Historical scholarship is currently undergoing a digital turn. All historians have experienced this change in one way or another, by writing on word processors, applying quantitative methods on digitalized source materials, or using internet resources and digital tools. Digital Histories showcases this emerging wave of digital history research. It presents work by historians who – on their own or through collaborations with e.g. information technology specialists – have uncovered new, empirical historical knowledge through digital and computational methods. The topics of the volume range from the medieval period to the present day, including various parts of Europe. The chapters apply an exemplary array of methods, such as digital metadata analysis, machine learning, network analysis, topic modelling, named entity recognition, collocation analysis, critical search, and text and data mining. The volume argues that digital history is entering a mature phase, digital history 'in action', where its focus is shifting from the building of resources towards the making of new historical knowledge. This also involves novel challenges that digital methods pose to historical research, including awareness of the pitfalls and limitations of the digital tools and the necessity of new forms of digital source criticisms. Through its combination of empirical, conceptual and contextual studies, Digital Histories is a timely and pioneering contribution taking stock of how digital research currently advances historical scholarship.


Background: Vedolizumab is an α4β7 integrin antagonist with gut-specific effects on lymphocyte and monocyte trafficking. Although the treatment is beneficial for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the effects of vedolizumab on extraintestinal manifestations (EIMs) have not been well described. The gut-specific effects of the medication may have diverse outcomes on EIMs. We hypothesize that EIMs may be unmasked by systemic availability of gut-homing effector cells. Aim: The goal of this study is to describe de novo EIMs of IBD patients who were started on vedolizumab. Methods: A retrospective chart review of 71 patients from January 2011 to October 2017, including clinical and medication history and colonoscopy results, was performed. Results: EIMs occurred in 26.7% of patients who were started on vedolizumab. The most common EIMs were arthralgias, perianal fistula, and pyoderma gangrenosum. There was a trend toward a greater occurrence of EIMs in patients with Crohn's disease compared to ulcerative colitis. Conclusion: Our retrospective study suggests that inhibition of gut-specific effector cells results in activated lymphocytes and/or monocytes that cause inflammation in other tissues. More studies are needed to confirm these observations and to develop biomarkers that predict patients at risk for EIMs and perianal fistulas while on vedolizumab.


A CGG-repeat expansion in the premutation range in the Fragile X mental retardation 1 gene (FMR1) has been identified as the genetic cause of Fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS), a late-onset neurodegenerative disorder that manifests with action tremor, gait ataxia and cognitive impairments. In this study, we used a bigenic mouse model, in which expression of a 90CGG premutation tract is activated in neural cells upon doxycycline administration-P90CGG mouse model. We, here, demonstrate the behavioural manifestation of clinically relevant features of FXTAS patients and premutation carrier individuals in this inducible mouse model. P90CGG mice display heightened anxiety, deficits in motor coordination and impaired gait and represent the first FXTAS model that exhibits an ataxia phenotype as observed in patients. The behavioural phenotype is accompanied by the formation of ubiquitin/FMRpolyglycine-positive intranuclear inclusions, as another hallmark of FXTAS, in the cerebellum, hippocampus and amygdala. Strikingly, upon cessation of transgene induction the anxiety phenotype of mice recovers along with a reduction of intranuclear inclusions in dentate gyrus and amygdala. In contrast, motor function deteriorates further and no reduction in intranuclear inclusions can be observed in the cerebellum. Our data thus demonstrate that expression of a 90CGG premutation expansion outside of the FMR1 context is sufficient to evoke an FXTAS-like behavioural phenotype. Brain region-specific neuropathology and (partial) behavioural reversibility make the inducible P90CGG a valuable mouse model for testing pathogenic mechanisms and therapeutic intervention methods.


This paper presents a two-way current-combining-based W-band power amplifier (PA) in 65-nm CMOS technology. An analytical model and design method for W-band power combiners are presented, which indicates current combining is preferred for millimeter-wave frequencies due to a good current handling capability, symmetrical design, and low sensitivity to parasitics. To demonstrate the concept, a two-way current-combining-based PA has been fabricated, where each channel utilizes compact and symmetrical transformer-based inter-stage coupling to realize a preferred fully differential implementation. This PA operates from 101 to 117 GHz with maximum power gain of 14.1 dB, saturated output power (Psat) of 14.8 dBm, and peak power-added efficiency of 9.4%. The core chip area without pads is 0.106 mm2.


Aerial relays have been regarded as an alternative and promising solution to extend and improve satellite-terrestrial communications, as the probability of line-of-sight transmissions increases compared with adopting terrestrial relays. In this paper, a cooperative satellite-aerial-terrestrial system including a satellite transmitter (S), a group of terrestrial receivers (D), and an aerial relay (R) is considered. Specifically, considering the randomness of S and D and employing stochastic geometry, the coverage probability of R-D links in non-interference and interference scenarios is studied, and the outage performance of S-R link is investigated by deriving an approximated expression for the outage probability. Moreover, an optimization problem in terms of the transmit power and the transmission time over S-R and R-D links is formulated and solved to obtain the optimal end-to-end energy efficiency for the considered system. Finally, some numerical results are provided to validate our proposed analysis models, as well as to study the optimal energy efficiency performance of the considered system.


Marginal urban areas already subject to unequal distribution of welfare facilities and socioeconomic opportunities were badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Taking from a spatial justice perspective, this paper looks at Milan and Rio de Janeiro, two very differentand yet similar cities concerning their disadvantaged communities, focusing on the impacts of the virus, the consequent bottom-up mobilizations and collective actions in poor neighborhoods. It finally draws on possible lessons to learn from their examples


We estimate the seismic structure of the slow spreading Lucky Strike segment of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, located approximately 300 km south of the Azores platform, using seismic reflection and seismic refraction data acquired in June 2005 as a part of the Seismic Study for Monitoring of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (SISMOMAR) survey. The three-dimensional velocity model shows an upper crustal low-velocity anomaly running parallel to the ridge axis, which is limited by the median valley bounding faults. The velocity models also show a low-velocity anomaly underlying the axial melt lens reflector located at the segment center below the Lucky Strike volcano. This lower crustal low-velocity region can be explained by elevated temperatures and possibly small amounts of melt. The lower crustal low-velocity anomaly and the axial melt lens reflector constrain the geometry of the magma chamber responsible for the construction of the Lucky Strike volcano. The presence of this magma chamber and thick crust at the segment center are consistent with a focused melt supply to the segment center.


Using an adaptation of the Cut-root technique, twenty-one varieties of soybean were screened at 10, 15 and 20 days after planting (DAP) for the stimulation of S. hermonthica seed germination. The varieties were TGX1649-11F, TGX1740-7F, TGX1660-15F, TGX1740-2F, TGX1670-3F, TGX1674-3F and SAMSOY-2. Other varieties tested included TGX1681-3F, TGX1479-1E, TGX923-2E, TGX1440-1E, TGX1448-2E, TGX1660-19F, TGX1519-10F, TGX1019-2EN, TGM-344, TGX1019-EB, TGX1485-1D, TGX536-02D, TGM-351 and TGX849-3B. The strigol analogue, GR-24, was used as the control. The germination of S. hermonthica seeds that was stimulated by GR-24 was significantly higher (P≤0.01) than that stimulated by all the soybean varieties at all the periods. The most promising varieties were TGX1681-3F, TGX1479-1 E, TGX1649-11F and SAMSOY-2 with Specific Effectiveness Index (SEI) values of 0.76, 0.75, 0.58 and 0.54, respectively. The other varieties that showed promise include TGX1740-7F, TGX923-2E TGX1440-1 E and TGM344 with SEI values of 0.44, 0.44, 0.45 and 0.44, respectively. There was no relationship between the age of the plant and potency of its root exudates, except for TGX1649-11F, TGM-344 and TGX1681-3F where activity increased with age from 10DAP to 20DAP. These varieties may therefore be used in field crop rotation systems as an option for the management of S hermonthica.
Keywords: witchweed, soybean, trapcropping, crop rotation, Striga hermonthica
[Global Jnl Agric Res Vol.2(1) 2003: 25-32]


BACKGROUND
Brain metastases represent a significant healthcare problem. It is estimated that 20% to 40% of patients with cancer will develop metastatic cancer to the brain during the course of their illness. The burden of brain metastases impacts on quality and length of survival. Presenting symptoms include headache (49%), focal weakness (30%), mental disturbances (32%), gait ataxia (21%), seizures (18%), speech difficulty (12%), visual disturbance (6%), sensory disturbance (6%) and limb ataxia (6%).Brain metastases may spread from any primary site. The most common primary site is the lung, followed by the breast then gastrointestinal sites. Eighty-five per cent of brain metastases are found in the cerebral hemispheres, 10% to 15% in the cerebellum and 1% to 3% in the brainstem. Brain radiotherapy is used to treat cancer participants who have brain metastases from various primary malignancies.This is an update to the original review published in Issue 3, 2006.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the effectiveness and adverse effects of whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) in adult participants with multiple metastases to the brain.

SEARCH METHODS
We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (Issue 3, 2011), MEDLINE and EMBASE to July 2011.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing WBRT either alone or with other treatments in adults with newly diagnosed multiple metastases to the brain from any primary cancer. Trials of prophylactic WBRT were excluded as well as trials that dealt with surgery or WBRT, or both, for the treatment of single brain metastasis.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two review authors independently assessed trial quality and abstracted information. Adverse effects information was also collected from the trials.

MAIN RESULTS
Nine RCTs involving 1420 participants were added in this updated review. This updated review now includes a total of 39 trials involving 10,835 participants.Eight published reports (nine RCTs) showed no benefit of altered dose-fractionation schedules as compared to the control fractionation (3000 cGy in 10 fractions daily) of WBRT for overall survival. These studies also showed no improvement in symptom control nor neurologic improvement among the different dose-fractionation schemes as compared to 3000 cGy in 10 daily fractions of WBRT. This updated review includes two trials comparing 4000 cGy in 20 fractions given twice daily versus 2000 cGy in 4 or 5 daily fractions. Overall, there was no survival advantage (hazard ratio (HR) 1.18, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.89 to 1.56, P = 0.25) with the use of 4000 cGy in 20 fractions given twice daily compared to 2000 cGy in 4 or 5 daily fractions.The addition of radiosensitizers in six RCTs did not confer additional benefit to WBRT in either the overall survival times (HR 1.08, 95% CI 0.98 to 1.18, P = 0.11) or brain tumour response rates (HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.60 to 1.26, P = 0.46).Two RCTs found no benefit in overall survival (HR 0.61, 95% CI 0.27 to 1.39, P = 0.24) with the use of WBRT and radiosurgery boost as compared to WBRT alone for selected participants with multiple brain metastases (up to four brain metastases). Overall, there was a statistically significant improvement in local brain control (HR 0.35, 95% CI 0.20 to 0.61, P = 0.0003) favouring the WBRT and radiosurgery boost arm. Only one trial of radiosurgery boost with WBRT reported an improved Karnofsky performance score outcome and improved ability to reduce the dexamethasone dose.In this updated review, a total of three RCTs reported on selected patients (with up to three or four brain metastases) treated with radiosurgery alone versus WBRT and radiosurgery. Based on two trials, there was no difference in overall survival (HR 0.98, 95% CI 0.71 to 1.35, P = 0.88). The addition of WBRT when added to radiosurgery significantly improved locally treated brain metasatases control (HR 2.61, 95% CI 1.68 to 4.06, P < 0.0001) and distant brain control (HR 2.15, 95% CI 1.55 to 2.99, P < 0.00001). On the other hand, one trial concluded that patients treated with WBRT and radiosurgery boost were significantly more likely to show a decline in learning and memory function as compared to those treated with radiosurgery alone.One RCT examined the use of WBRT and prednisone versus prednisone alone and produced inconclusive results.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
None of the RCTs with altered WBRT dose-fractionation schemes as compared to standard (3000 cGy in 10 daily fractions or 2000 cGy in 4 or 5 daily fractions) found a benefit in terms of overall survival, neurologic function, or symptom control.The use of radiosensitizers or chemotherapy in conjunction with WBRT remains experimental.Radiosurgery boost with WBRT may improve local disease control in selected participants as compared to WBRT alone, although survival remains unchanged for participants with multiple brain metastases.This updated review now includes a total of three RCTs examining the use of radiosurgery alone versus WBRT and radiosurgery. The addition of WBRT to radiosurgery improves local and distant brain control but there is no difference in overall survival. Patients treated with radiosurgery alone were found to have better neurocognitive outcomes in one trial as compared to patients treated with WBRT and radiosurgery.The benefit of WBRT as compared to supportive care alone has not been studied in RCTs. It may be that supportive care alone, without WBRT, is appropriate for some participants, particularly those with advanced disease and poor performance status.


Because of the redundancy of our motor system, movements can be performed in many ways. While multiple motor control strategies can all lead to the desired behavior, they result in different joint and muscle forces. This creates opportunities to explore this redundancy, for example, for pain avoidance or reducing the risk of further injury. To assess the effect of different motor control optimization strategies, a direct measurement of muscle and joint forces is desirable, but problematic for medical and ethical reasons. Computational modeling might provide a solution by calculating approximations of these forces. In this study, we used a full-body computational musculoskeletal model to (a) predict forces measured in knee prostheses during walking and squatting and (b) study the effect of different motor control strategies (i.e., minimizing joint force vs. muscle activation) on the joint load and prediction error. We found that musculoskeletal models can accurately predict knee joint forces with a root mean squared error of <0.5 body weight (BW) in the superior direction and about 0.1 BW in the medial and anterior directions. Generally, minimization of joint forces produced the best predictions. Furthermore, minimizing muscle activation resulted in maximum knee forces of about 4 BW for walking and 2.5 BW for squatting. Minimizing joint forces resulted in maximum knee forces of 2.25 BW and 2.12 BW, that is, a reduction of 44% and 15%, respectively. Thus, changing the muscular coordination strategy can strongly affect knee joint forces. Patients with a knee prosthesis may adapt their neuromuscular activation to reduce joint forces during locomotion.


BACKGROUND
Acceleration of negative respiratory conversion of SARS-CoV-2 in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) might reduce viral transmission. Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir is a new antiviral agent recently approved for treatment of COVID-19 that has the potential to facilitate negative conversion.

METHODS
A cohort of hospitalized adult patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who had a high-risk for progression to severe disease were studied. These patients presented with COVID-19 symptoms between March 5 and April 5, 2022. The time from positive to negative upper respiratory RT-PCR conversion was assessed by Kaplan-Meier plots and Cox proportional hazards regression with the adjustment for patients baseline demographic and clinical characteristics.

RESULTS
There were 258 patients treated with nirmatrelvir/ritonavir and 224 non-treated patients who had mild-to-moderate COVID-19. The median (interquartile range) time for patients who converted from positive to negative RT-PCR was 10 days (7-12 days) in patients treated ≤5 days after symptom onset and 17 days (12-21 days) in non-treated patients, respectively. The proportions of patients with a negative conversion at day 15 were 89.7% and 42.0% in treated patients and non-treated patients, corresponding to a hazard ratio of 4.33 (95% CI, 3.31-5.65). Adjustment for baseline differences between the groups had little effect on the association. Subgroup analysis on treated patients suggests that time to negative conversion did not vary with the patients' baseline characteristics.

CONCLUSION
This cohort study of high-risk patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 found an association between nirmatrelvir/ritonavir treatment and accelerated negative RT-PCR respiratory SARS-CoV-2 conversion that might reduce the risk of viral shedding and disease transmission.


James C. Albisetti explores the wide-ranging debate in Imperial Germany over the reform of secondary education to meet the new demands posed by unification, industrialization, and urbanization.Originally published in 1983.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


How generalist parasites with wide host ranges can evolve is a central question in parasite evolution. Albugo candida is an obligate biotrophic parasite that consists of many physiological races that each specialize on distinct Brassicaceae host species. By analyzing genome sequence assemblies of five isolates, we show they represent three races that are genetically diverged by ∼1%. Despite this divergence, their genomes are mosaic-like, with ∼25% being introgressed from other races. Sequential infection experiments show that infection by adapted races enables subsequent infection of hosts by normally non-infecting races. This facilitates introgression and the exchange of effector repertoires, and may enable the evolution of novel races that can undergo clonal population expansion on new hosts. We discuss recent studies on hybridization in other eukaryotes such as yeast, Heliconius butterflies, Darwin's finches, sunflowers and cichlid fishes, and the implications of introgression for pathogen evolution in an agro-ecological environment. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.04550.001


Geochemical and Re-Os isotopic data for refractory spinel peridotite xenoliths from the Newer Volcanics Province of western Victoria demonstrate that parts of the subcontinental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) beneath southeastern Australia underwent melt depletion during the Late Proterozoic as well as the early Paleozoic. Late Proterozoic Re-Os model ages (as old as 900 Ma) for refractory harzburgites are significantly older than the exposed Cambrian crust. In addition, our Re-Os melt-depletion mantle model ages ( T MA ) are consistent with Sm-Nd depleted-mantle model ages ( T DM ) and older zircon U-Pb ages for I-type granites from southeastern Australia, suggesting that this region is underlain by Proterozoic continental lithosphere. In contrast, a fertile spinel lherzolite xenolith has a radiogenic Os isotopic composition (γ Os > +8) consistent with derivation from an "enriched-mantle" volume within the SCLM. Ancient subduction of Re-rich oceanic crust or melt metasomatism of the lithospheric mantle may have generated enriched-mantle volumes similar to those sampled by some ocean-island basalts (OIB) and komatiites.


The quality of education offered by the tertiary institutions in Nigeria in recent times has critically degenerated. Unfortunately, this has led to the unprecedented rise in the poor quality of Nigerian graduates which contributes to the very alarming high rate of unemployment in the country. This article therefore examines the relationship between total quality management (TQM), employee commitment and competitive advantage among tertiary institutions in Lagos State with a particular focus on the University of Lagos, using a survey research design with a random selection of 350 respondents from a population of 2,047 staff strength across the 11 faculties in the university. The data used for this article were derived from a systematic review of the relevant literature and a structured questionnaire. The data obtained from the questionnaire was subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics. The result showed that the adoption of total quality management practices and employee commitment significantly affects competitive advantage. The findings suggest that proper adoption of TQM practices coupled with employee commitment will guarantee competitive advantage outcomes measured in terms of increase in revenue, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. TQM and employee commitment through its principles can successfully contribute to enhanced organizational performance and dynamic competitiveness.


The current generation of sensor nodes rely on commodity components. The choice of the radio is particularly important as it impacts not only energy consumption but also software design (e.g., network self-assembly, multihop routing and in-network processing). Bluetooth is one of the most popular commodity radios for wireless devices. As a representative of the frequency hopping spread spectrum radios, it is a natural alternative to broadcast radios in the context of sensor networks. The question is whether Bluetooth can be a viable alternative in practice. In this paper, we report our experience using Bluetooth for the sensor network regime. We describe our tiny Bluetooth stack that allows TinyOS applications to run on Bluetooth-based sensor nodes, we present a multihop network assembly procedure that leverages Bluetooth's device discovery protocol, and we discuss how Bluetooth favorably impacts in-network query processing. Our results show that despite obvious limitations the Bluetooth sensor nodes we studied exhibit interesting properties, such as a good energy per bit sent ratio. This reality check underlies the limitations and some promises of Bluetooth for the sensor network regime.


Purpose To develop deep learning model (Deep-KOA) that can predict the risk of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) within the next year by using the previous three years nonimage-based electronic medical record (EMR) data. Patients and Methods We randomly selected information of two million patients from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) from January 1, 1999 to December 31, 2013. During the study period, 132,594 patients were diagnosed with KOA, while 1,068,464 patients without KOA were chosen randomly as control. We constructed a feature matrix by using the three-year history of sequential diagnoses, drug prescriptions, age, and sex. Deep learning methods of convolutional neural network (CNN) and artificial neural network (ANN) were used together to develop a risk prediction model. We used the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC), sensitivity, specificity, and precision to evaluate the performance of Deep-KOA. Then, we explored the important features using stepwise feature selection. Results This study included 132,594 KOA patients, 83,111 females (62.68%), 49,483 males (37.32%), mean age 64.2 years, and 1,068,464 non-KOA patients, 545,902 females (51.09%), 522,562 males (48.91%), mean age 51.00 years. The Deep-KOA achieved an overall AUROC, sensitivity, specificity, and precision of 0.97, 0.89, 0.93, and 0.80 respectively. The discriminative analysis of Deep-KOA showed important features from several diseases such as disorders of the eye and adnexa, acute respiratory infection, other metabolic and immunity disorders, and diseases of the musculoskeletal and connective tissue. Age and sex were not found as the most discriminative features, with AUROC of 0.9593 (−0.76% loss) and 0.9644 (−0.25% loss) respectively. Whereas medications including antacid, cough suppressant, and expectorants were identified as discriminative features. Conclusion Deep-KOA was developed to predict the risk of KOA within one year earlier, which may provide clues for clinical decision support systems to target patients with high risk of KOA to get precision prevention program.


John Wesley's phrase "social holiness" is often employed in contemporary discourse by those within the Wesleyan tradition, though usually with only the most general reference to the way in which Wesley himself understood it. This problem is compounded by the fact that "social holiness" only appears once in Wesley's published writing, the Preface to the 1739 edition of Hymns and Sacred Poems . Contemporary commentators typically utilize "social holiness" either as a synonym for "social justice" or as one half of the broader phrase, "personal and social holiness." Both of these contemporary usages are revealed to contain significant conceptual problems when the framework in which Wesley's own use of the term is examined, not the least of which is a distortion of the nature of sanctification within the Wesleyan via salutis . This essay argues that "social holiness" is properly understood to represent the environmental context in which "holiness of heart and life" is manifest in the Christian life. It thereby seeks to elucidate a key theological concept within the Wesleyan tradition to better inform that tradition's practitioners in the present.


The problem of assessing the significance of data mining results on high-dimensional 0--1 datasets has been studied extensively in the literature. For problems such as mining frequent sets and finding correlations, significance testing can be done by standard statistical tests such as chi-square, or other methods. However, the results of such tests depend only on the specific attributes and not on the dataset as a whole. Moreover, the tests are difficult to apply to sets of patterns or other complex results of data mining algorithms. In this article, we consider a simple randomization technique that deals with this shortcoming. The approach consists of producing random datasets that have the same row and column margins as the given dataset, computing the results of interest on the randomized instances and comparing them to the results on the actual data. This randomization technique can be used to assess the results of many different types of data mining algorithms, such as frequent sets, clustering, and spectral analysis. To generate random datasets with given margins, we use variations of a Markov chain approach which is based on a simple swap operation. We give theoretical results on the efficiency of different randomization methods, and apply the swap randomization method to several well-known datasets. Our results indicate that for some datasets the structure discovered by the data mining algorithms is expected, given the row and column margins of the datasets, while for other datasets the discovered structure conveys information that is not captured by the margin counts.


Author(s): Cai, Wei | Advisor(s): Lo, Yu-Hwa | Abstract: One of the key challenges of biology is to understand how individual cells process information and respond to perturbations. However, most of the existing single cell analysis methods can only provide a glimpse of cell properties at specific time points and are unable to provide cell secretion and protein analysis at the single cell resolution. This thesis offers the description of a single-cell assay as well as a CO2-induced enrichment method for the analysis of single cells secretions.The single-cell assay introduced in this thesis enables the accommodation of different cellular types, allows for easy and efficient single cell loading and culturing, and is suitable for studying the efforts of in-vitro environmental factors in combination with drug screening. One salient feature of the assay is the non-invasive collection and survey of single cell secretions at different time points, producing unprecedented insight of single cell behaviors based on the biomarker signals from individual cells under given perturbations. In addition, the open-well design of the assay allows for simple collection of cells with standard tools such as pico-pipette for downstream processes in relating the single-cell secretions with gene analysis. Above all, the acquired information is quantitative. For example, measured by the number of exosomes each single cell secretes for a given time period, exosomal miRNA carried by exosomes secreted by single cell. Therefore, this single-cell assay provides a convenient, low-cost, and robust tool for quantitative, time lapsed studies of single cell properties.Another challenge for single cell secretion analysis is the limit-of-detection (LOD) and sensitivity. Thus, sample enrichment is an important step in the work flow of biosensing for disease detection and numerous biological or clinical processes. Most current techniques require devices that are tailored to specific chemical or physical characteristics of the target objects to enrich or capture them from the sample. The complexity within these devices all serve to, increase cost and may even limit the enrichment factor. Here, a technique of using a CO2 laser to drive targets towards the laser spot via mass transport without requiring any device fabrication processes or special reagents was introduced. To prove the concept, single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) has been enriched by more than 100,000-fold in less than 4 minutes. The temperature and evaporation rate profile at the enriched area are measured alongside theoretical analyses and modeling to monitor and understand the physical process. The formation of aggregates comprised of streptavidin Q-dots and biotin labeled exosomes with this method was demonstrated to show the capability of biosample detection, purification, and quantification. The method is not only simple and highly efficient, but also applicable to all types of biomolecules and bioparticles. Thereby promising a simple, cost effective and efficient solution for biological sample preparation for sensing, analytics, and diagnostics.


Challenging the Eurocentric discourse of Modernization, Modernity and Modernism and the reified notions of space that underpin them and which linger in contemporary theories of globalization, this dissertation argues that the examination of the historical, social and political economic processes and experiences of modernization and modernity at the intersection of particular national sites and the uneven geography of the global capitalist system is fundamental to grappling with how we can begin to talk about globalization in South Korea or East Asia and its corresponding social and cultural changes. In an attempt to read what is new about South Korea's Incheon International airport (2001) and the symbolism of the new `global' aesthetic that prominently shapes the sensational form of this strategic social space, I situate Incheon airport within the historical lineage of modern South Korean airports from the first International Style Kimpo terminal (1960) to the subsequent two traditional-styled kiwa Kimpo terminals (1980, 1988), which preceded the development of Incheon in 1989 as the largest-scale expansion of Kimpo airport. In addition, I trace back the historically produced cultural imaginary of the airport as a crucial space and symbolic marker of a highly ambivalent and contradictory experience of modernity to its linkage with early colonial era railroads and railway journeys. Like the contradictory character of modern postcolonial airports and air travel, the colonial railroads, appearing at the turn of the 20th century Korea, functioned as a significant international gateway and modern technology of long-distance transportation which doubled as the vehicle of the repressive and exploitative processes of colonial statecraft, as well as the vehicle of Korean nationalists seeking to re-appropriate modern ideas and technologies in anticolonial struggles for national independence. I thus situate the new turn to `globalization' within the historically changing cosmopolitan-national discourses, practices and landscapes of Korean modernity from late 19th century `enlightenment and civilization,' to postwar Cold War internationalism, and developmental national capitalism--linked through the commanding modern trope and technology of railroads and airports. In part a rejoinder to the view of airports as `non-places' vacated of historical meaning or `flow spaces' homogenously aligning airports and cities from Tokyo to New York, I argue that the postcolonial airport in South Korea, like other airports in East Asia I would imagine, are embedded within situated historical-geographies of modernization and development which inscribe the airport not only as a product of uneven global processes but also a vehicle with which to maneuver the uneven terrain of global capitalism.


This article approaches the methods and analysis of the development of a project entitled "Coffee with sustainability", from the perspective of design. The project was developed at a private kindergarten and elementary school in the city of Belo Horizonte (MG, Brazil), featuring sevenand eight-year-old children as protagonists and professors as mediators. The project, developed by them, consists of a sustainable coffee shop, implemented within the school. The approach to curriculum content, such as Science and Mathematics, was reinforced by the epistemological bases of Design. As a subject in its own right, design presents methods, strategies, and tools that go beyond its own scope, frequently limited by trade and industry, and can therefore dialogue with other areas of knowledge production. There exists a designerly way of thinking and communicating that can be properly inserted in the educational context, especially when it comes to const rucionism approach. During the process children became aware of methodological steps developing the prototype of a coffee shop which they shared with the whole school community.


The effects of ethanol extract of Tapinanthus globiferus in the liver of rats were evaluated on serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total protein (TP), total bilirubin (TB) and conjugated bilirubin (CB) while histological analysis was evaluated on section of liver after 28 days of oral administration. The oral LD50 of the extract in rats was found to be greater than 5,000 mg/kg body weight. The biochemical analysis revealed no significant changes (p > 0.05) in serum levels of AST, ALT, ALP and TP at all doses treated (87.5, 175 and 350 mg/kg) but there was significant (p < 0.05) evaluation of serum TB at higher dose and significant (p < 0.05) dose dependent increase in CB when compared with control. The photomicrograph of transverse section of the liver treated with doses of 175 and 350 mg/kg showed areas of fibrosis at 100 magnifications while no effect was observed at 87.5 mg/kg body weight. This work revealed that, Tapinanthus globiferus extract has no toxic effect on the liver of rats after short and low dose administration but can cause sign of liver damage at higher dose. Key words : Tapinanthus globiferus , Biochemical, Ethanol, Histological, Photomicrograph


Abstract Building a sustainable and inclusive future for Wales is at the heart of the constitution of the National Assembly for Wales, which means forging a crosscutting approach to social policy. Improving health is a strategic priority within this agenda, and homelessness and housing appear to be at the center of the Assembly Government's vision of developing sustainable and cohesive communities and promoting social inclusion. This article considers the links between homelessness and mental and physical ill health and the importance of combating homelessness and poor housing within the health agenda in Wales. The article cites the links between homelessness and health identified in the United Kingdom and in international research and highlights the growth in homelessness witnessed during the late 1990s and beginning of the 21"1 Century. The paper considers the significant increase of homelessness and assesses whether, in reality, sufficient practical measures are being taken to combat homelessness as a means of tackling ill health in Wales. The authors conclude that although Wales is making progress toward an integrated approach to health and well-being and that the need to tackle broader health determinants has gained recognition, investment in effectively tackling homelessness and exclusion is needed. Integrating the broader housing, homelessness, and health agendas could contribute to health gains in Wales.


This paper makes use of a smartphone's ambient light sensor to analyse a system of two coupled springs undergoing either simple or damped oscillatory motion. The period, frequency and stiffness of the spring, together with the damping constant and extinction time, are extracted from light intensity curves obtained using a free Android application. The results demonstrate the instructional value of mobile phone sensors as a tool in the physics laboratory.


The spray form development from a state of the art multi-hole injector for gasoline
direct injection internal combustion engines is examined to attempt to determine the
thermo-fluid dynamics affecting the spray development. The current state of knowledge
regarding spray break-up and the interactivity of the factors on spray form are detailed.
The spray under investigation was injected into purposely designed quiescent chambers
to decouple the effects of the fluid mechanics on spray development from any in-engine
effects. The pressure chambers, experimental apparatus and techniques used to
characterise and measure the spray properties are described along with an assessment of
any sources of variability in the measurement and analysis methodologies and
hardware. Initial spray images of the spray produced by a range of multi-component
"retail" fuels as well as single component non-oxygenated and oxygenated
hydrocarbons with a range of boiling ranges and points for different injector body (and
hence assumed fuel) temperatures and chamber gas pressures are presented. The
experimental measurements show the strong interaction between the operational
conditions in relation to the fuel properties and the physical spray form. A large amount
of deviation from the nominal "ambient" spray form is observed for conditions where
the fuel's bubble point (boiling temperature at given gas pressure) is exceeded by a
multiple of 10, termed spray collapse. The dependence of a multi-component fuel on the
boiling characteristics of its highest volatility components suggest that it is these
components which drive the fuel spray development formation, which is further
illustrated by comparing different single component fluids. This suggests that higher
volatility fluids are better representatives of full range, multi-component fuels for
modelling or other investigative work when a single component fuel is required to be
used. The onset of spray collapse was found to be gradual with no sudden "threshold"
condition at which collapse occurred, also illustrated by a gradual reduction in measured
spray droplet size with increasing injector body temperature and/or reducing gas
pressure. The physical factors affecting spray development and break-up, and their
effects are examined including the fluid flow inside a real size transparent, optically
accessed nozzle, illustrating the effect of cavitation supplying nucleation sites for the
subsequent vaporisation of the fuel. The scales of local air turbulence are found to affect
the local vapour concentration, and hence vaporisation rate, and hence the interaction of
these factors is shown to determine the spray formation.


This paper provides a theoretical basis for the empirical link between traits and intercultural success indicators relying on the A (Affect) B (Behavior) C (Cognition)-model of culture shock. With respect to affect, we argue that intercultural traits can be differentiated according to whether they predispose individuals to be (in-)sensitive to either threat or challenge. Whereas stress-related traits (emotional stability, flexibility) are linked to a lower tendency to perceive an intercultural situation as threatening, social-perceptual traits (social initiative, open-mindedness) may predispose individuals to perceive its challenging aspects and respond with positive affect. As a behavioral consequence, stress-buffering traits may protect against culture shock, whereas social-perceptual traits may facilitate cultural learning. Finally, the ABC-model defines cognitions in terms of associated cultural identity patterns. Whereas stress-related traits may help individuals refrain from sticking to one's own culture, social-perceptual traits reinforce identification with new culture. Implications for training and development are discussed.


A novel post-denitrification system fed by carbon source from primary sludge (PS) was used for enhancing biological nitrogen removal (BNR) of low C/N wastewater. This system included one anoxic/oxic (AO) reactor and a special reactor for simultaneous sludge fermentation and denitrification (Sifeden). Ammonia was nitrified to nitrate in AO and then the nitrate was reduced to dinitrogen in Sifeden , into which PS was added intermittently. Results showed that this system had high performance on nitrogen removal. Total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency was higher than 85% and the effluent TN≤10mg/L in the condition of influent C/N≤2. In Sifeden, volatile fatty acid (VFA) produced from PS fermentation provided electron donor for nitrate reduction, and PS was preliminarily stabilized simultaneously. Oxidation-Reduction Potential (ORP) had a significant correlation with the denitrification performance. TN removal efficiency could be further improved if adopting proper PS addition strategy according to the ORP profiles.


Software Defined Networks (SDNs) represent a new model for building networks, in which the control plane is separated from the forwarding plane, allowing for centralised, fine grained control of traffic in the network. The benefits of SDN range widely from reducing operational costs of networks to providing better Quality of Service guarantees to its users. Its application has been shown to increase the efficiency of large networks such as data centers and improve security through Denial of Service mitigation systems and other traffic monitoring efforts. While SDN has been shown to be highly beneficial, some of its core features (e.g separation of control and data planes and limited memory) allow malicious users to carry out Denial of Service (DoS) attacks against the network, reducing its availability and performance. Denial of Service attacks are explicit attempts to prevent legitimate users from accessing a service or resource. Such attacks can take many forms but are almost always costly to its victims, both financially and reputationally. SDN applications have been developed to mitigate some forms of DoS attacks aimed at traditional networks however, its intrinsic properties facilitate new attacks. We investigate in this thesis, the opportunity for such Denial of Service attacks in more recent versions of SDN and extensively evaluate its effect on a legitimate user's throughput. In light of the potential for such DoS attacks which specifically target the SDN infrastructure (controller, switch flow table etc), we propose that increasing the intelligence of SDN switches can increase the resilience of the SDN network by preventing attack traffic from entering the network at its source. To demonstrate this, we put forward in this thesis, designs for an intelligent SDN Switch and implement two additional functionalities towards realising this design into a software version of the SDN switch. These modules allow the switch to efficiently handle high control plane loads, both malicious and legitimate, to ensure the network continues to provide good service even under such circumstances. Evaluation of these modules indicate they effectively preserve the performance of the network under under high control plane loads far better than unmodified switches, with no notable drawbacks.


Protein crystallography, a science in its own right, has been and still is a tool vital to our understanding of the workings of life at a cellular level. Despite living in a modern era, disease is common worldwide and antibiotic resistance is on the rise. It is therefore vital to use all tools at our disposal to tackle the problems the future holds. The aims of this thesis were to explore the key experimental stages preceding protein crystallisation, develop new ways in which we can characterise protein samples and to expand current knowledge of potential drug targets in a variety of pathogenic organisms, harmful to both humans and animals. A novel series of assay kits, namely the Durham Screens, were developed to assess protein thermal stability in a variety of solute conditions, with the potential outcome of improving protein purification and crystallisation. Furthermore, the expression purification and characterisation of potential drug targets in both eukaryotic apicomplexan parasites and pathogenic gram-negative bacteria has been explored and developed. A wide variety of protein samples have been tested using the Durham Screens and an optimised protocol proposed. Apicomplexan serine palmitoyltransferase, from a variety of species, has been successfully cloned into expression vectors and both small- and large-scale expression and purification experiments, followed by biophysical characterisation, has been completed. A bioreactor-scale expression system was developed for a potential bacterial drug target, along with an exploration into possible purification strategies. Overall, the data presented in this thesis endorses the Durham Screens as an extremely useful tool in the biophysical characterisation of protein samples in a pre-crystallisation context. Apicomplexan serine palmitoyltransferase has been validated as a potential therapeutic drug target, with molecular features distinct from its human protein counterpart. The expression and purification of Bordetella pertussis RisA has been optimised, ready for future characterisation experiments. Future work includes the potential development of a fourth thermal stability screen, optimising the expression of apicomplexan serine palmitoyltransferase and further characterising RisA to strengthen understanding of Bordetella pertussis virulence regulation.


While relationship marketing is viewed as an important driver in the development of the firm's profitability, the condition of this profitability seldom receives much attention. In this study, we employ a dynamic exchange model between firm and customer to explore the conditions affecting the firm's profitability from a relationship perspective. The application of this model reveals explicitly that relationship marketing is not always profitable. The firm-customer relationship profitability depends on the customer life value (margin and retention rate), the duration of the firm-customer relationship, and the marketing budget to retain the customer and the customer acquisition cost.


The problem of minimizing the sum of a number of component functions is of great importance in the real world. In this paper, a new incremental optimization algorithm, named normalized incremental subgradient (NIS) algorithm, is proposed for a class of such problems where the component functions have common local minima. The NIS algorithm is performed incrementally just as the general incremental subgradient (IS) algorithm and thus can be implemented in a distributed way. In the NIS algorithm, the update of each subiteration is based on a search direction obtained by individually normalizing each component of subgradients of component functions, resulting in much better convergence performance as compared to the IS algorithm and other traditional optimization methods (e.g., Gauss-Newton method). The convergence of the NIS algorithm with both diminishing stepsizes and constant stepsizes is proved and analyzed theoretically. Two important applications are presented. One is to solve a class of convex feasibility problems in a distributed way and the other is distributed maximum likelihood estimation. Numerical examples, arising from two important topics in the area of wireless sensor networks-source localization and node localization-demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the NIS algorithm.


Abstract Background Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a leading cause of liver disease worldwide. Elevated sex hormone–binding globulin (SHBG) levels have been observed in the setting of HIV and may protect against some metabolic disorders. We aimed to investigate whether higher SHBG levels may protect against NAFLD in men with/without HIV. Methods NAFLD was assessed using noncontrast computed tomography in 530 men in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) who drank <3 alcoholic drinks/d and were uninfected with chronic hepatitis C or B (340HIV+, 190HIV-). Morning serum samples were tested for SHBG, total testosterone (TT), and adiponectin. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess associations between HIV, SHBG, TT, adiponectin, and NAFLD. Results Median SHBG was highest among HIV+/NAFLD- men and lowest among HIV-/NAFLD+ men. Adjusted for demographics, HIV, visceral adiposity, HOMA-IR, TT, and PNPLA3 genotype, higher SHBG was associated with lower odds of NAFLD (odds ratio [OR], 0.52 per doubling; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.34–0.80). In separate multivariable models without SHBG, HIV (OR, 0.46; 95% CI, 0.26–0.79) and higher adiponectin (OR, 0.66 per doubling; 95% CI, 0.49–0.89) were associated with lower NAFLD odds, whereas TT was not significantly associated (OR, 0.74 per doubling; 95% CI, 0.53–1.04). Adjusting for SHBG attenuated the associations of HIV (OR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.34–1.08) and adiponectin (OR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.54–1.02) with NAFLD. Conclusions SHBG levels were higher among HIV+ men, were independently associated with lower NAFLD, and could partially explain the associations of HIV and higher adiponectin with lower NAFLD in our cohort. These findings suggest that SHBG may protect against NAFLD, supporting further prospective and mechanistic studies.


This article applies a comparative design to test the explanatory power of formal quantitative models of civil war. It examines the grievance, horizontal inequalities, and institutional models of civil war through the case study of the Yemeni civil war between 2004 and 2009. The aim is to highlight political processes that culminate in civil war, and to account for omitted variables in theories of civil war. In the Yemeni case these variables were the competitive rebel market and tribalism. The article shows that civil wars are not isolated events, but parts of a cycle of violence. By accounting for micro-level motives the causal processes that lead to civil wars can be better understood.


In this paper, we consider the monotone inclusion problem consisting of the sum of a continuous monotone map and a point-to-set maximal monotone operator with a separable two-block structure and introduce a framework of block-decomposition prox-type algorithms for solving it which allows for each one of the single-block proximal subproblems to be solved in an approximate sense. Moreover, by showing that any method in this framework is also a special instance of the hybrid proximal extragradient (HPE) method introduced by Solodov and Svaiter, we derive corresponding convergence rate results. We also describe some instances of the framework based on specific and inexpensive schemes for solving the singleblock proximal subproblems. Finally, we consider some applications of our methodology to: i) propose new algorithms for the monotone inclusion problem consisting of the sum of two maximal monotone operators, and; ii) study the complexity of the classical alternating minimization augmented Lagrangian method for a class of linearly constrained convex programming problems with proper closed convex objective functions.


Throughout history 'myth' has developed from events on the battlefield, often, the creation and circulation of 'propagandist interpretations' has been deliberately pursued by belligerents. Nonetheless, definitive clarifications of how and why mythologies develop remain difficult to establish. Theorists have however provided a theoretical model facilitating examination of the ideologies encoded within texts. This thesis suggests social communication remains 'self-gratifying' to the encoder and decoder and will explore how and why ideological interpretations of events, forwarded by those who circulate information, may be considered propagandist in nature within the historical context of the Korean War. Significant quantities of audio-visual material provided a valuable sample of media coverage which constructed the 'reality' of events for the cinema industry's target audience of predominantly working class patrons. This reality defined the United Nations only military clash with aggressive communism, during a period of significant international tension. This study will focus upon diplomatic activity, the military situation and British aspects of the conflict between mid-1950 and late January 1951; illustrating how audio-visual material sought to insulate a section of British society against the ideologies of Soviet sponsored communism. Thus the Cold War was fought on the cinema screen in addition to the battlefield.


Now a day's social networking sites are the fastest medium which delivers news to the user as compared to the newspaper and television. There so many social networking sites are present and one of them is Twitter. Twitter allows large no. of users to share/post their views, ideas on any particular event. According to recent survey, daily 340 million Tweets are sent on Twitter which is on a different topic and only 4% of posts on Twitter have relevant news data. It is not possible for any human to read the posts to get meaningful information related to specific events. There is one solution to this problem, i.e. we have to apply Summarization technique on it. In this paper, we have used an algorithm which uses a frequency count technique along with this we have also used some NLP features to summarize the event specified by the user. This automatic summarization algorithm handles the numerous, short, dissimilar, and noisy nature of tweets. We believe our novel approach helps users as well as researchers.


Contextual dynamic pricing is a problem of setting prices based on current contextual information and previous sales history to maximize revenue. A popular approach is to postulate a distribution of customer valuation as a function of contextual information and the baseline valuation. A semi-parametric setting, where the context effect is parametric and the baseline is nonparametric, is of growing interest due to its flexibility. A challenge is that customer valuation is almost never observable in practice and is instead type-I interval censored by the offered price. To address this challenge, we propose a novel semi-parametric contextual pricing algorithm for stochastic contexts, called the epoch-based Cox proportional hazards Contextual Pricing (CoxCP) algorithm. To our best knowledge, our work is the first to employ the Cox model for customer valuation. The CoxCP algorithm has a high-probability regret upper bound of ˜ O ( T 23 d ) , where T is the length of horizon and d is the dimension of context. In addition, if the baseline is known, the regret bound can improve to O ( d log T ) under certain assumptions. We demonstrate empirically the proposed algorithm performs better than existing semi-parametric contextual pricing algorithms when the model assumptions of all algorithms are correct.


Abstract : This thesis explores how E-3 Air Battle Managers train for and perform their duties on board the Airborne Warning and Control System. The study focuses on how E-3 training is driven by the maintenance of a set of battle management core competencies rooted in the basics of aircraft tactical fluid control force accountability and aerial refueling. The advent of a revolution in Information Management technology in the form of the 40/45 weapons system upgrade for the E-3 will drive the Air Force to rethink how training is accomplished with new capabilities and emerging missions in the battlespace. The current approach to block will not allow the Air Force to exploit the capabilities of the 40/45 airframe. Lessons from emerging areas such as knowledge management and sensemaking need to be assimilated into the way the Air Force trains E-3 Air Battle Managers to ensure future combat capability of aircrews in the increasingly technical and complex battlespace of future military operations. Existing core competencies need to be considered individual skill sets and knowledge management and sensemaking introduced to better prepare battle managers to effectively and efficiently interpret inputs in the battlespace and place information where it needs to be.


An innovative mechanism of a file-backup system concept is proposed. In the proposed file backup mechanism, the combination of the following technologies such as a spatial random scrambling of file data, a subsequent random fragmentation of the file, the corresponding encryption and duplication for each fragmented one by using a stream cipher code in each encryption stage, and the corresponding notification of the history data of the used encryption key code sequence of "encryption metadata" in addition can effectively realize the highly secure and prompt file backup system only when they are combined at the same time. In case of disaster occurrences in data backup center, the prompt data recovery can be easily and securely achieved by making use of a widely distributed huge amount of wired PCs or mobile PCs, mobile phones, and PDAs via several supervisory servers which are secretly diversified and functionally combined mutually. This paper also proposes the network architecture which can realize user-friendly service level control mechanism using RFID. The experimental evaluation of the average response time from the Web server has been estimated in terms the memory load characteristics of the data center.


Objective
To investigate the prevalence and risk factors of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in southern Xinjiang Uyghur residents aged≥ 50 years.

Methods
A cross-sectional study was carried out.Randomized cluster sampling was used in this survey of Uyghur residents aged 50 or above in Kuche and Kashi County of Xinjiang from January to May 2017.A total of 1 202 individuals received questionnaire survey, visual acuity test and eye examination.The AMD was diagnosed according to the Consensus of the 2012 International Beckmann AMD Classification Study Group, and the prevalence rate and risk factors of AMD in the population was analyzed.

Results
In 1490 Uyghur residents, a total of 1 202 subjects were included, with the response rate 80.67%.The 113 eyes of 73 patients were diagnosed as AMD, with the prevalence rate 6.07%.The prevalence of early- and mid-term AMD was 3.99%, and dry AMD was 1.00% and wet AMD was 1.08%.The prevalence rate of AMD in 50-59 years group, 60-69 years group, 70-79 years group and more than 80-year group was 4.35%, 5.85%, 11.38% and 14.81%, respectively.The prevalence of AMD was elevated with aging (χ2=15.008, P=0.002). Aging and region are the risk factors of AMD (Age: OR=1.000, P=0.001; region: OR=0.515, P=0022).

Conclusions
The prevalence rate of AMD among Uyghur residents aged 50 or above in southern Xinjiang is significantly lower than that in Europe and United States.Aging is an uncontrollable risk factor for AMD.

Key words:
Age-related macular degeneration; Prevalence; Risk factors; Uyghur; Epidemiology


This paper highlights the compromises between good steady-state accuracy and the speed of convergence in Perturb and Observe (P&O) maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm. Three fixed step-sizes and a variable step-size have been defined as the perturbation step-sizes and the effect of applying different step-sizes for P&O algorithm are discussed. The perturbation step-sizes have been simulated using Matlab/Simulink and the maximum power tracking efficiency for each step-size is analysed. These step-sizes have been experimentally tested using a PV illumination test rig to emulate rapid changes in shadow effect on a PV panel. The fixed step-sizes are tested using a direct duty-cycle control boost converter while the variable step-size is examined by applying current-mode controlled boost converter. It is concluded that the application of fixed perturbation step-size has a limitation in performing MPPT while a variable step-size is necessary to balance the competing aims of speed and accuracy.


This research explores the development of a Specialist Sports College within a framework of educational justice. It asks whether the development of the Specialist School can really mean equality of opportunity for all children, when some schools will, as a result, receive considerably more funding than others. It also considers the contentious policy location of the Specialist Sports College, found somewhere between ideologies of health and fitness for all and the development of elite sportsmen and women of the future. By investigating the transformation of one school into a Specialist College using a Case Study approach, this research explores the concept of transforming a school's culture, and questions the Government's expectations within this concept arena. What are the micro, lived effects of the macro policy of the Specialist School?
By exploring the key themes that emerged through the data I conclude that transforming cultures is a far more complicated task than the Government perceive and also that the introduction of a single subject specialism may, in reality, lead to more division than unity. I also question whether PE can ever be a subject area that truly offers the possibility of success for all.


Youth (sub)cultures and music scenes have usually been bound to geographic and social contexts. Yet, as the Internet became more ubiquitous in everyday practices and interactions, it has started to appear as the epicenter of trends and aesthetics which themselves portray new subjectivities. The main case is that of vaporwave, an Internet-born music genre and aesthetic. Gaining traction online around 2011 and reaching popularity across social media and digital platforms in the subsequent years, vaporwave is peculiar for its audio-visual anachronism. Its most recurrent visual elements include '80s and '90s technological artefacts, early digital graphics, classic sculptures, Japanese characters, exotic and metropolitan landscapes. Sonically, it heavily relies on samples from '80s and '90s semi forgotten pop, smooth jazz, new age and muzak, usually slowed down, looped and altered. Vaporwave is characterized by ambiguity, not only in its bizarre anachronism, but especially for what concerns its supposed political stance: addressing in almost grotesque ways late capitalism utopianism and obsolete technologies, together with cheesy muzak, vaporwave unmasks its hollowness; at the same time, though, its ironic critique seems distant and passive, showing a sense of disillusion and detached look at society. Moreover, vaporwave is exemplar insofar as it is based upon media and cultural archaeology, drawing on the past to act on and reshape cultural memory through its foregrounding of minor, obsolete or forgotten products, both technological and musical. Vaporwave visual aesthetics eventually became autonomous and spread as memes across the Internet, while the music has been losing popularity in more recent years. Nevertheless, vaporwave is a pivotal element in contemporary pop culture, as it may be considered the first music scene to fully grow, develop and rise to fame online. As such, Vaporwave is the first scene to be born into and designed for the Internet.


Experimental studies have suggested that increased calcium and inappropriate calcium handling by motoneurons might have a significant role in motoneuron degeneration. To further define the involvement of calcium in motoneuron loss we used the oxalate‐pyroantimonate technique for calcium fixation and monitored the ultrastructural distribution of calcium in spinal motoneurons in experimental autoimmune gray matter disease (EAGMD). In cervical and hypoglossal motoneurons from animals with relatively preserved upper extremity and bulbar function, increased calcium precipitates were present in the cytoplasm as well as in mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi complex without significant morphologic alterations. In surviving lumbar motoneurons of animals with hindlimb paralysis, however, there was massive morphological destruction of intracellular organelles but no significant accumulation of calcium precipitates. These findings suggest that altered calcium homeostasis is involved in motoneuron immune‐mediated injury with increased calcium precipitates early in the disease process and decreased to absent calcium precipitates later in the pathogenesis of motoneuron injury. J. Neurosci. Res. 60:98–105, 2000 © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


this document charts a painter's intention to evolve ambiguous and geographically indeterminate spaces that are potentially neither inside nor outside, public or private that are constructed from two dimensional images, in an unremitting state of realisation, keeping our view in constant motion. Postmodern discourses relating to interiority and discussed in architecture and interior design were used as a lens to extend and challenge the context and content of this figurative painting practice. Architectural theorist Beatriz colomina's critique of Peter and Alison smithson's House of the Future (1956), laid the groundwork for the theoretical position of this project, by focusing upon how domestic conditions are dichotomous. Anthony vidler's writing on Architecture Cornered: Notes on the Anxiety of Architecture and the theories of jeanette Budgett on the curtain designs of Petra Blaisse, appraise the domestic interior in new ways. they all draw attention to levels of discomfort in the representation of the domestic realm. to mine the notion of security versus disharmony in paintings of rooms, research began into potential and variable thresholds and boundaries of domestic spaces. 1960's new Zealand modernist interiors, architecture and objects give regional resonance in the experimentation of subject matter. A critical shift from looking to an interior as subject, to a pivotal focus on the interiority of the practice resulted in a greater awareness of process in the construction of paintings. clarification of key procedural approaches led to an apparent division of subject matter into the re-presentation of portraiture, and paintings of fabricated rooms. this strategy established a dialogue that sets up tensions between both subject and painting conventions in the manipulation of spatial ambiguity in the picture plane. synthesis of theoretical and practical research culminates in populated painted aggregations of the domestic interior, paintings that make manifest a re-engineering of the familiar through technique, content, and context.


The application of two-parametric fracture criterion to the problem of crackslimit equilibrium in homogeneous media or at an interface of two different materials isconsidered. The necessary condition of the crack tip limit equilibrium is the equality of theenergy release rate and the rate of the energy dissipation by the bonds (the first conditionof fracture). The second condition of fracture is the condition of the bond limit stretching atthe trailing edge of the bridge zone. Based on these two fracture conditions t he regimes ofthe bridged zone and the crack tip equilibrium and growth are considered. The estimationsof the equilibrium size of the bridged zone, the adhesion fracture energy and the criticalstress (the interface strength) depend on the crack size are found.


Reference price theories have dominated research into how consumers evaluate prices and make price-based choices. Given the widespread acceptance of reference price theories, it is notable that so little consideration has been given to what happens when the central assumption of these theories is violated: how do consumers evaluate prices when they do not have stable, well-defined reference prices?The authors propose an alternative to reference price theories, in which consumers instead use a general cue, specifically, a retailer's price image, or overall reputation for charging high or low prices, as atop-down inferential heuristic. This alternative account predicts a pattern of price perceptions, price estimates, and choices that cannot be accounted for using prevailing reference price theories. In each of the domains, reference price theories either predict no differences based on retailer price images or predict the opposite of the reported findings. These predictions are tested against those of prevailing reference price accounts in a series of nine empirical studies that offer converging evidence in support of the proposed theory.


In Ireland the deployment of onshore wind turbines has become progressively more difficult in some areas because of the potential negative externalities associated with their operation. Using a discrete choice experiment (DCE) I employ a willingness to accept framework to estimate the external effects of wind turbines on local residents with the inclusion of community consultation and to quantify the compensation required to permit wind farms to be built in Ireland. My findings reveal that the majority of respondents are willing to make (monetary) tradeoffs to allow for wind power initiatives and I find that respondents require less compensation if provision is made for a community representative and setback distance is increased.


Few studies investigate how teacher discourse moves relate to subsequent student discourse moves in real-time small-group reading instruction with multilingual learners (MLLs). Grounded in sociocultural theory and classroom discourse research, this study examines how fourth-grade MLLs engage in reasoning discourse during text-based discussions. We argue that by examining reasoning discourse holistically - beyond speaker turns - we can capture teacher-talk moves that facilitate or constrain student reasoning. This examination illuminates discourse practices such as "procedural instruction" and "reference to text," with important consequences for MLLs. Our study has implications for scholarship analyzing classroom talk and literacy educators facilitating discussions where MLLs engage in sophisticated and complex reasoning discourse.


Objectives. We identified the features of a land use–transportation system that optimizes the health and well-being of the population. Methods. We developed a quantitative system dynamics model to represent relationships among land use, transport, economic development, and population health. Simulation experiments were conducted over a 10-year simulation period to compare the effect of different baseline conditions and land use–transport policies on the number of motor vehicle crash deaths and disability-adjusted life years lost. Results. Optimal reduction in the public health burden attributable to land transport was demonstrated when transport safety risk reduction policies were combined with land use and transport polices that minimized reliance on individual motorized transport and maximized use of active transport modes. The model's results were particularly sensitive to the level of development that characterized each city at the start of the simulation period. Conclusions. Local, national, and international decision-makers are encouraged to address transport, land use, and health as an integrated whole to achieve the desired societal benefits of traffic safety, population health, and social equity.


The Water Framework Directive of the European Commission sets down regulatory requirements regarding harmful chemical substances in surface waters and measures to reduce such presence. Member states are responsible for implementation. In Germany the surface water ordinance (Oberflachengewasserverordnung) was adopted for this purpose in 2011. Currently the matter of whether to extend the list of substances to be reduced or eliminated in surface waters is being reconsidered. Among the types of substances under discussion are pharmaceuticals. To fulfil the requirements of the Water Framework Directive, it is essential that sophisticated local monitoring programs be conducted to obtain a useful knowledge base regarding the water quality situation of surface waters. Such a program is applied to the Swist watercourse, a tributary of the Rhine river. One component is establishment of a balancing of emissions for the purpose of identifying relevant sources, pathways and inputs of pollutants. Monitoring data is thus obtained from various source areas such as wastewater treatment plants, sewerage system outlets and runoff from landscape. To understand cause-effect relationships and to validate emission data, an immission monitoring strategy has also been established for the Swist. Furthermore, a scenario based measuring initiative with focus on anthropogenic micropollutants has been recently introduced into the existing monitoring program. This initiative is being conducted to expand knowledge of both the fate and behaviour of anthropogenic micropollutants in the Swist watercourse. First results show the appearance of a range of micropollutants, with highest concentrations of Diclofenac, Carbamazepin and Diatrizoat.


In this paper, we report the formation of hierarchically self-assembled nanofiber films from amylose-grafted sodium carboxymethyl celluloses (NaCMCs) that were synthesized by a chemoenzymatic approach. First, maltooligosaccharide primer-grafted NaCMCs were prepared by a chemical reaction using two kinds of NaCMCs with different degrees of polymerization (DPs) from Avicel and cotton sources. Then, phosphorylase-catalyzed enzymatic polymerization of α-d-glucose 1-phosphate from the nonreducing ends of the primer chains on the products was conducted to produce the prescribed amylose-grafted NaCMCs. The films were obtained by drying aqueous alkaline solutions of the amylose-grafted NaCMCs. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of the film fabricated from the material with the higher DP from the cotton source showed a clear, self-assembled, highly condensed tangle of nanofibers. The SEM image of the material with the lower DP from the Avicel source, on the other hand, showed an unclear nanofiber morphology. These results indicate that the DPs of the main chains in the materials strongly affected the hierarchically self-assembled nanofiber formation. The SEM images of the films after washing out the alkali, furthermore, showed that the fibers partially merged with each other at the interfacial area owing to the double helix formation between the amylose-grafted chains. The mechanical properties of the films under tensile mode also depended on the self-assembled morphologies of the amylose-grafted NaCMCs from the different sources.


The problem of higher-order Neel anisotropies is solved by exploiting the addition theorem for spherical functions. A key advantage of the present approach is the orthonormal character of the expansion of the magnetic energy that simplifies the formalism and makes possible the treatment of nonideal morphologies as well. Explicit expressions for second-, fourth-, and sixth-order anisotropies are obtained for ideal bulk of fcc and bcc symmetry as well as for ~001!, ~110!, and ~111! surfaces with nearest-neighbor ~NN! Neel interactions. The systematic examination of the pair model involves partition by species of inequivalent sites, interaction spheres, and orders in the multipole expansion. It enables us to to treat also next-nearest-neighbor ~NNN! pair interactions to the same high orders as the NN ones. The analysis sheds light onto the peculiar cases of bcc~100! and bcc~111! surfaces where one finds no symmetry breaking ~no second-order contributions! with NN interactions only. With the extension to NNN's, it is demonstrated that bcc~111! surfaces exhibit a particularly high symmetry and acquire no second-order anisotropy contributions from NNN interactions, whereas the latter induce a second-order symmetry breaking in the bcc~100! case. @S0163-1829~98!05734-8#


This exploratory study focuses on complaint handling in the financial industry to explore how complaint handling professionals interpret the requirement to treat customers fairly. Drawing on a small qualitative case study undertaken with a major UK financial institution, it is a novel attempt to integrate the literatures on ethical and fair decision making and apply them to the practice of complaint handling. Our contribution is to highlight: (1) the impact that institutional structures and processes play on the day to day practice of fair decision making; (2) how constructions of fairness vary between complaint handlers with some adopting an explicit ethical and moral focus; and (3) the active role group support and dialogue plays in supporting individual complaint handler's fair decision making. Several practical implications arise from this in relation to how organisations can support fair decision making.


The ESSENCE survey discovered 213 Type Ia supernovae at redshifts between 2002 and 2008. We present their R- and I-band photometry, measured from images obtained using the MOSAIC II camera at the CTIO Blanco, along with rapid-response spectroscopy for each object. We use our spectroscopic follow-up observations to determine an accurate, quantitative classification, and precise redshift. Through an extensive calibration program we have improved the precision of the CTIO Blanco natural photometric system. We use several empirical metrics to measure our internal photometric consistency and our absolute calibration of the survey. We assess the effect of various potential sources of systematic bias on our measured fluxes, and estimate the dominant term in the systematic error budget from the photometric calibration on our absolute fluxes is ∼1%.


Storage of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste in dual purpose casks (DPC) is related with the challenge of maintaining safety for transportation over several decades of storage. Beside consideration of aging mechanisms by appropriate design, material selection and operational controls to assure technical reliability by aging management measures, an essential issue is the continuous control and update of the DPC safety case. Not only the technical objects are subject of aging but also the safety demonstration basis is subject of "aging" due to possible changes of regulations, standards and scientific/technical knowledge. The basic document, defining the transport safety conditions, is the package design safety report (PDSR) for the transport version of the DPC. To ensure a safe transport in future to a destination which is not known yet (because of not yet existing repository sites) periodical reviews of the PDSR, in connection with periodic renewals of package design approval certificates, have to be carried out. The main reviewing tool is a gap analysis. A gap analysis for a PDSR is the assessment of the state of technical knowledge, standards and regulations regarding safety functions of structures, systems and components.


Close to sixty eight percents of the population of Malaysia is currently living in urban areas, doubling its value of thirty three percents in 1970. By the year 2020, when Malaysia is expected to be an industrialised nation, about two thirds of the population will be in urban areas living in mass-produced housing schemes first constructed in the late 1960s. These concentrated mass housing schemes, however, were not accompanied by a solid public transportation program, leaving Malaysian roads congested with private vehicles. Mileages travelled by these private vehicles are very much influenced by the design of the housing areas especially for internal travels within the areas. Nonetheless, little is known about how neighborhood designs in Malaysia influence household vehicle-mile-travelled or VMT. Understanding the effects of neighborhood design towards VMT may help reduce internal travels, thus reducing transportation carbon emission. This paper presents the findings of a study carried out in Iskandar Malaysia on the influence of neighborhood design attributes – density, diversity, proximity, connectivity, etc. – on household VMT. Thirty residential neighborhoods representing several decades from 1970s to 2000s were selected and travel diaries of their randomly selected households were recorded. Results obtained confirm the prevalent theory on the relationship between neighborhood design attributes and VMT. On average, daily travels range from 40 km/day for neighborhoods built pre-1980s to about 100 km/day for those built in the 2000s. Preference for curvilinear design rather than the higher connectivity grid design has increased household VMT. Some of the neighborhoods are also bigger with lower density and, unfortunately, less diversity of land uses. High density neighborhoods are normally small ones exclusively zoned for housing, forcing the residents to travel beyond the neighborhoods for amenities and facilities. As Iskandar Malaysia is targeting an increase in population from the current 1.5 million to 3.0 million by 2025, serious rethinking of its neighborhood development is a must to fulfill its commitment on becoming a low carbon city.


There has been many efforts in the research community to create reusable learning objects with rich metadata specification. Even with this effort, there is still a gap in the document representation of learning objects and its contents semantics. This gap makes difficult to create individual plans made to explore the learning curve and necessities of each student when consuming digital learning objects. In this paper we present a novel approach based on the hyperknowledge conceptual model to improve the understanding, reasoning and visualization of the professors about the learning process of his or her students. This approach helps professors to make queries that identify student behaviors over time. It also allows recommendation systems to be developed exploiting good user practices and past behavior patterns to suggest better ways for students to browse educational content.


Introduction: The medial articular surface of dried clavicles have been studied to evaluate sex and age in many races. This morphological investigation in Thai population has never been reported. This study aimed to classify the clavicular medial surfaces and to provide their incidences. Materials and Methods: 454 dried clavicles (254 males and 200 females), averaged age (60.69±14.36 years), from KKU Osteological Collection Unit, Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, were systemically investigated for types and incidence of their medial articular surface. Results: The showed that medial articular surfaces of Northeastern-Thais were classified into 6 types: smooth (type 1 = 7.71%), slight granulation (type 2 = 16.74%), coarse granulation (type 3 = 41.63%), nodule formation (type 4 = 1.54%), undulating (type 5 = 24.89%), and degeneration (type 6 = 7.49%), respectively. Conclusion: These basic data can be used for teaching the medical and paramedical students and also might be applied in forensic sciences especially identifying of Northeastern – Thai clavicle remains.


ABSTRACT Hu, X.; Wang, Y.; Wu, F., and Huang, A., 2021. Using a new channel estimation algorithm to improve underwater acoustic communication with multiple receivers. Journal of Coastal Research, 37(4), 779–783. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Underwater acoustic (UWA) communication with multiple receivers has been developed for underwater wireless data transmission, because the receiving array can improve the reliability of the system by using spatial diversity. In this paper, a channel estimation algorithm is proposed that fully uses UWA channel sparsity for single-input, multiple-output (SIMO) communication. The proposed algorithm integrates L0 norm into the cost function of the improved proportionate normalized least-mean-square (IPNLMS) algorithm based on L0 norm. The performance of the L0 norm–constrained IPNLMS, IPNLMS based on L0 norm, and the proposed algorithm is studied in terms of normalized misalignment for SIMO UWA channel estimation. In addition, the influence of the number of receivers on channel estimation accuracy is analyzed. Finally, the numerical simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm in terms of robustness, which achieves the lower normalized misalignment than the other two algorithms in a shallow-water acoustic channel estimation.


The aim of this thesis was to investigate whether a structured and systematic approach on improving pharmacotherapy in the elderly (the LIMM-model) would lead to a more appropriate and accurate drug use in the elderly. The elderly use many drugs and are more prone to suffer from adverse drug reaction. It is therefore important to address the quality of their drug therapy.

The first study presented in this thesis showed that medication errors in the transition of care are common. These results contributed to the development of the LIMM-model. The model consists of patient medication interview at admission (including medication reconciliation), medication review during the hospital stay and a discharge summary with a medication report at discharge (including medication reconciliation). The activities are performed by the clinical pharmacists and the health care team in close collaboration. The opportunity to study the full model arose as the department of internal medicine at Landskrona Hospital was interested in improving drug therapy in the elderly by using clinical pharmacy services. We therefore started the Landskrona Integrated Medicines management – the LIMM-study.

The studies presented here add information and knowledge on clinical relevant topics regarding drug therapy in the elderly, as great room for improvement has been shown to exist in this field. The LIMM-model can help improve the drug therapy in the individual patient, the transfer of information between care levels, is highly appreciated by the health care personnel and is considered very beneficial both for the health care personnel and for the patients.


BACKGROUND
School-aged children with persisting speech sound disorders (SSDs) may show little improvement in speech accuracy following phonological or articulation therapy.

AIMS
To determine the effects of establishing consonant production in facilitative vowel contexts for a 7-year-old boy (CD) with persisting post-alveolar fronting. CD had received phonological awareness therapy and traditional articulation therapy as part of a community caseload. However, his post-alveolar fronting showed resistance to therapy.

METHODS & PROCEDURES
CD received individual therapy for nine 45-55-min sessions. A checklist of quality indicators for single-subject research was used to explore the likelihood that a community clinic could meet quality indicators. Fifteen test words in each of target, generalization and control sets were measured at five times pre-, during and post-therapy. A trend analysis was used to measure the statistical significance of the results and to demonstrate the efficacy of therapy.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS
Therapy was successful. Gains on treatment and generalization test items were rapid and significantly higher than gains on control test items. Only three of 21 single-subject research quality indicators were not met in this research.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS
Targeting facilitative vowel contexts was successful for this 7-year-old boy with persisting post-alveolar fronting which had been resistant to other therapy techniques. Speech and language therapists are encouraged to ensure that quality indicators for single-subject interventions are built into regular practice.


The efficacy of macrolides against extracellular pathogens depends on extracellular levels of free drug and the organisms' patterns of susceptibility to the macrolides. The effect of macrolides against most bacteria is considered time-dependent. The size of inoculum affects erythromycin's activity against streptococci and, moreover, against staphylococci. The optimal effect is observed at a pH of 8. A significant postantibiotic effect (PAE), lastingC9 hours, has been shown with erythromycin and roxithromycin against gram-positive cocci. Azalides share the same properties. For the streptogramin synercid, a dose-dependent bactericidal activity within a range of low concentrations has been demonstrated. The serum area under the curve appeared to be the best predictor of in vivo effect on the mouse thigh model. Synercid also exhibited a prolonged PAE (C10 hours) against the main pathogens of its spectrum. A better knowledge of the pharmacodynamic properties of macrolides and streptogramins is essential for definition of proper dosing regimens.


Civil Society Resilience is an area of crisis management that is complementary to professional response. Crisis managers and response organizations need to integrate individuals, communities and local governments in their management efforts, among others by efficient crisis communication via media and the mobilization and handling of citizens as spontaneous volunteers. DRIVER aims at a campaign of experiments: organizational concepts and IT-solutions will be iteratively tested and assessed under realistic conditions to understand and improve their operational benefits. Therefore, this paper outlines the DRIVER approach of addressing the civil society in the context of resilience towards crisis situations. This does not only include a society oriented definition of local resilience as well as an introduction into the DRIVER perspectives of the society to be included in the DRIVER framework, rather it will be explained how DRIVERs consecutive experimentation approach supports the sustainable development of local societal resilience.


We propose a gradient-based method for quadratic programming problems with a single linear constraint and bounds on the variables. Inspired by the GPCG algorithm for bound-constrained convex quadratic programming [J.J. Mor\'e and G. Toraldo, SIAM J. Optim. 1, 1991], our approach alternates between two phases until convergence: an identification phase, which performs gradient projection iterations until either a candidate active set is identified or no reasonable progress is made, and an unconstrained minimization phase, which reduces the objective function in a suitable space defined by the identification phase, by applying either the conjugate gradient method or a recently proposed spectral gradient method. However, the algorithm differs from GPCG not only because it deals with a more general class of problems, but mainly for the way it stops the minimization phase. This is based on a comparison between a measure of optimality in the reduced space and a measure of bindingness of the variables that are on the bounds, defined by extending the concept of proportioning, which was proposed by some authors for box-constrained problems. If the objective function is bounded, the algorithm converges to a stationary point thanks to a suitable application of the gradient projection method in the identification phase. For strictly convex problems, the algorithm converges to the optimal solution in a finite number of steps even in case of degeneracy. Extensive numerical experiments show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


The golden age is an important period when children receive a wide range of knowledge. It takes place between two years of age to six.  The initial process of early literacy starts also here in which several components state meaningful supports; vocabulary, print knowledge, phonological awareness, emergent reading, and arts. Three previous studies for this article show that the integration between learning at home and at school for the supports is not yet integrated. Based on the research results that are relevant to this study, it was found that children whose parent were optimizing the chance of receiving a stimulus language well, will grow into adults who are capable in terms of language as well as having a tendency to more easily understand the readings five times greater than adults who in his childhood did not receive the same stimuli. The general objective of this study was to find the concept of activity-based meaningful language activities either through sub reading, storytelling, dialogue, as well as arts of toddlers. The specific objective of this study was to: Discover how the existing conditions in similar processes and guidelines that are applied in other countries as a comparison; Finding the design and guidelines for teacher and parent  in facilitating emergent  reading and arts;  Finding the effectiveness  of  on-going  literacy learning activities. Mix methods applied here took 40 teachers and 40 parents lived in Madiun and surroundings. The first questionnaire and observation for both participants showed what real emergent and arts activities for their children and also whether those acts were standardized or not. The second part was sharing the program and figuring the guidelines which lead them act as the target shared. And the last one was the evaluation which promoted observation, interviews and documents from the progress.


Epidemiological studies suggest that moderate alcohol consumption increases the risk of breast cancer, and that alcohol combined with estrogen replacement therapy may synergistically enhance the risk. However, the mechanism(s) of alcohol-induced mammary cancer is unknown. In human breast cancer cell lines, we found that ethanol (EtOH) caused a dose-dependent increase of up to 10- to 15-fold in the transcriptional activity of the liganded estrogen receptor (ER-alpha), but did not activate the nonliganded receptor. Significant stimulation of ER-alpha activity was observed at EtOH concentrations comparable with or less than blood alcohol levels associated with intoxication and at doses below the threshold for in vitro cytotoxicity. These findings may be explained, in part, by an EtOH-induced down-regulation of the expression of BRCA1, a potent inhibitor of ER-alpha activity, and, in part, by a modest increase in the ER-alpha levels. Our findings suggest that inactivation of BRCA1 and increased estrogen-responsiveness might contribute to alcohol-induced breast cancer.


We are interested in predicting failures of cyber-physical systems during their operation. Particularly, we consider stochastic systems and signal temporal logic specifications, and we want to calculate the probability that the current system trajectory violates the specification. The paper presents two predictive runtime verification algorithms that predict future system states from the current observed system trajectory. As these predictions may not be accurate, we construct prediction regions that quantify prediction uncertainty by using conformal prediction, a statistical tool for uncertainty quantification. Our first algorithm directly constructs a prediction region for the satisfaction measure of the specification so that we can predict specification violations with a desired confidence. The second algorithm constructs prediction regions for future system states first, and uses these to obtain a prediction region for the satisfaction measure. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first formal guarantees for a predictive runtime verification algorithm that applies to widely used trajectory predictors such as RNNs and LSTMs, while being computationally simple and making no assumptions on the underlying distribution. We present numerical experiments of an F-16 aircraft and a self-driving car.