From my perspective, and that of growing numbers like me, oil interests have hyped the product on which society has come to depend while stoking addiction and holding back alternatives. The oil industry's general contention is that peak oil lies far off in the 2030s or beyond. It doesn't. The peak is imminent, and will certainly happen this decade. When it arrives, it will send the oil price soaring beyond today's already dangerous level. This will trigger the worst-ever energy crisis, which itself stands to create economic chaos reminiscent of the depression in the 1930s. Meanwhile, global warming caused by oil, gas and coal burning is in danger of running out of control. Society will be forced, albeit in deplorable economic conditions, to solve oil depletion with a crash programme to accelerate alternative-energy sources. Whether it will do so with the technologies that can also solve global warming and save the planet is an open question. The biggest danger is that critical players like the US and China will use their enormous coal reserves to run power plants and provide gasoline substitutes without giving renewable alternatives enough of a chance. The extent to which we can accelerate renewable forms of power and fuel instead of coal, rather than alongside it, will be the final battleground in the effort to save Earth from the ravages of human-induced global warming. There is much that individuals, and organisations including businesses - oil companies among them - can do to influence the outcome of that struggle.


3D model of 6006 gulley ball bearing inner ring is established in this paper. Based on the study of finite element numerical simulation on the cold rolling process of inner ring by Deform-3D software, the paper shows the influence of the feed rate of idle roller, rotational rate of driving roller as well as wide-diameter ratio on the rules of rolling forming of bearing inner ring. Through the research of numerical simulation, it is discovered that feed rate of idle roller and wide diameter ratio have a greater impact on the ring end surface quality larger than rotational rate of driving roller does. Thus, process parameters should be chosen reasonably according to mold parameters and material parameters, which will help improve the stability of the cold rolling process and the rolling production efficiency.


relieves her of part of her responsibility. It is true that she will wean her baby in any case. It is also true otherwise, however, that she will report to a large circle of acquaintances: " The doctor gave me some tablets to take my milk away." She will be careful not to report that he did so under protest; and the incident will be interpreted as showing the doctor's approval of her reasons. :Such incidents are, therefore, not self-contained: The principle to follow is, I believe: No interference without medical or economic grounds. (And one must be careful not to let " social " be substituted for " economic.") Dr. Jean Lawrie's letter in the same issue (April 21, p. 882) is vfry interesting and important. I know of an area where the antenatal preparation for breast-feeding has been undertaken by the health visitors with great determination combined with tact, and they have achieved considerable success. However, it is clear from their case-records (which I have been allowed to see) that they cannot get any further because at present they have not got the co-operation of the local practitioners. When the mother has to call the doctor, he too often combines with his instructions about treatment a recommendation to put the baby on a bottle. The'mother does not distinguish this from the rest of his instructions, and dutifully carries it out. One cannot in any way blame her for doing so. The fact remains that all the careful preparation and attentive supervision of the health visitor then goes for nothing because an ill-informed and thoughtless doctor has recommended bottle-feeding-without, probably, having the least idea himself why he did so. I draw the conclusion that health visitors cannot do this work alone, and therefore one must still give first place to the conversion of the general practitioner-at least in his general outlook on the question. On the other hand there is no reason why the practitioner should himself give all the supervision that is needed unless he is alone in his area in thinking it necessary. In any area where there is agreement as to aims, there is everything to be said in favour of the doctors and the health visitors immediately joining forcesbrought together by the medical officers of health, who can provide us with so many invaluable' ancillary services.I am, etc.,


Word sense disambiguation is the problem of selecting a sense for a word from a set of predefined possibilities. This is a significant problem in the biomedical domain where a single word may be used to describe a gene, protein, or abbreviation. In this paper, we evaluate SENSATIONAL, a novel unsupervised WSD technique, in comparison with two popular learning algorithms: support vector machines (SVM) and K-means. Based on the accuracy measure, our results show that SENSATIONAL outperforms SVM and K-means by 2% and 17%, respectively. In addition, we develop a polysemy-based search engine and an experimental visualization application that utilizes SENSATIONAL's clustering technique


The long-term 'biodegradation' on soil amino acids was examined in the control plots of '42 parcelles' experiment, established in 1928 at INRA, Versailles (France). None of the plots is cultivated, but is kept free of weeds, and mixed to a depth of 25 cm twice yearly. Topsoil (0-10 cm depth) samples collected in 1929, 1963 and 1997 were subjected to acid hydrolysis (6 N HCl) for comparison. The distribution and delta(15)N natural abundance of 20 individual amino acids in the soils were determined, using ion chromatography (IC) and gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS). The total N and amino acid-N (AA-N), respectively, decreased by 54 % and 73 % in the period from 1929 to 1997. The average N loss was comparable for 1929-1963 (period 1) and 1963-1997 (period 2), but AA-N loss was three times faster in the former period. This significant reduction in total AA-N content was mirrored in the individual amino acids, which decreased by 74 % +/- 1 % (ranging 58-89 %) between 1929 and 1997. The bulk delta(15)N values generally increased from 1929 to 1997, mainly associated with comparable or even higher increase of delta(15)N of the non-AA-N in the soil. The residence time (t(1/2), time in which half of N was lost from a specific soil pool) was ca. 65 +/- 5 years for the bulk soil, and comparable for periods 1 and 2. However, between periods 1 and 2 it decreased from 128 to 41 years in the non-AA pool, but increased from 59 to 92 years in the AA-N pool. Proline and amino acids that appear early in soil microbial metabolic pathways (e.g. glutamic acid, alanine, aspartic acid and valine) had relatively high delta(15)N values. Phenylalanine, threonine, glycine and leucine had relatively depleted delta(15)N values. The average delta(15)N value of the individual amino acids (IAAs) increased by 1delta unit from 1929 to 1997, associated with a similar rise from 1929 to 1963, and no change thereafter till 1997. However, the delta(15)N values of phenylalanine decreased by more than 7delta(15)N units between 1929 and 1997. The delta(15)N shift of IAAs from 1929 to 1963 and from 1929 to 1997 was not influenced by the relative amount of N remaining compared with the 1929 soil concentrations. The only exception was phenylalanine which showed decreasing delta(15)N associated with its decreasing concentration in the soil. We conclude therefore that in the absence of plant and fertiliser inputs, no change in the delta(15)N value of individual soil amino acids occurs, hence the original delta(15)N values are preserved and diagnostic information on past soil N (cycling) is retained. The exception was phenylalanine, its delta(15)N decreased with decreasing concentration from 1929 to 1997, hence it acted as a 'potential' marker for the land use changes (i.e. arable cropping to a fallow). The long term biological processing and reworking of residual amino acids resulted in a (partial) stabilisation in the soil, evidenced by reduced N loss and increased residence time of amino acid N during the period 1963-1997.


Yield for annual California strawberry (Fragaria xananassa Duch.) production systems in soils treated with combinations of methyl bromide-chloropicrin (MB:CP) were compared with four alternative soil treatment systems using meta-analysis. Studies represent 11 production seasons, and were conducted at three distinct locations in California. Fumigation with mixtures of methyl bromide (MB) and chloropicrin (CP) increased yield significantly compared with any and all alternatives lacking MB. In a combined analysis of 45 studies, fumigation with MB:CP compounds increased yield an average of 94.4% (d + = 2.874±0.098) compared with yields for plants in nonfumigated (NF) soils. Further, the effect of MB:CP fumigation increased over the first three strawberry cultivation cycles: MB:CP-fumigated soils provided a 59.2% (d + = 2.166 ± 0.146) yield advantage when one cycle of fumigation was omitted, a 100.2% (d + = 3.000 ± 0.143) advantage when two cycles were omitted, and a 148.4% (d + =6.201±0.348) yield advantage when three or more cycles of MB:CP were omitted. In a combined analysis that included 34 studies, soil fumigation with MB:CP conferred a 9.6% (d + = 0.751 ± 0.087) yield advantage over fumigation with CP alone. Soils treated with MB:CP yielded 6.8% (d + = 0.437±0.114) more fruit than those treated with very high rates of CP (336-396 kg.ha -1 ), and 15.4% (d + = 1.190 ±0.134) more than soils treated with commercially realistic rates (168-224 kg.ha -1 ). Similar to the comparison using NF soils, the efficacy of very high rates of CP appeared to diminish over cycles of strawberry cultivation; MB:CP increased yield 2.2% (d + = 0.043 ± 0.162) in the first CP production cycle, 10.6% (d + = 0.588±0.174) and 13.7% (d + = 2.054 ± 0.401) in the following two cycles. Combinations of dichloropropene (DP) and CP were no more effective than were lower rates of CP alone, and MB:CP conferred a 14.4% (d + = 0.962 ± 0.162) yield advantage over mixtures of DP:CP. Mixtures of MB:CP increased yield 29.8% (d + = 3.199±0.287) compared with metam sodium (MS). The standardized effect was similar when comparing MB:CP combinations with either MS or NF soils, suggesting little effect of MS on the yield response. Chemical names used: trichloronitromethane (chloropicrin); 1,3-dichloropropene (dichloropropene); sodium N-methyldithiocarbamate (metam sodium).


Learning joint embedding space for various modalities is of vital importance for multimodal fusion. Mainstream modality fusion approaches fail to achieve this goal, leaving a modality gap which heavily affects cross-modal fusion. In this paper, we propose a novel adversarial encoder-decoder-classifier framework to learn a modality-invariant embedding space. Since the distributions of various modalities vary in nature, to reduce the modality gap, we translate the distributions of source modalities into that of target modality via their respective encoders using adversarial training. Furthermore, we exert additional constraints on embedding space by introducing reconstruction loss and classification loss. Then we fuse the encoded representations using hierarchical graph neural network which explicitly explores unimodal, bimodal and trimodal interactions in multi-stage. Our method achieves state-of-the-art performance on multiple datasets. Visualization of the learned embeddings suggests that the joint embedding space learned by our method is discriminative.


: BACKGROUND AND AIM: The use of computed tomographic pulmonary angiogram (CTPA) without determining pretest probability leads to overuse and morbidities as contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI). We aimed to assess the predictive role of Wells' rule and revised Geneva scores together with the D-dimer test in patients who underwent CTPA for the suspicion of pulmonary embolism (PE) and to investigate the frequency of CI-AKI. METHODS: This single-center study was conducted as a retrospective analysis of patients who underwent CTPA. Demographic and clinical variables, risk factors, pretest probability score (PPS), and biomarkers were recorded from written or electronic medical records. RESULTS: A total of 1259 CTPA scans performed for suspicion of acute PE were screened. After exclusion, we analyzed 895 CTPAs. PE rates in the emergency department and in-pa-tient wards were 9.1% and 13.9%, respectively. Immobility, high Wells' rule, and Geneva scores were found to be predictors of PE. The [OR (95% CI)] were [12.92 (4.38–38.14)], p<0.001; [7.55 (1.96–28.61)], p<0.001; and [1.25 (1.07–1.39)], p=0.003, respectively. The diagnostic sensitivity of Wells' rule and Geneva score for PE was 24.6% and 68.1%, respectively, while the diagnostic specificity for PE was 91.4% and 42.7% for Wells' rule and revised Geneva score, respectively. CI-AKI was detected in 99 (20.7%) of 479 patients, and the history of myocardial infarction within 3 months was the only predictor of CI-AKI [OR (95% CI)] [6.30 (1.46–27.90)], p=0.014. CONCLUSIONS: D-dimer test and usage of PPS for patients considered PE may reduce overuse of CTPA and thereby CI-AKI prevalence.


We report the parallax and proper motion of five L dwarfs obtained with observations from the robotic Liverpool Telescope. Our derived proper motions are consistent with published values and have considerably smaller errors. Based on our spectral type versus absolute magnitude diagram, we do not find any evidence for binaries among our sample—or, at least no comparable mass binaries. Their space velocities locate them within the thin disk, and based on the model comparisons, they have solar-like abundances. For all five objects, we derived effective temperature, luminosity, radius, gravity, and mass from an evolutionary model (CBA00) and our measured parallax; moreover, we derived their effective temperature by integrating observed optical and near-infrared spectra and model spectra (BSH06 or BT-Dusty) at longer wavelengths to obtain bolometric flux using the classical Stefan-Boltzmann law. Generally, the three temperatures for one object derived using two different methods with three models are consistent, although at lower temperature (e.g., for L4) the differences among the three temperatures are slightly larger than those at higher temperature (e.g., for L1).


Ibata et al. reported evidence for density and kinematic cusps in the Galactic globular cluster M54, possibly due to the presence of a 9400 M☉ black hole. Radiative signatures of accretion onto M54's candidate intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) could bolster the case for its existence. Analysis of new Chandra and recent Hubble Space Telescope astrometry rules out the X-ray counterpart to the candidate IMBH suggested by Ibata et al. If an IMBH exists in M54, then it has an Eddington ratio of L(0.3–8 keV)/L(Edd) < 1.4 × 10−10, more similar to that of the candidate IMBH in M15 than that in G1. From new imaging with the NRAO Very Large Array, the luminosity of the candidate IMBH is L(8.5 GHz) < 3.6 × 1029 erg s−1 (3σ). Two background active galaxies discovered toward M54 could serve as probes of its intracluster medium.


A well structured system of the insurance corporate governance, with clearly defined duties and responsibilities, makes an essential component of the regulatory and supervisory framework. Corporate structure of the insurance company should have adequately established and assigned control and management responsibilities, with the obligations and responsibilities clearly stated and with a specific request in respect of qualifications required for persons members of their bodies. It is the precisely determined legal framework of corporate governance that prevents the board of management from abusing their privileged position at the expense of other stakeholders, and especially minority shareholders, creditors, policyholders and / or insurers. Risk management is a key mechanism of insurance operations, consequently, it should be comprehensive and well integrated into the corporate governance system of the insurance company. The Board of Directors or the Supervisory Board should establish a framework and an adequate risk management strategy (eng. 'risk management framework'), define the company's approach, risk management, methods for risk assessment and determine the responsibility of the management for the implementation of risk management policies.


Elementary school classroom teachers continue to have primary responsibility for teaching elementary physical education. As a group, they have received little attention concerning their development of pedagogical skills in physical education. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to describe what preservice classroom teachers observe and what perceptual processes they employ while observing physical education field lessons. The participants were seven junior elementary education majors who observed two physical education classes. Data were collected using the techniques of thinking aloud and stimulated recall interview. The constant comparative method of data analysis revealed the following three themes as characteristic of this group of preservice classroom teachers: students' movement responses dominated their observational attention, the classroom teachers evaluated what they saw, and they observed using the perceptual process of contrast.


On 16 October 2013 the United Kingdom Supreme Court delivered judgment in two conjoined cases that considered the legality of prisoner disenfranchisement. The Court considered both the compatibility of the disenfranchising provisions with the European Convention on Human Rights ('the Convention'), and whether those provisions breached a right to vote acquired by the appellants under European Union law. In a unanimous judgment the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals, acknowledging the incompatibility of the relevant legislation with Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 of the Convention but declining to issue a declaration of incompatibility. The Supreme Court further held that EU law does not confer upon EU Citizens a substantive right to vote in European Parliamentary elections. The cases are significant on a number of levels. First, the nuanced arguments advanced before the Court tested the jurisdictional scope of EU law and its capacity to confer rights upon EU Citizens in the absence of cross-border movement. The claims thus held the potential to widen the jurisdiction of EU law along the trajectory outlined by such ECJ case-law as Ruiz Zambrano and Fransson. Secondly, those arguments probed the extent to which the European Charter of Fundamental Rights ('the Charter') imports Strasbourg jurisprudence into EU law and thus creates an alternative mechanism through which to enforce Convention rights. Finally, the decision evidences the constitutional tensions that emanate from discordant interpretations of fundamental rights by national and supranational courts from discordant interpretations of fundamental rights by national and supranational courts.


The insights of feminist science and technology studies (STS) into the constructed and situated nature of knowledge have proved crucial to informing feminist geography. Since the rise of emotional geographies, feminist methodologies no longer simply reflect on questions of positionality, partiality, and power relations, but also on the role of emotions in the field. In this article, we argue that a feminist STS perspective has much to offer when thinking about the way emotions are engineered, controlled, and negotiated in research processes. Our engagement with what we call 'social laboratories' – i.e., spaces in everyday life where (experimental) research is conducted with human beings – advances debates in feminist geography, as these laboratories crystallize the emotional entanglements feminists encounter in the field. Looking at economic experiments in Ghana and fertility clinics in Mexico, we discuss the difficulties of doing feminist fieldwork in these experimental research spaces. We argue that the constant negotiation of emotions and ethics is crucial to access, assess, and do fieldwork in research settings that do not adhere to feminist ideals, but nevertheless have gendered effects on women's and men's lives. Rethinking 'the place of emotions in research' (Bondi 2005, in Emotional Geographies, edited by Joyce Davidson, Liz Bondi, and Mick Smith, 231–246, Aldershot: Ashgate) through social laboratories forges instructive links across feminist/emotional geographies and social studies of science.


Purpose - Economic prosperity has often come at the expense of the natural environment. Environmental degradation has surfaced in problems such as pollution, increased carbon dioxide emissions via burning of fossil fuels and environmental waste. Ignoring the ecological costs through indiscriminate use of non-renewable resources may lead to increase in the cost of doing business in the future. This unsustainable trend exacerbates inter-generational poverty and equity. Responsible firms have resorted to ISO 14000 certifications, which comprise guidelines for environmental management systems which promote green, efficient production processes. However, ISO 14000 is not a performance standard and does formulate financial key performance indicators. Nonetheless, extant literature has documented the perception that ISO 14000 certification leads to increased competitive advantage, pre-emption of regulations, increased financial performance, enhanced reputation and reduction of cost of business. This study seeks to bridge the lacuna in research on the influence of ISO 14000 certification on firm financial performance in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach - Methodologically, certain matching criteria have been used to enhance the comparability of ISO 14000 certified firms with their non-certified counterparts based on the work of Collins, and Collins and Porras. Findings - The findings indicate that ISO 14000 certification improves average return of equity but not necessarily in terms of sales and capitalisation. Originality/value - The study suggests that there may be a business case for ISO 14000 certification terms of return on equity in the medium term within the Malaysian context.


Different problems of generalization of outlier rejection exist depending of the context. In this study we firstly define three different problems depending of the outlier availability during the learning phase of the classifier. Then we propose different solutions to reject outliers with two main strategies: add a rejection class to the classifier or delimit its knowledge to better reject what it has not learned. These solutions are compared with ROC curves to recognize handwritten digits and reject handwritten characters. We show that delimiting knowledge of the classifier is important and that using only a partial subset of outliers do not perform a good reject option.


Five years have passed since the second edition of this book appeared, and Professor King now shares the authorship with his colleague at the Postgraduate School, Dr. Wotton. Many changes 'have been made in the text. There is a new section on Normal Values and on the Control of Laboratory Accuracy which is particularly interesting, including as it does an indication of the variations to be expected in estimations and their type of distribution. (One cannot help wondering, after reading this, if the authors are justified in giving such precise limits for normal values elsewhere in sthe text, as for instance, on page 42, where the normal plasma cholesterol is said to lie between 153 and 26o mg./Ioo ml. !) Reference to the use of the Duboscq type of colorimeter has been omitted, and it is everywhere assumed that photo-electric absorptiometers are being used; it is surprising, therefore (particularly after the brief mathematical approach to the problem of variation) to, find that directions are given under each method for calculating the concentration of the unknown from the reading of a single standard. To assume that Beer's Law is universally valid (even for such a wayward substance as creatinine) seems to be unjustified. In any case, most laboratories are probably in the habit of constructing, and frequently checking, calibration curves. Many new and valuable methods are included, and there are new sections on the techniques of metabolic balance studies, of radioisotope studies and of flame photometry. In the last case, the details given apply to the E.E.L. flame photometer but the instructions given for the concentrations of the standards do not appear to be the ones most convenient for this instrument. In dealing with potassium estimations it seems important to stress the need for avoiding haemolysis, since this is such a common source of error. The section on Renal Clearance Techniques now includes the method of Roe, Epstein and Goldstein for Inulin, a welcome addition, but is unorthodox in advocating trichloacetic acid precipitation of plasma proteins, instead of cadmium hydroxide, iri the estimation of P.A.H. Other minor critici-ims might be made, but the book remains an important guide for everyone instrested in clinical biochemistry.


Abstract We assessed the impacts of a teacher professional development program for public and private kindergartens in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. We examined impacts on teacher professional well-being, classroom quality, and children's readiness during one school year. This cluster-randomized trial included 240 schools (teachers N = 444; children N = 3,345, Mage = 5.2) randomly assigned to one of three conditions: teacher training (TT), teacher training plus parental-awareness meetings (TTPA), and controls. The programs incorporated workshops and in-classroom coaching for teachers and video-based discussion groups for parents. Moderate impacts were found on some dimensions of professional well-being (reduced burnout in the TT and TTPA conditions, reduced turnover in the TT condition), classroom quality (increased emotional support/behavior management in the TT and TTPA conditions, support for student expression in the TT condition), and small impacts on multiple domains of children's school readiness (in the TT condition). The parental-awareness meetings had counteracting effects on child school readiness outcomes. Implications for policy and practice are discussed for Ghana and for early childhood education in low- and middle-income countries.


While the conditions that favour the maintenance of cooperation have been extensively investigated, the significance of non-social selection pressures on social behaviours has received little attention. In the absence of non-social selection pressures, patches of cooperators are vulnerable to invasion by cheats. However, we show both theoretically, and experimentally with the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens, that cheats may be unable to invade patches of cooperators under strong non-social selection (both a novel abiotic environment and to a lesser extent, the presence of a virulent parasite). This is because beneficial mutations are most likely to arise in the numerically dominant cooperator population. Given the ubiquity of novel selection pressures on microbes, these results may help to explain why cooperation is the norm in natural populations of microbes.


The nonlinear thermo–magneto–mechanical magnetostrictive constitutive and the linear thermo–mechanical-electric piezoelectric constitutive are adopted in this paper. The bias magnetic field and ambient temperature are equivalent to a magnetic source and a thermo source, respectively. An equivalent circuit, which contains a magnetic source and a thermo source at the input, for the thermo–magneto–electric coupling effect in magnetoelectric (ME) laminates, is established. The theoretical models of the output voltage and static ME coefficient for ME laminates can be derived from this equivalent circuit model. The predicted static ME coefficient versus temperature curves are in excellent agreement with the experimental data available both qualitatively and quantitatively. It confirms the validity of the proposed model. Then the models are adopted to predict variations in the output voltages and ME coefficients in the laminates under different ambient temperatures, bias magnetic fields, and the volume ratios of magnetostrictive phases. This shows that the output voltage increases with both increasing temperature and increasing volume ratio of magnetostrictive phases; the ME coefficient decreases with increasing temperature; the ME coefficient shows an initial sharp increase and then decreases slowly with the increase in the bias magnetic field, and there is an optimum volume ratio of magnetostrictive phases that maximize the ME coefficient. This paper can not only provide a new idea for the study of the thermo–magneto–electric coupling characteristics of ME laminates, but also provide a theoretical basis for the design and application of ME laminates, operating under different sensors.


The benefits of radiation were first recognized in the use of X-rays for medical diagnosis, then later with the discoveries of radiation and radioactivity. The rush in exploiting the medical benefits led fairly to the recognition of the risks and induced harm associated with it. In those early days, only the most obvious harm resulting from high doses of radiation, such as radiation burns were observed and protection efforts were focused on their prevention, mainly for practitioners rather than patients. Although the issue was narrow, this lead to the origin of radiation protection as a discipline. Subsequently, it was gradually recognized that there were other, less obvious, harmful radiation effects such as radiation-induced cancer, for which there is a certain risk even at low doses of radiation. This risk cannot be completely prevented but can only be minimized. Therefore, the balancing of benefits from nuclear and radiation practices against radiation risk and efforts to reduce the residual risk has become a major feature of radiation protection. In this paper, we shall be looking at the precautionary measures for protecting life, properties and environment against ionizing radiation.


This study builds with AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) the teaching ability system for martial arts teachers in institutions of higher learning, which falls into four layers: destination layer, criteria layer, feature layer and index layer. The destination layer refers to the teaching abilities of martial arts teachers; the criteria layer consists of two criterions, which are professional practice ability and teaching ability; the feature layer is made up of seven features, including martial arts skills, martial arts organization and judgment, martial arts culture, martial arts graph recognition and routine design, basic quality, basic skill and teaching organization; and the index layer consists of 19 indexes, which are self-defense skills, routine exercise skills, offensive and defensive skills, martial arts organization, martial arts judgment, schools of martial arts, martial arts culture, martial arts graph recognition, martial arts routine design, professional ethics, teamwork, humanistic quality, language expression, student management, teaching research, course design, teaching practice, teaching evaluation and teaching guide. The results show that the top five impact factors for the teaching ability of martial arts teachers in institutions of higher learning are course design, routine exercise skills, teaching practice, teaching research and martial arts routine design.


Objective Tests of theories of mate choice often rely on data gathered in White, industrialised samples and this is especially the case for studies of facial attraction. Our understanding of preferences for sexual dimorphism is currently in flux and a number of hypotheses require testing in more diverse participant samples. The current study uses opportunistically gathered facial dimorphism preference data from 271 participants in rural Nicaragua, and 40 from the national capital Managua. We assess pre-registered hypotheses drawn from sexual selection theory, and from more recent approaches which consider the impacts of economic development and cultural 'modernisation' on mate preferences. Methods Participants verbally reported demographic data, and indicated preferences for five male and five female pairs of faces manipulated to differ in sexually dimorphic facial structure based on a sample of Salvadoran individuals. Results While urban participants showed a preference for more feminine female faces, this preference was not evident in the rural participants. Neither urban nor rural participants showed any directional preference for masculinised/feminised male faces. Furthermore, there was no support for any other pre-registered hypothesis. Conclusions Our results are consistent with previous studies showing no interest in facial dimorphism in less globally-acculturated, or market integrated, populations. Together, this suggests that while facial dimorphism may be subject to systematically varying preferences amongst some low-fertility, industrialised populations, it is not a feature which is likely to have been important in ancestral populations. We call for further work attempting to replicate well known mate choice phenomena in more diverse samples.


Despite the claimed success of the 1996 Welfare Reform, little research using multivariate regression has examined changes in multiple public safety-net programs. Thus, we still do not know whether public safety-net programs for the poor have shrunk or increased nationwide, along with the sharp declines in cash assistance. Using state-level data between 1994 and 2002 and state fixed-effects model, this study examines changes in nine safety-net programs designed for low-income families with children along with decreases in support from Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)/Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and the results indicate that the decline in AFDC/TANF support was not associated with increases in support for the economic self-sufficiency of low-income families; safety-net programs for the poor shrunk during the 1996 reform. As there is an increasing need for an effective use of public dollars to assist the poor in the present recession, future researchers should turn their attention to the study of multiple safety-net policies.


The performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is extremely dependent on the morphology and crystallization of the perovskite film. However, the complete conversion of PbI2 to perovskite and controlling the perovskite crystal size as well as its surface morphology are challenging in the conventional two-step sequential deposition method. We herein present a facile method involving the use of a polar solvent additive in an inter-diffusion two-step sequential deposition method to achieve a high-quality perovskite film. The results showed that the addition of a small amount of DMF solvent into the MAI precursor solution could help the complete conversion of PbI2 to perovskite, and at the same time could also reduce the pinholes, improve the film morphology, increase the grain sizes and enhance the film absorption ability. The improved perovskite film quality results in the boosting performance of PSCs. Consequently, an optimized device with power conversion efficiency as high as 19.2% is obtained. This current method provides a highly repeatable route for enhancing the PSC performance with the inter-diffusion sequential solution deposition method.


This paper presents a cascaded observer scheme for state estimation of the lateral vehicle dynamics. A velocity dependent linear time varying model where the road curvature acts as an unknown input is considered. The proposed observer structure is based on an $\mathcal{H}_{\alpha}$, filter in combination with a higher order sliding mode compensator and yields finite time exact state reconstruction. The observer design is carried out step by step and simulation results show the applicability of the proposed approach.


We consider the problem of global convergence of Godard (1980) equalizers in the special case of binary (2-PAM) input signals, when the channel impulse response is complex. We present a class of global minima of all Godard equalizers for this case, which do not correspond to settings free of intersymbol-interference (ISI). The equalizer output corresponding to these global minima appears as a four-point constellation in the complex plane, however it is easily shown that the decomposition in its real and imaginary part provides two ISI-free versions of the transmitted signal. In the case of multi-user constant modulus algorithms, the situation is somewhat more complicated: the real and imaginary parts of each equalizer output after convergence, may correspond to different user signals. These results can be extended to other types of real input signals.


Protein Arginine deiminases (PADs) play an important role in the pathogenesis of various diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, lupus, ulcerative colitis and breast cancer. Therefore, the development of PAD-inhibitors has drawn significant research interest in recent years. Herein, we describe the development of the first photoswitchable PAD-inhibitors. These compounds possess an azobenzene photoswitch to optically control PAD activity. Screening of a series of inhibitors structurally similar to BB-Cl-Amidine afforded compounds 1 and 2 as the most promising candidates for the light-controlled inhibition of PAD2; the cis -isomer of 1 is 10-fold more potent than its trans -isomer, whereas the trans isomer of 2 is 45-fold more potent than the corresponding cis -isomer. The altered inhibitory potency upon photoisomerization has been confirmed in a competitive activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) assay. Further investigations indicate that the trans -isomer of 2 is an irreversible inhibitor, whereas the cis -isomer acts as a competitive inhibitor. In cells, the trans -isomer of compound 1 is completely inactive, whereas the cis -isomer inhibits histone H3-citrullination in a dose-dependent manner. Taken together, 1 serves as the foundation for developing photopharmaceuticals that can be activated at the desired tissue, using light, to treat diseases where PAD activity is dysregulated.


In the present study, an innovative cultivation strategy of Rhodotorula mucilaginosa CCT 7688 to accumulate both lipids and high added value carotenoids was proposed, with the potential to contribute to the economic feasibility of microbial oils in comparison with vegetable oils. The stepwise fed-batch cultivation with crude glycerol feeding at 24 h, 96 h, and 144 h, with the addition of magnesium to the initial culture medium, resulted in a lipid content of 51.0 ± 0.3 % CDW, biomass concentration of 21.00 ± 0.48 g L-1, total lipid production of 10.72 ± 0.18 g L-1, lipid productivity of 0.037 ± 0.001 g L-1 h-1, volumetric carotenoid production of 2843.2 ± 282.0 μg L-1, and carotenoid productivity of 9.87 ± 0.98 μg L-1 h-1. These values represent a 6-fold increase in lipid content, a 19-fold increase in lipid production, and a 2-fold increase in carotenoid production compared to batch cultivation.


Incompressible fluid flow in smooth rectangular ducts at working streamwise velocities is turbulent because of resistance of the four side-walls. A second feature of such flows is generation of secondary currents, though weak, in transverse cross sections. These secondary currents cause additional flow resistance, resulting in pressure drop in the direction of the primary flow. A number of experimental studies have been reported on the turbulence structure and consequent geometrical structures of the flow. In particular, the two diagonals and the pair of bisectors of the side walls divide a cross section into eight cells, in each of which vortical patches of motion take place. In this paper, it is shown that the vortical motion in a cell is kinematically analogous to the torsion problem of a prismatic isotropic elastic beam. Based on experimental results, the patch vortex in a cell is modeled to have elliptic shape with the major axis thrust toward a corner of the duct, giving a mathematical model of the flow field. Using the expressions for the transverse velocity components in the total momentum equation, with 1/pth power law where p ≈ 7 for the streamwise velocity, an equation is obtained between the side-wall resistance due to the secondary flow and the vorticity in each cell of division of the duct. Two particular cases are considered in numerical detail when the duct is square and when the height of the duct is one-half of the base length. For experimental validation of the side-wall resiatance formulae, additional experimental research is needed.


To compress large datasets of high-dimensional descriptors, modern quantization schemes learn multiple codebooks and then represent individual descriptors as combinations of codewords. Once the codebooks are learned, these schemes encode descriptors independently. In contrast to that, we present a new coding scheme that arranges dataset descriptors into a set of arborescence graphs, and then encodes non-root descriptors by quantizing their displacements with respect to their parent nodes. By optimizing the structure of arborescences, our coding scheme can decrease the quantization error considerably, while incurring only minimal overhead on the memory footprint and the speed of nearest neighbor search in the compressed dataset compared to the independent quantization. The advantage of the proposed scheme is demonstrated in a series of experiments with datasets of SIFT and deep descriptors.


A fatal case of multicentric Castleman's disease (giant lymph node hyperplasia) with prominent thymic involvement in a 12-yr-old girl is presented. Multicentric Castleman's disease is a poorly understood lymphoproliferative disorder generally occurring in elderly individuals. To our knowledge, this is the first case in the English literature of multicentric Castleman's disease in a child. Thymic involvement has not been described previously in the multicentric variant or in a child. Besides the characteristic findings of Castleman's disease (CD), such as hyaline-vascular follicles and a prominent plasmacytic infiltrate, the thymus was also marked by prominent epithelial hyperplasia in the medulla. The clinical and pathologic findings are presented with a review of the literature, particularly thymic involvement in CD and CD in the pediatric population.


Cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is well known as one of the most widely cultivated crops in the world and as an extensively studied plant species in the field of genetics. In recent years, despite its very large genome size (ca. 5,000 Mb), the research resources needed for barley genomic studies have become available, including a large number of expressed sequence tags (ESTs). These have been widely used for barley genome analyses, such as DNA marker-generation and the construction of microarrays. However, the availability of a large-insert genomic library, which is also essential for genomic studies, has been relatively limited in the barley research community. We described here the construction and characterization of a barley bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library, using the Japanese malting barley variety 'Haruna Nijo'. The BAC library consisted of 294,912 clones arrayed in 768 384-well microtiter plates. The average size of each cloned insert was estimated to be 115.2 kb, with approximately 0.5% of the clones lacking inserts. Chroloplast DNAs were present in about 1.7% of the library. Thus, the genomic coverage of the 'Haruna Nijo' BAC library was estimated to be about 6.6 genome-equivalents. In order to rapidly identify specific BAC clones, we developed a screening strategy that combined PCR analysis of pooled BAC DNAs with colony hybridization. Using this screening scheme, we investigated the genomic coverage of this BAC library, using 13 locus-specific ESTs and a sequence-tagged site marker. By screening the whole library with individual markers, we identified an average of 5.1 clones per marker. This screening scheme also enabled us to rapidly construct a physical contig spanning a region of approx. 190 kb around the HvBRI1 locus, where the mutation responsible for the semi-dwarf plant type 'uzu' is located. These results indicate that the 'Haruna Nijo' BAC library will be useful for barley genomic studies.


A subject guide providing selected resources and other aggregated information for researching and studying Middle Eastern & North African Cinema & Film


Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are widely used various applications such as disaster management, search and rescue operation, wild life monitoring, remote patient monitoring, structural health monitoring etc. It provides bridge between the real physical and virtual worlds. In many scenarios, the coverage area of the WSN will be very large and a multi-hop adhoc network needs to be maintained for the connectivity and data transfer among the nodes. The major part of the energy consumption of each node is used for data transfer among nodes. This paper proposes a energy efficient routing scheme. The scenario which is considered is a wireless sensor network which is a collection of clusters and data transfer happens with the help of cluster head (CH) rather than the collective effort of every node in the network. In such a cluster based WSN, it is advantageous to have a routing protocol which uses the information about clusters to decide upon route formation. This paper proposes a novel Cluster Based Routing Protocol for a WSN which optimizes the energy consumption on data transfer and thus increasing the lifetime of the WSN network. To conclude the advantages of the proposed scheme, comparison is carried out between the performance of AODV and CBRP protocols.


In addition to potentially generating much desired renewable energy, the future development of offshore wind and wave energy and tidal and riverine hydrokinetic energy is also generating concern regarding possible negative effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) from generators and transmission cables on aquatic biota. The effects of EMF on the movements of largemouth bass and pallid sturgeon were studied in mesocosm experiments in a freshwater pond. Over a trial period of 4 days, fish experienced alternating 2 h periods in which an underwater energized coil was alternately powered on and off. Electricity moving through the coil created EMF of magnitudes and frequencies expected to be created by underwater electrical transmission cables associated with marine and hydrokinetic energy generating technologies. Surgically implanted acoustic transmitters signaled the locations of individual fish every 1 to 2 min during trials. An array of four receivers was positioned so that the general location of each fish could be determined relative to the position of the EMF source. Paired t-test statistical analysis revealed no consistent significant differences in location or activity relative to the location of the coil for either species as a result of exposure to the EMF. These results suggest that in natural systems where an EMF field can be avoided at a distance of 1 m or more, there should be little effect on the natural movement and activity patterns of these two species. Additional studies with more fine-scale spatial resolution and other species are needed to better understand potential responses in actual field settings.


Do factor endowments explain serfdom? Domar (1970) conjectured that high land-labor ratios caused serfdom by increasing incentives to coerce labor. But historical evidence is mixed and quantitative analyses are lacking. Using the Acemoglu-Wolitzky (2011) framework and controlling for political economy variables by studying a specific serf society, we analyze 11,349 Bohemian serf villages in 1757. The net effect of higher land-labor ratios was indeed to increase coercion. The effect greatly increased when animal labor was included, and diminished as land-labor ratios rose. Controlling for other variables, factor endowments significantly influenced serfdom. Institutions, we conclude, are shaped partly by economic fundamentals.


Films of conducting polymers, when used as electrodes in an electrolytic solution, oxidize and reduce under flow of anodic or cathodic currents, respectively. The electrochemical reactions induce conformational movements of the chains, generation or destruction of free volume and interchange of ions and solvent with the electrolyte giving a gel that reacts, swells or shrinks. Electric pulses acting on reactive gels constituted by polymers, solvent and ions are the closest artificial material to those that constitute actuating biological organs. The electrochemical reaction is kinetically controlled by the conformational movements or by the counterions diffusion through the gel: it works under electrochemical quasi-equilibrium and defines, at any intermediate oxidation state, equilibrium potentials. Any variable (mechanical, chemical, optical, magnetic..) acting on the equilibrium will induce changes on the working potential of any device, driven by a constant current, based on this reaction: actuating-sensing devices based on the electrochemical properties are expected. The activation energy of the reaction can be obtained from the oxidation of metal coated electrodes. This energy includes two terms: the constant chemical activation energy and the conformational energy related to the packed structure of the polymeric conformations. This conformational energy is the basic magnitude for both actuating and sensing properties, opening the way for their quantification. Information can be stored in continuous conformational energetic levels being read by anodic oxidation.


Context in distributed situated cognition Hedda Rahel Schmidtke Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) Michael Beigl Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) Abstract: Ambient Intelligence (AmI) can be understood as a research effort towards physical environments that can use artificial intelligence techniques, in order to serve people in an intelligent, pro-active manner. AmI environments provide a unique, novel platform for studying and applying concepts of situated cognition and self-organization. In particular, we find that representations of context are crucial for AmI systems to perform these tasks. We follow the idea that the notion of context plays a central role with respect to economy, evolution, and architecture of cognitive systems. In particular, context can be understood to bridge the gap between the sensory stream and goal-directed reasoning. We present a logical language in which contexts, and not objects, properties, or propositions, are the primary entities. We show that, from this logical formalism, a corresponding symbolic-connectionist hybrid model of distributed, situated cognition can be derived.


Apoptosis Signal-regulating Kinase (ASK) 1 was identified that activated two different subgroup of MAP kinase kinase (MAPKK), SEK1 (or MKK4), and MKK3/MAPKK6 (or MKK6), which in turn activated stress-activated protein kinase (SAPK, also known as JNK: c-Jun amino-terminal kinase) and p38 subgroup of MAP kinases, respectively. It was suggested that ASK1 contributed to cytokine-induced apoptosis in some cell lines. In this report, for further investigation about roles of ASK1 in mammal, initial characterization of mouse ASK1 was done. The mouse cDNA encoding ASK1 was isolated from the mouse kidney cDNA library and the overall amino acid sequence similarity between the mouse and the human ASK1 was 91.9%. A database search revealed that the kinase domain of ASK1 is evolutionally well-concervedover species among nematode, fly, mouse, and human. Northern blot analysis identified a 6-kb transcript of ASK1 which is expressed in the various mouse adult tissues. Immunohistochemical analysis of mouse embryos (17 days post coitum) revealed a localized expression of ASK1 in developing skin, cartilage, and bone, suggesting a possible role of ASK1 in tissue development during embryogenesis as well as cytokine-induced apoptosis.


AKAISHI, S., KOBARI, M., TAKEDA, K. and MATSUNO, S. Targeting Chemotherapy Using Antibody-Combined Liposome against Human Pancreatic Cell-Line. Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 1995, 175 (1), 29-42 Anti-tumor effect of Adriamycin (ADM)-encapsulated and CA19-9 antibody-conjugated artificial lipid membrane follicle liposomes against a human pancreatic cancer cell-line PK-1 was studied in vitro and in vivo. The liposome compound (lipo c ADM=Ab) showed a stronger cell damage than ADM-encapsulated liposome (lipo c ADM) and free ADM, especially when the contact time was short and the concentration was low. The intra-tumor concentration of ADM in the group of i.v. injection of lipo c ADM= Ab showed the highest value, over twice those of lipo c ADM and free ADM after 120 hr. Lipo S ADM=Ab showed a significant inhibitory effect on the tumor growth inhibition test in vivo, and the final tumor weight at the 19th day was 27% in the group of lipo c ADM=Ab and 52% in the group of free ADM as compared with the control. The targeting chemotherapy using liposomes was demonstrated to have a stronger anti-tumor effect than the administration of anti-cancer drug alone owing to enhanced tumor accessibilty and good targeting. pancreatic cancer cells; liposome; CA19-9 antibody; targeting chemotherapy; Adriamycin


Reports optoelectronic phase-tracking and electrooptic sampling of microwave signals from a free-running oscillator in a laser-diode-based system. A voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) in a photoconductive harmonic mixer based phase-lock loop is utilized to gain switch a 0.8 /spl mu/m laser diode for phase-tracking of the microwave signal at frequencies up to 20 GHz. The phase and amplitude of the microwave signal in a microstrip line is also measured using another 1.3-/spl mu/m laser diode driven by the VCO.<<ETX>>


The extraesophageal manifestations of gastroesophageal reflux disease that are similar to a heart attack or gastric diseases are well known, while those categorized as pulmonary or otolaryngological are less known and less studied. In this article, we introduce this less known aspect of gastroesophageal reflux.


One of the most significant research topics in computer vision is object detection. Most of the reported object detection results localise the detected object within a bounding box, but do not explicitly label the edge contours of the object. Since object contours provide a fundamental diagnostic of object shape, some researchers have initiated work on linear contour feature representations for object detection and localisation. However, linear contour feature-based localisation is highly dependent on the performance of linear contour detection within natural images, and this can be perturbed significantly by a cluttered background.

In addition, the conventional approach to achieving rotation-invariant features is to rotate the feature receptive field to align with the local dominant orientation before computing the feature representation. Grid resampling after rotation adds extra computational cost and increases the total time consumption for computing the feature descriptor. Though it is not an expensive process if using current computers, it is appreciated that if each step of the implementation is faster to compute especially when the number of local features is increasing and the application is implemented on resource limited "smart devices", such as mobile phones, in real-time.

Motivated by the above issues, a 2D object localisation system is proposed in this thesis that matches features of edge contour points, which is an alternative method that takes advantage of the shape information for object localisation. This is inspired by edge contour points comprising the basic components of shape contours. In addition, edge point detection is usually simpler to achieve than linear edge contour detection. Therefore, the proposed localization system could avoid the need for linear contour detection and reduce the pathological disruption from the image background. Moreover, since natural images usually comprise many more edge contour points than interest points (i.e. corner points), we also propose new methods to generate rotation-invariant local feature descriptors without pre-rotating the feature receptive field to improve the computational efficiency of the whole system.

In detail, the 2D object localisation system is achieved by matching edge contour points features in a constrained search area based on the initial pose-estimate produced by a prior object detection process. The local feature descriptor obtains rotation invariance by making use of rotational symmetry of the hexagonal structure. Therefore, a set of local feature descriptors is proposed based on the hierarchically hexagonal grouping structure. Ultimately, the 2D object localisation system achieves a very promising performance based on matching the proposed features of edge contour points with the mean correct labelling rate of the edge contour points 0.8654 and the mean false labelling rate 0.0314 applied on the data from Amsterdam Library of Object Images (ALOI). Furthermore, the proposed descriptors are evaluated by comparing to the state-of-the-art descriptors and achieve competitive performances in terms of pose estimate with around half-pixel pose error.


COSER, Sara Morra, D.Sc., Universidade Federal de Viçosa, July de 2016. Breeding Acrocomia aculeata for vegetative, phenological, reproductive and productive traits. Adviser: Sérgio Yoshimitsu Motoike. The study aimed to contribute to the characterization of Macaw Palm accessions from the Germplasm Bank of Macaw Palm in Federal University of Viçosa, in order to collaborate with the establishment of macaw palm breeding program and select potential accessions that meet characteristics to be aggregated to the final ideotype corresponding to the producer needs and demands of the potential markets for the species. Thus, the accessions were evaluated in two stages. In the first stage 52 accessions were evaluated for vegetative (HFS, DBH, AC), phenological (PREC) and reproductive (TS) characteristics, for diversity, estimation of genetic parameters and correlation study aiming selection of the superior accessions for these traits. Genetic diversity resulted in the formation of four groups by Tocher methodology coupled with the heritability values and coefficient of variation represented primordial diversity for the improvement of the species. Heritability in the narrow sense was classified as moderate (PREC, TS, CA) and high (HFS and DBH) magnitudes, and accuracy values were classified from moderate (PREC and CA) to high (TS, HFS and DBH). Selection of accessions for PREC, TS and HFS resulted in gains higher than 100% especially for accessions 36, 44 and 4 from Minas Gerais. In the second stage 36 accessions were evaluated for the traits precocity (PREC), first spathe height (APE), total number of fruits (NFT), pulp oil (TOP) and oil production per plant (PROD) through the estimation of genetic parameters and genetic correlation to proceed the prediction of breeding values to select the best individuals to compose the seed production population for a short-term program and the breeding population for a long-term program. The individual heritability and selective accuracy were classified as moderate magnitude for the traits PREC, NTF and PROD and high magnitude for APE and TOP, reflectin g success and security in selection process. The highest correlation coefficients were found between the traits PREC and APE, PREC and NTF, and NTF and PROD, allowing indirect gains through selection of the simpler measurement trait. The selection of the top 20 individuals results in 74.8% gains over the average of PROD trait for a short-term seed orchand formation, since the selection of the top 52 individuals results in 40.5% gains for the formation of long-term breeding population. Considering the simultaneous selection through additive selection index with economic weights is possible to obtain direct gains from selection for PROD characteristic of 67.6%. This was the first study to evaluate these characteristics in a germplasm bank of macaw palm and our findings reveal essential genetic diversity for breeding programs combined with genetic parameters with excellent selective potential and gains with the selection, the basis for the success of the breeding program for the species with the establishment of seed production population for a short-term program and the breeding population for a long-term program and the development of cultivars with the ideotype demanded by the market.


Antipatterns and code smells have been widely proved to affect the change-proneness of software components. However, there is a lack of studies that propose indicators of changes for service-oriented systems. Like any other software systems, such systems evolve to address functional and non functional requirements. In this research, we investigate the change-proneness of service-oriented systems from the perspective of software engineers. Based on the feedback from our industrial partners we investigate which indicators can be used to highlight change-prone application programming interfaces (APIs) and service interfaces in order to improve their reusability and response time. The output of this PhD research will assist software engineers in designing stable APIs and reusable services with adequate response time.


A new approach to immunofluorescent labeling of sectioned tissue is described. Small tissue fragments which have been fixed and rendered permeable are labeled with immune reagents by either the direct or indirect method, prior to embedding in glycol methacrylate (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) at 4 degrees. In this way, the well-known superiority of plastic embedding over paraffin embedding or cryo-sections can be used to compare cellular structure in tissues with that seen in cultured cells.


Twenty years after transition to a constitutional democracy, South Africa faces major challenges in almost very aspect of life, ranging from meeting daily subsistence requirements for all its citizens, through providing access to education and primary healthcare, to the functioning of our legal system and governance from local to national levels. The state of medical care in our prisons, once a high-profile issue, has been eclipsed by these challenges. Yet the state of our prisons remains a barometer for these challenges, and on the anniversary of Steven Biko's death in prison it is appropriate to be reminded of this legacy and its implications.


In December 1956 Elvis Presley dropped in at Sun Studios in Memphis, just as a Carl Perkins recording session was ending. Presley was now a national star, having transcended earlier that year his previous status as a regional rockabilly performer. That special day became known as the Million Dollar Session because of the supposed "million dollars" worth of talent that included Presley, Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and, briefly, Johnny Cash. An open microphone recorded a lively jam session. For the student of southern religious music, it was an especially revealing moment. In addition to improvising with country, blues, and early rock songs, the group sang from the common body of southern religious songs, some of them gospel tunes that dated from nineteenth-century revivals, others African American spirituals, others popular gospel-quartet numbers. All of these young performers who had grown up in the countryside near Memphis knew the songs, and when one started singing, the others easily fell into supporting lines. They had all come out of church backgrounds and would have been familiar with "Farther Along," "When God Dips His Love in My Heart," "Blessed Jesus (Hold My Hand)," and "As We Travel Along on the Jericho Road." Elvis sang "Peace in the Valley," an old classic written by black composer Thomas A. Dorsey and the song he sang on the "Ed Sullivan Show" to defuse public concerns that he was an immoral renegade destroying America's youth. Between songs the boys talked about the white gospel quartets that were so active around Memphis, an epicenter of white and black gospel traditions. (1) "Just a Little Talk with Jesus" was an especially revealing song of southern spirituality that day in Sun Studios, two years after the 1954 Brown decision and one year before the Soviet satellite Sputnik, during a decade that launched extraordinary cultural changes in the South. Elvis knew the song profoundly, singing a lively version and then slowing down the pace to fit the mood of the lyrics. The song's narrator tells the essential evangelical story of one "lost in sin" but not without hope because "Jesus took me in." When that happened, "a little light from heaven" filled his soul. Redemption is seen in the next lines, which say God "made my heart in love and He wrote my name above." Despite "doubts and fears" and even though "your eyes be filled with tears," "my Jesus is a friend who watches day and night." In the end, "just a little talk with Jesus gonna make it right." (2) The Million Dollar Session is an appropriate introduction to the importance of Elvis Presley in understanding the role that music played in defining a distinctive southern spirituality and the impact on that relationship of the dramatic changes in the South over the roughly two decades between that day in Sun Studios in 1956 and Presley's death in Memphis in 1977. Charles Wolfe, Peter Guralnick, and other historians and journalists have written about Presley's relationship to the gospel music tradition, but the broader question of how Presley can help open up the unexplored issue of southern spirituality has not been explored. Studies of "American spirituality" that stress the distinction between "religion" and "spirituality" have recently appeared. Robert Wuthnow, a leading student of American spirituality, concludes that this new scholarly work reflects increasing popular interest in spirituality. People see spirituality as "somehow more authentic, more personally compelling, an expression of their search for the sacred," whereas religion suggests a "social arrangement that seems arbitrary, limiting or at best convenient." Despite the new popular and scholarly interest in American spirituality, none of the scholarly works even mentions the South or southerners, and certainly none addresses a regional expression of spirituality that comes out of the white working-class culture of the South. (3) Neither the Encyclopedia of Religion in the South nor the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture include entries on "spirituality," and a survey of classic works by historians Samuel Hill, David Edwin Harrell, Wayne Flynt, and others suggest they have seldom dealt directly with "spirituality" in the context of a southern regional religious tradition. …


Symptom configuration derived from symptom self-reports in a sample of mainly neurotic patients was not related to the amount of recent life stress, although overall symptom intensity was. Neither was symptom configuration related to the qualitative character of preceding stressful events. Symptom configuration did depend upon certain intrinsic characteristics of the patient. Older patients tended toward more depression and younger patients toward more anxiety. Lower-class patients manifested more anxiety, whereas upper-class patients manifested more irascibility and compulsiveness. Women manifested more depression; men manifested more irascibility and compulsiveness. Blacks manifested more somatization and whites manifested more anxiety. It would be interesting if a further statistical study could provide evidence that symptom configuration depends upon interaction between the qualitative character of stressful events and intrinsic characteristics of the individual.


Federated learning(FL) is an emerging distributed learning paradigm with default client privacy because clients can keep sensitive data on their devices and only share local training parameter updates with the federated server. However, recent studies reveal that gradient leakages in FL may compromise the privacy of client training data. This paper presents a gradient leakage resilient approach to privacy-preserving federated learning with per training example-based client differential privacy, coined as Fed-CDP. It makes three original contributions. First, we identify three types of client gradient leakage threats in federated learning even with encrypted client-server communications. We articulate when and why the conventional server coordinated differential privacy approach, coined as Fed-SDP, is insufficient to protect the privacy of the training data. Second, we introduce Fed-CDP, the per example-based client differential privacy algorithm, and provide a formal analysis of Fed-CDP with the (∊,δ) differential privacy guarantee, and a formal comparison between Fed-CDP and Fed-SDP in terms of privacy accounting. Third, we formally analyze the privacy-utility tradeoff for providing differential privacy guarantee by Fed-CDP and present a dynamic decay noise-injection policy to further improve the accuracy and resiliency of Fed-CDP. We evaluate and compare Fed-CDP and Fed-CDP(decay) with Fed-SDP in terms of differential privacy guarantee and gradient leakage resilience over five benchmark datasets. The results show that the Fed-CDP approach outperforms conventional Fed-SDP in terms of resilience to client gradient leakages while offering competitive accuracy performance in federated learning.


External heat transfer measurements on a highly loaded turbine vane with varying surface roughness are presented. The investigation comprises nine different roughness configurations and a smooth reference surface. The rough surfaces consist of evenly spaced truncated cones with varying height, diameter, and distance, thus covering the full range of roughness Reynolds numbers in the transitionally and fully rough regimes. Measurements for each type of roughness are conducted at several freestream turbulence levels (Tu 1 =4% to 8.8%) and Reynolds numbers, hereby quantifying their combined effect on heat transfer and laminar-turbulent transition. In complementary studies a trip wire is used on the suction side in order to fix the transition location close to the stagnation point, thereby allowing a deeper insight into the effect of roughness on the turbulent boundary layer. The results presented show a strong influence of roughness on the onset of transition even for the smallest roughness Reynolds numbers. Heat transfer coefficients in the turbulent boundary layer are increased by up to 50% when compared to the smooth reference surface.


A novel microstrip filter using three-mode stepped impedance resonator (TSIR) is presented, with its coupling scheme given so as to accurately predict its desired performance. A T-type open stub is introduced into the design of a miniaturized TSIR. It is shown that the developed filter exhibits quasi-elliptic characteristics with sharp skirt and wide stopband. Good agreements are obtained between its measured and simulated S-parameters.


This book draws together the work of contemporary photographers who have explored the visual and psychological effects of the transition from day to night. It examines their technically ambitious attempts to record or replicate the rapid and transient effects of daylight succumbing to darkness, and analyses the mysterious states of mind and awakened sensibilities these works suggest, at the threshold between the familiar and the unknown. In placing the photographs in their broader historical, literary, meteorological and technical contexts, "Twilight" reveals the timeless allure of the magic hour. Stunning images by such high-profile contemporary photographers as Gregory Crewdson, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Robert Adams and Bill Henson are explored.


This report consists logically of results from two parts: specific aspects for stove guard and guidance when using FTA (Fault Tree Analysis) for analysis of stove guard. The results concerning specific aspects for stove guard show how to structure and evaluate prerequisites. The results of the FTA analysis of stove guard show leaves, subtrees and a number of fault trees representing dangerous or unwanted top events.A limited state-of-the-art evaluation has been made for stove guards. Before an FTA can be applied it is necessary to identify system limitations, borders and terminology in order to be clear what is included and not. Guidance is given for this. FTA is a suitable method mainly because it is easy to understand and survey. In many cases only two gate types are needed; OR and AND. The keys for successful handling of fault tree are the definitions of leaves and subtrees and finding the most suitable level of abstraction. In this report a textual representation is used for fault trees. The advantages are that the representation is tool independent and that it is more compact than graphical representation.


Increasing the unidirectional launching efficiency of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) is crucial in plasmonics. Here, we demonstrate that this efficiency may be improved by cascading subwavelength unidirectional SPP launching units. A unidirectional SPP launching efficiency of at least 46% and an extinction ratio of 40 are experimentally demonstrated using a cascade asymmetric-groove structure. Meanwhile, the device is ultracompact, and has a lateral dimension of only 1.1 μm. The proposed structure also presents a broadband response and is easy to fabricate. This high-performance wavelength-scale unidirectional SPP launcher represents an important development in practical SPP sources.


The patch‐clamp technique was used to examine the activation of single acetylcholine receptor channels of clonal BC3H‐1 mouse muscle cells. Single‐channel currents were activated by low concentrations of the strong agonists acetylcholine (ACh, 50‐100 nM), carbamylcholine (1‐2 microM), and suberyldicholine (30‐50 nM). At low agonist concentrations channel openings occur as isolated short‐duration openings and as bursts of longer duration openings separated by brief closed periods. Two distinct types of brief closed periods separate long duration openings: brief closures (mean duration, 50 microseconds) and intermediate closures (mean duration, 0.5‐1.0 ms). The kinetic properties of intermediate closures depend on the agonist, suggesting that they reflect receptor reopening from the closed state leading to the open state. Properties of brief closures, in contrast, are independent of the agonist, indicating that they result from an additional closed state leading away from the pathway producing the open state. A receptor activation scheme is proposed which accounts for the observed closed states, and transition rate estimates are presented for steps within the proposed scheme. The channel opening rate, beta, differs several‐fold for the agonists studied (200‐1400 s‐1) and is comparable to the dissociation rate, k‐2 (900 s‐1). The dissociation rate is similar for the three agonists studied. The channel closing rate, alpha, is much slower than the opening rate (20‐60 s‐1). The probability is high that a doubly liganded channel is in the open state and depends on the agonist (0.75‐0.97). Beta increases and alpha decreases at more negative membrane potentials, whereas k‐2 shows little potential dependence.


This study aims to determine and explore the ideas on the Islamic Mahathir; Mahathir's views on Islam and issues of modern statehood; and Mahathir's views on the relationship between Islam and nationalism. The methodology used in this research is descriptive analytical approaches in the form of character study, a systematic study of the thought or idea of a thinker either wholly or in part. The study focused on Mahathir's mind about Islam and statehood. The main data sources are all relevant papers Mahathir with research questions, delivered speeches in various forums, and supported by the writings produced by the scholars. The procedures for data collection in this study was done in three stages, namely the identification, exploration, and the study focused. The analysis used content analysis, comparative, historiography and phenomenology. Content analysis is discussed in depth the content of a written or printed information in books, newspaper, journals or manuscripts; the comparative analysis of the analysis is concentrated on a detailed description of the characteristics of data collected before trying to answer the question theoretic more common; analytical historiography is that of picking and criticizing any opinions and values resulting from the selected historical events; and the phenomenological analysis Is the analysis by means of a direct references to the literature produced by the figures being investigated. Implementation of the analysis begins by analyzing and recording the important things done by Mahathir, and then made notes about the life of Mahathir. Furthermore, the concepts identified by a variety of questions about the life of Mahathir. From here then formulated thought or opinion Mahathir against Islam and nationalism in order to find the model and the characteristics of Mahathir's thinking with respect to Islam and nationalism. Findings of this study, the first Muslim in the eyes of Mahathir is the perfect religion that is dynamic and requires improvement, a rational religion, the religion of peace and flexible religion, simple and tolerance. Therefore, Islam must be understood in a rational, critical and re-interpreted according to the Quran and Hadith with, based upon reason, argument and logic is called an 'Islam Mahathir'. Second, in view of Mahathir, a variety of beliefs and concepts related to the problems of governance that came from the West, including democracy, secularism, pluralistic society, or of terrorism are not to be accepted or rejected blindly. Things must be done is to assess and filter back faiths, the case is not good and is not suitable to be set aside and the good and the line can be followed. Third, Islam and the State is a matter closely related and inseparable. Because, religion the leading man towards a more balanced life. Religion was also a real guides and most powerful impetus to achieving a better life and meaning. Thus, Islam is filled with moral values to set high society, nation and state can be absorbed and become the basis of the national administration.


For four decades, Angola has experienced war, which has inevitably influenced the country's social development. The intensity and geographical spread of the war has fluctuated over that period. This paper examines fertility and other relevant socio-demographic characteristics in Angola and attempts to relate them to its protracted civil conflict. To situate Angola's fertility in the sub-Saharan context, comparisons are made with a selection of other African countries. The analysis paints a picture of a generally pre-transitional society characterised by an early start of childbearing, high fertility and a contraceptive prevalence that is among the lowest in Africa. Angola also trails behind most of the sub-continent in childhood mortality and maternal care indicators. The available data suggest that Angola's fertility drops when hostilities peak and rebounds in the periods of relative peacefulness, and that these fluctuations are stronger in regions more affected by the fighting than in less affected ones. However, there is no indication that the war has exerted any enduring and direct impact on trends in Angola's fertility beyond its generally inhibiting effect on any improvements in social welfare that might otherwise have encouraged some fertility decline.


Understanding the factors which influence the processing of information seems fundamental for the clinical psychiatrist and behavioral scientist. Practical problems stemming from information overload, underload, and off-balance load are seen daily in the hospital and clinic. From the postoperative patient isolated, enfeebled, subjected to the monotony of respirator and cardiac monitor to the sensitive child bombarded with conflicting instructions and competing expectations, information dys-load merits specific consideration. And to those caught up in the exploration of extreme environments, these matters are of daily and vital interest. Systematic investigation of these matters has been a postwar phenomenon stimulated by the technology which extends and strains man's physiological capacities. But persons wishing to pursue the reports of delusions of grandiosity while scuba diving, hallucinations while immobilized, or noncoercive group brain-washing techniques, have often found the information anecdotal, scattered, or contradictory. Start with this book if these matters


Background Participation rates in youth sport in Canada are high. Sport injury epidemiology studies in youth primarily focus on adolescents (ages 13–18). There is a paucity of literature examining sport injury risk in children where injury prevention practices require development and evaluation. Objective To examine sport participation and sport injury rates in elementary school students (ages 9–12). Design Cross-sectional study. Setting A survey was sent home with students in randomly selected Calgary (Canada) elementary schools (grades 4–6). Participants Elementary schools in Calgary (Canada) were randomly selected to participate (N=26 schools). A survey was completed by 540 children and parent/guardian. Risk factor assessment The primary risk factors of interest include age, sport of choice, and time spent participating in sport. Main outcome measures Sport injury was defined as any injury sustained in the previous year that required medical attention. Results Overall, 81% of participants reported participating in sport in the past year. The highest sport-specific participation was reported in soccer (18.9%), swimming (13.5%), and dance (10.8%). The overall injury incidence proportion (IIP) was 28.3 injuries/100 children/year. The medical attention IIP was 9.8 injuries/100 children/year for males and 11.4 injuries/100 children/year for females. The highest IIP for males occurred in soccer (26.0%), cycling (19.5%) and hockey (9.1%). The highest IIP for females occurred in basketball (10.6%), soccer (10.6%), and dance (9.1%). Conclusions The IIP (28.3%) and medical attention IP (10.6%) was lower than previously reported in adolescents (ages 12–18), suggesting less severe injuries in younger children. The greatest burden of sport injury occurred in soccer, cycling, and basketball. This study will inform the development of future targeted interventions within specific sports as well as within school-based curriculums to prevent sport injury in children.


Abstract:There is no arguing the impact of Inoue Tetsujirō on the development of philosophy in Japan from the Meiji Restoration through the end of the Pacific War. He was the first Japanese to receive a doctorate in philosophy from Germany and the first native-born chair of the philosophy department at Tokyo Imperial University, the training center for almost all the major Japanese philosophers who graduated before 1915. Inoue was instrumental in making German idealism the Western philosophy of choice for Japan, but he also appreciated Asian traditions as well, having no qualms about claiming there was true philosophy in India, China, and premodern Japan. He set the foundation for academic philosophy in Japan not so much through his own rather simplistic personal philosophy, but especially through his contributions to the organization of the field. This article focuses mainly on Inoue's troubled relation with Confucianism. On one hand, in seeking a premodern philosophy to serve as the bedrock for modern Japan, Inoue looked to the Edo-period (1601–1868) Confucian traditions originating in China. He divided them into Shushigaku (朱子学, the Zhu Xi school), Yōmeigaku (陽明学, the Wang Yangming school), and what he named Kogaku (古学), the school focusing on classical texts preceding neo-Confucian developments and interpretations. In many respects, like so many others of his generation, Inoue was by training and personal preference a Confucian. That is not the whole story, however. Inoue understood Confucianism's primary purpose as cultivating the social values and order that would ensure an efficient society of human flourishing, stability, and harmony. Yet, he also likely suspected that the people of the new Japan, with its modernization and plethora of Western ideas, would not unquestioningly accept the authority of the Confucian classics, nor be willing to undertake the rigors of textual study that are the hallmark of the Confucian scholar. In Edo-period Japan, that study had been the responsibility of the samurai class, but in their democratization program, the Meiji reformers had abolished the old class system. Education of the young would now shift from the Confucian academies to the new public school system. Always cooperative with the government to the point of being obsequious, Inoue took a leading role in the National Morality program and its installment in the nationwide school curriculum. That curriculum combined a Shinto-based reverence for the sacred nature of the emperor in the kokutai (国体) ideology along with practical moralistic values that could be loosely called Confucian. Yet, if schooling for most was limited to the elementary level and if there was no longer a samurai class to oversee the moral behavior of the society, who could nurture and enforce the moral order? Through a set of fortuitous events, Inoue "discovered" bushidō (武士道), the Way of the warrior. If there were no longer a samurai warrior class, perhaps all Japanese could become de facto samurai—at least in their mindset. Most may no longer have the scholarly skills and time to glean their spiritual and moral insights from Confucian texts. Yet, they could find the virtues of loyalty, sincerity, filiality, and compliance with seniority within the distinctively mindful heart and spirit of ancient Japan carried within the Japanese bloodline. What happened to the Confucianism of Inoue Tetsujirō? Some of its values were absorbed into bushidō and National Morality, but the praxis of the Confucian scholar and the ideal of the kunshi (君子) seem to have been lost, much to Japan's detriment.


Around the world, the construction of large-scale dams has become a controversial environmental issue. A significant example of such a dam is the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China. The Yangtze River, considered the cradle of Chinese civilization, has fundamentally shaped Chinese livelihood, culture, transportation, and agriculture. Despite international and local dissent, as of 2012, the Three Gorges Dam has become a reality. Having fundamentally altered the river system, the biodiversity of the area is now threatened by flooded habitats upstream, drought downstream and a change in nutrient distribution. However, to better understand the reasoning behind the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, a deeper historical, cultural and political basis needs to be recognized. This paper will investigate how the specific history of China has led to the construction of the Dam. Throughout the 20 th century, political leaders envisioned the Dam as a symbol of Chinese industrialization and modernization. Ironically, it was considered the ultimate achievement in China's development. Communist views of mastery over nature played an important role in such political views. These views are not limited to China; the idea that humans should control nature for economic benefit is still evident throughout the world. Beyond the context of China, the Three Gorges Dam is a symbol of the larger systems that value economic benefit and industrialization over a sustainable environment.


Identifying and using preferred items and activities to increase motivation and participation of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been an important and frequently used intervention strategy. Preferred objects, typically identified through a preference assessment, are most frequently used during instruction as reinforcers. These objects may be offered contingent upon a correct response or following a set period of work or may be made available continuously by incorporating them into the learning task. This alternating treatment design study examined the effects of offering preferred items during a word-learning task on learning and on-task behaviour under 2 conditions: following the completion of a set of learning trials ( sequential ) or continuously during a set of learning trials ( embedded ). Participants were 3 children with ASD aged 3–5 years. Results showed that children were more on task when preferred items were embedded, but the sequential condition led to superior learning of target behaviours for 2 of the children. Implications of using preferred items to enhance learning and on-task behaviour are discussed.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether different enamel etching methods with reduced etching times would improve the bonding effectiveness of universal adhesives.

METHODS AND MATERIALS
Three enamel etching methods, phosphoric acid ester monomer (PPM) etching, phosphoric acid (PPA) etching, and polyalkenoic acid (PLA) etching, and three universal adhesives, G-Premio Bond (GP), Prime&Bond elect (PE), and Scotchbond Universal Adhesive (SU), were evaluated. Initial bond strengths and fatigue strengths of universal adhesives to ground enamel and ground enamel etched for less than one, five, 10, and 15 seconds using different etching methods were determined. The bonded fatigue specimens were loaded using a sine wave at a frequency of 20 Hz for 50,000 cycles or until failure occurred with a staircase method. Atomic force micrograph (AFM) observations along with measurements of surface Ra roughness and modified surface area of enamel with different etching protocols were also conducted.

RESULTS
The bond fatigue durability of universal adhesives to enamel with PPA etching from less than one to 15 seconds and PLA etching for 15 seconds was significantly higher than that to ground enamel. The bond fatigue durability to enamel with PPM etching was not increased compared with ground enamel. The surface Ra roughness and surface area obtained with AFM of enamel increased after PPA and PLA etching, and those values were significantly higher than those of ground enamel. Furthermore, surface Ra roughness and surface area with PPA etching were significantly higher than those with PLA etching. However, surface Ra roughness and surface area of enamel with PPM etching were similar to those of ground enamel regardless of etching time.

CONCLUSION
PPA etching for less than one to 15 seconds and PLA etching for 15 seconds improve universal adhesive bonding, surface Ra roughness, and surface area of enamel. However, PPM etching is not effective, regardless of etching time, in improving bonds strengths, increasing surface roughness, and increasing surface area.


The onset condition of a thermoelectric instability in divertor tokamaks has been studied analytically and numerically by using a five point model based on SOL and divertor plasmas. The SOL current due to the thermoelectric effect causes the thermoelectric instability and destabilizes the symmetric equilibrium of the SOL and divertor plasmas below a critical divertor plasma temperature. The critical temperature of the thermoelectric instability is equal to or higher than that of the thermal instability due to the divertor radiation, and depends on the midplane SOL plasma temperature and the divertor radiation loss. Below the critical temperature, stable asymmetric equilibria are obtained. As the degree of the asymmetry in the divertor plasma temperature increases, the SOL current has no effect on the instability, or even stabilizes the equilibrium. The SOL current generates spontaneously the divertor asymmetry through the thermoelectric instability.


Abstract Acoustic sounder measurements of a vertical profile of the abrupt transition from a laminar to a turbulent atmospheric boundary layer were compared with meteorological measurements made at 10 and 137 m on an instrumented tower. Sounder data show that conditions necessary for the onset of the momentum burst phenomenon exist sometime during a clear afternoon when heat flux changes sign and the planetary surface cools. Under these conditions, the lowest part of the atmospheric boundary layer becomes stable. Prior to this situation, the entire boundary layer is in turbulent motion from surface heating. The boundary layer is then an effective barrier for all fluxes, and as the maximum flux Richardson number is reached at some height close to but above the surface, turbulence is dampened and a laminar layer forms. The profile of this layer is recorded by the sounder. Surface temperature drops, a strong wind shear develops, and the Richardson number decreases below its critical value (Ricr < 0.25). Subs...


Oxidative stress always accompany patients with metabolic syndrome (MS). Several researchers reported that soy-protein is able to decrease oxidative stress level. However, there is no report so far about soy-germ protein in relation to its potential to the decrease oxidative stress level of MS patients. The aim of this study was to explore the potential of soy-germ protein on activity of catalase enzyme in blood's plasma as well as erythrocytes of MS patients. Double-blind randomized clinical trial was used as an experimental study. Thirty respondents were included in this study with MS, normal level blood sugar, low-HDL cholesterol but high in triglyceride, 40-65 years old, Body Mass Index > 25 kg/m 2 , live in Purwokerto and agreed to sign the informed consent. They were randomly grouped into 3 different groups, 10 each: Group I, was given special milk that contains soy-germ protein and Zn; Group II, soy-germ protein, while Group III was placebo; for two consecutive months. Data were taken from blood samples in 3 different periods i.e. 0, 1, and 2 months after treatment. Two months after treatment, there was an increase from 5.36 to 20.17 IU/mg (P = 0.028) in activity of catalase enzyme in blood's plasma respondents who consumed milk containing soy-germ protein with or without Zn. A similar trend of catalase activity, but at a lower level, was also noticed in erythrocyte; which increased from 88.31 to 201.11 IU/mg (P = 0.013). The increase in activity of catalase enzyme in blood's plasma was 2.2 times higher than that in erythrocytes.


E test was evaluated as an alternative rapid and simple method of MIC estimation for nutritionally variant streptococci. E test with various media was compared with conventional broth and plate dilution techniques supplemented with 0.001% (wt/vol) pyridoxal hydrochloride (vitamin B6). Of the 14 strains tested with E test, isosensitest agar supplemented with 5% defibrinated horse blood and 0.001% pyridoxal HCl, with and without 0.01% cysteine, gave complete agreement within one twofold-dilution titer of the agar reference method and between 93 and 86% agreement within one twofold-dilution titer of the broth reference method. E test MICs with other media were comparable; however, these were considerably more difficult to interpret. Use of Mueller-Hinton and Columbia-based supplemented agar showed hazy growth and double zoning around the endpoint, respectively. The addition of 0.01% (wt/vol) cysteine to media exhibited no significant effect, and incubation in 5% carbon dioxide (CO2) did not affect MICs.


ABSTRACT Introduction Currently, treatment goals in ulcerative colitis aim to achieve clinical remission and endoscopic mucosal healing. Emerging evidence suggests that histologic assessment of inflammation is a sensitive marker that can outcompete mucosal healing in predicting the clinical course of disease in patients with ulcerative colitis. Based on this, histologic healing is frequently included as a secondary endpoint in pharmacological trials. Areas covered We introduce currently used clinical and endoscopic treatment goals, summarize commonly used histologic scoring systems and then provide an overview on the relevance of histologic healing on the outcome in patients with ulcerative colitis. Finally, we review the efficacy of existing UC therapies for inducing histologic remission. Expert opinion Histologic healing is achievable in a substantial portion of UC patients. Further, histologic healing is, as consolidated by several meta-analyses, associated with better disease outcome compared to clinical remission and/or endoscopic healing. However, before becoming a widely acceptable treatment endpoint, consensus definitions for histologic healing and the technical aspects as well as for the timing for obtaining biopsies are needed. And finally, we need more evidence to show that resolution of microscopic inflammation as a means of therapy change or dose escalation is indeed a superior endpoint.


In a multicenter Italian study of 104 adult patients with severe bacterial lower respiratory tract infections, the safety and efficacy of a regimen of high dose, once-daily tobramycin alone or in combination with antipseudomonas betalactams was assessed. The overall bacteriological response was an elimination of the original pathogen in 70% of the patients while the overall clinical response mirrored the bacteriological results with a successful clinical outcome in 78% of patients. Adverse experiences were, in general, few and mild without oto- or nephrotoxicity. The once-daily, high dose regimen of tobramycin proved to be a safe and efficacious therapy for severe lower respiratory tract infections in adult patients.


Since the impulse response of the transversal filter consists of a sequence of weighted impulse functions, it is convenient to adopt the z-transform description for the filter transfer function instead of the Laplace transform description. It has been seen that the frequency response H(jω) is periodic with period determined by the signal bandwidth 1/Δ and that the number of zeros that can occur across the signal bandwidth is equal to the number of delay elements in the tapped-delay line. It remains to show that the resolution associated with each of the zeros of H(jω) is approximately 1/NΔ, where N = number of taps in the tapped-delay line.