Although advance network planning and dense node deployment, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) may achieve the required performance, it still face the fundamental challenge of meeting stringent power and time requirements using nodes with limited sensing capacities. To better cope with the power consumption problem, mobile sensor nodes can be introduced to dynamically reconfigure the sensor network capacity in an on-demand manner. Through data gathering and relaying, mobile nodes can reduce the amount of data transmitting between the static nodes then conserve the power of these nodes to prolong the lifetime of network. In this paper we describe the DataTruck, a new open-source sensing platform specifically designed to support our experimental research in mobile sensor networks, which is used to collect or relay data from static sensors. The DataTruck node is designed around the S3C2440A ARM920T RISC microprocessor and the IEEE 802.15.4 compliant CC2431 radio from Chipcon. Mobility is enabled with an additional accessory board that allows the node to drive its 4 linear motion actuators. To reduce power consumption, a long term sleep mode is supported through different power supplying methods for main board and clock. Furthermore, we integrated a smart antenna system to gather the data from multiple static nodes concurrently which transmitting data using the same frequency of channel. The experiments show that DataTruck collects data efficiently to reduce the average data transmission delay by using SDMA technology.


Supercapacitors (SCs), which are also known as ultracapacitors, are commonly based on porous activated carbon electrodes and electrostatic charge-storage mechanisms. Carbon electrodes are supposed to be chemically and electrochemically inert, and the electrostatic nature of the charge-storage mechanism is highly reversible. These properties should assure that SCs have an infinite shelf life. However, in practice, SC cells exhibit performance fading when they are used for months. The purpose of this paper is to compare the performance fading of SCs in two types of tests. The first accelerated test is the calendar life test, which evaluates cell degradation when cells are used at elevated voltages and temperatures; these degradations are observed in cells during rest periods. The second test is the power cycling test, which corresponds to degradations during the actual use of SCs as peak power sources in hybrid electric applications. In this paper, we use an impedance model to monitor changes in cell behavior. This analytical impedance model is based not only on physical quantities, such as double-layer capacitance, specific area, and electrolyte conductivity, but on elementary electrode dispersion as well. This model is validated in the frequency domain using the initial state of the tested SC for different temperature and voltage configurations. Then, we present and specify two types of tests. A periodic characterization based on impedance spectroscopy is done to quantify impedance changes during the ageing tests. The obtained results confirm that the impedance real part is increasing and that the capacitance is decreasing during the two ageing tests; however, the way they change is different. Indeed, the shape of the impedance real part is conserved in the calendar life test, whereas it is distorted in the power cycling test. This difference will be explained in terms of the evolution of the impedance model parameters. This paper confirms that the two ageing tests affect the SC performances differently.


Four steel-to-concrete connections with adhesive anchor groups under reversed cyclic loading have been tested. The results showed that anchor steel could reach yield strength before connection failure, generating small shell-shaped concrete cone in the surface of block and the ultimate capacity was governed by strength of anchor. Seismic characteristics of hysteresis curve, rigidity regression, ductility and energy-dissipation were used to draw conclusions that the connections would behave in a ductile manner without significant loss of loading capacity after peak value and visible deformation could develop until failure occurred. Increased embedment depth and added amount of anchors were helpful to improve seismic performance of connections. Only the outer row of most stressed anchors in the tension zone were needed to meet the elliptical interaction of tension and shear capacity requirement during the design process of anchor groups under combined shear and moment loading. In seismic design of steel-to-concrete connections, the predicted capacity by a reduction factor of 0.8 was advised and the comparison of calculated versus observed capacity presented limited variance.


Intimal smooth muscle cells (SMC) represent the largest cell population in atherosclerotic plaques and restenotic lesions. These cells have multiple functions that differ from those of SMC of tunica media. Compared with medial SMC, intimal SMC are hyperresponsive to a large array of endogenous and exogenous inflammatory stimuli. However, the underlying molecular basis is elusive.
 Analyzing the phenotype of smooth muscle cells (SMC) isolated from balloon injury induced neointima of rat carotid artery, we found that unlike SMC of tunica media, the SMC of the intima exhibit an innate immune phenotype, characterized by constitutively expressing a broad panel of pathogen pattern recognition receptors (PRR) seen typically in macrophages. These PRR confer on intimal SMC an ability to react to an extensive list of microbial components by producing inflammatory mediators including nitric oxide, cytokines and chemokines. Additionally, intimal SMC produce the leukocyte chemokine CCL-5 (or RANTES) in the absence of exogenous stimuli, implying an intrinsic innate immune activity. The master program that determines the phenotype of intimal SMC remains to be defined but may involve a number of transcription pathways. These observations suggest that intimal SMC are vascular tissue specific innate immune effector cells with functions similar to those of macrophages.


FOXE1 is a thyroid-specific transcription factor essential for thyroid gland development and maintenance of the differentiated state. Interestingly, a strong association has been recently described between FOXE1 expression and susceptibility to thyroid cancer, but little is known about the mechanisms underlying FOXE1-induced thyroid tumorigenesis. Here, we used a panel of human thyroid cancer-derived cell lines covering the spectrum of thyroid cancer phenotypes to examine FOXE1 expression and to test for correlations between FOXE1 expression, the allele frequency of two SNPs and a length polymorphism in or near the FOXE1 locus associated with cancer susceptibility, and the migration ability of thyroid cancer cell lines. Results showed that FOXE1 expression correlated with differentiation status according to histological sub-type, but not with SNP genotype or cell migration ability. However, loss-and-gain-of-function experiments revealed that FOXE1 modulates cell migration, suggesting a role in epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Our previous genome-wide expression analysis identified Zeb1, a major EMT inducer, as a putative Foxe1 target gene. Indeed, gene silencing of FOXE1 decreased ZEB1 expression, whereas its overexpression increased ZEB1 transcriptional activity. FOXE1 was found to directly interact with the ZEB1 promoter. Lastly, ZEB1 silencing decreased the ability of thyroid tumoral cells to migrate and invade, pointing to its importance in thyroid tumor mestastases. In conclusion, we have identified ZEB1 as a bona fide target of FOXE1 in thyroid cancer cells, which provides new insights into the role of FOXE1 in regulating cell migration and invasion in thyroid cancer.


Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is an established reperfusion strategy in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction with ST-segment elevation (STEMI). Nevertheless, myocardial damage is not terminated immediately, even with successful primary PCI, which eliminates the epicardial occlusion. Despite the success of contemporary reperfusion therapy and effective restoration of epicardial coronary flow, many patients have suboptimal flow at the tissue level within the myocardium. Studies indicate that these patients have a decreased recovery of left ventricular function and poor long-term prognosis. This could be due to reperfusion injury, embolization of epicardial thrombus or plaque debris jeopardizing tissue-level perfusion. This article attempts to review the process of microvascular dysfunction following reperfusion of STEMI with primary PCI and different strategies tried thus far to improve this.


Objective Approximately 30% of patients with gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) do not achieve adequate symptom control with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs). The aim of this study was to determine whether any symptom profile or reflux pattern was associated with refractoriness to PPI therapy. Design Patients with typical GORD symptoms (heartburn and/or regurgitation) were included and had 24 h pH-impedance monitoring off therapy. Patients were considered to be responders if they had fewer than 2 days of mild symptoms per week while receiving a standard or double dose of PPI treatment for at least 4 weeks. Both clinical and reflux parameters were taken into account for multivariate analysis (logistic regression). Results One hundred patients were included (median age 50 years, 42 male), 43 responders and 57 non-responders. Overall, multivariate analysis showed that the factors associated with the absence of response were absence of oesophagitis (p=0.050), body mass index (BMI) ≤25 kg/m2 (p=0.002) and functional dyspepsia (FD) (p=0.001). In patients who reported symptoms during the recording (n=85), the factors associated with PPI failure were BMI ≤25 kg/m2 (p=0.004), FD (p=0.009) and irritable bowel syndrome (p=0.045). In patients with documented GORD (n=67), the factors associated with PPI failure were absence of oesophagitis (p=0.040), FD (p=0.003), irritable bowel syndrome (p=0.012) and BMI ≤25 kg/m2 (p=0.029). Conclusion No reflux pattern demonstrated by 24 h pH-impedance monitoring is associated with response to PPIs in patients with GORD symptoms. In contrast, absence of oesophagitis, presence of functional digestive disorders and BMI ≤25 kg/m2 are strongly associated with PPI failure.


BACKGROUND: Large and giant lesions often have thicker, atheromatous walls as well as intra-aneurysmal thrombus that combine to prevent traditional clips from closing properly in some cases. OBJECTIVE: To report the development and use of a novel clip design specifically tailored to treat atheromatous, thrombotic, or previously coiled aneurysms. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 6 patients with complex aneurysms not amenable to simple neck clipping and not considered appropriate for endovascular therapy who were treated using a novel "compression" clip design. We describe the development and use of a novel aneurysm clip design with blades that are not opposed at rest to allow direct clipping of atheromatous, thrombotic, and previously coiled aneurysms. RESULTS: Four patients had recurrent, previously coiled aneurysms; one of these also had a large thrombotic component. Two patients had complex lesions with heavy atheroma involving a portion of their aneurysms. There were no complications related to the use of the clip, and all patients did well without neurological complications. In every case, the clip allowed straightforward obliteration of the aneurysm without the need for temporary vascular occlusion, aneurysmorrhaphy, or removal of an intra-aneurysmal coil mass. All patients underwent intraoperative angiography to confirm obliteration of the aneurysm with preservation of the normal vasculature. CONCLUSION: Atheromatous, thrombotic, and previously coiled aneurysms may not be treatable with simple neck clipping and may not be curable with endovascular therapy. For such cases, we designed a novel "compression" clip that has been used safely and successfully in our experience with good short-term follow-up.


The present work addresses poor bone/implant integration and severe bone defects. In both conditions external stimuli is required for new bone to form. A multilayered functional implant coating, comprised of an inner layer of crystalline titanium dioxide (TiO2) and an outer layer of hydroxyapatite (HAP), loaded with bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2), was proposed as a tool for providing both improved initial bone formation and long-term osseointegration. The in vitro characterization of the implant coatings showed that TiO2 and HAP were more favorable for cell viability, cell morphology and initial cell differentiation, compared to native titanium oxide. Furthermore, significantly higher cell differentiation was observed on surfaces with BMP-2, indicating that a simple soaking process can be used for incorporating bioactive molecules. Moreover, the results suggest that there could be a direct interaction between BMP-2 and HAP, which prolongs the retention of the growth factor, improving its therapeutic effect. For treating severe bone defects a strategy involving BMP-2 delivery from hyaluronan hydrogels was explored. The hydrogels were prepared from two reactive polymers – an aldehyde-modified hyaluronan and a hydrazide-modified poly(vinyl alcohol). Upon mixing, the two components formed a chemically crosslinked hydrogel. In this work the mixing of the hydrogel components was optimized by rheological measurements. Furthermore, an appropriate buffer was selected for in vitro experiments by studying the swelling of hydrogels in PBS and in cell culture medium. A detection method, based on radioactive labeling of BMP-2 with 125I was used to monitor growth factor release both in vitro and in vivo. The results showed a biphasic release profile of BMP-2, where approximately 16 % and 3 % of the growth factor remained inside the hydrogel after 4 weeks in vitro and in vivo, respectively. The initial fast release phase corresponded to the early ectopic bone formation observed 8 d after injection of the hydrogel formulation in the thigh muscle of rats. The hydrogel formulation could be improved by incorporation of HAP powder into the hydrogel formulation. Furthermore, bone formation could be increased by pre-incubation of the premixed hydrogel components inside the syringe prior to injection. Crushed hydrogels were also observed to induce more bone formation compared to solid hydrogels, when implanted subcutaneously in rats. This was thought to be due to increased surface area of the hydrogel, which allowed for improved cell infiltration.


It turns to be more and more challenging to place ourselves beyond our own words, which are often repeated and emptied. This text presents and thinks two new possibilities related to experiences of the Group of Studies and Researches "Philosophy for Children" (GEPFC/FCLAr/CNPq) which intends to face this challenge by "mixing up the thinking" and reading of the world. The first invents another way of reading "The Alphabet of Deleuze", dealing with words and images (drawings). The second one puts children and adults making philosophy together. "Mixing up thinking" is to look for different ways, making it possible to open ourselves to the new, to what the other is, doing exercises that permit us to conduct experiences with/of thinking, consequently widening the senses of our existence. Based on Benjamin we can see the philosophical experience consisting of three steps (moving): musical (in which it is composed), arquitectural (in which it is constructed) and textile (in which it is woven). Walking up the steps of the philosophical experience is conjugating with what the other is. A subject who philosophizes must be capable of being the other (not to be a word of power for the other), and get to know the other, be the other and be with the other (not to make the other smaller with our knowledge because this way we make us smaller as well). However, there are endless conjugations from which gestures come out as ways of saying (language). As far as it is loving, this gesture-language creates a new space between two non-coincident points and this is novelty that opens room for the philosophical experience taking us for from knowledge and power which make us smaller.


One goal of machine discovery is to automate creative tasks from human scientific practice. This paper describes a project to automate in a general manner the theory-driven discovery of reaction pathways in chemistry and biology. We have designed a system - called MECHEM - that proposes credible pathway hypotheses from data ordinarily available to the chemist. MECHEM has been applied to reactions drawn from the history of biochemistry, from recent industrial chemistry as reported in journals, and from organic chemistry textbooks.

The paper first explains the chemical problem and discusses previous AI treatments. Then are presented the architecture of the system, the key algorithmic ideas, and the heuristics used to explore the very large space of chemical pathways. The system's efficacy is demonstrated on a biochemical reaction studied earlier by Kulkarni and Simon in the KEKADA system, and on another reaction from industrial chemistry.

Our project has also resulted in separate novel contributions to chemical knowledge, demonstrating that we have not simplified the task for our convenience, but have addressed its full complexity.


The actively spreading Chile Ridge has been subducting beneath Patagonian Chile since the Middle Miocene. After subduction, continued separation of the faster Nazca plate from the slow Antarctic plate has opened up a gap—a slab window—between the subducted oceanic lithospheres beneath South America. We examined the form of the asthenospheric mantle flow in the vicinity of this slab window using S waves from six isolated, unusual 2007 earthquakes that occurred in the generally low-seismicity region just north of the ridge subduction region. The S waves from these earthquakes were recorded at distant seismic stations, but were split into fast and slow orthogonally polarized waves at upper mantle depths during their passage through the slab window and environs. We isolated the directions of fast split shear waves near the slab window by correcting for upper mantle seismic anisotropy at the distant stations. The results show that the generally trench-parallel upper mantle flow beneath the Nazca plate rotates to an ENE trend in the neighborhood of the slab gap, consistent with upper mantle flow from west to east through the slab window.


ABSTRACT Understanding the relationship between body, health, and movement beyond biological determinism and the current biomedical paradigm should consider other emerging interpretations that consider the multiplicity of the innumerable dimensions of which the triad can be composed as well as the different relationships that could exist between them. The paradigm of complexity is presented in this essay with the purpose of supporting other interpretations of physical activity that are less simplifying, linear and causal and that can incorporate openness, incompleteness, uncertainty and transdisciplinarity. The theory of complexity represents a stimulating and potent contribution to the dynamic study of the health-disease process and the physical activity in this panorama.


This symposium contribution argues that the shortcomings of patent damages doctrine arise in part from the conflicting normative aims of this body of law. On the one hand, patent damages should provide just enough compensation to induce invention and commercialization of a technology but nothing more, thus mitigating deadweight loss. On the other hand, damages should deter infringement and shunt would-be infringers into licensing negotiations with patentees. The current regime of "make-whole" damages largely effectuates the second aim by providing patentees with the full market value of their infringed technologies, even when such damages exceed inducement costs. To help resolve this divergence, this Article proposes distinguishing the amount of compensation that patentees receive from the amount of damages that infringers pay. Within this framework, infringers would pay damages based on the current regime of make-whole damages, thus deterring infringement and encouraging licensing. However, courts would compensate a patentee up to this amount based on the patentee's inducement costs of invention and commercialization, including a reasonable profit. If make-whole damages paid by an infringer exceed inducement costs, courts would allocate any surplus to government agencies to fund research and development, thus advancing the goals of the patent system. This Article assesses the pros and cons of this proposal, observing that such a "decoupling" regime encourages patentees and infringers to settle, thus eliminating any patent surplus. This is a feature rather than a bug, however, as such settlement would promote more competitive market entry relative to the current status quo while guarding against overly diminishing incentives to invent.


Four hundred autopsy cases of malignant tumors were analysed. Of these 321 cases (80.3%) had carcinoma and 79 (19.7%) sarcoma. In the 79 cases, 65 had malignant lymphoma, and 14 (3.5%) soft tissue and bone tumor. The tumor cells metastatic to the lung and liver were common in the autopsy cases. There were 163 cases of metastatic tumors in the lung and liver respectively (40.5%). The metastatic tumor in the liver was mainly from the breast, large intestinal, ovary, stomach and NHL, and in the lung mainly from the breast, liver, NHL, stomach and ovary. The lymph node metastasis was mainly located in the neck, mediastina, aorta. The extensive metastatic tumors were lung cancer, gastric cancer, breast cancer and NHL, However, carcinoma in uterus cervix, urinary bladder, pharynex and testis was mainly infiltrated in the original region. The tumor metastasis was related to the region, histologic type and differentiation and so on.


The limited availability of resources is predicted to impose trade‐offs between growth, reproduction and self‐maintenance in animals. However, although some studies have shown that early reproduction suppresses growth, reproduction positively correlates with size in others. We use detailed records from a large population of semi‐captive elephants in Myanmar to assess the relationships between size (height and weight), reproduction and survival in female Asian elephants, a species characterized by slow, costly life history. Although female height gain during the growth period overlapped little with reproductive onset in the population, there was large variation in age at first reproduction and only 81% of final weight had been reached by peak age of reproduction at the population level (19 years). Those females beginning reproduction early tended to be taller and lighter later in life, although these trends were not significant. We found that taller females were more likely to have reproduced by a given age, but such effects diminished with age, suggesting there may be a size threshold to reproduction which is especially important in young females. Because size was not linked with female survival during reproductive ages, the diminishing effect of height on reproduction with age is unlikely to be due to biased survival of larger females. We conclude that although reproduction may not always impose significant costs on growth, height may be a limiting factor to reproduction in young female Asian elephants, which could have important implications considering their birth rates are low and peak reproduction is young – 19 years in this population.


Today, surveillance systems play a key role in highly secured areas. The most common surveillance system, CCTV, produces a continuous image and has various problems such as high cost, need for continuous human intervention, and an inherent difficulty in locating and identifying the intruder due to the presence of obstacles. This paper proposes a scheme to classify a person's movement as intrusive or non-intrusive in a semantic way. The classification is aided with the help of sensor network. The sensor network is considered to be heterogeneous. It uses a PIR sensor for movement detection, an RFID sensor for identifying the person and an image sensor for verification. This system uses both wired and wireless networks for efficient data transfer. Data from either networks are synchronised using time and location information. The proposed Intruder Detection System identifies a person as an intruder, if there is any mismatch in the sensed information.


A goal is the design of any encryption algorithm must be security against unauthorized attacks. Within the last decade, there has been a vast increase in the accumulation and communication of digital computer data in both the private and public sectors. Much of this information has a significant value, either directly or indirectly, which requires protection. The algorithms uniquely define the mathematical steps required to transform data into a cryptographic cipher and also to transform the cipher back to the original form. Performance and security level is the main characteristics that differentiate one encryption algorithm from another. Here introduces a new method to enhance the performance of the Data Encryption Standard (DES) algorithm is introduced here. This is done by replacing the predefined XOR operation applied during the 16 round of the standard algorithm by a new operation depends on using two keys, each key consists of a combination of 4 states (0, 1, 2, 3) instead of the ordinary 2 state key (0, 1). This replacement adds a new level of protection strength and more robustness against breaking methods. The New Comparative Study between DES, 3DES and AES within Nine Factors achieving an efficiency, flexibility and security, which is a challenge of researchers.


Reflectarray antennas have attracted extensive attention due to their low loss, high gain, compact volume, and their excellent abilities to control the radiated beam. The use of dielectric resonators as the reflectarray elements minimises the ohmic loss and the coupling between elements. This study uses fused deposition modelling (FDM) three-dimensional (3D) printing rapidly prototyping a low cost and light-weight dielectric resonator reflectarray. The demonstrated reflectarray is composed of 625 3D printed dielectric resonator elements to control the reflected phase over the reflector surface. The total size is 12 × 12 cm2 and the mass is 67 g. Measurements show that this reflectarray provides 28 dBi gain at 30 GHz when offset fed by a Ka-band horn antenna. This work demonstrates the potential of FDM for millimetre wave (mm-wave) applications. The new 3D printing approach can be deployed for high-gain mm-wave antenna fabrication with significantly reduced labour time and material costs.


Analyzing how the role of ASEAN economies in global value chains has helped spur their recovery and cut poverty, this publication shows the need to future-proof these critical networks to ensure inclusive, sustainable, and greener growth. It explains how the expansion of cross-border trade networks has helped Southeast Asian economies bolster manufacturing and spark a wave of job creation and innovation. On the flipside, it considers the associated environmental impact and social inequality. Highlighting systemic shocks to global trade, it explains how economic momentum, stronger institutions, and more inclusive growth can help mitigate risks and build resilient economies.


Processes of heating and destruction of the breast fat tissue under the action of focused high-intensity ultrasound generated by a 128-element transducer are considered. The simulation of a thermal problem is carried out by anumerical solution of the heat transfer equation. The acoustic pressure field in the tissue is calculated using the Rayleigh integral. A system of dimensionless scaling parameters is proposed to describe the non-stationary process of heat propagation. The influenceof the space localization of foci in a series of pulses on the lesion size is analyzed. The results demonstrate the advantages of a tissue processing program withspatially divergingfocal points of pulses, consisting in a more uniform heating of the tissue and the formation of a continuous ablation area. The impact of the perfusion process on the lesion size is considered.


PURPOSE
A consecutive case series of patients with dupilumab-associated ocular surface disease (DAOSD) that describes common ocular symptoms and signs, proposes a symptom disease severity grading system, and describes treatment strategies of DAOSD patients was evaluated.

METHODS
A retrospective chart review of patients with concomitant dupilumab-treated atopic dermatitis and DAOSD with ophthalmic evaluation between January 2014 and May 2019 was conducted.

RESULTS
Twenty-nine patients (mean age 46 years, M/F: 12/17) with 57 ophthalmic exams were identified. The most common ocular symptoms included irritation/pain (n = 28, 97%), redness (n = 24, 83%), pruritus (n = 18, 62%), discharge (n = 18, 62%), and light sensitivity (n = 6, 21%). The most frequent signs included conjunctival injection (n = 18, 62%), superficial punctate keratitis (n = 16, 55%), and papillary reaction (n = 8, 28%). Topical corticosteroids (TCS) (n = 23, 79%), tacrolimus (n = 6, 21%), and artificial tears (n = 7, 24%) were the most commonly used therapies. Of those with follow-up documentation (n = 21), 20 were noted to have partial or complete response with TCS based on symptoms and reduction of signs. Using our proposed symptom-based grading scale, scaled 1 to 5 based on the presence of common symptoms listed above, 66% (n = 19) requiring topical immunomodulating therapy were found in the 'severe' group (≥3 symptoms) and 17% (n = 5) were found in the 'mild' group (≤2 symptoms).

CONCLUSIONS
This study provides insight into the commonly presenting ocular signs and symptoms associated with DAOSD and highlights the efficacy of TCS and other immunomodulators in improving symptoms associated with DAOSD. Based on our findings, we propose a symptom-based grading system that can guide nonophthalmic physicians regarding ophthalmology consult.


This work applies a new methodology to assimilate multi-objective data (production, injection and, pressure of all wells) based on five of the twelve steps described by Schiozer et al. (2015) using reservoir simulation and uncertainty reduction for a brown offshore field in the Campos Basin, Brazil. We use probabilistic techniques to assimilate all data simultaneously, improving the performance of the process. The 12-step methodology by Schiozer et al. is based on a closed-loop reservoir development and management process. Steps 1 and 2 construct the model under uncertainties and select the numerical model. Steps 3 to 5 assimilate history data in an iterative process proposed by Maschio and Schiozer (2016). At each iteration, a set of bestmatched models is selected to update the probability distributions of the reservoir properties (parameters) based on a correlation matrix. Steps 6 to 12, comprising the decision analysis, were not included in this work. The results reflect a practical application of the methodology, considering a real reservoir with two zones and complex behavior that was captured during reservoir characterization using an uncertainty reduction algorithm. The reservoir was characterized through the probabilistic combination of uncertain variables, based on well logs and seismic data. The probabilistic characterization highlighted the geological variability under uncertainty. A set of three hundred geological realizations with associated porosity, net-to-gross ratio, and permeability distributions was generated for further combination with uncertain dynamic parameters. The method DLHG (Discretized Latin Hypercube combined with Geostatistics) was used during the entire process to build approximately 1000 uncertain scenarios allowing the review of reservoir parameters in any iteration. The data assimilation process was used to update the probability density function for each parameter according to the data match indicators. We significantly reduced the uncertainty and improved production forecast reliability. This paper integrated different areas including reservoir characterization, reservoir simulation and history matching with the associated uncertainty reduction. The methodology was successfully applied in a practical case with several uncertainties, indicating good potential for application in other fields. The matching quality was better than in previous approaches.


Reactive power compensation of distribution network is an important method to improve power quality and voltage stability, while reducing the power loss of the distribution network. In this paper the objective function is built to minimize all the costs which include power loss costs and investment of the dynamic reactive power compensation device divided into each year. The actual operation of the distribution network is simulated considering light, normal and heavy load operation conditions. Bacterial colony chemotaxis (BCC) algorithm is used to determine which nodes to install the compensation devices. The calculation of reactive power compensation is done with the back/forward sweep algorithm adapting to the radial distribution system. In order to compensate three different load conditions separately, the fixed part and the switching part of the dynamic reactive power compensation device are used. This method applies to 28-node system, the result demonstrates that the method is feasible and effective.


The large hadron electron collider (LHeC) is a proposed upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) within the high luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) project, to provide electron-nucleon collisions and explore a new regime of energy and luminosity for deep inelastic scattering. The design of an interaction region for any collider is always a challenging task given that the beams are brought into crossing with the smallest beam sizes in a region where there are tight detector constraints. In this case integrating the LHeC into the existing HL-LHC lattice, to allow simultaneous proton-proton and electron-proton collisions, increases the difficulty of the task. A nominal design was presented in the the LHeC conceptual design report in 2012 featuring an optical configuration that focuses one of the proton beams of the LHC to β∗=10 cm in the LHeC interaction point to reach the desired luminosity of L=1033 cm−2 s−1. This value is achieved with the aid of a new inner triplet of quadrupoles at a distance L∗=10 m from the interaction point. However the chromatic beta beating was found intolerable regarding machine protection issues. An advanced chromatic correction scheme was required. This paper explores the feasibility of the extension of a novel optical technique called the achromatic telescopic squeezing scheme and the flexibility of the interaction region design, in order to find the optimal solution that would produce the highest luminosity while controlling the chromaticity, minimizing the synchrotron radiation power and maintaining the dynamic aperture required for stability.


This paper presents results of the finite-element (FE) analysis of air-gap flux variation in an induction motor when the rotor vibrates due to its eccentricity. An accurate modeling and analysis of rotor vibration in the machine are made using air-gap flux simulation, and search coils are used for measuring the actual air-gap flux. The simulation was done for the induction motor with 380 [V], 5 [HP], 4P, 1,742 [rpm] ratings using the commercial FE analysis tool. The simulation results can be useful for on-line vibration monitoring of an induction motor.


Variable selection in high dimensional space has challenged many contemporary statistical problems from many frontiers of scientific disciplines. Recent technological advances have made it possible to collect a huge amount of covariate information such as microarray, proteomic and SNP data via bioimaging technology while observing survival information on patients in clin- ical studies. Thus, the same challenge applies in survival analysis in order to understand the association between genomics information and clinical infor- mation about the survival time. In this work, we extend the sure screening procedure (6) to Cox's proportional hazards model with an iterative version available. Numerical simulation studies have shown encouraging performance of the proposed method in comparison with other techniques such as LASSO. This demonstrates the utility and versatility of the iterative sure independence screening scheme.


In distributed multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems, imperfect synchronization causes a unique problem in a coded cooperative diversity system. In the presence of a fractional-symbol delay between the signals transmitted from different relay nodes, the channels become highly dispersive even at a flat-fading environment. Existing methods solve such problem based on time-domain approaches where adaptive equalization is required at the receivers for combining the information transmitted from distributed sources. In this paper, we propose the use of OFDM-based approaches using distributed space-frequency codes. The proposed schemes are insensitive to fractional- symbol delays and lead to higher data rate transmission and simplified implementation. In addition, the proposed schemes permit the use of relatively simple amplify-and- forward algorithm in multi-hop wireless networks without delay accumulations. The proposed methods remove the time delay in each relaying hop by reconstructing the prefix and, as such, improve the spectral efficiency, while keeping a simplified relaying structure.


Prince Narmer is fourteen and, as his father's favourite, destined to be King of Thinis, one of the towns along the River, the only world he knows.


The 3D reconstruction from 2D broadcast video is a challenging problem with many potential applications, such as 3DTV, free-viewpoint video or augmented reality. In this paper, a modular system capable of efficiently reconstructing 3D scenes from broadcast video is proposed. The system consists of four constitutive modules: tracking and segmentation, self-calibration, sparse reconstruction and, finally, dense reconstruction. This paper also introduces some novel approaches for moving object segmentation and sparse and dense reconstruction problems. According to the simulations for both synthetic and real data, the system achieves a promising performance for typical TV content, indicating that it is a significant step towards the 3D reconstruction of scenes from broadcast video.


This thesis examines the Haitian writer Franketienne's practice of rewriting his own texts, a feature of his work which frequently has been overlooked. It argues that rewriting shapes his oeuvre, providing him with the opportunity to mirror the characteristic openness and mobility of his principal literary aesthetic, the Spiral. Rewriting also enables him to bring out certain themes more clearly, such as zombification, deciphering, and cannibalism. These aesthetic and thematic aspects are, the thesis concludes, the most important functions at work in Franketienne's rewriting. By focusing on this practice, I am also able to chart important evolutions across the forty years of Franketienne's literary production. Addressing this issue of rewriting, I compare a corpus of Franketienne's texts with their rewritten versions, ranging from his earliest rewriting, Les Affres d'un defi (1979), through Mur a crever (1995), Ultravocal (1995), up to Les Metamorphoses de I'oiseau schizophone (1996-7) and Dezafi (2002). The first chapter outlines the main hyperbolizing tendencies in Franketienne's rewriting of his Creole text Dezafi (1975) in Les Affres d'un defi (1979) and Dezafi (2002), arguing that Les Affres d'un defi can be seen as Franketienne's first rewriting, and not just as a French translation of Dezafi. In chapter two, I demonstrate that Franketienne renews his first literary texts Mur a crever (1968) and Ultravocal (1972) after a period of some thirty years by updating their initial presentation of Spiralism to reflect later developments in his aesthetic ideas, and through the addition of new and stronger allusions to recent events in Haiti. Based on Franketienne's most major rewriting to date — Les Metamorphoses de I 'oiseau schizophone (1996-7) — chapters three and four show how Franketienne's thematic and aesthetic concerns become far more pronounced as his practice of rewriting evolves. When Franketienne rewrites, I have found that he does so mainly by accretion, integrating additions of various lengths throughout his texts, which are swelled considerably as a result. My study shows that aesthetic concerns become more pronounced through added references to the open and mobile Spiral form, and to the aesthetic processes which constitute the rewriting itself. Four such processes are detected: hyperbolization, deciphering/clarification, recapitulation, and cannibalization. In thematic terms, his rewriting develops certain key themes with greater complexity. Clearer political references are often added, in particular to the dictatorship of Francis Duvalier, as well as to recent politically significant events in Haiti, which thus bring older works up to date. Of all these processes and themes, I argue that cannibalism is the most important because of the opportunity it affords for comment on key political themes, and for summing up the rewriting process itself. Throughout Les Metamorphoses de I'oiseau schizophone cannibalism is used as a metaphor to represent both the iniquity of those in power in Haiti since 1804, and Franketienne's practice of rewriting, which is depicted as a very physical process of eating his own texts, and bringing them back up again replete with new additions.


A sensor model and methodology to estimate the forcing accelerations measured using a novel optomechanical inertial sensor with the inclusion of stochastic bias and measurement noise processes is presented. A Kalman filter for the estimation of instantaneous sensor bias is developed; the outputs from this calibration step are then employed in two different approaches for the estimation of external accelerations applied to the sensor. The performance of the system is demonstrated using simulated measurements and representative values corresponding to a bench-tested 3.76 Hz oscillator. It is shown that the developed methods produce accurate estimates of the bias over a short calibration step. This information enables precise estimates of acceleration over an extended operation period. These results establish the feasibility of reliably precise acceleration estimates using the presented methods in conjunction with state of the art optomechanical sensing technology.


Abstract This paper describes Lissonota holcocerica Sheng sp.n. (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), parasitizing Holcocerus hippophaecolus Hua, Chou, Fang and Chen (Lepidoptera: Cossidae) in Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, and Ningxia, China. The adults of L. holcocerica emerge from a cocoon during the daytime, mostly from 09:00 to 14:00 hr, then start calling and mating, mostly from 08:00 to 12:00 hr. Mating lasts from 15 sec to 15 min. The longevity of males is 5.8 ± 2.4 days, whereas for females longevity is 7.6 ± 4.6 days in the field. Nutritional supplements can significantly extend the life span of L. holcocerica. Mated females search for hosts by walking on the base of Hippophae rhamnoides L. (Rosales: Elaeagnaceae) stem infested by Ho. hippophaecolus, vibrating their antennae and tapping while searching the stem for oviposition sites. Parasitized cocoons of Ho. hippophaecolus collected in field were half the size of normal ones or even smaller.


In this paper, we propose a site-wide lead advisor, which is an artificial intelligence–based prediction and set-point recommendation engine, by combining the use of machine learning with optimization techniques. It provides operational set-point recommendations to continuously improve site-wide operations for throughput measured in additional barrels of oil produced per day. A key contribution and differentiator is the utilization of sensor data to continuously learn the behavior of all the subsystems of an oil-producing plant and use this within an optimization framework to provide advisory control in near real time. This is novel in that it does not require a model of the plant to be provided as input. The predictive model is learned automatically and continuously from data. This work required the development of a new prediction-optimization modeling framework that optimizes throughput while staying in the vicinity of the historical process behavior and employing the model's structure in designing algorithms to solve it. This solution has been deployed at Suncor Energy, an oil-sands company, since January 2019 and is estimated to generate business value in the order of tens of millions of dollars per year. The generalized approach of this framework lends it the ability to be applied to any processing or manufacturing plant.


Flow graph models have recently become increasingly popular as a way to express parallel computations. However, most of these models either require specialized languages and compilers or are library-based solutions requiring coarse-grained applications to achieve acceptable performance. Yet, graph algorithms and other irregular applications are increasingly important to modern high-performance computing, and these applications are not amenable to coarsening without complicating algorithm structure. One effective existing approach for these applications relies on active messages;. However, the separation of control flow between the main program and active message handlers introduces programming difficulties. To ameliorate this problem, we present Avalanche, a flow graph model for fine-grained applications that automatically generates active-message handlers. Avalanche is built as a C++ library on top of our previously-developed Active Pebbles model; a set of combinators builds graphs at compile-time, allowing several optimizations to be applied by the library and a standard C++ compiler. In particular, consecutive flow graph nodes can be fused; experimental results show that flow graphs built from small components can still efficiently operate on fine-grained data.


Electrorheological (ER) fluids are a kind of smart material whose rheological properties can be controlled by an external electric field. In the present paper, the transient vibration of a rectangular three layer sandwich plate with electrorheological fluid core is analyzed based on the classical plate theory. The Bingham plastic model is used to consider the post-yield behavior of ER fluid. The structure is modeled using a finite element method. Hamilton's principle is employed to derive the finite element equations of motion. The constant average acceleration scheme is used to integrate the equations of motion. The effects of change in electric field and core thickness on the structure settling time and its natural frequencies are studied for various boundary conditions. The results show that the thickness of the core layer and the electric field strength has significant effects on damping behavior of the sandwich plate. When the applied electric field increases a linear decay in transient response of the structure is observed. It is also found that the electric field changes have no influence on the system natural frequencies.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Fatty acid composition of rodent diets can affect baseline immune function as measured in vitro and in vivo. Stress, in a variety of forms, can also affect immune function. Possible interaction between diet and other stressors has not been fully explored. We examined the interaction between sleep deprivation stress and dietary fatty acid composition in altering lymphocyte responses to mitogen stimulation.

METHODS
Rats were fed diets containing various sources of fatty acids, then were subjected to sleep deprivation. Splenocytes were harvested and assayed for responsiveness to various mitogens, using a 72-h proliferation assay.

RESULTS
Rats subjected to sleep deprivation experienced significant suppression of in vitro proliferative response to various mitogens. This immune suppression was dependent on duration of sleep deprivation. Feeding sleep deprived rats a diet enriched in fatty acids abrogated the effect of sleep deprivation.

CONCLUSIONS
The fat content of rodent diets can have a marked effect on baseline and stress-modulated immune responses.


The current pilot study investigated the effectiveness of a brief suppression versus mindfulness-based strategy for coping with cigarette cravings. Participants (N = 61) were randomly assigned to one of the two coping strategies to manage cravings during an experimental cue exposure to cigarettes. Results indicate that participants in both conditions reported significantly reduced amounts of smoking and increased self-efficacy in coping with smoking urges at a seven-day follow-up. However, only participants in the mindfulness condition demonstrated reductions in negative affect, depressive symptoms, and reduced levels of nicotine dependence. These findings indicate that while both conditions were associated with improvements on smoking relevant outcomes, mindfulness was unique for its beneficial impacts on reported nicotine dependence and emotional functioning over the course of the study.


There is a lack of evidence-based approach regarding the best practice for airway management in patients with a traumatized airway. General recommendations for the management of the traumatized airway are summarized in table 5. Airway trauma may not be readily apparent, and its evaluation requires a high level of suspicion for airway disruption and compression. For patients with facial trauma, control of the airway may be significantly impacted by edema, bleeding, inability to clear secretions, loss of bony support, and difficulty with face mask ventilation. With the airway compression from neck swelling or hematoma, intubation attempts can further compromise the airway due to expanding hematoma. For patients with airway disruption, the goal is to pass the tube across the injured area without disrupting it or to insert the airway distal to the injury using a surgical approach. If airway injury is extensive, a surgical airway distal to the site of injury may be the best initial approach. Alternatively, if orotracheal intubation is chosen, spontaneous ventilation may be maintained or RSI may be performed. RSI is a common approach. Thus, some of the patients intubated may subsequently require tracheostomy. A stable patient with limited injuries may not require intubation but should be watched carefully for at least several hours. Because of a paucity of evidence-based data, the choice between these approaches and the techniques utilized is a clinical decision depending on the patient's condition, clinical setting, injuries to airway and other organs, and available personnel, expertise, and equipment. Inability to obtain a definitive airway is always an absolute indication for an emergency cricothyroidotomy or surgical tracheostomy.


In a prospective study of 117 patients scheduled for tonsillectomy, with or without adenoidectomy, immunoglobulin levels were measured preoperatively and 1 to 6 months after intervention. Small deficiencies in IgG levels were observed, but levels were within normal limits. We have attempted to clarify the controversial topic of the immunological disturbances that may appear after this common intervention.


In the general population there is an increasing tendency to attribute health damage to exposure to hazardous substances in the environment. With the increasing demand for consultation and care there is at present a growing need for doctors specialised in environmental medicine. In the Federal Republic of Germany environmental medicine is represented in particular by environmental hygiene and clinical environmental medicine. Clinical environmental medicine can be characterised as being halfway between care and clinical diagnosis with emphasis on secondary prevention (early recognition of any disturbance of health). The discipline is geared to the individual and this means that the diagnostic strategy and risk evaluation must be considered individually for every case. In addition to scientific facts of environmental toxicology and epidemiology, fundamental medical and pathophysiological knowledge must also come into play. A scientifically founded medical appraisal clarifying possible negative effects on health due to hazardous substances in the environment is presented, based on long-standing experience gathered during consultation work on environmental medical problems at the Institute for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Focus is mainly on the effects of chemicals. To evaluate the individual risk, an analytical procedure of many steps is required which includes in particular the collection of anamnestic data specific to the problem, objectifying and quantifying of exposure to hazardous substances and/or specific biological effect reactions, limitation of competing influences and an overall medical assessment of environmental toxicity.


Few countries are governed more closely by the strictures of Islam than the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Ironically, as Teitelbaum points out in this analysis, radical Islamic fundamentalists such as Osama bin Laden still pose the most substantial security threat to the ruling Al Sa'ud family, guardians of Islam's two holiest shrines and the world's largest source of oil. Composed of both mainstream Sunni and minority Shi'i radicals, Saudi Arabia's Islamic opposition questions the legitimacy of the Al Sa'ud family's longstanding claim to govern according to Islamic Shari'a law. Indeed, the radical fundamentalists stand poised to shake the public image of Saudi Arbia as the only Islamic country to have achieved a succesful marriage between tradition and modernity. This volume explores the social, political and economic roots of the Saudi opposition, giving a context to the phenomenon of bin Laden. The future of US-Saudi relations, which since September 11 2001 have become primary concern to all Americans, hinges upon a deeper understanding of the severe Islamic troubles that plague the Saudi Arabian regime.


The Kennack Gneiss comprises a suite of interlayered mafic and felsic igneous rocks that intruded the 397 Ma Lizard Ophiolite Complex, Cornwall, at 376.4±1.7 Ma (U–Pb single-zircon date) and were shortly thereafter (c. 370 Ma) metamorphosed to the amphibolite facies. Weakly deformed examples at the type-locality of Kennack Sands reveal net-veining of the mafic by the felsic component, dispersed enclaves of the former in the latter and flame-like interfingering of the two, features indicative of magmatic commingling and mixing. The silicic components of the Kennack Gneiss range from granodiorite to syenogranite and from metaluminous to peraluminous, the least silicic rocks being the most peraluminous. They were generated through anatexis of a predominantly metasedimentary crustal source having trace element and isotopic compositions comparable to those of the Devonian Gramscatho Group of South Cornwall. The mafic component of the gneiss includes members (group 1) which are weakly enriched in light REE, have minor negative Ta, Nb, P and Ti anomalies in extended trace element plots, and display primitive, time-corrected 143Nd/144Nd and 87Sr/86Sr values, and others (group 2) which are more strongly enriched in all incompatible trace elements, exhibit more prominent negative Ta, Nb, P and Ti anomalies, and have isotopic ratios intermediate between group 1 mafic components and the associated felsic gneiss. Group 2 represents mixtures of group 1 and granitic melts, whereas group 1 rocks are comparable to EMORB and were probably generated through partial melting of a weakly enriched mantle source. Emplacement of two commingled magmas into the base of the Lizard ophiolite, one representing the products of crustal anatexis, implies that the ophiolite was removed from its oceanic setting and was in the process of obduction in the Givetian.


Socioeconomic inequalities in health are an important research area in health economics and public health. The concentration index has become a well-established measure of income-related health inequalities, and a number of approaches to identify potential causes of health inequalities exist. With the increasing availability of suitable longitudinal data, more sophisticated approaches to monitor inequalities and to identify potential causal relationships between socioeconomic status and health evolved. We first review the concentration index and some more basic approaches to explain health inequalities. We then discuss advantages and potential shortcomings of "static" and "dynamic" health inequality measures. We review different concepts of health and socioeconomic mobility, as well as recent studies on the life course perspective and economic changes. Our aim is to provide an overview of the concepts and empirical methodologies in the current literature, and to guide interested researchers in their choice of an appropriate inequality measure.


Avalanche observations from Norway, Austria and Switzerland, which distinguish between dense (fluidized) flow and powder part, are analyzed to obtain probability information about the reach of the powder part. The analysis suggests that the relative run-out distance of the powder part increases with increasing mean slope angle of the track. The data provide useful hints for avalanche practitioners about the reach and the corresponding probabilities of the powder part of avalanches.


This paper attempts to refine the Extended Parallel Process Model by adding the notion of hope to highlight the significant role of fear in fear appeals. Using System Dynamics modeling methods to reformulate the key constructs and integrate the ideas drawn from theories of multiple disciplines, the relationship between danger control and fear control processes are modified. Accordingly, the Fear Management Model is devised to fix the flaws and resolve the major unanswered questions in fear appeal literatures. Moreover, the implications for helping resistant audiences to pursue adaptive behaviors are discussed. Fourteen propositions are proposed for guiding hypothesis development in future research.


One hypothesis for atherosclerotic lesion formation is the response to injury hypothesis. If catabolism of the ground substance of the intima of blood vessels is viewed as an injury, then inhibition of this catabolism could lead to a decrease in atherosclerotic lesions. Arylsulfatase B catalyses the desulfation of glycosaminoglycans in the catabolism of the intimal ground substance. We have found that ascorbic acid inhibits arylsulfatase B (Km = 2.06 mM, KI = 4.89 mM), thus providing a possible mechanism by which ascorbic acid may decrease atherosclerosis.


Febrile seizures are well known adverse events following childhood vaccinations. If a seizure following vaccination is the first of an evolving epilepsy syndrome, the vaccination might be misinterpreted as the primary cause of the epilepsy. Dravet syndrome (formerly known as severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy, or SMEI) is a rare epilepsy syndrome with seizure onset in the first year of life often triggered by fever or vaccinations, in a previously healthy child. In the second year or later, multiple seizure types develop and neurodevelopment slows down. In the majority of patients the syndrome is caused by spontaneous, heterozygous mutations in the SCN1A gene.

The aim of the studies in this thesis was to further delineate the relationship with vaccinations, and specify the role of seizure precipitants in SCN1A-related Dravet syndrome.

The prevalence of Dravet syndrome was studied among 1,269 children reported at the RIVM with seizures following vaccination in the first two years of life, and estimated to be at least 1.2%. Of all reported seizures following vaccinations in the first year of life, 2.5% were due to Dravet syndrome.

For 2.6% of the 1,269 reported children with seizures following vaccination, this seizure marked the onset of epilepsy. Of them, 13% already had encephalopathy prior to seizure onset, 52% developed epileptic encephalopathy thereafter, and 35% had benign epilepsy. Of the children with a (supposed) epileptic encephalopathy, two-thirds had SCN1A-related Dravet syndrome. Overall, underlying causes had been identified in 65% of children.

In 77 children with Dravet syndrome, the effect of vaccination-associated seizure onset on disease course and the risk of subsequent seizures after vaccinations were studied. The age at first seizure was younger in the 21% of children with a vaccination-associated seizure onset, but children with and without vaccination-associated seizure onset did not differ in age at first non-vaccination-associated seizure, age at first report of developmental delay, or cognitive outcome. After seizure onset, the risk of a seizure within 24 hours following an acellular pertussis combination vaccination was 9%, significantly lower than the 37% risk after whole-cell pertussis vaccines. Within the risk period of 5-12 days following mumps-measles-rubella vaccination, self-controlled case series analysis showed a 2.3-fold increased incidence rate of seizures.
The importance of seizure precipitants in Dravet syndrome, other than vaccinations, was studied with a questionnaire answered by parents of 71 patients with Dravet syndrome. Fever, a cold, a bath, acute stress and physical exercise were reported as seizure precipitants in more than half of the patients. Seizure precipitating effects of visual stimuli were noted in 65% of 53 patients with Dravet syndrome, by re-evaluation of EEGs, data retrieval from medical files and use of parental questionnaires.

The last part of the thesis is on the diagnostic process that was studied in a cohort of patients with SCN1A-related Dravet syndrome. The age at clinical diagnosis of Dravet syndrome decreased significantly after introduction of SCN1A analysis in the Netherlands. Use of contra-indicated antiepileptic drugs had occurred in 87% of patients and decreased with a shorter diagnostic interval and later birth year.


The Confederate States Navy built wooden gunboats throughout the American Civil War. Within Civil War literature more research and detailed analysis of Confederate States Navy construction focuses on building of ironclad vessels. Wooden gunboat construction is largely ignored. This thesis examines wooden gunboat construction in two different areas of the Confederacy: northeastern North Carolina in Washington and Elizabeth City and the Mars Bluff Navy Yard in South Carolina. Before presenting two Confederate wooden gunboat construction case studies a look at Confederate industrial manufacturing and transportation infrastructure from the national perspective brings into focus the logistical limitations station commanders faced in northeastern North Carolina and at Mars Bluff more clearly. Scattered yet interdependent marine manufacturing and ordnance facilities connected by a suspect transportation network created a logistical nightmare. Historical investigation into wooden gunboat construction in Washington Elizabeth City and Mars Bluff examines an overlooked Confederate States Navy building program.


Hydrogen fuel cell powered systems might soon replace the conventional combustion engines used in today's vehicles. Fuel cells hold a great deal of promise for mobile applications including vehicles because they are environmentally friendly and can provide an alternative power supply. They may prove to be the keystone in making traditional electric vehicles a feasible everyday and long-range alternative to conventional combustion driven vehicles. One example of this type of electric vehicle is the New Jersey Venturer, which was equipped with a PEM fuel cell system to demonstrate the use of this new technology.


Fragmentation and binary formation processes are studied using three-dimensional resistive MHD nested grid simulations. Starting with a Bonnor-Ebert isothermal cloud rotating in a uniform magnetic field, we calculate the cloud evolution from the molecular cloud core (n = 104 cm −3) to the stellar core (n≃ 1022 cm −3), where n denotes the central density. We calculated 147 models with different initial magnetic, rotational, and thermal energies and the amplitudes of the nonaxisymmetric perturbation. In a collapsing cloud, fragmentation is mainly controlled by the initial ratio of the rotational to the magnetic energy, regardless of the initial thermal energy and amplitude of the nonaxisymmetric perturbation. The cloud rotation promotes fragmentation, while the magnetic field delays or in some cases suppresses fragmentation through all phases of cloud evolution. The results are categorized into three types. When the clouds have larger rotational energies in relation to magnetic energies, fragmentation occurs in the low-density phase (1012 cm −3≲ n≲ 1015 cm −3) with separations of 3-300 AU. Fragments that appeared in this phase are expected to evolve into wide binary systems. On the other hand, when initial clouds have larger magnetic energies in relation to the rotational energies, fragmentation occurs only in the high-density phase (n≳ 1017 cm −3) after the clouds experience a significant reduction of the magnetic field owing to the ohmic dissipation. Fragments appearing in this phase have mutual separations of ≲0.3 AU and are expected to evolve into close binary systems. No fragmentation occurs in the case of sufficiently strong magnetic field, in which single stars are expected to be born. Two types of fragmentation epoch reflect wide and close separations. We might be able to observe a bimodal distribution for the radial separation of the protostar in extremely young stellar groups.


This paper shows coastal evolution along the Andalusia Region (Spain) and the impacts on it of coastal structures. The study area was divided into 47 units to calculate the erosion/accretion/stability (or evolution) rates by using the DSAS extension of ArcGIS software. Evolution rates were divided into different classes from "Very high accretion" to "Very high erosion". As a result, 9 units recorded accretion, 19 stability and 19 erosion. Further, 17 units presented a positive balance and 28 units a negative one, showing a negative net balance of 29,738.4 m2/year corresponding to the loss of 1784.30 km2 of beach surface in the 1956–2016 period. The distribution of evolution areas along the studied coast was carried out by means of the "R" project for statistical computing. The analysis evidenced the impact of rigid structures: accretion was essentially observed up-drift of ports and groins and in correspondence of protection structures, especially of breakwaters. Erosion classes were observed down-drift of ports and groins and in correspondence of revetments/seawalls, and at largest river deltas, and "stability" was observed at pocket beaches and coastal areas locally stabilized by protection structures. Last, results were used to determine the distribution of swash- and drift-aligned coastal sectors and main direction of sedimentary transport.


A summer academy is held for grade 9-12 high school students at the University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, every year. The academy, dubbed the Da Vinci Engineering Enrichment Program (DEEP), is a diverse program that aims to attract domestic and international high school students to engineering and sciences (and possibly recruit them). DEEP also provides them with the opportunity to experience the university setting. This paper discusses the organization of DEEP and presents the details of a DEEP course developed to introduce students to electrical engineering. This course is designed for junior (grades 9 and 10) students and includes lectures, hands-on activities (both in a team and individually), and a field trip. The survey results, collected as both formative and summative feedback, indicate the success of the course. This paper also provides recommendations for future offerings of the course.


The etiology of unilateral condylar hyperplasia is obscure. We believe that it is due more likely to an intra-uterine influence rather than to genetic disturbances. The disorder appears to have its basis in the cartilagenous growth centre of the mandibular condyle. The clinical picture varies a great deal, depending upon the onset of the growth upset relative to the age of the patient and the rate of growth. Two cases are reported. In one patient the anomalous growth pattern was apparent particularly in the condylar neck, which showed marked elongation, thickening and angulation. In the other patient the entire condyloid process appeared proportionately enlarged. The typical clinical history is one in which the patient had been aware for many years of progressive deviation of the jaw. Pain in the T.M.J. regions is rarely the presenting symptom. With recent advances of oral surgery, restoration of malocclusion and facial disharmony can be achieved by approaches other than the traditional procedure of condy...


This chapter provides a short review of the field of enzymatic biotransformation and its application to chemical reactions and products of industrial relevance. Specifically, the important role of process intensification in the application of biotransformation technology is reviewed. Biotransformation covers a wide range of chemical and biochemical processes, including biocatalysis, fermentation processes, and biologically based waste treatment processes. We focus, here, mostly on biocatalytic reactions, processes, and related separations. The relevance of enzymatic biotransformation to green chemistry is also analyzed and discussed. Since many enzymatically catalyzed reactions are slow and have challenging separation requirements, the nexus between enzymatic biotransformation and process intensification technology is particularly important. Here, we summarize process intensification as an equipment technology, catalyst, reagent, solvent, or chemical pathway which enables product synthesis at a higher rate, in a smaller volume, generating less waste, and consuming less energy than the conventional alternative. Examples of process intensification research which we have successfully applied to enzymatic biotransformations are described. These include extractive whole cell biotransformation involving the benzylic chiral hydroxylation of naphthalene in the presence of an ionic liquid solvent. A second example is the lipolytic hydrolysis of a triglyceride ester using a microbial lipase. Performance of microbial lipase on different polymeric supports is briefly considered, showing the reduction in reaction kinetics when the enzyme is immobilized compared with deployment in free solution. Finally, the intensification of the lipolytic hydrolysis of a triglyceride ester in the presence of an electrical field using enzyme in free solution is described. A summary is presented of the mathematical modeling capability which has been demonstrated for evaluation of reactor design options.


Concentration in the South African financial sector has its origins in three main influences that are all historical (i) the legacy of domination by a small number of large imperial banks, (ii) the struggle between English and Afrikaner capital and (iii) the statutory legislation that framed the operation of banks. In this paper we describe the part played by these three historical influences in the formation and development of the corporate sector in South Africa. One recurrent theme throughout the history is the relative position of the foreign bank and domestic bank in the local market place. We take up this theme and argue that the scale and extent of foreign bank operations in South Africa is far greater than estimates provided by the local authorities. We have found that the main vehicle in deepening the concentration of the sector has been the merger. In later sections of the paper we lay out how the amalgamation by absorption approach to expansion that has been a constant feature of the country's business life comes together with a merger frenzy in the late 1980's and 1990s that succeeds in further deepening concentration within banking, finance and industry. Last, we end with an analysis of industry structure by Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) capitalisation between 1994 and 2011.


Serum concentrations of total triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) were determined in 28 obese out-patients before and after 12 weeks of treatment with a conventional slimming diet of 5.2 MJ (1245 kcal). Twenty-one of the patients were also given central stimulating anorectics (diethylpropion and 'Elsinore-pill' containing ephedrine). The median weight loss was 8.1 kg (range 0.4-19.1 kg). After the treatment a small, but significant (P less than 0.02), fall in serum T3 could be demonstrated whilst serum T4 was unaffected. The median fall in T3 in percentage of pretreatment value was 9 per cent (96 per cent confidence limits: 4-16 per cent). Neither serum T3 nor serum T4 correlated with the initial body weight, overweight or energy intake. In the patients treated with anorectics serum T4 was not elevated after 12 weeks, indicating that a possible sympatomimetic effect of central stimulating anorectics upon the thyroid gland is only temporary.


Indonesia is a disaster supermarket, because all natural and non natural disasters have been experienced in Indonesia. One of them is tsunami. So the people must have good knowledge in the face of disaster. Unfortunately, the community, especially the family members, do not understand about the preparedness in facing the tsunami disaster. The purpose of this research is to analyze the influence of giving counseling about community preparedness to knowledge of tsunami hazard in Sidem Beach, Besuki District, Tulungagung Regency. The study was conducted on October 11, 2017. Type of observational research, quasi experimental design with one group pre-test approach - post test design and research instrument in the form of questionnaires. Population research of all people in Sidem beach Besuki District Tulungagung regency. Samples were taken by purposive sampling technique of 63 people. Data were analyzed by Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test. The results of the research before the extension of tsunami hazard preparedness, most of the respondents of knowledge less as much as 46 respondents (73%) and after counseling most of the respondents good knowledge as many as 41 respondents (65.1%). Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test statistical test obtained P Value = 0,000 <0,05 so H1 accepted, which means there is influence giving counseling about community preparedness to knowledge of tsunami hazard in Sidem Beach Besuki District Tulungagung Regency. Counseling by health workers as people who are trusted in the health sector is very useful in improving the knowledge of coastal communities about tsunami hazards. It is hoped that people have a good understanding of the tsunami and tsunami preparedness in order to save themselves in the event of a tsunami disaster at any time.
Keywords: preparedness, tsunami, community, counseling


Fat trees are considered suitable structures for data center interconnection networking. Such structures are rigid, and hard to scale up and scale out. A good data center network structure should have high scalability, efficient switch utilization, and high reliability. In this paper we present a class of data center network structures based on hypergraph theory and combinatorial block design theory. We show that our data center network structures are more flexible and scalable than fat trees. Using switches of the same size, our data center network structures can connect more nodes than fat trees, and it is possible to construct different structures with tradeoffs among inter-cluster communication capacity, reliability, the number of switches used, and the number of connected nodes.


This study investigates the influence of various nanofillers of different shapes and sizes on the properties of PET nanocomposites. PET was reinforced with 0.3 wt.% of different nanoreinforcements, namely: (i) 1D platelet-like shape of organo-modified layered silicates (montmorillonite) (platelet size approx. 1 x 200 nm) with average agglomerate size of: (a) 30 μm and (b) 8 μm; (ii) 3D spherical shape particles of titanium oxide with an average size of 21 nm and (iii) 3D spherical shape silica with an average particle size of 12 nm. PET nanocomposites were prepared by melt blending in an asymmetric batch minimixer followed by compression moulding process. The effect of nanofillers upon thermal, mechanical and structural properties in comparison to the neat PET are discussed.


The main aim of the present study was to find out the views of Pakistani secondary school language teachers about the reasons that were mentioned behind their career choice. The study was conducted among 14-secondary English language teachers. The study was qualitative in nature in which extensive and follow up interviews were used for the data collection. The data were analyzed through coding and thematic analysis. The findings of the current study exhibited that altruistic and intrinsic reasons were the two major causes behind their career choice but the one main the me which came to prominence was the ―feminism‖ in teaching profession. Most of the females considered that teaching is really suitable for females because according to Pakistani culture the females feel more security and safety in teaching profession rather than in any other profession. In final section, implications and recommendations have been presented as well.


Eleven pairs of canine metacarpal bones, 10 pairs of metatarsal bones, and 7 pairs of ribs were harvested cleanly and prepared for banking at -20 C for 1 year. One bone of each pair was randomly assigned to 1 type of storage: plastic pack vs immersion in a normal solution of sodium chloride. The contralateral bone was assigned to the opposite treatment. Six pairs of metacarpal bones and 5 pairs of metatarsal bones were tested in torsion to failure. No significant difference was found within pairs. All ribs, 5 pairs of metacarpal bones, and 5 pairs of metatarsal bones were loaded in 4-point bending to failure. The energy absorbed at failure and the ultimate displacement of ribs and metacarpal and metatarsal bones were increased by 25 to 30% and 18 to 24%, respectively, when the bones were frozen in isotonic saline solution. Corticocancellous grafts frozen in normal saline solution are biomechanically less fragile and brittle than grafts stored in plastic without saline solution.


The ideas of the New Left and the recently emerged alter-globalisation movements are marginal within current policy debates concerning the English education system. Here I seek to demonstrate the interconnections between the New Left and the alter-globalisation movement and suggest that these ideas contain a powerful corrective to the increasingly authoritarian present. The next part of the article considers the development of neoliberalism both in a theoretical context and since the arrival of the new Conservative–Liberal government in the UK. Here I outline the rapid transformation of English schools under the academies programme and look at how it has been explicitly linked to ideas of 'moral collapse' evident in the popular discourse of 'Broken Britain'. Especially significant in this respect has been the labelling of comprehensive schools as 'failures' and the explicit imposition of more authoritarian understandings of pedagogy. I seek to explore both the rapidity of this transformation in the context of the dissatisfaction with the idea of comprehensive schools shown by the political Right and the Third Way's reworking of socialism. Finally I briefly consider more progressive alternatives for schools and education by returning to the idea of the democratic commons. In this respect, the cultural Left needs to explore more radical alternatives beyond the defence of comprehensive schooling which sounds both nostalgic and misplaced within our global times.


A high temperature split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) test system is used to investigate the effects of temperature as well as those of strain and strain-rate. Effects of temperature for the vanadium alloy (V-5Cr-5Ti) are investigated by developing a high temperature SHPB test system. In this work, high temperatures greater than 1100°C are attained in the SHPB test specimens by using a synchronically assembled heating system .When testing with the high-temperature SHPB apparatus, care is required to prevent oxidation of the surface of the specimen, and to prevent an inhomogeneous temperature distribution from developing in the specimen. To determine the true flow stress–true strain relationship, specimens are tested from 15°C to 1100°C and at a strain-rate of about 3000 s-1: The parameters for a Johnson–Cook constitutive equation is determined from the test results. The Johnson–Cook constitutive equation is suitable for expressing the dynamic behavior of the V-5Cr-5Ti vanadium alloy.


A comprehensive understanding of the effects of meteorology, emission and chemistry on severe haze is critical in the mitigation of air pollution. However, such understanding is largely hindered by the nonlinearity of atmospheric chemistry systems. Here, we developed a novel quantitative decoupling analysis (QDA) method to quantify the effects of emission, meteorology, chemical reaction, and their nonlinear interactions on the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution based on the accompanying simulations for different atmospheric processes. Via embedding the QDA method into the Weather Research 15 and Forecasting-Nested Air Quality Prediction Modeling System (WRF-NAQPMS) model, we first employed this method into a typical heavy haze episode in Beijing. Different from the previously sensitive simulation method, which usually linked to a certain period, the QDA achieves the fully decomposing analysis of PM2.5 concentration during any pollution event into seven different parts, including meteorological contribution (M), emission contribution (E), chemical contribution (C), and interactions among these drivers (i.e., ME, MC, EC and MCE). The results show that the meteorology contribution varied 20 significantly at different stages of episode, from 0.21 μg∙m∙h during accumulation period to -11.82 μg∙m∙h during the removal period, dominating the hourly changes of PM2.5 concentrations. The chemical contributions were shown to increase with the level of haze, which become largest (0.37 μg∙m∙h) at the maintenance period, 25% higher than that during the clean period. The contribution of primary emission is relatively stable in all stages due to the use of fixed emission during the simulation. Besides, the QDA method highlights that there exist nonnegligible coupling effects of meteorology, emission and 25 chemistry on PM2.5 concentrations (-1.83 to 2.44 μg∙m∙h), which were commonly ignored in previous studies and the development of heavy-pollution control strategies. These results indicate that the QDA method can not only provide researchers and policy makers with valuable information for understanding of key factors to heavy pollution, but also help the modelers to find out the sources of uncertainties among numerical models. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2021-259 Preprint. Discussion started: 1 September 2021 c © Author(s) 2021. CC BY 4.0 License.


BACKGROUND
Lung transplantation has become an acceptable treatment option for many end-stage lung diseases. Pulmonary mycetomas are found in patients with end-stage lung diseases, especially sarcoidosis. The clinical course and long-term outcome of these patients after transplantation remains unknown.

METHODS
We reviewed retrospectively the pathology reports of the explanted lungs from all lung and heart-lung transplantations performed at our institution between January 20, 1992, and June 26, 2000. Patients were included in our study if mycetomas were present on the specimens. Information on transplant date and type, diagnosis, information on antifungal therapy and fungal infections pretransplant and posttransplant, and clinical course after transplantation was recorded.

RESULTS
Mycetomas were present in 3.0% of transplant recipients (9 of 303 patients). The underlying pulmonary diagnoses were sarcoidosis (six patients), and emphysema, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and pneumoconiosis (one patient each). Seven patients received bilateral lung transplants, one patient received a heart/lung transplant, and one patient received a single lung transplant. Aspergillus was isolated from culture in five patients pretransplant and from five patients posttransplant. Six patients received treatment with itraconazole, or IV or inhaled amphotericin B prior to transplantation. All patients who survived transplantation received posttransplant antifungal therapy. Four patients died in the first month after transplantation. Two patients died at 17 months and 24 months posttransplant, respectively; one patient received a second transplant 30 months later; and two patients are alive and free from fungal infections 17 months and 18 months, respectively, after transplantation. All of the medium-term survivors received lengthy therapy with inhaled and systemic amphotericin B and itraconazole before and after transplantation.

CONCLUSIONS
Lung transplant recipients with mycetomas have significantly reduced posttransplant survival. Careful selection of patients and aggressive antifungal therapies before and after transplantation have led to improved outcomes in patients with mycetomas. Additional research is needed to define the best therapeutic strategy for these patients during transplantation.


Nathaniel Hawthorne, celebrated in his own day for sketches that now seem sentimental, came only gradually to be fully appreciated for what his friend Herman Melville diagnosed as the "power of blackness" in his fiction - the complex moral grappling with sin and guilt. By the 1850s, Hawthorne had already been accepted into the American canon, and since then, his works - especially The Scarlet Letter - have remained ubiquitous in American culture. Along with this has come an explosion of Hawthorne criticism, from New Criticism, New Historicism, and Cultural Studies to queer theory, feminist scholarship, and transatlantic criticism, that shows no signs of slowing. This book charts Hawthorne's canonization and the ongoing critical discourse, drawing on two senses of "entanglement." First the sense from quantum physics, which allows us to see what were once seen as strict dualisms in Hawthorne as more complex relations where the poles of the would-be dualities play off of and affect each other; second, the sense of critics being tangled up in, caught up in, Hawthorne the man and his work and in previous critics' views of him. Charting the course of Hawthorne criticism as well as his place in popular culture, this book sheds light also on the culture in which his reception has occurred. Samuel Chase Coale is Professor of American Literature and Culture at Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts.


To be taken to task for a turn of phrase by someone whose work I've long admired leaves me feeling a little bit like the kitten who's lost her mitten and so shall have no pie. I regret that the opening of my essay left Steven Weisenburger facing both barrels of a volley I meant to fire more broadly. As the most ambitious and visible of the industry's indices, annotations and cross-references, the Companion no doubt catches it oftener than it merits. In my defense, though, there are other types of terrorism than the Taliban variety–and these often more insidious–as anyone who for one reason or another lives outside one or more consumer loops in the United States might readily attest. I had thought that exposing the rich variety of pressures exerted on the average poor bastard to limit his/her behavior and options–and the APB's complicity in this maneuver (as I suggested in my essay)–was a thread that ran throughout Pynchon's novels and other writings.


Three methodical approaches were used for reduction of the number of markers necessary for division of viruses into groups corresponding to certain families. Division of the markers into groups characterizing various properties of virions and their components as well as certain stages of virus reproduction in sensitive systems allowed some groups of markers to be excluded without losing the informative value of the marker set. The use of correlationships between markers helped to replace 64 initial parameters with 26 factors. The employment of the method of major components demonstrated the possibility of further reduction of the size of space in which virus clustering is done.


Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are increasingly recognized to play crucial roles in post-transcriptional gene regulation including functioning as microRNA (miRNA) sponges or as wide-spread regulators, for example in stem cell differentiation. It is therefore highly relevant to identify if a transcript of interest can also function as a circRNA. Here, we present a user-friendly web server that predicts if coding and noncoding RNAs have circRNA isoforms and whether circRNAs are expressed in stem cells. The predictions are made by random forest models using sequence-derived features as input. The output scores are converted to fractiles, which are used to assess the circRNA and stem cell potential. The performances of the three models are reported as the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and are 0.82 for coding genes, 0.89 for long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and 0.72 for stem cell expression. We present WebCircRNA for quick evaluation of human genes and transcripts for their circRNA potential, which can be essential in several contexts.


Electronic products are subjected to high G-levels during mechanical shock and vibration. Failure-modes include solder-joint failures, pad cratering, chip-cracking, copper trace fracture, and underfill fillet failures. The second-level interconnects may be experience high-strain rates and accrue damage during repetitive exposure to mechanical shock. Industry migration to leadfree solders has resulted in proliferation of a wide variety of solder alloy compositions. Few of the popular tin-silver-copper alloys include Sn1Ag0.5Cu and Sn3Ag0.5Cu. The high strain rate properties of leadfree solder alloys are scarce. Typical material tests systems are not well suited for measurement of high strain rates typical of mechanical shock. Previously, high strain rates techniques such as the Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) can be used for strain rates of 1000 per sec. However, measurement of materials at strain rates of 1–100 per sec which are typical of mechanical shock is difficult to address. In this paper, a new test-technique developed by the authors has been presented for measurement of material constitutive behavior. The instrument enables attaining strain rates in the neighborhood of 1 to 100 per sec. High speed cameras operating at 300,000 fps have been used in conjunction with digital image correlation for the measurement of full-field strain during the test. Constancy of cross-head velocity has been demonstrated during the test from the unloaded state to the specimen failure. Solder alloy constitutive behavior has been measured for SAC105, and SAC305 solders. Constitutive model has been fit to the material data. Samples have been tested at various time under thermal aging at 25°C and 125°C. The constitutive model has been embedded into an explicit finite element framework for the purpose of life-prediction of leadfree interconnects. Test assemblies has been fabricated and tested under JEDEC JESD22-B111 specified condition for mechanical shock. Model predictions have been correlated with experimental data.© 2011 ASME


Nowadays more and more people prefer to read online news as the Internet is continues to grow into a major news source. Online newspapers become widely spread as an interactive and efficient way to present information. There are many benefits can be obtained from reading online newspaper such as people can get
access to information faster and reading online newspaper is cost effective as people can save their money. However, the relevance of news articles and the relatedness of an article with the headline are put into question. News title can be misleading when the story is not relevant with its title. People can misinterpret the idea of an article by just looking at the title. This project aims to develop and test the functionality of a system that detect misleading news title by word similarity. For that purpose, web scraping technique is used to extract news article from news web page. The occurrences of words in the article are then counted to get number of repeated words. Top ten common words from the number of repeated words are then visualized. The similarity of top ten common words and the title are computed using word similarity technique. By applying these approaches, the degree of similarity of the article content and the title can be acquired and a conclusion can be generated from those results where the lower the degree of similarity between the common words and the
title, the lower the relevance of the news articles.


BACKGROUND: Dupuytren's disease is rare in the black population. It was initially believed it occurred only in males of north European origin and since the initial confirmed report of a male of African descent with the disease only a few other Africans have been reported with the condition in the literature. We wanted to conduct a literature search for all reports of patients of African descent with the disease and to report on our own numbers in our institution.
METHODS: We searched our theatre records for all surgeries for Dupuytren's disease from 1997 to 2015 and identified all those that are of pure African descent. A comprehensive literature search in Pub Med, Google Scholar and Clinical Key was then done to identify all reported cases to date.
RESULTS: From our records a total of 48 patients were identified. Of them, 43 were male and five were female with an average age of 58.7 years (29 to 75). From the literature, only 462 patients were ever reported with the condition to date. One paper which constituted the majority of these cases was treated with caution as there were questions of reliability about the true ethnicity of the patients, leaving only 50 cases ever reported to date prior to our 48.
CONCLUSION: The true incidence of Dupuytren's disease in Africans cannot be accurately determined but it is an extremely rare condition. Population studies should be encouraged so as to come up with an accurate incidence and disease burden.


n-Dodecane is a promising surrogate fuel for diesel engine study because its physicochemical properties are similar to those of the practical diesel fuels. In the present study, a skeletal mechanism for n-dodecane with 105 species and 420 reactions was developed for spray combustion simulations. The reduction starts from the most recent detailed mechanism for n-alkanes consisting of 2755 species and 11,173 reactions developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. An algorithm combining direct relation graph with expert knowledge (DRGX) and sensitivity analysis was employed for the present skeletal reduction. The skeletal mechanism was first extensively validated in 0-D and 1-D combustion systems, including auto-ignition, jet stirred reactor (JSR), laminar premixed flame and counter flow diffusion flame. Then it was coupled with well-established spray models and further validated in 3-D turbulent spray combustion simulations under engine-like conditions. These simulations were compared with the recent experiments with n-dodecane as a surrogate for diesel fuels. It can be seen that combustion characteristics such as ignition delay and flame lift-off length were well captured by the skeletal mechanism, particularly under conditions with high ambient temperatures. Simulations also captured the transient flame development phenomenon fairly well. The results further show that ignition delay may not be the only factor controlling the stabilisation of the present flames since a good match in ignition delay does not necessarily result in improved flame lift-off length prediction.


This paper proposes and examines the three in-memory shuffling methods designed to address problems in MapReduce shuffling caused by skewed data. Coupled Shuffle Architecture (CSA) employs a single pairwise all-to-all exchange to shuffle both blocks, units of shuffle transfer, and meta-blocks, which contain the metadata of corresponding blocks. Decoupled Shuffle Architecture (DSA) separates the shuffling of meta-blocks and blocks, and applies different all-to-all exchange algorithms to each shuffling process, attempting to mitigate the impact of stragglers in strongly skewed distributions. Decoupled Shuffle Architecture with Skew-Aware Meta-Shuffle (DSA w/ SMS) autonomously determines the proper placement of blocks based on the memory consumption of each worker process. This approach targets extremely skewed situations where some worker processes could exceed their node memory limitation. This study evaluates implementations of the three shuffling methods in our prototype in-memory MapReduce engine, which employs high performance interconnects such as InfiniBand and Intel Omni-Path. Our results suggest that DSA w/ SMS is the only viable solution for extremely skewed data distributions, but this solution is only valid on systems equipped with high performance interconnects. We also present a detailed investigation of the performance of CSA and DSA in various skew situations.