzed organic reactions published from 2008 to the present.


The prevalence and harm associated with inadvertent neuraxial cardiovascular (CV) medication administration errors are unknown. This review aims to analyze neuraxial CV drug administration errors and associated clinical consequences. The secondary objective is to identify the causes and contributory factors in order to prevent future incidents. The author reviewed reports of accidental administration of CV medications via neuraxial routes during spinal or epidural anesthesia or analgesia published in the last 5 decades (1972-2022). Twenty-seven publications reported neuraxial administration of 10 different CV drugs among patients aged 1 to 81. Seventeen of the 33 errors occurred via the epidural route. Digoxin (9 patients), ephedrine (6), metaraminol (4), labetalol (4), and dopamine (3) were frequently involved in the incidents. Intrathecal digoxin (8 patients) was associated with paraplegia and encephalopathy, of whom 4 pregnant women scheduled for elective cesarean delivery sustained permanent lower limb neurologic deficits. Reversible systemic hemodynamic changes were predominant following the administration of epidural inotropes (dobutamine, dopamine, and epinephrine) and vasopressors (ephedrine and metaraminol). Most administrations (30 out of 32) were only bolus injections. All were preventable skill-based errors. The human factor analysis classification system (HFACS) identified poor organizational climate, inadequate supervision of junior doctors, deficiencies in neuraxial task processes, and incorrect visual perception of objects. The HFACS suggests CV medication safety strategies should include better education and training of junior doctors, modifications in neuraxial anesthesia practices, and careful handling of the CV drug ampoules and syringes.


In recent years, political parties have adopted Online Delegative Democracy platforms such as LiquidFeedback to organise themselves and their political agendas via a grassroots approach. A common objection against the use of these platforms is the delegation system, where a user can delegate his vote to another user, giving rise to so-called super-voters, i.e. powerful users who receive many delegations. It has been asserted in the past that the presence of these super-voters undermines the democratic process, and therefore delegative democracy should be avoided. In this paper, we look at the emergence of super-voters in the largest delegative online democracy platform worldwide, operated by Germany's Pirate Party. We investigate the distribution of power within the party systematically, study whether super-voters exist, and explore the influence they have on the outcome of votings conducted online. While we find that the theoretical power of super-voters is indeed high, we also observe that they use their power wisely. Super-voters do not fully act on their power to change the outcome of votes, but they vote in favour of proposals with the majority of voters in many cases thereby exhibiting a stabilising effect on the system. We use these findings to present a novel class of power indices that considers observed voting biases and gives significantly better predictions than state-of-the-art measures.


Gastrointestinal tract associated lymphoid tissue is considered to be the main replication site for enteroviruses. In order to invade tissues to reach pancreatic islets, cardiac muscles, and other secondary replication sites, the virus has to survive circulation in the blood and find a way to get through endothelial cells. In the present study, the susceptibility of human endothelial cells to infections caused by human parechovirus 1 and several prototype strains of enteroviruses, representing different species (human poliovirus, human enterovirus B and C), and acting through different receptor families was examined. Primary endothelial cells isolated from human umbilical vein by collagenase perfusion and also an established human endothelial cell line, HUVEC, were used. Primary endothelial cells were highly susceptible to several serotypes of enteroviruses (coxsackievirus A13, echoviruses 6, 7, 11, 30, and poliovirus 1). However, coxsackievirus A 9 and echovirus 1 infected only a few individual cells while human parechovirus 1 and coxsackie B viruses did not show evidence of replication in primary endothelial cells. In general, primary endothelial cells were more sensitive to infection‐induced cytolytic effect than HUVEC. Activation of endothelial cells by interleukin‐1β did not change the pattern of enterovirus infection. Immunofluorescence stainings of infected primary endothelial cells showed that expression of activation markers, E‐selectin, and intercellular adhesion molecule‐1, was clearly increased by several virus infections and the former molecule also by exposing cells to UV‐light inactivated coxsackieviruses. In contrast, human leukocyte antigen‐DR expression was not increased by virus infection. J. Med. Virol. 70:430–439, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Pulp stones (PSs) are calcified masses that can be found in the pulp cavity of any deciduous or permanent tooth. They can be observed in healthy, diseased, and even unerupted or impacted teeth. Calcifications within the pulp may lead to a poorer outcome of a root canal procedure, as they can block access to the root canals, and hinder their subsequent cleaning and shaping. The paper describes 4 clinical cases of denticles located in the coronal and radicular pulp. Therapeutic methods of PS removal with different techniques and instruments are discussed. Specialist root canal treatment (RCT) was performed in aseptic conditions with the use of long-shank rose-head burs and an endodontic ultrasonic device under the magnification of a dental operative microscope (OM). During endodontic treatment, all PSs were totally removed, which allowed the further preparation, and finally obturation of the canal system. The use of modern diagnostic and therapeutic methods - three-dimensional (3D) diagnostic radiology, endodontic techniques, such as ultrasounds used during the removal of PSs and the irrigation of the canals, and the thermoplastic methods of canal obturation - can provide good results of treatment of this pathology. The removal of PSs from the pulp cavity is a complex and difficult procedure, requiring skill, dexterity, and appropriate equipment and facilities. The clinical approach introduced in this paper allows endodontists to avoid potential complications like perforation, the unnecessary removal of hard tissues or the weakening of the tooth structure.


Gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) is a cell surface enzyme that initiates the cleavage of extracellular glutathione, thereby providing the cell with the amino acids necessary for increased synthesis of glutathione. GGT is induced in ovarian tumor cell lines selected in vitro for resistance to cisplatin. No study has examined GGT expression in primary human ovarian tumors. We analyzed frozen sections of 80 normal human ovaries and 56 ovarian tumors for expression of GGT. Histochemical staining showed that GGT was not expressed in the cells of the follicle or surface germinal epithelium of the normal ovary. GGT was expressed in some epithelial inclusion glands and occasionally in a small subset of stromal cells. Granulosa-stromal cell tumors were largely GGT-negative. In contrast, GGT-positive neoplastic cells were observed in 33 of 45 common epithelial ovarian tumors. None of the patients had been treated with chemotherapy. Some of the tumors had only rare GGT-positive cells, while others consisted almost entirely of GGT-positive cells. Among the low malignant potential and invasive tumors, at least one-half of the cells were GGT-positive in 6 of 9 serous borderline tumors (2 with mucinous foci), 0 of 1 borderline mucinous tumor, 3 of 12 serous papillary carcinomas, 2 of 3 mucinous carcinomas, 1 of 2 endometrioid carcinomas, 2 of 2 clear cell carcinomas, 0 of 2 transitional cell carcinomas, and 4 of 5 undifferentiated carcinomas. There was no correlation between the stage of the tumor and GGT expression, indicating that a GGT-negative tumor does not become GGT-positive as it progresses to a more widely disseminated lesion. In addition, there was no correlation between serum levels of CA 125 and GGT expression. These data show that GGT is expressed in many common ovarian epithelial neoplasms. We are currently following the response of these patients to chemotherapy to determine if expression of GGT serves as a marker for identifying neoplasms with enhanced resistance to platinum-based therapy.


This thesis consists of two sections analysing aspects of associative memories. The first section compares the usefulness, limitations, and similarities of the sparse distributed memory (SDM), the cerebellar model articulation controller (CMAC) and the Hopfield network. This analysis leads in the second section to a proposal for combining CMAC with a form of robot learning through exploration, the PURR-PUSS system. It is then demonstrated the combination of the PURR-PUSS and CMAC systems produce a system capable of robot control. There are a number of critical factors in the performance of a neural network as a memory. These include the capacity and the efficiency of the training. Of the three networks considered, the Hopfield network is by far the most common in the literature. In spite of this, this thesis shows that the SDM and CMAC are almost identical and, in fact, have significant advantages over the Hopfield network in terms of capacity. This is particularly evident in the storage of sequences, where the SDM shows a significant improvement over the Hopfield network. The major contribution of this thesis is the analysis and development of the full potential of the SDM for data storage. The first contribution is a correction of an error in the existing analysis of the capacity of the SDM. The corrected figure is verified both theoretically and experimentally. The second contribution is an improvement in capacity resulting from an alternative method of generating the outputs. Finally, the capacity is further improved, by using an iterative approach to information storage previously employed on the Hopfield network. The latter approach helps produce a significant advantage in capacity for SDM. Another contribution of this thesis is the combination of associative memory with a means of learning through experimentation. The PURR-PUSS system was originally developed as a means to enable a robot to learn through interacting with its environment. It is shown that its strengths and weaknesses complement those of the CMAC and SDM systems. PURR-PUSS and CMAC are combined and the result is a system which is capable of superior control than either system by itself This is demonstrated through an example, in which the combined system learns to control a ball rolling in a tilting maze of unknown dynamics. The system begins by learning through random exploration controlled by the PURR-PUSS system. As the knowledge of the environment increases, the PURR-PUSS system is able to successfully achieve goals, although the quality of the control is poor. However the addition of CMAC which in turn learns from PURR-PUSS's movements produces an improvement in the quality of the control.


The effects of the 2003 CAP reform on the farmers' decisions on whether to abandon their farming activity, how much to produce and what to produce are analyzed in the present paper. To this effect data collected for Hungarian, Dutch and Greek farmers on their perceptions about the reform and its effects, and on their production intentions is analyzed using discrete choice models under 3 alternative scenarios for the future produce prices. The discrete choice model applied in the present paper is sequential since farmers are confronted with a sequence of choices. In the first stage, the choice is between abandoning farming or continuing, then those farmers who have chosen to continue are presented with two additional choices related to their level of production and crop mix. Some of the results of the analysis point out that the evolution of future prices, level of information about Cap reform, farm size play an important role in the decision to abandon or continue. In the case of Hungary and Greece, younger farmers are less likely to abandon, more likely to increase production and change crop mix than their older counterparts, emphasizing the importance of aids to the young.


Today, using multiple heterogeneous accelerators efficiently from applications and high-level frameworks, such as Tensor-Flow and Caffe, poses significant challenges in three respects: (a) sharing accelerators, (b) allocating available resources elastically during application execution, and (c) reducing the required programming effort. In this paper, we present Arax, a runtime system that decouples applications from heterogeneous accelerators within a server. First, Arax maps application tasks dynamically to available resources, managing all required task state, memory allocations, and task dependencies. As a result, Arax can share accelerators across applications in a server and adjust the resources used by each application as load fluctuates over time. Additionally, Arax offers a simple API and includes Autotalk, a stub generator that automatically generates stub libraries for applications already written for specific accelerator types, such as NVIDIA GPUs. Consequently, Arax applications are written once without considering physical details, including the number and type of accelerators. Our results show that applications, such as Caffe, TensorFlow, and Rodinia, can run using Arax with minimum effort and low overhead compared to native execution, about 12% (geometric mean). Arax supports efficient accelerator sharing, by offering up to 20% improved execution times compared to NVIDIA MPS, which supports NVIDIA GPUs only. Arax can transparently provide elasticity, decreasing total application turn-around time by up to 2X compared to native execution without elasticity support.


Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) observations of CO(1-0) emission in the interacting galaxies IC 2163 and NGC 2207 are used to determine the properties of molecular clouds and their association with star-forming regions observed with the Hubble Space Telescope. Half of the CO mass is in 249 clouds, each more massive than . The mass distribution functions for the CO clouds and star complexes in a galactic-scale shock front in IC 2163 both have a slope on a log–log plot of −0.7, similar to what is observed in Milky Way clouds. The molecular cloud mass function is steeper in NGC 2207. The CO distribution in NGC 2207 also includes a nuclear ring, a mini-bar, and a mini-starburst region that dominates the , radio, and Hα emission in both galaxies. The ratio of the sum of the masses of star complexes younger than 30 Myr to the associated molecular cloud masses is ∼4%. The maximum age of star complexes in the galactic-scale shock front in IC 2163 is about 200 Myr, the same as the interaction time of the two galaxies, suggesting the destruction of older complexes in the eyelids.


We consider a duopolistic industry in which pollution is a by-product of production and firms are given emission permits that they can trade. The common wisdom is that allowing for trade in emission permits promotes efficiency. We demonstrate that this common wisdom cannot automatically be extended to a duopolistic market structure. The main idea of this paper is that emission permits are used as a commitment device in order to manipulate the equilibrium of the goods market. In particular we show that allowing for permit trade may result in lower output and higher prices, and may shift production from the low to the high cost firm. In addition, it may induce the firms to choose an inferior abatement technology and a more polluting production technology.


A new polymorph of a 1D Ni(II) polymer with iminodiacetic acid (IDA), namely diaquaiminodiacetatonickel(II) [Ni(C4H5NO4)(H2O)2]n, is discovered one decade after the X-ray characterization of the other polymeric polymorph. The new polymorph (named form-II) is characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and its structural comparison with the previous polymorph (named form-I) is reported. The new form-II (space group Pbca) not only is a conformational polymorph, but it also exhibits packing polymorphism with the already known P21ca crystal form of the polymer. The intermolecular interactions generate distinct packing features in the two forms. The present study reports a detailed analysis of Hirshfeld surfaces and fingerprint plots, facilitating a comparison of intermolecular interactions in the supramolecular architectures. Moreover, the differences in the H-bonding networks of the polymorphs have been analysed using a combination of density functional theory (DFT) and quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) calculations.


Geotechnical data is often produced and managed by several producers in isolation, in their own formats and standards, which aim to meet the unique needs of specific users, because there is not a defined geospatial geotechnical data storage standard. This article presents the physical implementation of a three-dimensional geotechnical database, based on a data model generated using the Object Modeling Technique for Geographic Applications, composed of information produced by the academy and various administrative institutions of the Federal District Government. More than four thousand quantitative e qualitative geotechnical investigations are available in this structured database that can be accessed by anyone with some geographic information system knowledge using QGIS. Considering that the compiled information was stored by their producers in distinct formats and most of them in a non-digital and without locational information, this work reinforces the need to adoption a standardization of geospatial geotechnical data storage on a unified basis compatible with the National Spatial Data Bank to disseminate this information.


BACKGROUND
Hospitalizations related to the consequences of opioid use are rising. National guidelines directing in-hospital opioid use disorder (OUD) management do not exist. OUD treatment guidelines intended for other treatment settings could inform in-hospital OUD management.

OBJECTIVE
Evaluate the quality and content of existing guidelines for OUD treatment and management.

DATA SOURCES
OVID MEDLINE, PubMed, Ovid PsychINFO, EBSCOhost CINHAL, ERCI Guidelines Trust, websites of relevant societies and advocacy organizations, and selected international search engines.

STUDY SELECTION
Guidelines published between January 2010 to June 2020 addressing OUD treatment, opioid withdrawal management, opioid overdose prevention, and care transitions among adults.

DATA EXTRACTION
We assessed quality using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument.

DATA SYNTHESIS
Nineteen guidelines met the selection criteria. Most recommendations were based on observational studies or expert consensus. Guidelines recommended the use of nonstigmatizing language among patients with OUD; to assess patients with unhealthy opioid use for OUD using the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Diseases-5th Edition criteria; use of methadone or buprenorphine to treat OUD and opioid withdrawal; use of multimodal, nonopioid therapy, and when needed, short-acting opioid analgesics in addition to buprenorphine or methadone, for acute pain management; ensuring linkage to ongoing methadone or buprenorphine treatment; referring patients to psychosocial treatment; and ensuring access to naloxone for opioid overdose reversal.

CONCLUSIONS
Included guidelines were informed by studies with various levels of rigor and quality. Future research should systematically study buprenorphine and methadone initiation and titration among people using fentanyl and people with pain, especially during hospitalization.


Four decision methods are compared to determine appropriate ways of using data quality measures. Separate studies are directed toward defining and measuring tactical data quality, and calibrating the measures to decision problems. The decision methods compared include Dempster's rule, the linear and logarithmic opinion pools, a fuzzy-logic algorithm and the Mycin certainty factor calculus. It is concluded that none of the four decision algorithms are fully satisfactory. Of the four algorithms, the linear opinion pool is the most likely to succeed in practice because it is the simplest.<<ETX>>


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For many years, organizations have been faced with increasing amounts of information but have not been able to adequately use that information in a way that allows for organizational growth. The ability of an organization to learn is likely to be the only competitive advantage left in an economy where technology can be a significant leveling factor. Integrating decision support systems and inquiring systems will produce support for a learning organization that is capable of complex problem formulation and solution. There are many similarities between inquiring systems and decision support systems. This paper suggests that decision support will be enhanced by integrating the theory of decision support in a comprehensive inquiring system that is capable of adapting to changes in the business environment. Development of such a system will ensure that decisionmakers and managers can focus on the task of guiding an organization to its ultimate success rather than expending energy sorting through information to make accurate and timely decisions.


Remote sensing of specific climatic and biogeographical factors is an effective means of evaluating the desertification status of dryland regions affected by negative human impacts. Here, we identify and analyse land desertification trends in Iran via a combination of three indices of vegetation (NPP—net primary production, NDVI—normalized difference vegetation index, and LAI—leaf area index); and two climate indices (LST—land surface temperature, and P—precipitation) during the period 2001–2015. The Mann-Kendall non-parametric test, the Theil–Sen estimator, and a simple linear regression method were then applied to identify trends and to map regions of Iran that are susceptible to desertification. Our results show that an area of 680,000 km2 (~ 56 %) of Iran is classified with a very high level, indicating that a large fraction of Iran is susceptible to land desertification. We suggest that spatial and temporal trends in the three vegetation indices (NPP, NDVI, and LAI) and the two climate indices (LST and P) are a cost-effective choice for the prediction and management of future environmental trends in the world's developing regions, and are a step towards achieving land-use sustainability by helping to locate the most degraded areas.


Most eucaryotic mRNAs are polyadenylated. In higher eucaryotes, the sequence AATAAA is located 7 to 30 base pairs (bp) upstream from the site of processing and polyadenylation and is a critical part of the signal for processing and polyadenylation. Efficient cleavage and polyadenylation also require sequences downstream of polyadenylation sites. The herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase (tk) gene contains two copies of the AATAAA hexanucleotide and a GT box (18 of 19 consecutive residues are G or T) previously shown to be required for efficient processing and polyadenylation of tk mRNA (C. N. Cole and T. P. Stacy, Mol. Cell. Biol., 5:2104-2113). To define further the sequence requirements for efficient polyadenylation, we prepared linker scanning, internal deletion, and small insertion mutations in the polyadenylation region of the tk gene. These mutations were analyzed by S1 nuclease protection analysis of cytoplasmic RNA isolated from transfected Cos-1 monkey kidney cells. When the proximal AATAAA was deleted, no tk mRNA polyadenylated in the normal region was detected, whereas replacement of the second AATAAA with an XbaI linker had no effect on polyadenylation. When various portions of the GT box were replaced with linker, the amount of tk mRNA produced was reduced to 23 to 82% of the normal amount, but polyadenylation in the normal region was never abolished. Thus, no single portion of the GT box was absolutely required. In some cases, extended transcripts, polyadenylated at a cryptic site within pBR322, were detected. A spacing of 6 bp between AATAAA and the GT box was too short for efficient processing and polyadenylation. A spacing of 30 bp appeared to work almost as efficiently as did the wild-type spacing of 18 bp. Taken together, these results indicate that efficient polyadenylation requires both AATAAA and downstream GT-rich sequences. In addition, processing and polyadenylation are affected both qualitatively and quantitatively by sequences at polyadenylation sites and at more distant locations.


An integer linear programming model for the scheduling problem in high-level synthesis under resource constraints is presented. The following applications are considered: multicycle operations with nonpipelined or pipelined function units: mutually exclusive operations: functional pipelining: loop-folding; and scheduling under bus constraint. Besides the model, a new technique, called zone scheduling (ZS), is proposed to solve large-size problems. ZS partitions the distribution graph into several zones and sequentially solves the problems contained. A novel feature of this technique is that it schedules more than one control step at a time, allowing a more global view of a scheduling problem to be taken.<<ETX>>


In this study, foreign body granuloma mimicking liver metastasis diagnosed on routine follow-up examination in a 41-year-old woman with rectal adenocarcinoma is reported. To our knowledge, this is the first study in English-language literature reporting foreign body granuloma indistinguishable from liver metastasis on radiological examination.


The behaviors of non‐metallic inclusions in a new tundish and SEN design enabling a swirling flow are investigated by using a Lagrangian particle tracking scheme. The results show that 99% of both Al2O3 and Ce2O3 inclusions are removed from both the top surface and the other tundish walls with a "trap" boundary condition, while only around 60% are removed from the top surface of tundish for a "reflect" boundary condition at the other tundish walls. Large size non‐metallic inclusions of different densities show a large difference under a "reflect" boundary condition at tundish walls, due to a high buoyancy of light inclusions. In the swirling flow SEN, a much smaller number of large Al2O3 inclusions touches the wall compared to Ce2O3 inclusions. This is due to that they have larger deviations from the steel flow path compared to heavy Ce2O3 inclusions, due to the centripetal force. For small size inclusions, the centripetal separation is not effective neither for the light Al2O3 inclusions nor for the heavy Ce2O3 inclusions in the current swirling flow SEN with a swirl number of 0.4. Light Al2O3 inclusions larger than 40 µm can be influenced by the current centripetal force.


Despite being the poorest and least developed country in South America, Bolivia was the first to emerge from the period of military dictatorships that dominated the continent from the mid-1960s into the 1980s. This article examines the role of civil resistance in that country's seemingly improbable early end to military rule, noting how a broad coalition of unions, intellectuals, the Catholic Church, and opposition parties succeeded in bringing down a series of military leaders, eventually ushering in elected civilian governance. Despite the pro-democracy movement's successful defeat of the dictatorship of Hugo Banzer in 1978, it took more than four years, three general elections, five presidents and several coups d'etat before full electoral democracy was restored. This article responds to questions of how the movement was able to persist, grow, and maintain largely nonviolent discipline in the face of severe repression, shifting alliances, and internal divisions, and how the movement helped lay the groundwork for more recent radical changes in Bolivian politics. The article illustrates other critical factors in the movement's success: the willingness to avoid armed struggle, the country's rich tradition of mass-based civil resistance and defiance of central authority, and grassroots democratic relations.


The survey identified positive effects of work on information security risk management. Regarding the survey results of information system incidents, a significant reduction was recorded in the number of system downtime incidents. The scope of implementation of the risk assessment methodology is the whole ICT system, and therefore the implementation covers all parts of information assets. Positive effects are obtained by reducing the risk by known mitigation methods. Technical details of the implemented control measures were not considered in this paper. In accordance with the standards used in methodology development, significant and increasing levels of user awareness of ICT systems have been considered. The effects of all implemented measures have resulted in a significant increase in the availability of parts of ICT systems.


Bacterial blight, caused by Pseudomonas savastanoi pv. glycinea (Psg), is a common disease of soybean. In an effort to compare a current field isolate with one isolated in the early 1960s, the genomes of two Psg strains, race 4 and B076, were sequenced using 454 pyrosequencing. The genomes of both Psg strains share more than 4,900 highly conserved genes, indicating very low genetic diversity between Psg genomes. Though conserved, genome rearrangements and recombination events occur commonly within the two Psg genomes. When compared to each other, 437 and 163 specific genes were identified in B076 and race 4, respectively. Most specific genes are plasmid-borne, indicating that acquisition and maintenance of plasmids may represent a major mechanism to change the genetic composition of the genome and even acquire new virulence factors. Type three secretion gene clusters of Psg strains are near identical with that of P. savastanoi pv. phaseolicola (Pph) strain 1448A and they shared 20 common effector genes. Furthermore, the coronatine biosynthetic cluster is present on a large plasmid in strain B076, but not in race 4. In silico subtractive hybridization-based comparative genomic analyses with nine sequenced phytopathogenic pseudomonads identified dozens of specific islands (SIs), and revealed that the genomes of Psg strains are more similar to those belonging to the same genomospecies such as Pph 1448A than to other phytopathogenic pseudomonads. The number of highly conserved genes (core genome) among them decreased dramatically when more genomes were included in the subtraction, suggesting the diversification of pseudomonads, and further indicating the genome heterogeneity among pseudomonads. However, the number of specific genes did not change significantly, suggesting these genes are indeed specific in Psg genomes. These results reinforce the idea of a species complex of P. syringae and support the reclassification of P. syringae into different species.


We present a projection-based nonlinear model order reduction method, named model order reduction via quadratic-linear systems (QLMOR). QLMOR employs two novel ideas: 1) we show that nonlinear ordinary differential equations, and more generally differential-algebraic equations (DAEs) with many commonly encountered nonlinear kernels can be rewritten equivalently in a special representation, quadratic-linear differential algebraic equations (QLDAEs), and 2) we perform a Volterra analysis to derive the Volterra kernels, and we adapt the moment-matching reduction technique of nonlinear model order reduction method (NORM) [1] to reduce these QLDAEs into QLDAEs of much smaller size. Because of the generality of the QLDAE representation, QLMOR has significantly broader applicability than Taylor-expansion-based methods [1]-[3] since there is no approximation involved in the transformation from original DAEs to QLDAEs. Because the reduced model has only quadratic nonlinearities, its computational complexity is less than that of similar prior methods. In addition, QLMOR, unlike NORM, totally avoids explicit moment calculations, hence it has improved numerical stability properties as well. We compare QLMOR against prior methods [1]-[3] on a circuit and a biochemical reaction-like system, and demonstrate that QLMOR-reduced models retain accuracy over a significantly wider range of excitation than Taylor-expansion-based methods [1]-[3]. QLMOR, therefore, demonstrates that Volterra-kernel based nonlinear MOR techniques can in fact have far broader applicability than previously suspected, possibly being competitive with trajectory-based methods (e.g., trajectory piece-wise linear reduced order modeling [4]) and nonlinear-projection based methods (e.g., maniMOR [5]).


We present the 30 minutes cadence Kepler/K2 light curve of the Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) SN 2018agk, covering approximately one week before explosion, the full rise phase, and the decline until 40 days after peak. We additionally present ground-based observations in multiple bands within the same time range, including the 1 day cadence DECam observations within the first ∼5 days after the first light. The Kepler early light curve is fully consistent with a single power-law rise, without evidence of any bump feature. We compare SN 2018agk with a sample of other SNe Ia without early excess flux from the literature. We find that SNe Ia without excess flux have slowly evolving early colors in a narrow range (g − i ≈ −0.20 ± 0.20 mag) within the first ∼10 days. On the other hand, among SNe Ia detected with excess, SN 2017cbv and SN 2018oh tend to be bluer, while iPTF16abc's evolution is similar to normal SNe Ia without excess in g − i. We further compare the Kepler light curve of SN 2018agk with companion-interaction models, and rule out the existence of a typical nondegenerate companion undergoing Roche lobe overflow at viewing angles smaller than 45°.


The industrial revolution depended upon a system of individual property rights which was unusually capable of forcing self-interest to serve the public good as well. This system led to unprecedented growth of wealth, primarily because it encouraged technological innovation. Over time, however, the laws of property (notably those relating to the corporation and to information protection) were captured by those who could benefit from them. In particular, financiers were released from the disciplines which had applied to them since the invention of money, and this made investment in financial innovation more attractive than technology. During the first part of the industrial revolution, growth in credit meant growth in wealth, but there is now a mass of empirical evidence that this correlation has turned negative. A series of proposals for reversing this trend is offered, specifically changes in corporation law and new means for protection of information. These include measuring grants of privilege by money instead of time, compulsory expert arbitration of disputes, and protection of innovation directly instead of indirectly, which is all that patents purport to offer. It is also argued that public provision of finance for innovation should generally follow a US model (which is described) rather than the practice of the EU, and that funding of university research should be transmitted through firms to a much greater extent than at present. A variant of an earlier Central Policy Review Staff experiment in the UK is suggested as offering some chance of introducing these reforms in the face of politicians' vulnerability to interest pressures.


Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are implicated in tissue damage causing primary hepatic dysfunction following ischemia/reperfusion injury and during inflammatory liver diseases. A potential role of extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ERK) as a mediator of survival signals during oxidative stress was investigated in primary cultures of hepatocytes exposed to ROS. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) induced a dose‐dependent activation of ERK, which was dependent on MEK activation. The ERK activation pattern was transient compared with the ERK activation seen after stimulation with epidermal growth factor (EGF). Nuclear accumulation of ERK was found after EGF stimulation, but not after H2O2 exposure. A slow import/rapid export mechanism was excluded through the use of leptomycin B, an inhibitor of nuclear export sequence–dependent nuclear export. Reduced survival of hepatocytes during ROS exposure was observed when ERK activation was inhibited. Ribosomal S6 kinase (RSK), a cytoplasmic ERK substrate involved in cell survival, was activated and located in the nucleus of H2O2‐exposed hepatocytes. The activation was abolished when ERK was inhibited with U0126. In conclusion, our results indicate that activity of ERK in the cytoplasm is important for survival during oxidative stress in hepatocytes and that RSK is activated downstream of ERK. Supplementary material for this article can be found on the HEPATOLOGY website (http://www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/0270‐9139/suppmat/index.html). (HEPATOLOGY 2005;42:200–207.)


Spatially varied flow in open channels occurs in a large variety of hydraulic structures as well as road/bridge surface drainage channels. The equation of motion for spatially variable flow in an open channel, being produced by the lateral or a vertical inflow, has been treated previously. However, these are not applicable to the phenomenon of runoff from a plane surface, which is an example of spatially varied flow. This paper reviews the state of the subject and presents the experimental data applying a practical equation of motion mathematically derived. Several series of experiments are carried out in a v-shaped bottom channel. These experiments are used to model specific rainfall intensity and discharge. For this particular channel shape, longitudinal water surface profiles are plotted and are compared with the profiles given by the equation of motion treated for this channel shape. Analysis of the results agrees well with the experimental data and the proposed equation for supercritical flows. The results, however, show that the profiles slope does not normally increase as the flow discharge increases at the end of the channel. This result confirms that the flow resistance in spatially varied flow as well as the critical depth position along the channel and cross sectional shape should be taken into account.


Informality is widespread in most developing countries. In Latin America, 50 percent of salaried employees work informally. Three stylized facts characterize informality: 1) small firms tend to operate informally while large firms tend to operate formally; 2) unskilled workers tend to be informal while skilled ones have formal jobs; 3) Ceteris paribus, secondary workers are less likely to operate formally than primary workers. We develop a model that account for all these facts. In our model both heterogeneous firms and workers have preferences over the sector they operate and choose optimally whether to function formally or informally. There are two labor markets, one formal and the other informal, and both firms and workers act unconstrained in them. By contrast, a prominent feature of the pre-existing literature is the idea that worker's decisions play no role in determining the equilibrium of the economy. Using our model, we show that an increase in the participation of secondary workers would tend to raise the level of informality in the economy. This effect partially accounts for the increases in informality seen in Latin America over the past two decades.


Aim: We aimed toevaluatethe psychometric properties of the Subjective Memory Complaints Questionnaire (SMCQ). Methods: The reliability of the SMCQ was evaluated by testing its internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Pearson correlation analyses were performed to assess the concurrent validity. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate the construct validity. Diagnostic ability for dementia was tested with receiver operator characteristic curve analyses. Results: Cronbach's α coefficient and intraclass correlation coefficients of the SMCQ were 0.864 and 0.828 (p < 0.001), respectively. The SMCQ scores were significantly correlated with the scores on Camdex Memory Complaint Questionnaire, Seoul Informant Report Questionnaire for Dementia and cognitive tests from the CERAD (Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease) neuropsychological test battery (p < 0.01). The results of confirmatory factor analyses confirmed that the SMCQ consisted of subjective memory complaints (SMC) for general memory and for everyday memory. The SMCQ score discriminated well between nondemented elderly without dementia and those with dementia (p < 0.01). The area under the curve value of the SMCQ was 0.84, indicating that it had high diagnostic ability. Conclusion: The SMCQ was found to be a brief, reliable and valid questionnaire for evaluating SMC. It might be useful for evaluating the cognition of elderly subjects when reliable informants are not available.


Studies have shown that politicians follow the news media closely and react to news through their parliamentary activities. However, we know little about what kinds of information politicians look for in the media and actively use when being responsive to the media. Inspired by the uses and gratifications tradition, we ask what kinds of information politicians look for in the news and how these "informational media use motives" explain their media responsiveness. A survey of Finnish parliamentarians shows that most politicians use the news to learn about society and societal problems. Politicians also use the news to look for information about public opinion, and younger politicians especially search information about other political actors. Politicians who look for information about public opinion from the media are more reactive to media regarding symbolic agendas. Politicians who use the media to learn about other political actors are more responsive to media regarding substantial agendas.


The max‐p‐compact‐regions problem involves the aggregation of a set of small areas into an unknown maximum number (p) of compact, homogeneous, and spatially contiguous regions such that a regional attribute value is higher than a predefined threshold. The max‐p‐compact‐regions problem is an extension of the max‐p‐regions problem accounting for compactness. The max‐p‐regions model has been widely used to define study regions in many application cases since it allows users to specify criteria and then to identify a regionalization scheme. However, the max‐p‐regions model does not consider compactness even though compactness is usually a desirable goal in regionalization, implying ideal accessibility and apparent homogeneity. This article discusses how to integrate a compactness measure into the max‐p regionalization process by constructing a multiobjective optimization model that maximizes the number of regions while optimizing the compactness of identified regions. An efficient heuristic algorithm is developed to address the computational intensity of the max‐p‐compact‐regions problem so that it can be applied to large‐scale practical regionalization problems. This new algorithm will be implemented in the open‐source Python Spatial Analysis Library. One hypothetical and one practical application of the max‐p‐compact‐regions problem are introduced to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.


We read with great interest the paper by Fong et al.1, in which the authors evaluated the diagnostic performance of intracranial translucency (IT). In their retrospective study, they also assessed the interobserver concordance for the detection of open spina bifida with IT. When giving the results, they remarked that the denominator of the calculation of specificity was based on 152 cases (150 from the normal group and two normal fetuses from the group of absent IT diagnosed as open spina bifida). Thus they calculated the overall specificity as 150/152 (99%). Similarly, they determined the sensitivity as 50% (4/8). It is difficult to understand the individual performances described with different denominators. It is stated that the first observer was able to diagnose seven of eight (88%) fetuses with spina bifida. Looking at Figure 3, we assume that diagnosis of four fetuses with spina bifida was missed, so it is inappropriate to declare the individual performance as a proportion of eight. Moreover, the specificity of first and second examiners was found to be 145/160 (91%) and 145/150 (97%), respectively. Yet, the formula for specificity is true negative/(true negative + false positive), according to which the individual performance should be calculated as follows: 137/152 (90%) and 147/152 (97%) for first and second investigators, respectively. We also wish that the authors had clarified the results of the third observer; this observer reviewed 85/199 (43%) cases because of discordance between first and second investigators with respect to IT visibility (n = 58) and/or adequacy of image (n = 69) and/or reasons for IT nonvisibility (n = 23). A majority decision could be reached for only 46 of these 85 (54%) cases and for the remaining 39 (46%) images the consensus was used. We believe the authors had two possibilities: presenting only the overall results or describing the performance of each examiner in a 2 × 2 table. This paper differs from a previous publication in this Journal. Chaoui et al.2 evaluated the IT in a quantitative manner and produced a nomogram for normal and abnormal IT values. However, Fong et al.1 used a qualitative perspective, making a decision as to whether IT was present or absent. The results of both studies are discordant in many parameters, such as sensitivity, specificity and interobserver agreement. We agree that further investigations are required in order to determine the value of IT in the screening of open spina bifida, but we would like to ask the reason for non-quantitative assessment of IT. In 2010, Chaoui and Nicolaides3 published an editorial in this Journal, stating that while examination of the cranium is limited when the fetus is in the prone position, imaging of the fourth ventricle is possible even when the fetus's back is facing the transducer. Fong et al.1 stated that in normal fetuses there was a lack of IT visibility in 69% of fetuses in the prone and 18% of those in the supine position. We consider that giving results regarding the positions of the eight fetuses with open spina bifida is also important.


Monitoring the environment is an essential part of driving, as it increases the driver's situational awareness and enables them to make appropriate decisions for safe and comfortable driving. This paper presents a study to investigate how much and in which way should information be displayed to the driver in a semi-automatic vehicle with a head-up display (HUD) to achieve optimal situational awareness. This was evaluated from two perspectives: the user's experience and perceived usability. It additionally explored the users preferences on which information should be displayed in such HUDs. For this purpose, four prototypes of a visual HUD were created, displaying different amounts of information (MIN vs. MAX) and presented in two different modes - as a two-dimensional (2D) projection on the windshield and using augmented reality (AR) to highlight the information directly in the environment. The obtained results gave a clear indication that the test participants preferred to have more information displayed on a HUD, regardless of whether it was presented in 2D or AR.


Abstract In 1984, a large prospective study of the natural history of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS), was established; 10 years later, the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) was launched. Motivated by the merger and redesign of these long-standing HIV cohort studies in 2019, we review ways in which HIV epidemiology in the United States has transformed over the lives of these studies and how this evolution has influenced planning for enrollment and follow-up. We highlight changes that have occurred in the 3 major domains that are central to epidemiologic science: changes to key populations at highest risk for HIV, refinements in measurement and shifts in the outcomes of interest, and a new era in the tools and approaches that epidemiologists use to synthesize evidence from measurements made on populations. By embracing foundational principles with modern methods, the epidemiologic approach of analyzing the causes and distributions of diseases in contemporaneous populations will continue to advance HIV science over the next decade.


Abstract. Data on global agricultural production are usually
available as statistics at administrative units, which does not give any
diversity and spatial patterns; thus they are less informative for subsequent
spatially explicit agricultural and environmental analyses. In the second
part of the two-paper series, we introduce SPAM2010 – the latest global
spatially explicit datasets on agricultural production circa 2010 – and
elaborate on the improvement of the SPAM (Spatial Production Allocation
Model) dataset family since 2000. SPAM2010 adds further methodological
and data enhancements to the available crop downscaling modeling, which
mainly include the update of base year, the extension of crop list, and the
expansion of subnational administrative-unit coverage. Specifically, it not
only applies the latest global synergy cropland layer (see Lu et al.,
submitted to the current journal) and other relevant data but also expands
the estimates of crop area, yield, and production from 20 to 42 major crops
under four farming systems across a global 5 arcmin grid. All the SPAM
maps are freely available at the MapSPAM website (http://mapspam.info/, last access: 11 December 2020),
which not only acts as a tool for validating and improving the performance
of the SPAM maps by collecting feedback from users but is also a
platform providing archived global agricultural-production maps for better
targeting the Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, SPAM2010 can be
downloaded via an open-data repository (DOI: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/PRFF8V; IFPRI, 2019).


This article represents an attempt to analyse the political desiderata underlying the activities of East Central European geographers during the First World War and in its immediate aftermath. These scholars, drawing on the achievements of German and French geographical studies, and who were frequently graduates from western European universities, employed sophisticated research tools and arguments in the service of legitimising national interests. The apogee of the political impact of their intellectual concepts came during the peace negotiations in Paris, but indirect evidence of the efficacy of this generation of geographers in the region can also be seen in the fact that they were to become points of reference and arsenals of knowledge utilized by the interwar revisionist propaganda of Germany and Hungary.


Automated classification of metadata of research data by their discipline(s) of research can be used in scientometric research, by repository service providers, and in the context of research data aggregation services. Openly available metadata of the DataCite index for research data were used to compile a large training and evaluation set comprised of 609,524 records, which is published alongside this paper. These data allow to reproducibly assess classification approaches, such as tree-based models and neural networks. According to our experiments with 20 base classes (multi-label classification), multi-layer perceptron models perform best with a f1-macro score of 0.760 closely followed by Long Short-Term Memory models (f1-macro score of 0.755). A possible application of the trained classification models is the quantitative analysis of trends towards interdisciplinarity of digital scholarly output or the characterization of growth patterns of research data, stratified by discipline of research. Both applications perform at scale with the proposed models which are available for re-use.


Electronic tongue systems are multisensor devices dedicated to automatic analysis of complicated composition samples and to the recognition of their characteristic properties. Recently, the number of publications covering this topic has significantly increased. Many possible architectures of such devices were proposed: potentiometric, voltammetric, as well as approaches embracing mass- and optical-sensors. For the analysis of sensor array data, various pattern recognition systems were proposed. All of these topics are summarized in this review. Moreover, additional problems are considered: miniaturization of electronic tongues and hybrid systems for liquid sensing.


Several imaging modalities are being developed to improve early detection and diagnosis and to assist in selecting and monitoring treatments. This symposium will review advances in x-ray, nuclear, and magnetic resonance breast imaging methods.A primary shortcoming of mammography is that anatomical overlap of dense tissues confounds diagnosis of cancerous lesions. Breast tomosynthesis (BT), now FDA approved, and dedicated breast CT (bCT), not yet FDA approved, each address this shortcoming by providing tomographic imaging. Using similar equipment that also acquires digital mammograms, BT images are reconstructed from several x-ray projection images acquired from different views (e.g. 15 projections covering 15 degree arc). In this approach the high mammographic resolution is preserved in the x,y direction (axial plane) and tomographic resolution is provided in the z-plane but with lower resolution. In bCT a flat panel detector is used in rotating cone-beam CT geometry acquiring 300-500 images over 360 degrees covering the entire breast in as little as 17 seconds; resolution is again similar to mammography and is isotropic in x,y,z. Both BT and bCT have been developed so that the radiation dose to the breast is similar to two-view mammography. Both appear to be superior to mammography for visualizing mass lesions, but not yet for visualizing microcalcifications. Improved bCT resolution, and synthetic 2D mammograms derived from BT data promise to improve the performance of each with micro-calcifications. The added complexity in BT and bCT requires more attention to the details of image acquisition, detector pixel binning, and x-ray beam pulsing. Technical aspects of BT and bCT and their evolving role in breast imaging will be discussed. Nuclear medicine imaging can show physiological functions of lesions at the molecular level, providing complementary information to the x-ray techniques. Functional imaging offers the potential to distinguish malignant from benign processes, characterize lesions to assist in selecting therapy, and monitor therapy efficacy. Since imaging is at the molecular pathways level, changes can often be seen well before macroscopic changes to lesion size. Great potential and challenges for nuclear medicine imaging lie in the specificity and availability of radiolabeled molecular probes. Cost and systemic dose are further challenges to nuclear methods, but both single-photon and positron-emitting radiotracers show promise for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.With the ability to provide both anatomic and functional imaging, there have been dramatic increases in the range and quality of information available from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods. In particular, dynamic contrast enhanced MRI, diffusion weighted MRI, and proton MR spectroscopy have matured to the point where they can offer relevant and complimentary information on tumor status. Emerging yet promising techniques include magnetization transfer MRI, chemical exchange saturation transfer MRI, magnetic resonance elastography, and hyperpolarized MR. We will provide an overview of each of these techniques in the context of examining therapeutic response in the neoadjuvant setting. We will also briefly discuss the importance of biomarker validation, standardization and reproducibility-critical issues that must be addressed to routinely deploy these methods in the clinical setting.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand the principles and differences between breast tomosynthesis and breast CT, and the technical advantages and limitations of each. 2. Understand potential roles of nuclear medicine/PET in lesion detection, diagnosis, and therapy monitoring. 3. Identify at least three new MR techniques used to image/characterize breast cancer. 4. Appreciate the use of imaging as a biomarker and the importance of standardized image-based metrics. MacDonald: NIH-NCI Grant 1R01CA163498.


In the Bayesian approach to model selection and hypothesis testing, the Bayes factor plays a central role. However, the Bayes factor is very sensitive to prior distributions of parameters. This is a problem especially in the presence of weak prior information on the parameters of the models. The most radical consequence of this fact is that the Bayes factor is undetermined when improper priors are used. Nonetheless, extending the non‐informative approach of Bayesian analysis to model selection/testing procedures is important both from a theoretical and an applied viewpoint. The need to develop automatic and robust methods for model comparison has led to the introduction of several alternative Bayes factors. In this paper we review one of these methods: the fractional Bayes factor (O'Hagan, 1995). We discuss general properties of the method, such as consistency and coherence. Furthermore, in addition to the original, essentially asymptotic justifications of the fractional Bayes factor, we provide further finite‐sample motivations for its use. Connections and comparisons to other automatic methods are discussed and several issues of robustness with respect to priors and data are considered. Finally, we focus on some open problems in the fractional Bayes factor approach, and outline some possible answers and directions for future research.


Survival is often estimated from capture–recapture data using Cormack–Jolly–Seber (CJS) models, where mortality and emigration cannot be distinguished, and the estimated apparent survival probability is the product of the probabilities of true survival and of study area fidelity. Consequently, apparent survival is lower than true survival unless study area fidelity equals one. Underestimation of true survival from capture–recapture data is a main limitation of the method. We develop a spatial version of the CJS model that allows estimation of true survival. Besides the information about whether a specific individual was encountered at a given occasion, it is often recorded where the encounter occurred. Thus, information is available about the fraction of dispersal that occurs within the study area, and we use it to model dispersal and estimate true survival. Our model is formulated hierarchically and consists of survival, dispersal and observation submodels, assuming that encounters are possible anywhere within a study area. In a simulation study, our new spatial CJS model produced accurate estimates of true survival and dispersal behaviour for various sizes and shapes of the study area, even if emigration is substantial. However, when the information about dispersal is scarce due to low survival, low recapture probabilities and high emigration, the estimators are positively biased. Moreover, survival estimates are sensitive to the assumed dispersal kernel. We applied the spatial CJS model to a data set of adult red‐backed shrikes (Lanius collurio). Apparent survival of males (c. 0·5) estimated with the CJS model was larger than in females (c. 0·4), but the application of the spatial CJS model revealed that both sexes had similar survival probabilities (c. 0·6). The mean breeding dispersal distance in females was c. 700 m, while males dispersed only c. 250 m between years. Spatial CJS models enable study of dispersal and survival independent of study design constraints such as imperfect detection and size of the study area provided that some of the dispersing individuals remain in the study area. We discuss possible extensions of our model: alternative dispersal models and the inclusion of covariates and of a habitat suitability map.


In the Air Traffic Control (ATC) communication system of Civil Aviation, the radio interference has become a big problem to the safety of the flight airplanes in recent years. In this paper, we propose an adaptive interference canceling technology to take radical measures to solve the problem. We separate the interference signals and the desired signals with the Constant Modulus (CM) Algorithm, and then get the training signals on the assumption of that the signal is not the CM signal and the interference is CM signal. The study has very important practical value because our research work is doing around the difficulties disturbing civil air management department.


Discrete correlation filter (DCF) based trackers have shown considerable success in visual object tracking. These trackers often make use of low to mid level features such as histogram of gradients (HoG) and mid-layer activations from convolution neural networks (CNNs). We argue that including semantically higher level information to the tracked features may provide further robustness to challenging cases such as viewpoint changes. Deep salient object detection is one example of such high level features, as it make use of semantic information to highlight the important regions in the given scene. In this work, we propose an improvement over DCF based trackers by combining saliency based and other features based filter responses. This combination is performed with an adaptive weight on the saliency based filter responses, which is automatically selected according to the temporal consistency of visual saliency. We show that our method consistently improves a baseline DCF based tracker especially in challenging cases and performs superior to the state-of-the-art. Our improved tracker operates at 9.3 fps, introducing a small computational burden over the baseline which operates at 11 fps.