A comprehensive analysis of price and cost competitiveness warrants an assessment of a range of alternately deflated nominal effective exchange rates. Here, we focus solely on the price-competitiveness indicator currently published by the Bank of Italy (Felettigh et al., 2015), which is based on the producer prices of domestically-sold manufactures, and we refine its measurement. First, we update the data sources for the producer price index. Revisions mainly refer to non-euro area countries, yet also affect relative prices and therefore the price-competitiveness trends of the four main euro-area economies. These countries have performed better according to the revised indicators, in particular since 2010. Second, we present a novel three-market view of price-competitiveness indicators by splitting destination markets. The overall indicator encompassing competitive pressures on both the import and the export side can indeed be broken down into three components: the domestic market, where local producers are rivalled by foreign competitors with their import penetration; euro-area markets, where all countries compete; and non-euro-area markets, where, similarly, all countries compete. Whereas France and Germany have displayed similar price-competitiveness developments in both the euro and non-euro area markets over the entire period since 1999, Italy and Spain have performed better in the non-euro area than in the euro-area markets. Competitiveness in the domestic market and that in non-euro area markets are the main, equally important, drivers of overall developments since 1999 in Italy and in Germany.


Using Tagalog as a case study, this paper provides an analysis of a cross-linguistically well attested phenomenon, namely, cases in which a bare NP's syntactic position is linked to its interpretation as definite or indefinite. Previous approaches to this phenomenon, including analyses of Tagalog, appeal to specialized interpretational rules, such as Diesing's Mapping Hypothesis. I argue that the patterns fall out of general compositional principles so long as type-shifting operators are available to the grammatical system. I begin by weighing in a long-standing issue for the semantic analysis of Tagalog: the interpretational distinction between genitive and nominative transitive patients. I show that bare NP patients are interpreted as definites if marked with nominative case and as narrow scope indefinites if marked with genitive case. Bare NPs are understood as basically predicative; their quantificational force is determined by their syntactic position. If they are syntactically local to the selecting verb, they are existentially quantified by the verb itself. If they occupy a derived position, such as the subject position, they must type-shift in order to avoid a type-mismatch, generating a definite interpretation. Thus the paper develops a theory of how the position of an NP is linked to its interpretation, as well as providing a compositional treatment of NP-interpretation in a language which lacks definite articles but demonstrates other morphosyntactic strategies for signaling (in)definiteness.


A single layer single element rectangular microstrip antenna on ridge ground plane for improved bandwidth is theoretically investigated with a view to develop a concrete physical insight in to the phenomenon. The simple single element probe fed rectangular microstrip antenna fabricated on conventional PTFE (Poly Tetra Fluride Ethelene) substrate have many advantages except its narrow bandwidth. The present study proposes the technique to control the resonant modes of a microstrip antenna for yielding better bandwidth using transverse resonance method. The present antenna is designed to fabricate on ridge ground plane which has been compared with conventional structure and around 6% - 7% improvement in bandwidth is revealed. The detailed variation of radiation pattern across its frequency band has been studied and presented in this paper. The proposed idea has been verified through a commercial software package (High Frequency Structure Simulator) for a patch operating in X band and explained quantitatively. The electric surface current distribution over the patch surface for both the conventional and proposed antenna is presented to explain the broad banding effect physically.


This paper presents a fully integrated high voltage charge pump which enables a reconfigurable, energy-efficient multi-band transceiver. Using a high voltage CMOS technology from Austriamicrosystems and a 4-phase charge-pump (DC/DC converter) circuit architecture, up to 120 V supply voltage can be generated from a 3.7 V DC battery using this monolithically integrated circuit. The very small footprint of this solution enables the integration of this multi-band transceiver in mobile devices, whereas the concept of reconfigurability can also be applied to fixed transceiver installations to optimize power efficiency.


The survivorship of cementless orthopaedic implants may be related to their initial stability; insufficient press-fit can lead to excessive micromotion between the implant and bone, joint pain, and surgical revision. However, too much interference between implant and bone can produce excessive strains and damage the bone, which also compromises stability. An understanding of the nature and mechanisms of strain generation during implantation would therefore be valuable. Previous measurements of implantation strain have been limited to local discrete or surface measurements. In this work, we devise a Digital Volume Correlation (DVC) methodology to measure the implantation strain throughout the volume. A simplified implant model was implanted into analogue bone media using a customised loading rig, and a micro-CT protocol optimised to minimise artefacts due to the presence of the implant. The measured strains were interpreted by FE modelling of the displacement-controlled implantation, using a bilinear elastoplastic constitutive model for the analogue bone. The coefficient of friction between the implant and bone was determined using the experimental measurements of the reaction force. Large strains at the interface between the analogue bone and implant produced localised deterioration of the correlation coefficient, compromising the ability to measure strains in this region. Following correlation coefficient thresholding (removing strains with a coefficient less than 0.9), the observed strain patterns were similar between the DVC and FE. However, the magnitude of FE strains was approximately double those measured experimentally. This difference suggests the need for improvements in the interface failure model, for example, to account for localised buckling of the cellular analogue bone structure. A further recommendation from this work is that future DVC experiments involving similar geometries and structures should employ a subvolume size of 0.97 mm as a starting point.


We describe a revised and expanded database on human intermediate filament proteins, a major component of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton. The family of 70 intermediate filament genes (including those encoding keratins, desmins, and lamins) is now known to be associated with a wide range of diverse diseases, at least 72 distinct human pathologies, including skin blistering, muscular dystrophy, cardiomyopathy, premature aging syndromes, neurodegenerative disorders, and cataract. To date, the database catalogs 1,274 manually‐curated pathogenic sequence variants and 170 allelic variants in intermediate filament genes from over 459 peer‐reviewed research articles. Unrelated cases were collected from all of the six sequence homology groups and the sequence variations were described at cDNA and protein levels with links to the related diseases and reference articles. The mutations and polymorphisms are presented in parallel with data on protein structure, gene, and chromosomal location and basic information on associated diseases. Detailed statistics relating to the variants records in the database are displayed by homology group, mutation type, affected domain, associated diseases, and nucleic and amino acid substitutions. Multiple sequence alignment algorithms can be run from queries to determine DNA or protein sequence conservation. Literature sources can be interrogated within the database and external links are provided to public databases. The database is freely and publicly accessible online at www.interfil.org (last accessed 13 September 2007). Users can query the database by various keywords and the search results can be downloaded. It is anticipated that the Human Intermediate Filament Database (HIFD) will provide a useful resource to study human genome variations for basic scientists, clinicians, and students alike. Hum Mutat 29(3), 351–360, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Iron(Fe)-molybdenum(Mo) alloyed nanopaticles and nanowires were produced by the chemical vapor condensation(CVC) process using the pyrolysis of iron pentacarbonyl(Fe(CO)5) and molybdenum hexacarbonyl(Mo(CO)6). The influence of CVC parameter on the formation of nanoparticle, nanowire and size control was studied. The size of Fe-Mo alloyed nanoparticles can be controlled by quantity of gas flow. Also, Fe-Mo alloyed nanowires were produced by control of the work chamber pressure. Obtained nanoparticles and nanowires were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction.


Background: Environmental particle exposure is known to have negative health effects. There is limited knowledge about how size and origin of particles influence these effects. There is also little known regarding the fate of ultrafine particles (particles in nanosize;< 100 nanometers in diameter) after being inhaled. Aim: The main objective of this thesis was to study acute health effects in humans and their potential underlying mechanisms, resulting from exposure to particles of different origins. Another aim was to develop a method for measuring human lung retention (clearance) of ultrafine carbon particles. Methods: In this human exposure study, twenty healthy volunteers and sixteen individuals with sensitive airways diagnosed with mild asthma were exposed to a subway environment and a control environment for two hours each. Acute health effects in the airways and blood were measured using different markers indicating inflammation, effects on coagulation and lung function. A new exposure method was developed for the study of lung retention of inhaled ultrafine particles Carbon particles were labeled with radioactive indium-111. The labeling allowed one week of follow up of particulate retention in ten healthy volunteers. One volunteer was followed for totally 29 days. Results: After exposure to a subway environment, healthy individuals had significant increase in fibrinogen (coagulation factor) and regulatory T-cells expressing CD4/CD25/FOXP3 in peripheral blood. In asthmatics we found a statistically significant increased frequency of CD4 cells expressing T-cell activation marker CD25 in bronchoalveolar (lung) lavage fluid but no significant increase of regulatory T-cells in blood. We developed a method for labeling and generating ultrafine carbon particles with a radioactive isotope indium-111 for use in human studies. A follow-up of healthy volunteers who inhaled the particle aerosol found a limited deposition of particles in the central airways. Seven days after exposure, measured lung retention was 91% at the group level. After correction for free radioactivity leaching from urine and blood samples, respectively mucociliary clearance from the central airways, the cumulative lung-particle retention was approximated to 96%. There was little translocation of particles from the lungs to the blood circulation (0.3%). The volunteer who was followed up for a total of 29 days demonstrated 10% further clearance of particles from the lungs. Conclusion: Healthy individuals and asthma patients display different inflammatory responses following exposure to a subway environment. The health effects were not as pronounced in comparison to our previous studies performed in a road-tunnel environment with similar mass levels of particles with diameters <2.5 μm and <10 μm (PM2.5 and PM10), but with a higher number concentration of ultrafine particles, nitrogen monoxide and dioxide than in the subway. The different results show that health-risk assessment cannot be based solely on mass concentration information such as PM2.5 and PM10. More complex measurements of particles are needed, and should include the number concentration levels of ultrafine particles as well as knowledge about the source of the particles. Results from deposition and retention studies indicate limited translocation to circulating blood in healthy lungs during the first week, with faster clearance from central lung regions compared to the peripheral regions. This is probably due to mucociliary clearance from the larger airways.


We report herein a novel mechanism, unraveled by proteomics and validated by in vitro and in vivo studies, of the aberrant aging-associated upregulation of ovarian transferrin and ferritin in rat ovaries. The ovarian mass and serum estradiol titer plummeted while the ovarian labile ferrous iron and total iron levels escalated with age in rats. Oxidative stress markers, such as nitrite/nitrate, 3-nitrotyrosine, and 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal, accumulated in the aging ovaries due to an aberrant upregulation of the ovarian transferrin, ferritin light/heavy chains, and iron regulatory protein 2(IRP2)-mediated transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1). Ferritin inhibited estradiol biosynthesis in ovarian granulosa cells in vitro via the upregulation of a nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) and p65/p50-induced oxidative and inflammatory factor inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). An in vivo study demonstrated how the age-associated activation of NF-κB induced the upregulation of iNOS and the tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα). The downregulation of the keap1-mediated nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), that induced a decrease in glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4), was observed. The aberrant transferrin and ferritin upregulation triggered an iron accumulation via the upregulation of an IRP2-induced TfR1. This culminates in NF-κB-iNOS-mediated ovarian oxi-inflamm-aging and serum estradiol decrement in naturally aging rats. The iron accumulation and the effect on ferroptosis-related proteins including the GPX4, TfR1, Nrf2, Keap1, and ferritin heavy chain, as in testicular ferroptosis, indicated the triggering of ferroptosis. In young rats, an intraovarian injection of an adenovirus, which expressed iron regulatory proteins, upregulated the ovarian NF-κB/iNOS and downregulated the GPX4. These novel findings have contributed to a prompt translational research on the ovarian aging-associated iron metabolism and aging-associated ovarian diseases.


Background: Multiple myeloma (MM) is a heterogeneous disease and the thought that there are different diseases with variable outcome led to a definition of prognostic tools. The International Staging System (ISS) is a simple and widely used staging model, but it does not take into account the biology of MM (such as the presence of chromosomal abnormalities) and other important prognostic markers such serum LDH levels. Aims: To evaluate the combined role of three established prognostic factors (ISS, chromosomal abnormalities and serum LDH levels) in newly diagnosed Multiple Myeloma (NDMM) patients. Methods: Data from NDMM patients enrolled in nine international multicenter trials were pooled together and retrospectively analyzed. All patients received new drugs up-front in association with standard chemotherapy or in pretransplant induction and post-transplant maintenance strategies. Patients evaluable for ISS stage, interphase Fluorescence in situ Hybridization (iFISH) and serum LDH levels were included in the analysis. The K-adaptive partitioning was used to identify the ISS/iFISH/LDH groups. Multivariate analyses of OS and PFS were performed. Results: Median age was 63 years; 2159 (60%) patients were younger than 65 years. 1791 (50%) patients received IMIDs, 1370 (38%) proteasome inhibitors and 1606 (45%) underwent autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). A total of 2359 patients were evaluable for ISS, iFISH and LDH: 570 (24%) patients presented at baseline with ISS stage III, 612 (26%) had High- Risk (HR) iFISH profile [presence of del(17p) and/or t(4;14) and/or t(14;16)] and 285 (12%) had LDH values higher than the normal limit (LDH high). The recursive partitioning procedure gave an optimal number of 3 ISS/iFISH/LDH groups, defined as revised ISS [R-ISS] stages: R-ISS stage 1 [n=636 (27%)] included patients with ISS I, no HR-iFISH and low LDH; R-ISS stage III [n=246 (11%)] patients with ISS III and HR-iFISH or LDH high; R-ISS stage II included all the other patients [n=1477 (62%)]. After a median follow-up of 4 years, 5- year OS was 81% in the R-ISS I, 62% in the R-ISS II and 39% in the R-ISS III groups. The 5-year PFS was 56% in the R-ISS II, 37% in the R-ISS II and 20% in the R-ISS III groups (median PFS was 65, 41 and 25 months, respectively). Multivariate analyses of OS and PFS confirmed the strong prognostic role of R-ISS. The mortality risk was clearly increased for R-ISS II vs I (HR 3.02), as well as for R-ISS III vs I (HR 7.44). Similarly, the risk of progression was higher for R-ISS II vs I (HR 2.07), as well as for R-ISS Stage III vs I (HR 4.04). Summary and Conclusion: The R-ISS considerably improved the risk assessment in comparison with the individual ISS, iFISH and LDH evaluations. The R-ISS is a new risk model, that includes simple and widely used prognostic markers, it is easily applicable in clinical practice and identifies three different MM entities with clearly different outcomes.


The question addressed by this article is whether lecturers delivering HEBCs in FECs in England perceive their institutions to be fragmented, i.e. has Cinderella lost her identity via the demands and pressures placed upon her by the UK government and other stakeholders? The research adopts a qualitative approach, where 26 interviews were conducted in FECs in the Yorkshire and Humber regions. The findings, although not surprising, were quite candid and indicated that there may be some role conflict, as management seemed to prioritise funding over everything else, including the well-being of their employees


This paper mainly focus to get the high resolution color remote sensing image, and also undertaken to remove the shaded region in the both urban and rural area. Some of the existing papers are involved to detect the shaded region and then eliminate that region, but it has some drawbacks. The detection of the edges will be affected mostly by the application of the external parameters. The edge detection process can be more helpful in the detection of the objects so that the objects can be used for further processing. In this process we have implement the region growing thresholding algorithm is used to detect the shadow region and extract the feature from the shadow region. Region growing is simplest in region-base image segmentation methods. The concept of region growing algorithm is checking the neighboring pixels of the initial seed points. Then determine whether those neighboring pixels are added to the seed points or not. In the region growing threshold algorithm Pixels are placed in the region based on their properties or the properties of the nearby pixel values. Then the pixel containing the similar properties is grouped together and then the large numbers of pixels are distributed throughout the image. Keywords—remote sensing; shade removal; region growing; edge detection; segmentation


This article analyses the split of the former News Corporation into two new companies within a context of change in the media industry's market dynamics. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the phone hacking scandal in the News of the World, formerly one of News Corporation's bestselling tabloid newspapers in the United Kingdom, should be interpreted as a problem that Rupert Murdoch managed to address despite the toll that the case had taken on the company. Moreover, rather than a cause of the subsequent split, it should be understood as a means of halting the company's BSkyB takeover bid. This crisis gave the conglomerate the opportunity to make changes to its global strategy by specialising in market niches through two new brands: 21st Century Fox and the new News Corporation.


tween reflux and obstructive sleep apnea; however, as is the case with other pulmonary diseases such as asthma, pulmonary fibrosis, and chronic cough, the question of cause and effect remains unresolved. I t is clear that aspiration of gastric contents will cause or exacerbate pulmonary disease, and it is additionally clear that the changes in intrathoracic pressure secondary to cough and the alteration in pulmonary mechanics seen in obstructive sleep apnea might exacerbate gastroesophageal reflux. I believe it is reasonable to suggest that any change in pulmonary mechanics that affect intra-abdominal or intrathoracic pressure or alter the lower esophageal sphincter mechanics or swallow-induced clearance might exacerbate GERD. It is equally reasonable to suggest that GERD itself might exacerbate these pulmonary conditions. To conclude that obstructive sleep apnea syndrome would cause GERD in someone otherwise not prone would be beyond the limits of current data.


In this era of genome-wide association studies (GWAS), the quest for understanding the genetic architecture of complex diseases is rapidly increasing more than ever before. The development of high throughput genotyping and next generation sequencing technologies enables genetic epidemiological analysis of large scale data. These advances have led to the identification of a number of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) responsible for disease susceptibility. The interactions between SNPs associated with complex diseases are increasingly being explored in the current literature. These interaction studies are mathematically challenging and computationally complex. These challenges have been addressed by a number of data mining and machine learning approaches. This paper reviews the current methods and the related software packages to detect the SNP interactions that contribute to diseases. The issues that need to be considered when developing these models are addressed in this review. The paper also reviews the achievements in data simulation to evaluate the performance of these models. Further, it discusses the future of SNP interaction analysis.


Travel by the elderly is generally characterized by relatively short distances and low frequencies. However, with social development, the travel patterns of the elderly are lacking in sustainability. In some European countries, the elderly are increasingly dependent on cars while traveling. In addition, the influencing factors of the elderly's travel behavior are also changing. At present, most foreign and domestic studies focus on the impact of individual and household socioeconomic attributes, travel attributes, and policy factors on the travel frequency, travel mode choice, and travel demand of the elderly, but they lack an analysis of the regional differences of the elderly's travel behavior characteristics and related countermeasures. The studies excessively focus on the influencing factors but overlook the difference between the elderly's travel characteristics and young people's travel characteristics, as well as the interactions at the household level. Based on data from the Fifth Travel Survey of Residents in Beijing 2014, this paper uses variance analysis, Spearman's correlation analysis, and descriptive and comparative analysis to study the difference in travel frequency over 24 hours between the elderly and middle-aged/young people in Beijing, the impact of household, individual, and travel attributes on the travel frequency difference, and the regional difference in the elderly's travel behavior characteristics. The results show that there is a significant difference in travel frequency between the elderly group and the middle-aged/young group in Beijing; the main reason is the individual difference between travelers. Travelers' attributes all exert an influence on the travel frequency of both groups, but the degree and direction of the influence are different. At the household level, middle-aged/young people with a higher household income travel less frequently, whereas the case is completely the opposite for the elderly. In terms of personal attributes, gender has a significant negative effect on the elderly's travel frequency; that is, women travel less than men, whereas there is no difference between men and women in middle-aged/young people. Regarding travel attributes, travel distance and travel duration have a significant negative effect on the two groups' travel frequencies. The elderly in some European countries are more dependent on cars, whereas a large proportion of elderly people in Beijing walk on foot, but the degree of dependence on cars of the "new generation" of the elderly in Beijing will increase rapidly, which will bring the lack of sustainability of travel patterns, further bringing new challenges to policymakers and transport planning departments.


We studied 95 cases of uveal melanoma using cytomorphometry to measure the standard deviation of nucleolar area (SD-NA) based on 200 cells per tumor and microspectrophotometry to determine the quantity of DNA in the nucleus of 100 cells per tumor. The 95 cases of uveal melanoma, in which the eye was enucleated between 1970 and 1973, were selected from the files of the REgistry of Ophthalmic Pathology. Forty-nine patients survived with a median follow-up of 15 years without evidence of metastasis at the time of the last follow-up, and 46 patients died of metastatic melanoma. Statistical analysis indicated that SD-NA was a better predictor of metastasis than DNA determination in this data set.


Vorticella convallaria is a ciliated protozoan found in freshwater habitats. In the sessile or stalked trophont form, V. convallaria is shaped somewhat like a balloon as it has a body or zooid (the head of the balloon) that is about 40 μm large with cilia around its oral part, and a stalk (the string of a balloon) anchoring the zooid to a solid surface. When a trophont zooid of V. convallaria detached from the stalk, the zooid swims around in water by creating water flow using its oral cilia. In contrast to the stalk contraction of V. convallaria that has been well studied, the swimming motility of V. convallaria is little known. In this study, we measured the swimming trajectories of the stalkless trophont zooid of V. convallaria using video microscopy and Hele-Shaw cells with a gap height of 25 μm, traced the swimming zooid using image processing, and analyzed the swimming motion in terms of swimming velocity and mean square displacement. The stalkless trophont zooid of V . convallaria was found to swim in circular patterns with intermittent ballistic motions in the confinement, and the average swimming speed ranged from 20 μm/s to 110 μm/s. Since the swimming pattern of V. convallaria appeared to be affected by the level of confinement, we will continue characterizing the ciliate's swimming in the Hele-Shaw cell with different gap heights. Our study is expected to reveal the swimming motility of V. convallaria and to advance general understanding of swimming of microorganisms.


Due to the expansive use of GPS, GPS data can be used to provide valuable travel time and the travel speed data for the traffic information system. However, to access ID number for personal car would have problems with privacy. Thus, mean travel speed (MTS), which requires individual vehicle tracking, cannot be calculated directly. In this research, we try to estimate the MTS of the road by using GPS data without ID number. The estimation is done by considering the relationship between MTS and time mean speed (TMS), and experiment with relation between MTS and estimated space mean speed (eSMS). In addition, vehicle speed has high variance on inner city roads. Therefore, we proposed grouping method of spot speed data on the road segment, which is called segmentation, to reduce the traffic variance and analyze the collected data for MTS estimation. The results show the correlation between TMS and MTS is 0.94 and the relationship graphs between TMS and MTS have a linear trend line. Hence, TMS and MTS are very correlative. In summary, MTS estimation can be improved and developed into the model or equation if TMS is calculated under short segment (50 m), low traffic variance data, and under suitable time period (5 minutes).


Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) is a relatively new industrial crop which has been identified as an alternative source of fiber in the papermaking industry in Malaysia. In this study, experimental unbleached kenaf kraft paper samples were used as a substrate to produce water-resistant paper by employing a special coating. In the preparation of the coating formulation, commercially precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) was used as the filler, in addition to 0 to 0.32 w/w g of hydrophobic stearic acid (SA). Polymer latex (PL) was added at 0.4 to 0.16 w/w g into the coating compound to control the surface roughness of the samples. The paper morphology was examined by employing a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Hydrophobic kenaf kraft paper prepared in this study had water contact angle (θ) greater than 90°. Hydrophobic paper made with formulation PL4c resulted in the highest value contact angle of 147°. The process of surface coating by dipping increased the water contact angle and this treated paper achieved a high hydrophobic level. For mechanical properties, the coated kenaf paper showed decreasing tensile strength as the addition of stearic acid increased.


This work spans nearly a decade of industrial research in the reliability physics of deeply scaled SiO2 and SiON gate dielectrics. Our following original contributions include:

• Below 35A, the dominant mechanism for stressed induced leakage current in the off-state is tunneling via interface traps. Traps at both top and bottom interfaces participate in the transport process.

• A conclusive experimental proof showing that breakdown is voltage rather than field driven in ultra-thin oxides. This work has been instrumental in ending the long running controversy in the industry on breakdown models.

• Experimental verification that anode hole injection through minority ionization remains a plausible breakdown mechanism down to 3.6V. However, anode hole injection is eliminated as the mechanism for breakdown below 2.7V.

• Plasma nitridation of oxides extends the reliability scaling limit of SiO2 based films. Trap generation rates are minimized and reliability is optimized when the nitrogen profile is uniform. These films are now widely used in volume manufacturing.

• Reaction-diffusion theory applies for PBTI stress of ultra-thin NMOS SiON films. This finding enables the determination of the mechanisms for trap generation and breakdown. Two species of hydrogen (H+ and H0) are released from the anode in two separate anode reactions. H+ and H0 both create interface traps at the poly interface. After migrating into the dielectric, H+ creates bulk traps while H0 creates interface traps at the pwell interface. The hydrogen species that controls breakdown is voltage dependent. The mechanism transitions from hole induced H+ desorption to electron induced H0 desorption below the 2.7V threshold for vibrational excitation of Si-H bonds.

• Bulk traps control breakdown in SiO2 below 30A. In SION, below the 2.7V threshold for vibrational excitation of Si-H bonds, the rate limiting step is the generation of interface traps. A minimum of two traps is required to cause breakdown in SiON films down to 10A EOT and at least must be a bulk state. The SiON bulk trap diameter is 4A, which is smaller than earlier estimates and results in the Weibull slope remaining greater than 1 down to the 12A physical thickness limit.


Goodbye Brigadoon examines the shifting role media production plays in the economic and cultural strategies of global cities in small market nations, specifically Glasgow, Scotland. In particular, this project focuses on the formation of a digital media village along the banks of the River Clyde to argue the site constitutes a logical component to Glasgow's ongoing transformation into a cosmopolitan center. Yet, as the regional government's economic strategies and policy directives work to transform the abandoned waterfront into a center of cultural activity, this project also underscores the contradictory cultural dynamics to emerge from media production's new role in the post-industrial city. At its core, the media hub reveals a regional government more interested in the technology used to deliver "national" stories than the manner of the stories themselves or the cultural practices responsible for creating them. Indeed, Goodbye Brigadoon is most interested in how media professionals based at the emergent cluster negotiate a sense of cultural identity and creative license against the institutional constraints, policy matters, and commercial logic they also must navigate in their workaday rituals. Ultimately, the conclusions offered in this project argue for a more complicated conception of the global-local location where these professionals work. Glasgow's digital media village, in other words, is much more than an innocuous site of competitive advantage, urban regeneration, and job growth. It is best understood as a site of intense social struggle and unequal power relations where local mediamakers often find the site's impetus for multiplatform media production an institutionally enforced false promise at odds with the realities of creative labor in the city.


This paper proposes an extended Luenberger observer (ELO) for speed sensorless vector control of induction motor drive fed by a three-level neutral point clamped (NPC) inverter. Two simple methods for observer gain selection are proposed, which eliminates the speed dependent items and decreases the relevant errors caused by observed speed. Conventional speed adaptive observer observes only flux and speed, while ELO observes not only flux linkage and rotor speed, but also load torque, which makes use of mechanical model and more smooth and accurate speed estimation is obtained. Both simulation and experimental results are presented to validate the effectiveness of ELO proposed in this paper.


We investigate the interaction of two cavity solitons in an optically injected vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL). We show that they experience an attractive force even when their distance is much larger than their diameter, and finally they merge. Since the merging time depends exponentially on the initial distance, we show that the attraction could be associated with an exponentially decaying interaction potential, similarly to what is found for hydrophobic materials.


Many English teachers face the widespread misconception that if a work of fiction is enjoyable, it cannot be good, or, conversely, if it is good, it cannot be enjoyable. Critics of horror fiction, for example, would likely argue that better reading materials are available for students to read. Inclusion of materials other than "classics" into the curriculum, however, should not depend only on "literary worth" but also on what benefits the adolescent reader gets from the reading experience. John W. Connor and others state that adolescent readers, both male and female, are fascinated by novels of horror and the supernatural. The popularity of the genre is attributed to the popularity of Stephen King. Joseph Patrouch finds that King has "located and exploited an area where science fiction and occult/psychic/horror novels might be said to overlap." Both the writer and the reader may experience somewhat of a catharsis by dealing with certain elements of fear in fiction, and fantasy helps fill the human need to make sense of the world and life. In addition, fantasy and horror fiction allows readers to confront fears in a safe arena. (Contains 8 references.) (PA) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** Conquering Fear: The Role of Fantasy and Horror Fiction in the Classroom


The 31-km-wide Hiawatha impact crater was recently discovered under the ice sheet in northwest Greenland, but its age remains uncertain. Here we investigate solid organic matter found at the tip of the Hiawatha Glacier to determine its thermal degradation, provenance, and age, and hence a maximum age of the impact. Impactite grains of microbrecchia and shock-melted glass in glaciofluvial sand contain abundant dispersed carbon, and gravel-sized charcoal particles are common on the outwash plain in front of the crater. The organic matter is depleted in the thermally sensitive, labile bio-macromolecule proto-hydrocarbons. Pebble-sized lumps of lignite collected close to the sand sample consist largely of fragments of conifers such as Pinus or Picea, with greatly expanded cork cells and desiccation cracks which suggest rapid, heat-induced expansion and contraction. Pinus and Picea are today extinct from North Greenland but are known from late Pliocene deposits in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and early Pleistocene deposits at Kap København in eastern North Greenland. The thermally degraded organic material yields a maximum age for the impact, providing the first firm evidence that the Hiawatha crater is the youngest known large impact structure on Earth.


In Reply.— Drs Krutchkoff and Eisenberg take us severely to task for publishing the results of our histologic study of 100 cases of oral lichen planus without "histomorphologic documentation" that our diagnoses were correct. They state that "lesions cited in this study bear no relation to lichen planus," and go on to pronounce the results reported "questionable and thereby unacceptable." Having thus disposed of the need to consider what actually was said in our article, the authors refer us for enlightenment to an article of their own on a similar topic that has recently appeared in another journal. In our article, we did not attempt to discuss in depth the diagnostic criteria for lichen planus, but merely summarized our working criteria, at the outset, with references. This seemed to us to be appropriate, insofar as the criteria we mentioned (the same criteria used by Krutchkoff and Eisenberg in their article) have been


The concepts of information ecosystems and multi agent systems are used to describe a security consistency model where, as a background, humans are presumed to act as Machiavellian beings, i.e. behaving selfishly. Based on this notion, we analyze behaviors initiated by network contaminants derived from the groupings marketing, espionage and malice, and their effects to an entire ecosystem. The contribution of this paper is a security consistency model, which illustrates a comprehensive and systemic view of the evolutionary risk environment in information networks.


The labour force participation rates in India stands at 27.2 % for women in comparison to 78.8% for men whereas globally, the gender gap in the labour force participation rate is 26.5% as per the report published by ILO (2017). The employment conditions are also reported to be vulnerable for the women in terms of fewer working hours; usually not by choice, access to social protection and ambiguous employment contract. Gender integration in the workforce is facilitated through developmental policies of the government such as cluster development and associated "rurbanisation" i.e. transformation of rural to urban areas. Sustainable economic growth requires greater women participation for the enhanced income of these "rurban" areas. Even though the economic necessity may lead to no choice but to work; for women, the gains from income may not lead to her overall well-being. To optimize these results of socio-economic policies, the policy-makers should be able to gauge the benefits as well as the loop-holes of investment and its impact on human development. This study assesses whether the stimulation to local economic development through income generation leads to narrowing gaps in areas of income, literacy and gender gap in the workforce. The paper also uses textual analysis to explore the idea and perception of gender integration at the workplace of the women natives of the rurban clusters of Greater Noida which has undergone a shift in the structure of its major economic activities. The study presents the perceptual findings of women and their preference towards work the balance between work and family, similar opportunities as men and obstacles at work. The socio-economic development of women is assessed to examine the role of rurbanisation in reducing the income-inequality gap.


∗ This study examines the determinants of intra-industry trade (IIT), horizontal IIT (HIIT) and vertical IIT (VIIT) in the automobile industry in Portugal. The trade in this sector between Portugal and the European Union (EU-27) was examined, between 1995 and 2008. These results indicate that intra-industry trade occurs more frequently among countries that are similar in terms of factor endowments. The findings support the theory that, in general, there is no positive statistical association between HIIT and Heckscher-Ohlin variables. We also introduce the economic dimension, and common border; these proxies confirm the positive effects in bilateral trade. Our results also confirm the hypothesis that trade increases if transportation costs decrease. between LogDGDP and vertical IIT. Our results show that the higher the difference in GDP per capita between Portugal and trade partner, the higher will be VIIT.


The aim of this note is to present and analyze subnational fiscal trends in Russia in the context of overall slowing economic growth and falling oil prices over the last few years. In particular, in 2015, GDP fell by 3.7 percent. Despite efforts to cut expenditures, the federal deficit increased to 2.4 percent of GDP. Subnational governments were also affected by the economic slowdown. Aggregate subnational revenues declined, in real terms, by 6 percent between 2014 and 2015. Revenues from taxes (including shares of federal taxes) fell by 4 percent while federal transfers fell by 13 percent. Nevertheless, the aggregate fiscal performance of subnational governments actually improved over this period. The nadir of subnational government finances occurred in 2013, when the consolidated subnational deficit reached 0.9 percent of GDP. Since then, it has shrunk. In 2015, the deficit was equal to only 0.2 percent of GDP. This was largely achieved by drastic cuts in spending. Spending in the social and infrastructure sectors both fell by 9 percent in real terms between 2014 and 2015. This note examines the fiscal prospects of subnational governments in Russia, focusing particularly on the nature of these spending cuts and whether they are sustainable over the medium term.


Mass production of consumer products is both wasteful and limit the consumers' power to influence the design of what they are buying. When shopping for a product, the customer must choose between a range of specific products with limited variations. What if the customer could make all the design choices, creating and buying the product according to his or her own needs? A 3D product generator holding a configurable model of a product was created to replace static content in online stores and give creative power to customers. This work aimed at creating an effective 3D product generator by evaluating how users experience the design of and interaction with it, and finding general design goals when introducing interactive 3D content in static 2D environments. A prototype of a 3D product generator in a generic online storefront was implemented in two iterations, improving on and evaluating the design through usability testing. The evaluation of the final prototype suggested that the interface was indeed effective in both design and interaction. This work concludes that user feedback is crucial to creating a successful user experience, which in turn is important when creating interfaces for product configuration.


Proton-transfer-reaction (PTR) mass spectrometry (MS), a widely used method for detecting trace-levels of volatile organic compounds in gaseous samples, can also be used for the analysis of small non-volatile molecules by using supercritical fluid as a transporter for the molecules. Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) is a method that permits lipophilic compounds to be rapidly and selectively extracted from complex matrices. The combination of the high sensitivity of PTR MS with the SFE is a potentially novel method for analyzing small molecules in a single cell, particularly for the analysis of lipophilic compounds. We preliminarily evaluated this method for analyzing the components of a single HeLa cell that is fixed on a stainless steel frit and is then directly introduces the SFE extracts into the PTR MS. A total of 200/91 ions were observed in positive/negative ion mode time-of-flight mass spectra, and the masses of 11/10 ions could be matched to chemical formulae obtained from the LipidMaps lipids structure database. Using various authentic lipophilic samples, the method could be used to detect free fatty acids in the sub-femtomole to femtomole order in the negative ion mode, the femtomole to sub-picomole order for fat-soluble vitamins, and the picomole order for poly aromatic hydrocarbons in both the positive and negative ion mode.


Trophic interactions between sharks and other marine vertebrates are represented by both indirect and direct evidence from the fossil record. Indirect evidence includes such traces as shark tooth marks and gouges on the bones of prey, such as fish, reptiles, whales, dolphins, and seals. Direct evidence is represented by the presence of shark teeth in definite association with prey species. In this paper, we report direct evidence for trophic interactions between a white shark (Carcharodon sp.) and a mysticete whale from the lower Pliocene (∼4–5 Ma) Pisco Formation of Peru: a partial mandible of an unidentified mysticete whale with a partial tooth of a white shark embedded within the cortical bone. Modern white sharks are known predators of many marine mammal species, and both active hunting and scavenging have been well documented. In this instance, we interpret this specimen to represent a scavenging event. This fossil is unusual because it represents a seldom-reported event that preserves direct evidence of trophic interactions.


Positron emission tomography (PET) is a major diagnostic imaging technique predominantly used in determining the presence and severity of cancers, neurological conditions, and cardiovascular diseases. It is currently the most effective way to check for cancer recurrences and it offers significant advantages over other forms of imaging such as computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans in detecting disease in many patients. In the USA, an estimated 1 129 900 clinical PET patient studies were performed at 1725 sites in 2005.
PET and cancer: PET is considered particularly effective in identifying whether cancer is present or not, if it has spread, if it is responding to treatment, and if a person is cancer-free after treatment. Cancers for which PET is considered particularly effective include lung, head and neck, colorectal, oesophageal, lymphoma, melanoma, breast, thyroid, cervical, pancreatic and brain cancer as well as other less frequently occurring cancers. Early detection: Because PET images biochemical activity, it can accurately characterize a tumour as benign or malignant, thereby avoiding surgical biopsy when the PET scan is negative. Conversely, because a PET scan images the entire body, confirmation of distant metastasis can alter treatment plans in certain cases from surgical intervention to chemotherapy. Staging of cancer: PET is extremely sensitive in determining the full extent of disease, especially in lymphoma, malignant melanoma, breast, lung, colon and cervical cancers. Confirmation of metastatic disease allows the physician and patient to more accurately decide how to proceed with the patient's management. Checking for recurrences: PET is currently considered to be the most accurate diagnostic procedure to differentiate tumour recurrences from radiation necrosis or post-surgical changes. Such an approach allows for the development of a more rational treatment plan for the patient. Sustainability: (Pre-2012 Projects)
The proven interest and deep involvement of main stakeholders like the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education has secured funding for the success of this project and its sustainability since the procedure will be reimbursed by the Health Insurance Fund. End users: (Pre-2013 Projects)
End users include the Ministry of Health and the hospital; beneficiaries will include patients affected by cancer conditions through better management of their disease. Financial savings will be possible through an improved diagnostic work-up, which will allow a better treatment option selection. Clinicians and referring physicians involved in cancer management will have a powerful tool to manage their patients. Strategy: (Pre-2013 Projects)
The feasibility study performed under MAK6009 showed the need for careful planning and human resources capacity building. The Government ensured cost sharing for the radiopharmacy and has already started procurement of major components, the PET scanner and the cyclotron. The project will complement Government activities with expert advice and training of medical doctors, medical physicists, technologists and radiopharmacists.


Polymers can be interesting alternatives to bone grafts; they must present suitable mechanical and osteoconductive properties. Biomimetic properties may be a key factor for the recognition by bone cells. Methacryloyloxyethyl phosphate (MOEP) was found to enhance hydroxyapatite deposition. The copolymer containing MOEP and 1-vinyl-2-pyrrolidinone (50-50%) binds large amounts of calcium. Particles of the copolymer were used to fill large cranial bone defects in the rat. After a 12-week healing period, the animals were euthanized and the skulls examined by X-ray, histology, and electron microscopy (EM). The high phosphate content of the polymer conferred a marked calcium-binding capacity, and the particles were heavily calcified. They were embedded in a light fibrous stroma containing numerous capillaries and multinucleated giant cells. The osteoconductive properties were poor: only few trabeculae developed centripetally from the margins of the defects. There was no bone bonding and no osteoblast on the surface of the calcified material. Backscattered EM revealed that the degree of calcification was homogeneous in all particles. Calcium-phosphorus calcospherites were never observed. The material appeared to trap calcium but to impair nucleation because only small hydroxyapatite tablets were occasionally observed. Polyphosphated materials do not represent a suitable source of potentially usable bone substitutes.


Lotz, David A. M.S., May 2016. Energy Dashboard for Real-time Evaluation of a Heat Pump Assisted Solar Thermal System. Major Professor: William J. Hutzel The emergence of net-zero energy buildings, buildings that generate at least as much energy as they consume, has lead to greater use of renewable energy sources such as solar thermal energy. One example is a heat pump assisted solar thermal system, which uses solar thermal collectors with an electrical heat pump backup to supply space heating and domestic hot water. The complexity of such a system can be somewhat problematic for monitoring and maintaining a high level of performance. Therefore, an energy dashboard was developed to provide comprehensive and user friendly performance metrics for a solar heat pump system. Once developed, the energy dashboard was tested over a two-week period in order to determine the functionality of the dashboard program as well as the performance of the heating system itself. The results showed the importance of a user friendly display and how each metric could be used to better maintain and evaluate an energy system. In particular, Energy Factor (EF), which is the ratio of output energy (collected energy) to input energy (consumed energy), was a key metric for summarizing the performance of the heating system. Furthermore, the average EF of the solar heat pump system was 2.29, indicating an efficiency significantly higher than traditional electrical heating systems.


ABSTRACT Although the need for more environmentally friendly vehicles was recognized some decades ago, this new market has not yet established itself. Consumer behavior needs to be studied to ascertain when people will decide to purchase hybrid or electric vehicles rather than conventional ones. An in-depth review of the state-of-the-art has identified existing deficiencies and these are addressed in this paper, proposing a new approach that is applied to the case of Santander in Spain. Emphasis is placed on the role of citizens in researching the local market and their requirements with respect to such vehicles; our model assumes variability in user preferences, an utmost requirement as concluded from the literature review. Results suggest that the highest demand for cleaner vehicles would be achieved in two ways: firstly, by penalizing conventional vehicles in terms of costs/km; secondly, by providing incentives directed at lowering the purchasing price of hybrid and electric vehicles. Finally, as demand becomes more elastic, the preferred strategy should initially focus on hybrid vehicles.


Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is an important food and fodder crop. Fungal diseases such as anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum sublineolum reduce sorghum yields. Genetic transformation can be used to confer tolerance to plant diseases such as anthracnose. The tolerance can be developed by introducing genes encoding proteins such as chitinases and chitosanases that hydrolyse fungal cell wall. Chitinases endolytically hydrolyse the β-1,4-linkages of chitin whereas, chitosanases hydrolyse the β-1,4-linkages between N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and D-glucosamine residues in a partially acetylated chitin polymer. Particle bombardment was used to genetically transform a sorghum genotype, KAT 412, with chitinase (harchit) and chitosanase (harcho) genes isolated from Trichoderma harzianum. Transgenic sorghum plants, KOSA-1-3, that expressed the two anti-fungal genes were developed. Expression of harchit and harcho in the transformants was confirmed by quantitative real time PCR. In planta and ex planta C. sublineolum infection assays were carried out using one-week old seedlings to determine tolerance to anthracnose. Seedlings from a transgenic line, KOSA-1, were found to be significantly more tolerant to anthracnose than the parent wild type, KAT 412. The transgenic line was further compared with other wild type sorghum cultivars. The comparison revealed a genotypedependent difference in anthracnose response. The transgenic line KOSA-1 was found to be more tolerant than the sorghum line SDSH 513 but less tolerant than KAT L5. This demonstrated the existence of genetic diversity, which together with the transgenes, could be utilised to pyramid genes for higher tolerance to anthracnose. The two antifungal genes introduced into sorghum genome could be introgressed into other sorghum lines for fungal diseases resistance.


The goal of the present work is to discuss the evolution Peirce´s concept of induction under the view of its correlation with realism. The process of induction in Peirce is grounded on the realism of the continua or the doctrine of synechism, in counterpart to the nominalistic, deterministic and necessitarian view of other authors.


I have calculated the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of fluctuations remaining in Rayleigh backscattered signal distributions obtained after performing moving and frequency averaging with an optical low coherence reflectometer (OLCR). From the calculation, I obtained the number of measurements needed for each averaging that achieves the required S/N with the minimum sampling data. Specifically, I derived the numbers of measurements numerically for Gaussian and Lorentzian light spectra, respectively. The result was successfully applied to diagnosis on long silica-based waveguides by using an OLCR with a high-power narrow-band light source.


The species Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus are commonly found in the soils of nut-growing areas in California. Several isolates can produce aflatoxins that occasionally contaminate nut kernels conditioning their sale. The strain AF36 of A. flavus, which does not produce aflatoxins, is registered as a biocontrol agent for use in almond, pistachio, and fig crops in California. After application in the orchards, AF36 displaces aflatoxin-producing Aspergillus spp. and thus reduces aflatoxin contamination. Vegetative compatibility assays (VCA) have traditionally been used to track AF36 in soils and crops where it has been applied. However, VCA is labor-intensive and time-consuming. Here, we developed a quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) protocol to quantify proportions of AF36 accurately and efficiently in different substrates. Specific primers to target AF36 and toxigenic strains of A. flavus and A. parasiticus were designed based on sequence of aflC, a gene essential for aflatoxin biosynthesis. Standard curves were generated to calculate proportions of AF36 based on threshold values (Cq). Verification assays using pure DNA and conidial suspension mixtures demonstrated a significant relationship by regression analysis between known and qPCR-measured AF36 proportions in DNA (R2 = 0.974; P < 0.001) and conidia mixtures (R2 = 0.950; P < 0.001). The tests conducted by qPCR in pistachio leaves, nuts, and soil samples demonstrated the usefulness of the qPCR method to precisely quantify proportions of AF36 in diverse substrates, ensuring important time and cost savings. The outputs of the current study will serve to design better aflatoxin management strategies for pistachio and other crops.


Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is a very versatile material that is used in a number of applications due to its unique combination of properties. This paper reviews typical h-BN qualities and their applications as functional particle in coatings and as sintered parts. As an example, the EKamold® coating family is presented in detail for a variety of substrate types and applications. Furthermore a general overview is given of the effect of the binder phase for hot-pressed h-BN qualities. And finally the use of h-BN as a composite with a) zirconium oxide for side dams in steel thin-strip casting and b) with titanium diboride as evaporation boats is described in more detail.


BIOMECHANICS
Ants appear to be oblivious to the orientation of surfaces; they run across the undersides of leaves and other smooth terrain. How do they adhere (supporting many times their own body weight), and how do they do so in a rapidly reversible manner.

Federle et al . have performed anatomical and biomechanical observations of the Asian weaver ant, Oecophylla smaragdina . The arolium is a flexible adhesive pad located between the claws. With each step, the claws are retracted by the flexor tendon if they do not catch on surface irregularities; this movement extends the arolium and expands it hydraulically with fluid from the arolium gland reservoir. The applied pressure was determined to lie in the range of 10 to 15 kilopascals. Elastic recoil of the arolium cuticle then shunts the fluid back into the gland, allowing facile detachment. — GJC

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 98 , 6215 (2001).


Adipokines, the bioactive factors derived mainly from adipocytes, regulate pancreatic beta-cell function including insulin secretion, gene expression and apoptosis. In this review, we propose that adipokines influence beta-cell function through three interdependent pathways. The first is through regulating lipid and glucose metabolism in beta-cells. The second implicates the change of ion channel opening and closing in beta-cells. The third pathway is via the modification of insulin sensitivity of beta-cells. The endocrine function of adipocytes is dynamic, and the secretion of various adipokines changes under different metabolic conditions. During the progression from the normal state to obesity and to type 2 diabetes, adipokines contribute to the occurrence and development of beta-cell dysfunction in type 2 diabetes.


Polyclonal antibodies labeled with a tracer have been commonly used as secondary antibodies in immunochemical assays to quantify the concentration of antibody-antigen complexes. The majority of these antibodies conjugated with a tracer are commercially available, with the exception of few untouched targets. This study focused on the production and application of mouse anti-quail IgY as an intermediate antibody to link between quail egg yolk IgY and goat anti-mouse IgG-HRP as primary and secondary antibodies, respectively. Subsequently, the produced mouse anti-quail IgY was labeled with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and its efficiency on enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was compared with that of commercial rabbit anti-chicken IgY-HRP. As an intermediate antibody, mouse anti-quail IgY was successfully produced with good affinity and sensitivity (1:10,000) to the primary and secondary antibodies. Subsequently, mouse anti-quail IgY was effectively conjugated with HRP enzyme, resulting in a secondary antibody with good sensitivity (1:10,000) to quail anti-V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus IgY. The detection limit was 10(5) CFU/ml for both V. parahaemolyticus and V. vulnificus. The efficiency of the produced conjugate to detect quail IgY on ELISA was comparable to that of the commercial rabbit anti-chicken IgY-HRP, and hence the produced and labeled mouse anti-quail IgY-HRP can be used as a secondary antibody to detect any antibody produced in quail.


The human oestrogen receptor (hER) gene has recently been shown to be transcribed from two different promoters. In order to study the hER gene promoter region we initially isolated and sequenced 3.3 kb of the 5' region of the hER gene. DNase I hypersensitivity experiments with nuclei from the ER-expressing cell line MCF-7 mapped three different hypersensitive sites, located in the vicinity of the two hER promoters previously identified. However, in another ER-positive cell line, ZR-75-1, DNase I hypersensitivity was observed only in the region of the downstream promoter, suggesting differences between the two cell lines in promoter usage. Polymerase chain reaction-mediated detection of mRNAs transcribed from the two different promoters demonstrated transcripts from the downstream promoter in both the cell lines studied. However, mRNAs transcribed from the upstream promoter could only be detected in MCF-7 cells. Thus, the pattern of DNase I hypersensitivity correlates with the transcriptional activity of the two promoters in the hER gene. Based on these data, we suggest that differential promoter usage might be a novel level of regulation of the hER gene.


PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the thermal insulation and water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) according to the type of the filling material, and compared the thermal insulation in the dynamic state considering actual wearing conditions.Design/methodology/approachThe thermal insulation and WVTR were evaluated in a standard state depending on the type of filling material (goose down (GD), duck down (DD), Thinsulate700 (T700), Thinsulate600 (T600) and Polyester (PET)), and the changes in thermal insulation were examined by measuring the microclimate in the case of an environmental change from a high temperature to a low temperature. In addition, the clumping of filling material and the changes in the thickness/weight depending on the laundry process were observed, and the relationships with the thermal insulation were analyzed.FindingsThe results showed that for natural filling materials (GD and DD), the thermal insulation deteriorated significantly due to changes in the thickness/weight after laundering ten times, and water washing was more appropriate than the dry cleaning. On the other hand, the artificial filling materials (T700, T600 and PET) showed a relatively smaller difference, except for clumping, when they went through more dry cleaning or water washing cycles compared to the natural filling materials.Originality/valueThe results showed that the laundry methods have different effects on the damage to the filling material, the change in thermal insulation, and the change in the comfort-related physical property. Therefore, it is important to select the optimal laundry method depending on the filling material.


Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have begun to permeate all corners of electronic society (from voice recognition to scene generation) due to their high accuracy and machine efficiency per operation. At their core, CNN computations are made up of multi-dimensional dot products between weight and input vectors. This paper studies how weight repetition—when the same weight occurs multiple times in or across weight vectors—can be exploited to save energy and improve performance during CNN inference. This generalizes a popular line of work to improve efficiency from CNN weight sparsity, as reducing computation due to repeated zero weights is a special case of reducing computation due to repeated weights. To exploit weight repetition, this paper proposes a new CNN accelerator called the Unique Weight CNN Accelerator (UCNN). UCNN uses weight repetition to reuse CNN sub-computations (e.g., dot products) and to reduce CNN model size when stored in off-chip DRAM—both of which save energy. UCNN further improves performance by exploiting sparsity in weights. We evaluate UCNN with an accelerator-level cycle and energy model and with an RTL implementation of the UCNN PE. On three contemporary CNNs, UCNN improves throughput-normalized energy consumption by 1.2x ~ 4x, relative to a similarly provisioned baseline accelerator that uses Eyeriss-style sparsity optimizations. At the same time, the UCNN processing element adds only 17-24% area overhead relative to the same baseline.


In enterprise information systems and e-government systems, the problems caused by the changes of heterogeneous distributed resources and requirements are becoming more and more serious. How to make an application accommodate to these changes rapidly has become a hot research topic. This paper presents an adaptive service-oriented software framework, named as CAFISE (convergent approach for information system evolution) Framework for supporting business-end programming, and a CAFISE Framework based development method for service-oriented adaptive software. The CAFISE Framework enables to encapsulate the heterogeneous resources into business services and provides strong supports for open and dynamic service-oriented software architecture. Beginning with analyzing the environment factors that affect an application, the CAFISE Framework based development method supports to design software architecture according to the changes that the application will adapt to, with quality feature driven architecture analysis, and facilitates the just-in-time development and evolution of service oriented applications by architecture based business-end programming. The actual applications and experimental results show that the service-oriented enterprise information systems and e-government systems developed with the framework and the method of this paper can accommodate better to the changes of heterogeneous resource and business requirements, and can continuously evolve with lower costs.


This research is concerned with the design of radial basis function neural networks to implement a controller for nonlinear systems. Nonlinear systems are of particular interest given the fact that most real life systems are nonlinear in nature and control schemes for such systems are not as developed as their linear counterparts and involves a lot of heuristics. We show the ability of radial basis function networks (RBF) to serve as a single unifying model incorporating both nonlinear and linear methodologies. We focus on the problem of the inverted pendulum on a cart system, which is a classic problem in a lot of control literatures. The problem is to swing the pendulum from a given initial state, which is typically the hanging down position, to the up position and then to keep it balanced in the up position. In swinging the pendulum, the cart to which the pendulum is attached is moved back and forth on a track until the pendulum is in the up position. This system is a very useful model in that it demonstrates a multi-variable highly nonlinear system that belongs to a class of nonlinear systems that cannot be controlled by traditional nonlinear techniques such as feedback linearization. In training the RBF network, we explore several different control schemes to produce the training data. These control schemes could also be easily extrapolated to work with other multi-variable nonlinear systems. We first design a neural controller for the second order system describing the pendulum dynamics only. The controller is able to drive the state variables from any permissible state of the system to zero, and to keep it stabilized in that equilibrium state. Secondly, we again show the network's ability to implement nonlinear control of the fourth order pendulum/ cart system. We


Standard causal discovery methods must fit a new model whenever they encounter samples from a new underlying causal graph. However, these samples often share relevant information - for instance, the dynamics describing the effects of causal relations - which is lost when following this approach. We propose Amortized Causal Discovery, a novel framework that leverages such shared dynamics to learn to infer causal relations from time-series data. This enables us to train a single, amortized model that infers causal relations across samples with different underlying causal graphs, and thus makes use of the information that is shared. We demonstrate experimentally that this approach, implemented as a variational model, leads to significant improvements in causal discovery performance, and show how it can be extended to perform well under hidden confounding.


Light colour and source preference testing has been conducted for C. brevitarsus in Australia but have not been performed in South Africa. Data from the Australian trials show an increased affinity for light from Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) rather than incandescent light (the Australian Standard). Locally, the collection standard is an 8W fluorescent ultra-violet (UV) blacklight. A new trap was used to compare midge attractiveness to fluorescent and LED light sources as well as the colours: white, green and UV. Results show a very high affinity for UV light. Catches from white and green light were not found to differ significantly and the interaction between light colour and source was not found to be significant. Possible trap development and action thresholds are discussed. Keywords : Culicoides midge vector, African Horse Sickness, light colour, light emitting diodes


We show that using a nonconvex penalty term to regularize image reconstruction can substantially improve the preservation of object shapes. The commonly-used total-variation regularization, int |nablau|, penalizes the length of object edges. We show that int |nablau|p, 0 < p < 1, only penalizes edges of dimension at least 2 - p, and thus finite-length edges not at all. We give numerical examples showing the resulting improvement in shape preservation.


The increased institutional demand for all faculty to publish scholarly work, even for faculty in non-research institutions, has created a near perfect two-sided market effect for commercial entities to profit from the labor of already overburdened academics while offering little-to-no compensation to these individuals or their institutions. As significant, institutional-level pushback against the cost of access to scholarly materials has begun to coalesce, it seems prudent if not pressing to revisit once more the longstanding debates over labor, cost, and access in scholarly publishing and to argue for more ethical, equitable, and democratizing models. To that end, this essay 1) argues for the notion that all for-profit commercial academic publishing and distribution is predatory and perpetuates an unethical labor model in which commercial entities profit from free labor in the academy and 2) asks how the open source movement offers a model for more ethical, non-profit publishing practices. It concludes that making newly published work freely available in open repositories, whether run by individual or groups of colleges or universities, should function as only a first step towards rethinking the forms of journal article and book and the means by which they are produced.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the possible adverse effect of peri-operative blood transfusion on cancer-related survival after radical cystectomy for bladder cancer.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The hospital records of 130 patients treated with cystectomy and urinary diversion for bladder cancer between 1967 and 1986 were retrospectively reviewed.

RESULTS
Standard proportional hazards estimation revealed tumour stage and radiation response after pre-operative irradiation to be significantly associated with cancer-related mortality, whereas age, tumour grade or the extent of peri-operative blood transfusion were not. In models which allowed time varying effects a significantly changed effect of blood transfusion (> or = 7 versus < or = 6 units) was observed, from an initially insignificantly increased relative hazard (RH) (RH = 1.44 at 6 months) to an insignificantly decreased effect after longer follow-up (RH = 0.53 after 2 years).

CONCLUSION
Although no overall association between blood transfusion and cancer-related mortality was found, a tendency towards an increased risk early in the follow-up period was observed if more than 6 units were transfused. However, these results need confirmation in further studies before a restrictive attitude towards peri-operative blood transfusion is recommended.


The key optimal goal of manual order picking system is shortest picker route, thereby best times. Picker route stochastic model under sorted storage S-type picking for logistics distribution center manual order picking is built. It makes model approximation calculation and simulation result under three order arrival frequencies and space ratio. It is stated that well approximation between model and simulation results under the condition of permission difference are obtained. The model lays the foundation for building stochastic service system model of distribution center manual order picking.


An admissions system based on valid and reliable admissions criteria is very important to select candidates likely to perform well academically at institutions of higher education. This study focuses on ways to support universities in admissions decision making using data mining techniques to predict applicants' academic performance at university. A data set of 2,039 students enrolled in a Computer Science and Information College of a Saudi public university from 2016 to 2019 was used to validate the proposed methodology. The results demonstrate that applicants' early university performance can be predicted before admission based on certain pre-admission criteria (high school grade average, Scholastic Achievement Admission Test score, and General Aptitude Test score). The results also show that Scholastic Achievement Admission Test score is the pre-admission criterion that most accurately predicts future student performance. Therefore, this score should be assigned more weight in admissions systems. We also found that the Artificial Neural Network technique has an accuracy rate above 79%, making it superior to other classification techniques considered (Decision Trees, Support Vector Machines, and Naïve Bayes).


This work presents a new strategy to perform diarization dealing with high variability data, such as multimedia information in broadcast. This variability is highly noticeable among domains (inter-domain variability among chapters, shows, genres, etc.). Therefore, each domain requires its own specific model to obtain the optimal results. We propose to adapt the PLDA models of our diarization system with in-domain unlabeled data. To do it, we estimate pseudo-speaker labels by unsupervised speaker clustering. This new method has been included in a PLDA-based diarization system and evaluated on the Multi-Genre Broadcast 2015 Challenge data. Given an audio, the system computes short-time i-vectors and clusters them using a variational Bayesian PLDA model with hidden labels. The proposed method improves 25.41% relative w.r.t. the system without PLDA adaptation.


The article deals with the use of gamification technologies as a modern teaching tool with great pedagogical potential. Gamification has become an essential part of modern life and society. The paper specifies the origin of the term "gamification" and compares "gamification" with the other game practices. Historical aspects of the gamification concept development in higher education are analyzed and summarized. The effectiveness of gamification as a new way of organizing training and teaching in comparison with traditional technologies is substantiated. The advantages of gamification include: high motivation for student participation in the educational process; increasing of group and individual independent work; maximizing of practical orientation in educational activities to solve professional problems; simulation of students' future professional activities, etc. The authors describe the most popular means of gamification and gaming technology. The possibilities of gamification of Learning Management Systems and Learning Content Management Systems are examined. According to gamification forums on the Internet, the most popular Learning Management Systems platforms are Moodle (https://moodle.org/ ), Schoology (https://www.schoology.com ), ClassDojo (https://www.classdojo.com ) and Edmodo (https://www.edmodo.com). Wordpress (https://ru.wordpress.org/ ) is the leader among Learning Content Management Systems. The authors illustrates realization of training process with application of gamification elements on the basis of Learning Management System Moodle on examples of personal experience. Complex methodology is applied as a means of identifying, assessing and analyzing. To retrieve primary studies as comprehensively as possible, we deployed a search strategy to find publications systematically. As ontologies are the primary concern, the search focuses on papers that develop ontologies for 'gamification'.


Background In ELSA, a randomized, double-blind trial in 2334 hypertensives, 4-year antihypertensive treatment with lacidipine slowed down progression of carotid atherosclerosis significantly more than atenolol treatment. To avoid bias, the primary outcome was measured blindly at study-end on a randomized sequence of scans, but measurements were limited to the four far walls of common carotids and bifurcations (CBMmax) and to one of each couple of duplicate scans recorded yearly. Objectives and methods Secondary outcomes included measurements made on all duplicate scans of both near and far walls, not only of common carotids and bifurcations, but also of internal carotids (12 walls). These measurements were made blindly during the 4-year study, shortly after recording. To avoid possible readers' drift or bias, 250 duplicate baseline scans were re-read at yearly intervals (longitudinal on-line quality control) and a correction factor calculated. Results Measurements during the 4-year study showed a trend toward decreased values, with the lacidipine effect significantly greater than the atenolol one. A trend toward lower values was also observed in the longitudinal quality control of baseline scans. After applying a correction factor calculated from this longitudinal control, all measurements no longer decreased with time, but significantly increased, with progression being significantly smaller in lacidipine than in atenolol patients. Corrected values were quite similar to those calculated on measurements carried out at study-end. Conclusion The relative benefit of lacidipine over atenolol could be measured precisely by reading scans either during the study or at study-end. However, absolute treatment-related changes (progression versus regression) cannot safely be judged by readings made during a long-term study, unless a longitudinal quality control of readings is performed.


OF DMA PROJECT AN UNDERSTANDING OF STYLE OF BAROQUE ORNAMENTATION IN HANDEL'S OPERATIC ARIAS: A STUDY OF SELECTED RECORDINGS (1950s – 2010s) From the early 20th century to the present, new discoveries in Handel scholarship and changing ideas of Baroque performance practice have greatly affected the manner in which Handel's operas and individual arias have been performed. Since the appearance of the first volumes of the Hallische Handel-Ausgabe in 1958, Handel's works have experienced a renewed appreciation among performers and scholars alike, including countless opera productions. Since the introduction of the CD, many talented singers have published recordings of his operas and individual arias, influenced by a greater understanding of period-performance practices and audience expectations. As such, performers are expected to be conversant in Baroque-period performance practices, especially improvised embellishments. However, many published recordings of Baroque arias seem more focused on demonstrating virtuosic vocal technique than historically informed ornaments, leading to an indiscriminate application of excessive, stylistically inappropriate embellishments among performers. Handel's Italian singers were experts in vocal ornamentation; thus, he did not notate expected ornaments on the scores. However, Winton Dean's composite volume Three Ornamented Arias provides Handel's notations of intended embellishments to these works. In order to consider period-appropriate embellishments in other operatic arias by Handel, this study will 1) compare Handel's notated embellishments in relation to the unembellished score, and 2) examine Robert Donington's recommendations for specific ornaments in Baroque Music: Style and Performance. In doing so, I will provide an authentic, histori-cally informed view of embellishments and ornaments in Baroque music. This project will focus on the performance practice of Baroque ornamentation in Handel's arias in the 20th and 21st centuries, as reflected in authentic Baroque performance practice and selected recordings. Handel's four soprano arias: Lascia ch'io pianga, V'adoro pupille, Piangerò la sorte mia, and Tornami a vagheggiar will be discussed to compare changing ideas of vocal ornamentation through selected recordings from the late 1950s and until the 2010s. The selection of recordings will be considered in relation to the 'well-known' virtuosos, Baroque music singers, and conductors as well. Based on the investigation of Handelian performance practices, this paper will provide a framework for critically evaluating improvised embellishments in published recordings, which may be 1) deficiently ornamented, 2) stylistically appropriate, or 3) excessively ornamented.


To assess the beliefs and practice habits regarding Lyme disease among practitioners, questionnaires were sent to physicians in a seven-county Lyme-endemic region. One hundred twenty-four evaluable responses were returned from 53 family physicians, 39 pediatricians, 27 internists, and five subspecialists who diagnosed three to four cases of Lyme disease per year, on average. The majority presented with erythema migrans (EM) or other early symptoms, although arthritis was the presenting sign in 16%. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was the most frequently ordered diagnostic test, but 45% of respondents did not specify which test when ordering Lyme serology. The majority would use amoxicillin or doxycycline to treat EM in children or adults, respectively. Nearly all would use ceftriaxone for meningitis, and half would use it to treat Lyme arthritis or Bell's palsy. Physicians differed markedly in the duration of therapy they would prescribe. Eighty-three percent would treat a patient for possible Lyme disease with antibiotics (many intravenously), even in the absence of EM or positive serology. Thirty-five percent of practitioners prescribed antibiotics for deer-tick bites. Our survey documents significant variation in approaches to Lyme disease among primary-care physicians and suggests the need for well-designed clinical trials, continuing basic research, and physician education.


This article presents a formalized conceptual model for a portion of the Field Artillery (FA) domain. The structural part of the model identifies the entities in the FA domain along with their properties and associations. The behavioral part of the model describes the FA missions in the language of Live Sequence Charts (LSCs). The conceptual model is constructed as a metamodel by using the GME (Generic Modeling Environment) toolkit. Once the FA metamodel is loaded, GME automatically provides a customized environment to model particular FA missions. The intended application is to use the FA metamodel as the source for defining model transformations targeting FA federation architectures. This work is also intended to help evaluate the power and limitations of chart notations for describing military tasks visually yet precisely.


This paper studies the problem of finding an effective subcarrier and power allocation strategy for downlink communication to multiple users in a MIMO-OFDM system with zero-forcing beamforming. The problem of minimizing total power consumption with constraint on transmission rate for users is formulated. The problem of joint allocation is divided into two stages. In the first stage, the number of subcarriers that each user will get is determined based on the users' average signal-to-noise ratio. In the second stage, it finds the best assignment of subcarriers to users. The optimal method is a complex combinatorial problem which can only be assuredly solved through an Exhaustive Search (ES). Since the ES method has high computational com-plexity, the normalized user selection algorithm and the simplified-normalized user selection algorithm are proposed to reduce the computational complexity. Simulation results show that the proposed low complexity algorithms offer better performance compared with an existing algorithm.


Psychologists must be able to test both for the presence of an effect and for the absence of an effect. In addition to testing against zero, researchers can use the two one-sided tests (TOST) procedure to test for equivalence and reject the presence of a smallest effect size of interest (SESOI). The TOST procedure can be used to determine if an observed effect is surprisingly small, given that a true effect at least as extreme as the SESOI exists. We explain a range of approaches to determine the SESOI in psychological science and provide detailed examples of how equivalence tests should be performed and reported. Equivalence tests are an important extension of the statistical tools psychologists currently use and enable researchers to falsify predictions about the presence, and declare the absence, of meaningful effects.


A series of Δ(12)-prostaglandin J3 (Δ(12)-PGJ3) analogues and derivatives were synthesized employing an array of synthetic strategies developed specifically to render them readily available for biological investigations. The synthesized compounds were evaluated for their cytotoxicity against a number of cancer cell lines, revealing nanomolar potencies for a number of them against certain cancer cell lines. Four analogues (2, 11, 21, and 27) demonstrated inhibition of nuclear export through a covalent addition at Cys528 of the export receptor Crm1. One of these compounds (i.e., 11) is currently under evaluation as a potential drug candidate for the treatment of certain types of cancer. These studies culminated in useful and path-pointing structure-activity relationships (SARs) that provide guidance for further improvements in the biological/pharmacological profiles of compounds within this class.


Attitude estimation of unmanned aerial vehicles is of great importance as it enables propercontrol of the vehicles. Attitude estimation is typically done by an attitude-heading refer-ence system (ahrs) which utilises different kind of sensors. In this thesis these include agyroscope providing angular rates measurements which can be integrated to describe the at-titude as well as an accelerometer and a magnetometer, both of which can be compared withknown reference vectors to determine the attitude. The sensor measurements are fused usinga gps augmented 7-state Extended Kalman filter (ekf) with a quaternion and gyroscope bi-ases as state variables. It uses differentiated gps velocity measurements to estimate externalaccelerations as reference vector to the accelerometer, which significantly raises robustnessof the solution. The filter is implemented in MatlabTM and in c on an ARM microprocessor.It is compared with an explicit complementary filter solution and is evaluated with flightsusing a fixed-wing uav with satisfactory results.


Network-on-Chips (NoCs) are quickly becoming the standard communication paradigm for the growing number of cores on the chip. While NoCs can deliver sufficient bandwidth and enhance scalability, NoCs suffer from high power consumption due to the router microarchitecture and communication channels that facilitate inter-core communication. As technology keeps scaling down in the nanometer regime, unpredictable device behavior due to aging, infant mortality, design defects, soft errors, aggressive design, and process-voltage-temperature variations, will increase and will result in a significant increase in faults (both permanent and transient) and hardware failures. In this paper, we propose QORE-a fault tolerant NoC architecture with Multi-Function Channel (MFC) buffers. The use of MFC buffers and their associated control (link and fault controllers) enhance fault-tolerance by allowing the NoC to dynamically adapt to faults at the link level and reverse propagation direction to avoid faulty links. Additionally, MFC buffers reduce router power and improve performance by eliminating in-router buffering. We utilize a machine learning technique in our link controllers to predict the direction of traffic flow in order to more efficiently reverse links. Our simulation results using real benchmarks and synthetic traffic mixes show that QORE improves speedup by 1.3x and throughput by 2.3x when compared to state-of-the art fault tolerant NoCs designs such as Ariadne and Vicis. Moreover, using Synopsys Design Compiler, we also show that network power in QORE is reduced by 21 percent with minimal control overhead.


In this lunchtime keynote address prepared for the UC Irvine School of Law's Intellectual Property Law Annual Conference: The Discursive Turn in Copyright, I argue that the recent Supreme Court case Star Athletica, LLC v. Varsity Brands, Inc. has destroyed the separability test in copyright law and rendered the statutory language that supports it a nullity. What remains as a backstop is the test to determine whether a design feature is itself a "useful article," because a design feature that satisfies Star Athletica's separability test may nevertheless be disqualified from copyright protection if it has an "intrinsic utilitarian function" other than to portray its own appearance and is thus itself an uncopyrightable useful article. The address urges courts to shift their attention away from the now easily-satisfied separability test and toward the question of whether a design feature serves any "intrinsic utilitarian function" other than to portray its own appearance.


The research was carried out in order to investigate the effects of aeration, organic and commercial fertilizers on hay yield, hay quality and botanical composition of an abandoned old range. The experiment was carried out in strip plot design with four replications. Six levels of fertilizers and three levels of aeration were used as treatments. The two-year results indicated that all of the fertilizers increased the hay yield and the effects of commercial fertilizers were higher than those of the organic types. Effects of fertilizers on crude protein content were negative. Fertilizers decreased the dry weight proportions of legumes but increased those of grasses. The effects of fertilizers on hay quality were of contradiction. Aeration decreased crude cellulose content of hay. Aeration with tined harrow decreased hay yield and crude protein. Springed cultivator decreased the proportion of legumes but increased that of grasses. Both commercial and organic fertilizers can be proposed to strengthen and sustain a vegetation of abandoned ranges of Sub-Mediterranean climate such as in the research conditions. However, commercial fertilizers were more effective than organic ones as far as hay yield was concerned. Thus, commercial fertilizers could be prioritized in fertilization of these types of vegetations. On the other side, no clear effects of aeration methods were found in this study. This kind of researches requires long-term studies.


OBJECTIVES
To determine the adequacy of the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI) for assessing pain impact after spinal cord injury (SCI) and to determine whether the impact of pain can be separated from other consequences of SCI.

DESIGN
Postal survey.

SETTING
General community.

PARTICIPANTS
Of the 159 subjects contacted who experienced chronic pain, 120 (75.5%) participated.

INTERVENTIONS
Subjects were mailed the original MPI and a set of additional items specific to SCI.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
The MPI.

RESULTS
Confirmatory (CFA) and exploratory factor analyses were performed for each section of the MPI. Elimination of several items, including those related to work in section 1 (pain impact), improved the goodness-of-fit index (GFI). A CFA for section 2 (response of significant other) resulted in acceptable GFI after 2 items were deleted. Decrease in activity levels (section 3) because of other consequences of injury was significantly greater after tetraplegia than after paraplegia. In contrast, pain-related reduction in activities was not associated with injury level. Although other consequences of SCI may have greater impact on activities than pain, severe pain is likely to affect activity levels significantly.

CONCLUSION
The MPI appears to be appropriate for use in a SCI population when modified to eliminate questions related to work and to supplement the activity scale with items addressing decreased activity levels due to pain.


Using back translation as a quality assessment tool in multilingual survey research is now deemed obsolete or on its way to becoming so, although it is still widely practiced. This paper will argue that back translation may be still useful as a documentation tool, not as a quality control tool. To support this premise, a review of literature that uses back translation to illustrate inevitable differences between the source and the target text is provided. This paper proposes a baseline for using back translation as a documentation tool, using examples of "good" and "bad" back translations. The value of using back translation is further demonstrated using examples from recent studies that integrated back translation into their documentation. This less-discussed use of back translation in questionnaire translation methodology merits the attention of translators and researchers. Although the utility of back translation as a quality control tool is deemed obsolete, it still has the potential for useful application as a documentation tool.


Green certification rating systems have been developed for building construction and renovation of an existing building from 1990s by international building assessment tools such as LEED, BREEAM and DGNB. Green certification rating systems for buildings have been upgraded and recently adapted to the urban design and planning. LEED Neighborhood Development, BREEAM Communities, and DGNB Urban Districts are examples of green certification rating system implemented respectively in USA, UK and Germany. As the notion of green urban design gains more significance, city governments have started to set its own green standards in urban design guidelines, based upon studies of green certification rating systems. Recently various issues on materials and resources such as material selection, material recycling, and resource protection are recognized in urban design principles as well as building designs, with a strong relation to other environmental problems. This paper focuses on comparative analysis of how material criteria are embedded for sustainable urban design in LEED ND, BREEAM Communities and DGNB-UD with urban design guidelines recently developed and issued for multiple cities worldwide including cities in Korea. The paper examines differences of material assessment criteria, evaluation parameters and methods, descriptions in green certification rating systems and urban design guidelines. In the analysis, materials are categorized into: (1) building materials (2) infrastructure materials (3) landscape materials, and management of different categories is assessed in existing urban planning and design procedures and practices. In conclusion, overview of material criteria is discussed to discover limits and possibilities of material assessment in sustainable neighborhood development.