Aims: To assess the adequacy of current decontamination methods for the Goldmann tonometer in the context of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). Methods: Reusable Goldmann tonometer prisms were used to perform applanation tonometry on different groups of patients. Following tonometry, retained materials were collected from the tonometer prism head and examined using cytological methods. The used tonometers were subjected to a series of conditions to evaluate their effect on the residual cell numbers found on the tonometer heads. These included wiping alone and wiping or washing followed by disinfection of the tonometer prism. The effect on cell counts of drying the prism overnight was studied, as well as drying overnight and then wiping and disinfecting. All disinfections were performed with sodium hypochlorite (0.05% w/v). Results: The cytology specimens of 69 patients were studied. Patients using eye drops regularly desquamated significantly more corneal epithelial cells with Goldmann tonometry than patients not using regular eye drops. The mean number of cells was 156 (range 0–470) for patients using eye drops and 14 (4–57) for patients not using eye drops (p = 0.004). Wiping or washing the tonometer head reduced the cell number significantly but neither method completely eliminated cells. The two methods were not significantly different (p=0.3). Drying left a large number of cells (23–320 cells). Conclusions: Retained corneal epithelial cells, following the standard decontamination routine of tonometer prisms, may represent potential prion infectivity. Manual cleaning was the most important step in reducing epithelial cell retention.


The paper represents the comments of the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law on the Draft Commission Regulation on the application of Art. 101(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to categories of research and development agreements and the Daft Guidelines on horizontal cooperation agreements. Given the particular expertise of the Institute both on intellectual property law and competition law, the comments focus on the Draft Research and Development (R&D) Block Exemption Regulation and Chapter 7 of the Draft Horizontal Guidelines dealing with standardisation agreements. The Institute does not comment on the Draft Block Exemption Regulation on Specialisation Agreements. The Institute is in support of the general approach of the Commission to revise the existing system. In particular, the Institute welcomes the clearer distinction between competition in the product market, the market for technology and finally competition for innovation. Yet, the following comments will concentrate on points where the Institute thinks that the current text may be improved. It is also held that clearer rules on how to deal with competition problems related to technological standards would be highly desirable. In this regard, the Institute is of the opinion that Chapter 7 of the Draft Horizontal Guidelines does not adequately respond to the challenges presented by technological standards.


In this study, large-eddy simulation is used to investigate the influence of atmospheric stability on wind-turbine wakes. In the simulations, tuning-free Lagrangian scale- dependent dynamic models are used to model the subgrid-scale turbulent fluxes, while the turbine-induced forces are parameterized with an actuator-disk model. Emphasis is placed on studying the structure and characteristics of turbine wake in the cases where the incident flow to the turbine has the same mean velocity at the hub height but different thermal stability condition. The simulation results show that the atmospheric stability has a significant effect on the spatial distribution of the mean velocity deficit and turbulent fluxes in the wake region. In particular, in the convective boundary layer, the wake recovers faster, and the locations of the maximum turbulence intensity and turbulent stresses are closer to the turbine compared with the neutral and stable cases.


Combined with the research status of construction safety management and considered of the human, machine and environment, the security control indexes of ¿wounded rate per thousand¿ and ¿economic loss per million cost of project¿ are used to analysis the influencing factors of the construction project and the indexes system was set up. With introducing information entropy to rough set reduction algorithm, the index system was reduced as the input of the artificial neural networks (ANN). Then, the safety prediction model of construction project was established based on rough sets (RS) and ANN. The testing results show that the proposed system provides not only an effective prediction of the main influencing risk factors for construction projects, but also a reliable tool for safety management.


We study the homogeneous nucleation process in Stillinger-Weber silicon in the canonical ensemble. A clear first-order transition from the liquid to crystal phase is observed thermodynamically with kinetic and structural evidence of the transformation. At 0.75Tm, the critical cluster size is about 175 atoms. The lifetime distribution of clusters as a function of the maximum size they reach follows an inverse Gaussian distribution as was predicted recently from the classical theory of nucleation ! CNT" . However, while there is a qualitative agreement with the CNT, the free-energy curve obtained from the simulations differs significantly from the theoretical predictions, suggesting that the low-density liquid phase found recently could play a role at the interface between the crystallite and the surrounding liquid during the nucleation process.


Author(s): Park, Soo Jin | Advisor(s): Alwan, Abeer A. H. | Abstract: An individual's voice can vary dramatically depending on word choice, affect, and other factors. Such intrinsic within-talker variability causes considerable difficulties when distinguishing talkers by their voices, both for humans and machines. For machines, phonetic content variability substantially degrades performance when utterances are short (e.g., l 10 sec). Humans, on the contrary, are less influenced by content variability, and they perform better than machines in such conditions. Hence, understanding which and how acoustic features are related to human responses might provide insights to improve machine performance. Yet, little is known about human and machine voice discrimination ability under various kinds of intrinsic within-talker variabilities.This dissertation presents studies of voice discrimination abilities of humans and machines under text, affect, and speaking-style variabilities. The main focus is in developing a feature set, based on a psychoacoustic model of voice quality, that can be used to improve machine performance and to find acoustic correlates with human responses. In order to systematically investigate the effects of within- and between-talker variability, a database was developed at UCLA. More than a hundred females and a hundred males were recorded with various speech styles, including sustained vowels, read sentences, affective speech, and pet-directed speech.Preliminary experiments indicated that the voice quality feature set (VQual1) was promising for predicting human responses, and for improving automatic speaker verification (ASV) performance which degraded significantly under text, affect and/or speaking-style variabilities. VQual1 was modified to another set (VQual2) to better differentiate talkers, leading to further improvements in short-utterance text-independent ASV tasks. Voice discrimination abilities of humans and machines for very short utterances (~ 2 sec) under high text and style variability were analyzed using read sentences and pet-directed speech. Humans were more accurate than machines for read sentence pairs, but the performance difference became small for style-mismatched pairs and for perceptually marked talkers. Humans' and machines' decision spaces were weakly correlated, indicating a weak or non-linear relationship between talker representations by humans and machines. However, for different-talker pairs, the VQual2-based system responses were highly correlated with human responses. Results also suggested that machines could supplement human decisions for perceptually marked talkers. Additionally, VQual2 was effective in perceived affect recognition, suggesting another application where voice quality features can contribute to predict human decisions.


A network-based model is proposed for investigating the impact of transit operator fleet size on a network with uncertainty under various market regimes. The market regimes concerned include monopoly, free competition, and oligopoly. In the proposed model, the transit operator aims to determine fleet size to optimize its objective function while accounting for transit passengers' travel choice decisions that minimize their own perceived disutility of travel. To consider the uncertainty effects on transit networks, the proposed model incorporates the unreliability component of transit services into the passenger disutility function, which is mainly due to variations in in-vehicle travel time and the dwell time of transit vehicles at stops. A numerical example is used to illustrate the application of the proposed model. Numerical results show that transit service unreliability could significantly influence transit system performance and the travel choice behavior of transit passengers.


Genetic testing for common variants in the CYP2C9 and VKORC1 genes may provide useful clinical informa- tion to guide dosing patients receiving oral warfarin. Specifically, the CYP2C9*2, CYP2C9*3 and either the VKORC1 - 1639 G>A or VKORC1 1173C>T polymorphisms can be used to help predict an approximate warfarin maintenance dose needed for a particular patient. Although clinical uptake and use of this genotyping has been slow, an increas- ing body of literature provides evidence of the clinical utility of supplementing traditional warfarin dosing algorithms with a pharmacogenetic approach. The availability of multiple methods for clinical genotyping provides the opportu- nity for molecular diagnostic laboratories to introduce genotyping assays tailored to their specific needs based on variables such as testing volumes, staffing, available instrumentation and needed turnaround times. Three assays (Invader, Verigene and TaqMan) designed to detect three genetic variations associated with warfarin dosing are evaluated and compared as potential clinical tests to assist in patient care. Identical genotypes were reported by each assay for all samples tested but the assays were found to differ in turnaround time, approval status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), requirements for amount of input genomic DNA and other logistical factors that might make each assay more favorable in different settings.


Summary
The extent and seismic properties of magma bodies beneath the subsurface are normally ascertained via seismic methods. The seismic properties of such bodies depend on the composition and microstructure of both melt and crystals. Using effective medium theory, we assess the effect of microstructure, geometry and orientation of melt and crystals on the seismic properties, namely P- and S-wave velocities and anisotropy. We find that S-wave velocity and anisotropy are key observables in determining the composition and microstructure of magma bodies.


This paper presents a cost-effective and high-performance dual-thread VLIW processor model. The dual-thread VLIW processor model is a low-cost subset of the Weld architecture paradigm. It supports one main thread and one speculative thread running simultaneously in a VLIW processor with a register file and a fetch unit per thread along with memory disambiguation hardware for speculative load and store operations. This paper analyzes the performance impact of the dual-thread VLIW processor, which includes analysis of migrating disambiguation hardware for speculative load operations to the compiler and of the sensitivity of the model to the variation of branch misprediction, second-level cache miss penalties, and register file copy time. Up to 34 percent improvement in performance can be attained using the dual-thread VLIW processor when compared to a single-threaded VLIW processor model.


This article deals with the problem of estimating deformations of brightness patterns using visual front-end operations. Estimating such deformations constitutes an important subtask in several computer vision problems relating to image correspondence and shape estimation. The following subjects are treated: The problem of decomposing affine flow fields into simpler components is analysed in detail. A canonical parametrization is presented based on singular value decomposition, which naturally separates the rotationally invariant components of the flow field from the rotationally variant ones. A novel mechanism is presented for automatic selection of scale levels when estimating local affine deformations. This mechanism is expressed within a multiscale framework where disparity estimates are computed in a hierarchical coarse-to-fine manner and corrected using iterative techniques. Then, deformation estimates are selected from the scales that minimize a certain normalized residual over scales. Finally, the descriptors so obtained serve as initial data for computing refined estimates of the local deformations.<<ETX>>


In the circulation, a plasma metalloprotease, ADAMTS13, cleaves von Willebrand factor (vWF) in a shear-dependent manner. This article reviews the role of this cleavage in regulating VWF-platelet interaction and proposes a scheme for understanding how a deficiency of ADAMTS13 results in the development of microthrombi in patients with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. (Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol . 2003;23:●●●-●●●.)


Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is a tyrosine kinase localized at the site of focal adhesions (FA). FAK is identified as a key mediator of signaling by integrins, the major family of cell surface receptors for extracellular matrix, as well as by other receptors in both normal and cancer cells. FAK plays a prominent role in tumor progression and metastasis regulating cellular processes including migration, invasion, epithelial to mesenchymal transition, and angiogenesis. Integrin-FAK signaling has been shown to activate a number of biological mechanisms through phosphorylation and protein-protein interactions promoting tumorigenesis. FAK seems also to have a role in the proliferation of tumor cells by its biochemical and biological association to cytoplasmic kinases such as src and ERK. However, the mechanisms that involve FAK in those processes are not yet clarify. The best characterized FAK phosporylation event is the auto-phosphorylation at the tyrosine397 (Tyr397) which creates a motif that is recognized by various SH2 domain-containing proteins, such as src which phosphorylates FAK on Tyr576. The c-terminal domain of FAK undergoes to several serine-phosphorylation events whose role is not well-understood. Previous studies in neural and endothelial cells (EC) have shown a new role for FAK in the regulation of centrosome functions during mitosis dependent on Ser732 phosphorylation. We have found that EGF stimulation of selected starved melanoma, thyroid and high stage ovarian tumor cells induced, in dividing cells, accumulation of phosphorylated (P-)FAK on Ser732. Inhibition of cell/substrate adhesion with specific anti-integrin antibodies demonstrated that P-FAKSer732 activation is not induced by integrin clustering. Confocal immunofluorescence and immunoprecipitation showed that, in these cells, P-FAKSer732 is localized in a perinuclear site independently from FA and P-FAKTyr397. Treatment of an high proliferative melanoma cell line with the Rock inhibitor Y27632 partially decreased the levels of P-FAKSer732, the cellular proliferation and impaired the mitotic spindle formation. FACS analysis showed that the P-FAKSer732 decreased upon treatment with the MEK inhibitor UO126 in a dose-dependent manner together with the levels of P(Ser 10) -Histone H3 thus demonstrating that FAK is involved in the mitotic process regulated by MEK/ERK activation. Indeed, P-FAKSer732 co-localized with microtubules of the mitotic spindle in proliferating cells and immunoprecipitated with the motor protein dynein and with the acetylated tubulin of polymerized microtubules. The finding of a novel role for FAK in tumor cells might provide the underpinning for therapeutic strategies in selected solid tumors. Partially supported by Italian Ministery of Health and Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC). Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 226. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-226


The lattice basis reduction algorithm is a method for solving the Shortest Vector Problem (SVP) on lattices. There are many variants of the lattice basis reduction algorithm such as LLL, BKZ, and RSR. Though BKZ has been used most widely, it is shown recently that some variants of RSR are quite efficient for solving a high-dimensional SVP (they achieved many best scores in TU Darmstadt SVP challenge). RSR repeats alternately the generation of new very short lattice vectors from the current basis (we call this procedure "random sampling") and the improvement of the current basis by utilizing the generated very short lattice vectors. Therefore, it is important for investigating and ameliorating RSR to estimate the success probability of finding very short lattice vectors by combining the current basis. In this paper, we propose a new method for estimating the success probability by the Gram-Charlier approximation, which is a basic asymptotic expansion of any probability distribution by utilizing the higher order cumulants such as the skewness and the kurtosis. The proposed method uses a "parametric" model for estimating the probability, which gives a closed-form expression with a few parameters. Therefore, the proposed method is much more efficient than the previous methods using the non-parametric estimation. This enables us to investigate the lattice basis reduction algorithm intensively in various situations and clarify its properties. Numerical experiments verified that the Gram-Charlier approximation can estimate the actual distribution quite accurately. In addition, we investigated RSR and its variants by the proposed method. Consequently, the results showed that the weighted random sampling is useful for generating shorter lattice vectors. They also showed that it is crucial for solving the SVP to improve the current basis periodically.


Bidirectional four wave mixing (FWM) is investigated in a bulk semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) for dispersion compensation and for the clear/drop functionality in optical time division multiplexed (OTDM) systems. Good performance for bidirectional midspan spectral inversion (MSSI) is theoretically predicted for bit rates of 10, 20, and 40 Gb/s and is shown to be in agreement with measurements performed at 10 and 20 Gb/s. Measurements of the clear/drop functionality using the bidirectional technique show excellent performance for a 4/spl times/10 Gb/s signal and is again in good agreement with simulations. The clear/drop functionality is also simulated for 4/spl times/20 Gb/s and 4/spl times/40 Gb/s signals.


A total of 416 pigs, with an average initial body weight of 127 lb, was used to determine the effect of adding fat in diets for early and late finishing on growth performance and carcass characteristics. Treatments were: a no added fat control; addition of fat in early finishing (127 to 219 lb body weight); addition of fat in late finishing (219 to 280 lb body weight); and addition of fat throughout finishing (127 to 280 lb body weight). For the first period (127 to 219 lb body weight), ADG and F/G were improved by 5 and 9%, respectively, when fat was added in the diet (P<0.03). For the second period (219 to 280 lb body weight) and overall (127 to 280 lb body weight) ADFI was less for pigs fed fat (P<0.003). Also, overall ADG and F/G were improved with inclusion of fat (P<0.07), with the greatest response from inclusion of fat in both phases. Hot carcass weight and carcass yield were increased with inclusion of fat in the diets (P<0.001), and this effect was more pronounced when fat was added in late finishing vs early finishing (P<0.02). In conclusion, the addition of fat to diets for finishing pigs improved growth performance without decreasing carcass leanness. However, adding fat for only the first or second part of the finishing phase was less effective than adding fat for the entire finishing period.


Using country-by-country reports from the Systemically Important Banks in the European Union, we measure "abnormal'' banking activity in tax havens (TH). Our assessment is based on a gravity model used to predict the expected international turnover of EU banks worldwide. We find that: 1) banks turnover in TH represents on average twice the gravity predictions; 2) the abnormal turnover of EU banks represents 1.46\% of GDP in TH and varies between 16\% of GDP and zero; 3) there is a large heterogeneity across TH with Hong Kong, Luxembourg and Singapore concentrating the bulk of the abnormal turnover; 4) we observe a decline and a concentration of abnormal turnover since the reporting requirement has been introduced in the EU.


The leukemia inhibitory factor (Lif) signaling pathway is a crucial determinant for mouse embryonic stem (mES) cell self-renewal and pluripotency. One of the hallmarks of mES cells, their compact growth morphology, results from tight cell adhesion mediated through E-cadherin, β-catenin (Ctnnb1) and α-catenin with the actin cytoskeleton. β-catenin is also involved in canonical Wnt signaling, which has also been suggested to control mES cell stemness. Here, we analyze Ctnnb1-/- mES cells in which cell adhesion is preserved by an E-cadherin-α-catenin (Eα) fusion protein (Ctnnb1-/-Eα mES cells), and show that mimicking only the adhesive function of β-catenin is necessary and sufficient to maintain the mES cell state, making β-catenin/Wnt signaling obsolete in this process. Furthermore, we propose a role for E-cadherin in promoting the Lif signaling cascade, showing an association of E-cadherin with the Lifr-Gp130 receptor complex, which is most likely facilitated by the extracellular domain of E-cadherin. Without Eα, and thus without maintained cell adhesion, Ctnnb1-/- mES cells downregulate components of the Lif signaling pathway, such as Lifr, Gp130 and activated Stat3, as well as pluripotency-associated markers. From these observations, we hypothesize that the changes in gene expression accompanying the loss of pluripotency are a direct consequence of dysfunctional cell adhesion. Supporting this view, we find that the requirement for intact adhesion can be circumvented by the forced expression of constitutively active Stat3. In summary, we put forward a model in which mES cells can be propagated in culture in the absence of Ctnnb1, as long as E-cadherin-mediated cell adhesion is preserved.


An axial collapse test of Oxygen-Free High-Conductivity copper (OFHC) cylindrical specimen subjected to impact against a steel plane target at the velocity range between 64 m/s and 165 m/s was performed on a single gas gun. The deformation process of the OFHC cylindrical shell in the specimen was a sequence of the thermovisco-plastic wave propagation between target plate and the structural plate. The experimental results were simulated numerically by use of LS-DYNA. The influences of OFHC constitutive models on the deformations of OFHC cylindrical shells were shown in the paper. It seems that the Johnson-Cook(J-C) constitutive model gave a better prediction of the shape of the OFHC cylindrical shell in such an impact test. The deformation of cylindrical shell is sensitive to the work-hardening coefficient. The energy absorption behaviors of the OFHC cylindrical shells were also investigated. The energy absorption capability of the shells influenced by their geometries were also shown in the paper.


A study has been performed of the impact on performance of using low enriched uranium (20% {sup 235}U) or medium enriched uranium (35% {sup 235}U) as an alternative fuel for the Advanced Neutron Source, which is currently designed to use uranium enriched to 93% {sup 235}U. Higher fuel densities and larger volume cores were evaluated at the lower enrichments in terms of impact on neutron flux, safety, safeguards, technical feasibility, and cost. The feasibility of fabricating uranium silicide fuel at increasing material density was specifically addressed by a panel of international experts on research reactor fuels. The most viable alternative designs for the reactor at lower enrichments were identified and discussed. Several sensitivity analyses were performed to gain an understanding of the performance of the reactor at parametric values of power, fuel density, core volume, and enrichment that were interpolations between the boundary values imposed on the study or extrapolations from known technology. Volume 2 of this report contains 26 appendices containing results, meeting minutes, and fuel panel presentations. There are 26 appendices in this volume.


The idea of 3-D scanner tags is of awesome importance for use in remote information transmission between handheld electronic gadgets. In a normal setup, any record on a mobile phone, for instance, can be exchanged to a second wireless through a progression of pictures on the LCD which are then caught and decoded through the second's camera PDA. In this study, another approach for information tweak in 3-D standardized tags is presented, and its execution is assessed in examination to other standard routines for scanner tag adjustment. In this new approach, orthogonal recurrence division multiplexing (OFDM) adjustment is utilized together with differential stage movement keying (DPSK) over contiguous recurrence area components. A particular point of this study is to build up a framework that is demonstrated tolerant to camera developments, picture obscure, and light spillage inside of neighboring pixels of a LCD.


Understanding material responses to energy deposition from energetic charged particles is important for defect engineering, ion-beam processing, ion-beam analysis and modification, geologic aging, space exploration, and nuclear applications. As an incident ion penetrates a solid, its energy is transferred to electrons and to atomic nuclei of the solid. Much of this electronic energy deposition is subsequently transferred to the atomic structure via electron–phonon (e–ph) coupling, leading to local inelastic thermal spikes in which energy dissipation is influenced by the local environment. In addition, intense ionization can lead to high densities of localized electronic excitations in wide-bandgap materials and ceramics that can affect defect dynamics and atomic mobility. Specifically, energy exchange between electrons and atomic nuclei, along with localized electronic excitations, can lead to substantial competitive (ionization-induced annealing), additive (both electronic and nuclear energy depositions contributing to damage production), and synergistic (more damage than the sums of separate damage processes) effects. Although nonmonotonic effects of the e–ph coupling strength and athermal processes are demonstrated for pre-existing defects and residual damage during ion–solid interactions, there is limited understanding of when such electronic effects must be considered in atomic-scale models of damage production and evolution in a broad variety of materials. Complex ceramics and chemically disordered solid solution alloys with different constituent elements allow a systematic evaluation of defect dynamics and irradiation performance with increasing complexity. Current knowledge regarding tuning of bonding characteristics and chemical disorder to control atomic-level dynamics is reviewed. Although a lack of fundamental understanding obstructs the advancement of reliable predictions for ion beam material modification, it highlights challenges and opens research opportunities. Insights into the complex electronic and atomic correlations with extreme energy deposition will strengthen our ability to design materials and predict ion-irradiation-induced damage in a radiation environment, and they may pave the way to better control fundamental processes and design new material functionalities for advanced technologies.


We study computational methods for computing the distance to singularity, the distance to the nearest high-index problem, and the distance to instability for linear differential-algebraic systems (DAEs) with dissipative Hamiltonian structure. While for general unstructured DAEs the characterization of these distances is very difficult and partially open, it has been shown in [C. Mehl, V. Mehrmann, and M. Wojtylak, Distance problems for dissipative Hamiltonian systems and related matrix polynomials, Linear Algebra Appl., 623 (2021), pp. 335–366] that for dissipative Hamiltonian systems and related matrix pencils there exist explicit characterizations. We will use these characterizations for the development of computational methods to approximate these distances via methods that follow the flow of a differential equation converging to the smallest perturbation that destroys the property of regularity, index one, or stability.


Shipibo indigenous people perform a sophisticated array of vocal musical genres, including short 'laughing songs' called osanti. These song-jokes make fun of certain non-humans, mostly animals. They are by definition sung from within the non-humans' perspective. Osanti are only performed by trained specialists in indigenous medicine and sorcery (médicos), because it is crucial that the performer owns the faculty of transforming into the animal in question, although in osanti the singers do not transform. Songs involving actual transformation are not meant for laughing: these are magical songs including interaction with and transformation into animals or spirits that possess a more ample radius of perception and action than 'Real Human' beings. Osanti songs, with their position between secular and magical songs, allow for an analysis of humour and laughing in the construction of the indigenous ontology, thereby questioning some generalisations made in theories of animism and perspectivism.


Atmospheric pressure glow discharge is observed for the first time in a surface discharge generator in flowing helium. Electrical and optical methods are used to measure the characteristics of atmospheric pressure glow discharge for different voltages. The results show that discharge current waveforms are asymmetric for the different polarities of the applied voltage. A continuous discharge profile with a width of several microseconds appears for per half cycle of the applied voltage when the voltage is increased to a certain value. The short-pulsed discharge and the continuous current would result from the Townsend breakdown and glow discharge mechanisms respectively. The properties of surface discharge in stagnant helium are completely different from that in flowing helium.


This paper demonstrates the application of Surpac and Whittle in open pit optimisation and design. Exploration data on the Tabakoto deposit of AngloGold Ashanti Sadiola Mine (AASM) has established 13 652 661 t of gold resource with an average grade of 1.15 g/t that could be mined using open pit method. The aim of this paper is to optimise and design a pit to mine the deposit safely and profitably using Surpac and Whittle software. The work entailed: block modelling of the Tabakoto deposit using Surpac; importing the block model to Whittle for pit optimisation; and importation of the optimal pit back to Surpac for detailed pit design. In all, 55 nested pit outlines were generated but the one with the highest Net Present Value (NPV) of US$3 185 637 was selected as the optimal pit. The optimal pit contains 446 750 t of ore at an average grade of 1.709 g/t and 2 310 910 t of waste while the designed pit has 444 982 t of ore at an average grade of 1.683 g/t and 2 416 988 t of waste.  It can be seen that using the optimal pit as base, the designed pit has less tonnes of ore, a lower grade and more waste. The difference in values is due to the expansion of the pit bottom and the creation of a ramp and berms in the designed pit which resulted in some ore loss and dilution. Again, the designed pit contains only 32.59% of the gold resource established by exploration, but the ore contained in the designed pit is what, under the current economic and geotechnical constrained, can be mined profitably and safely. Keywords : Block Modelling, Optimal Pit, Pit Design, Surpac, Whittle


This work makes a brief review of the literature on the relation between psychosocial factors and post-acute myocardial infarction (AMI) rehabilitation, aiming at basing the development of psychosocial intervention programs for these patients. A psychological intervention program meant for improving the AMI-patients' adjustment to illness and quality of life is described. A preliminary study on the program efficacy is presented, comparing the psychosocial intervention modality (study group – SG) in relation to a control group (CG) of traditional medical intervention modality. The investigation had a quasi-experimental outlining, with the sample consisting of 41 male patients from the cardiological services of 3 hospitals from Portugal north region, with ages comprehended between 35 to 70 years old. The intervention variables were depression, anxiety, the representations of the illness and health habits and life style. The patients were evaluated after the AMI occurrence (internment) and 3 months after the discharge from hospital. The main hypothesis supposed the existence of significant differences between the SG and the CG, both in pre and post test, in the sense of better psychosocial results post-AMI for the SG. The obtained results pointed out for a positive effect of the intervention in the SG when compared to the CG in terms of depression, anxiety, comprehension of the illness and perception of its duration, treatment control, nutrition and physical activity. These results show the importance of this type of intervention in the improvement of wellbeing and adjustment to the illness. Descriptors: Psychology; myocardial infarction; Psychology, clinical; psychosocial impact.


Consumer devices and real and simulated earthquake data demonstrate that earthquake early warning can be achieved via crowdsourcing. Earthquake early warning (EEW) can reduce harm to people and infrastructure from earthquakes and tsunamis, but it has not been implemented in most high earthquake-risk regions because of prohibitive cost. Common consumer devices such as smartphones contain low-cost versions of the sensors used in EEW. Although less accurate than scientific-grade instruments, these sensors are globally ubiquitous. Through controlled tests of consumer devices, simulation of an Mw (moment magnitude) 7 earthquake on California's Hayward fault, and real data from the Mw 9 Tohoku-oki earthquake, we demonstrate that EEW could be achieved via crowdsourcing.


ABSTRACT In the recent Francisco and Bautista decisions, the Fifth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals compelled arbitration of Jones Act tort claims brought by Filipino seamen whose employment contracts included mandatory arbitration clauses falling under the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards and its implementing Act. Matthew Nickson's note argues that the decisions are flawed because they distort statutory plain meaning and legislative history. It also examines why the decisions run counter to fundamental principles of U.S. admiralty law and the broad remedial policies of the Jones Act, as well as Supreme Court labor law and Federal Employers' Liability Act jurisprudence. The note concludes that both cases work an injustice to foreign seamen and should be overturned. I. INTRODUCTION In 2002 in Francisco v. Stolt Achievement MT1 and again last year in Bautista v. Star Cruises,2 panels of the Fifth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals compelled arbitration of tort claims brought by plaintiff seamen whose employment contracts contained covenants to arbitrate falling under the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York Convention or Convention)3 and its implementing Act (the Convention Act).4 Francisco involved a Filipino seaman, Ernesto Francisco, who sued his employer for negligence under the Jones Act5 after sustaining injuries aboard a chemical tanker ship navigating the Mississippi River. Bautista involved consolidated Jones Act negligence and wrongful death claims surrounding a tragic boiler explosion that occurred in the Port of Miami aboard the famous S.S. Norway. To justify their holdings, both the Francisco and Bautista panels relied upon the ever expanding Supreme Court policy favoring arbitration and forum-selection clauses. The courts discussed Federal Arbitration Act (FAA)6 and Convention Act cases compelling arbitration in the international business context so as to deny the incorporation into the Convention Act of the seamen's arbitration exemption found in FAA section 1.7 The decisions are problematic for two important reasons. The first reason is that they interpret the interaction of the FAA and the Convention Act as producing a result that seems unnatural. Arguably, a unified reading of the two acts provides that the seamen's arbitration exemption is applicable to the Convention Act. At the very least, for a variety of reasons to be explored below, this applicability is ambiguous. It is befuddling that both courts determined so peremptorily that the plain meaning of the Convention Act does not incorporate the exemption. The second key problem with Francisco and Bautista is their dismissal of legislative history that is favorable to the plaintiffs. The courts discount testimony given before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by Richard Kearney, a State Department official and the Convention Act's drafter. The decisions also ignore evidence-apparent from questions posed to Mr. Kearney by Senator J. William Fulbright, the Act's principal legislative sponsor-about the Act's intended scope. The impressions that both men had of the Convention Act help to clarify any uncertainty vis-a-vis its interaction with the FAA. What's more, Francisco and Bautista are hostile to fundamental principles of U.S. admiralty law. Among other things, these holdings violate FAA policy by paving the way for arbitration of U.S. seamen's tort claims; circumvent the liberal policies of the Jones Act and of the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA);8 and contravene Supreme Court labor law jurisprudence and especially U.S. Bulk Carriers, Inc. v. Arguelles.9 There can be no doubt that Francisco and Bautista implicate an ongoing debate about the role of human beings in global economic development. To improve the Philippine economy by securing jobs overseas for Filipino citizens and thereby attracting remittances, Philippine law mandates that contracts of employment of seamen be arbitrable. …


The northern Central Plateau of Burkina Faso has been the site of extensive development assistance since the 1980s. Thousands of hectares of degraded land have been rehabilitated through investments in Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) techniques. Comprehensive assessments of these projects have documented their beneficial impacts. This study extends these insights to consider the effects of SWC on livelihood sustainability by comparing recent household-level indicators with studies conducted twenty years earlier. Comparing quantitative data from two different points in time allows researchers to identify 'livelihood trajectories', or the general direction of either improvement or decline. The results show that although SWC investments have improved the natural capital of Mossi households, improvements in other forms of capital have accrued mostly among wealthy households. Key words: Livelihoods, development, Mossi, Burkina Faso


In their book "La Divina Proportione" [1],[2], Luca Pacioli and Leonardo da Vinci described and illustrated an operation which you can apply to a polyhedron, called Elevation. Starting from Pacioli's basic idea, resulting in a second layer around a polyhedral shape, we can develop this idea further towards entwined double layer structures. Some of them are single objects, others appear to be compounds.


Previous research on education amongst pastoralists has concentrated mainly on the reasons for their comparatively low rates of enrolment and attainment. This thesis examines education in pastoralist areas more critically. It is based on fourteen months of fieldwork carried out between 2003 and 2006 in a predominantly agro-pastoralist Maasai area in Monduli District in northern Tanzania. Quantitative and qualitative data are used to explore the nature of the schooling process and the ways in which schooling has influenced pastoralism and pastoralists' livelihoods. Theoretical approaches which view schooling as a diverse collection of socially situated practices embedded in a local context, as well as approaches which see 'development' as a discursive practice, are drawn on. Various actors have shaped the schooling process, including the Tanzanian government, teachers, non-Maasai in-migrants, and Maasai. The results of this process are shown to have been affected by discursive contestations, mediated by local constraints and opportunities. The schooling process in pastoralist areas in Tanzania has been informed by discourses of pastoral development that are not supportive of extensive pastoralism. Involvement of Maasai children in schooling has consequently brought practical as well as ideological challenges for those trying to maintain successful and sustainable pastoralist livelihoods. This thesis argues that the schooling process in this area has influenced livelihood choices and thus the practice and viability of pastoralism. Through examining the ideological basis, practices, and consequences of schooling, as well as through an analysis of the formulation of education policies, this thesis seeks to inform and stimulate current debate surrounding education provision for pastoralists.


Human beings often have to reason and make decisions based on uncertain knowledge of real world problems. Therefore, many artificial intelligence (AI) applications, such as expert systems, must have the ability to understand the way human beings reason from uncertain data or knowledge in order to reach a conclusion. Several approaches have been proposed in this respect to deal with various kinds of uncertainty in AI. Among these approaches, probabilistic theory is used in many research areas such as knowledge-based systems, data mining, etc. Nilsson revisited in 1986 the early work of Boole (1854) and of Hailperin (1976) on logic and probability. He proposed a generalization of logic in which the truth values of sentences are probability values. The main problem addressed by Nilsson is the probabilistic satisfiability ( PSAT) for both propositional and first-order logic: determine, given a set of sentences (i.e., clauses) and probabilities that these sentences are true, whether these probabilities are consistent. Since first-order logic is used in many AI applications due to its expressiveness to represent knowledge over propositional logic, our thesis proposes an extension of the mathematical modeling of PSAT to first-order logic, FOPSAT for short. We next propose an exact algorithm based on delayed column generation technique, to check consistency and, if consistency holds, to entail new probability values for an additional logical sentence to be true and such that the augmented set of sentences remains consistent. We illustrate the proposed algorithm on an example, and discuss its potential to solve medium size FOPSAT instances.


Recently, it has been found that monolingual English language models can be used as knowledge bases. Instead of structural knowledge base queries, masked sentences such as "Paris is the capital of [MASK]" are used as probes. We translate the established benchmarks TREx and GoogleRE into 53 languages. Working with mBERT, we investigate three questions. (i) Can mBERT be used as a multilingual knowledge base? Most prior work only considers English. Extending research to multiple languages is important for diversity and accessibility. (ii) Is mBERT's performance as knowledge base language-independent or does it vary from language to language? (iii) A multilingual model is trained on more text, e.g., mBERT is trained on 104 Wikipedias. Can mBERT leverage this for better performance? We find that using mBERT as a knowledge base yields varying performance across languages and pooling predictions across languages improves performance. Conversely, mBERT exhibits a language bias; e.g., when queried in Italian, it tends to predict Italy as the country of origin.


In Europe, epiphytic lichens are incorporated in forest diversity monitoring projects in which sampling at the tree level is carried out on 4 grids on the 4 cardinal points (N, S, E, W) of the trunk. Our results, based on the analysis of a dataset referring to six forest sites in NE-Italy and including 264 trees, indicate that a lichen assessment based on sampling at the tree level less than four cardinal points might be effective in estimating species richness across different forest types, showing very high rates of species capture. Similar results were achieved if the reduction of sampling effort is applied to the number of trees sampled within each area. This effect can be explained taking into account the redundant information collected on the same tree. In the framework of forest monitoring programs, the main perspective of our results is related to the possibility of investing saved resources for improving lichen inventories by including in the surveys currently neglected microhabitats. Further studies would be welcome to identify an optimal balance between sampling effort and information gathered, as economic resources are often a constraint to activate and maintain large-scale and long-term monitoring projects.


SUMMARY

The alterations of the amount of free fatty acids (fFA) in Gasteria leaves was followed after application of a wound at the tip of the leaves in three segments of the recovering leaves. The studies were done with the injured leaves left on the plant (in situ), or with leaves that were cut at the base and kept under standard conditions (detached). In both cases the fFA concentration at the front segment with the wound surface, the second area, directly adjacent to the wound region, and at the center segment of the leaves was determined in successive time intervals.

Under in situ conditions fatty acids are transferred from the intact leaves to the wounded one, leading to vast oscillations of the fFA level in the center region. At the front and near-front segments, recovery starts after a very steep decrease of fFA concentration due to wound respiration.

Under detached conditions recovery starts with a decline of the fFA concentration in the entire leaf as a result of wound respiration. A sharp increase in protein synthesis occurs simultaneously in the front segment. Protein synthesis in the near-front and center region starts later, leading to a stimulation of FA synthesis in the center part, which was found to be the main site of FA production. The fatty acids are transferred via the near-front segment to the wound surface, where the initial fFA level is reached after four days. At the fifth day the fFA in the front segment start to polymerize, thus initiating the formation of a new cutin layer, while simultaneously FA production in the center region reaches its maximum level. Once the formation of the protective layer has started, both FA and protein synthesis return to a normal level.

The FA production within the center part of the leaf, the transport through the near-wound segment and the FA consumption at the front part with the wound surface can be seen more clearly with detached leaves than under in situ conditions, where FA translocation from intact leaves interfere with the reactions occurring in the wounded leaf.


A novel refrigerated superconducting magnet design for application to magnetic levitation vehicles for US transportation is presented. The magnet requires no liquid cryogens and offers improved size, weight, and reliability relative to conventional liquid helium pool cooled magnets. Niobium tin superconductor allows the magnet to be operated at a nominal temperature of 8 K, which is attainable at design heat loads with a conventional Gifford-McMahon cryogenic refrigerator. The magnet and the single thermal radiation shield are cooled by conduction from the two stations of the refrigerator. Higher temperature operation minimizes the likelihood of a magnet quench by virtue of the relatively high material heat capacity. The electromagnetic structural, and thermal design of the magnet and cryostat are presented.<<ETX>>


Summary form only given. Pfair scheduling for periodic tasks on multiple processors in a time slotted environment can not only guarantee task deadlines to be respected, but also make tasks execute at steady progressive rates. We consider pfair schedulability of periodic tasks with allocation constraints in the sense that some tasks can only be assigned to one or more specified processors. The contributions of the paper lie in the following four aspects. Firstly, we prove that there exists pfair schedule in the case that fixed tasks are assigned to disjoined processor subsets. Secondly, we give a sufficient and necessary condition of the existence of pfair schedule for periodic tasks with arbitrary allocation constraints. Thirdly, we show that pfair schedulability test of periodic tasks with arbitrary allocation constraints can be done in polynomial time. Finally, an online approximate pfair scheduling algorithm called HPA (hierarchical pfair algorithm) is proposed for scheduling fixed and migrating tasks. With HPA although idea a fixed task is not guaranteed to respect its deadline completely, the amount of time by which it misses its deadline is bounded.


This thesis proposes that an ensemble or community is perpetually shifting and changing, operating in the between of the subjectivities 'I' and 'We'. It argues that the established ensemble does not assume a static entity, and that the notion of a fixed state of the community may not be as straightforward as often assumed.
Positioned within a Practice as Research methodology, this thesis weaves together examples from a longitudinal study of an ensemble, within a closed and, subsequently, open laboratory, with the investigation into the degrees of participation between the ensemble members. This thesis entwines discourses of the ensemble and specific task-based practices, to investigate the individual movement towards, within and alongside the co-appearing of ensembles. This understanding of the collective ensemble is framed by the philosophy of ontology surrounding community as articulated by Jean-Luc Nancy (2000). This embodied practice, reveals new ways of articulating a phenomenology of ensemble practice, understood as a continuous state of fluidity between individual and collective states of being. The thesis traces the emergence of an ensemble in a closed laboratory environment, placing the practice in dialogue with specific contemporary performance collectives, followed by an account of the laboratory in varying open environments. The research is presented both as a written thesis and as an online platform, which the reader is invited to explore alongside each other. These interactions establish the context, methodology, documentation and critical analysis of the Practice as Research investigation. The online platforms can be accessed by following the URLs in the footnotes. A complementary USB memory stick provides the option to watch highlights of the tasks and ensemble, offering a visual and auditory impression of the process. This longitudinal study of an emerging performance ensemble aimed to demonstrate the between state of the individual and the collective as continually taking place. The formation of the ensemble supported participation and interaction, which revealed important implications such as the non-fixed entity of contemporary performance ensembles and the language of becoming when discussing ensembles and community.


A double sine basis function neural network for the design of 2D lowpass filters is presented. This neural network is contrived to have an energy function that coincides with the sum-squared error of the approximation problem at hand and by ensuring that the energy is a monotonic decreasing function, the approximation problem can be solved. The training theorem is proposed, and design of the 2D lowpass filters is improved obviously. It conquers the primary disadvantages of the conventional neural networks that the convergence speed is rather low. The simulation results indicate that there are no fluctuation both in the passband and stopband, and it attains near ideal filter attenuation characteristics.


The popularity of wearable technologies have increased day by day. In the near future, wearable technologies are expected to become an indispensable part of our daily life. The aim of this study is twofold. The first one is the classification of wearable technologies based on the specifications and applications as; wearable health technologies, wearable textile technologies, and wearable consumer electronics. The second aim of the study is study is to point out how wearable technologies will be a milestone both for daily life of people and the way of doing businesses of the companies in the future. The potential applications indicate that the future will be safer, easier, healthier, quicker, and more entertaining with the wearable technologies. KeywordsWearable Technologies, Future Application, Aim, Textile Technology etc.


Background The mucus that lines the airway epithelium provides a barrier against pathogenic and noxious agents and participates in the innate mucosal response to inflammation and infection. Mucins are the major components of mucus and the macromolecules that impart rheologic properties to airway mucus. Airway mucus is overproduced in chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). Biochemical and biophysical characterization of mucus in CRS and in normal airways will elucidate important aspects of CRS pathophysiology and allow the design of targeted medical treatments. The aim of this study was to estimate secretion of sinus mucus mucins in healthy individuals and CRS and correlate them with mucus biophysical properties. Methods Twenty-seven sinus mucus samples from 21 patients were collected (14 subjects with CRS undergoing sinus surgery as part of their treatment and 7 control subjects undergoing hypophysectomy without sinonasal disease). Biophysical properties of the mucus were measured by rheometry. ELISA was done to estimate MUC5AC and MUC5B mucin content in comparison with standards, i.e., porcine gastric mucin (MUC5AC) and human salivary mucin (MUC5B). Results MUC5B secretion ± SEM was 0.49 ± 0.16 μg/mL (n = 14) and 0.17 ± 0.05 μg/mL (n = 7) and MUC5AC secretion ± SEM was 1.26 ± 0.26 μg/mL (n = 14) and 1.46 ± 0.61 μg/mL (n = 7) in chronic sinusitis and control subjects, respectively. There was linear correlation between viscosity and mucin content in the control group but not in the CRS group. Conclusion MUC5B secretion is significantly up-regulated in CRS compared with control subjects (p = 0.04). Correlation between viscosity and mucin content was lost in CRS. This is likely to have important implications for future therapies in CRS.


Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and experiments were used to understand the creep properties and microstructural evolution of a nickel-based single crystal superalloy. By observing the microstructural evolution using MD simulations, we have found a P-type rafting in the [001] crystal orientation owing to dislocations cutting into the γ′ phase. The deflected γ phases lead to an L-type rafting, indicating it is an inferior creep property in the [011] crystal orientation. Unlike the [001] and [011] crystal orientations, dislocations climb over to the γ′ phase without rafting in the [111] crystal orientation, which manifests a superior creep property. In addition, by comparing the effect between temperature and stress on the creep properties, the results suggest that the creep of the [111] crystal orientation was strongly influenced by stress, whereas the creep properties of the [001] and [011] crystal orientations were significantly affected by temperature. Furthermore, the experimental results are consistent with the MD simulations. This study provides fundamental guidance for the rational design and testing of nickel base single crystal superalloy for structural applications.


The maturation of the 401(k) system and the enactment of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, which made 401(k) plans easier and more automatic, were expected to enhance the role that 401(k)s played in the provision of retirement income. So, originally, the release of the Federal Reserve's 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) seemed like a great opportunity to re-assess 401(k)s. The SCF is a triennial survey of a nationally representative sample of U.S. households, which collects detailed information on households' assets, liabilities, and demographic characteristics. Of course, the 2007 SCF reflects a world that no longer exists. Interviews were conducted during the late summer and early fall when the Dow Jones was at 14,000 (the peak was October 9, 2007) and housing prices were only slightly off their peak. While the economic crisis had already begun, its effects were not yet visible. Since the time of the interviews, the stock market has imploded, reducing the value of equities in 401(k) and IRAs by about $2 trillion. Housing prices have fallen by 20 percent. And the crisis has spread to the real economy, throwing 3.6 million people out of work...


This paper centers on the problem of finding commonalities for a set of objects belonging to an object-oriented database. In our approach, commonalities within a set of objects are described by object-oriented queries that compute this set of objects. The paper discusses the architecture of a knowledge discovery system, called MASSON, which employs genetic programming to find such queries. We also report on an experiment that evaluated the knowledge discovery capabilities of the MASSON system.


During a period of 10 years (1965 - 1974) necropsies on 126 Black diabetic patients were performed at King Edward VIII Hospital, Durban. Metabolic factors accounted for 39% of deaths and infection for 34% of all deaths in diabetes mellitus. Sixty-two per cent of the patients who died were below the age of 55 years. These findings are similar to those pertaining in the pre-insulin era.


The hybrid runtime (HRT) model offers a plausible path towards high performance and efficiency. By integrating the OS kernel, parallel runtime, and application, an HRT allows the runtime developer to leverage the full privileged feature set of the hardware and specialize OS services to the runtime's needs. However, conforming to the HRT model currently requires a complete port of the runtime and application to the kernel level, for example to our Nautilus kernel framework, and this requires knowledge of kernel internals. In response, we developed Multiverse, a system that bridges the gap between a built-from-scratch HRT and a legacy runtime system. Multiverse allows existing, unmodified applications and runtimes to be brought into the HRT model without any porting effort whatsoever. Developers simply recompile their package with our compiler toolchain, and Multiverse automatically splits the execution of the application between the domains of a legacy OS and an HRT environment. To the user, the package appears to run as usual on Linux, but the bulk of it now runs as a kernel. The developer can then incrementally extend the runtime and application to take advantage of the HRT model. We describe the design and implementation of Multiverse, and illustrate its capabilities using the Racket runtime system.


GERD BAUMANN is Professor of Social Anthropology at the Research Centre Religion and Society, University of Amsterdam. When the ship HMS Windrush brought the first African Caribbean settlers to fill the labor shortage in Britain's battered post-war economy in 1948, no one could know that the following three decades would produce unprecedented levels of immigration from both the Caribbean and South Asia. As disorientating as the resulting challenges turned out to be, the project of a multicultural society was approached in strikingly distinctive ways. Both the noticeable failures and the most subtle successes of the multicultural project are rooted in a political culture of astonishing peculiarity. To recall the many conspicuous crises in community relations, one need only think of the chronicle of "race riots" that started in London's Notting Hill district in 1958, which reached violent peaks across Britain in the "hot summers" of 1981 and 1986, and then turned into the riots and conflagrations surrounding the Rushdie Crisis which began in 1989. One might think of the violent anti-immigration campaigns which forced successive Conservative and Labour governments from 1962 onwards to respond with more draconian anti-immigration laws. If all one had to rely on were newspaper headlines, there would be little cause for optimism. The stories as headlined in the media construct a continuity of friction and strife between what they termed minorities and the majority, especially between minority youth and the police. One will always ask what makes a youth riot against police into a "race riot": when local youth of all possible backgrounds turn against the police in protest against heavy-handed law enforcement, such as the criminalization of "hanging around" street-corners, then the ensuing battles may not be about "race" at all. They may have far more to do with a clash of views on public order, on the legitimate use of force, and on relations across generations. Truly racist attacks are not unknown, it is admitted with shame; but as soon as they become public knowledge, the near-universal reaction is one of uncompromising condemnation. Witness the case of the unresolved race-motivated murder of Stephen Lawrence, an African-Caribbean teenager killed by street thugs in 1993. Over the past six years, his image, according to BBC TV News, has become "an icon of the nation," and there have been several official inquiries into the police's failure to bring suspects to court. The case has united British public opinion, as well as the interests of divergent establishments in reaffirming a very traditional line: it is considered un-British, regardless of skin color, uniform, or politics, to "put oneself above the law." And the law is stricter, even on the level of verbal incorrectness or subjectively unintended discrimination, than anywhere in the United States or the European Union. The law known as the Race Relations Act (1976), and the state-financed agencies and citizens' initiatives that bring case upon case to ensure its implementation have seen to that. Hate speech is not, in Britain, a matter to be squared with the First Amendment: it is treated as a criminal offense and prosecuted as such. Yet Britain is unique among Western countries in the sheer levels of conflict and confrontation that are tolerated as normal in the public sphere, be it in labor relations or at football matches, community relations or environmental campaigns. At the same time, Britain has shown enormous success in harmonizing community relations through the decades of economic contraction, mass unemployment, and political polarization. Notting Hill, the scene of the first "race riot," is now the site of Europe's most vibrant multicultural carnival; the multiethnic districts of London and Birmingham,Manchester, and Glasgow resound with a creativity that has produced Asian Bhangra Beat, Asian Rock, Caribbean Rap and House music, and innumerable cultural crossovers in theater and poetry, fashion and language use that have spread far beyond their original ethnic milieus. …


He Yang, Kefei Liu, "A Study on Place Branding Strategy of Characteristic Agricultural Products in Xinjiang Based on Brand Ecosystem" on Issue 106, Pages: 1021-1028, Article No: e106191, in the article, The spot price of agricultural products is predicted by Q-RBF neural network optimization model, and the spot price of agricultural products and futures price are analyzed by regression analysis. The results show that there is a cointegration relationship and long-term equilibrium relationship between futures prices and spot prices, and the futures price of agricultural products is an unbiased estimate of spot prices. When the error correction item of the spot price of agricultural products is negative, the next futures price of agricultural product rises and the spot price decreases.


Phytases are nutritionally important for increased bioavailability of dietary minerals and phosphate for monogastric animals including humans. Release of minerals and phosphate is accomplished by the enzymatic stepwise degradation of phytate (inositol hexaphosphate, IP6). Activity determinations of phytase is often based on analysis of total released phosphate (Pi), but phytase activity in its purest form represents released product per time from IP6 only. Microbial and plant preparations often also contain mixtures of phosphatases and organic phosphate compounds; hence some released phosphate in enzymatic assays may originate from non-phytase phosphatases degrading non-phytate molecules. Moreover, even purified enzyme extracts assessed via Pi release may result in errors, since commercial IP6 commonly contains contamination of lower inositol phosphates, and further, the products of phytase IP6 hydrolysis are also substrates for the phytase. These facts motivate a quantitative comparative study. We compared enzyme activity determination in phytase assay samples at four different time points, based on analyzing the substrate IP6 versus the product Pi using different selected methods. The calculated activities varied substantially. For example, at 15 min into enzymatic assay, variations from 152 mU/ml (by IP6 analysis on HPIC) to 275-586 mU/ml (by Pi analysis using several methods) was detected. Our work emphasizes the importance of defining the type of activity assessed, showing that phytase activity based on released Pi may yield false positive results and/or overestimations. We propose to differentiate between phytase activity, being the activity by which IP6 is degraded, and total inositol phosphatase activity, corresponding to total released phosphate during the enzymatic reaction.


The fifteenth-century translator Dame Eleanor Hull was until recently virtually unknown. In 1987 I gave a paper on her at the first University of Cardiff conference on the theory and practice of translation in the Middle Ages;1 in 1995 the Early English Text Society published my edition of her translation of a French commentary on the Penitential Psalms,2 and she will have her own entry in the New Dictionary of National Biography.3 This is an outline of what we know about her at present. Eleanor Hull was born the only child of Sir John Malet of Enmore in Somerset, probably during the last decade of the fourteenth century as her father was dead by 1395. Malet was a retainer of John of Gaunt and of his son Henry Bolingbrokc, later Henry IV. Eleanor Hull's mother, Joan Hylle of Exeter, was the sister of Robert Hylle, compiler of the Hylle Cartulary. Perhaps around 1407, the year her own mother remarried for the first of several times, and certainly by 1413, Eleanor Malet married John Mull, esquire, who was also in the service of the Lancastrians: probably much older than his wife, he was a retainer of John of Gaunt and later ambassador to Castile for both Henry IV and Henry V. Eleanor bore him one son, Edward (he was a small boy in 1417), who as Constable of Bordeaux was to die in the last engagement of the Hundred Years War in 1453. In 1417 Eleanor Hull was given a royal grant as servant to Joan of Navarte, Henry IV's second wife, and also in that year she, her husband, and son, like so many other Lancastrians, were admitted to the confraternity of the Benedictine abbey of St Albans. By 1421 she was a widow and seems to have spent much of her time when not at court at Sopwell Priory, a house of Benedictine nuns dependent on St Albans and less than a mile from the abbey. She probably went to France with her son in 1444 to attend the proxy wedding of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou: Edward became one of the queen's knights. She never remarried, and eventually retired to the Benedictine nunnery at Cannington, near the family scat of Enmorc, where she died in 1460, leaving a will written in her own hand.4Eleanor Hull's translations are preserved in Cambridge University Library, MS Kk.1.6,5 a large and unusually well-documented manuscript of religious verse and prose put together, and in part written out, by Richard Fox, steward or procurator of St Albans Abbey. When Richard died in 1454 he left a will referring to this manuscript in identifiable terms as still in quires, so it can be very precisely dated. CUL MS Kk.1.6 contains two texts attributed to Dame Eleanor Hull: a translation of a commentary on the Seven Penitential Psalms (fols 2-147) and a translation of a collection of prayers and meditations (fols 148-179^sup v^). After the second text Richard Fox records that 'Alyanore Hullc drowc out of Prcnche all this bcforc-wrctcn in this lytylle booke', without further explanation. This attribution has been the starting point for all later research. The prayers and meditations arc also found, without the attribution to Eleanor Hull, in University of Illinois, MS 80, a manuscript that A. I. Doyle dates as certainly no earlier than CUL MS Kk.1.6.6It seems likely that Eleanor Hull made both translations during the early years of her widowhood, while she was staying at Sopwell and perhaps enjoyed access to the library facilities of St Albans. As an heiress, she must have received a better than average education that included English, Latin, and Anglo-Norman; as a royal servant in fifteenth-century England, she would naturally have a knowledge of spoken and written Ercnch, particularly as she had been in the service of the Erench wife of Henry IV. Further, she probably translated the prayers and meditations, which are written in a style of affective piety very familiar in late-medieval England, before the far more ambitious, and less superficially attractive, commentary on the Penitential Psalms. When Fox was compiling his manuscript in the 1450s she would have been still alive, but relatively inaccessible in the depths of Somerset. …


Introduction B19 Parvovirus causes a common childhood rash – 'Slapped Cheek Syndrome', however Parvovirus can also infect adults. Infection during pregnancy can cause serious complications for the fetus. In Sunderland there was a Parvovirus epidemic in 2008. Aim To examine the management of pregnant women in the Sunderland area exposed to Parvovirus from 2007 to 2008. Methods A complex filtration process was used for patient selection. It comprised as follows: The Parvovirus antibody screening log Sunderland Royal Hospital electronic system (HISS) Documentation in the maternity notes 23 standards were created. Results Sample size 103. 62% of women were immune to Parvovirus. 28% were susceptible. 10% were infected but had normal pregnancy outcome. 98% had no documentation of reassurance in their notes. 89% had no documentation of the date of exposure. 59% of those susceptible did not have 4-week follow-up sampling. Conclusion The current system of care of pregnant women who are susceptible to Parvovirus is ineffective. There is poor communication about their immune status and documentation of significant information, such as date of exposure, is incomplete. Recommendation (1) Health professionals should give priority to the care of pregnant women reporting exposure to Parvovirus. (2) The Antenatal Screening Midwife should coordinate the management of Parvovirus results. (3) A proforma-based care pathway should be established for pregnant women exposed to Parvovirus to improve documentation and management.


Rich and complex Raman scattering and Raman optical activity (ROA) spectra have been measured monitoring the pH induced alpha-helix-to-disordered conformational transition in poly(L-glutamic acid). Two-dimensional (2D) correlation techniques have been applied to facilitate a comprehensive analysis of these two complementary spectral sets. Synchronous contour plots have identified band assignments of alpha-helical and disordered conformations, and have revealed bands characteristic of changes in the protonation state of the polypeptide. Asynchronous plots, on the other hand, have probed the relative sequential orders of intensity changes indicating a decrease in intensity of alpha-helical bands in the backbone skeletal stretch region, followed by a subsequent decrease in intensity in the extended amide III and amide I regions, underlying the appearance of disordered structure, including poly(L-proline) II (PPII) helix. The application of a 2D correlation 'moving' window has also disclosed two distinct phases during helix unfolding in the alpha-helix-to-disordered transition, occurring at approximately pH 4.9 and approximately pH 5.2, possibly a result of the difference in helical stability between the end and central regions of the alpha-helix. This paper demonstrates the potential value of combining 2D Raman, 2D ROA and moving window correlation techniques for the detailed investigation of complex and subtle changes of secondary structure during the unfolding mechanisms of polypeptides and proteins.


Abstract This article explores the connections between dreams, cinema, and Palestine. Drawing upon the work of Ghassan Hage, the author argues that dreams and cinema should not be valued only for their connection to resistance and that these phenomena can sometimes reveal unoccupied spaces, even in occupied Palestine. The author then turns to two documentary films: Mohammad Malas' The Dream (1987) and Mais Darwazah's My Love Awaits Me by the Sea (2013). Whereas the former film documents the dreams that haunt Palestinians at night, the latter investigates those dreams that follow them throughout the day. Through these dreams, both films stage an encounter with the unoccupied.


With the increasing use of technology and ICT in daily live there is a great tendency for those at the marginalized areas in Malaysia and those who are in the marginalized groups to 'be left out in the online activities due to the geographical limitation and the limited ICT literacy level. Thus, in the effort to empower the rural communities firstly, there is a need to ensure e-inclusion activities reached the targeted communities. The users must have the access to Internet and the appropriate skills and ICT competencies to use the online services and information. The rural communities also need to understand the language ofInternet which isEnglish and to search and use the information effectively so that the process ofassisting them to become knowledge society can be accomplished. The paper will discuss in order to empower the rural communities via leT, the best agents will be the existing 1945 telecentres and the factors that have been identified to assist sustainability of the telecentres and also to ensure value add programmes can be planned and carried out at the telecentres allover Malaysia. The discussion is based ffn data and observation collected from 10 best telecentres in Malaysia conducted in the year 2007-2008.


Although Internet scanning is one of the most popular malware propagation methods, sound measurements about its success rate are not generally available. In this work, we assess the success rate of an Internet-wide scanning event that was orchestrated by the Sality botnet during February 2011 using data from a university network. We first use unsampled NetFlow records from the border router of the network to find how many targetted hosts replied to the scanners. Second, we correlate the replies with IDS alerts triggered in the same network and uncover significant exploitation activity that followed toward the scan repliers. In our data, 2% of the scanned hosts replied and at least 8% of the repliers we believe were eventually compromised. Furthermore, we characterize the exploitation activity and find surprisingly that scanners and exploiters came from different geographical locations. Our analysis provides a novel look into the success rate of Internet scanning in the wild based on two unique data-sets. Keywords—Botnet Characterization, Network Forensics, Network Scanning, IDS, Netflow


In this study, a simulation program was developed with heat transfer model in the storage tank and analysis was conducted with variation of operating condition and schedule of operation to analyze performance of a hot water supply and panel heating system with a solar collector and burner combined thermal storage tank. The simulation program is divided two sections. One part is calculation of temperature variation of water which flows through the panel in the floor for heating of the residential house during 24 hours, and the other part is heat transfer calculation for the reaction time to get desired water temperature in the thermal storage tank. As results, light oil consumption and system performance during operation period were analyzed with variation of climate condition and with or without solar collector. Most of the case, oil could be saved about from 24 to 41% with installing the solar collector. The performance of the system is more dependent on radiation time of the solar collector rather than the intensity of the solar radiation.


We report a measurement of the frequency spectrum of x-ray transition radiation. X rays were generated by electrons of 5 and 9 GeV in radiators of multiple polypropylene foils, and detected in the range 4 to 30 keV with a calibrated single-crystal Bragg spectrometer. The experimental results closely reproduce the features of the theoretically predicted spectrum. In particular, the pronounced interference pattern of multifoil radiators and the expected hardening of the radiation with increasing foil thickness are clearly observed. The overall intensity of the radiation is somewhat lower than predicted by calculations. (AIP)


This volume presents the proceedings of the 26 th Conference of the Union Europeenne des Arabisants et Islamisants that took place in Basel, Switzerland, from 12 to 16 September 2012. It was the first time since its foundation in 1962 that the Union Europeenne des Arabisants et Islamisants (UEAI) had convened in Switzerland. The theme of the 26 th Union conference was "Arabic and Islamic Studies in Europe and Beyond / Etudes arabes et islamiques en Europe et au-dela / Arabische und islamische Studien in Europa und daruber hinaus". The ambiguity of the title wa s intentional. On the one hand, we wanted to indicate that, although the members of the Union are coming in their large majority from European countries, research in Arabic and Islamic Studies is carried out in many non-European regions of the world. On the other hand, our intention was to express that Arabic and Islamic Studies no longer represent an exclusive or, if one might want to take a more critical stance, a field of research distant from the public mind. Nevertheless, the focus of Arabic and Islamic Studies is still very much concentrated, largely calling on specialists to devote their academic lives to learning and practicing the major (and minor) languages of Islamic history and culture. In this regard, Arabic and Islamic Studies, in general, and the UEAI have to locate an equilibrium, again and again, between disciplinary immersion and intellectual openness. The present volume is a further documented example of these endeavors and struggles. The two editors of this volume, Monika Winet (University of Gottingen) and Maurus Reinkowski (University of Basel), are themselves representative of the breadth of research and interests spread across the field of Arabic and Islamic studies in general, and the UEAI in particular: Monika Winet has taught at the Orientalisches Seminar of the University of Basel from1996 – 2010. Her fields of interest are Arabic travel literature, Karshūnī and Aljamiado texts, and language contacts in al-Andalus. Maurus Reinkowski has taught at the same institution since 2010. His interests rest in the history of the late Ottoman Empire, the modern Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean. The University of Basel , as an institute of learning , lays claim to some of the finest scholars of Islamic and Arabic studies in the 19th and 20th centuries. Albert Socin, an expert of Oriental philology, taught here in the 1870s, and Adam Mez followed him in the 1890s. Friedrich Schulthess then finally established the Seminar of Oriental Studies in 1919. In the years 1922-2009, three scholars, Rudolf Tschudi, Fritz Meier and Gregor Schoeler , have held the chair of Oriental Studies at Basel University – a period not only of enormous continuity, but also of stunning productivity and diverse research interests. Tschudi was a specialist of the Ottoman empire and his successor, Meier, was acclaimed for his works on Islamic mysticism and Persian poetry. Gregor Schoeler is a highly esteemed scholar of Arabic and Islamic studies and was one of the participants of the UEAI 2012 conference. Since 2010, history has come back full circle with Maurus Reinkowski, a specialist of Ottoman history. This volume brings together almost 30 contributions that cover a wide area of research interests, reflecting the highly variegated nature of research in Islamic and Arabic Studies. The papers are preceded by the lectio magistralis "Science as Competition: The Debate between Saʿdaddīn al-Taftāzānī (d. 793/1390) and al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī (d. 816/1413)" that was delivered at the opening ceremony by Ulrich Rudolph, professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Zurich. As we have already stated: The volume covers an enormous breadth of scholarly activities and interests, from Quranic and Hadith studies to Islamic philosophy, sciences and culture to Arabic literature, from religious studies to socio-political history. It is, therefore, with great pleasure that we present to the scholarly community the explorations of these vast continents of knowledge, in all of the ir diversity, deep meaning and profound enlightenment. The importance of the scholars' research, coupled with the strong intellectual imprint left on the research community by them, will always be central to any conference; however, the tireless work and assistance of other institutions and people warrant our gratitude . The organizers are thus grateful to the University of Basel for providing splendid infrastructural support and to the Freiwillige Akademische Gesellschaft (Voluntary Academic Society), Basel, for their generous financial support. We are grateful to Claudia Bolliger and Gudrun Schubert, specialists of Islamic studies at Basel University Library who put together the exhibition Orientalistennachlasse (Orientalist Legacies) in the context of the conference.


Poly (HEMA/acrylamide/ methyl methacrylate) (PHAM) and Poly (Acrylamide/ methyl methacrylate)(PAM) polymers were synthesized for using in the release of Doxorubicin drug. Poly (HEMA/acrylamide/methyl methacrylate) (PHAM) and Poly (Acrylamide/methyl methacrylate) (PAM) composite hydrogels were prepared by a radical addition reaction in aqueous media formed by HEMA, acrylamide, and methacrylamide, with the presence of N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide. The characterization of the polymer was performed by FTIR analysis. Swelling and drug absorption properties of the polymers were analyzed in distilled water. Polymers' toxic effects were investigated by XTT assay. It has been observed that the entire drug, which was added to the solution with 1 g of polymer, was absorbed for 3.5 h. The absorption of these polymers was found quite high. PHAM polymer showed >800% swelling and PAM polymer showed >600% at 600 min. PHAM polymer was less toxic than PAM polymer. These results, this new polymer is very suitable for the release of Doxorubicin drug.


The recent work on perception and measurement of visual motion has consistently advocated the use of a hierarchical representation and analysis. In most of the practical applications of motion perception it is absolutely necessary to be able to construct and process these hierarchical image representations in real-time. First, we discuss a simple scheme for coarse motion detection that highlights the capabilities of the PIPE image processor, showing its ability to work in both the spatial and temporal dimensions in real-time. Secondly, we show how this architecture can be used to build pyramid structures useful for motion detection, again emphasizing the real-time nature of the computations. Using the PIPE architecture, we have constructed a Pyramid of Oriented Edges (POE) which is a logical extension of Burt's pyramid and also a version of Mallat's pyramid. The results of these algorithms are available on a video tape to highlight their real-time performance on moving images. Third, we propose a new method using PIPE that will allow dense optic flow computation and which relates the intensity-correlation and spatia-temporal frequency based methods of determining optic flow. 'Current address: Robotics and Flexible Automation, Philips Labs. Briarcliff Manor. N. Y.


Some digital information intermediaries, such as Google and Facebook, enjoy significant and durable market power. Concerns regarding the anti-competitive effects of such power have largely focused on conduct engaged in by the infomediaries themselves, and have led to several recent, well-publicized regulatory actions in the US and elsewhere. This article adds a new dimension to these concerns: the abuse of such power by other market players, which lack market power themselves, in a way which significantly harms the competitive process and undermines the integrity of the relevant in-formation market. We call such abusers "market power parasites."

We provide three examples of parasitic conduct in online information markets: (1) black hat search engine optimization, (2) click fraud, and (3) fraudulent ratings and reviews. In each of these examples the manipulating parasite utilizes the infomediary's market power to potentially turn an otherwise limited fraud into a manipulation of market dynamics, with significant anti-competitive effects.

This separation between power and conduct in the case of market power parasites creates an unwarranted lacuna which is not addressed by existing laws aimed at preventing abuses of market power. Anti-trust law does not capture such parasites because it only prohibits unilateral anti-competitive conduct if such conduct is engaged in by a monopolist. At the same time, fraud torts require proof of specific reliance and are therefore limited to a particular wrong, disregarding the broader competitive concerns resulting from parasitic conduct.

To bridge this gap, we suggest a fraud-on-the-online-information-markets rule, akin to the fraud-on-the-market rule in securities law. We propose to eliminate the rigid fraud tort requirement to prove reliance, and replace it with a presumption of reliance that will apply once the plaintiff proves harm to the integrity of an online infomediary. Our proposal strengthens competitors' cause of action, releasing them from the arguably ill-fitting need to prove specific reliance, thereby increasing enforcement against the anti-competitive acts of market power parasites which harm the integrity of information in digital markets.


We present a coevolutionary algorithm for inferring the topology and parameters of a wide range of hidden nonlinear systems with a minimum of experimentation on the target system. The algorithm synthesizes an explicit model directly from the observed data produced by intelligently generated tests. The algorithm is composed of two coevolving populations. One population evolves candidate models that estimate the structure of the hidden system. The second population evolves informative tests that either extract new information from the hidden system or elicit desirable behavior from it. The fitness of candidate models is their ability to explain behavior of the target system observed in response to all tests carried out so far; the fitness of candidate tests is their ability to make the models disagree in their predictions. We demonstrate the generality of this estimation-exploration algorithm by applying it to four different problems-grammar induction, gene network inference, evolutionary robotics, and robot damage recovery-and discuss how it overcomes several of the pathologies commonly found in other coevolutionary algorithms. We show that the algorithm is able to successfully infer and/or manipulate highly nonlinear hidden systems using very few tests, and that the benefit of this approach increases as the hidden systems possess more degrees of freedom, or become more biased or unobservable. The algorithm provides a systematic method for posing synthesis or analysis tasks to a coevolutionary system.


Purpose: The purpose was to evaluate choroidal thickness via spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) and to compare the data with those of 24-h blood pressure monitoring, elastic features of the aorta, and left ventricle systolic functions, in patients with systemic hypertension. Materials and Methods: This was a case-control, cross-sectional prospective study. A total of 116 patients with systemic hypertension, and 116 healthy controls over 45 years of age, were included. Subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) was measured using a Heidelberg SD-OCT platform operating in the enhanced depth imaging mode. Patients were also subjected to 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) and standard transthoracic echocardiography (STTE). Patients were divided into dippers and nondippers using ABPM data and those with or without left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH+ and LVH-) based on STTE data. The elastic parameters of the aorta, thus aortic strain (AoS), the beta index (BI), aortic distensibility (AoD), and the left ventricular mass index (LVMI), were calculated from STTE data. Results: No significant difference in SFCT was evident between patients and controls (P ≤ 0.611). However, a significant negative correlation was evident between age and SFCT in both groups (r = −0.66/−0.56, P ≤ 0.00). No significant SFCT difference was evident between the dipper and nondipper groups (P ≤ 0.67), or the LVH (+) and LVH (-) groups (P ≤ 0.84). No significant correlation was evident between SFCT and any of AoS, BI, AoD, or LVMI. Discussion: The choroid is affected by atrophic changes associated with aging. Even in the presence of comorbid risk factors including LVH and arterial stiffness, systemic hypertension did not affect SFCT.


Agriculture as one of the critical sectors for Indonesia's economic growth has not contributed to the welfare of farmers. The fundamental problem of low farmer's income related to their spirit entrepreneurship in farming. This article describes the entrepreneurship passion of farmer and its relation to flood and avalanche risk protection efforts.
This study used the descriptive quantitative approach with a total sample of 70 farmers who manage the land on the banks of the river. There are three kinds of analysis tools: descriptive quantitative, comparative analysis of t-test method and correlation analysis by ANOVA test. The results show that the entrepreneurship passion of farmers is focused on production cost, income, and asset protection. While the spirit of the farmers for risk protection is still low. As a result, river bank management is considered less support for their entrepreneurship passion. The research also resulted that the characteristic of farmers does not affect the entrepreneurship passion.


The tire-road friction coefficient is critical to vehicle longitudinal, lateral and roll dynamics and control because tire is the only contact part between the vehicle body and the road. However, direct measurement of tire-road friction coefficient is impossible in practice. This paper presents a novel cost effective method for vehicle tire-road friction coefficient estimation. This method only needs the measurements of the wheel angular velocity, the traction/brake torque and the longitudinal acceleration, which are all available from the commonly installed sensors in ordinary passenger vehicles, and can be used to estimate the individual tire-road friction coefficient. There are three steps in the proposed method. Firstly, the longitudinal slip ratio is estimated by using a nonlinear filter with the measured wheel angular velocity. Then the tire longitudinal force is estimated by using a Kalman filter with the measured traction/brake torque and longitudinal acceleration. At last, the friction coefficient is estimated by using the recursive least squares (RLS) method and the results obtained from the first two steps. Numerical simulations are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. It is shown by the simulation results that the proposed method is effective in estimating the tire-road friction coefficient.


We observed nerve excitations on bullfrog sciatic nerves by an optical stimulation using a Holmium YAG (Ho:YAG) laser with the laser power over 2.0 [W]. The laser power was higher the amplitude of the action potential was bigger. However, when the laser power over 10.0 [W], the laser gave damage to the sciatic nerve and the action potential decreased. Not only the action potential was evoked by the high temperature but also the sciatic nerve was damaged by an overlarge temperature. These results show the possibility that the single wavelength laser can use to position estimation of epileptogenic focus and irreversible blocking of propagation of epilepsy seizure.


Underground mine surveillance can record the situation of coal production site timely and accurately. Because of the poor quality of air, inadequate lighting, lower monitor equipment resolution, surveillance images are blurred. This paper makes full use of the complementary information between surveillance images sequence. And we reconstruct high resolution images by using of maximum a posteriori (MAP) algorithm. Experiment results show that the reconstructed images can reflect the detail of the underground mine surveillance images. Compared with the traditional interpolation results, the reconstructed images avoid jagged effect and overall fuzzy. The PSNR of images are also improved.


Recurrent or metastatic uterine sarcoma represents an ominous and aggressive form of malignant disease. In an attempt to define a beneficial treatment program, we compared treatment with doxorubicin (A) 60 mg/m2 versus a combination of doxorubicin 60 mg/m2 and cyclophosphamide 500 mg/m (CA), each regimen given every 3 weeks. Of 132 patients entered on study, 104 were eligible; 50 received A and 54 CA. Pretreatment characteristics were similar, and no patient had received prior chemotherapy. The proportion of complete responses (CR) + partial responses (PR) for measurable disease patients was 5 of 26 (19%) for both A and CA. Multivariate analysis done on progression‐free interval (PFI) and survival (S) showed CA to be of no benefit over A (PFI, P = 0.22; S, P = 0.55). For both A and CA patients, measurable disease (PFI, P = 0.002; S, P = 0.02, respectively), performance status (PFI, P = 0.004; S, P = 0.0002; respectively), and sites of residual disease (PFI, P = 0.008; S, P = 0.003, respectively) were detected as prognostic variables. Conversely, histologic type, age, and recurrence status (primary versus recurrent at entry) were not prognostic indicators. These data indicate no significant benefit of CA versus A alone in patients with uterine sarcoma.


Abstract Epithelial ovarian cancer is the most common cause of death due to gynecologic malignancies. Most patients will be diagnosed at an advanced stage, and despite progress in both surgical procedures and novel targeted therapies, the overall survival of these patients remains very low. Among prognostic factors, the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage and residual tumor after debulking surgery are the most widely reported. The current review aims to highlight the disparities in the treatment of patients with ovarian cancer and the need for postgraduate training programs in order to accredit gynecologic oncologists. Despite an increase over the centralization of these patients, many are still not receiving specialized surgery.


Rising youth unemployment rates have been increasingly recognized as a serious challenge in developing and advanced economies, suggesting a potential skills gap between the demand and supply of recent graduates. Effective dual education programs which utilize a combination of classroom instruction and practical skill training are usually presented as an approach to develop a skilled workforce and meet employers' demands. This paper analyzes data from a recent survey tracking graduates from the Philippines' Dual Training System (DTS), as well as from regular programs provided by technical vocational training institutes. The evidence suggests that the DTS has a signi!cantly higher rate of returns on labor market earnings than regular, classroom-only vocational training programs, particularly among high school graduates who did not perform well academically during basic education. The magnitude of the impact of the DTS is also likely to increase in correlation with the intensity of the on-the-job component.