Head of North Sumatra High Prosecutor Office stated that in 2016, there was 147 cases of corruption which reached the investigation stage, 72 cases was in ongoing investigation stage, 27 cases was at the stage of prosecution in the police and investigation to prosecutor and 41 cases to be processed and when completed will be delegated to the court. The large number of corruption cases in North Sumatera also made it the second most corrupt province in Indonesia based on the investigation of corruption cases handled by the North Sumatra High Prosecutor. Japan in 2012 was ranked 17th with a score of 74 on a scale of 0 to 100 in the corruption perception index (IPK) based on Transparency International Japan. The soul of samurai has become the most basic value in the context of the famous Japanese culture. The principle of samurai is teaching the values of honesty in life as well as to one self. This is originated from the soul of the samurai which is inherent in the soul of Japanese society. Japan is also known for the culture of shame as one of the prominent elements in raising the nation integrity and dignity to become an excellent nation. This study is an empirical legal research, using primary data and secondary data. The results of the study were analyzed qualitatively. The research found that shame culture of the Malay society is contained in pantun (poetry), poems, phrases and so forth that contain advices and amanah (mandate) to be passed down from generation to generation. The contents are the philosophy of life for the Malay. The contents, among other advice and the mandate include "Obedience to the Law of Shame." The whole advice and the amanah (mandate) are also part of "Tunjuk Ajar" (traditional virtues and teachings) which basically exists in all areas of origin of Puak Melayu in North Sumatra. This can be used as a basis for the prevention of corruption so that this shame culture becomes the foundation in behaving in daily activities.


The research presented in this thesis is aimed at development of new methods and techniques for stability analysis and stabilization of interconnections of nonlinear systems, in particular, in the presence of communication delays. Based on the conic systems' formalism, we extend the notion of conicity for the non-planar case where the dimension of the cone's central subspace may be greater than one. One of the advantages of the notion of non-planar conicity is that any dissipative system with a quadratic supply rate can be represented as a non-planar conic system; specifically, its central subspace and radius can be calculated using an algorithm developed in this thesis. For a feedback interconnection of two non-planar conic systems, a graph separation condition for finite-gain L2-stability is established in terms of central subspaces and radii of the subsystems' non-planar cones. Subsequently, a generalized version of the scattering transformation is developed which is applicable to non-planar conic systems. The transformation allows for rendering the dynamics of a non-planar conic system into a prescribed cone with compatible dimensions; the corresponding design algorithm is presented. The ability of the generalized scattering transformation to change the parameters of a system's cone can be used for stabilization of interconnections of non-planar conic systems. For interconnections without communication delays, stabilization is achieved through the design of a scattering transformation that guarantees the fulfilment of the graph separation stability condition. For interconnected systems with communication delays, scattering transformations are designed on both sides of communication channel in a way that guarantees the overall stability through fulfilment of the small gain stability condition. Application to stabilization of bilateral teleoperators with multiple heterogeneous communication delays is briefly discussed. Next, the coupled stability problem is addressed based on the proposed scattering based stabilization techniques. The coupled stability problem is one of the most fundamental problems in robotics. It requires to guarantee stability of a controlled manipulator in contact with an environment whose dynamics are unknown, or at least not known precisely. We present a scattering-based design procedure that guarantees coupled stability while at the same time does not affect the robot's trajectory tracking performance in free space. A detailed design example is presented that demonstrates the capabilities of the scattering-based design approach, as well as its advantages in comparison with more conventional passivity-based approaches. Finally, the generalized scattering-based technique is applied to the problem of stabilization of complex interconnections of dissipative systems with quadratic supply rates in the presence of multiple heterogeneous constant time delays. Our approach is to design local scattering transformations that guarantee the fulfilment of a multi-dimensional small-gain stability condition for the interconnected system. A numerical example is presented that illustrates the capabilities of the proposed design method.


Recently underwater sensor networks (UWSN) attracted large research interests. Medium access control (MAC) is one of the major challenges faced by UWSN due to the large propagation delay and narrow channel bandwidth of acoustic communications used for UWSN. Widely used slotted aloha (S-Aloha) protocol suffers large performance loss in UWSNs, which can only achieve performance close to pure aloha (PAloha). In this paper we theoretically model the performances of S-Aloha and P-Aloha protocols and analyze the adverse impact of propagation delay. According to the observation on the performances of S-Aloha protocol we propose two enhanced S-Aloha protocols in order to minimize the adverse impact of propagation delay on S-Aloha protocol. The first enhancement is a synchronized arrival S-Aloha (SA-Aloha) protocol, in which frames are transmitted at carefully calculated time to align the frame arrival time with the start of time slots. Propagation delay is taken into consideration in the calculation of transmit time. As estimation error on propagation delay may exist and can affect network performance, an improved SA-Aloha (denoted by ISAAloha) is proposed, which adjusts the slot size according to the range of delay estimation errors. Simulation results show that both SA-Aloha and ISA-Aloha perform remarkably better than S-Aloha and P-Aloha for UWSN, and ISA-Aloha is more robust even when the propagation delay estimation error is large.


Densification of biomass feedstocks, such as pelletizing, can increase bulk density, improve storability, reduce transportation costs, and ease the handling of biomass using existing handling and storage equipment for grains. In order to study the pelletizing process, compost pellets were produced under controlled conditions. The aim of the work was to investigate the effect of raw material properties and the die geometry on the true density of formed pellets and also find the optimal conditions of the densification process for producing pellets with high density. Compost was extruded into cylindrical pellets utilizing open-end dies under axial stress from a vertical piston applied by a hydraulic press. The effects of independent variables, including the raw material moisture content (35 to 45% (wet basis)), hammer mill screen size (0.3 to 1.5 mm), speed of piston (2 to 10 mm/s), and die length (8 to 12 mm) on pellet density, were determined using response surface methodology. A quadratic model was proposed to predict the pellet density, which had high F and R2 values along with a low p value, indicating the predictability of the model. Moisture content, speed of piston, and particle size significantly affected (P 0.05).


Actomyosin contractility is a major engine of preimplantation morphogenesis, which starts at the 8-cell stage during mouse embryonic development. Contractility becomes first visible with the appearance of periodic cortical waves of contraction (PeCoWaCo), which travel around blastomeres in an oscillatory fashion. How contractility of the mouse embryo becomes active remains unknown. We have taken advantage of PeCoWaCo to study the awakening of contractility during preimplantation development. We find that PeCoWaCo become detectable in most embryos only after the second cleavage and gradually increase their oscillation frequency with each successive cleavage. To test the influence of cell size reduction during cleavage divisions, we use cell fusion and fragmentation to manipulate cell size across a 20- to 60-μm range. We find that the stepwise reduction in cell size caused by cleavage divisions does not explain the presence of PeCoWaCo or their accelerating rhythm. Instead, we discover that blastomeres gradually decrease their surface tensions until the 8-cell stage and that artificially softening cells enhances PeCoWaCo prematurely. We further identify the programmed down-regulation of the formin Fmnl3 as a required event to soften the cortex and expose PeCoWaCo. Therefore, during cleavage stages, cortical softening, mediated by Fmnl3 down-regulation, awakens zygotic contractility before preimplantation morphogenesis.


A generalized finite-difference (FD) scheme combined with the measured equation of invariance (MEI) is presented for the analysis of electromagnetic scattering from an inhomogeneous and lossy chiral cylinder with electrically large, arbitrarily shaped cross section. A new FD mesh in both chiral and achiral regions is formed, and the FD equations in a chiral medium are derived; then a large sparse matrix is formulated. The numerical results of bistatic scattering width (two-dimensional radar cross section) are given for the chiral cylinders of rectangular, elliptical, and complex cross section, respectively. Some results are compared with available data.


As viewed by scanning electron microscopy, the luminal surface of the human trachea at 12 weeks' gestation shows a predominance of microvillous-covered, nonciliated cells, in contrast to the heavily ciliated tracheobronchial surface seen at 34 weeks' gestation. Hyaline membrane disease produces a confluent lining material in the lung periphery that obscures the bronchiolar and alveolar surface architecture. Large saucer-shaped alveoli, numerous alveolar pores, and an abundance of in situ alveolar macrophages are observed in chronic bronchitis and in emphysematous lungs; The scanning electron microscope offers an additional tool for the study of developmental and pathological processes in the human respiratory tract.


The structure of jejunal mucosa in 100 children with celiac disease (CD) was studied morphometrically by means of light and electron microscopy. Variable in nature and intensity structural changes observed during the period of CD clinical manifestations and in remission depend mainly upon the adequacy of agladinic diet and its duration: Not only the degree of the villi atrophy, but differences in the mucosa thickness observed in a one-third of the patients should be taken into consideration. The restoration of the jejunal mucosa in children with celiac disease proceeds rather slowly and with different speeds this being connected with both possible noncompliance of the strict agliadin diet and different susceptibility to gliadin. Complete restoration of the mucosa occurred in few patients.


This essay argues that the Victorian sentimental impulse was motivated by the sharing of emotion and the dynamics of communal and interactive feeling. Integral to the popularity of sentiment was its recognition factor by means of established tropes and conventions. Arguably, the same familiarity that made narrative art accessible also made advertising successful and many of the same motifs ran from exhibition watercolours to book illustration to posters. Works of sentiment operated as emotional souvenirs so that material proof of feeling could be easily digested, displayed and revisited. The essay looks closer at the investment of emotion in ephemeral images, such as music-sheet covers, and the ways in which forms of feeling were standardised and reproduced in keeping with a new art-buying public and the possibilities of wider image dissemination. Focusing upon issues raised during the curation of a current exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum ( A Show of Emotion: Victorian Sentiment in Prints and Drawings , 7 Dec 2006 – 10 Sep 2007) this essay explores the ways in which the sentimental pervaded nineteenth-century visual culture and how, in the cut-throat commercial world of image production, sentiment became manifest and identifiable if only as a notional phenomenon.


Sounding rockets are currently deployed for the purpose of providing experimental data of the upper atmosphere, as well as for microgravity experiments. This work provides a methodology in order to design, model, and evaluate the performance of new sounding rockets. A general configuration composed of a rocket with four canards and four tail wings is sized and optimized, assuming different payload masses and microgravity durations. The aerodynamic forces are modeled with high fidelity using the interpolation of available data. Three different guidance algorithms are used for the trajectory integration: constant attitude, near radial, and sun-pointing. The sun-pointing guidance is used to obtain the best microgravity performance while maintaining a specified attitude with respect to the sun, allowing for experiments which are temperature sensitive. Near radial guidance has instead the main purpose of reaching high altitudes, thus maximizing the microgravity duration. The results prove that the methodology at hand is straightforward to implement and capable of providing satisfactory performance in term of microgravity duration.


The visual analysis of large and complex networks is a challenging task in many fields, such as systems biology or social sciences. Often, various domain experts work together to improve the analysis time or the quality of the analysis results. Collaborative visualization tools can facilitate this process. We propose a new web-based visualization environment which supports distributed, synchronous and asynchronous collaboration for graphs with up to 10,000 nodes and edges. In addition to standard collaboration features like event tracking or synchronizing, our client/server-based system provides visualization and interaction techniques for better navigation, guidance and overview of the overall data set. During asynchronous collaborations, network changes made by specific analysts or even just visited elements are highlighted on demand by heat maps. These heat map representations are user-sensitive in a sense that the current analyst is able to perceive which changes were made by others.


The system of devolution set up in Northern Ireland in 1999 has proved volatile and unstable. In 2017, the Northern Ireland Executive collapsed, following the resignation of the Sinn Féin, deputy First Minister. For a three-year period, Executive and legislative devolution ceased to operate. The UK Government opted not to impose Direct Rule from Westminster, as happened previously. This article examines the consequences of the absence of a devolved government in the context of the existing system of multi-level governance (MLG). It is contended that mitigating action taken or considered to address the gap in governance can be best understood using an analytical framework drawn from the lens of MLG. A range of interventions, adjustments and interactions occurred involving the remaining levels of MLG. Despite the fall of the Executive and Assembly an amended form of governance continued to function in Northern Ireland.


Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic is accompanied by various challenges for individual health and the health care system. However, preventive examinations such as cancer screenings should not be postponed during a pandemic. Because nationally representative studies describing postponed cancer screenings and identifying its determinants in Germany are lacking, our aim was to close this gap in knowledge. Materials and Methods: We used cross-sectional data from the nationally representative online-survey "COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring in Germany (COSMO)" (wave 17), which was conducted in July 2020. The analytical sample included 974 individuals (mean age was 45.9 years, SD: 16.5 years; 18 to 74 years). The outcome measure was whether cancer screening had been postponed since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic (no, attended as planned; yes, postponed). Results: In total, slightly more than 10% of individuals stated to have postponed cancer screenings between March and July 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly women and individuals aged 30 to 49 years. The likelihood of postponed cancer screening was positively associated with higher affect regarding COVID-19 (OR: 1.65, 95% CI: 1.16– 2.35), whereas it was negatively associated with younger age (eg, 18 to 29 years, OR: 0.17, 95% CI: 0.05–0.64, compared to individuals 30 to 49 years). Conclusion: Study findings showed that one out of ten individuals postponed cancer screenings during the COVID-19 pandemic. We determined two correlates of them (age and affect regarding COVID-19). Individuals with an increased likelihood of postponed cancer screenings should be specifically addressed.


Ag-doped Ge2Sb2Te5 films were deposited by rf magnetron sputtering on SiO2/Si substrates. The content of Ag ranging from 4.5 to 11.3 at.% is determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. The crystallization temperature of Ag-doped Ge2Sb2Te5 increases with the increasing Ag content and the stability of phase change film is improved greatly. Structures were measured by x-ray diffraction and the face-centered-cubic structure was more stable after Ag doping. Four-point probe was used to measure the sheet resistance of Ag-doped Ge2Sb2Te5 films annealed at different temperatures and it is indicated that Ag atoms increase the sheet resistance of Ge2Sb2Te5 thin film when the annealing temperature is higher than about 360 degrees C, which is beneficial for reducing the reset current. Current-voltage curves were tested and it is demonstrated that 4.5 at.% Ag doping into the Ge2Sb2Te5 film can reduce the threshold current from 1.46 mA to 0.25 mA and can only increase the threshold voltage slightly, which is very useful for low energy consumption.


This paper presents the performance measurements from a comparison between FODA/IBEA and two other satellite access schemes, FEEDERS and DRIFS. The three schemes differ in terms of the scheduling of the channel capacity: i.e. centralized control in FODA/IBEA and distributed in the other two. All these access schemes were designed at CNUCE, where the simulation tool used for the comparison was also developed. FODA/IBEA was developed and tested on several satellites (Olympus, Eutelsat and Italsat), and used in a project of LAN interconnection.* The two distributed control access schemes have been studied and simulated to analyse the behaviour of the capacity assignment algorithm, while the recovery procedures needed for the network stability will be presented in later papers. All the access schemes support an aggregated traffic, and the quality of the data transmission in guaranteed even when the transmitting signal experiences a severe attenuation due to bad atmospheric conditions.


Adversarial contracting methods are used for most public infrastructure procurement and timely delivery on budget remains a problem. In the past 20 years, OECD countries have adopted a number of alternative procurement methods that are based on collaborative principles including public private partnerships, long-term outsourcing arrangements and relationship/alliance contracts. We review the theoretical principles that operate for both adversarial and collaborative contracting methods. We identify the characteristics of non-adversarial contracting methods such as the output specification, qualitative selection criteria, the alignment of incentives, discrete allocation of residual control rights, life cycle costing, and risk-weighted value for money measurement that are delivering better procurement outcomes for government.


One of our most valuable capacities is our ability partly to predict what will come next in a text. But linguistic understanding of this remains very limited, especially in genres such as the short story where there is a staging of the clash between predictability and unpredictability. This book proposes that a matrix of narrativity-furthering textual features is crucial to the reader's forming of expectations about how a literary story will continue to its close. Toolan uses corpus linguistic software and methods, and stylistic and narratological theory, in the course of delineating the matrix of eight parameters that he sees as crucial to creating narrative progression and expectation. The book will be of interest to stylisticians, narratologists, corpus linguists, and short story scholars.


Since most sensor data depend on each other, time-series anomaly detection is one of practical applications of IoT devices. Such tasks are handled by Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) with a feedback structure, such as Long Short Term Memory. However, their learning phase based on Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) is computationally expensive for such edge devices. This issue is addressed by executing their learning on high-performance server machines, but it introduces a communication overhead and additional power consumption. On the other hand, Recursive Least-Squares Echo State Network (RLS-ESN) is a simple RNN that can be trained at low cost using the least-squares method rather than SGD. In this paper, we propose its area-efficient hardware implementation for edge devices and adapt it to human activity anomaly detection as an example of interdependent time-series sensor data. The model is implemented in Verilog HDL, synthesized with a 45 nm process technology, and evaluated in terms of the anomaly capability, hardware amount, and performance. The evaluation results demonstrate that the RLS-ESN core with a feedback structure is more robust to hyper parameters than an existing Online Sequential Extreme Learning Machine (OS-ELM) core. It consumes only 1.25 times larger hardware amount and 1.11 times longer latency than the existing OS-ELM core. key words: on-device learning, machine learning, anomaly detection


Objective To demonstrate the utility of the National Syndromic Surveillance Program's (NSSP) version of the Electronic Surveillance System for Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE) for case detection during a 2017 outbreak of hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection among persons experiencing homelessness in Maricopa County, Arizona. Introduction On 3/29/2017, the Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH) received three reports of confirmed HAV infection from an onsite clinic at Campus A that assists individuals experiencing homelessness, a population at risk for HAV transmission. To identify the scope of the problem, the department initiated rapid HAV infection case detection using NSSP ESSENCE. Methods MCDPH created a myESSENCE dashboard that searched for chief complaint keywords and discharge diagnosis codes from 15 Maricopa County emergency department and inpatient hospital records using three separate queries: (1) HAV infection; (2) hepatitis virus infection; and (3) HAV infection symptoms combined with terms for homelessness. The dashboard was reviewed retrospectively for the 90 days prior to the initial report of the cluster (12/28/2016 – 3/29/2017). Based on this review, MCDPH epidemiologists decided to use the first query (HAV infection-specific) only, because reviewing the line list for all three queries was resource-intensive and resulted in duplicate cases. The query was monitored every weekday morning from 3/30/2017 to the close of the outbreak on 7/22/2017. Results From 3/30/2017 – 7/22/2017, MCDPH identified 37 potential HAV infection cases in ESSENCE. Eleven cases were classified as outbreak cases, while the other 26 patients lacked recent HAV infection symptoms, laboratory confirmation, or association with Campus A. All 11 outbreak cases' records included the ICD-CM-10 code B15.9 (Hepatitis A without hepatic coma), and 3 records included the code Z59 (Problems related to housing and economic circumstances). The HAV infection-specific query in ESSENCE identified 11 (73%) of the 15 total outbreak cases; however, all cases were reported in MEDSIS prior to a being flagged in ESSENCE. On average, cases were reported to MEDSIS 9 days earlier than identified in ESSENCE (range, 0 - 21 days). Of note, ESSENCE helped identify the outbreak index case, previously lost to follow-up, as an individual experiencing homelessness. This information helped MCDPH perform additional follow-up, which revealed that the individual had arrived from San Diego, CA, a city with an ongoing outbreak of HAV infection in their homeless and drug-using population. This epidemiologic link was identified on 3/30/2017, over a month before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed a match by genome sequencing between the index case and the neighboring outbreak on 5/5/2017. Conclusions Use of ESSENCE identified most of the HAV infection cases from this outbreak among individuals experiencing homelessness but no sooner than traditional surveillance methods. However, use of ESSENCE allowed for identification of the outbreak index case, leading to epidemiological linkage to outbreak origin approximately one month prior to molecular laboratory confirmation.


Plant biodiversity supports food chain diversity, helps counter natural disasters, and contributes to ecosystem productivity. The International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of threatened species contains only a small fraction of extant species on Earth, partly because species assessments are expensive and time-consuming. Tara Pelletier et al. (pp. 13027–13032) developed a machine-learning approach to predict plant species at risk of extinction using open-source geographic, environmental, and morphological trait data for more than 150,000 land plant species. The authors identified variables predicting extinction risk, including geographic and bioclimatic traits, and calculated the probability of a species being designated "at risk" based on the traits. The authors report that a large number of previously unassessed land plant species are likely at risk of extinction and may need to be considered for inclusion in the Red List. Further, the approach can be used to identify species at the highest extinction risk and to pinpoint geographic regions with the greatest need for conservation efforts by pairing GPS coordinates with risk probabilities. According to the authors, the approach can be used to guide policies aimed at allocating resources for biodiversity conservation. — T.G.


We present an immersive virtual environment (VE) including visual, auditory and haptic feedbacks, which has been designed specifically to help to recover or improve the motor dexterity of the arm and hand in patients affected by disorders of motor coordination. The realization of an effective haptic feedback on the human arm and hand is the most critical issue for such application. Innovative approaches have been followed for the monitoring of upper limb movements; the replication of forces on the human hand, the real time simulation of interactions between user upper limb and virtual objects, including the simulation of stable grasps; and the accurate synchronization of the various sensory feedbacks. The rehabilitation exercises, which have already been implemented and tested on healthy subjects are described. The major technical solutions adopted are discussed.


Acute lung injury (ALI) is a critical illness syndrome consisting of acute respiratory failure with bilateral pulmonary infiltrates that is refractory to current therapies. ALI is characterized by injury of the alveolar capillary barrier, neutrophil accumulation, and induction of pro-inflammatory cytokines followed by devastating lung fibrosis. Ghrelin, an acylated peptide produced in the stomach, increases food intake and growth hormone secretion, suppresses inflammation, and promotes cell survival. We investigated the pharmacological potential of ghrelin in the treatment of ALI by using a bleomycin-induced ALI model in mice. Ghrelin or saline was given to mice daily starting 1 day after bleomycin administration. Ghrelin-treated mice showed a definitively higher survival rate than saline- treated ones. They also had smaller reductions in body weight and food intake. The amelioration of neutrophil alveolar infiltration, pulmonary vascular permeability, induction of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and subsequent lung fibrosis were notable in ghrelin-treated mice. Additionally, ghrelin administration reduced the injury-induced apoptosis of alveolar epithelial cells. Our results indicate that ghrelin administration exerts a protective effect against ALI by protecting the alveolar epithelial cells and regulating lung inflammation, and highlight ghrelin as a promising therapeutic agent for the management of this intractable disease.


It is by now common knowledge that one of the aspects upon which the survival of the University depends is how it will make the best possible use of the new technologies (e-learning). Despite the acceptance of this principle, difficulties arise when one attempts to proceed from the mere declaration to actually planning activities and putting them into effect. This research, the result of collaboration between teachers and researchers of the Educational Science and Engineering Faculties of the University of Florence, focuses on certain theoretical concepts and reference apparatus, bringing international literature to bear on the specific case of Italy.


Titanium was subjected to hydrostatic extrusion, a method of producing Severe Plastic Deformation (SPD). The experiments were aimed at refining the microstructure of the titanium in order to improve some of its mechanical properties. The effect of the initial state of titanium on the process of extrusion process and the final product was investigated. The results of these investigations are used to establish the optimum conditions for the hydrostatic extrusion process and more easily selecting the initial condition of the material according to the intended application of the extruded product.


This paper examines the effect of trading intensity and OTC transactions on expected market conditions in the early development period of the European Carbon futures market. Past duration and trading intensity are used as information related order flow variables in modelling time between transactions in two new specifications of Autocorrelation Conditional Duration (ACD) models. This allows for specific investigation of non-linear asymmetric effects on expected duration and the impact of OTC transactions. Evidence is presented of two main types of trading episodes of increased and decreased trading intensity. Both have a significant impact on price volatility, which increases further if an OTC transaction intrudes. OTC transactions also play a dual role. They slow down trading activity in the short term (over the next five transactions) but increase it substantially in the long term (over ten transactions). Both the liquidity and information price impact components increase following an OTC trade, but the information impact is greater. Price volatility calms down faster than liquidity effects following an OTC trade, and this is more pronounced in ECX and in Phase II. The combined evidence points towards increased market depth, efficiency and maturity of the trading environment.


The "referential transparency" principle of applicative language expressions stipulates that a single value exists for all occurrences of an expression in a given context (where a context is a set of bindings of variables to values). In principle, each such value therefore need to be computed only once. However, in applicative language systems supporting recursive programming or tasking notions, the bindings are not all precomputed and explicit. As a result, textual recognition of all multipleoccurrences is precluded, with the unfortunate consequence that such occurrences are recomputed. We elaborate upon the early notion of "memo function" for solving this problem. We suggest syntactic and semantic constructs providing programmer control for avoiding recomputation, which is incorporated into a "building-block" approach.


: The study was undertaken to study the immunomodulating action of 3 bacterial agents: bifidumbacterin, acylact, and biosporine used in various abnormalities accompanied by intestinal dysbacteriosis. Surveys were made of children permanently residing in the radionuclide-contaminated areas of the Bryansk Region, those from northern areas of the Russian Federation, those who suffered from atopic dermatitis; adult patients with severe systemic disease (chronic postinfection polyarthritis); chronic adult patients with spinal injury due to compression fractures of the spinal cord. The immunological parameters in all the above patient groups were shown to differ in the lower absolute or relative counts of most lymphocytic populations. The addition of bacterial drugs into their therapy promoted normalization of the intestinal microflora and led to improvement or complete normalization of immunological parameters. With this, bifidumbacterin and acylact were demonstrated to be potent, but mild immunomodulators as they significantly improved or normalized the status of the baseline suppressed immune system and virtually failed to affect normal immunological parameters. The earlier data obtained with biosporine provide evidence for that this bacterial agent has immunomodulating activity; however, it is necessary to comprehensively study its effects on the immune system in health and in disorders typical of various abnormalities.


A method of multi-step plasma doping a substrate includes igniting a plasma from a process gas. A first plasma condition is established for performing a first plasma doping step. The substrate is biased so that ions in the plasma having the first plasma condition impact a surface of the substrate thereby exposing the substrate to a first dose. The first plasma condition transitions to a second plasma condition. The substrate is biased so that ions in the plasma having the second plasma condition impact the surface of the substrate thereby exposing the substrate to a second dose. The first andsecond plasma conditions are chosen so that the first and second doses combine to achieve a predetermined distribution of dose across at least a portion of the substrate.


The antitumor efficacy of EBV-induced molecule 1 ligand CC chemokine (ELC/CCL19) was evaluated in a murine lung cancer model. The ability of ELC/CCL19 to chemoattract both dendritic cells and T lymphocytes formed the rationale for this study. Compared with diluent-treated tumor-bearing mice, intratumoral injection of recombinant ELC/CCL19 led to significant systemic reduction in tumor volumes (p < 0.01). ELC/CCL19-treated mice exhibited an increased influx of CD4 and CD8 T cell subsets as well as dendritic cells at the tumor sites. These cell infiltrates were accompanied by increases in IFN-γ, MIG/CXCL9, IP-10/CXCL10, GM-CSF, and IL-12 but a concomitant decrease in the immunosuppressive molecules PGE2 and TGFβ. Transfer of T lymphocytes from ELC/CCL19 treated tumor-bearing mice conferred the antitumor therapeutic efficacy of ELC/CCL19 to naive mice. ELC/CCL19 treated tumor-bearing mice showed enhanced frequency of tumor specific T lymphocytes secreting IFN-γ. In vivo depletion of IFN-γ, MIG/CXCL9, or IP-10/CXCL10 significantly reduced the antitumor efficacy of ELC/CCL19. These findings provide a strong rationale for further evaluation of ELC/CCL19 in tumor immunity and its use in cancer immunotherapy.


Knowing the morphology of Copper nanoparticles was confirmed by Field Emission Scanning Electron microscopy (FE-SEM). Herein, we are reporting a novel biological approach for the formation of copper nanoparticles using leave. Copper sulphate was made to reduce with aqueous solution of Cassia auriculata leave extracts. X-Ray diffraction (XRD) pattern reveals the formation of Copper nanoparticles, which shows crystallinity. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) suggested particles size and spherical shape in the range of 38.143.5 nm. UV absorption studies of copper naoparticles showed that have absorbance in the range 488.5 to 514.3 nm and FT-IR studies of copper nanoparticles were showed that the stretching frequency of finger print region at 509.21 cm -1 for Cu-O bond.


As the possession of soft skills is becoming an essential part of the basic skill set of entrants, it is undoubtedly essential to research and develop these skills. The purpose of this study was to examine how students studying at the largest agricultural university in Hungary perceive their soft skills to be in line with employers' expectations, i.e. whether demand matches supply, in what qualities students feel strong, what employers expect, how well supply and demand in the agricultural labor market match in terms of soft skills. Furthermore, whether educational institutions are able to develop these qualities in students and what other possibilities there might be to strengthen these qualities. The research results confirmed that the university students in the sample perceive the quality of their soft skills to be influenced by several factors, including age, gender and work experience. They show that women over 40 with work experience tend to have stronger emotional soft skills, while men of the same age who have not started their careers are stronger in leadership skills. The study also concluded that students do not feel that current schooling in institutions can strengthen the soft skills expected by the labor market (the average on a five-point Likert scale was 2.74), while the development of these soft skills was considered by respondents to be as important as the development of hard skills (agreement was very high with an average of 4.52 on a five-point Likert scale).


A new VLSI architecture using free discrepancy Berlekamp-Massey (FDBM) algorithm is proposed for wireless applications. Firstly, this project uses the FDBM algorithm to reduce the path delay. A method of module reuse is applied to reduce the overall core size successfully. Using single system clock, it is easy to integrate the core into SoC. As a result, this RS decoder has reduced core size and performs in low power with simple system integration.


In this paper, we are focusing on the symbol-rate estimation problem of MFSK signals under wideband receiving situation. The channelization is indispensable in the shortwave wideband receiving signal processing. It will arise signal spectrum distortions when the carrier frequency of the needed MFSK signal is unknown. We proposed a new subband processing based method to solve this inevitably question. The signal model of subband MFSK signal is presented and analyzed firstly, and the correlation between symbol-rate and the transtion of MFSK subband signal' instantaneous amplitude is pointed out. Then we present the novel symbol-rate estimation method based on the instantaneous amplitude of the subband signal. and give out deduction of the estimation expectation to prove the method is unbiased. To testify the efficiency and credibility of the method, Monte Carlo computer simulations are carried out. When half of the 8FSK signal's spectrum is damaged, the symbol-rate estimation method is almost 100% accurate as long as the SNR is above 4dB.


scientific concepts, and the development of scientific theories as hypothetico-deductive systems. As to the first aspect, the authors point out (1) tha t the operational definition of a scientific term amounts to its reduction, by means of an introductive chain (Carnap, I I 49) to terms referring to immediately observable "hard d a t a , " (2) t ha t the distinction of operational and theoretical constructs is one of degree only, depending upon the length of the reduction chain for the concept in question, and (3) tha t the formulation of operational definitions for a system of concepts is a necessary, but by far not sufficient condition for the establishment of a fruitful scientific theory in terms of those concepts. The hypothetico-deductive method in psychology is discussed with special reference to the theories developed by C. L. Hull. The authors stress tha t a term which is an "undefined" (primitive) concept in an axiomatized scientific theory may nevertheless have an operational interpretation and thus be empirically meaningful, and tha t this is actually the case in Hull 's theory. Further , they assert tha t all the postulates of Hull 's theory are nothing but explicit definitions which define certain magnitudes as mathematical functions of the initial (primitive) ones. How can a system of definitions acquire the character of an empirical theory? The authors explain this by pointing out t ha t for the purpose of application not only the initial concepts of the formal system, but also the final (defined) ones are given an operational interpretat ion; in virtue of this interpretation, the postulates turn into functional relationships between two groups of empirical magnitudes and thus become amenable to an experimental test . C A R L G. H E M P E L


Using a neoclassical production function with aggregate amounts of labour, skill, and capital, earnings inequality is derived as the product of inequality in skills and inequality multiplier. Evidence from growth accounting supports the capital-intensity hypothesis that capital accumulation increases the inequality multiplier. Neutral technological change then raises the inequality multiplier by inducing capital accumulation. The results provide a theoretical basis for Jan Tinbergen's characterization of the evolution of inequality as a race between technological development and education.


We quantitatively analysed the relationship of health literacy with both anxiety about the COVID-19 outbreak and free-text qualitative data. A questionnaire was mailed to 5450 citizens aged 16-89 years in four prefectures between late April and May 2020. It gauged the level of anxiety about COVID-19, assessed health literacy (HL) on both critical and communicative HL subscales, and invited free-text responses. We compared anxiety levels in three groups of both HL subscales. Text-mining analyses were also conducted among the three HL groups. Two-thirds of respondents reported anxiety about COVID-19, and 42% of them also reported fear. The level of communicative HL was negatively associated with no or low anxiety (p < 0.01), and the same association was observed for critical HL (p < 0.01). Free-text analysis identified 11 categories related to concerns about COVID-19: response of the national government, appreciation of health care practitioners, early convergence, vaccine development, fear of infection, invisible, a school for children, everyday life, information-related issue, novel coronavirus and self-quarantine. Words that were characteristic of the high-HL group were 'information', 'going out', 'vaccines' and 'government'. This survey reveals high public anxiety under COVID-19, and while anxiety is associated with HL levels, people with higher HL may make more prudent and healthier decisions. In situations of uncertainty, different approaches to alleviate anxiety depending on HL are warranted, providing new insights and contributing to public health measures during the outbreaks.


Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 73:663-667doi:10.2136/sssaj2007.0346Received 20 Sept. 2007. *Corresponding author (firstname.lastname@example.com).© Soil Science Society of America677 S. Segoe Rd. Madison WI 53711 USAAll rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Permission for printing and for reprinting the material contained herein has been obtained by the publisher.


Wall displacements and ground pressure acting on the lining of a tunnel increase with time. These time-dependent deformations are both due to face advance effect and to the time-dependent behavior of the rock mass.  Viscoelastic materials exhibit both viscous and elastic behaviors. Thorough this study, the effect of different linear viscoelastic models including Maxwell, Kelvin and Kelvin-Voigt bodies on the behavior of tunnel is studied and the interaction of rock mass with elastic lining is analyzed. The surrounding rock mass is assumed to be homogeneous, isotropic and continuous. Hydrostatic stress field is also considered. In this paper, a series of formula for the foregoing models is driven to predict the displacement of lined and unlined circular tunnel and the pressure on the lining. The effect of lining stiffness and delay in installation of lining is analyzed. The results of new analytical relations show good correspondence with existing solutions.


Cell fate restriction in Caenorhabditis elegans Dylan P. Rahe Multicellular organisms arise from a single fertilized zygote, which must contain all information necessary to develop. As the embryo divides, the cells adopt distinct functional characteristics, and as they do so, they become committed to these fates, unable in most cases to convert from one identity to another. Though it has been well known and described for over a century now this year, this latter process, in this work referred to as cell fate restriction, is not well understood. In this thesis, I aim to contribute to the understanding of this developmental phenomenon. The tool I use is the ectopic expression of a terminal fate specifying transcription factor, CHE-1. This transcription factor normally functions to specify the fate of a pair of gustatory neurons in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. If ectopically expressed early in development, it is able to induce expression of its target genes, but by adulthood, most cells are refractory to its transcriptional activation, evidence of developmental cell fate restriction in most tissues of the animal. I first describe the work of Tulsi Patel to which I contributed, in which an RNAi screen revealed that PRC2 complex is responsible for preventing CHE-1 activity in the germline cells of C. elegans. I then describe a semi-clonal genetic screen in which I found many more mutants with a similar phenotype affecting germline cells, and cloned another gene that is able to induce expression specifically in the epidermis of the animals: usp-48, a highly conserved ubiquitous nuclear deubiquitinating enzyme. Next, I describe another screen where I ectopically express CHE-1 specifically in the adult epidermis, in which I found and cloned an additional six mutants: ogt-1, dot-1.1, pmk-1, sek-1, nhr-48, and C08A9.6, here named epco-1. In this screen I also isolated but was unable to clone an additional four mutants that likely represent an additional four genes. I discuss the nature of these genes and their potential roles in restricting cell fate. Lastly, I describe the optimization of a tissue-specific transcriptional profiling protocol, INTACT, for use in the characterization of the mutants. With this optimized protocol, I was able to perform detailed RNAseq on two individual neuron types from the animal, as well as wild-type epidermis. This optimized protocol will be used to characterize the mutants in the future. Together, these results tie unexpected genes to the function of cell fate restriction in the C. elegans epidermis, which will aid in our understanding of this fundamental developmental phenomenon.


Radio-interferometric imaging aims to estimate a sky intensity image from degraded undersampled Fourier measurements. At the dynamic range of interest to modern radio telescopes, the image reconstruction quality will be limited by the unknown time-dependent calibration kernels. Hence the need of performing joint image reconstruction and calibration, and consequently of solving a non-convex blind deconvolution problem. Extending our recent work where the calibration kernels are assumed to be smooth in space, we further assume in this work that the calibration kernels are smooth in time. In addition, an average sparsity prior is used for the estimation of the image of interest. The resulting high dimensional non-convex non-smooth minimization problem is then solved by leveraging an alternating forward-backward algorithm which benefits from well-established convergence guarantees. Our results show that time-regularization is effective in enhancing imaging quality.


Following a short overview of application of cyclodextrins (CDs) in textile finishing methods for the permanent fixation of CDs onto texiles and approaches to their quantitative analysis are reviewed. A new analytical method, based on the inclusion complexation of ferrocene, and a quantitative study, utilizing this method, on the covalent fixation, washing fastness and formaldehyde release of CD-containing finishes are presented. Ferrocene complexation is proven by Raman spectroscopy and by comparison with maltodextrin. Some of the finishing treatments resulted high yields and permanence against washing. Hydroxypropyl-CD reduced formaldehyde release and acted possibly as a formaldehyde scavenger. Using "low formaldehyde" crosslinkers " requirements easily met.


Approximately one-third of humans are infected with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Toxoplasma infections can lead to severe disease in those with a compromised or suppressed immune system. Additionally, infections during pregnancy present a significant health risk to the developing fetus. Drugs that target this parasite are limited, have significant side effects, and do not target all disease stages. Thus, a thorough understanding of how the parasite propagates within a host is critical in the discovery of novel therapeutic targets. Toxoplasma replication requires that it enter the cells of the infected organism. In order to survive the environment inside a cell, Toxoplasma secretes a large repertoire of proteins, which hijack a number of important cellular functions. How these Toxoplasma proteins move from the parasite into the host cell is not well understood. Our work shows that the putative phosphatase GRA44 is part of a protein complex responsible for this process. ABSTRACT During host cell invasion, the eukaryotic pathogen Toxoplasma gondii forms a parasitophorous vacuole to safely reside within the cell, while it is partitioned from host cell defense mechanisms. From within this safe niche, parasites sabotage multiple host cell systems, including gene expression, apoptosis, and intracellular immune recognition, by secreting a large arsenal of effector proteins. Many parasite proteins studied for active host cell manipulative interactions have been kinases. The translocation of effectors from the parasitophorous vacuole into the host cell is mediated by a putative translocon complex, which includes the proteins MYR1, MYR2, and MYR3. Whether other proteins are involved in the structure or regulation of this putative translocon is not known. We have discovered that the secreted protein GRA44, which contains a putative acid phosphatase domain, interacts with members of this complex and is required for host cell effects downstream of effector secretion. We have determined that GRA44 is processed in a region with homology to sequences targeted by protozoan proteases of the secretory pathway and that both major cleavage fragments are secreted into the parasitophorous vacuole. Immunoprecipitation experiments showed that GRA44 interacts with a large number of secreted proteins, including MYR1. Importantly, conditional knockdown of GRA44 resulted in a lack of host cell c-Myc upregulation, which mimics the phenotype seen when members of the translocon complex are genetically disrupted. Thus, the putative acid phosphatase GRA44 is crucial for host cell alterations during Toxoplasma infection and is associated with the translocon complex which Toxoplasma relies upon for success as an intracellular pathogen. IMPORTANCE Approximately one-third of humans are infected with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. Toxoplasma infections can lead to severe disease in those with a compromised or suppressed immune system. Additionally, infections during pregnancy present a significant health risk to the developing fetus. Drugs that target this parasite are limited, have significant side effects, and do not target all disease stages. Thus, a thorough understanding of how the parasite propagates within a host is critical in the discovery of novel therapeutic targets. Toxoplasma replication requires that it enter the cells of the infected organism. In order to survive the environment inside a cell, Toxoplasma secretes a large repertoire of proteins, which hijack a number of important cellular functions. How these Toxoplasma proteins move from the parasite into the host cell is not well understood. Our work shows that the putative phosphatase GRA44 is part of a protein complex responsible for this process.


ABSTRACT Hepatitis B virus (HBV) replicates its DNA genome through reverse transcription of a pregenomic RNA (pgRNA) by using a multifunctional polymerase (HP). A critical function of HP is its specific recognition of a viral RNA signal termed ε (Hε) located on pgRNA, which is required for specific packaging of pgRNA into viral nucleocapsids and initiation of viral reverse transcription. HP initiates reverse transcription by using itself as a protein primer (protein priming) and Hε as the obligatory template. We have purified HP from human cells that retained Hε binding activity in vitro. Furthermore, HP purified as a complex with Hε, but not HP alone, displayed in vitro protein priming activity. While the HP-Hε interaction in vitro and in vivo required the Hε internal bulge, but not its apical loop, and was not significantly affected by the cap-Hε distance, protein priming required both the Hε apical loop and internal bulge, as well as a short distance between the cap and Hε, mirroring the requirements for RNA packaging. These studies have thus established new HBV protein priming and RNA binding assays that should greatly facilitate the dissection of the requirements and molecular mechanisms of HP-Hε interactions, RNA packaging, and protein priming.


We have isolated and characterized Boursin, a kinesin-related protein of the bimC family, from Paracentrotus lividus sea urchin eggs. Boursin is expressed at high levels in eggs and embryos during early cleavage stages. Boursin was found to be associated with different parts of the mitotic spindle from early prophase to telophase. Expression of a form of the protein predicted to act as a dominant negative mutant caused severe defects in cell division and resulted in the formation of embryos with polyploid and multiastral blastomeres. Immunofluorescence analysis indicated that these defects did not arise from failure in either centrosome separation or bipolar spindle formation. Time-lapse observations showed rather that these perturbations in cell division resulted from abnormal anaphase and failure to complete cytokinesis. These phenotypes differ from the phenotype described following perturbation of the function of bimC family members in other organisms. Our study has thus uncovered roles for a bimC kinesin in late stages of cell division.


A very large pterosaur cervical vertebra is described from the Upper Maastrichtian deposits of Mérigon, in the foothills of the French Pyrenees. It resembles the vertebrae of Quetzalcoatlus, from the Maastrichtian of Texas, more than those of Arambourgiania, from the Maastrichtian of Jordan. The estimated wing span of the Mérigon pterosaur is close to 9 m, which makes it one of the largest known flying creatures. Giant pterosaurs still had a wide geographical distribution at the end of Maastrichtian time, which is not suggestive of a declining group, although it is difficult to obtain an accurate estimate of taxonomic diversity of terminal Cretaceous pterosaurs on the basis of available data.


Patients undergoing cardiac surgery are at risk of postcardiotomy myocardial dysfunction. This condition causes delayed recovery, organ failure, prolonged intensive care unit and hospital stays, and an increased risk of mortality; these patients often require inotropic agent support. Levosimendan is a calcium sensitizer with a unique mechanism of action, binding to cardiac troponin C and enhancing myofilament responsiveness to calcium, increasing myocardial contraction without increasing myocardial oxygen consumption. Phosphodiesterase III inhibitors such as milrinone provide an alternative means of inotropic support by increasing the concentration of cyclic AMP and intracellular calcium. They also have vasodilatory effects.

 The aim of this study was the comparison between levosimendan versus milrinone regarding their effects on the hemodynamics, need for additional mechanical (intra aortic balloon pump) or pharmacological support to the heart, weaning from mechanical ventilation and duration of intensive care unit stay for patients after Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (OPCABG) surgery suffering from impaired left ventricular function (preoperative ejection fraction ≤ 40%).

 60 patients between 40 and 70 years of both sexes with impaired left ventricular function (ejection fraction ≤ 40%), New York Heart Association (NYHA III & IV), undergoing elective Off-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (OPCABG) surgery were selected for this study. After induction of anesthesia, patients were randomly assigned to one of two equal groups each containing 30 patients:
 Group L (Levosimendan group) included patients who received levosimendan 0.1- 0.2 µg/kg/min. Started immediately with the induction of anesthesia.
 Group M (Milrinone group) included patients who received milrinone 0.4-0.6 µg/kg/min. Started immediately with the induction of anesthesia.
 In both groups, norepinephrine was titrated (8 mg norepinephrine in 50 ml saline) to keep mean arterial pressure MAP ≥ 70 mmHg.
 Hemodynamic findings included Preoperative and post ICU discharge ejection fraction, systemic and pulmonary artery pressures, systemic and pulmonary vascular resistance, cardiac output and stroke volume. Also laboratory findings included Serum lactate and Troponin I., in addition, to post operative findings were: Need for intra aortic balloon pump, time of weaning from the ventilator, days of ICU stay and appearance of drug allergy compared in both groups.

 There was a significant increase in the ejection fraction in both groups that was greater in the levosimendan group. The decrease in pulmonary pressure in the levosimendan group was more significant than milrinone group. There was a gradual decrease in pulmonary and systemic vascular resistance in both groups with a more significant decrease in the levosimendan group. There was a gradual increase in cardiac output and stroke volume in both groups that was greater in the levosimendan group. Serum lactate gradually decreased in both groups with an insignificant difference; there was an increase in serum troponin I level in both groups which was more significant in the milrinone group. Weaning from mechanical ventilation and length of ICU stay was shown to be significantly shorter in time in the levosimendan group.

 Both levosimendan and milrinone caused a significant increase in cardiac output, stroke volume and ejection fraction, with a decrease in pulmonary and systemic vascular resistance. These effects improved cardiac performance by decreasing afterload and increasing cardiac inotropism. It was noticed that these effects were more significant with levosimendan than milrinone. Also, there was a decrease in ICU stay, mechanical ventilation timing and hospital stay with levosimendan than milrinone which decreased the costs of treatment for the patients.


The failure rate of change is high amongst countries and cultures where collectivism, destructive politics and resistance are high. Therefore, change leaders are more focused on exploring how they can create networking and socialization amongst major organizational stakeholders that can minimize detrimental cynicism and lobbying during change implementation. This study is an attempt to shed light on how Social Networking Applications (henceforth SNAs) can facilitate change implementation processes in the insurance sector.,The individual reaction and interaction realities during the change process cannot be discovered once and for all as there are varied perspectives on the same subjects. Therefore, a social constructionist position was used to understand the different realties of change managers and change recipients using the context of insurance sector.,The study documented how SNAs can play an active role in addressing the concerns of employees as well as managing and protecting knowledge sharing to facilitate the change implementation process. The collaborative and interactive nature of SNAs can enhance richness in knowledge sharing and can facilitate the participation of employees. Therefore, management should monitor these platforms as a means to improve the change process and to address the concerns of employees. These networking channels which include WhatsApp and Facebook can enhance social interactions, support and acceptance at individual and organizational levels.,Social media has become a familiar tool for employees to use to discuss internal changes and policies within their organizations. Social media enhances the richness, reach, knowledge exchange and effective internal communication potential amongst organizational change stakeholders. Using social media, change recipients are now more empowered and connected with their leadership that ever before. It is now easier to facilitate decision making during the change formulation and implementation process.,Social media applications have become necessary to ensure incremental and radical changes to the survival of dynamic businesses. The findings of this study are beneficial for change leaders and recipients of change to implement successful organizational change using social media tools. The effective and efficient use of social media applications helps organizations to foster knowledge amongst employees and they can address various critical issues, that is resistance to change, lower levels of knowledge sharing and support for change acceptance and lack of employee participation in decision making.,There is an inadequate understanding regarding how SNAs play a role in facilitating the change process in both public and private sector organizations. This study offers a social mchange facilitation model with the help of social learning, social networking and social behaviourism theories.


Real-time data analysis applications increasingly rely on complex streaming computations over time-series data. We propose StreamQL, a language that facilitates the high-level specification of complex analyses over streaming time series. StreamQL is designed as an algebra of stream transformations and provides a collection of combinators for composing them. It integrates three language-based approaches for data stream processing: relational queries, dataflow composition, and temporal formalisms. The relational constructs are useful for specifying simple transformations, aggregations, and the partitioning of data into key-based groups or windows. The dataflow abstractions enable the modular description of a computation as a pipeline of stages or, more generally, as a directed graph of independent tasks. Finally, temporal constructs can be used to specify complex temporal patterns and time-varying computations. These constructs can be composed freely to describe complex streaming computations. We provide a formal denotational semantics for StreamQL using a class of monotone functions over streams. We have implemented StreamQL as a lightweight Java library, which we use to experimentally evaluate our approach. The experiments show that the throughput of our implementation is competitive compared to state-of-the-art streaming engines such as RxJava and Reactor.


The relationship between fathers' and mothers' gender-role ideas and fathers' level of participation in general housework has been well documented. Data from a study in 1998 were used to explore specific aspects of this relationship. In particular, fathers' and mothers' genderrole ideas with regard to childcare (childcare ideas) was examined to see whether these ideas influence paternal childcare participation. Specifically, what impact they had on performance of childcare tasks and the time fathers spent with their children. The responses of 38 couples (76 individuals) were analyzed. No statistically significant relationships were found between the variables. The distribution of the data suggests that even though most fathers claimed to have nontraditional childcare ideas, most mothers still performed the great majority of childcare tasks.


Crisis management centres on managing the risks to the reputations of corporations and other public institutions that crises are said to increase. It attests to the commercialisation of notions of risks and the expansion of risk management in an increasingly globalised environment. Arguments about the need for such work are based on a wider rhetoric of the risk-prone context in which organisations function and on the professional belief that they are judged by the way in which they are publicly represented. In particular, crisis management consultants talk about the need to continually attend to the appearance of their client. The thesis draws on theories of symbolic interactionism and risk society and the consultants' own lay theories to explore the emergence of a new profession and a new way of depicting and managing risk. This study focuses attention on to the factors involved in the social mediation of risks, the social construction of reality, and attempts made by professionals to re-design how social reality appears. It looks at single-issue politics affecting the political agenda, the role of the mass media, as well as the imputed role of the media and single-issue politics, how corporations can and do respond, in very sophisticated ways, to threats to their political and ideological perspectives, and so advance their interests. The thesis also comments on how professional fields are created, demonstrating the work that goes into proposing, sustaining and promoting particular areas of expertise.


Objective Acute organophosphorus(OP) pesticide poisoning is associated with dysfunctions in multiple organs, especially skeletal muscles, the nervous system and the heart. However, little is known about the specific microRNA (miRNA) changes that control the pathophysiological processes of acute OP poisoning damage. We aimed to explore miRNA expression profiles and gain insight into molecular mechanisms of OP toxic effects. Methods MicroRNA expression was analyzed by TaqMan Human MicroRNA Array analysis and subsequent validated with quantitive PCR. The targets of the significantly different miRNAs were predicted with miRNA prediction databases, and pathway analysis of the predicted target genes was performed using bioinformatics resources. Results 37 miRNAs were significantly different in the sera of poisoned patients compared to the healthy controls, including 29 miRNAs that were up-regulated and 8 miRNAs that were down-regulated. Functional analysis indicated that many pathways potentially regulated by these miRNAs are involved in skeletal muscle, nervous system and heart disorders. Conclusion This study mapped changes in the serum miRNA expression profiles of poisoning patients and predicted functional links between miRNAs and their target genes in the regulation of acute OP poisoning. Our findings are an important resource for further understanding the role of these miRNAs in the regulation of OP-induced injury.


The history of epilepsy can be summarised as 4000 years of ignorance, superstition, and stigma followed by 100 years of knowledge, superstition, and stigma. Knowing that seizures result from sudden, excessive, abnormal electrical discharges of a set of neurones in the brain has done little to dispel misunderstanding about epilepsy in most of the world. More than three quarters of sufferers remain untreated despite the availability in phenobarbitone of a cheap antiepileptic drug. Epilepsy remains a hidden disease associated with discrimination in the work place, school, and home.

Epilepsy—a state of recurrent and usually unprovoked seizures—is a truly universal disorder. People of both sexes, all ages, and every race, country, and socioeconomic group are susceptible to it. Its annual incidence is about 50 per 100 000 in the developed world, twice that in the developing world, and in some parts up to 190 …


Dutch modal verb hoeven 'need' is a negative polarity item (NPI) (Zwarts 1981, Hoeksema 2000), which survives in all anti-additive, and some but not all downward entailing (DE) contexts. The aim of the paper is to explore the reason why Dutch hoeven is not allowed in all DE-contexts – as observed for NPIs such as any-terms. We answer this question by looking at acquisition. The reasoning is straightforward: the analysis underlying a linguistic phenomenon is a product of children's acquisition of it. Data collected from a total of 132 monolingual Dutch children (2;09–5;10; M = 4;04; SD = 9.3 months) in an elicited imitation task demonstrate a learning path of hoeven in which children start with two lexical frames [HOEF NIET] 'NEED NOT' and [HOEF GEEN] 'NEED NO' and switch to an abstract analysis of it later on: [HOEF NEG] 'NEED NEG'. Given this abstract analysis, emerging as a result of language acquisition, we argue that hoeven is an NPI because of its lexical dependency with the abstract negation NEG (cf. Postal 2000). This in turn explains the distribution of the Dutch NPI restricted to some but not all DEcontexts: hoeven is only allowed in those DE-contexts that incorporate the abstract negation NEG.


To the Editor: Horn and colleagues affirm conventional wisdom that ''nutrition plays an important role in pressure ulcer prevention and healing.'' The data are actually a bit thin on this issue. Sick people often eat little, lose weight, have low albumin, and get bedsores. The critical question is whether giving them more to eat, whether they are hungry or not, helps with pressure ulcer outcome. The authors had a chance to provide some data on this, although it would be a post hoc analysis, liable to criticism regardless of the findings. Would the authors be willing to report whether the 20.1% of patients who were receiving tube feeding did better than those who were not tube fed with respect to pressure ulcers? Could they do so after adjusting for severity? My guess is that they will find no difference or a worse outcome in the tube-fed patients. I think that what sick people need is careful assistance in eating foods they like and that aggressive provision of food via tube will not reverse the underlying catabolism. If providing adequate nutrition is ineffective, would the authors be willing to question the standard dogma about the relationship between malnutrition and pressure ulcers?


In the paper, the flaky alumina was synthesized using Na2SO4-K2SO4 as flux by the molten salt method. The mole ratio of molten salt to alumina, temperature of synthesis and the amount of Cr3+ were investigated. The size of flake alumina was analyzed by laser sizer, the phases of the reaction products and the microstructures at different Cr3+ doping content was ascertained by XRD and the surface of flake alumina was observed by SEM. The alumina with two-dimensional planar structure, a large aspect ratio and adapting to preparation of pearlescent pigment was synthesized under the mole ratio of molten salt to alumina between 4 to 5 , the synthesis temperature about 1200°C, the heat preservation time in 4h and the mole amount of Cr2O3 about 2%.


In the summer of 1947 R. A. Hemstock studied permafrost and related soil and snow mechanics at Norman Wells with a view to improving methods of road building, communications, and general construction in regions of permafrost. Readings of air and soil temperatures were made. The depth of permafrost was determined at several derelict oil wells near the Mackenzie River and at some distance from it. A depth of permafrost of 140 ft. was recorded. In the summer of 1948 additional measurements were made which indicated that depth of permafrost at Norman Wells varies with precise locality. The foundations of heated buildings erected by the Imperial Oil Company in 1947 were examined, and it was found that a distinct settling of the ground beneath them, due to the recession of permafrost, had occurred. A study of local roads was made, and soil samples collected for examination.


Anthropogenic change of the Atlantic meridional ocean heat transport (AOHT) is diagnosed from a large ensemble of climate simulations over the period 1940–2080, as well as its relation to changes in the Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) and the gyre circulation in the Atlantic. Internal variability in AOHT is closely associated with MOC variability. The anthropogenic change in AOHT, however, does not follow the forced decrease in the MOC. Thermohaline changes in the intermediate and deep water masses that are formed in the subpolar gyre cause the vertical temperature gradient near the western boundary to increase. As a result, the heat transport by the baroclinic gyre component largely compensates the decreased heat transport by the MOC.


Preface 1. Ancient World 2. Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages 3. The Renaissance to the French Revolution 4. Nineteenth-century Europe 5. World War I 6. World War II 7. The Americas 8. Asia and the Middle East 9. Africa Index


Rare earth elements (REs; Sc, Y, La Lu) are critical components to many current applications and technologies making the synthesis of molecular compounds with specific and tunable properties highly desirable. However, control of the coordination environment of REs can be challenging, due to the ionic nature of the metal-ligand bonds. Our studies have focused on the introduction of non-covalent interactions in the secondary coordination sphere of f-element BINOLate complexes, which enabled controlled f-element coordination environments in heterobimetallic and hydrogen-bonded frameworks. Reactivity and properties were tunable by interactions in the secondary coordination sphere, and had immediate applications to redox chemistry, coordination chemistry and asymmetric catalysis. Detailed spectroscopic and mechanistic studies were undertaken to understand the role of these interactions, and provide guiding design principles for future systems and applications. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Chemistry First Advisor Eric J. Schelter Second Advisor Patrick J. Walsh


ABSTRACT.
 We modeled migration intensity as a function of weather, using nightly migration measurements from Doppler surveillance weather radar during autumn migration on the north (Côte-Nord) and south (Gaspésie) shores of the St. Lawrence estuary, Québec, Canada. The radar had negative elevation angles, an uncommon characteristic among weather radars, which allowed simultaneous low-altitude monitoring of bird migration on each side of the estuary. Precipitation and wind both had strong effects on the intensity of migration. Very few birds migrated when >40% of the area had precipitation, especially when winds were strong. Light winds were associated with the strongest migration intensity, regardless of wind direction; in stronger winds, migration was likely only when winds were predominantly from the north. Days immediately after adverse weather events, which are assumed to lead to an accumulation of migrants, were associated with an increase in the intensity of migration in Côte-Nord, but not in Gaspésie. Time since the passage of a cold front had no effect in either region. Bird flight direction and behavior in relation to wind differed on each side of the estuary. On Côte-Nord, birds tended to migrate in a southwesterly direction along the St. Lawrence north coast, in a direction relatively unaffected by wind direction; they compensated or overcompensated for wind drift by following the coast. By contrast, birds in Gaspésie tended to fly in a more southerly direction. They migrated partially or almost fully downwind with only limited compensation, their flight direction often changing with wind direction.


This thesis entitled "Implementation of the Employment Security organized by the Employment BPJS for workers PT Galang Press Yogyakarta". The purpose of this study was to determine how far the implementation of the Employment Guarantee and the factors that become obstacles in the implementation of Employment Security. This research is an empirical law with a view of law in the real sense and examine how the workings of the legal environment of the community. This research was made directly to the respondents as the primary data are supported by secondary data consists of primary legal materials and secondary law. The data obtained were collected, then analyzed qualitative analysis to identify the rules that the law, legal developments, and social facts in order to obtain an overview of the issues examined. In accordance with the established goals BPJS Employment aligned in Article 15 Paragraph (1) of Law No. 24 of 2011 on the Social Security Agency provides that employers and employees are required to enroll in stages in accordance with the social security BPJS Employment. With a firm rule that the employer is obliged to enroll their employees into BPJS Employment to meet every worker rights, but in reality there are many entrepreneurs who have not fully enroll their workers into the social security scheme administered by the Employment BPJS, such as PT Galang Press Yogyakarta. Based on the analysis and the data obtained, it can be concluded that PT Galang Press Yogyakarta yet fully implementing the Employment Security for Workers organized by BPJS Employment.


We investigate performance of the agricultural sector in Uganda and whether it has varied by the 4 major regions in Uganda using agricultural technical efficiency as a proxy for performance on a nationally representative panel data set. We apply the classical parametric stochastic production frontier estimator in estimating the technical efficiency scores for each of the 4 regions using a panel framework. We find rather surprising results contrary to our hypothetical expectations. The households in the northern and eastern regions are found to have relatively higher levels of technical efficiency over the study period compared to the rest of the regions. The presence of increased government intervention in the peace process, and concerted effort by both government and international agencies to develop and promote agriculture programs in the region during this period, were possibly responsible for the observed levels and trends in technical efficiency in the two regions. The western region had the lowest levels of technical efficiency and a declining trend over the study period. Overall in the country data, male household heads are found to be more efficient than their female counterparts and the difference is found to be significant at 5%. Higher levels of education are found to significantly decrease inefficiency at the 10% level.


Purpose: To find the frequency and pathogenesis of post-operative aphakic glaucoma in children operated for congenital cataract at Mardan Medical Complex, Mardan, Pakistan. Study Design: Retrospective Cohort study. Place and Duration of Study: Mardan Medical Complex, Mardan between January 2001 and December 2014. Material and Methods: All cases were operated for congenital cataracts between the ages of 2 months to 30 months were included in the study. Babies having congenital cataracts with increased intraocular pressure (IOP), those showing signs of congenital glaucoma and those having congenital cataracts with specific syndromes were not included in the study. Results: We reviewed the records of 110 patients who had bilateral lens aspiration for congenital cataracts. We found 7 patients (12 eyes) who developed increased intra-ocular pressure (IOP) after bilateral lens matter aspiration for congenital cataracts. Four patients (three males one female), developed early onset pupil block glaucoma, (2 bilateral and 2 unilateral) while in 3 female patients the onset of glaucoma was delayed for several months to years and was of the open angle type in both the eyes. Poor compliance with follow up, poor pupillary dilatation, prolonged surgical time, severe inflammation and residual lens matter are some of the risk factors for early onset pupillary block aphakic glaucoma in pediatric age group. Conclusions: Pediatric aphakic glaucoma is a significant complication of congenital cataract surgery which requires continuous followup of the patients. Key Words: Pediatric aphakic glaucoma, Congenital cataract, Aphakic open angle glaucoma, Pupil block, Primary posterior capsulotomy,


Aims. The aim of this paper is to investigate the evolution of the C-12/C-13 ratio along the AGB through the circumstellar (CO)-C-12/(CO)-C-13 abundance ratio. This is the first time a sample including a significant number of M-and S-type stars is analysed together with a carbon-star sample of equal size, making it possible to investigate trends among the different types and establish evolutionary effects. Methods. The circumstellar (CO)-C-12/(CO)-C-13 abundance ratios are estimated through a detailed radiative transfer analysis of single-dish radio line emission observations. Several different transitions have been observed for each source to ensure that a large extent of the circumstellar envelope is probed and the radiative transfer model is well constrained. The radiative transfer model is based on the Monte Carlo method and has been benchmarked against a set of similar codes. It assumes that the radiation field is non-local and solves the statistical equilibrium equations in full non-local thermodynamic equilibrium. The energy balance equation, determining the gas temperature distribution, is solved self-consistently, and the effects of thermal dust radiation (as estimated from the spectral energy distribution) are taken into account. First, the (CO)-C-12 radiative transfer is solved, assuming an abundance (dependent on the chemical type of the star), to give the physical parameters of the gas, i.e. mass-loss rate. M. gas expansion velocity, v(e), and gas temperature distribution. Then, the (CO)-C-13 radiative transfer is solved using the results of the (CO)-C-12 model giving the (CO)-C-13 abundance. Finally, the (CO)-C-12/(CO)-C-13 abundance ratio is calculated. Results. The circumstellar (CO)-C-12/(CO)-C-13 abundance ratio differs between the three spectral types. This is consistent with what is expected from stellar evolutionary models assuming that the spectral types constitute an evolutionary sequence; however, this is the first time this has been shown observationally for a relatively large sample covering all three spectral types. The median value of the (CO)-C-13 abundance in the inner circumstellar envelope is 1.6 x 10(-5), 2.3 x 10(-5), and 3.0 x 10(-5) for the M-type. S-type, and carbon stars of the sample, respectively, corresponding to (CO)-C-12/(CO)-C-13 abundance ratios of 13, 26, and 34, respectively. The spread in the (CO)-C-13 abundance, quantified by the ratio between the 90th and 10th percentile, is 4, 3, and 15 for the M-type. S-type, and carbon stars, respectively. Interestingly, the abundance ratio spread of the carbon stars is much larger than for the M-and S-type stars, even when excluding J-type carbon stars, in line with what could be expected from evolution on the AGB. We find no correlation between the isotopologue ratio and the mass-loss rate, as would be expected if both increase as the star evolves.


From an involuntary state to a conscious decision, being a freak can be confining as well as liberating at the same time. However, it is up to the group of freaks in the form of a circus, to give a voice to individual outsiders and function as a safety net and surrogate family to teenagers as well as adults. Whereas for bystanders these freaks disturb the social norms, in the circus space, the abnormal is the norm. Therefore, it can be observed that in a circus surrounding, borders are transgressed and boundaries established. The normal/abnormal dichotomy and the transgression of this binary opposition is also of interest in modern popular culture in which the theme of freak shows experiences a revival. Paul Weitz's film Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009), which is based on Darren Shan's novel series Cirque du Freak, also known as The Saga of Darren Shan, depicts an excellent example of the circus as a space of outsiders. In my chapter, I explore the search for identity in the realms of the circus and the freedom and restraints that come with such an environment. The main focus is put on the teenage characters of the film, who all go on a journey of liberation, identification, and growing up within the frame of the circus. Hence, I the aim is to show that outsiders in the film Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant are confined to the circus space by society but that they can liberate themselves at the same time by means of the circus and thus gain a voice through the circus.


A study was performed with simulated blood cultures to evaluate the production of (14)CO(2) as an index of bacterial growth. With a range of inoculum sizes from 4 to 4,250 colony-forming units, it was not possible to detect (14)CO(2) within 6 hr after inoculation in 59 separate experiments. In a limited trial with patients' blood cultures, the radiometric method failed to provide any earlier evidence of bacteremia than did routine broth cultures.


This study aims to empirically examine how Asian and Western consumers with different cultural backgrounds (holistic vs. analytic thinking) in different brand extension situations (high vs. low brand-extension fit) perceive two different types of brand extension information (attribute-related vs. non-attribute-related information). The previous brand extension studies have demonstrated that Asian consumers are considerably better in recognizing fit between parent brands and their extensions than Western consumers. However, only few studies have been conducted so far to investigate how firms can effectively communicate with consumers from different cultures when extending their existing brands. For that, an inter-subjects experiment consisting of 2 (high vs. low similarity with parent brands) *2 (attribute-related vs. non-attribute-related information) *2 (Asian vs. Western consumers) groups was conducted with the samples from South Korea, US, Canada and France (N = 393). As a result, Westerners tended to show more favor to attribute-related information than Asians when brand-extension fit was high. When brand-extension fit was low, however, Asians tended to show more favor to attribute-related information than Westerners. In addition, Asians overall showed more favor to low-similarity extensions compared to Westerners when non-attitude-related information was suggested.


This study investigates a novel method for controlling the thermal conductivity of soil to enhance the performance of a horizontal ground source heat pump (GSHP). The method calls for irrigation lines to be buried in parallel with the ground pipes for the distribution of water in the area around the pipes thereby contributing to and controlling the soil's moisture content. The controlled distribution of water within the porous soil promotes heat paths improving the performance of the GSHP system based on the transient seasonal spatial-temporal conditions. A computational fluid dynamics model of the porous soil is developed to simulate the hydro-thermal phenomenon over a short duration (40 hours) during winter conditions. The model is employed to investigate the heat transfer rate between the ground and pipes when the soil's moisture content is modified and how this affects performance.


The authors studied the mechanisms of bacterial dissemination in operative wounds in patients after various surgical interventions. It was demonstrated in experiments that during adaptation of the organism to the operative stress, autobacteria enter the blood from the intestinal reservoir and are eliminated through the urinary tract and wound surfaces, if foci of mechanical or toxic destruction exist the autobacteria precipitate in the affected tissues and participate directly in the reparative processes. On the basis of the obtained data it is suggested that the phenomenon of activation and persistence of endogenous microflora exists as one of the syndromes of adaptation of man to the aggression factor, which is aimed at revealing and removing the foci of tissue destruction developing as the result of exposure to the effect of the stress.


Energy utilization and network life time are key issues in design of routing protocols for Wireless sensor network. Many algorithms have been proposed for reducing energy consumption and to increase network life time of the WSN. Clustering algorithms have gained popularity in this field, because of their approach in cluster head selection and data aggregation. LEACH (distributed) is the first clustering routing protocol which is proven to be better compared to other such algorithms. TL-LEACH is one of the descendants of LEACH that saves better the energy consumption by building a two-level hierarchy. It uses random rotation of local cluster base stations to better distribute the energy load among the sensors in the network especially when the density of network is higher. As the clusters are adaptive in LEACH and TL-LEACH, poor clustering set-up during a round will affect overall performance. However, using a central control scheme for cluster set-up may produce better clusters by distributing the cluster head nodes throughout the network. LEACH-C is another modification to LEACH that realizes the above idea and provides better results through uniform distribution of cluster heads avoiding redundant creation of cluster heads in a small area. In our project, we propose a centralized multilevel scheme called CML-LEACH for energy efficient clustering that assumes random distribution of sensor nodes which are not mobile. The proposed scheme merges the idea of multilevel hierarchy, with that of the central control algorithm providing uniform distribution of cluster heads throughout the network, better distribution of load among the sensors and improved packet aggregation. This scheme reduces energy consumption and prolongs network life time significantly as compared to LEACH, TL-LEACH and LEACH-C. The simulation results show comparisons of our scheme with the existing LEACH, TL-LEACH and LEACH-C protocols against chosen performance metrics, using Omnet++.


Subject-verb agreement mismatches have been reported in the L2 and heritage literature, usually involving infinitives, analyzed as default morphological forms for fully specified T-heads. This article explores the mechanisms behind these mismatches, testing two hypotheses: the default form and the surface-similarity hypotheses. It compares non-finite and finite S-V mismatches with subjects with different persons, testing whether similarity with other paradigmatic forms makes them more acceptable, controlling for the role of verb frequency. Participants were asked to rate sentences on a Likert scale that included (a) infinitive forms with first, second and third person subjects, and (b) third person verbal forms with first, second and third person subjects. Two stem-stressed verbs (e.g., tra.j-o 'brought.3p.past') and two affix-stressed verbs (e.g., me.ti-o 'introduced.3p.past'), varying in frequency were tested. Inflectional affixes of stem-stressed verbs are similar to other forms of the paradigm both phonologically and in being unstressed (tra.j-o 'brought.3p.past' vs. trai.g-o 'bring.1 p.pres'), whereas affixes of affix-stressed verbs have dissimilar stress patterns (me.ti-o ´introduced.3p.past' vs. me.t-o 'introduce.1p.pres'). Results show significantly higher acceptability for finite vs. non-finite non-matching, and for 1st vs. 2nd person subjects. Stem-stressed verbs showed higher acceptability ratings than affix-stressed ones, suggesting a role for surface-form correspondence, partially confirming previous findings.


OBJECTIVE
To develop a visual analogue scale (VAS) questionnaire that is repeatable and valid for use in assessing pain and lameness in dogs.

SAMPLE POPULATION
48 client-owned dogs with mild to moderate lameness.

PROCEDURE
The dogs were from 3 studies conducted during a 3-year period. Of the 48 dogs, 19 were used in repeatability assessment, 48 were used in principal component analysis, and 44 were used in model selection procedures and validity testing. A test-retest measure of repeatability was conducted on dogs with a change of < 10% in vertical peak force. A force platform was used as the criterion-referenced standard for detecting lameness. Principal component analysis was used to describe dimensionality of the data. Repeatable questions were used as explanatory variables in multiple regression models to predict force plate measurements. Peak vertical, craniocaudal, and associated impulses were the forces used to quantify lameness. The regression models were used to test the criterion validity of the questionnaire.

RESULTS
19 of 39 questions were found to be repeatable on the basis of a Spearman rank-correlation cut point of > 0.6. Model selection procedures resulted in 3 overlapping subsets of questions that were considered valid representations of the forces measured (vertical peak, vertical impulse, and propulsion peak). Each reduced model fit the data as well as the full model.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
The VAS questionnaire was repeatable and valid for use in assessing the degree of mild to moderate lameness in dogs.


In 2006, 100,000 servers were broken down just within 10 minutes [1]. Those were the victims of some Denial-of-Service attacks. This news and knowing that some of those victims were so well-known companies like Hotmail and Amazon, indicate the significance of this kind of threats and attacks. "In a DoS attack, a malicious client (called the attacker) performs operations designed to partially or completely prevent legitimate clients from gaining service form a server (called the victim)" [2]. DoS attacks can be categorized in two main classes: logic attacks and flooding attacks. In flooding attacks, which are discussed in this paper, the resources of the victim server are consumed by sending a big number of requests to it in order to make it unable to provide appropriate services to legitimate clients.


$\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry is a unique platform for light manipulation and versatile use in unidirectional invisibility, lasing, sensing, etc. Broken and unbroken $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric states in non-Hermitian open systems are described by scattering matrices. A multilayer structure, as a simplest example of the open system, has no certain definition of the scattering matrix, since the output ports can be permuted. The uncertainty in definition of the exceptional points bordering $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric and $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetry-broken states poses an important problem, because the exceptional points are indispensable in applications such as sensing and mode discrimination. Here we derive the proper scattering matrix from the unambiguous relation between the $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric Hamiltonian and scattering matrix. We reveal that the exceptional points of the scattering matrix with permuted output ports are not related to the $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry breaking. Nevertheless, they can be employed for finding a lasing onset as demonstrated in our time-domain calculations and scattering-matrix pole analysis. Our results are important for various applications of the non-Hermitian systems including encircling exceptional points, coherent perfect absorption, $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric plasmonics, etc.


In this study, the photophysical, nonlinear absorption and nonlinear optical limiting properties of 4-(2,4-bis(4-aminophenoxy)phenoxy) phthalocyinato zinc(II) phthalocyanine (6) conjugated to metallic nanoparticles have been investigated using open aperture Z-scan techniques using 532 nm nanosecond pulses. The nonlinear optical response demonstrated that the studied complex and the nanoconjugates exhibit higher excited state absorption cross-section compared to ground state absorption. Enhanced optical limiting performance was observed when complex 6 was conjugated to nanoparticles with 6CB-AuNPs (CB = covalent bond) showing the highest optical limiting threshold of 0.36 J cm−2.