This paper introduces the first provably accurate algorithms for differentially private, top-down decision tree learning in the distributed setting (Balcan et al., 2012). We propose DP-TopDown, a general privacy preserving decision tree learning algorithm, and present two distributed implementations. Our first method NoisyCounts naturally extends the single machine algorithm by using the Laplace mechanism. Our second method LocalRNM significantly reduces communication and added noise by performing local optimization at each data holder. We provide the first utility guarantees for differentially private top-down decision tree learning in both the single machine and distributed settings. These guarantees show that the error of the privately-learned decision tree quickly goes to zero provided that the dataset is sufficiently large. Our extensive experiments on real datasets illustrate the trade-offs of privacy, accuracy and generalization when learning private decision trees in the distributed setting.


Author(s): Freise, Amanda Christine | Advisor(s): Wu, Anna M | Abstract: CD4+ T cells orchestrate the immune system and play a key role in the response to infection, the induction and maintenance of some autoimmune diseases, and immunotherapy of cancer. Comprehensive, noninvasive imaging of CD4+ T cells would be an improvement upon current methods of analysis such as blood draws and biopsies. Molecular imaging of CD4+ T cells can be accomplished with immuno-positron emission tomography (PET), which utilizes antibody-based probes to detect and quantify cell surface markers. This dissertation describes the characterization of the functional properties of GK1.5 cys-diabody (cDb), an anti-mouse CD4 antibody fragment, and its use in detecting CD4+ T cells with immunoPET in a mouse model of inflammatory bowel disease. Ideally, imaging probes should have minimal biological effect on the target of interest, and be suitable for imaging at low doses. In this work, the effect of GK1.5 cDb on murine CD4+ T cell function and CD4 expression was explored at multiple doses. Furthermore, the effect of protein dose on image contrast was assessed by performing a dose-esclation immunoPET study and ex vivo biodistribution analysis. The lowest protein dose of 2 i?½g 89Zr-labeled GK1.5 cDb resulted in improved contrast of lymphoid organs in PET scans compared to higher doses. Intravenous administration of GK1.5 cDb caused a dose-dependent, transient decrease in CD4 expression in blood and lymphoid organs, which recovered within 3 days post-injection. Proliferation was inhibited in vivo in inguinal lymph nodes but not the spleen by injection of 40 i?½g GK1.5 cDb. Overall, using low dose GK1.5 cDb minimized biological effects on CD4+ T cells. A potential application of anti-CD4 immunoPET is investigation of the localization of CD4+ T cells at sites of inflammation, and use imaging to guide treatment decisions. Here, immunoPET imaging with 89Zr-malDFO-GK1.5 cDb was used to image the distribution of CD4+ T cells in the intestinal region of mice treated with dextran sulfate sodium to induce colitis. Increased uptake of GK1.5 cDb in the distal colon and mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) of colitic mice was apparent from in vivo scans. Ex vivo scans and biodistribution analysis confirmed higher uptake in DSS-treated colons, ceca, and MLN. Anti-CD4 immunoPET was also used to image colitic mice after immunosuppressive treatment with cyclosporin A (CsA), although no significant changes were seen in the biodistribution of the probe between treated and non-treated mice. This work shows that low dose GK1.5 cDb yields high-contrast immunoPET images with minimal effects on T cell biology, and was a useful tool for investigating CD4+ T cells in the context of preclinical inflammatory bowel disease.


An 850 ft. long steam main working at a pressure of 120 psi ruptured. Two lengths of pipe were submitted for examination, one containing the rupture and the other from an unaffected part removed to facilitate repair. The rupture surfaces were smooth, suggesting that the failure had taken place either at a weld in the pipe or at a discontinuity in the material. Microscopic examination through the joints at the ends of the rupture confirmed that the pipe had been made from strip and the edges lap-welded. The second case concerned an 8 in. diam pipe in which a longitudinal defect was discovered running the entire length. Examination of a section through the pipe containing the defect, showed this to be a scarf-welded pipe, only about half the section of the scarf having been satisfactorily welded together. It was concluded that both pipes had been defective at the time of manufacture and that service conditions had served to extend the defects.


: Despite the rising advances in the fi eld of metal halide perovskite nanocrystals (NCs), the exploitation of such nanoparticles as luminescent labels for ex vivo imaging and biosensing is still unclear and in the early stages of investigation. One of the major challenges toward the implementation of metal halide perovskite NCs in biosensing applications is to produce monodispersed nanoparticles with desired surface characteristics and compatible with aqueous environments. Here, we report the synthesis of monodispersed spherical CsPb 2 Br 5 @SiO 2 core − shell nanoparticles by post-synthetic chemical transformation of 3D CsPbBr 3 NCs in the presence of tetraethyl orthosilicate and a critical water/ammonia ratio. This method involves an ammonia-mediated and ammonia-induced " top-down " transformation of as-synthesized 3D CsPbBr 3 NCs to smaller CsPb2Br5 nanoclusters (ca. 2 − 3 nm), which trigger a seed-mediated silica growth, yielding monodispersed spherical blue luminescent ( λ emission = 432 nm) CsPb 2 Br 5 @SiO 2 perovskite nanoparticles. By adjusting the reaction conditions, core − shell nanoparticles of a 36.1 ± 4.5 nm diameter, which preserve their optical properties in water, were obtained. Besides that, the viability of the developed nanoparticles as a luminescent label for biosensing has been proven by speci fi c biorecognition of the IgG protein in a direct immunoassay. Our work sheds light on the chemical processes and transformations involved in the silica nucleation mechanism in the presence of perovskite nanoparticles and opens the way for the future rational design of the next generation of semiconductor NC luminescent biological labels.


Objective: There is a critical need for tailoring transition care for stroke survivors, especially those that address health literacy. The objective of this pilot program is to provide individualized coaching for stroke risk factors at discharge, and to assess the role of health literacy on readmissions. Methods: We enrolled patients discharged home with ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke, or TIA from 9/2011 to 7/2012. Transition coaching was performed one-on-one in the hospital using a take-home packet that included review of a check list of their risk factors, medication information, instructions for stroke awareness, action with new symptoms, and post-hospital follow-up care. Materials were in large font for a 7th to 8th grade reading level, with a one-page summary for ease of reading. Data collection forms were programmed for online data entry of baseline variables (education, prior hospitalizations, health literacy) using REDcap. All cause readmissions within 30 days or longer were obtained from medical records and hospital reports. Results: 90 patients with NIHSS information were enrolled. Mean age was 63.3 yrs (std 14.3), 53% female, 69% white, 30% Black, 68% ischemic stroke, 10% hemorrhagic stroke, 20% TIA, and median NIHSS 2.0 (range 0-27). 16% were not confident filling out medical forms by themselves, 15% needed help with doctor/pharmacy materials, and 5% were not happy with the way they read. 37% preferred to learn new things by reading brochures, 14% preferred someone going over materials with them, 13% watching videos, and 12% by having someone tell them. 41% preferred alternative learning methods outside the choices provided. 22 patients were readmitted, 9 of which were within 30 days of discharge. 33% of those readmitted were not very confident or not confident at all with filling out medical forms vs 11% of those not readmitted (p= 0.026). Although attenuated after adjustment for education, low confidence with medical forms was independently associated with readmission (OR 3.235; 95% CI: 0.819-12.785; p=0.094). Conclusions: Accounting for health literacy and patient preferences for learning should be a key component in transition programs to provide appropriately tailored coaching to reduce adverse outcomes, such as readmissions.


How to encourage cooperative behavior and facilitate collaboration amongst diverse stakeholders to achieve collective goals remains a longstanding question in realizing a community's capacity for local problem solving. Governments have increasingly adopted inclusive processes to engage non-state actors, and especially active engagement of citizens and communities in solving local policy challenges. Yet, the success of this inclusive approach depends on whether and to what extent all involved individuals, interest groups, communities, and government agencies can collectively deliberate and work together.  We conducted experiments to explore the potential of IT-facilitated communication environment designed for deliberation activities to address collective challenges. Our unique experimental site for this research is a designed deliberation space that can seat up to 30 participants surrounded by the 260-degree seven-screen communal display. Our study shows that when people deliberate on a local community challenge under the environment with a communal display, they show more cooperative behavior in a social dilemma scenario than those who deliberate on the same challenge presented on individual displays. This study highlights the potential of technology's influence on public deliberation in such a way as to promoting collective behavior.


Research on place meaning often emphasizes private, suburban spaces and tends to neglect public, urban environments. However, public spaces convey much information about societal meanings and values through past and current associations of group members in that space (Stokols & Shumaker, 1981). Historic city centres, particularly those found in northern Europe (e.g., Belgium), are rich sources of information about meaning because people utilize the public spaces on a daily basis and, therefore, have an intimate knowledge of these centres rooted in experience, memory, and emotion. As time passes, meanings for the city centre will undoubtedly change, fluctuating with political, economic, and social changes. However, drastic alterations to a setting can significantly or even traumatically impact a place forever (Selwood & Hall, 1986). One type of event that has the capacity to influence place meaning is the tourist hallmark event (e.g., Winter Olympics). Such events are of limited duration, occurring one-time or regularly, with the goal of enhancing the awareness, appeal, and profitability of a tourism destination (Ritchie, 1984).


Ricinoleic acid (RA) is a C18 fatty acid (FA) with a double bond at the C 9 position and a hydroxyl group at the C(12) position (cis-12-hydroxyoctadeca-9-enoic acid). Recently, RA has been reported as a pro/anti-inflammatory and analgesic agent for topical applications to be considered as an alternative to irritant substances that relive pain. However, RA when it is exposed to air, it reacts with the oxygen and decomposes into short-chain aldehydes and ketones. Moreover, pathologically, small amount of anaesthetic agent acts on peripheral nerves, producing reversible block in transmission of peripheral nerves impulses. However, larger amounts effect potentially in the central nervous system and may cause cardiac arrest. Accordingly, extended release formulations for local anaesthetic agent such as encapsulation, are highly demanded if the drug will be used for long period. In this work, ricinoleic acid, extracted and characterized, was encapsulated into a new matrix made of phospholipid liposomes and chitosan to protect and control RA release. RA release was controlled by crosslinking the matrices using glutaraldehyde. Spectral and morphology analysis are used to characterize the produced microshpers. The cytotoxicity test is considered to examine the final product biocompatibility. The encapsulation efficiency was investigated by UV- Visible spectroscopy.


In recent years, there has been increased interest in using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to study and monitor glaciers and ice sheets for glaciological and climate change research. However, due to the medium's complexity, SAR backscattering from ice remains poorly understood, including the relative importance of scattering from surface and volume layers and also dependences on frequency and glacier zone. Extreme weather conditions can result in quickly changing surface conditions influencing backscatter signatures while leaving the underlying volume of interest unchanged. Surface and volume components must thus be separated in order to infer information regarding the properties of the ice volume. This paper describes a three-component scattering model to decompose polarimetric SAR (PolSAR) images of glacier ice. Total backscatter is modeled as the incoherent summation of surface, volume, and sastrugi (wind-induced feature) components. The proposed model adapts and extends the Freeman and Durden decomposition for an ice volume scenario in which the volume is a dielectric medium. Forms of the model for both random and oriented volumes are considered, and a new oriented sastrugi component is introduced which is able to explain backscatter behavior between different winter scenes. Validation is performed with airborne PolSAR data at L- and P-band collected using the E-SAR system of the German Aerospace Center over the Austfonna ice cap in Svalbard, Norway, as part of the ICESAR campaign.


UNLABELLED: The objective of this study has been to know the copper levels in maternal and cord blood at delivery, the relationships between them, and the influence that maternal age, parity, social class, sex, gestational age and anthropometric parameters have over them. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Copper levels in serum from one hundred mothers and their newborns have been determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. RESULTS: The mean copper level in maternal serum was 232.4 +/- 31.3 micrograms/100 ml, and 50.2 +/- 18.4 micrograms/100 ml in cord blood. We do not find any influence of maternal age, parity, sex and neonatal anthropometry over these levels. We see an ascending tendency of serum copper in the newborns as they increase their gestational age, and in mothers as soon as they belong to a lower socioeconomic level. There is a significant difference between the cord copper levels of newborns from mothers with serum copper levels less or equal to P25 or P50 and those from ones over P75, and a significant positive correlation between maternal and newborns ones. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show the relationship between the maternal and neonatal copper status, the influence of the socioeconomic situation on the maternal levels, and the age gestational age on the newborns ones.


31P NMR unveils cell type–dependent losses of plasmalogen in the chain remodeling–deficient brain, liver, kidney, and lymphoblast in association with aberrant mitochondrial function and morphology. Lipid homeostasis is crucial in human health. Barth syndrome (BTHS), a life-threatening disease typically diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and neutropenia, is caused by mutations in the mitochondrial transacylase tafazzin. By high-resolution 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) with cryoprobe technology, recently we found a dramatic loss of choline plasmalogen in the tafazzin-knockdown (TAZ-KD) mouse heart, besides observing characteristic cardiolipin (CL) alterations in BTHS. In inner mitochondrial membrane where tafazzin locates, CL and diacyl phosphatidylethanolamine are known to be essential via lipid–protein interactions reflecting their cone shape for integrity of respiratory chain supercomplexes and cristae ultrastructure. Here, we investigate the TAZ-KD brain, liver, kidney, and lymphoblast from patients compared with controls. We identified common yet markedly cell type–dependent losses of ethanolamine plasmalogen as the dominant plasmalogen class therein. Tafazzin function thus critically relates to homeostasis of plasmalogen, which in the ethanolamine class has conceivably analogous and more potent molecular functions in mitochondria than diacyl phosphatidylethanolamine. The present discussion of a loss of plasmalogen–protein interaction applies to other diseases with mitochondrial plasmalogen loss and aberrant forms of this organelle, including Alzheimer's disease.


After recent results from solar neutrino experiments and KamLAND we can definitely say that neutrinos from SN1987A underwent flavor conversion, and the conversion effects must be taken into account in the analysis of the data. Assuming the normal mass hierarchy of neutrinos we calculate the permutation factors p for the Kamiokande-2, IMB and Baksan detectors. The conversion inside the star leads to p = 0.28 − 0.32; the oscillations in the matter of the Earth give partial (and different for different detectors) regeneration of the original ν̄e signal, reducing this factor down to 0.15 0.20 (at E = 40 MeV). We study in details the influence of conversion on the observed signal depending on the parameters of the original neutrino spectra. For a given set of these parameters, the conversion could lead to an increase of the average energy of the observed events up to 50% and of the number of events by a factor of 2 at Kamiokande-2 and by a factor of 3 5 at IMB. Inversely, we find that neglecting the conversion effects can lead up to 50% error in the determination of the average energy of the original ν̄e spectrum and about 50% error in the original luminosity. Comparing our calculations with experimental data we conclude that the Kamiokande-2 data alone do not favor strong conversion effect, which testifies for small difference of the original ν̄e and ν̄μ spectra. In contrast, the combined analysis of the Kamiokande and IMB results slightly favors strong conversion effects (that is, large difference of the original spectra). In comparison with the no oscillation case, the latter requires lower average energy and higher luminosity of the original ν̄e flux. 1 E-mail: email@example.com 2 E-mail: email@example.com


Southern California Edison (SCE) installed a 10 MW battery energy storage system (BESS) at its Chino substation facility in 1988. The BESS facility has been in operation for six years and has been used for load leveling and peaking functions. The BESS power conversion system was built with the then state of the art technology and has a very fast response rate when changing power output of the batteries. SCE installed an energy source power system stabilizer (ESPSS) to test the concept of providing damping of power system swings using the ESPSS. The ESPSS basically modulates the power output/input of the energy storage batteries to respond to system frequency deviations caused by power system oscillations. The ESPSS differs from a conventional power system stabilizer. It is designed to change the power output of the power source rather than the voltage or the reactive power output. While installing the ESPSS several upgrades to the BESS were made to improve reliability. Installation of the ESPSS on the battery enables SCE to test the concept of system stabilization using power source output modulation instead of reactive power modulation. The energy storage batteries provide an easy test bed for conducting field tests and response of the ESPSS to system disturbances. This paper discusses the BESS, the ESPSS and presents recorded results from system disturbance monitoring and field tests conducted on the ESPSS and the batteries.


This paper presents a multi-matcher on-line signature verification system which fuses the verification scores in pen-position parameter and pen-movement angle one at total decision. Features of pen-position and pen-movement angle are extracted by the sub-band decomposition using the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). In the pen-position, high frequency sub-band signals are considered as individual features to enhance the difference between a genuine signature and its forgery. On the other hand, low frequency sub-band signals are utilized as features for suppressing the intra-class variation in the pen-movement angle. Verification is achieved by the adaptive signal processing using the extracted features. Verification scores in the pen-position and the pen-movement angle are integrated by using a weighted sum rule to make total decision. Experimental results show that the fusion of pen-position and pen-movement angle can improve verification performance.


A new approach for time-domain CFD-based simulation of morphing flight vehicles, taking into account multi-body dynamics and aeroelastic effects due to structural flexibility, is presented. The vehicle consists of a number of components interconnected by actuators and contact constraints. Due to aerodynamic, inertial and actuation loads the overall structure undergoes large-displacement morphing. The simulation assumes that each component experiences large rigid-body displacements and small elastic deformations. The small displacements are defined for each component as a linear combination of its own freefree vibration modes generated with fictitious masses loading the interface degrees of freedom. Modal coupling of the component modes with compatibility constraints at the interface points yields a generalized-coordinate nonlinear matrix equation of motion that is embedded into the time-accurate CFD code. The vector of generalized forces includes aerodynamic forces from the CFD solution, inertial forces due to modal accelerations and relative component rotations, and actuation forces. The time derivations of the constraint equations are taken into account to allow large and fast relative rotations of the different components. These derivatives yield non-symmetric structural damping and stiffness matrices that affect the numerical integration process. The computational process is demonstrated for a two-wings-and-body configuration. The wings are rotated rapidly from parallel position along a fuselage to perpendicular position. The morphing simulation demonstrates a robust and stable computational process that exhibits significant aeroelastic effects.


Broadcasts of scenes from Cymbeline in 1937 and 1956 were among the earliest British television productions of Shakespeare. On both occasions the selections included the 'wooing scene' (Act I Scene 6) and the 'trunk scene' (Act II Scene 2). Transmitted with multiple electronic cameras from a television studio, the excerpts were taken from contemporary theatrical productions, in 1937 from Andre van Gyseghem's staging at the Embassy Theatre, London, and in 1956 from the production by Michael Benthall at the Old Vic.

Neither broadcast was recorded, but for both of these 'lost' productions the BBC archives preserve detailed camera scripts and other documentation. Uniquely for Shakespeare on British television, these scripts detail pre-war and post-war treatments of the same elements from a play by studio directors (respectively, Royston Morley and Michael Elliott) nearly twenty years apart. An additional comparison is facilitated by the extant studio production of Cymbeline in 1983, directed by Elijah Moshinsky for The BBC Television Shakespeare.

Grounded in a close reading of the 1937 and 1956 camera scripts as well as the 1983 recording and camera script, this paper offers a detailed analysis of the development of the language of television studio drama as applied to the two scenes from Cymbeline. Shot lengths, camera movements and framings – all of which are significantly more complex in the 1956 script - are explored as determinants of the multiple available meanings of Shakespeare's dramatic poetry. The analysis is further contextualised with discussions of developing studio technology and the changing institutional context of BBC television drama as well as the history of Cymbeline in British theatre in the twentieth century.


Lattice structures have ranges of thermo-mechanical properties that suggest their implementation in ultralight structures, as well as for impact/blast amelioration systems and heat dissipation media. Considering that proper anisotropy of structure could increase load efficiency, two kinds of 2-D lattice materials designable in specific stiffness and strength of arbitrary direction have been brought forward: variational thickness cell and variational direction cell. The mechanical properties of variational thickness Kagome cell have been analyzed, including effective elastic modulus, yield strength and elastic buckling strength in arbitrary directions. Since the shear buckling of 2-D lattice materials is an important collapse mode especially when relative densities are low, shear buckling strength of various 2-D lattice materials have also been calculated. It is found that compared with the diamond cell, the variational thickness Kagome cell of thickness ratio, m=0.5, possesses the same elastic modulus and yield surface, and higher buckling strength.


The experimental equilibrium moisture content of yam ( Dioscorea rotundata; cultivar: Dente ) at temperatures of 25 and 50°C were determined at relative humidities from 0 to 95% employing the Dynamic Vapour Sorption analyzer. Wet yam samples with about 68% initial moisture content were used, first for desorption and subsequently for sorption. Water activity decreased with increased temperature at constant equilibrium moisture content. The desorption and adsorption isotherms were fitted by the GAB, Henderson, Halsey, Oswin, Smith, BET and Peleg models. On the basis of the fit the Peleg, GAB and Oswin models were most suitable for describing the observed data. When the focus is on drying, the GAB (3 parameters) and empirical Peleg model (4 parameters) performed best. Of these, GAB is preferable because it has fewer parameters, which, moreover, have a physical meaning.


Abstract STUDY QUESTION Does the X chromosome inactivation (XCI) of Klinefelter syndrome (KS)-derived human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) correspond to female human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) and reflect the KS genotype? SUMMARY ANSWER Our results demonstrate for the first time that KS-derived hiPSCs show similar XCI behavior to female hPSCs in culture and show biological relevance to KS genotype-related clinical features. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY So far, assessment of XCI of KS-derived hiPSCs was based on H3K27me3 staining and X-inactive specific transcript gene expression disregarding the at least three XCI states (XaXi with XIST coating, XaXi lacking XIST coating, and XaXe (partially eroded XCI)) that female hPSCs display in culture. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION The study used hiPSC lines generated from two azoospermic patients with KS and included two healthy male (HM) and one healthy female donor. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS In this study, we derived hiPSCs by reprograming fibroblasts with episomal plasmids and applying laminin 521 as culture substrate. hiPSCs were characterized by karyotyping, immunocytochemistry, immunohistochemistry, quantitative PCR, teratoma formation, and embryoid body differentiation. XCI and KS hiPSC relevance were assessed by whole genome transcriptomics analysis and immunocytochemistry plus FISH of KS, HM and female fibroblast, and their hiPSC derivatives. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE Applying whole genome transcriptomics analysis, we could identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between KS and HM donors with enrichment in gene ontology terms associated with fertility, cardiovascular development, ossification, and brain development, all associated with KS genotype-related clinical features. Furthermore, XCI analysis based on transcriptomics data, RNA FISH, and H3K27me3 staining revealed variable XCI states of KS hiPSCs similar to female hiPSCs, showing either normal (XaXi) or eroded (XaXe) XCI. KS hiPSCs with normal XCI showed nevertheless upregulated X-linked genes involved in nervous system development as well as synaptic transmission, supporting the potential use of KS-derived hiPSCs as an in vitro model for KS. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION Detailed clinical information for patients included in this study was not available. Although a correlation between DEGs and the KS genotype could be observed, the biological relevance of these cells has to be confirmed with further experiments. In addition, karyotype analysis for two hiPSC lines was performed at passage 12 but not repeated at a later passage. Nevertheless, since all XCI experiments for those lines were performed between passage 11 and 15 the authors expect no karyotypic changes for those experiments. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS As KS patients have variable clinical phenotypes that are influenced by the grade of aneuploidy, mosaicism, origin of the X chromosome, and XCI 'escapee' genes, which vary not only among individuals but also among different tissues within the same individual, differentiated KS hiPSCs could be used for a better understanding of KS pathogenesis. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) This study was supported by grants from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (2016.0121 and 2015.0096), Ming Wai Lau Centre for Reparative Medicine (2-343/2016), Ragnar Söderberg Foundation (M67/13), Swedish Research Council (2013-32485-100360-69), the Centre for Innovative Medicine (2–388/2016–40), Kronprinsessan Lovisas Förening För Barnasjukvård/Stiftelsen Axel Tielmans Minnesfond, Samariten Foundation, Jonasson Center at the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, and Initial Training Network Marie Curie Program 'Growsperm' (EU-FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN 603568). The authors declare no conflicts of interest.


ABSTRACT. A girl, born in 1975, developed severe aplastic anemia in November 1982 while on ethosuximide monotherapy for petit mal epilepsy, about 3 months after starting the ethosuximide medication. She was treated with bolus‐methylprednisolone as described by Bacigalup et al. (13), transfusions and antibiotics. During the third week on this regimen slight improvements in granulocyte and reticulocyte counts were demonstrated, and after approximately 6 weeks she was in stable condition without further need of transfusions. Blood status should be checked regularly during ethosuximide therapy, particularly during the first 6 months.


Recent studies in neuroscience have revealed, by means of experimental evidences, that memory processes can be described as being organized, functionally, in hierarchical levels, where higher levels would coordinate sets of functions of the lower levels. In this paper we propose a multi-level memory based on coupled generalized-brain-state-in-a-box (GBSB) neural networks. Furthermore, we perform an energy analysis of such coupled system showing that the coupling does not destroy the first-level memory structures. A simulation was carried out to illustrate the behaviour of the system energy, for a wide range of the system parameters. The results obtained shows that, even when the neural networks are weakly coupled, the system still evolves to a state of minimum energy.


Emerging applications for Internet of Things (IoT) devices demand smaller mass, size, and cost whilst increasing capability and reliability. Energy harvesting can provide power to these ultra-constrained devices, but introduces unreliability, unpredictability, and intermittency. Schemes for wireless sensors without batteries or supercapacitors overcome intermittency through saving system state into nonvolatile memory before the supply drops below the minimum operating voltage, termed transient, or intermittent computing. However, this introduces significant time and energy overheads. This article presents two schemes that significantly reduce these overheads: entering a sleep mode to avoid saving state and utilizing direct memory access (DMA) when state saves are required. Time and energy previously wasted on state saves can instead be used to perform useful computation, termed "forward progress." We practically validate the proposed approaches across a range of energy sources and IoT benchmarks and demonstrate up to 46.8% and 40.3% increase in forward progress and up to 91.1% and 85.6% reduction in overheads for each scheme, respectively.


The rapid growth and division of cancer cells are associated with mitochondrial biogenesis or switching to glycolysis. ERRα, PGC-1α and irisin/FNDC5 are some of the proteins that can influence these processes. The aim of this study was to determine the correlation of these proteins in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and to investigate their association with clinicopathological parameters. Immunohistochemistry reactions were performed on tissue microarrays (860 NSCLC, 140 non-malignant lung tissue). The normal fibroblast cell line (IMR-90) and lung cancer cell lines (NCI-H1703 and NCI-H522) were used as co-cultures. The mRNA levels of FNDC5 and ESRRA (encoding ERRα) were assessed in IMR-90 cells after co-culture with lung cancer cells. We observed a decreased level of ERRα with an increase in tumor size (T), stages of the disease, and lymph node metastases (N). In the adenocarcinoma (AC) subtype, patients with a higher ERRα expression had significantly longer overall survival. A moderate positive correlation was observed between FNDC5 mRNA and ESRRA mRNA in NSCLCs. The expression of FNDC5 mRNA in IMR-90 cells increased after 24 h, and ESRRA gene expression increased after 48 h of co-culture. The ERRα receptor with PGC-1α participates in the control of FNDC5/irisin expression. Normal fibroblasts revealed an upregulation of the FNDC5 and ESRRA genes under the influence of lung cancer cells.


In mobile P2P systems over 3G cellular networks, traditional peer selection algorithms with the idea of traffic localization are not suitable due to the architecture and characteristics of 3G cellular networks. In this paper we propose a novel peer selection algorithm named CFPL for mobile P2P systems over 3G cellular networks. By taking not only the available uplink bandwidth of peers but also the traffic load on cells into account, the CFPL algorithm can achieve good peer performance while ensuring favorable load balance on the cells in 3G cellular networks.


A hundred years ago, a character made his first appearance in the world of literature who was to enter the bloodstream of 20th-century popular culture: the evil genius called Dr Fu Manchu, described at the beginning of the first story in which he appeared as the yellow peril incarnate in one man. Why did the idea that the Chinese were a threat to Western civilization develop at precisely the time when that country was in chaos, divided against itself, victim of successive famines and utterly incapable of being a peril to anyone even if it had wanted to be? Here, Sir Christopher Frayling assembles an astonishing diversity of evidence to show how deeply ingrained Chinaphobia became in the West so acutely relevant again in the new era of Chinese superpower. Along the way he talks to Edward Said, to the last Governor of Hong Kong, to Sax Rohmers widow, to movie stars and a host of others; he journeys through the opium dens of the 19th century with Charles Dickens; takes us to the heart of popular culture in the music hall, pulp literature and the mass-market press; and shows how film amplifies our assumptions, demonstrating throughout how we neglect the history of popular culture at our own peril if we want to understand our deepest desires and fears.


Positive psychology tackles the big questions: What does it mean to live a 'good life'? What helps people to flourish and access their optimal potential? And how can we increase our capacities for joy, meaning, and hope? This engaging textbook emphasizes the science of positive psychology - students don't simply learn about positive psychology in the abstract, but instead are exposed to the fascinating research that supports its conclusions.Bridging theory and practice, this textbook connects up-to-date research with real-world examples and guides students to apply evidence-based practices in their own lives. Its comprehensive coverage includes major new topics, such as spirituality, therapeutic interventions, mindfulness, and positive relationships. Featured pedagogy includes 'Are You Sure about That?' boxes presenting methodological and statistical principles in context, and 'Practice Positive Psychology' activities to extend student learning, while online resources include lecture slides, a test bank, and an instructor manual.


ABSTRACT The western margin of the Calabrian Arc is underlain by a thick (as much as 5 km) post-Miocene sedimentary succession. The uppermost part of this margin sequence is referred to as the Paola Basin System (Quaternary in age) and partially fills a present-day physiographic slope basin. Seismic and high. resolution reflection profiles reveal that a prominent unconformity marks the base of the Paola Basin System (PBS). The unconformity connects upslope to an area of recurrent shelf. edge instability and is overlain by large mass-failure deposits over much of the basin area. Basin-wide sedimentary drape deposits form stratigraphic markers that subdivide the Paola Basin System into three stages, each with unique patterns of slope erosion, including mass wasting, and lower.slope to basin-floo turbidite deposition. Three major sediment pathways elongated perpendicular to the margin developed between the unconformity and the first basin-wide drape. Upsection, sediment input for turbidite sedimentation in Paola Basin has involved many, commonly ephemeral, point sources. Most of the turbidite deposits do not form complete submarine fan sequences but consist of only a few turbidite elements. Changes in the size and type of turbidite elements through time suggest a decrease in the size and/or duration of individual sediment sources in the latest Pleistocene. The Paola Basin System is an example of a complex fill of a tectonically controlled basin where the effects of cyclic eustatic changes in sea level modify the effects of longer-term changes in sedimentation driven by tectonic ctivity in the source region and structural deformation in the depositional area.


The impact of strong cultural beliefs on specific reasons for traditional medicine (TRM) use among individuals and populations has long been advanced in health care and spatio-medical literature. Yet, little has been done in Ghana and the Ashanti Region in particular to bring out the precise "pull" and "push" relative influences on TRM utilization. With a qualitative research approach involving rural and urban character, the study explored health beliefs and motivations for TRM use in Kumasi Metropolis and Sekyere South District, Ghana. The study draws on data from 36 in-depth interviews with adults, selected through theoretical sampling. We used the a posteriori inductive reduction model to derive broad themes and subthemes. The "pull factors"—perceived benefits in TRM use vis-à-vis the "push factors"—perceived poor services of the biomedical treatments contributed to the growing trends in TRM use. The result however indicates that the "pull factors," viz.—personal health beliefs, desire to take control of one's health, perceived efficacy, and safety of various modalities of TRM—were stronger in shaping TRM use. Poor access to conventional medicine accounted for the differences in TRM use between rural and urban areas. Understanding the treatment and health-seeking behaviour of a cultural-related group is critical for developing and sustaining traditional therapy in Ghana.


Peridynamic based elastodynamic computation tool named Peri-elastodynamics is proposed herein to simulate the three-dimensional (3D) Lamb wave modes in materials for the first time. Peri-elastodynamics is a nonlocal meshless approach which is a scale-independent generalized technique to visualize the acoustic and ultrasonic waves in plate-like structure, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and nanodevices for their respective characterization. In this article, the characteristics of the fundamental Lamb wave modes are simulated in a sample plate-like structure. Lamb wave modes are generated using a surface mounted piezoelectric (PZT) transducer which is actuated from the top surface. The proposed generalized Peri-elastodynamics method is not only capable of simulating two dimensional (2D) in plane wave under plane strain condition formulated previously but also capable of accurately simulating the out of plane Symmetric and Antisymmetric Lamb wave modes in plate like structures in 3D. For structural health monitoring (SHM) of plate-like structures and nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of MEMS devices, it is necessary to simulate the 3D wave-damage interaction scenarios and visualize the different wave features due to damages. Hence, in addition, to simulating the guided ultrasonic wave modes in pristine material, Lamb waves were also simulated in a damaged plate. The accuracy of the proposed technique is verified by comparing the modes generated in the plate and the mode shapes across the thickness of the plate with theoretical wave analysis.


Background. Laparoscopic radical cystectomy is a relatively new surgical procedure. Being a procedure of long duration, performed with pneumoperitoneum in exaggerated Trendlenberg position; it is expectedtopose unfavorable effects. We report pulmonary and haemodynamic changes in addition to postoperative outcome following laparoscopic radical cystectomy. Patients and Methods. The study was conducted on 31 patients anaesthetized with a combination of epidural and total intravenous anaesthesia (using midazolam, fentanyl, ketamine and vecuronium). Surgery wasdone while the patient in head down position (40 o ). Lungs were ventilated using air-oxygen (FiO2 = 0.35) with a tidal volume of 8 ml kg -1 at a rate of 12-14 min -1 . Lung mechanics and hemodynamic variables were recorded at different strategic points. Recovery and postoperative outcome were also evaluated. Results. Two patients were excluded due to conversion to open surgery and 29 completed the procedure. Fourteen of 29 patients (48.2%) had preoperative medical diseases and 11 patients (38%) received blood. There were significant decrease in lung compliance and significant increase in peak pressures after pneumoperitoneum and Trendlenberg position. Concomitantly, heart rate, arterial pressure and carbondioxide tension increased significantly. Three patients suffered post-extubation airway obstruction and the trachea was re-intubated. On the first postoperative day, one patient desaturated and one patient suffered severe nausea and vomiting. Conclusions. Laparoscopic radical cystectomy in exaggerated head down position may be associated with harmful consequences and potential risks.


The distribution of the number of pregnancies, births and abortions in the Kharkov population was analysed in the cohort of women with the completed fertility. The mean number of pregnancies per woman was 3.77 for the first generation and 4.30 for the second generation. The mean number of births in the first and second generations was 1.47 and 1.35. The Crow's Index of the opportunity for selection and its components connected with differential mortality was estimated. The value of the Crow's Index was decreased during one generation from 0.56 to 0.35. In the women of the second generations having high and secondary education, the number of pregnancies was 3.72 and 4.38, respectively, the Crow's Indexes being 0.33 and 0.35.


Accession to the European Union has created numerous opportunities for economic operators, including local governments, to carry out development plans they had been deferring for lack of funds. The seven years since Hungary's accession in 2004 is a large enough period from which to draw conclusions on the use and usability of the Structural Fund's resources. A new study has published the finding that EU resources do not reduce and may even increase the differences between villages and regions. In the present study we examine the financial problems of cultural projects implemented by local government between 2004 and 2006 in South Transdanubia.
Keywords: cultural projects, EU, financing


The 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami caused serious damage on the Pacific coast of the Tohoku district. This study focuses on fallen utility poles to clarify tsunami behavior in the northern and central Sendai coastal plain, because utility poles are distributed throughout the plain in high densities. The locations of utility poles are identified using high-spatial resolution satellite images acquired before the tsunami. The fallen poles and the direction in which they fell are interpreted by analyzing aerial photographs taken immediately after the tsunami. Fallen and/ or missing utility poles are common within approximately 2 km of the coastline. The area corresponds to an inundation depth of 2 to 3 m. In addition, almost all of the poles fell to landward and are almost perpendicular to the shoreline. This indicates that they fell during the run-up flow. It seems that fallen poles in the northern part of the study area (Nanakita River to Sendai Airport) occur further inland than in the southern part (Sendai Airport to Abukuma River). In particular, fallen poles occur more than 2.5 km from the coastline at Yuriage to Kozukahara, Natori City, where the death rate was also relatively high. In contrast, fallen poles were less common within 1 to 1.5 km from the coastline at the southern part of Iwanuma City, where the death rate was relatively low. Although the height of the tsunami (i.e., scale of hazard) varied along the coast, the locations and scales of settlements near the shoreline specified the amount of rubble produced by the tsunami, and possibly influenced differences in the number of fallen


Cable Operators have an unprecedented opportunity to leverage an existing asset (big data) to better understand subscriber behavior, improve quality of experience (QOE) for their subscribers, and generate new revenue streams. The challenge so far has been to address the rapidly growing rates of data volumes, which are inturn being driven by the explosive rise of IP content, tablets & smartphones, sensors and M2M technologies. In order to harness this "big data", operators need to more effectively draw out correlations and insights that have genuine actionable impact to customer experience, revenue, and operations, while simultaneously maintaining day-to-day operational requirements. Communication service providers (CSPs) therefore need solutions to utilize existing network assets more efficiently. This paper demonstrates how CSPs can tangibly leverage their data assets to drive business value with three applications of big data analytics: IP Video/CDN operations, High Speed Data operations, Customer Care & Network operations.


Studies on construction, demolition and excavation (CD&E) waste management (WM) suggest that among many success factors for ensuring sustainable management of waste, government legislation is the most critical. In the UK, there has been different legislation targeting the management of waste of which CD&E waste is a priority stream. To determine the criticality of waste legislation in the management of CD&E waste, this research investigated the drivers that dictate the WM strategies of construction firms. The study was conducted through a multiple case study approach using four construction firms who received awards for their environmental management and sustainability practices on their construction sites in 2013. Data was collected through interviews with the sustainability and environmental managers of the companies who have the overall responsibility for WM strategy in their firms and review of the environmental and waste policy documents of these firms. The results suggest that, although government legislation plays a role in the WM strategy of these companies, legislation is not the most critical driver for WM practices as firms pursue WM for other reasons such as, cost reduction, company sustainability agenda, client demands, company image, and industry benchmarking. The research concludes that, to ensure sustainable management of CD&E waste, more attention should be directed at these other reasons for which firms manage waste. For legislators, proactive enforcement approaches which can detect and prosecute for non-compliance will make legislation a key driver. Legislation should also be tied to financial incentives and targets should include the client whose demands act as a key driver. For clients to make more inputs, their demands can also be tied to cost implications as this is the number one driver for contractors. For contractors, sustainable WM should be pursued as it makes good economic sense through cost reduction on projects and increase in the possibility of winning work from environmentally aware clients.


SUMMARY: The thermophilic actinomycete Micromonospora vulgaris resembles known mesophilic members of the genus Micromonospora in reproducing by means of small retractile spores borne singly on lateral branches of the vegetative mycelium. Its distinctive feature is the consistent production of a secondary aerial mycelium under optimal laboratory cultural conditions and in grass composts during the high temperature phase. This aerial mycelium is composed of abundantly branched, hydrophobic filaments which rapidly segment. The cells in these filaments may in turn give rise to similar refractile spherical spores borne singly on very short lateral branches. The reproductive pattern here described is one of the most complex yet known among the actinomycetes. It is thought that the aerial phase of development is intimately associated with the thermophilic nature of the organism.


New Model Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4(g)'s passage marks the triumph of certain constituencies within the American Bar Association in elevating the subject of lawyer bias to ethical significance on par with other subjects with which the Model Rules have long been concerned, even the administration of justice itself. Comprehensive legislative histories being useful to scholars and others, this article presents that of the new model rule. The article focuses in particular upon, but is not limited to, the rush of events that culminated in passage of the new model rule at the August 2016 ABA annual meeting – a rush that left many substantive issues unresolved. With the legislative history as a backdrop, the article addresses several of the afflictions that beset the new model rule: terminology uncertainties, questions of interplay between the new model rule and other provisions of the Model Rules, what disciplinary sanction should apply to the new model rule, and constitutional issues of Due Process and First Amendment free expression. Absent rigorous resolution of the many outstanding issues, the article concludes, the new model rule cannot be considered a serious suggestion of a workable rule of professional conduct to which real world lawyers may be fairly subjected.


Distortions of the magnetic field, such as those caused by susceptibility artifacts and peripheral magnetic field warping, can limit geometric precision in the use of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in stereotactic procedures. The authors have routinely found systematic error in MR stereotactic coordinates with a median of 4 mm compared to computerized tomography (CT) coordinates. This error may place critical neural structures in jeopardy in sme procedures. A description is given of an image fusion technique that uses a chamfer matching algorithm; the advantages of MR imaging in anatomical definition are combined with the geometric precision of CT, while eliminating most of the anatomical spatial distortion of stereotactic MR imaging. A stereotactic radiosurgical case is presented in which the use of MR localization alone would have led to both irradiation of vital neural structures outside the desired target volume and underdose of the intended target volume. The image fusion approach allows for the use of MR imaging, combined with stereotactic CT, as a reliable localizing technique for stereotactic neurosurgery and radiosurgery.


Although mindfulness research has burgeoned, questions regarding the development of mindfulness remain largely unanswered. Mindfulness correlates negatively with the anxiety and avoidance dimensions of adult attachment and positively with autonomy, competence, and relatedness, the three primary psychological needs postulated by self-determination theory. It was hypothesized that secure attachment style and autonomy orientation would predict higher levels of self-reported mindfulness. After accounting for age, state self-esteem, and meditation practice, autonomy orientation predicted higher levels of self-reported mindfulness whereas secure attachment was no longer related to mindfulness. State self-esteem was found to be an important variable in understanding mindfulness. Results suggest mindfulness might be an innate construct that can be developed over time and enhanced by practice. Further, autonomy orientation and high self-esteem may foster the development of mindfulness in those with little to no meditation/mindfulness practice. Additional research is needed to clarify the roles of autonomy, attachment style, and self-esteem in the development of mindfulness.


Outcrops of the West Crocker Formation in western Sabah are dominated by coarse-grained sandstones interbedded with shale, although numerous bedding-plane thrust faults that form preferentially in the shales and weathering that favours exposure of sandstone suggest that the actual sand-shale ratio may be significantly lower. The sandstones occur as amalgamated units with individual beds that are generally 1-6m thick within 25-65 m thick parasequences. Most sandstones are massive and display partial Bouma sequences. The sands are texturally immature with a high proportion of rock fragments and poorly sorted. Their sedimentary structures and texture are consistent with a short transport path down a relatively steep slope and then rapid deposition from collapse fall-out in high density turbidity currents. In the outcrops studied in detail, comprising nearly 500 m of succession some of which is laterally continuous up to 500 m, most beds are sheet sands and a few are lobate and there is no evidence of channeling. The bed geometries, texture and depositional mechanism all suggest relatively small lobes that coalesced to form a sand-rich slope apron. Palaeocurrent directions are consistently to the north, indicating a transport direction that is oblique to the northeast-southwest marginal basin. This suggests that the West Crocker strata were derived from nearby Rajang Group sediment, possibly in response to the initial phase of the uplift that formed the Deep Regional Unconformity. The tectonic setting, facies distribution, stratigraphic architecture, sand body orientation, texture and sorting of the West Crocker turbidites are all significantly different from those of the Neogene turbidites offshore and, therefore, they are a poor analogue for the younger sands.


9 PURPOSE: There is a lack of injury data on women's rugby, and less on the Olympic format of Rugby-7s. Reporting medical-attention injuries may provide a more complete picture of the true burden of injury and illness in sport. The aim was to determine medical attention (no time-loss) injury incidence in U.S. women's Rugby-7s. METHODS: A prospective epidemiology study of U.S. women Rugby-7s (6,768 players; 564 teams), in multi-level USA Rugby and USA Sevens LLC tournaments (2010-2014). Incidence (per 1000 player-hour (ph)) and biomechanism of medical attention injuries were captured via the Rugby Injury Survey & Evaluation (RISE) Report methodology. RESULTS: Medical attention injury rate was found at 84.4/1000 ph (n=356). Amongst positions, injuries were found at similar rates (backs: 60%, 59.3/1000ph, n=143; forwards: 40%, 53.6/1000ph, n=97; RR=1.11; P=0.447). Most injuries were acute (95%) occurring during the tackle (67%). Most match injuries were from a shoulder tackle (70%) (backs 72%; forwards 62%; RR=1.32; P=0.113). Recurrent injuries occurred at 25%. Lower extremity ligament sprains (53%) were most common, among injury types, muscle/tendon injuries were most common overall at 41% (backs 41/1000ph; forwards 42/1000ph; P=0.998). Knee injuries occurred more frequently in forwards (23%) than backs (16%; P<0.213). Head/neck injury rates, were 22% of all injuries. The sub-acute head contusion rate, where players were physician-cleared to return to sport was 6% (3.5/1000ph). CONCLUSIONS: Documentation of medical-attention incidents is recommended in the literature, as this is likely to capture a far greater number of ailments, than time loss injuries alone and will therefore, provide a more inclusive picture of the true burden of injury and illness in a population. A panoptic view of rugby-7s injury rates, provides fundamental gender injury data, to guide injury prevention protocols by stakeholders to guide player welfare. Head/neck and upper extremity injury rates (both at 21%) support an emphasis on tackling techniques for injury reduction. A program, including contact-based-awareness, for women newly introduced to this collision-sport, would nurture injury prevention. Furthermore, adherence on return to play protocols would decrease recurrent injury rates seen in this gender-specific cohort.


In May 2012, an artwork on President Zuma caused a public storm about the relationship between freedom of expression, dignity and the rights of the artist. In subsequent political debates on Brett Murray's Spear, art and politics met in a heightened clash that embodied all the tensions of a country moving imperfectly towards an imagined state of democracy. In that clash, what was said mattered no less than who said it, and the significance of the debate related to the heart of how democracy ought to be understood. This article argues that the question of where gender equality might feature in South African democracy was less widely debated. More specifically, in the angst that characterized responses to the painting and responses to the responses, considerable anxiety was expressed about two aspects of democracy. The first related to whether or not the liberal political norms of the South African constitution were in danger of being eroded by a socially conservative populist movement. The second related to the sense of citizenship: who belongs in South Africa, who has the right to criticize and who is an authentic citizen. There was little attention to a discussion of what is entailed in the making of the postcolonial subject and especially in the way in which gender complicates modern democracy. The article argues for considering race and gender as inextricable. It suggests that the limits of democracy are most clearly visible when bodies become present in the public sphere.


We propose to use Deep Neural Networks to solve data-driven stochastic optimization problems. Given the historical data of the observed covariate, taken decision, and the realized cost in past periods, we train a neural network to predict the objective value as a function of the decision and the covariate. Once trained, for a given covariate, we optimize the neural network over the decision variable using gradient-based methods because the gradient and the Hessian matrix can be analytically computed. We characterize the performance of our methodology based on the generalization bound of the neural network. We show strong performance on two signature problems in operations management, the newsvendor problem and the assortment pricing problem.


A new removable elevated-hinge wave generator has been designed and commissioned in the O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory (HWRL), at Oregon State University. The wave maker, built by Edinburgh Designs Ltd., is comprised by six electrically actuated dry-back paddles, self-contained in a single steel box and capable of generating mid-scale regular, irregular and user defined waves in a typical range of periods from 0.5 to 4 s at a maximum depth of 4 m. The system is intended to increase the available depth range in the Large Wave Flume (LWF) and satisfy the demand of intermediate to deep water waves at a relatively large scale by the marine energy industry.
The existing Large Wave Flume at the HWRL, is currently equipped with a piston-type, dry-back wave generator with a 4.2 m maximum stroke hydraulic actuator assembly. The flume is 104.24 m long, 3.66 m wide, and the sidewalls are 4.57 m high. The existing wave maker can generate large regular, random and tsunami-like long waves for the purpose of large-scale model tests, particularly in the area of coastal hazards (storm waves and tsunamis). Currently, the maximum water depth for generation of regular or random waves is 2.7 m, with a maximum wave height of 1.7 m in a wave period range from 4 to 8 s. The maximum depth for tsunami-like waves (solitary waves) in the flume is 2.0 m, with a maximum wave height of 1.4 m. The LWF works as a standard coastal (shallow water) testing facility where the models, bathymetry and instrumentation are typically installed with the facility completely empty. This allows for a full range of testing depths (from practically 0 to the maximum depth corresponding to the wave type to be generated). Correct representation of the bathymetry is necessary in coastal studies since wave propagation, transformation and breaking is part of the intended research. However, intermediate to deep water conditions, required for medium scale marine energy studies, represented a challenge.
The maximum depth at the flume for wave generation was limited by the structural design of the wave machine. However, the flume wall height is capable of handling a maximum depth in excess of 4 m. To increase the capabilities of the facility and responding to an increasing demand of deeper experimental conditions (particularly from the wave energy industry), the procurement of a specialized wave machine able to generate high-quality waves in deeper water was deemed necessary.
The uniqueness of the system relies on its flexibility. It was conceived to be, first, removable and can be relocated anywhere along the flume, at the full range of depths (from 1 m to 4 m) and it can be reversed facing both directions along the flume. This flexibility, required by the intention to keep the existing wave machine operational, increases its functionality by making it compatible to the generation of waves and co-linear currents, as well as expanding the available testing section along the flume, with generation on one side and absorption on the opposite.


In recent years the science of tissue engineering has emerged as a powerful tool for the development of a novel set of tissue replacement parts and technologies. Recent advances in the fields of biomaterials, stem cell technologies, growth factor field and biomimetics have created a unique set of opportunities for investigators to fabricate lab -grown tissues from combination of extracellular matrices (scaffolds), cells, and bioactive molecules. Despite these breakthrough advances, the major challenges facing this new emerging field of bioengineering remain unresolved as lab-grown tissues still exhibit a general lack of functional and biomechanical stability needed for transplantation. A successful strategy to develop true human replacement parts requires a multidisciplinary approach that converg es recent advances in tissue, matrix, growth factor and developmental biology with recent technological breakthroughs in tissueinformatics, bioinformatics, highthrouput combinatorial chemistry and stem cell technologies.


Background and aims: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a strong independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of short sprint interval training (SIT) and combined aerobic + resistance training (A+R) on Framingham risk score (FRS) and metabolic syndrome severity scores (MetS score) in overweight women with T2D. Methods: In this single-blind randomized clinical trial,52 overweight females afflicted with T2D (aged 45-60 years, BMI>30 kg/m2, HbA1C ≥ 6.5%) were randomly assigned to either SIT (n = 17), combined training (n = 17), and control groups (n = 18). Interventions consisted of SIT or combined aerobic-strength training for 10 weeks. Data were analyzed using a paired t test to compare pretest and posttest results in each group. A one-way ANOVA was employed to compare the number of changes in the experimental and control training groups after 10 weeks. Results: The results indicated that there were significant differences between the groups in FRS (P = 0.001). However, no difference was found in Mets score (P = 0.160). In addition, significant differences were observed in FRS between SIT and combined training groups (P = 0.018) and also SIT and control groups (P = 0.001). Conclusion: The results highlighted that SIT as compared to the combined training could be an effective strategy to improve FRS and Mets score in women with T2D


The study explored the link between corporate governance, stock market developments and economic growth by using data on selected African countries. Analysis was done within the Arellano-Bond Dynamic Panel data modelling. Results show that corporate governance and particularly the independence of corporate boards is important for firm performance and economic growth and that stock markets also play an important role in economic development. However, while market size is conclusive, our findings points to the fact that an increase in stock market activities must be focussed and carefully supported with appropriate mix of policies and programs in order to achieve the desired impact on economic growth because too many policies could erode the effect of critical indicators.


Economic choices are characterized by a variety of biases. Understanding their origins is a long-term goal for neuroeconomics, but progress on this front has been limited. Here, we examined choice biases observed when two goods are offered sequentially. In the experiments, rhesus monkeys chose between different juices offered simultaneously or in sequence. Choices under sequential offers were less accurate (higher variability). They were also biased in favor of the second offer (order bias) and in favor of the preferred juice (preference bias). Analysis of neuronal activity recorded in the orbitofrontal cortex revealed that these phenomena emerged at different computational stages. Lower choice accuracy reflected weaker offer value signals (valuation stage), the order bias emerged during value comparison (decision stage), and the preference bias emerged late in the trial (post-comparison). By neuronal measures, each phenomenon reduced the value obtained on average in each trial and was thus costly to the monkey.


In a recent blog post on the University of Wisconsin writing center's webpage, Matthew Capdevielle asserts that it has become common to describe writing center methods as Socratic. In fact, writing center professionals have embraced the Socratic Method for quite some time. In his classic and agenda-setting article, "The Idea of a Writing Center," North writes: If writing centers are going to finally be accepted, surely they must be accepted on their own terms as places whose primary responsibility, whose only reason for being, is to talk to writers. That is their heritage, and it stretches… back, in fact, to Athens where in a busy marketplace a tutor called Socrates set up the same kind of shop: open to all comers, no fees charged, offering, on whatever subject a visitor might propose, a continuous dialectic that is, finally, its own end. (North 46) While Capdevielle and North are right to make some connections between writing center practices and the Socratic Method, I nevertheless wonder just how Socratic our methods are or should be.


The electric line man safety system makes use of a new concept of one-time password (OTP). It is found that fatal electrical accidents to the line man are increasing during the electric line repair due to the lack of communication and co-ordination between the maintenance staff and the electric substation staff. Hence to avoid this we are implementing a password based circuit breaker. When the user put a request the system generates passwords and a relay switches to turn ON or OFF the circuit breaker. OTP plays a major role in this system. The one time passwords mean the generated passwords are different at each time. These passwords provide total control to the system to turn on or off the supply to each line. The maintenance staff e.g. line man has the control to turn ON/OFF the line, because the line man has to put a request to the system to its working. If there is a problem in any particular section of the supply line, then staff wants to turn off that line and repair it


This research evaluates the strategies being pursued by Smiths Manufacturing a South African automotive component manufacturer in order to determine their appropriateness given the changing external environment. World economies are becoming more integrated and the increasing trend of globalization has elevated the markets into a hyper-competitive era. Consequently, the competitive landscapes are constantly changing and manufacturing firms need to monitor this environment continuously to be able to adapt to the changes. The research commences with a brief outline and defines the objectives of the study. This is followed by theoretical discussions that are centred on strategic models and concepts which are applicable to this research. The case study is based on Smiths Manufacturing. Global automotive trends are identified. The main trends being that Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are looking to outsource for modularity rather than componentry with a 'follow design' 'follow source' strategy being prevalent amongst automotive vehicle giants and their worldwide subsidiaries. Major OEMs are also looking to forge closer collaborations with their suppliers. In framing Smiths' strong domestic competitive position locally, the research also identifies the imminent threats from global excess capacity. Smiths' competitive position stems from factors such as product license agreements, internationally accredited quality agreements, Smiths' experience in supplying of modules to Toyota, Ford and BMW and Japanese firm Denso's 25% stake in Smiths. In applying the strategy theory to these findings highlights that aggressive strategies can be pursued successfully to enhance Smiths' position. In view of other global trends, some of the identified threats and weaknesses need to be neutralised. Moreover, opportunities arising through Africa's Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA), the redefinition of after market parts in Europe and other trade agreements are recommended to be pursued aggressively by Smiths. The research concludes with suggested strategies for Smiths to pursue for future growth. Smiths' growth has been above average and to sustain this level of growth will not be easy, but, in keeping with the global trends, it is recommended that Smiths also pursue closer collaboration with other major global first tier suppliers.


Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) was found to promote proliferation, cell survival, and inhibition of apoptosis. But in some instances, IGF-I was found to mildly induce apoptosis, i. e. Fas-mediated apoptosis in human MG63 osteosarcoma cells. In the present study, we intended to further investigate IGF-I dependent pathways leading either to proliferation and cell survival or to cell death. MG63 osteosarcoma cells were treated with serum free medium alone or in combination with IGF-I, a neutralizing antibody against the human IGF-I receptor (alphaIR-3) or non-immune control IgG (1) for two to six days. We investigated cell survival (cell count), proliferation (CD71-FACS), apoptosis (Annexin-V-FACS, Caspase-3 activity, PCD) and anti-apoptosis (112-Ser Bad phosphorylation), and regulation of IGF-I receptor surface expression (IGF-I receptor-FACS). We found that IGF-I treatment (48 h) stimulated cell growth and proliferation, but also mildly induced apoptosis. IGF-I activated specific apoptotic pathways (Caspase-3 activation, Annexin-V binding and DNA degradation), as well as anti-apoptotic signals (Bad phosphorylation at serine 112). alphaIR-3 blocked cell proliferation, strongly induced apoptosis, and inhibited Bad-phosphorylation. Thus, IGF-I treatment overall resulted in increased tumour cell mass, despite a detectable stimulation of apoptosis; in other words proliferation exceeded cell death. If IGF-I was first added on day 0, 2, or 4 of serum free culture, we found decreasing IGF-I specific effects on proliferation and apoptosis. In parallel, we found a down-regulation of IGF-I receptors (FACS) by serum withdrawal, which was partly reversed if IGF-I was added. Therefore receptor number might have an impact on IGF-I function in MG63 cells. In conclusion, co-activation of apoptosis and proliferation by IGF-I might result in higher cell turnover in MG63 osteosarcoma cells. Furthermore, in sarcomas or carcinomas showing clinical association to IGF-I levels and malignancy, IGF-I dependent apoptosis and proliferation could be a significant mechanism of malignant tumour growth.


Germany and the USA both industrialized between 1860 and 1925, but they developed different systems for industrial and technical education. The Germans developed a more comprehensive, system, with three distinct levels; lower, middle and higher education. The higher engineering schools were separate from the traditional universities but granted equal status. Industrial education in Germany was primarily part of a mobilization for technik, industrial growth, social unity and nationalism. Engineering education was used to establish a link between vocational schools and academic education. The American field of technical education around 1925 consisted largely of engineering colleges, which to a large extent was integrated in the traditional university system. Engineering colleges had multiplied as in no other country, and the training of artisans, foremen and technicians had been neglected. There was a clear social distinction between engineering schools and institutions for vocational education, the latter being partly associated in the public mind with rehabilitation of criminals and school dropouts. Engineering educators contributed to this mindset by distancing themselves from vocational schools and institutions for manual training. I account for the different outcomes and ideologies by emphasizing differences in organizational resources and worldviews among four groups; teachers and academics, engineers in professional associations, politicians/civil servants and business managers. The educational revolution and the academization process in engineering started earlier in Germany, and the rise of large corporations increased the influence of practitioners and industrialists in the education system. Engineering in the United States was originally a practical and shop-based profession. Academic entrepreneurs and teachers had the initiative in education, and they were more firmly in control also after the industrial revolution.


OLSR, a proactive ad-hoc routing protocol, routes packets without considering the specific characteristics of the underlying MAC in the absence of cross-layer optimization. For a simple clustering MAC where nodes are differentiated according to their roles, MAC ignorant OLSR routing cannot fully optimize the performance of the network. In this paper, some cross-layer optimization options were investigated and the following improvements were achieved: 1) loss optimized routing where packets are routed via paths experiencing the best packet success ratio as measured by the MAC; 2) delay optimized routing where latency sensitive packets are routed via paths that have minimal number of relay nodes; 3) significant OLSR control overhead reduction via hello emission interval adaptation in response to MAC signaled link status; and 4) MAC slot size aware packing of OLSR control messages to maximize slot utilization. In general, these options may be applied to cross-layer optimizing OLSR with other types of MAC so long as the relevant information can be supplied by the MAC.


This paper concerns the use of steroscopic photography in Lisbon and its region, especially in Sintra, from the 1850s to the end of the 1880s. We will synthetically address the documents and images generated by professional and amateur photographers, their context and their themes.  The first material about stereoscopic photography, the first stereoscopic images and the first imported stereoscopes arrived in Lisbon in the 1850s through photographers, most of them foreigners, who brought them for their local use. A very small number of professionals took stereoscopic portraits in studios. As of the late 1850s, some professionals and trained amateurs used this technique and portrayed the city and its region. At the end of that decade and the beginning of the next, stereoscopic photos were sold in photographic studios and in a specialised warehouse. Already in the 1850s, but mainly after the late 1860s, Parisian photographers and editors of stereoscopic photos also occasionally produced and sold images of Portugal, including Lisbon, and had them listed in their catalogues. In the 1860s and 1870s, stereoscopic photos were exhibited in shows, according to contemporary descriptions, although their precise technical nature was not always very clear. The occasional production and commercialisation of stereoscopic images continued into the 1870s and declined sharply in the 1880s. It was only at the end of the next decade, and above all during the start of the 20 th century, would stereoscopic photography regain the interest of professionals and amateurs.


The study examines the effects of the devaluation of naira on the household welfares. What does the recent devaluation of naira mean for the Nigerians, whose their economy depends on mono-product, has been the subject of debate among people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The objective of the study is to empirically provide the answer. This study made use of time series secondary data from 2010 to 2016 on monthly basis. The data were obtained from World Bank database, Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin, Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics, etc. and the significant relationship was tested between the consumer price index as dependent variable and the exchange rate, total import, urban price index, rural price index, money supply, and inflation rate as independent variables using Microfit statistical package. The results of the analysis lead to a conclusion that the welfare loss due to the devaluation of currency was 6.4%. The main reason for this is a rise in the inflation rate as the price of the goods rise while incomes remain the same. Consequently, to correct negative effects of the naira devaluation on the citizens, the government should develop appropriate policy to restructure and diversify the productive base of the economy in order to reduce dependence on oil and import. Keywords: Import Price, Naira Devaluation, Mono-product


Sovereign debt restructurings are associated with declines in GDP, investment, bank credit, and capital flows. The transmission channels and associated output and banking sector costs depend on whether the restructuring takes place pre-emptively, without missing payments to creditors, or whether it takes place after a default has occurred. Post-default restructurings are associated with larger declines in bank credit, an increase in lending interest rates, and a higher likelihood of triggering a banking crisis than pre-emptive restructurings. Our local projection estimates show large declines in GDP, investment, and credit amplified by severe sudden stops and transmitted through a "capital inflow-credit channel".


We report on successful early eculizumab administration to treat acute antibody-mediated rejection (ABMR) in a highly sensitized kidney transplant recipient. The recipient is a 7-year-old boy who received, 6 months after a desensitization protocol with monthly intravenous immunoglobulin infusion, a second kidney transplant in the presence of low donor-specific antibodies (DSAs). Both pretransplant lymphocytotoxic and flow cytometric crossmatch were negative. Allograft function recovered promptly, with excellent initial function. On postoperative day (POD) 4, the child developed significant proteinuria with an acute rise in serum creatinine. Allograft biopsy showed severe acute ABMR. Intravenous eculizumab (600 mg), preceded by a single session of plasmapheresis, was administered on POD 5 and 12 along with a 4-day thymoglobulin course. After the first dose of eculizumab, a strikingly rapid normalization of allograft function with a decrease in proteinuria occurred. However, because circulating DSA levels remained elevated, the child received 3 doses of intravenous immunoglobulin (POD 15, 16, and 17), with a significant subsequent decrease in DSA levels. At 9 months after transplant, the child continues to maintain excellent allograft function with undetectable circulating DSA levels. This unique case highlights the potential efficacy of using early eculizumab to rapidly reverse severe ABMR in pediatric transplantation, and therefore it suggests a novel therapeutic approach to treat acute ABMR.


A new attack is proposed to show that a specified group of verifiers can cooperate to forge the signature for any message by secret key substitution due to the leaked secret key or by the group public key adjustment because of the renewed members. This paper presents the improvement scheme which overcomes the security weakness of Laih and Yen's scheme.


With the rapid development of the information era, network information has greatly impacted on the effectiveness of administration work. It also has a positive effect on the effective management of the national fitness, which leads to great-leap-forward development of management process and management direction in national fitness. From the service perspective, national fitness information platform involves itself incollecting and collating residentsÂ' fitness activities information, and, based on the modular information, the platform conducts effective analysis and synthesis for the collected information, which is able to reflect the specific existing problems in the shortest time and to comprehensively promote advantages of the fitness activities. In this way, the national fitness in communities will be comprehensively improved. This research mainly focuses on the construction process of the system and expounds the functions and individual functional modules in detail, which makes main factors in the system construction specified and scientific. Finally, on the basis of the development trend, the article makes further research on the design direction of the community fitness information system, which will enable the construction of community national fitness information service system to keep up with the time and provide strong support to continuously improve the management effectiveness. As main ideas in the research process where the purpose of the research lies in, it is hoped to lay a solid foundation for effective development of community national fitness work.


National regulators globally are having to consider the licensing criteria to impose on launch and satellite operators as more regulators are approached to license satellites and, in particular, large constellations.
Regulators must balance issues such as government risk, safety, security and the sustainable use and access to space; against the encouragement of commercialisation, innovation and growth.
It is well documented that an effective, proportionate regulatory framework is an enabler for raising investment. As part of such framework, regulators must assess how best to establish the financial standing of licence applicants and what insurance requirements to impose.
Under international law, the regulating government will bear international liability for damage caused by a licensed satellite. A national regulator will, therefore, normally wish to pass some (if not all) of that liability to the satellite operator responsible for satellite operations. Some of this liability can be met by the effective use of insurance cover.
When assessing space activities licence applications, regulators, and in particular the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as the new UK regulator, will seek to establish whether a satellite operator can meet its liability obligations pursuant to licensing requirements and what financial considerations and insurance requirements a national regulator could seek to have in place to ensure this, before a constellation licence is granted.
This issue is particularly pertinent as more commercial constellation operators look to 'forum shop' for the most efficient licensing regime and the issue of the sustainability and good governance of constellations is more pressing than ever.
Third party liability insurance, space finance, constellations, national space law, UK


Purpose: It has been proposed that the cardiovascular effects of obesity are related to epicardial adipose tissue (EAT), which seems to play an active role on the development and calci fi cation of atherosclerotic plaques, but the mechanisms are still unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine whether the EAT expresses the genes of calcifying factors and whether such expression is associated with the body mass index (BMI) and with the presence of coronary artery calcium (CAC) in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Patients and Methods: Forty-three patients with CAD were enrolled speci fi cally for this study, and their CAC score and EAT volume were determined by computed tomography. As the group of comparison, 41 patients with aortic valve stenosis and CAC = 0 were included (control group). A representative subgroup of 16 CAD patients and 23 controls were selected to obtain EAT biopsies during the chirurgical procedure from the atrio-interventricular groove. The mRNA expression of bone morphogenetic protein-2 and -4 ( BMP-2, BMP-4) , osteopontin ( OPN ), osteonectin ( ON ), and osteoprotegerin ( OPG ) in EAT was determined by qPCR. Results: The gene expression of OPN and BMP-2 was 70% and 52% higher in the EAT from CAD patients than that in controls, respectively, whereas the expression of OPG, ON , and BMP-4 was similar in both groups. The EAT volume positively correlated with OPG and with the BMI, suggesting a relationship of obesity with local higher expression of calcifying genes in the coronary territory. The logistic regression analysis showed that high levels of both OPN and BMP-2 increased about 6 and 8 times the odds of coronary calci fi cation (CAC score > 0), respectively. Conclusion: EAT correlated with BMI and expressed the mRNA of calcifying genes but only OPN and BMP-2 expression was higher in CAD patients. Higher levels of both OPN and BMP-2 statistically determined the presence of calcium in coronary arteries of CAD patients. systolic blood pressure; DBP, diastolic blood pressure; HDL, high-density lipoprotein; LDL, low-density lipoprotein; EAT, epicardial adipose tissue; CAC, coronary artery calcium; AU, Agatston units.


This paper evaluates the use of measures of regional economic activity to forecast tax revenues for New York State and New York City at 3-, 6-, and 12-month horizons. We construct sales- and withholding-tax base series and then apply the methodology of Stock and Watson (1989, 1991) to estimate regional indexes of coincident economic indicators. Employing an out-of-sample forecasting framework, we find that the use of the coincident indexes leads to statistically and economically significant improvements in tax base forecasts compared to those generated from univariate autoregressions. In addition, the coincident indexes produce forecasts that are generally more accurate than forecasts that rely on the use of the coincident indicators separately. Though our analysis focuses on forecasting movements in tax revenue at the state or local level, it is also intended to draw attention to the value the indexes may provide in other applications.


Use probability theory and mathematic statistics method respectively to make analysis of high level table tennis players using small ball and big ball to play singles data in international major sports competitions after changing table tennis, from which it puts emphasis data statistics and handling with athlete's every one point hitting round numbers when using small ball to proceed competition and using big ball to proceed competition. The paper gets that big ball era audience appreciation quality has some improvements by comparing with small ball era and athlete competition experience quality has also been improved. On the premise of ensuring that let table tennis normally fly across net without falling out of table when hits table tennis every time, the paper assumes an athlete hitting optimum distance. Meanwhile, by Newton classical mechanical computing, it gets flight time increment; and by time increment and diameter increment relations, it gets table tennis diameter increment and flight time increment function relationship. By function relationship, the paper discusses table tennis best diameter.


Objective. To examine the role of physical activity, inactivity, and dietary patterns on annual weight changes among preadolescents and adolescents, taking growth and development into account. Study Design. We studied a cohort of 6149 girls and 4620 boys from all over the United States who were 9 to 14 years old in 1996. All returned questionnaires in the fall of 1996 and a year later in 1997. Each child provided his or her current height and weight and a detailed assessment of typical past-year dietary intakes, physical activities, and recreational inactivities (TV, videos/VCR, and video/computer games). Methods. Our hypotheses were that physical activity and dietary fiber intake are negatively correlated with annual changes in adiposity and that recreational inactivity (TV/videos/games), caloric intake, and dietary fat intake are positively correlated with annual changes in adiposity. Separately for boys and girls, we performed regression analysis of 1-year change in body mass index (BMI; kg/m2). All hypothesized factors were in the model simultaneously with several adjustment factors. Results. Larger increases in BMI from 1996 to 1997 were among girls who reported higher caloric intakes (.0061 ± .0026 kg/m2 per 100 kcal/day; β ± standard error), less physical activity (−.0284 ± .0142 kg/m2/hour/day) and more time with TV/videos/games (.0372 ± .0106 kg/m2/hour/day) during the year between the 2 BMI assessments. Larger BMI increases were among boys who reported more time with TV/videos/games (.0384 ± .0101) during the year. For both boys and girls, a larger rise in caloric intake from 1996 to 1997 predicted larger BMI increases (girls: .0059 ± .0027 kg/m2 per increase of 100 kcal/day; boys: .0082 ± .0030). No significant associations were noted for energy-adjusted dietary fat or fiber. Conclusions. For both boys and girls, a 1-year increase in BMI was larger in those who reported more time with TV/videos/games during the year between the 2 BMI measurements, and in those who reported that their caloric intakes increased more from 1 year to the next. Larger year-to-year increases in BMI were also seen among girls who reported higher caloric intakes and less physical activity during the year between the 2 BMI measurements. Although the magnitudes of these estimated effects were small, their cumulative effects, year after year during adolescence, would produce substantial gains in body weight. Strategies to prevent excessive caloric intakes, to decrease time with TV/videos/games, and to increase physical activity would be promising as a means to prevent obesity.


PURPOSE
This study was done to explore and understand acculturation focusing on reproductive health of immigrant women.

METHODS
For the research sixteen immigrant women were selected by snowball sampling. Qualitative data were accumulated by in-depth interviews and private document collection. Raw data was analyzed following Mandelbaum's conceptual framework.

RESULTS
The dimensions of immigrant women consisted of existence: emerging from the new environment in which it was hard to communicate and to get acquainted with others, reproduction: in the absence of learning and experience, reproductive health crisis, parenting: unmanageable burden. Turnings of life involved 'Inconvenience in one's eyes, vent for conflict and tension: pregnancy', 'strange medical care: accoucheur, rapid medical service', 'pain of morning sickness: poor maternal nutrition', 'manifestation of protective instinct for life'. In adaptations, content was as follows. 1) Standing alone as a Korean housewife, 2) Becoming aware of Korean maternal instinct: thirst for education supporting, 3) Rediscovery of family: growing maternal sense of existence.

CONCLUSION
The results of this study show the acculturation process and the meaning of events related to reproductive health in current lives and can contribute to an integrated understanding of married immigrant women in Korean culture.


Neural text-to-speech systems are often optimized on L1/L2 losses, which make strong assumptions about the distributions of the target data space. Aiming to improve those assumptions, Normalizing Flows and Diffusion Probabilistic Models were recently proposed as alternatives. In this paper, we compare traditional L1/L2-based approaches to diffusion and flow-based approaches for the tasks of prosody and mel-spectrogram prediction for text-to-speech synthesis. We use a prosody model to generate log-f0 and duration features, which are used to condition an acoustic model that generates mel-spectrograms. Experimental results demonstrate that the flow-based model achieves the best performance for spectrogram prediction, improving over equivalent diffusion and L1 models. Meanwhile, both diffusion and flow-based prosody predictors result in significant improvements over a typical L2-trained prosody models.


This work investigated the interface reactions between water and ionic wind from a positive d.c. corona discharge in nitrogen. The effects of drift ions and active neutral species were investigated on their production of hydrogen peroxide in water. Both positive drift ions and active neutral species were found to produce hydrogen peroxide in water. 1 mol positive drift ions can produce 0.13 mol hydrogen peroxide under atmospheric pressure; a reduced gas pressure increased the production of hydrogen peroxide, with 1 mol ions producing 0.29 mol hydrogen peroxide at 100 torr. The gas pressure has little effect on the production of hydrogen peroxide by active neutral species. The drift positive ions acted as ion anode on water surface, reacting with water to produce hydrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen peroxide. The adsorbed form of OH and O produced at the interface can synergistically work to react with the OH scavengers in water. Both HO2 and H2O2 from the discharge were transported to water to produce the liquid phase hydrogen peroxide.


Chronic exposure of hairless mice to ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation is associated with inflammation as well as an altered macromolecular composition of the dermis. This study was designed to determine whether or not various systemic anti-inflammatory agents inhibit chronic UVB-induced changes in the macromolecular content of the dermis and, if so, whether each agent had the same or different effects. The agents and doses were chosen for their ability to inhibit the changes induced by a single exposure to UVB radiation (increased vasopermeability, neutrophil accumulation, and skin-fold thickness). Indomethacin, a cyclooxygenase inhibitor, and meclizine, an H1 histamine receptor antagonist, were administered from slow-release pellets. BW755C, a combined cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase inhibitor, was administered intraperitoneally 30 min prior to UVB exposure. Animals were exposed to UVB three times per week for 20-26 weeks or were unirradiated. The elastin, glycosaminoglycan and collagen content of the skin were determined by measuring the desmosine, uronic acid, and hydroxyproline levels, respectively. The amount of each macromolecule per area of skin increased after chronic UVB exposure. The increase in desmosine was inhibited by indomethacin; the increase in hydroxyproline was inhibited by meclizine and BW755C. None of the agents inhibited the uronic acid increase. These results suggest that chronic inflammation contributes to the dermal changes seen in chronically UVB-exposed skin and that different inflammatory mediators are involved in the increases observed in elastin, glycosaminoglycans, and collagen.


Tree-reweighted belief propagation is a message passing method that has certain advantages compared to traditional belief propagation (BP). However, it fails to outperform BP in a consistent manner, does not lend itself well to distributed implementation, and has not been applied to distributions with higher-order interactions. We propose a method called uniformly-reweighted belief propagation that mitigates these drawbacks. After having shown in previous works that this method can sub-stantially outperform BP in distributed inference with pairwise interaction models, in this paper we extend it to higher-order interactions and apply it to LDPC decoding, leading performance gains over BP.


Future generation WCDMA mobile systems will require a larger number of radio base stations to meet the high demand of data services. The implementation of the receiver in software radio provides for flexibility and cost efficiency that can adapt to changing standards and new protocols, improved complexity and upgradability of these base stations/node B's. This paper discusses some of the critical design issues that should be considered when developing a software radio. These include the development of a fast digital demodulation scheme and certain aspects of PC board design that should be considered. Results of the simulation and implementation of the digital demodulation and phase approximation in both hardware and software will be presented for the prototype FM software radio being developed.