Clustered machines partition hardware resources to circumvent the cycle time penalties incurred by large, monolithic structures. This partitioning introduces a long inter-cluster forwarding latency and the potential for load imbalance, both of which degrade IPC and thus counter the cycle time benefits of clustering. We show that program dataflow can be mapped to clustered machines so as to achieve an IPC rivaling that of an equivalent monolithic machine. That is, the IPC penalties observed by extant schemes are largely an artifact of instruction steering and scheduling policies. Using critical path analysis, we investigate and uncover the main causes for this performance loss. By way of code samples, we illustrate those causes and propose three policies for mitigating them. First, we introduce a new metric, likelihood of criticality, and show how it can halve the performance lost to contention-induced stalls. Second, we develop a stall-over-steer policy that addresses performance lost to inter-cluster forwarding delay. Finally, we show that a proactive load-balancing policy is necessary to improve the distribution of ready instructions among the clusters. Together, these three policies yield performance on 2-, 4- and 8-cluster implementations of an 8-wide machine that is within 2, 4, and 6%, respectively, of the monolithic equivalent


In recent years, knowledge of the genetics and biochemistry of the enzymes that constitute the proteolytic system of starter lactococci has increased tremendously. This paper summarizes the data obtained largely in the last 5 yr of intensive research by various research groups operative in this field. The emphasis is on proteinase and peptidase enzymes and their genes and on the manipulation of proteolytic capacity of the bacteria by genetic techniques. The prospect of such genetically engineered strains in cheese fermentation and the first results in this area are discussed.


This paper aims to explore the linguistic features of the dialect in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the United States. The study sets out to define what the distinct features of the dialect are, and investigate frequencies among Upper Peninsula natives, specifically from Marquette County. The research conducted for this thesis is based on multiple recordings of a small number of native dialect speakers from this area. The results show that features such as pronunciation, and the vowel sounds in particular, as well as dialectal expressions play a large part in defining this characteristic dialect. Furthermore, analyses of consonant sounds, lexical items, dialect expressions such as eh and ya, and the matter of stress, are included in the study as well as a brief discussion on how age- grading may affect the dialect.


The expectation from a future generation cellular network is to provide multiplay applications of VoIP, video and data to a continuously growing number of cellular users. The scarcity of the available radio spectrum coupled with the unique traffic handling and Quality of Experience (QoE) requirements of the converged services poses a huge challenge to the network operators. The solution of over-provisioning the network by increasing the amount of bandwidth is not economical. Therefore, efficient partition of network resources becomes mandatory. Scheduling plays an important in determining the overall efficiency of a wireless system. This thesis focuses on quality driven scheduling for efficient resource allocation in multi-user downlink LTE systems. Video traffic contributes a major proportion of network traffic. Therefore, one of the main goals of this work is to design scheduling strategies which consider information about video traffic with the aim of improving the service quality perceived by the user. Various scheduling strategies are proposed taking into account different criteria such as packet delay and importance of a video packet. This thesis presents a novel cross-layer resource allocation architecture which reduces the need for cross-layer signaling and frequent end-to-end link probing (for video rate adaptation) required by other cross-layer approaches. Apart from the novel cross-layer architecture, the thesis applies the concepts of game theory and fuzzy logic frameworks in radio resource management and proposes a composite scheduling rule which considers the service needs of different traffic types such as video, VoIP and data. Results show that the proposed scheduling schemes lead to an efficient partition of radio resources while achieving a significant improvement in the perceived quality as compared to state-of-the-art scheduling rules.


Sir .—I was surprised to read the implication of the article by Martin and associates 1 that there was any question about the occurrence of this clinical syndrome in childhood! Their statement that "Dysphagia lusorum has been reported not to occur in children" flies directly in the face of the original report of dysphagia lusoria by Bayford 2 before the Medical Society of London in 1787. This is an account of a teenaged girl who had had such severe swallowing difficulty due to her aberrant right subclavian artery that she ultimately was said to have died of starvation! Throughout childhood she described her symptom complex as though a "wolf was grabbing at the morsel of food as she attempted to swallow it and she was unable to get the food into her stomach." This is a very dramatically told story of a child and subsequent teenager with dysphagia lusoria.


Neurons respond homeostatically to chronic changes in network activity with compensatory changes such as a uniform alteration in the size of miniature postsynaptic current (mPSC) amplitudes termed synaptic scaling. However, little is known about the impact of synaptic scaling on the function of neural networks in vivo. We used the embryonic zebrafish to address the effect of synaptic scaling on the neural network underlying locomotion. Activity was decreased during development by TTX injection to block action potentials or CNQX injection to block glutamatergic transmission. Alternatively TNFα was chronically applied. Recordings from spinal neurons showed that glutamatergic mPSCs scaled up ∼25% after activity reduction and fortuitously scaled down ∼20% after TNFα treatment, and were unchanged following blockade of neuromuscular activity alone with α-bungarotoxin. Regardless of the direction of scaling, immediately following reversal of treatment no chronic effect was distinguishable in motoneuron activity patterns or in swimming behavior. We also acutely induced a similar increase of glutamatergic mPSC amplitudes using cyclothiazide to reduce AMPA receptor desensitization or decrease of glutamatergic mPSC amplitudes using a low concentration of CNQX to partially block AMPA receptors. Though the strength of the motor output was altered, neither chronic nor acute treatments disrupted the patterning of synaptic activity or swimming. Our results show, for the first time, that scaling of glutamatergic synapses can be induced in vivo in the zebrafish and that synaptic patterning is less plastic than synaptic strength during development.


Nitroglycerin (GTN) has been shown, in both human and animal studies, to induce a protective phenotype that limits tissue damage after ischemia and reperfusion. This phenomenon is similar to ischemic preconditioning, and several reports suggest that also the molecular pathways involved in this protective effect of nitrates are the same that determine ischemic preconditioning. Our group conducted a series of studies aimed at investigating, using a human model of endothelial IR injury, the mechanism of nitrate-induced preconditioning and particularly the role of reactive oxygen species formation and of the opening of mitochondrial permeability transition pores. Our data demonstrate that GTN protects the endothelium against postischemic endothelial dysfunction in a mechanism that is mediated by oxygen free radical release and opening of mitochondrial permeability transition pores. In contrast, the protective effect of pentaerithrityl tetranitrate appears to be independent of these mechanisms, and it seems to be mediated by induction of antioxidant genes. Finally, isosorbide mononitrate seems to be devoid of a significant protective effect. These data are summarized and discussed in the present paper.


The diabetes-susceptible class II MHC genes (in human and mouse) share unique nonaspartic acid residues at position 57 of the class II β-chain. Transgenic expression of a mutant I-Ag7, substituting histidine and serine at position 56 and 57 of β-chain with proline and aspartic acid (I-Ag7PD), respectively, inhibits diabetes development in the nonobese diabetic mouse model. Here, we demonstrate that immature thymocytes expressing a diabetogenic islet Ag-specific transgenic TCR are positively selected by I-Ag7PD class II MHC to give rise to mature CD4+ T cells. However, splenic APCs expressing the same I-Ag7PD fail to present pancreatic islet Ag to mature T cells bearing this diabetogenic TCR. These results indicate that nonaspartic acid residues at position 57 of class II MHC β-chain is important for diabetogenic CD4+ T cell activation in the periphery but is not essential for the formation of a diabetogenic T cell repertoire in the thymus.


The thermally stimulated depolarized current and temperature profiles (TSDC analysis) on iced water was proved to be an effective tool for the qualitative evaluation of various water samples, each having an independent relaxation process, brought about by a pure dipolar orientation. The method proved to be applicable to different kinds of water samples used in the experiment and tap-water samples from different suppliers. Five main peaks (A to E, in the order of increasing temperature) were observed, of which two peaks (B and D) were found for the first time. The appearance of multiple peaks suggested the existence of multi-states of the hydrogen bond, cleaved by the TSDC process. The TSDC profiles were quite reproducible when the water samples contained practically no cations. A separate addition of each cation at a low concentration level revealed that a cation with a smaller ionic radius shifted peak A to a higher temperature. For ice of tap water, which contained relatively higher amount of cations, the TSDC profiles were quite different in shape compared with the standard ice-water samples (shift of peaks A–D to higher temperature, and a strong increase in the current strength of peaks B–E). However, it was still possible to tell from which districts the water samples were supplied.


Noise level is an important parameter to many image processing applications. For example, the performance of an image denoising algorithm can be much degraded due to the poor noise level estimation. Most existing denoising algorithms simply assume the noise level is known that largely prevents them from practical use. Moreover, even with the given true noise level, these denoising algorithms still cannot achieve the best performance, especially for scenes with rich texture. In this paper, we propose a patch-based noise level estimation algorithm and suggest that the noise level parameter should be tuned according to the scene complexity. Our approach includes the process of selecting low-rank patches without high frequency components from a single noisy image. The selection is based on the gradients of the patches and their statistics. Then, the noise level is estimated from the selected patches using principal component analysis. Because the true noise level does not always provide the best performance for nonblind denoising algorithms, we further tune the noise level parameter for nonblind denoising. Experiments demonstrate that both the accuracy and stability are superior to the state of the art noise level estimation algorithm for various scenes and noise levels.


Background: Cardiac channelopathies such as catecholaminergic polymorphic tachycardia and long QT syndrome predispose patients to fatal arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. As genetic testing has become common in clinical practice, variants of uncertain significance (VUS) in genes associated with catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia and long QT syndrome are frequently found. The objective of this study was to predict pathogenicity of catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia-associated RYR2 VUS and long QT syndrome-associated VUS in KCNQ1, KCNH2, and SCN5A by developing gene-specific machine learning models and assessing them using cross-validation, cellular electrophysiological data, and clinical correlation. Methods: The GENe-specific EnSemble grId Search framework was developed to identify high-performing machine learning models for RYR2, KCNQ1, KCNH2, and SCN5A using variant- and protein-specific inputs. Final models were applied to datasets of VUS identified from ClinVar and exome sequencing. Whole cell patch clamp and clinical correlation of selected VUS was performed. Results: The GENe-specific EnSemble grId Search models outperformed alternative methods, with area under the receiver operating characteristics up to 0.87, average precisions up to 0.83, and calibration slopes as close to 1.0 (perfect) as 1.04. Blinded voltage-clamp analysis of HEK293T cells expressing 2 predicted pathogenic variants in KCNQ1 each revealed an ≈80% reduction of peak Kv7.1 current compared with WT. Normal Kv7.1 function was observed in KCNQ1-V241I HEK cells as predicted. Though predicted benign, loss of Kv7.1 function was observed for KCNQ1-V106D HEK cells. Clinical correlation of 9/10 variants supported model predictions. Conclusions: Gene-specific machine learning models may have a role in post-genetic testing diagnostic analyses by providing high performance prediction of variant pathogenicity.


Many power plants in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region require a large amount of water for system cooling. To improve the understanding of potential risks of electricity generation curtailment due to drought, an assessment of water availability and its potential impacts on generation during drought was performed. For this impact analysis, we identified three drought scenarios based on historical drought records and projected climate data from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory global climate model, for greenhouse gas emission scenario A2 defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The three drought scenarios are (1) 2011 drought conditions (the worst drought in history), with the current level of water use; (2) a single-year drought (2022) projected for the period of 2020–2030, with the assumed projected water use level for 2030; and (3) a multiple-year drought constructed with climate data for 1950–1957 and water demand projected for 2030. The projected drought scenario in 2022 and the historical droughts in 2011 and 1950–1957 represent two different precipitation patterns in the Texas-Gulf river basin.The hydrologic model constructed for the Texas-Gulf river basin covers most of the ERCOT region. The model incorporates climate and water use data that correspond to three drought scenarios, respectively, to estimate evapotranspiration, water yield from watersheds, stream flow and water storage in reservoirs. Using criteria based on observed (< 50% storage) and predicted (< 55% storage) reservoir data, we identified 15 low-storage reservoirs in 2011, 10 in 2022, and 20 in 1956 (the last year of the multiple-year drought). The power plants that are supported by these reservoirs would be potentially at risk of being derated for thermoelectric cooling because of a lack of water supply. These power plants are located mainly in watersheds near and between Houston and Austin, as well as surrounding Dallas.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Several recent studies have shown general consistency of fluvial denudation rates over long time periods, or historical and contemporary sediment yields of the same general magnitude as sediment yields or accumulation rates over geologic time. This consistency of fluvial sediment export from some drainage basins, despite substantial climate, hydrological, ecological, base level, and other environmental changes, suggests that long‐term sediment yields may be controlled by factors that are independent of and overwhelm environmental changes (e.g. tectonics), or that the fluvial sediment system is at some level dynamically stable. The latter is explored via a model based on the notion that all debris produced by weathering within a drainage basin over any time period is either retained as part of the regolith, transported out of the basin as solid or dissolved sediment yield, or stored as alluvium within the fluvial system. This system is dynamically stable if alluvium is always potentially available for transport; e.g. to be converted to yield, and if regolith development exerts a negative feedback on weathering rates. This supports the argument that the long‐term consistency of sediment yields (where it exists) may be attributable to the storage and remobilization of alluvium, which buffers the system against environmental change. Environmental changes are manifested primarily in reorganizations within the fluvial sediment system, such as variations between net increases and decreases in alluvial storage, and changes in the spatial locus of deposition. These ideas are illustrated and tested using data from the lower Trinity River in southeast Texas.


Context.—Neoplasms originating in the thalamus are rare overall (1% of all brain tumors); however, they comprise approximately 5% of pediatric intracranial tumors and approach 15% of all malignant pediatric intracranial tumors in some series. Objective.—To update readers about the current understanding of the diverse histology, biology, and behavior of pediatric thalamic tumors. Histologic verification is now thought to be critical for planning treatment, and, as a result, biopsy and total/subtotal resections are much more common today than in the past. Data Sources.—A PubMed search using the keywords ''pediatric þ thalamic þ glioma'' yielded 45 publications with a total of 445 cases of thalamic gliomas in patients less than 18 years of age. We found only 9 substantial institutional series tabulating all encountered thalamic histologic types in children. This survey confirmed a high proportion of astrocytomas, 81% (214 of 265), of which approximately two-thirds were diffuse astrocytomas (146 of 214) and one-third were pilocytic astrocytomas (68 of 214). Of the diffuse astrocytomas, 34% (49 of 146) were low grade (World Health Organization grade II) and 55% (81 of 146) were high grade (World Health Organization grade III or IV), making the latter subgroup the largest single category of all pediatric thalamic tumors. Oligodendrogliomas and ependymomas (mostly anaplastic in both cases) comprised 10% and 3% of all pediatric thalamic tumors, respectively. Conclusions.—Tissue diagnosis is now thought crucial for prognostication and treatment, particularly as more potentially therapeutic molecular targets are discovered. Secure diagnosis allows identification of tumors for which resection is more feasible and beneficial. (Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2017;141:1316–1323; doi: 10.5858/arpa.2017-0249-RA)


This report contains national trend and predictor data for the turnover of K-12 public school teachers in eight cognate areas: general elementary education; mathematics and science education; language education; social studies education; arts, physical, and health education; business and vocational education; other general education; and special education. Data came from three national probability samples of teachers taken in school years 1987-89, 1990-92, and 1993-95 and were based on numbers of nationally estimated teachers in public schools. The main data sources were the Public School Teacher Questionnaires of the Schools and Staffing Surveys (SASS) and the Teacher Followup Surveys (TFS), a 1-year longitudinal component of the SASS which asked about teacher status the prior year and about why previously employed teachers had left. Descriptive data (reported in 15 tables) revealed major trends in three facets of teacher career paths: moving to different schools, switching to different teaching assignments, and voluntarily leaving the ranks of employed public school teachers. General categories of predictor variables included situational circumstances, teacher characteristics, teacher working conditions, teacher judgments, and changes in such variables from year to year. Results highlighted enormous teacher turnover, with patterns of turnover varying by cognate areas. Significant turnover was perceivdd to be involuntary. Many predictor variables related to teacher turnover. Switchers tended to improve their situation by transferring out of teaching assignments considered less desirable. Voluntary leaving was mostly a function of personal variables. Two appendices present data analysis methods and a glossary. (Contains 14 references.) (SM) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ********************************************************************************


The paper assesses the relationships between the quality of
business and social environments on the example of
micro-regions (districts of municipalities with extended
powers) and meso-regions (NUTS 3) of the Czech Republic. The
applied approach develops the concept of the quality of life
including the identification of system links to regional
competitiveness and sustainability of development. In this
context, the assessment of the business component of the
regional environment that has been already carried out was
supplemented with the assessment of the social component, when
the regions were divided into progressive, standard and
regressive. In both cases, it has been proved (in
correspondence with core-periphery theories) that there is a
tendency towards a decrease in the environment quality in the
direction to regional borders. Subsequently, we evaluated the
balance of the classification of regions (districts) within the
individual components and based on this, the districts of
municipalities with extended powers were divided into three
types: business-oriented (type A), complex (B) and socially
oriented (C). The proportion of the "balanced" type B is
slightly lower than that of the two remaining "unbalanced"
types. Naturally, the results of NUTS 3 evaluation correspond
with this. A similar result was obtained in the case of the
evaluation of regional harmony, which is understood as a
qualitatively higher level of balance meeting socially
desirable development standards. In correspondence, its level
is defined by the proportion of type B regions and type A
regions (excluding the regions with social environment quality
below average). The results show that from the perspective of
the distribution of inhabitants, relatively harmonic
relationship prevails, while from the purely territorial
perspective, the prevailing relationship is disharmonic.


Isometric training, using either isometric handgrip (IHG) or isometric bilateral-leg (IBL) protocols, is an effective method of lowering resting systolic blood pressure (SBPrest). However, the reductions in SBPrest seen after training vary widely between individuals. Predicting likely training-induced reductions in SBPrest could make it possible to optimise the effects of the training in all participants. It is known that post-IHG training reductions in SBPrest can be predicted by SBP responses to a 2 minute IHG task in both hypertensive and older normotensives (Millar et al., 2009; Badrov et al., 2013). However, the predictability of such a test in younger individuals and when using a comparable IBL task, has not been established. Furthermore, it is not known whether these simple isometric tests can predict reductions in ambulatory SBP (mean 24-hour, SBPamb) as well as SBPrest. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether an IBL test can be used to predict training-induced reductions in SBPrest and SBPamb following 10 weeks of IBL training in young men and women.Resting and ambulatory BP (SBPrest and SBPamb) were measured prior to and following 10 weeks of IBL training using an isokinetic dynamometer (4, 2-minute contractions at 20% MVC with 2 minute rest periods, 3/week) in 20 normotensive individuals (10 men, age=21 ± 4 years; 10 women, age=23 ± 5 years). SBP responses to the IBL test (single 2-minute period of IBL exercise) was derived by calculating the difference between peak SBP and mean baseline SBPrest. Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient was used to assess the relationship between the blood pressure responses to a short 2-minute IBL test and the magnitude of the reductions in SBPrest and SBPamb after IBL training.ResultsThere were significant reductions in men and women's SBPrest (7.4±5.1mmHg, p=0.0001 & 5.7±4.1mmHg, p=0.001) and SBPamb (4.0±1.9mmHg, p=0.011 & 6.1±5.8mmHg, p=0.0001) following training. These changes in SBPrest were strongly correlated with pre-training SBP response to the IBL test in both men (r=-0.83, p=0.003, SEE=3.03) and women (r = -0.81, p=0.004, SEE=2.56). However, the magnitude of the reductions in SBPamb were not correlated with SBP response to the IBL test (men, r=-0.44, p=0.199, SEE=1.76; women, r=-0.23, p=0.517, SEE=6.01).These results support previous research which has identified that IBL training is an effective tool for lowering both resting and ambulatory BP. Furthermore, a simple isometric exercise test can be used as a tool to predict reductions in resting SBP, but not ambulatory SBP, after IBL training in both men and women. This test could be used to optimise the effects of this type of training in a wider range of participants, perhaps through modification of the training, to suit the anticipated effects in different individuals.


Recommender systems are ubiquitous not only among e-commerce enterprises but also among various brick-andmortar firms. Popular collaborative filtering-based recommender systems use only individual customers' preferences discovered in their profiles containing historical purchase (or similar) records. On the other hand, the market trends of products are another factor that can substantially affect the likelihood of products being adopted. Consequently, there are rooms for further improvements in collaborative filtering-based recommendation. In this study, we propose the use of the product life cycle concept based on the Bass model and suggest an approach that integrates the general popularity effect (market trend) and the individual preference effect in order to improve recommendation effectiveness of collaborative filtering. Through experimental validation, we find that our approach of combining the product life cycle concept and collaborative filtering performs better than the approach based on typical user-based collaborative filtering alone. In addition, the experiment results show that the influence of preference and popularity effects may vary based on market characteristics. Consequently, the proposed approach can be used as a marketing tool functioning as a basis for valuable services to customers.


ABSTRACT Profound changes in Arctic sea-ice, a growing desire to utilize the Arctic's abundant natural resources, and the potential competitiveness of Arctic shipping routes, all provide for increased industry marine activity throughout the Arctic Ocean. This is anticipated to result in further challenges for maritime safety. Those operating in ice-infested waters require various types of information for sea-ice and iceberg hazards. Ice information requirements depend on regional needs and whether the stakeholder wants to avoid ice all together, operate near or in the Marginal Ice Zone, or areas within the ice pack. An insight into user needs demonstrates how multiple spatial and temporal resolutions for sea-ice information and forecasts are necessary to provide information to the marine operating community for safety, planning, and situational awareness. Although ship-operators depend on sea-ice information for tactical navigation, stakeholders working in route and capacity planning can benefit from climatological and long-range forecast information at lower spatial and temporal resolutions where the interest is focused on open-water season. The advent of the Polar Code has brought with it additional information requirements, and exposed gaps in capacity and knowledge. Thus, future satellite data sources should be at resolutions that support both tactical and planning activities.


The postwar military occupation of Guam is currently undergoing enhanced fortification. This 'mega buildup' associated with the expansion of existing US military bases and personnel includes the transfer of 8000 US Marines and their families from Okinawa in Japan. This military buildup is assumed to shift the US military's significant presence and operability in the Pacific to a society where political opposition from the local residents is less likely to become a diplomatic problem. In this context, the amicability and loyalty to the United States of the indigenous Chamorro residents is an asset (Looking for friendly base' 2004). Chamorro people are the descendents of the earliest residents of the Marianas and the island of Guahan (Guam in local language). Over the last 600 years, the Chamorros have experienced repeated colonization and military occupation by Spain, Japan and the United States. The legacies of each phase have influenced the next. Loyalty from the Chamorro people and support given to the US military is derived, above all, from their enduring sense of gratitude for liberation from brutal Japanese military occupation during World War II and a sense of obligation to repay 'Uncle Sam'.


A cornerstone of Keynesian economic theory is that the prosperity of the nation depends heavily on the amount that the state expends on the general welfare and on public works in particular. This paper will consider historiographical arguments around the application of this theory to Classical Athens of the 5th-4th c. BC. This example has been used to illustrate how, at times in which public outlays were high, the state also experienced significant prosperity, even reaching the apex of its power and dominance. And, conversely, when the amount of money expended by the state shrank and wealth was concentrated in fewer hands, it suffered diminished status. This amounts to a retrospective application of Keynesian economics that will, hopefully, illustrate a key fact of economic practice devoid, as far as possible, from the overarching ideologies that affect such theories in modernity. This is not an uncontroversial approach and the aim of this article is to examine previous attempts to apply this theory along with the criticisms of them.


A comprehensive study of fractal property applied in earthquakes is analyzed based on the aftershock of 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. Different fractal parameters are analyzed to study the magnitude, epicenter and hypocenter structural distributions in time or space. The b-value is found to be 0.86 closed to which is usually 1.0 observed worldwide. This indicates there is a relative abundance of small magnitude events than large ones in the studied range. The spatial correlation is calculated using correlation integral technique, indicating that epicenters are approaching a two-dimensional region and the aftershocks are uniformly distributed along the trend of the aftershock zone. The rate of the fall of aftershock activity with time reflects the decrease of stress is modestly slow. Temporal correlation is 0.59 for aftershocks of M >4.0, indicating a non continuous aftershock activity. Geometrical probability dimension reflecting epicenter clustering degrees of the region was also analyzed. Also the volume fractal dimension of the aftershock region has been calculated using the box-counting technique to study the hypocenter distributions. From the assessment of slip on different faults it is inferred that 67.9% displacement is accommodated on the primary fault and the remainder on secondary faults.


Experiments were conducted to obtain information on the relationship between the coefficients for flow in two directions through thin plate orifices at low velocities. The results indicate that the ratio of the orifice discharge coefficient from standard orifice C(sub s)(sup 1) to the discharge coefficient from the reverse flow C(sub s) is always less than unity with increasing ratio of box area to orifice area. Even for areas as low as twenty, the ratios of the coefficients are not much less than unity. It is probable, however, that when the ratio of box area is less than twenty, the ratio of discharge coefficients would be greatly reduced. Specific results are given for the case of an apparatus for the laboratory testing of superchargers.


We introduce online learning with vector costs (\OLVCp) where in each time step $t \in \{1,\ldots, T\}$, we need to play an action $i \in \{1,\ldots,n\}$ that incurs an unknown vector cost in $[0,1]^{d}$. The goal of the online algorithm is to minimize the $\ell_p$ norm of the sum of its cost vectors. This captures the classical online learning setting for $d=1$, and is interesting for general $d$ because of applications like online scheduling where we want to balance the load between different machines (dimensions).
We study \OLVCp in both stochastic and adversarial arrival settings, and give a general procedure to reduce the problem from $d$ dimensions to a single dimension. This allows us to use classical online learning algorithms in both full and bandit feedback models to obtain (near) optimal results. In particular, we obtain a single algorithm (up to the choice of learning rate) that gives sublinear regret for stochastic arrivals and a tight $O(\min\{p, \log d\})$ competitive ratio for adversarial arrivals.
The \OLVCp problem also occurs as a natural subproblem when trying to solve the popular Bandits with Knapsacks (\BwK) problem. This connection allows us to use our \OLVCp techniques to obtain (near) optimal results for \BwK in both stochastic and adversarial settings. In particular, we obtain a tight $O(\log d \cdot \log T)$ competitive ratio algorithm for adversarial \BwK, which improves over the $O(d \cdot \log T)$ competitive ratio algorithm of Immorlica et al. [FOCS'19].


BACKGROUND: Severe, drug-resistant gastroparesis is a debilitating condition. Several, but not all, patients can get significant relief from nausea and vomiting by gastric electrical stimulation (GES). A trial of temporary, endoscopically delivered GES may be of predictive value to select patients for laparoscopic-implantation of a permanent GES device. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a clinical audit of consecutive gastroparesis patients, who had been selected for GES, from May 2008 to January 2012. Delayed gastric emptying was diagnosed by scintigraphy of ≥50% global improvement in symptom-severity and well-being was a good response. RESULTS: There were 71 patients (51 women, 72%) with a median age of 42 years (range: 14-69). The aetiology of gastroparesis was idiopathic (43 patients, 61%), diabetes (15, 21%), or post-surgical (anti-reflux surgery, 6 patients; Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, 3; subtotal gastrectomy, 1; cardiomyotomy, 1; other gastric surgery, 2) (18%). At presentation, oral nutrition was supplemented by naso-jejunal tube feeding in 7 patients, surgical jejunostomy in 8, or parenterally in 1 (total 16 patients; 22%). Previous intervention included endoscopic injection of botulinum toxin (botox) into the pylorus in 16 patients (22%), pyloroplasty in 2, distal gastrectomy in 1, and gastrojejunostomy in 1. It was decided to directly proceed with permanent GES in 4 patients. Of the remaining, 51 patients have currently completed a trial of temporary stimulation and 39 (77%) had a good response and were selected for permanent GES, which has been completed in 35 patients. Outcome data are currently available for 31 patients (idiopathic, 21 patients; diabetes, 3; post-surgical, 7) with a median follow-up period of 10 months (1-28); 22 patients (71%) had a good response to permanent GES, these included 14 (68%) with idiopathic, 5 (71%) with post-surgical, and remaining 3 with diabetic gastroparesis. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, 71% of well-selected patients with intractable gastroparesis had good response to permanent GES at follow-up of up to 2 years.


ABSTRACT This paper reviews the development and use of the monetary valuation of road safety in Great Britain. The most important component of the benefit of improving road safety is the prevention of casualties. The valuation of the prevention of casualties is based on the "willingness-to-pay" approach, which was adopted for the prevention of fatalities in 1988 and for injuries in 1992. The major applications of monetary valuations of road safety are first in the general appraisal of new or improved roads, and second in the appraisal of specific road safety measures. Road casualty valuations are also sometimes used as benchmarks in other contexts, such as on other transport modes and in industrial safety. Accident savings are an important but minority component of the benefits of new or improved roads; however, specific local road accident remedial measures bring exceptionally high rates of return, typically paying for themselves in accident savings in less than a year.


We used unpublished reports, published manuscripts, and communication with investigators to identify and summarize 49 anthrax-related epidemiologic field investigations conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1950 to August 2001. Of 41 investigations in which Bacillus anthracis caused human or animal disease, 24 were in agricultural settings, 11 in textile mills, and 6 in other settings. Among the other investigations, two focused on building decontamination, one was a response to bioterrorism threats, and five involved other causes. Knowledge gained in these investigations helped guide the public health response to the October 2001 intentional release of B. anthracis, especially by addressing the management of anthrax threats, prevention of occupational anthrax, use of antibiotic prophylaxis in exposed persons, use of vaccination, spread of B. anthracis spores in aerosols, clinical diagnostic and laboratory confirmation methods, techniques for environmental sampling of exposed surfaces, and methods for decontaminating buildings.


Contamination of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) with xenobiotic compounds and their fate during anaerobic digestion was investigated. The phthalic acid ester di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) was identified as the main contaminant in OFMSW in concentrations more than half of the threshold value for the use as fertilizer on agricultural soil in Denmark. Analysis of DEHP in samples before and after large-scale anaerobic digesters revealed higher concentrations of DEHP per kg dry matter in the effluent than in the influent. The concentration of DEHP and DBP (dibutylphthalate) in OFMSW was monitored in the influent and effluent of anaerobic thermophilic (55 degrees C) and hyper-thermophilic (68 degrees C) laboratory-scale reactor systems. In the thermophilic reactors with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 15 days 38-70% of DBP was removed, but no consistent removal of DEHP was observed. However, after treatment of the effluent from the thermophilic reactor in a hyper-thermophilic digester (HRT: 5 days) 34-53% of the DEHP content was removed and the DBP removal was increased to further 62-74%. Removal rates (k(h)) of DEHP and DBP were found to be 0.11-0.32 d(-1) and 0.41-0.79 d(-1), which is much higher than in previous investigations. It can be concluded that the higher removal rates are due to the higher temperature and higher initial concentrations per kg dry matter. These results suggest that the limiting factor for DEHP degradation is the bioavailability, which is enhanced at higher temperature and higher degradation of solid organic matter, to which the highly hydrophobic DEHP is adsorbed. The investigated reactor configuration with a thermophilic and a hyper-thermophilic treatment is, therefore, a good option for combining high rate degradation of organic matter with high biogas yields and efficient reduction of the phthalic acid ester contamination.


Stable picosecond soliton transmission is demonstrated numerically by use of concatenated gain-distributed nonlinear amplifying fiber loop mirrors (NALMs). We show that, as compared with previous soliton transmission schemes that use conventional NALMs or nonlinear optical loop mirror (NOLM) and amplifier combinations, the present scheme permits significant increase of loop-mirror (amplifier) spacing. The broad switching window of the present device and the high quality pulses switched from it provide a reasonable stability range for soliton transmission. Soliton-soliton interactions can be reduced efficiently by using lowly dispersive fibers.


Background : Addictive disorders are more prevalent in emergency department (ED) than in the general population; about 20% of alcohol tests on individuals in emergency care prove positive. ED are strategic places to identify addictive disorders, and identification is closely linked to therapeutic attitudes. Aims: This study explores ED staff attitudes to these individuals across a range of roles. Methods: Data were gathered from the ED of a general hospital in Brittany (France). We used a short questionnaire, adapted from previous, similar French studies.

Results: 25 persons completed the first questionnaire. The results of a self-administered questionnaire on attitudes showed there is interest in our study. It helped us to identify attitudes perceptions and limits and to initiate discussion on types of therapeutic behaviour in emergency care towards individuals presenting with addictive disorders.

Conclusions: Many studies confirm that screening and brief intervention for alcohol misuse and alcohol use disorders are important in order to organize harm reduction, prevention and care. However, we showed that there are significant limitations to screening which are not only linked to biomedical skills but, as we have shown here, also to personal feelings and perceptions about alcohol. We also discussed our study limitations and different ways of improving addiction care in the Accident & Emergency department with regard to the literature


The study examines Soviet fashion houses as fashion corporations with an extensive structure and a certain autonomy which served as centers for the development and representation of Soviet fashion. These state institutions were created in the capitals and large cities of the Soviet republics. The Moscow All-Union Fashion House acted as a methodological center for fashion houses of all Soviet republics. The Ukrainian SSR was one of the important centers of fashion development in the Soviet Union, and it included six general orientation and five specialized fashion houses, as well as the Ukrainian Institute of Assortment of Light Industry Products and Clothing Culture. Based on a wide range of archival sources and interviews with fashion house workers, the article reveals the structure and operation of Ukrainian fashion houses in the period between 1940 and 1991 and also examine their cooperative endeavors with garment enterprises and research institutions. The technology of clothing production by designers, the processes of approval to which these technologies were subjected by art councils, and the organization of exhibitions in the USSR and abroad are also considered.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical safety and efficacy of risperidone compared to haloperidol in patients with treatment-refractory schizophrenia.

METHOD
Sixty-seven medication-unresponsive subjects were randomly assigned to treatment with risperidone (N = 34) or haloperidol (N = 33). After a 3-7 day-placebo washout period, there was a 4-week, double-blind, fixed-dose comparison trial that was followed by a 4-week, flexible-dose phase. Measures of clinical change were quantified by standard psychopathologic and neuromotor instruments.

RESULTS
Risperidone demonstrated clinical efficacy superior to that of haloperidol on the total Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) after the first 4 weeks of treatment. Risperidone did not show any advantage over haloperidol after an additional 4 weeks. Overall improvement on the BPRS at 4 weeks was significantly better for the risperidone group (24%) than for the haloperidol group (11%). Risperidone-treated subjects were significantly less likely than haloperidol-treated subjects to require concomitant anticholinergic medication after 4 weeks (20% versus 63%); they also had significantly les observable akathisia (24% versus 53%) and significantly less severe tardive dyskinesia. Baseline characteristics that correlated significantly with risperidone response were positive symptoms, conceptual disorganization, akathisia, and tardive dyskinesia.

CONCLUSIONS
Risperidone was better tolerated and more effective in a subset of patients with treatment-refractory schizophrenia. Positive psychotic symptoms and extrapyramidal side effects at baseline appear to be powerful predictors of subsequent response to risperidone.


Landmarks often play a key role in face analysis, but many aspects of identity or expression cannot be represented by sparse landmarks alone. Thus, in order to reconstruct faces more accurately, landmarks are often combined with additional signals like depth images or techniques like differentiable rendering. Can we keep things simple by just using more landmarks? In answer, we present the first method that accurately predicts 10x as many landmarks as usual, covering the whole head, including the eyes and teeth. This is accomplished using synthetic training data, which guarantees perfect landmark annotations. By fitting a morphable model to these dense landmarks, we achieve state-of-the-art results for monocular 3D face reconstruction in the wild. We show that dense landmarks are an ideal signal for integrating face shape information across frames by demonstrating accurate and expressive facial performance capture in both monocular and multi-view scenarios. This approach is also highly efficient: we can predict dense landmarks and fit our 3D face model at over 150FPS on a single CPU thread. Please see our website: https://microsoft.github.io/DenseLandmarks/.


This study investigates the efficacy of dynamic image analysis (DIA) for determining particle size and shape distribution. The method employs a high-frame-rate camera to image individual particles of sand that have been transported and separated using a stream of pressurized air. DIA can generate both particle size and shape information and provides a quantitative statistical description of the grain size and shape distribution within the specimen. The feasibility, repeatability, and accuracy of DIA for routine analysis of particle size and shape distribution was investigated using 16 granular soils spanning a number of common sizes and shapes. Several particle shape descriptors were evaluated, including aspect ratio, convexity, and sphericity. The effect of a variety of test parameters including moisture content, sample weight, primary air pressure, and test duration were explored to determine the optimal specimen weight and equipment settings for DIA. Finally, the efficacy of DIA in resolving mixtures of fine and coarse sands was also explored. The method proved to be feasible, repeatable, and accurate for providing particle size distributions spanning four orders of magnitude, in terms of particle size. DIA offers a number of advantages; the method is quick, requires small specimen sizes, and provides quantitative information on approximately 3–4 % of the particles in the specimen.


This work investigates the alignment of galactic spins with the cosmic web across cosmic time using the cosmological hydrodynamical simulation Horizon-AGN. The cosmic web structure is extracted via the persistent skeleton as implemented in the DISPERSE algorithm. It is found that the spin of low-mass galaxies is more likely to be aligned with the filaments of the cosmic web and to lie within the plane of the walls while more massive galaxies tend to have a spin perpendicular to the axis of the filaments and to the walls. The mass transition is detected with a significance of 9σ. This galactic alignment is consistent with the alignment of the spin of dark haloes found in pure dark matter simulations and with predictions from (anisotropic) tidal torque theory. However, unlike haloes, the alignment of low-mass galaxies is weak and disappears at low redshifts while the orthogonal spin orientation of massive galaxies is strong and increases with time, probably as a result of mergers. At fixed mass, alignments are correlated with galaxy morphology: the high-redshift alignment is dominated by spiral galaxies while elliptical centrals are mainly responsible for the perpendicular signal. The two regimes probed in this work induce competing galactic alignment signals for weak lensing, with opposite redshift and luminosity evolution. Understanding the details of these intrinsic alignments will be key to exploit future major cosmic shear surveys like Euclid or LSST.


In this paper we present a rigorous cost and error analysis of a multilevel estimator based on randomly shifted Quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) lattice rules for lognormal diffusion problems. These problems are motivated by uncertainty quantification problems in subsurface flow. We extend the convergence analysis in [Graham et al., Numer. Math. 2014] to multilevel Quasi-Monte Carlo finite element discretizations and give a constructive proof of the dimension-independent convergence of the QMC rules. More precisely, we provide suitable parameters for the construction of such rules that yield the required variance reduction for the multilevel scheme to achieve an $\varepsilon$-error with a cost of $\mathcal{O}(\varepsilon^{-\theta})$ with $\theta < 2$, and in practice even $\theta \approx 1$, for sufficiently fast decaying covariance kernels of the underlying Gaussian random field inputs. This confirms that the computational gains due to the application of multilevel sampling methods and the gains due to the application of QMC methods, both demonstrated in earlier works for the same model problem, are complementary. A series of numerical experiments confirms these gains. The results show that in practice the multilevel QMC method consistently outperforms both the multilevel MC method and the single-level variants even for non-smooth problems.


Fifty years have now passed since Graham (1954) published his seminal paper advocating the use of anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) as a rapid and sensitive petrofabric tool. During these five decades, Graham's 'under-exploited' method has become standard, and AMS and related techniques are now routinely applied to characterizing fabrics in a wide variety of geological materials (e.g. the GEOREF database lists over 500 journal publications with 'magnetic anisotropy' as keywords). Magnetic anisotropy works as a petrofabric tool because individual grains of most minerals are magnetically anisotropic, i.e. easier to magnetize in certain orientations, which are governed primarily by crystallography and/or grain shape. Magnetic anisotropy at the bulk rock scale results from the preferred crystallographic orientation (PCO) and/or preferred dimensional orientation (PDO) of anisotropic mineral grains. AMS can also result from magnetostatic interactions among closely spaced, strongly magnetic grains that are heterogeneously distributed in a matrix of more weakly magnetic minerals. In either case, magnetic anisotropy is directly related to some aspects of rock fabric, and thus it provides a quick, simple and effective characterization tool, even though the relationship between magnetic fabric and petrofabric is quite complex in detail. The present collection of papers originated, in part, at a special session on magnetic fabrics at the Joint Assembly of the EGS-AGU-EUG (April 2003) in Nice, which highlighted recent methodological advances, theoretical and experimental studies, and characterization of flow and deformation fabrics in rocks and sediments. A similar session at the AGU Fall Meeting (December 2003) in San Francisco underscored the continuing breadth


Background : Sciatica is one of the most common painful and disabling conditions affecting about 40% of low back pain cases and 1.6% - 43% of adult population annually. Many conventional physiotherapeutic modalities have been used to manage sciatica but the effect of Nerve Flossing Technique (NFT), which is a cost effective treatment option in the management of acute sciatica is yet to be investigated. Aim : This study was therefore conducted to investigate the influence of NFT on acute sciatica symptoms and hip range of motion. Methods : A pretest-posttest control experimental design, involving 32 participants from two hospitals in Lagos state Nigeria, with acute sciatica were randomly assigned into two groups; Group A (Study Group) received NFT in addition to Conventional Physiotherapy and group B (Control Group) received only Conventional Physiotherapy. The outcome of the study was assessed using Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) and Passive Straight Leg Raise (PSLR). Results : The result of this study revealed that, both groups were found to have significant improvement in NPRS score (P<0.01) and PSLR value (P<0.01). However, the study group had significant (P<0.01) improvement in both outcome measures when compared to the control group. Conclusion : Nerve Flossing Technique reduced acute sciatica and improved hip range of motion hence, can be utilised in the treatment of patient with acute sciatica. Key words : Nerve Flossing Technique, acute sciatica, conventional physiotherapy, hip range of motion, Numeric Pain Rating Scale, intraneural edema


Curse tablets provide an important piece of epigraphical evidence of ritual practices based on sympathetic magic in the ancient Mediterranean world. Our contribution fo-cuses on the use of the aversus-formula in Latin defixiones and its functional equiva-lents in Greek curses, spanning from the 5th cent. BCE up to the 4th cent. CE. The cor-pus of curse tablets containing the aversus-formula, either as a subset of a simile-formula is analysed in terms of diachronic development, territorial distribution, regional specificity, and especially the functional aspects of the magical analogy. Latin curses containing the aversus-formula and Greek documents with the functional equivalents exhibit many peculiarities with respect to the orientation of the script (e.g. retrograde, upside down) which are closely connected with the rules of sympathetic magic that sometimes governed also the ac-companying ritual.


Background Methotrexate is the anchor drug used most widely as monotherapy or combination therapy with other DMARDS & biologics in treatment of RA. It is widely perceived by clinicians to have potentially dangerous adverse effects (AE). The present study was designed to assess safety of long term methotrexate in patients with RA on standard care in clinical practice. Objectives To evaluate the safety of long term methorexate therapy in patients with RA Methods RA patients on methotrexate therapy at recommended doses (15–25 mg per week) as monotherapy or in combination with other conventional dmards or biologics for over 4 years were enrolled between Jan 2016 to Dec 2016. Since the objective was to assess safety, those patients initiated on methotrexate 4 years ago but had discontinued due to adverse effects were also included. Patients were analysed with a questionnaire and review of past records from the clinic. The questionnaire included questions about duration and compliance of methotrexate therapy, any untoward effects that patient felt were due to methotrexate and direct questions related to known methotrexate side effects. Investigations were reviewed from past records.Data were presented by 1- year intervals starting from the time patient received first dose of methotrexate. Adverse events (AE), rate of discontinuation and abnormal laboratory results were analysed per 100 patient (pt.) years in 1 year intervals. Results Females, no. (%) 205 (89.9%) Age, mean ± SD (years) 48.6 (±10.8) Disease duration, mean ± SD (years) 8.4 (±5) Seropositive (RF and/ or ACPA) 207 (91%) Methotrexate monotherapy (%) 55 (24%) The cumulative exposure to methotrexate was 926 patient years. Of 228 patients, 218 continued methotrexate through 4 years. Overall 10 patients discontinued methotrexate over 4 years, 5 due to GI intolerance and 1 due skin allergy in the first year. In subsequent years 2 patients were withdrawn due to chronic cough, 1 due to raised transaminases and 1 patient after severe infection and pancytopenia. Incidence of AEs, severe AEs, infections, laboratory abnormalities and discontinuations due to AE's declined during 4 years exposure. The most common AEs included nausea and dyspepsia (24.6/ 100 pt. years in first year with declining incidence through 4 years). The second most common AE reported was infections (7/100 pt. years). Most common infections were mild UTI & respiratory tract infections.14 patients initially asymptomatic or having mild nausea reported significantly increased nausea in year 4 and beyond, all responding to reduction of methotrexate dose. The incidence of severe AE that needed hospitalisation &/ or discontinuation of methotrexate was 2.6/100 pt. years in year 1 with declining events over time. The cumulative risk of serious AE over 4 years was 1.2/ 100 pt. years. Conclusions Methotexate therapy was well tolerated over 4 years treatment period with a good safety profile. Most of the AE's were mild to moderate severity not needing discontinuation of methotrexate. Study has limitations since it is retrospective observational study with small patient number from two outpatient rheumatology clinics. Some AE's may have been underestimated as patient compliance not ascertained and patients with AE's may have lost to follow up. Some effects may have been overestimated as precise causality is not proven. During the 4 years methotrexate treatment, no new safety concerns emerged. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Advancement in wireless technology and the oncoming of the Internet of Things (IoT) marked an incredible growth in the wireless connectivity, ultimately concluding in a major expansion in the mobile electronics industry. Today, around 3.1 billion users are reported being connected to the internet, along with 16.3 billion mobile electronic devices. The increasing connectivity has lead to an increase in demand for mobile services, consequently, increasing demand for location services and mobility analytics. The most common location tracking or direction finding devices are found in the form of Global Positioning System (GPS) which provides location data for a client device using satellite-based lateration techniques. However, the use of the GPS is fairly limited to large distances and often tends to fail when smaller distances are concerned. This thesis aims to dive into the study of different direction finding algorithms based on angle of arrival estimation specifically pertaining to the indoor location tracking and navigation, also known as hyperlocation. The thesis will go over the main elements used in direction finding systems while looking at some of the present research done in this respective field of interest. Afterwards, the thesis will focus on a specific angle of arrival estimation algorithm which is widely being used for hyerplocation solutions and propose an alteration in the algorithm in order to achieve a faster runtime performance on weaker processors. A comparison between the accuracies will be made between the original algorithm and the suggested solution, followed by a runtime comparison on different processing units.


Despite globalization there still are food patterns which are clearly differentiated from one region to another in Europe and elsewhere.  In this study the Atlantic Diet is considered as thetraditional diet in Portugal and Galicia, a regionin northwest Spain. This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the Atlantic Diet food pattern in order to fully exploit the potential of this Atlantic gastronomical heritage. The background of the Atlantic Diet concept, the characterization of Atlantic Diet foods and a compilation of scientific findings related to the consumption of these foods are covered. A brief description of the Mediterranean Diet, the primitive pattern and the updated Mediterranean pyramid are also included in order to aid understanding of the globalization of this previously local health food pattern. Final remarks and suggestions for further studies are made.


This article compares the histories of two museums of polar exploration, both founded in the 1930s but based on well-known expeditions dating back to the decades around 1900. The first is the Fram Museum in Oslo, centered around the famous Norwegian polar ship, the second is the Andree Museum in Granna, com-bining accounts of the ill-fated balloon expedition with a polar centre reflecting more recent polar research activities. The aim of the article is to analyze the relationship between museum and narrative. Museums are shapers of narrative but at the same time shaped by the narratives they relate. The article explores the symbolic and medialized dimensions of polar research, expressed in museums, as well as the way in which museums in-terrelate with national identities and selfimages. What does it mean to be a modern polar nation? And how is such an identity expressed in cultural terms? In which ways can museum institutions and exhibi-tions be used as means for such expressions? And how do "the grand narratives" of Sweden and Norway relate to the epic representations of polar activities, presented by the museums?


Background: Malaria is a Lifethreatening blood disease caused by parasites and influenced the human population and human history to a great extent. This study aims to describe the clinical spectrum, outcome of severe Malaria and compare the severity of plasmodium species. Methods: This prospective study was conducted in Department of Pediatrics, PBM and Associated Group of Hospitals, Bikaner from June 2012 to December 2012. Only those patients having severe malaria as per WHO 2010 guidelines were included in this study. The diagnosis was made by peripheral blood examination &/or RDT. Results: 30.37% (130 patients) were categorized as severe malaria according to WHO guidelines. Maximum cases of severe malaria 53.07% presented in 0-5 year age group. The preponderance of male sex in all species of severe malaria. The major complication encountered in severe malaria was severe anemia (78.5%). Plsmodium falciparum infection was found to be more serious to cause significant mortality as comparison to Plasmodiium vivax infection and mixed infection. Conclusion: we should further give a second thought before labelling P.vivax as benign infection and should consider the chances of complications seriously in P.vivax because it has greater burden in society.


In Canterbury, the cereal aphid (Rhopalosiphum padi) has a bi-modal annual flight pattern with peaks in autumn and late spring. The autumn peak coincides with the migration of aphids into autumn and winter sown wheat. The timing, magnitude and duration of flights vary dramatically from year to year and can have important implications for the management of this aphid in cereals. Twenty years of climatic and aphid flight data were used to train a neural network to obtain a model to predict the date and size of aphid migrations in cereal crops in Canterbury, New Zealand. The model provided an exceptional fit to the ten years of training data but gave disappointingly poor prediction for the eight years of validation data. Possible reasons for poor prediction of validation data are given and suggestions are made concerning future developments.


This study aimed at determining whether or not the knowledge, educational level, perception, and attitude of the pesantren students affect the implementation of the multilingual simultaneous-sequential model (MSSM). This research employed quantitative research using a survey design. The sample of the study consisted of 100 students of three pesantren schools in the city of Makassar ( Pesantren Modern IMMIM , Pondok Madinah , and Pesantren Darul Arqam Muhammadiyah Gombara ). The data were collected through the questionnaire and be analyzed descriptively and inferentially using SPSS program. The results found that the knowledge, level of education, perception, and attitude of pesantren students collectively had a positive impact on the MSSM. However, these perceptions have no significant effect on the MSSM implementation partially. The results of this study contributed to developing further multilingual teaching and learning material such as syllabus, lesson plan, and course book for pesantren students in Indonesia, especially in Makassar.


The discovery of HLA antigen associations with juvenile-type insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) provided strong evidence separating this disorder, or group of disorders, from maturity-type noninsulin-dependent diabetes, as well as adding to the evidence for an immunologic pathogenesis. In addition, it was hoped that the use of these disease-marker associations in appropriate studies might clarify the genetics of IDDM. While these associations have provided a useful tool to further investigate the genetics and pathogenesis of IDDM, the mode or modes of inheritance of this group of disorders remain an area of great controversy. Susceptibility to IDDM is currently being proposed as being inherited as a single autosomal dominant, as a single autosomal recessive, as recessive and some dominant forms, in an intermediate gene dosage model, in a heterogeneous three-allele or two HLA loci model, and as a two-locus disorder. The arguments for each of these proposals is presented, as well as the problems of each. We surmise that the weight of evidence supports the heterogeneity hypothesis but that the modes of inheritance of IDDM will be fully resolved only when we can more reliably identify the diabetogenic genotype, rather than being limited in our investigations to the study of only full-blown clinical disease.


Cross-domain authentication is a key technology used in distributed computing, however, it isn't perfect. In this paper, a new type of hybrid cross-domain authentication model is proposed to make up its shortcoming in safety, scalability and password synchronization. In this model, advantages of Kerberos and SAML in cross-domain authentication process are combined, and it mixed password transport protocols is adopted to achieve password synchronization. Theoretical analysis shows it can enhance the security and scalability of cross-domain authentication, the efficiency of cross-domain authentication is also improved as the attainment of password synchronization.


The concept of deliberative privilege poses a true threat to maintaining public involvement in public policy decision-making. The threat arises from the very nature of privileges themselves. They sacrifice individual interests in the interest of a larger public good. Unfortunately, deliberative privilege sacrifices such interests as ensuring justice for the individual and public participation. However, a way exists to overcome the threats the privilege establishes – characterize criteria as facts and thus discoverable and open to public scrutiny. Just knowing the criteria upon which public administrators base their decisions could give the public confidence in those administrators and their policies.


Rationale : The cognitive science literature suggests both advantages and disadvantages of bilingualism for cognitive performance. However, little is known about the generalizability of such findings to clinical neuropsychology for diagnosing brain dysfunction in Spanish dominant bilinguals in the U.S. The present study examined the effects of bilingualism on Spanish-language neuropsychological test performance, and whether or not these bilingual advantages could be explained by socioeconomic status (SES). Design : Forty seven Spanish monolinguals and 42 Spanish-English bilinguals from the U.S. - Mexico border region were selected based on a ratio of English words to total words produced on a verbal fluency task in both language. Effects of bilingualism on neuropsychological test performance were examined as means comparisons between groups with comparable education, age, and sex. SES contributions were examined by comparing the performance of 28 bilingual and 28 monolingual participants with comparable demographic characteristics, and self-reported SES on tests where bilingual advantages were previously found. Results : Controlling for education, bilinguals out-performed monolinguals on a test of executive function, and some tests of attention/working memory, and processing speed, with an unexpected advantage on a test of visual memory. No differences were found on tests of language abilities, learning, visuospatial, or motor skills. Bilinguals had higher childhood SES than monolinguals. After equating groups on childhood SES, bilinguals still outperformed monolinguals on tests of executive functioning (Trail Making Test B and Stroop Color-Word Interference Condition), a measure of attention and concentration (WAIS-R Digit Span), and a measure of processing speed (WAIS-III-Symbol Search). Conclusion : These findings suggest that bilingual advantages observed in the cognitive science literature are seen on some neuropsychological tests that are commonly used in clinical settings, suggesting that learning a second language improves performance in a person's native language. These results suggest that bilingualism likely confers a true neuropsychological advantage beyond what can be explained by SES and education differences. This needs to be considered when interpreting test performance, adding complexity to the generation and application of test norms in bilingual groups


We present an approach to realizing on-chip optical quantum information processing (QIP) systems comprising (1) single photon source (SPS) arrays, here based on a new class of ordered single quantum dots of controlled size and shape named Mesa-top Single Quantum Dots (MTSQDs) that are naturally integrable in scalable architectures with (2) on-chip light manipulating units (LMUs) based upon either the conventional 2D photonic crystal platform or metastructures made of subwavelength size dielectric building blocks (DBBs) whose collective Mie-like optical resonances provide, simultaneously, all the needed light manipulating functions. The MTSQDs can provide high spectral uniformity with as-grown pairs emitting within $300\mu $ eV—thus calling for exploration of pathways for implementing on-chip SPS-SPS coupling for quantum entanglement. To this end, we present here simulation results for two different DBB-based implementations of scalable photon entanglement in MTSQD-DBB LMU coupled system.: (1) DBB array based nanoantenna-waveguide-beamsplitter-beamcombiner metastructures around the MTSQD SPSs that exploit primarily their collective magnetic dipole mode to simultaneously provide Purcell enhancement, enhanced emission directionality, waveguiding, beamspliting and beamcombining, thus enabling on-chip path entanglement via indirect coupling between the SPSs; (2) two MTSQDs coupled directly via the collective magnetic dipole mode of a back-to-back nanoantenna-waveguide structure. In either case, the long-distance coupled MTSQD-DBB structural units constitute the primitives for building complex quantum optical circuits.


FRANCE Music and the Language of Love: Seventeenth-Century French Airs. By Catherine Gordon-Seifert. (Music and the Early Modern Imagination; Musical Meaning and Interpretation.) Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011. [viii, 390 p. ISBN 9780253354617. $44.95.] Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index.Catherine Gordon-Seifert uncovers a salon culture obsessed with the painful pleasure and (mostly) the pleasing pain of love in Music and the Language of Love: Seventeenth-Century French Airs. Her study focuses on the serious airs of four composers active during the 1650s and 1660s: Michel Lambert, Benigne de Bacilly, Joseph Chabanceau de La Barre, and Sebastien Le Camus. This period is significant for the emergence of a new style that combined Italian monody with the French courtly love song. Instead of placing their lady on a pedestal, these lovers berate her for her cruelty and faithlessness, all the while deploring their inability to eradicate her image from their hearts. The serious air would eventually embody much that was characteristic of the French vocal style, and with this study Gordon-Seifert seeks to demonstrate what is significant about the air as an artistic object, as well as to show how "this repertory takes on a collective meaning and significance and offers insight into love, relationships, [and] attitudes toward a woman's place in society" (p. 4). Her understanding of this music and the culture that fostered it is nuanced and penetrating; further, she implements a novel system of stylistic analysis using the principles of rhetoric that will serve as a model to other scholars of French baroque song.Passion for the spoken word ran high among some elements of seventeenthcentury French society, and nowhere more so than in the ruelles, or salons, where it constituted a primary diversion. This was, after all, a culture that gave us jeux d'esprit and treatises on the art of conversation. Gordon-Seifert successfully draws upon contemporary sources on poetics, rhetoric, and music to illustrate not only the importance of orality to this culture, but also how expressivity, inflection, and tone mattered as much, if not more, than the written words themselves. The intent of the serious air was, above all else, to move the passions, and Gordon-Seifert builds a convincing case for why the principles of rhetoric apply. This music sought to persuade and thrill the listener with a logically ordered discourse, containing appeals to the senses that salon participants would have recognized as elements of gallant conversation.Gordon-Seifert develops the relationship between poetry, rhetoric and the composition of airs over chapters 1-5. As she puts it: "the analysis of the airs is organized according to four of the five components of rhetoric most relevant to composition and performance: invention (inventio, or an identification of the topic and the means of portraying it), disposition (dipositio, or the arrangement and organization of expressions), style or elocution (elocutio, or syntax, diction, and figures), and pronunciation (actio, or performance)" (p. 7). She includes abundant musical examples, which she uses to bolster her argument that "particular combinations of musical devices carried specific meaning" (p. 57). Seven of the principal passions and their textual and musical representations are explored, just as musical idiosyncrasies (meter changes, misplaced bar lines, etc.) are analyzed for their affective significance. Gordon-Seifert persuasively compares the double, or ornamented repeat, with what rhetoricians termed the confirmation, a portion of a speech in which the speaker strengthens propositions set forth in the introduction. Chapters 7-8 explore the veiled erotic language of the airs and chart the eventual backlash against them as wider distribution of published collections began to alarm church officials. Interestingly, Gordon- Seifert points out that "rhetoric and eloquence were the grounds on which the air was attacked" (p. …


This investigation assessed a number of 2D and 3D surround systems focusing on the attribute "envelopment" to determine if surround systems with height significantly enhance the perception of envelopment over current 2D systems. To assess each of the systems an objective and subjective method was used. The objective method consisted of measuring the IACC (Inter-aural Cross Correlation) of each reproduction system by reproducing three different types of sound scenes over each system. In addition, a subjective listening test was also carried out to evaluate the perceived envelopment. The objective measure showed that the introduction of height channels did lower the IACC. Further, subjective listening test results showed that there were significant differences between the height and horizontal surround systems in terms of envelopment, however this was dependent on the audio stimulus used. Finally, a correlation between the objective and subjective measures showed a strong negative correlation.


Light microscopy is a powerful single-cell technique that allows for quantitative spatial information at subcellular resolution. However, unlike flow cytometry and single-cell sequencing techniques, microscopy has issues achieving high-quality population-wide sample characterization while maintaining high resolution. Here, we present a general framework, data-driven microscopy (DDM), that uses population-wide cell characterization to enable data-driven high-fidelity imaging of relevant phenotypes. DDM combines data-independent and data-dependent steps to synergistically enhance data acquired using different imaging modalities. As proof-of-concept, we apply DDM with plugins for improved high-content screening and live adaptive microscopy. DDM also allows for easy correlative imaging in other systems with a plugin that uses the spatial relationship of the sample population for automated registration. We believe DDM will be a valuable approach for reducing human bias, increasing reproducibility, and placing singlecell characteristics in the context of the sample population when interpreting microscopy data, leading to an overall increase in data fidelity.


The COVID-19 pandemic has generated many suits including thousands of class actions in which plaintiffs claim that defendants caused economic or health-related harm. Although the COVID-19 context may have led many plaintiffs' ' lawyers to believe that the cases would be received with great sympathy, courts thus far have been very cautious, focusing closely as they do in non-COVID cases on whether the defendant has breached clear contractual commitments or has engaged in tortious or other wrongdoing. If anything, courts have been more skeptical and cautious in the COVID-19 context, recognizing that everyone has suffered due to the pandemic and that, in many instances, defendants themselves have attempted in good faith to navigate the challenges raised by the pandemic. This Essay focuses primarily on three categories of cases that have already generated numerous rulings: (1) business interruption insurance claims, (2) tuition reimbursement actions, and (3) suits against prisons and immigration detention facilities. These three categories of cases line up on a continuum based on whether the proximate cause of the harm is COVID-19 itself or the conduct of the defendants. At one end are the business interruption insurance cases, which have received hostile treatment from almost all courts that have considered those claims. The underlying insurance policies almost universally require "physical loss or damage" to property, a requirement that is hard to square with losses caused by a pandemic. In the middle are the tuition refund cases, which have seen mixed success, with many (but not all) courts granting motions to dismiss after failing to find that there was a contractual commitment to in person teaching. At the other end is the category of cases raising health and safety issues related to COVID-19 in prisons and at immigration detention facilities. On the merits, this is the strongest of the three categories, given the clear legal duty of government officials to protect the health of those in their custody. Yet, even in this context, many courts have declined to authorize injunctive relief finding that the officials involved have attempted in good faith to protect their populations from COVID-19. At bottom, courts have commendably stayed focused on the merits and have not been swayed by the enormity of COVID-19 or the large numbers of claims. After discussing the three categories above, this Essay also briefly examines (1) consumer, labor, and securities fraud cases in the context of COVID-19;(2) COVID-19 cases involving arbitration clauses and class action waivers;and (3) the handful of class-wide settlements that have thus far been reached in COVID-related litigation.


BACKGROUND
Self-efficacy has been identified as one of the most consistent variables that predict the outcome of alcohol treatment. However, many previous studies in this field failed to control for other important predictors (e.g., dependences severity, psychiatric symptoms, and treatment goal). Our study's first goal was to evaluate the predictive value of self-efficacy when most other relevant variables were statistically controlled. The second goal was to compare the predictive values of self-efficacy assessed with the Situational Confidence Questionnaire (SCQ), and general self-efficacy assessed with a single question.

METHODS
Four hundred and fifteen patients with alcohol dependence from 12 residential alcohol use disorder (AUD) treatment programs were assessed at treatment admission, discharge, and the 1-year follow-up. A stepwise logistic regression for abstinence was calculated using all predictors. For those predictors that were significant, a Cox survival regression analysis was performed to predict the time to the first drink after discharge.

RESULTS
Only abstinence as treatment goal, alcohol use during treatment, and general self-efficacy as measured by 1 question were revealed to be significant predictors in the stepwise regression, whereas all other variables, including self-efficacy as measured by the SCQ, were not significantly associated with abstinence at the 1-year follow-up. Cox survival regression analysis showed a significant difference in the time to first alcohol use between patients with maximum general self-efficacy and those with lower general self-efficacy, when the other 2 significant variables were controlled for.

CONCLUSIONS
General self-efficacy, that is, the patients' own prognosis of his success in remaining abstinent, was a central variable in predicting residential alcohol dependence treatment outcome. Self-efficacy showed a more accurate prognosis of outcome when it was assessed with just 1 question, than when assessed with the SCQ. With this simplified assessment, knowledge of the prognostic value of self-efficacy could be made applicable for everyday practice.


We present a first study on the reconfigurability of optical op erators in the optical computing platform, ternary optical computer (TOC), from the viewpoint of complex network. In th e optical operator reconfiguration network (OORN), vertexe s stand for the basic operating units (BOUs) and the optical operators, and directed edges indicate the dynamic reconfiguration rel ations between BOUs and operators. We find that the OORN has small-world patt ern and scale-free feature as other complex networks. In ord er to describe the clustering property of the OORN, we propose an a ppro ch for characterizing the OORN by introducing a new num erical feature, density of vertex. Its density distribution follo ws power-law distribution as its cumulative degree distrib ution. In addition, we find that it is reasonable and optimal to use 50 kinds of BOUs in real TOC system by comparing the OORNs with different kinds o f BOUs.


Human settlements, throughout history, have been characterised by the proximity of places of natural wealth, in order to perpetrate life and to strength their own anthropological and material culture. This is the case of Porcuna, a village in the province of Jaén (Andalusia, Spain), with more than sixty centuries of interrupted human presence. The main natural resource of the area is a deposit of sandstone used for three million years. The above-mentioned stone has been the constructive material in this territory for all the ages, marking not only its material culture but also its own social anthropology. Considering the durability of this material, it is possible to appreciate that its use has remained unvaried in spite of continuous changings concerning techniques or demands. The presentation deals with several cultural heritage buildings in Porcuna, carried out with the same local sandstone, from the Roman amphitheatre (I century b.C.) to the so-called Casa de la Piedra (XX century). Starting from this analysis, it is possible to observe that the same material has been used, over the years, in different cultural heritage buildings that have been affected by the same stone deteriorations. Basically, a single material has produced a vernacular culture conformed to different moments in the history of the village, allowing to preserve some relevant cultural heritage architectures.


This thesis investigates the role of the enteric nervous system, or 'the abdominal brain' in colon cancer. Through this study, it has been shown that there is an interaction between the nerve cells of the gut and the tumor cells, where certain proteins secreted by nerve cells can affect the growth of the tumor. It has also been shown that the presence or absence of nerve fibers in colon tumors may predict the life expectancy of colon cancer patients. Finally, it was discovered that many methylation markers, which can be used for early detection of colon cancer, are involved in nervous system processes. These studies indicate the importance of the enteric nervous system in colon cancer, which has not been extensively studied before. In the future, this research may lead to the development of new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers as well as new therapies for colon cancer.


Many models in economics involve probabilistic choices where each decision-maker selects the best alternative from a finite set. Viewing the value of each alternative as a random variable, the analyst is then interested in the choice probabilities, that is, the probability for an alternative to give the maximum value. Much analytical power can be gained, both for positive and normative analysis, if the maximum value is statistically independent of which alternative obtains the highest value. This note synthesizes and generalizes previous results on this invariance property. We provide characterizations of the property within a wide class of distributions that comprises the McFadden GEV class, show implications in several directions, and establish connections with copulas. We illustrate the usefulness of the invariance property by way of a few examples.


This paper presents mobile terminal for devices operating in heterogeneous environments, which incorporates intelligence for supporting mobility and roaming across legacy access networks. It focuses on the structure and functionality of the proposed scheme that supports terminal-initiated and terminal-controlled access network selection in heterogeneous networks. It discusses the decomposition of the proposed terminal management system into separate modules, responsible for retrieving link-layer measurements from the attachment points in the terminal's neighborhood, for handling the user's profile and for performing intelligent access network selection. This latter function aims at independently determining the optimal local interface and attachment point through which applications can be obtained as efficiently as possible, by taking into account network status and resource availability, user preferences and service requirements


Most online video sharing systems (OVSSs), such as YouTube and Yahoo! Video, have several mechanisms for supporting interactions among users. One such mechanism is the  video response feature in YouTube, which allows a user to post a video in response to another video. While increasingly popular, the video response feature opens the opportunity for non-cooperative users to  introduce  "content pollution" into the system, thus causing loss of service effectiveness and credibility as well as waste of system resources. For instance, non-cooperative users, to whom we refer  as spammers, may post unrelated videos in response to another video (the responded video), typically a very popular one, aiming at gaining visibility towards their own videos. In addition, users referred to as content promoters post several  unrelated  videos in response to a single responded one with the intent of increasing the visibility of the latter. Previous work on detecting spammers and content promoters on YouTube has relied mostly on supervised classication methods. The drawback of applying supervised solutions to this  specific problem  is that, besides extremely costly (in some cases thousands of videos have to be watched and labeled),  the learning process has to be continuously performed to cope with changes in the strategies adopted by non-cooperative users. In this work, we explore the use of multi-view semi-supervised strategies, which allows us to reduce significantly the amount of training, to detect non-cooperative users on YouTube. Our proposed method explores the fact that, in this problem, there is a natural partition of the feature space in sub-groups or "views", each being able to classify a given user when enough training data is available. Moreover, we propose to deal with the problem of view combination as a rank aggregation problem, where rankings based on confidence in the classification are combined to decide whether an unlabeled example should be included in the training set. Our results demonstrate that we are able to reduce the amount of training in about 80% without significant losses in classification effectiveness.


Multiple variations of extensor muscles on one hand are very rare. We found in the right hand: 1. M. extensor digitorum was split into two separate muscles; 2. M. extensor pollicis et indicis; 3. M. extensor indicis et digiti medii. All their tendons were in the 4th compartment. The extensor digiti minimi muscle showed a doubled tendon. Besides, we classified the course of tendons in the fourth compartment into a superficial and a profound level. Moreover, we defined the innervation by dissecting the deep branch of the radial nerve having direct branches into the muscles. In our case the extensor pollicis longus muscle was double innervated by a branch of the deep radial nerve and also by a small branch of interosseus antebrachii posterior nerve.


We present a retrospective review of DNA immunoadsorption (DNA-IA) therapy on clinical symptoms as well as indicators in pediatric cases with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and follow up the short-term curative effects. 16 SLE cases were treated by DNA-IA for 3 times every other day. We observed the changes on clinical manifestations and immunological indicators, in order to compare the alteration of these indicators including clinical manifestations, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Active Index (SLEDAI) scores, 24 hurinary protein excretion, autoantibodies, serum IgG and complement C3. 13 cases were followed up regularly, within 3 months after DNA-IA therapy, 12 cases of clinical manifestations improved (92.3%). SLEDAI scores in 10 cases decreased from (16.20 ± 12.54) to less than 5 (76.9%), 8 cases of ANA, anti-DNA antibodies were negative (61.5%), 13 cases with IgG level in serum recovered to normal (10.39 ± 4.38) g/L, C3 level rose to normal (1.06 ± 0.23) g/L. 3 to 6 months after IA, clinical manifestations and laboratory examinations in all cases got maximum improved. 9 months after IA, SLEDAI score in 2 cases (15.4%) rose to more than 5, anti-DNA antibody in 2 cases (15.4%) became positive, and 1case (7.7%) with serum C3 decreased again. 2 cases died from multiple organs dysfunction within 3 to 6 months after IA. No serious complications were found during DNA-IA. We recommend that DNA immunoadsorption is a safe and effective therapy for active childhood-onset SLE, which could improve clinical symptoms, eliminate ANA and anti-DNA antibodies. Combining with corticosteroids and immunosuppressive drugs, DNA-IA could significantly reduce the activity of disease and protect vital organs function in the short term.


Former US president George W. Bush's idea of the United States as an 'ownership society' can be considered as the rhetorical apex of a conservative, libertarian push for a more market- driven restructuring of American social institutions. Reformers in the Bush administration particularly targeted Social Security, a popular American institution and signature achievement of the New Deal era, aiming to replace a system of solidarity with one of individual responsibility and partial privatization. Returning to the time of the early 2000s, this article analyzes the rhetoric of the ownership society as a libertarian utopian social vision – a future, more perfect community the United States should aspire to grow into. It argues that the political discourse on Social Security propagated by the Bush administration relied on rhetorical strategies characterized by an engagement of temporalities. On the one hand, ownership discourse invoked the nation's past achievements and traditional values secured during the American Revolution and guaranteed in the nation's founding documents. On the other hand, the administration framed the alleged urgency of the reforms by making projections about the future and using these to raise questions about the present system of Social Security provision. In this way, earlier debates over Social Security reform provide a valuable perspective on the contemporary nexus of finance and temporality.


Deforestation in the uplands of Eastern Bangladesh, has reached an alarming rate in recent years due to the various pressures of a growing population, land clearances for agriculture, illegal felling, development interventions, gaps in policy and legislation, and conflicting institutional mandates. The forest coverage of Bangladesh is one of the lowest and the deforestation rate is the highest of any country in the world. Coupled with the process of deforestation, flawed afforestration programmes have seriously exposed Bangladesh to environmental vulnerability. Shifting cultivation, which is still prevalent in the area, contributes significantly to forest loss and is the main cause of land degradation. Agroforestry is a promising alternative that can sustainably manage the remaining forest resources. It has good economic returns, and the income also maintains farmers basic needs, whereas the agroforestry tree crops are a valuable source of fuelwood thus reduce rural poverty significantly.


Background With increasing adverse cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes in HIV/AIDS patients, the possible contribution of antiretroviral therapy (ART) to the prevailing CVD epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) through its effect on CVD risk factors has rather been under investigated. This study aimed to assess the extent to which ART is associated with hypertension, diabetes mellitus (DM) and dyslipidemia in SSA. Methods This is a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies from SSA, published between January 1946 and December 2017, from Medline, Embase, Africa-wide Information, the Cochrane library, African Index and Medicus databases. Both observational and interventional studies with comparable ART-treated and ART-naïve populations were selected and data was extracted from eligible studies. Pooled estimates of the effect of ART on the outcomes of interest (hypertension, diabetes and abnormal lipid profiles) were obtained using random effects meta-analysis, and meta-regression analysis was used to explore between-study heterogeneity. Results Twenty cross-sectional studies were included involving 5386 participants. There was no association between ART use and hypertension (OR: 1.9, 95%CI: 0.96–3.76, n = 8, I2 = 73.8%) and DM (OR: 2.53, 95%CI: 0.87–7.35, n = 8, I2 = 73.8%). ART use was associated with high total cholesterol (OR: 3.85, 95%CI: 2.45–6.07, n = 8, I2 = 67.0%), high triglycerides (OR: 1.46, 95%CI: 1.21–1.75, n = 14, I2 = 10.0%) and high LDL-cholesterol (OR: 2.38, 95%CI: 1.43–3.95, n = 11, I2 = 87.6%). ART was associated with rather lower odds of having low HDL-cholesterol (OR: 0.53, 95%CI: 0.32–0.87, n = 8, I2 = 78.2%). There was evidence of between-study heterogeneity for all outcomes except high triglycerides. Conclusions ART appears to be associated with CVD risk in HIV/AIDS patients in SSA only through dyslipidemia but not through hypertension and DM, however, high quality and robust research in SSA is mandated to accurately ascertain the actual contribution of ART to the CVD burden in this part of the world. Nevertheless, HIV/AIDS patients should still benefit from systematic CVD screening alongside their regular care services. Trial registration Prospero Registration - CRD42016042306.


The 2D scatter-to-primary (SPR) ratios and 3D voxelized difference volumes were characterized for a cone beam breast CT scanner capable of arbitrary (non-traditional) 3D trajectories. The CT system uses a 30x30cm2 flat panel imager with 197 micron pixellation and a rotating tungsten anode x-ray source with 0.3mm focal spot, with an SID of 70cm. Data were acquired for two cylindrical phantoms (12.5cm and 15cm diameter) filled with three different combinations of water and methanol yielding a range of uniform densities. Projections were acquired with two acquisition trajectories: 1) simple-circular azimuthal orbit with fixed tilt; and 2) saddle orbit following a ±15° sinusoidal trajectory around the object. Projection data were acquired in 2x2 binned mode. Projections were scatter corrected using a beam stop array method, and the 2D SPR was measured on the projections. The scatter corrected and uncorrected data were then reconstructed individually using an iterative ordered subsets convex algorithm, and the 3D difference volumes were calculated as the absolute difference between the two. Results indicate that the 2D SPR is ~7-15% higher on projections with greatest tilt for the saddle orbit, due to the longer x-ray path length through the volume, compared to the 0° tilt projections. Additionally, the 2D SPR increases with object diameter as well as density. The 3D voxelized difference volumes are an estimate of the scatter contribution to the reconstructed attenuation coefficients on a voxel level. They help visualize minor deficiencies and artifacts in the volumes due to correction methods.