This volume covers 32 years of sorghum research across ICRISAT in partnership wi th NARS in Asia, Africa and
Latin America and gives insights on the many facets of the research process, dissemination and impacts. The volume
was completed through close collaboration among biological, natural and social scientists. The chapters document
the f low of ICRISAT sorghum germplasm across regions and the genetic enhancement research process in
partnership wi t h NARS. It elaborates on ICRISAT's contribution to NARS breeding programs through capacity
building and the supply of useful germplasm, breeding materials, hybrid parents and cultivars. It assesses the impacts
of ICRISAT-NARS partnerships in genetic enhancement research on sorghum.
The contents include an introduction to the crop, trends in global sorghum production; conservation, utilization
and distribution of sorghum germplasm; research-for-development targets; research processes and strategies in Asia,
Africa and Latin America, its outputs and contributions to public and private sector institutions; applications of new
tools, regional breeding and market-oriented needs of sorghum. Wi th the ultimate aim of increasing sorghum
production worldwide, ICRISAT has readily made available its germplasm to NARS of developing and developed
countries. Since NARS evaluation and selection of materials has led to the incorporation of ICRISAT germplasm
into varieties released and grown in farmers' field, this book assessed the value of the germplasm to NARS and the
seed sector. A systematic documentation and analysis of the use of ICRISAT germplasm is undertaken for
understanding the role of its germplasm products in varietal development worldwide. Mechanisms to increase the
efficiency of genetic enhancement research are explored through a better understanding of past activities and their
impact on the development of new cultivars by ICRISAT and its partners. This facilitates exploitation of the wor ld
germplasm base and helps identify means of achieving greater utility.
Several chapters dealt wi th research partnerships and technology exchange, adoption of improved cultivars
and lessons learned f rom adoption studies as wel l as critical factors influencing the uptake process. Important
dimensions of the impacts of sorghum research are highlighted. Research benefits were measured in terms of
increase in yields, reduction in per uni t cost of production, increase in stability in sorghum yield and improved
food security. The nature, extent and determinants of sorghum research spillover effects across continents and
agro-ecological zones were also examined and quantified. The concluding chapter presents future directions for
partnership and a research strategy for sorghum research-for-development, suggesting new and innovative
partnerships among all players (ICRISAT, NARS, public- and private-seed sectors and NGOs ) . This book serves
as a valuable resource and wi l l be of significant interest to those working in plant breeding, crop science and
agricultural economics.


Abstract We present a novel method to detect proximal volume changes based on the impedance plethysmogram (IPG) measured from limb to limb with two electrode pairs symmetrically placed at distal areas of the upper or the lower limbs. Since the measurement is sensitive to changes along the whole current path, this method allows us to detect changes in arteries that are more proximal to the torso than the measurement sites. Our results show that the Pulse Arrival Time (PAT) measured from the R peak of the ECG to the hand-to-hand IPG is close to the PAT to the elbow whereas the PAT measured from the R peak of the ECG to the foot-to-foot IPG is close to the PAT to the knee. This opens new avenues for noninvasive cardiovascular measurements based only on electrodes in contact with hands or feet.


Adolescents living with HIV (ALWH) are disproportionally
impacted by depression and experience worse HIV outcomes compared to other age
groups. Integrating depression care with HIV care for ALWH during transition to
adult care—an especially crucial time when adolescents frequently disengage
from HIV care—holds promise as a strategy for supporting antiretroviral
adherence among ALWH, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where
>90% of people with HIV live.

In this brief article, we describe a small pilot study of a
simple depression care pathway with psychological first aid delivered by
non-mental health specialists for Peruvian ALWH transitioning to adult care.
Though small, this is the first study to report on depression symptom
prevalence among adolescents living with HIV in Peru and pilot test a
depression care pathway that could inform future integration of mental health
services with HIV care in Peru.


Neutron radiography is a non-destructive approach that has evolved in the last decades in contrast to the use of imaging facilities located in proximity of nuclear reactors and spallation sources. The majority of prior techniques exploit thermal neutrons by virtue of their relatively easy detectability, with there being less focus on fast-neutron imaging. In this research, we exploit fast neutrons emitted by a low-dose and mobile californium-252 source to perform fast neutron radiography. Simultaneously with neutrons, γ rays are also emitted by this particular isotope from spontaneous fission. The detector system used in our work affords the detection, real-time, of both fast neutrons and γ rays by means of pulse gradient analysis performed by a mixed field analyser. This retains event histories of both types of radiation, thus making possible to undertake, at the same time, neutron-, γ- and combined n-γ- radiography with the same field of view. The novelty of this technique is the use of a single radiation source and detection system that yields to two different radiographs of same object. In this particular record, we apply this technique to image a laptop battery, with the aim to highlight the presence of lithium ion polymer inside the battery's cells. Our study shows how combined n-γ imaging is a valid alternative to X-rays imaging when there is the need to depict low-atomic number elements, as well as to discern elements with similar density. The system presented in this study is potentially applicable in safety & security inspection; for instance, it has the potential to be coupled with the advanced cabin baggage screening systems in airports, improving their detection performance.


Puccinia triticina isolates from North Caucasus and Leningrad region were compared in regard to the genetic structure, phenotypic composition as well as frequency of occurrence of RAPD-phenotypes and polymorphous major fragments with the help of Rogers index. Did not demonstrate any significant differences according to their genetic structure and occurrence of major fragments of DNA-polymorphism. The difference of isolates from given regions was determined with high degree of confidence according to the phenotypes of virulence and RAPD-phenotypes


Vehicular cyber-physical systems (VCPS), among several other applications, may help address an ever-increasing challenge of traffic congestion in large cities. Nevertheless, VCPS can be hindered by information falsification problem, resulting due to the wrong perception of a traffic event or deliberate faking by the participating vehicles. Such information fabrication causes the re-routing of vehicles and artificial congestion, leading to economic, safety, environmental, and health hazards. Thus, it is imperative to infer truthful traffic information in real-time to restore the operational reliability of the VCPS. In this work, we propose a novel reputation scoring and decision support framework, called Spoofed and False Report Eradicator (SAFE), which offers a cost-effective and efficient solution to handle information falsification problem in the VCPS domain. The framework includes humans in the sensing loop by exploiting the paradigm of participatory sensing, a concept of a mobile security agent (MSA) to nullify the effects of deliberate false contribution, and a variant of the distance bounding mechanism to thwart location-spoofing attacks. A regression-based model integrates these effects to generate the expected truthfulness of a participant's contribution. To determine if any contribution is true or false, a generalized linear model is used to transform the expected truthfulness into a Quality of Contribution (QoC) score. The QoC of different reports is aggregated to compute user reputation. Such reputation enables classification of different participation behaviors. Finally, an Expected Utility Theory (EUT)-based decision model is proposed that utilizes the reputation score to determine if event-specific information should be published or dropped. To evaluate the SAFE framework through experimental study, we used both simulated and real data to compare its reputation-based user segregation performance with state-of-the-art frameworks. Experimental results exhibit that SAFE captures the fine differences in participants' behavior through the quality and quantity of participation, and the accuracy of their informed location. It also significantly improves operational reliability through publishing the information of only legitimate events.


The overall goal of this study is to identify the teleconnection mechanisms that underlie ENSO-Antarctic climate links. Initially time series plots and cross correlation analysis of Antarctic surface and upper air climate data are used to search for high latitude atmospheric signals during Pacific Ocean warm (ENSO) and cold (La Nina) events. Consistent increases (decreases) in pressure were found during warm (cold) events, with a variable response in temperature. Upper air data demonstrate consistent changes in windspeed, cloud cover geopotential height" wind speeds and direction, temperature and relative humidity during ENSO events. Spatial anomaly plots, Hovmoller, harmonic and cluster analyses are used to identify ENSO related climate anomaly wavetrains, teleconnections and propagation mechanisms that link Southern Hemisphere low and high latitudes. Although inter-warm and cold event variability is a characteristic, strong meridional anomaly contrasts, equatorward and poleward anomaly propagation, and distinct jetstream behaviour were apparent in all events studied. In warm (cold) events subtropical jet strength increases (decreases) and polar jet strength decreases (increases) resulting in a decrease (increase) in poleward moving cyclonicity. The jetstreams are considered to play a major role in ENSO related climate anomaly propagations.


Effect of different fruit position on postharvest quality of F1 hybrid redfleshed watermelon Hi-U 16 was examined. In this study only one main vine was trained and maintained. The plants were allowed to set three fruits naturally at the first (8th - 11th nodes), second (13th - 16th nodes) and third (18th - 21th nodes) position. Fruits were harvested at 35 days after anthesis. Fruit weight, diameter, skin glossiness, skin and flesh colour, soluble solids concentration, firmness, pH, titratable acidity and vitamin C were determined. Fruit from second position was heavier and larger than fruit at first position followed by third position. Fruit position affected watermelon flesh lightness where flesh of first fruit position was darker than second and third position. Soluble solids concentration and firmness of fruits decreased as fruit position increased. Fruit pH decreased with increasing fruit position order while titratable acidity showed contrary trend. In addition, fruit position had no significant (pe0.05) effect on skin color and glossiness and vitamin C of the fruit. In conclusion, the results indicated that different fruit positions affected postharvest quality of watermelon and the greatest effect was on soluble solids concentration and fruit weight which was the important characteristic for high quality of watermelon.


Background Accurately estimating a patient's age (adult or paediatric) is a requirement for all health care clinicians, especially when the patient is unresponsive. Likewise, this ability is critical for paramedics as calculations for paediatric medication dosages, defibrillation, some equipment sizing, and other invasive procedures like intubation, require age as the basis for the calculation. No previous prehospital or nursing studies on paramedic or nursing age estimations were located. The objective of this study was to identify if undergraduate paramedic students were able to accurately estimate a patient's age. Methods A prospective single-blinded observational pilot study requiring students to estimate the age of seven patients of varying age using digital images of a complete person. Results The results demonstrate that undergraduate paramedic and paramedic/nursing students have difficult in accurately estimating a person's age or at least being within five years either side of the actual adult age. Patients one and two were children, 28% of students correctly estimated the age of patient one, with 26% of students correctly estimating the age of patient two. The remainder were adult patients. No student correctly estimated the age of patient three, only 1% of students correctly estimated the age of patient four, 6% of students correctly estimated the age of patient five, none of the students correctly estimated the age of patient six, and approximately 2% of students correctly estimated the age of patient seven. Conclusion The results of this pilot study have demonstrated that undergraduate paramedic, paramedic/nursing students, and potentially novice paramedics, lack the ability to accurately estimate the age of a range of patients. The results have provided teaching staff with important information to incorporate into the clinical curriculum.


The paper aims at reconstruction and critical discussion with the main tenets of political theory of adjudication, as presented by Rafał Mańko in his book, W stronę krytycznej filozofii orzekania. Polityczność, etyka, legitymizacja [Towards a Critical Philo sophy of Adjudication. The Political, Ethics, Legitimacy]. In the paper, I demonstrate: that the interpretation of the concept crucial for the entire theory – which is the concept of political – has been chosen by Mańko in an ideological and a priori man ner; that the choice above effectively prevents the realisation of the main objective of the book, which is to legitimise adjudication; that the adoption of the ethics of adjudication advocated in the book is – in the light of the basic assumptions of that very publication – both improbable and hardly acceptable. Finally, I claim that Mańko's theory, due to its totality, can distinguish neither between legitimate law and violence, nor between justified and unjustified adjudication. As a result, it loses its critical force. All these problems are not peculiar to Mańko's theory, but they are general weaknesses of various versions of critical jurisprudence.


Urban heritage is a broad and encompassing term. It may refer to aspects of an urban way of life or to urban heritage places. Urban designers refer to it as an inherited identity or sense of place while cultural geographers consider it to be the customs and traditions which sustain meaning and value to an urban community. Urban places in Australia have a short history of 200 years. The first cities were created by British settlers and successive waves of immigrant groups have added to the accumulated urban heritage. Today most Australians tend to live in large cities scattered around the coast. The largest and oldest city, Sydney is a multicultural city which abounds in inner suburbs of complex mixes of ethnic groups, Anglo-Celtic Australians and Aboriginal Australians.


A system for routine long-term growth of human mature T-lymphocytes in liquid suspension culture was developed in our laboratory about 5 years ago. This system involves the continuous use of a factor, termed T-cell growth factor (TCGF) for the propagation of T-lymphocytes previously activated by lectin (PHA or Con A) or by antigen. Normal human T cells do not respond to TCGF unless they are first activated to become blast cells by antigen or lectin, presumably because they do not contain TCGF receptors until activated. We think then that TCGF is the physiological growth promoter in the immune response of T-lymphocytes, acting as the second signal (after antigen) in the immune response. These T cells show functional features, e.g., cytotoxic or helper function and other evidence of maturity. By using purified TCGF free of PHA and of lymphokines other than TCGF, we have recently been able to grow routinely neoplastic T cells from patients with leukemias and lymphomas of mature T cells, e.g., from patients with the Sezary syndrome and those with mycosis fungoides (cutaneous T-cell leukemias and lymphomas). Of considerable interest, the neoplastic T cells respond directly to TCGF; unlike normal T Cells they do not require prior in vitro activation with antigen or lectin. This indicates that transformed mature T cells already express TCGF receptors. This may be an important functional difference between normal and transformed human T cells. From some of these new cell lines we have recently isolated a new class of RNA tumor viruses (retroviruses), which we call HTLV. For several reasons we believe these are the first unambiguous isolates of RNA tumor viruses from humans. For instances, we now have data that these new viruses are easily distinguishable from all previously isolated viruses from animals. In addition, we have found antibodies in sera of some patients with these diseases specifically reactive with proteins of these viruses.


Hemostatic changes due to vascular endothelial damage are seen during the course of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The fibrinolytic response to ongoing hemostatic activation in HSCT remains to be elucidated. Global fibrinolytic capacity (GFC) is a novel method, which reflects the amount of generated D-dimer when fibrinolysis of a freeze-dried fibrin clot is stopped by introducing aprotinin. GFC is sensitive to all the factors involved in the process of fibrinolysis. The aim of this study was to serially assess GFC at certain critical time points (days −1, +7, +14, +21 prior to and following stem cell infusion) during the course of HSCT. The study group comprised 16 patients with hematological malignancies (11 women, five men; median age 32 ± 9 years) in whom HSCT had been performed. Thirty healthy adults (21 women, nine men; median age 31 ± 7 years) served as controls. In this study, global fibrinolytic response, as reflected by GFC, was unchanged despite ongoing hemostatic activation, as indicated by D-dimer, moreover GFC remained stable, despite the development of thrombocytopenia associated with HSCT prior to platelet engraftment. Our results indicate that a global fibrinolytic response was impaired as a compensatory response to endothelial activation and to other hemostatic changes seen in HSCT. Further studies in larger HSCT populations are warranted to better understand the implications of these findings.


The classic regelation experiment of Thomson in the 1850s deals with cutting an ice cube, followed by refreezing. The cutting was attributed to pressure-induced melting but has been challenged continuously, and only lately consensus emerged by understanding that compression shortens the O:H nonbond and lengthens the H–O bond simultaneously. This H–O elongation leads to energy loss and lowers the melting point. The hot debate survived well over 150 years, mainly due to a poorly defined heat exchange with the environment in the experiment. In our current experiment, we achieved thermal isolation from the environment and studied the fully reversible ice–liquid water transition for water confined between graphene and muscovite mica. We observe a transition from two-dimensional (2D) ice into a quasi-liquid phase by applying a pressure exerted by an atomic force microscopy tip. At room temperature, the critical pressure amounts to about 6 GPa. The transition is completely reversible: refreezing occurs when the applied pressure is lifted. The critical pressure to melt the 2D ice decreases with temperature, and we measured the phase coexistence line between 293 and 333 K. From a Clausius–Clapeyron analysis, we determine the latent heat of fusion of two-dimensional ice at 0.15 eV/molecule, being twice as large as that of bulk ice.


BACKGROUND
Dyspnea is a subjective symptom of breathing discomfort that is commonly experienced by terminally ill patients in the last few weeks of life. Fans have been used to reduce breathlessness in clinical practice for terminally ill patients. However, reviews in the systematic literature are insufficient to make definite conclusions regarding the effectiveness of this intervention and to provide a consistent protocol for clinical application.

PURPOSE
The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects and clinical application of using fans in dyspnea patients.

METHODS
A systematic review was used. Relevant articles published prior to September 2017 were retrieved from electronic databases including PubMed, CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Cochrane CENTRAL. Keywords and MeSH terms were identified for each PICO (participant, intervention, comparison, outcome) element, including dyspnea, breathless, breath shortness, breathing difficulty or labored respiration, fan, and scale. A total of 41 articles that matched the search criteria were extracted. After screening the topics, deleting repetitions, and doing critical appraisals, three randomized controlled trials were selected for further analysis. The GRADE (grading of recommendations assessment, development and evaluation) quality of evidence rating was intermediate.

RESULTS
The systematic review of the three articles revealed that a fan set at low speed with facial cooling of the 2nd and 3rd branches of the trigeminal nerve as soon as possible for 5 minutes and at a distance that is comfortable for the participant may relieve subjective feelings of dyspnea in nonhypoxic patients (e.g., cardiopulmonary disease and cancer) better than drugs and oxygen treatment alone.

CONCLUSIONS / IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Reducing the subjective feelings of dyspnea is the first step for nonhypoxic patients. Using a fan to relieve dyspnea is an evidence-based, non-invasive, economical, and effective nonpharmacological palliative intervention.


Optical fibers are well suited to measure Earth strain because they can be stretched over long distances to average strain over a large interval. This is important to reduce disturbances to the measurement from very local effects. We have installed optical fibers ranging in length from a few 10 s of meters to 2 km in vertical boreholes on land and in an icesheet, and horizontally along the sea floor. Due to the high sensitivity of optical fibers to temperature change, an environment of stable temperature is important-this is often available in boreholes or on the sea floor. Longevity of fiber cables and the means to protect the glass fibers from environmental effects and the rigors of deployment are critical issues. Our experiences cover a broad range of success in this regard, with some deployments lasting for more than four years and others failing immediately.


The carbon fiber reinforced carbon-carbon composite (C/C composite) is one of the candidates due to its excellent thermal stability as well as high strength. A two-dimensional C/C composite has great anisotropy in those properties in with- and across- fiber directions. It is, therefore, important to consider the anisotropy for the stress evaluation and for the fracture probability of the components. In the present study, FEM analyses on deformation and stress of the component were carried out taking account of the anisotropy. In addition, the fracture probability of the components was evaluated by the statistical fracture theory. It was found that anisotropy affect the thermal stress and the risk of rupture.


Development of information and communication technologies of the last decade has had a significant impact on how people communicate, consume information and deal with daily situations. The role of the Internet in today's world seems to be irreplaceable; however, to be a part of the new information society, digital skills and access to technology are required. Among other groups, majority of the seniors are having difficulties to adapt to the new technologies and lack access to it. This social group would greatly benefit from opportunities digital media offers, as it could provide potential of longer independent living and more convenience and entertainment in daily life. Unfortunately, the digital divide prevents seniors from utilizing the benefits that are available for the rest of the society. Despite the advantages, an age associated digital divide is still very topical in many countries, including Latvia.This study explores the reasons behind the digital divide in Latvia and examines the needs of seniors that could be supported by development of digital skills and access to digital technologies. The work is based on the theoretical background and uses both qualitative and quantitative material collected from seniors and experts in the field.The results showed that the most influential reasons behind age associated digital divide in Latvia are financial instability, lack of digital skills and motivation. Latvia is one of the most developed countries in the information and communication technologies field, and has advanced online services, which could be successfully used by seniors; however group's interests are largely ignored as there are few opportunities to acquire digital skills.Based on these findings three solutions are developed to help improve with the situation.


Contagious diseases must transmit from infectious to susceptible hosts in order to reproduce. Whilst vectored pathogens can rely on intermediaries to find new hosts for them, many infectious pathogens require close contact or direct interaction between hosts for transmission. Hence, this means that conspecifics are often the main source of infection for most animals and so, in theory, animals should avoid conspecifics to reduce their risk of infection. Of course, in reality animals must interact with one another, as a bare minimum, to mate. However, being social provides many additional benefits and group living has become a taxonomically diverse and widespread trait. How then do social animals overcome the issue of increased disease?

Over the last few decades, the social insects (ants, termites and some bees and wasps) have become a model system for studying disease in social animals. On paper, a social insect colony should be particularly susceptible to disease, given that they often contain thousands of potential hosts that are closely related and frequently interact, as well as exhibiting stable environmental conditions that encourage microbial growth. Yet, disease outbreaks appear to be rare and attempts to eradicate pest species using pathogens have failed time and again. Evolutionary biologists investigating this observation have discovered that the reduced disease susceptibility in social insects is, in part, due to collectively performed disease defences of the workers. These defences act like a "social immune system" for the colony, resulting in a per capita decrease in disease, termed social immunity. Our understanding of social immunity, and its importance in relation to the immunological defences of each insect, continues to grow, but there remain many open questions.

In this thesis I have studied disease defence in garden ants. In the first data chapter, I use the invasive garden ant, Lasius neglectus, to investigate how colonies mitigate lethal infections and prevent them from spreading systemically. I find that ants have evolved 'destructive disinfection' – a behaviour that uses endogenously produced acidic poison to kill diseased brood and to prevent the pathogen from replicating. In the second experimental chapter, I continue to study the use of poison in invasive garden ant colonies, finding that it is sprayed prophylactically within the nest. However, this spraying has negative effects on developing pupae when they have had their cocoons artificially removed. Hence, I suggest that acidic nest sanitation may be maintaining larval cocoon spinning in this species. In the next experimental chapter, I investigated how colony founding black garden ant queens (Lasius niger) prevent disease when a co-foundress dies. I show that ant queens prophylactically perform undertaking behaviours, similar to those performed by the workers in mature nests. When a co-foundress was infected, these undertaking behaviours improved the survival of the healthy queen. In the final data chapter, I explored how immunocompetence (measured as antifungal activity) changes as incipient black garden ant colonies grow and mature, from the solitary queen phase to colonies with several hundred workers. Queen and worker antifungal activity varied throughout this time period, but despite social immunity, did not decrease as colonies matured.

In addition to the above data chapters, this thesis includes two co-authored reviews. In the first, we examine the state of the art in the field of social immunity and how it might develop in the future. In the second, we identify several challenges and open questions in the study of disease defence in animals. We highlight how social insects offer a unique model to tackle some of these problems, as disease defence can be studied from the cell to the society.


This abstract describes an interpretive, qualitative study designed to investigate two networks, one a broadband communication network, the other an organizational network. The organizational network is responsible for developing and maintaining the broadband communication network. This broadband network provides community information, messaging, entertainment, medical and educational services to a residential neighbourhood. Broadband communication networks are in place in business and residential settings across North America. Although current technologies make it relatively easy to implement broadband networks, this has not always been the case. The development and operation of existing broadband networks has frequently been realized only by means of extensive collaboration and cooperation among a wide variety of public and private sector organizations. In working together these diverse collaborators form an organizational network. Thus the organizational network is not simply a social network enabled by the broadband communication technologies it provides, rather it is an organizational form that serves to coordinate activities among the organizations developing the broadband network. (See Grandori, 1997; Johanson & Mattsson, 1987; Powell, 1990 for discussions of organizational networks of this type.)


The main target of this research is to assist the elderly people to walk on different road conditions independently. A method that can transform the walking motion of a walking assistive device between level walking and stair climbing automatically was proposed. To teach the target user how to walk correctly, we defined a trajectory that belongs to healthy people to help the user exercise. Stairs are common in various indoor situations and become a huge challenge for people with gait disorders. To extend the range of physical activity, walking trajectories in different surroundings were imported on the assistive device. Ultrasonic sensors were utilized to detect the distance between stairs and the swing foot. Based on the measured distance, the gait was modified according to a predefined safety distance that was determined experimentally. We also designed trajectory combination methods for changing the device motion patterns between ascending and descending stairs as the walking conditions change. The effectiveness of the system was tested through simulation. The results showed that the device smoothly shifted gait with the proposed methods in this paper. This method has the potential to solve the adaptability of various walking devices to different surroundings.


The relay control systems with time delay are considered. We show that the time delay does not allow to realize an ideal sliding mode, but implies oscillations, whose stability is determined by one discrete parameter-oscillation frequency. Any motion of scalar discontinuous delay system turns into a steady mode-a motion with a constant frequency. Such steady modes have all properties of sliding modes. The problem of stability of steady modes in three main cases autonomous, quasiautonomous and periodic is considered. It is shown that in autonomous and quasiautonomous cases only steady modes with zero frequency are stable. At the same time this modes are non-asymptotically stable. The structural stability of steady modes in the periodic case is investigated. The resonances are singled out. The existence of the slow stable periodic solution of the multidimensional singularly perturbed relay system with time delay is proved. At last, we design a direct adaptive control of relay type with time delay that extinguishes parasite auto-oscillations in this model.


The occurrence of the abscission signal in young developing fruits on apple trees ( Malus domestica ) was studied. Apple has a natural system of fruitlet shedding, so called June drop. Although physiological fruit drop is unable to guarantee production of marketable apples and avoid alternate bearing, knowledge of this is a key background for successful fruit thinning. A study was carried out on apple trees cv. 'Golden Delicious' during June drop. On three dates (beginning, middle and after June drop), the daily dynamics of HPLC detected individual sugar and spectrophotometrically detected total phenolic contents were investigated in central (K) and lateral (L) fruitlets. The results of daily dynamics showed the highest sugar contents at 2 p.m. On the final sampling date, on 2 nd July 2015, we observed a significant difference between sugar contents at 2 p.m. and the morning and afternoon measurements. Contents of sugars in K and L fruitlets were not significantly different. Total phenolic content at the beginning of June drop was higher than at the end. There was no statistically significant difference between K and L in an individual time period, while there were statistically significant differences in total phenolic content among the sampling dates. Although sugar and phenolic contents in K and L fruitlets were rarely statistically different, their contents changed during June drop. In general, sugar contents increased and phenolic contents decreased during the process, while the daily dynamic depended on weather conditions.


ABSTRACT Linear porphyrin oligomers have found various applications as synthetic molecular wires in the context of light harvesting, solar energy conversion and molecular electronics. In many of these applications a partial ordering of the molecules helps to improve the reaction efficiency or device performance. In this work we study the orientational properties of the building blocks of such porphyrin-based molecular wires, namely a porphyrin monomer and the corresponding butadiyne-bridged dimer. The porphyrins have been embedded in the nematic liquid crystal solvent 4-cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) and the anisotropic properties of their photogenerated triplet states were characterised by transient electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. When aligned in strong magnetic fields, the liquid crystal molecules impose their orientational anisotropy onto the solute guest molecules whose orientation-dependent magnetic properties can then be explored. The line shape analysis of the porphyrin triplet state EPR spectra – highly sensitive to small conformational changes – confirms the orientation of the zero-field-splitting (ZFS) tensors previously determined for these molecules by magnetophotoselection experiments. A biaxial distribution function is shown to be necessary to simulate the experimental EPR data. The biaxial behaviour, in conjunction with symmetry considerations, allows an unambiguous assignment of the three ZFS tensor axes to the molecular axes. From the determined orientational distributions of the porphyrins in 5CB, the biaxial order parameters for both molecules were calculated. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


Empirical evidence on the evolution of innovation networks within high-tech industries is still scant. We investigate network formation processes by analyzing the timing of firms to enter R&D cooperations, using data on laser source manufacturers in Germany, 1990-2010. Network measures are constructed from a unique industry database that allows us to track both the formation and the termination of ties. Regression results reveal that a firm's knowledge endowment (and cooperation experience) shortens the duration to first (and consecutive) cooperation events. The previous occupation of strategic network positions is closely related to the establishment of further R&D cooperations at a swift pace. Geographic co-location produces mixed results in our analysis.


Objectives: The present study was conducted to evaluate the anxiolytic potential of ethanolic leaf extract of Tinospora cordifolia Linn. Tinospora cordifolia, the versatile herbal drug is the distinctive source of constituents which is having antidiabetic, immunomodulatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, antitoxic and anticancer activity. Methods: Leaves of Tinospora cordifolia was collected, dried and powdered used for 7 days cold maceration process. Ethanolic extract was subjected to the preliminary phytochemical screening to analyse the presence of active constituents. At a dose of 100mg/kg, 200mg/kg, 400mg/kg body weight of animal was evaluated for antianxiety activity in mice using 3 experimental designs; elevated plus maze, open filed, light/dark transition model. Test group animals were compared with group of animal treated with diazepam (1mg/kg) as standard drug. Ethanolic extract at 100, 200, and 400mg/kg showed activity in dose dependent manner and at a dose of 400mg/kg showed significant increase; in elevated plus maze, number of entries in open arm and time spent in open arm; number of entries into light chamber and time spent in light chamber in light and dark transition model and in open field; number of square crossed, number of rearing and time spent in central square. Results: The results supported traditional use of Tinospora cordifolia in nervous disorders. Conclusion: Study concluded that ethanolic extract of leaves of Tinospora cordifolia at a dose of 400mg/kg has significant antianxiety activity.


Introducing Ge atoms to the Si lattice in Si-based solar cells is an effective approach in improving their characteristics. Especially, current density of the cell can be enhanced without deteriorating its open circuit voltage, due to the modulation of material band-gap and the formation of a hetero-structure. The electrical parameters of an a-Si:H/a-SiGe hetero-structure double junction solar cell, such as the open-circuit voltage (VOC), short circuit current density (ISC), fill factor (FF), and the efficiency are investigated in this work, based on the optimization of the Ge content in the film. The concentration of Ge was changed between 0% and 30%. Optimization shows that for an appropriate Ge concentration, the efficiency of a-Si:H/a-SiGe solar cell is improved by about 6.5% compared with the traditional a-Si:H solar cell. The band-gap of SiGe plays a critical role in the solar cell design. This paper presents a novel design and optimization procedure of parameters for a dual junction amorphous silicon thin film solar cell, where a simulated maximum efficiency of 23.5% is obtained. The parameters used in the optimization of the cell's power are the doping concentration and the thickness of layers.


The mechanical properties and clinical performance of Turkom-Cera system were evaluated in this study. The mechanical properties evaluated were; flexural strength,
microhardness, shear bond strength, fracture resistance and marginal integrity. The biaxial flexural strength and hardness of Turkom-Cera compared to two other allceramic
systems (In-Ceram and Vitadur-N) were investigated. The Turkom-Cera exhibited significantly higher flexural strength (506.8 MPa) than In-Ceram (347.4 MPa)
and Vitadur-N (128.7 MPa) ceramic materials. However, In-Ceram core has significantly higher hardness (1116.2 VHN) than Turkom-Cera (1002.1 VHN) and Vitadur-N (812.8 VHN) all-ceramic materials.
In order to find the optimal choice of luting cement and surface treatment for Turkom-Cera all-ceramic material, the shear bond strength of four different luting cements (zinc
phosphate, glass ionomer, resin modified glass ionomer and resin cement) to the Turkom-Cera all-ceramic discs was evaluated. In addition, the effect of surface
treatments (no treatment as control, sandblasting, silane application and combinations of these treatments) on the shear bond strength of resin cement to Turkom-Cera was also
investigated. The shear bond strength increased significantly from zinc phosphate (0.92 MPa), glass ionomer (2.04MPa), resin modified glass ionoer (4.37 MPa) to resin cement (16.42 MPa). Sandblasting followed by silanization of the Turkom-Cera specimens provided the highest bond strength value (19.13 MPa). The control group exhibited
significantly lower shear bond strength (10.83 MPa) than the other three groups. However, there were no significant differences in the shear bond strength of the
sandblasting (16.42 MPa), silane (16.18 MPa) and sandblasting + silane (19.13 MPa) groups. The occlusal fracture resistance of Turkom-Cera all-ceramic copings compared to Procera AllCeram and In-Ceram all-ceramic copings was evaluated using metal dies and natural teeth as a supporting structure. In both cases, using metal dies or natural teeth as a supporting structure, the mean load at fracture of Turkom-Cera (2184 N / 1341.9 N) was significantly more than Procera (1953.5 N / 975.0 N) (P 0.05). The effect of zinc phosphate, glass ionomer and resin cements on the occlusal fracture strength of Turkom-Cera all-ceramic copings were also assessed. The mean load at fracture of Turkom-Cera copings cemented with zinc phosphate, glass ionomer and resin cements were 1537.4 N, 1294.4 N, and 2183.6 N, respectively. There was a
significant difference in the mean load at fracture between the three luting cements used (P<0.05). The effect of marginal design (chamfer or shoulder) and artificial ageing (30-day water storage and 500 thermocycles) on the occlusal fracture resistance of Turkom-Cera copings were also investigated. There was no influence of the finish line design and artificial ageing used in this study on the occlusal fracture resistance of Turkom-Cera all-ceramic copings (P<0.05).
The marginal adaptation of Turkom-Cera copings compared to In-Ceram and Procera copings was assessed. The mean marginal discrepancy for Turkom-Cera, In-Ceram and
Procera were 49.2 μm, 71.5 μm and 34.4 μm, respectively. It was verified that there was a statistically significant difference among the marginal discrepancy of the three allceramic systems (p<0.05). In this study, there were no significant differences in the mean marginal discrepancy of Turkom-Cera crowns between the chamfer (49.2 μm)
and shoulder (44.0 μm) groups (p>0.05).
A preliminary prospective study to evaluate the clinical performance of Turkom-Cera crowns was conducted. This study was carried out to complement the different mechanical tests that have been done on the Turkom-Cera all-ceramic material. In this study, 20 Turkom-Cera crowns were evaluated for a mean evaluation period of 21.5 months. During the whole observation period, 1 of the 20 Turkom-Cera crowns was found to have fractured after a service time of 14 months. The veneering porcelain chipped in 3 molar crowns, but did not compromise the integrity of the crowns. The other parameters were rated satisfactory according to the Modified United States Public Health Service (USPHS) criteria. All patients expressed satisfaction with their restorations and did not report any sensitivity during or after treatment.


Background and Objective: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) as a major health challenge has close relationship with high-risk behaviour. Patterns and changes in risk behaviour associated with HIV are important factors in creating a community-level HIV epidemic. The current study examined the prevalence and patterns of risky behaviour before and after the diagnosis of HIV-positive individuals. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 130 HIV-positive people were selected through census method in Rafsanjan health center 1 (n = 55) and Kerman behavioral diseases center (n = 75) in 2012. The patients were interviewed thrugh of checklist made by resercher by a psychiatrist and necessary information was collected before and after the diagnosis of HIV infection. Data were analyzed using chi-square, Fisher's exact, and McNemar's tests. Results: The mean age of patients was 40.12 ± 8.20 years and most of them were male. Before HIV diagnosis, the frequencies of injecting drugs, the use of collaborative injection tools and unprotected sexual behavior were  61.5%, 43.1% and 40%, respectively. Conclusion: According to findings, the probable cause of the high-risk behavior for HIV infection in this study was similar to the national pattern. Risky behavior had significant changes in different directions after diagnosis. Key words: Frequency, Risky behavior, AIDS, HIV, Behavioral diseases center Funding: This research was funded by Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences. Conflict of interest: None declared. Ethical approval: The Ethics Committee of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, approved the study. How to cite this article: Torkashvand F, Asadpor M, Sheikh Fathollahi M, Sheikhi E, Salehi Shahrbabaki M.H, Hoseini OR, Bakhtar M, Bidaki R. Frequency of High Risk Behaviour in HIV Positive Patients Referred to Centers for Behavioural Disorders of Rafsanjan and Kerman in 2012. J RafsanjanUniv Med Sci 2015 14(7): 587-98. [Farsi]


An exclusive study of the characteristics of interactions accompanied by backward emission (θlab ≥ 90°) of shower and grey particles in collisions of a 4.5 AGeV/c 16O beam with emulsion nuclei is carried out. The experimental multiplicity distributions of different particles emitted in the forward (θlab < 90°) and backward hemispheres due to the interactions with the two emulsion components (CNO, AgBr) are presented and analyzed. The correlations between the different emitted particles are also investigated. The results indicate that there are signatures for a collective mechanism, which plays a role in the production of particles in the backward hemisphere. Hence, the backward multiplicity distribution of the emitted shower and grey particles at 4.5 AGeV/c incident momentum can be represented by a decay exponential law formula independent of the projectile size. The exponent of the power was found to increase with decreasing target size. The experimental data favor the idea that the backward particles were emitted due to the decay of the system in the latter stages of the reactions.


All computing infrastructure suffers from performance variability, be it bare-metal or virtualized. This phenomenon originates from many sources: some transient, such as noisy neighbors, and others more permanent but sudden, such as changes or wear in hardware, changes in the underlying hypervisor stack, or even undocumented interactions between the policies of the computing resource provider and the active workloads. Thus, performance measurements obtained on clouds, HPC facilities, and, more generally, datacenter environments are almost guaranteed to exhibit performance regimes that evolve over time, which leads to undesirable nonstationarities in application performance. In this paper, we present our analysis of performance of the bare-metal hardware available on the CloudLab testbed where we focus on quantifying the evolving performance regimes using changepoint detection. We describe our findings, backed by a dataset with nearly 6.9M benchmark results collected from over 1600 machines over a period of 2 years and 9 months. These findings yield a comprehensive characterization of real-world performance variability patterns in one computing facility, a methodology for studying such patterns on other infrastructures, and contribute to a better understanding of performance variability in general.


Recently, the Massive Internet of Things (IoT) and Web of Things (WoT) are remarkable research fields aiming to facilitate the connectivity, accessibility, and control of the Things by Web standards and technologies for large-scale deployment. In such context, the end-user is capable of simply creating, mashing-up, and presenting the multiple Things to gain high-level information. However, current research approaches much more pay attention to describe a single Thing. The modeling and building the application for the compound objects consisting of groups of Things namely "Asset" are still limited due to the lack of description and seamless integration mechanism. Moreover, the traditional IoT Device Description Language directly installed on device is highly restricted in Massive IoT scenario because of stringent requirements for power consumption and operation cost. In this paper, we introduce the WoT based Asset Description (WoT-AD), a descriptive language for the Asset aiming to mitigate such limitations. WoT-AD explicitly describes a group of Things as homogeneous object to enable mash-up, self-discovery, and simply access their resources, entities, and services. We also provide a lightweight framework that fully integrates with WoT-AD to enable WoT for Massive IoT scenario. Such integration not only effectively models the Asset but also simplifies the development of mash-up application to different-skilled users. Finally, we evaluate the performance of our proposal to demonstrate its effectiveness and scalability in real use-case.


Coastal wetlands are dynamic ecosystems that exist at the interface between land and sea. They represent environments with a great diversity of habitats and communities, high carbon sequestration capacity and a wide range of ecosystem services. In the Mediterranean, the largest coastal wetlands are found in deltaic areas like that of the Ebro River (Spain), which has a coastline length of approximately 50 km, occupying a total area of 325 km2. The Ebro Delta is included in different national and international frameworks for environmental conservation, despite which there are several risks that threaten it. The lack of sedimentary contributions due to the regulation of the Ebro riverbed (irrigation, reservoirs, and hydroelectric power generation) has caused erosion and the retreat of certain sections of its coastline. To this situation of sediment deficit must be added the threat posed by the effects of global change, such as the rise in sea level, the increase in temperature and in the frequency and intensity of storms. This study analyses the particularities of the coastal wetland of the Ebro Delta, identifying the main threats it faces, as well as possible adaptation and mitigation strategies to these changes.


At about 9.30 a.m. at my "Sans Souci" estate in the Sangre Grande area, I netted a Satyrid, which on examination proved to be a butterfly that I had never seen before. From the two dirty yellowish oval spots, one on each side of the forewing, near the outer margin and roughly midway between the apex and tam us, I immediately realised that this was without any doubt, a new record for Trinidad and Tobago.The name of this Satyrid is: Magneuptychia libye .


A collisionless wavelength-division multiple-access (WDMA) protocol for a passive star-coupled photonic network is introduced and shown to possess significant performance and flexibility advantages. A performance modeling technique based on a semi-Markov analytic model, which eliminates many of the unrealistic assumptions of past approaches, is introduced. The performance of the protocol is analyzed using this model and discrete-event simulation. Control channel access arbitration is achieved through time-division multiplexing (TDM), enabling all active nodes to transmit once every control cycle. The long synchronization delays typical of TDM systems are significantly reduced, because the control cycle length is proportional to the control packet size rather than the data packet size. The protocol eliminates packet collision and variable-sized data packets are supported without utilization degradation. >


MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses) are gradually capturing the public imagination. From experimentalist beginnings in Canada, platforms ranging from 'homebrew' to professional have emerged, and although there has been much focus on US platforms, the phenomenon has grown on a worldwide scale. One feature of the early generations of MOOCs has been that courses are typically developed by individual enthusiasts or high profile academics often developing into a cult of personality. in 2012 various UK institutions entered the fray including the Universities of Edinburgh and London who used the US Coursera platform. In 2013 a consortium led by the Open University launched FutureLearn to predominantly host British courses. The University of Southampton was an early FutureLearn partner. This presentation provides an account of the collaborative and interdisciplinary approach adopted in the MOOC 'Web Science: how the Web is changing the world'. Because Web Science is fundamentally interdisciplinary, this MOOC is not the work of one highly motivated individual, nor is any one individual able to cover the range of specialisms. The course has strong STEM components but encompasses elements of politics, sociology, computer science, mathematics, economics, business and management. The course has been co-ordinated by an educational developer supported by a team of educational specialists working alongside academic 'educators'. The challenge is to provide coherence and continuity for learners' experiencing materials drawn from multiple sources and multiple authors. The paper explains the mechanisms to co-ordinate the team and create a consistent learning experience illustrated by evaluations, reflections and user reactions.


Pre-trained language models such as BERT have shown remarkable effectiveness in various natural language processing tasks. However, these models usually contain millions of parameters, which prevent them from the practical deployment on resource-constrained devices. Knowledge distillation, Weight pruning, and Quantization are known to be the main directions in model compression. However, compact models obtained through knowledge distillation may suffer from significant accuracy drop even for a relatively small compression ratio. On the other hand, there are only a few attempts based on quantization designed for natural language processing tasks, and they usually require manual setting on hyper-parameters. In this paper, we proposed an automatic mixed-precision quantization framework designed for BERT that can conduct quantization and pruning simultaneously. Specifically, our proposed method leverages Differentiable Neural Architecture Search to assign scale and precision for parameters in each sub-group automatically, and at the same pruning out redundant groups of parameters. Extensive evaluations on BERT downstream tasks reveal that our proposed method beats baselines by providing the same performance with much smaller model size.

We also show the possibility of obtaining the extremely light-weight model by combining our solution with orthogonal methods such as DistilBERT.


The literature argues that the alternative outcomes of a customer either ending or continuing a struggling relationship not only depend on the determinant factors or switching barriers, but also on the essential nature of the relationship. This paper adapts a broad social exchange framework to business-to-business (B-to-B) exchange relationships, and explains "unjustified persistence" or the tendency to remain involved in a B-to-B relationship that is dissatisfying overall. Specifically, the paper extends the knowledge on the mediating factors that influence the likelihood of dissatisfied B-to-B customers who have complained, and considered switching, to continue purchasing from their existing service provider. Data was collected online from 376 businesses using a key informant approach, and analysed using structural equation modelling software AMOS 7.0 with maximumlikelihood (ML) estimation. The findings support all the hypothesised relationships and imply that the potential loss of special privileges, if the customer were to switch from their current service provider, are related to a feeling of dependence on, and calculative commitment to, the service provider. The mediation mechanisms also imply that sunk costs are more related to dependence or calculative commitment than repurchase intentions, and that dependence or calculative commitment continues to play a role in generating customer outcomes.


This paper analyzes a topology consisting of a permanent-magnet synchronous generator and a Vienna rectifier for a wind energy conversion system. A control strategy leading to maximum efficiency is proposed. Simulation results reveal that this configuration is advantageous with respect to energy efficiency compared to a traditional six-switch two-level converter. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed system.


— Meat-type rabbits are relatively new compared to other livestock raised for meat in the Philippines. In this regard, the occurrence of parasites is not yet well-documented among rabbit farms in the country. This study determined the presence and identity of gastrointestinal parasites of rabbits farmed inside a state college through floatation and sedimentation procedures of fecal analysis. Floatation technique separates the eggs from fecal debris by floating them on a variety of solutions, whereas sedimentation technique allows heavier parasite eggs to sink to the bottom of the solution. Both procedures were conducted on 53 rabbits of varying ages. Eggs of intestinal coccidia were found on all rabbits, having a prevalence of 100%. Eggs of hepatic coccidia (Eimeria stiedae), and tapeworm (Taenia spp.) were found at 15% and 7.5% occurrence, respectively, among all the rabbits. E. stiedae and Taenia spp. were found only in young rabbits aged two months old and below, at an prevalence of 66.67% and 33.33%, respectively, for this age group. The parasites were seen using the floatation technique, whereas only coccidia were seen in sedimentation technique. Results revealed that mixed infection of intestinal coccidia with hepatic coccidia, and intestinal coccidia with tapeworm, occurred in young rabbits only. The rabbits did not show clinical signs related to the parasites discovered, owing to the low amount of parasitic load, and to the low pathogenicity of the parasites. Implications for rabbit farm hygiene and sanitation, and for rabbit health management were discussed for rabbit producers in the country.


A complete system of Cancer Information Extraction for a population based Cancer Registry is introduced. The analysis involves the classification and annotation of radiology imaging reports to identify the components needed to complete cancer staging and recurrence extraction. Besides traditional supervised learning methods such as Conditional Random Fields and Support Vector Machines, active learning approaches are investigated to bring further improvement to the information extraction system performance. A reportability classifier, separating cancer from non-cancer reports, has achieved a performance of 97.74% sensitivity and 96.00% specificity on the held-out test set. The accuracies of Report Purpose classifier and Tumour Stream classifier are approximately 80% on 10-fold cross-validation (CV) experiments. The overall F-score of the tagging system is over 93% on 5-fold CV with approximately 487000 instances from more than 3000 reports manually annotated.


An organism's choice to reproduce with or without sex has long puzzled evolutionary biologists. Apomixis, a natural form of reproduction in plants whereby seeds are produced asexually, has evolved repeatedly from sexual ancestors in many taxa. Apomixis is of interest on a number of levels, ranging from population genetics to evolution, but also from an applied perspective, as it represents a disruptive technology which could significantly change agricultural practices (e.g. fixing heterosis in hybrid crops). The switch from sex to apomixis is hypothesized to result from deregulation of developmental pathways leading to sexual seed  development, and the trigger for deregulation involves the global genomic effects of hybridization and polyploidy. We study apomixis in wild plant populations, and use evolutionary theory to guide our experimental approaches. High-throughput methods are employed to understand population-level phenotypic (seed production) and genetic (polyploidy, genetic structure) variability. These data are then used to design targeted experiments, whereby candidate genes for apomixis are identified using tissue-specific "omics" methods in particular genotypes. These candidates are then used (1) in transformation experiments to attempt apomixis induction in sexual plants, and (2) in population-level studies to understand the origin and evolution of apomixis with respect to sexuality in natural populations.


The performance of the differential pulse-width pair Brillouin optical time domain analysis (DPP-BOTDA) is evaluated experimentally using either the gain from log normalization or linear normalization for the subtraction of traces collected with pump pulses of slightly different pulse widths. Using pump pulses widths of 43 ns and 40 ns, amplified Brillouin time domain probe traces were obtained for 10 km of standard single mode fiber. Two hotspots of length 30 cm and 6 m, separated by more than the spatial resolutions of the individual pulses and kept in a temperature controlled hot bath facility, were interrogated with temperature variations from 5 to 70°C, having probe signal gain of ~ 40% at the Brillouin Frequency Shift (BFS). This research work demonstrates, for the first time, that the use of linear gains for the subtraction step in creating the Brillouin gain spectrum, produces results for small to medium Brillouin frequency shifts (≤30 MHz), that deviate from the results of the subtraction of the logarithmic gains by as much as 2 MHz (~ 2°C), particularly for hotspots of the order of the spatial resolution of the DPP-BOTDA. For hotspots longer than the spatial resolution of the technique, the difference between results of the two processing methods show BFS deviations only at the end of the hotspots.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify key considerations influencing the adoption and use of e-government services by providing insights into users' views of their experience of an e-government service in a developing country, the website of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

Design/methodology/approach
An online questionnaire-based survey was conducted to capture perceptions of the user experience with the NIS website. Descriptive statistics for each of the factors that contribute to the user experience are reported and discussed, with reference to open comments and previous literature. These factors are security and support, trust, ease of use, website quality, content and information, perceived benefits, convenience and perceived barriers.

Findings
There is strong evidence of concern in relation to the security of financial transactions, the use of personal data and trustworthiness, which is aggravated by inadequate user support. There is a lack of consensus regarding ease of use, website quality and content and information. In terms of barriers and benefits, there was a general agreement that the website offered greater convenience than alternative channels, but some concerns were identified regarding the reliability of technology, and, for users in Nigeria, the reliability of the electricity supply.

Originality/value
This paper adds to the very sparse literature on e-government in Nigeria, as well as extending consideration of the public value approach to e-government in developing countries.


Using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) trained with the Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithm we have designed a robust linear quadratic regulator for a range of plant uncertainty. Since there is a trade-off between performance and robustness in the conventional design techniques, we propose a design technique to provide the best mix of robustness and performance. Our approach is to provide different control strategies for different levels of uncertainty. We describe how to measure these uncertainties. We will compare our multiple strategies results with those of conventional techniques e.g. H(infinity ) control theory. A Lyapunov equation is used to define stability in all cases.


ABSTRACT Background: Previous research shows that museum programs can be beneficial for the quality of life of people with dementia. This study evaluated the implementation of "Unforgettable," an interactive museum program for people with dementia and their caregivers in the Netherlands, and investigated the impact of the program's implementation on the museums as an organization and on the attitudes toward dementia of the museum staff. Method: Semi-structured interviews were held with 23 stakeholders to identify facilitators and barriers to the implementation of the Unforgettable program in 12 Dutch museums. Based on the model of Meiland et al. (2004), an overview is made of factors influencing the different levels and phases of the implementation process. The impact of Unforgettable on the attitudes of the museum staff was assessed using the Approaches to Dementia Questionnaire (n = 176). Results: The training in the Unforgettable method, regular evaluation with the program guides and hosts, and cooperation with other organizations appeared essential for successful implementation of Unforgettable. A lack of promotional activities was an impeding factor. Compared to before the implementation, the museum employees' attitudes toward people with dementia became more positive. Conclusion: Both successful dissemination of the Unforgettable program and the more positive attitudes toward dementia of employees in museums implementing this program can contribute to the social participation of people with dementia and thereby to their quality of life.


The effects of treatment with a monoclonal antibody (R73 mAb) against T cell receptor alpha/beta (TCR-alpha/beta) on both established adjuvant arthritis (EAA) and established collagen-induced arthritis (ECIA) in rats have been investigated. Rats were treated with R73 mAb when arthritis reached a peak. Treatment with the anti-TCR-alpha/beta mAb markedly suppressed EAA, whereas ECIA was not affected by the mAb treatment. Histologically, R73 mAb-treated rats with EAA showed mild hyperplasia of synovial tissues, sparse infiltration of inflammatory cells, and minimal erosion of cartilage, whereas arthritic rats treated with PBS and an irrelevant control mAb against Giardia had marked hyperplasia of synovium with pannus, massive inflammatory cell infiltrate, and severe destruction of cartilage and subchondral bone. R73 mAb-treated rats with ECIA exhibited pronounced formation of pannus containing many inflammatory cells and marked cartilage and subchondral damage similar to those in arthritic rats that received the control treatments. Treatment with R73 mAb depleted markedly alpha/beta+ T cells in both peripheral blood and synovial tissues of rats with EAA and ECIA. R73 mAb treatment was associated with marked reduction in arthritogen-specific delayed-type hypersensitivity responses in both EAA and ECIA. The titers of antibodies against type II collagen produced in rats with ECIA were not affected by the mAb. Thus, alpha/beta+ T cells appear to have a central role in EAA, but not in chronic ECIA.


The agro climatic condition of Tripura offers immense potential for production of number of tropical and sub tropical fruits and vegetables. Major horticulture produce comprises fruits (48.6%) and vegetables (48.3%) (2013-14). Fruit and vegetable are important component of the food items of the state. The production of fruits and vegetables provide  gainful  employment  for  small  farmers  and  agricultural  labour throughout  the  year. Foreign exchange can be earned by exporting the raw and processed form of fruits and vegetables. The production of both fruits and vegetables are increasing significantly at a growth of 3.86 and 13.36 per cent over the last decades. In this study an attempt was made to estimate the marketable surplus of fruits and vegetables for exploring the agri business potentiality. The secondary data on production of fruits and vegetable in the state over the decade (2001-2014) were collected from Economic Review of Tripura. Compound growth rate and regression analysis was done to achieve the objective. The supply of fruits and vegetables was estimated considering the future production using regression method of forecasting. Similarly, demand for fruits and vegetables were estimated considering the recommended amount of fruits (100gm) and vegetable (150gm) per person per day in the state. An amount of 10 per cent was assumed as post harvest loss. The results showed that there is significant marketable surplus of both fruits and vegetables in the coming four years (upto 2021) showing the possibility of value addition to this surplus amount through establishing processing units in the state that would help to boost farmers' income and employment. However, government initiatives along with growers and processors interest needs to be developed for exploring the vast potentiality of this sector in the state.


Effects of repeated piracetam (PIR) injections in a dose of 40 and 250 mg/kg/day on the learning in Water rats were studied. It has been found that character of the effects depends on typological features of the animals. Rats with strong predominance of excitation (choleric type) showed low sensitivity to PIR. Small dose of PIR provoked clear negative effect in rats with relative balance of the basic nervous processes: excitation and inhibition (sanguine and phlegmatic types). Despite of expressed activation of associative process, it complicated integrative activity. Small dose of PIR showed anxiolytic and psycho-stimulant actions only in initially unlearned rats characterized by high level of fear. Large dose of PIR had negative influence on the learning process in all animals, irrespective of typological features. Thus, the results of this study allow to suppose that the individual sensitivity of an animal to action of a pharmacological medication is caused by morpho-functional and neurochemical intraspecific heterogeneity.


Data centers are often under-utilized due to over-provisioning as well as time-varying resource demands of typical enterprise applications. One approach to increase resource utilization is to consolidate applications in a shared infrastructure using virtualization. Meeting application-level quality of service (QoS) goals becomes a challenge in a consolidated environment as application resource needs differ. Furthermore, for multi-tier applications, the amount of resources needed to achieve their QoS goals might be different at each tier and may also depend on availability of resources in other tiers. In this paper, we develop an adaptive resource control system that dynamically adjusts the resource shares to individual tiers in order to meet application-level QoS goals while achieving high resource utilization in the data center. Our control system is developed using classical control theory, and we used a black-box system modeling approach to overcome the absence of first principle models for complex enterprise applications and systems. To evaluate our controllers, we built a testbed simulating a virtual data center using Xen virtual machines. We experimented with two multi-tier applications in this virtual data center: a two-tier implementation of RUBiS, an online auction site, and a two-tier Java implementation of TPC-W. Our results indicate that the proposed control system is able to maintain high resource utilization and meets QoS goals in spite of varying resource demands from the applications.


BACKGROUND
Expedition ships to Antarctica travel to remote areas with limited medical support.

OBJECTIVES
This study determines the rate and patterns of passenger illness and injuries among those traveling on expedition ships to Antarctica. We hypothesize that severe medical conditions are encountered that require physicians serving on these ships to be skilled enough to care for critically ill or injured patients.

METHODS
We performed a retrospective analysis of the medical records of all passengers who were provided medical care on 26 Antarctica voyages from October 2010 to March 2011 (four different expedition ships). A structured system was used to categorize the diagnoses from each patient encounter. The pattern of traumatic injuries was noted, including location of occurrence. Treatments rendered including patient evacuations were documented. The population is described with incidence rates.

RESULTS
A total of 2,366 passengers traveled on 26 trips, for a total of 34,501 person-days. In all, 680 physician visits were done, including 150 consultations for motion sickness preventive care, leaving 530 visits (15.4 visits per 1,000 person-days) for active medical care. Median age was 50 (range 10-90) years and 51% were females. Incidence rates per 1,000 person-days for the most common processes include motion sickness (4.2), infections (3.5), and injury (2.0). Injuries were more likely to occur on the ship (66%, 95% CI: 54-77%) compared to off the ship (34%, 95% CI: 23-46%). Four subjects (0.12/1,000 person-days) were evacuated (three due to traumatic conditions and one due to medical complications) and one person died (medical complication).

CONCLUSION
Passengers on expedition ships to Antarctica may experience significant illness and injury. Ship physicians should be aware of the patterns of injuries and illnesses that occur on expedition ships and should have appropriate training to treat various medical and traumatic conditions including life-threatening illnesses.


: Transitory starch is accumulated during the day and is the main source of energy for the cell metabolism during the night. The observed periodical starch degradation has become a model often used by scientist in their experiments. Starch granule degradation could be divided into 2 periods: initiation of degradation and digestion of amylopectin and amylose into maltooligosaccharide and their derivative. Key meaning is attributed in this process to beta-amylaze, product of its activity beta-maltose is transported to the cytosole and there it subjects farthest conversions. It has been demonstrated that a number of enzymes take part in the starch degradation process. However, the way of regulating their activity is still not fully explained. There is most important elements effecting rate of starch decomposition: day cycle, starch phosphorylation and regulation of enzyme activity. It proceeds through redox potential, pH changes and phosphorylation of protein involved in starch degradation due specific phosphatases. The purpose of the current work is to systematize the knowledge of the Arabidopsis thaliana L. leaf starch degradation. The results of the recent research cast a new light on the starch degradation process as well as on its control.


X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) is a nondestructive technique widely used for inspection of manufactured objects generated from a reference computer-aided-design (CAD) representation. In a conventional CT inspection framework, a volumetric reconstruction is computed from a large number of X-ray projections of the object. Afterwards, a surface is extracted, aligned and compared to the CAD model. For an accurate comparison, a high-resolution reconstruction is needed, requiring hundreds of projections, making this procedure not suitable for real-time inspection. In contrast to CT-based inspection, radiograph-based inspection only requires a few radiographs that then can be compared with simulated projections from the reference CAD model. For an effective comparison, however, an accurate 3D pose estimation of the object and consequent alignment between the measured object and the reference model are crucial. In this paper, we present an inline projection-based 3D pose estimation framework using convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Through realistic simulation experiments, we show that, with only two projections, estimation of the pose of the object is possible at the resolution of the acquisition system.


There is a lot of information published on the Web that can be useful for decision-making. The work reported in this paper focuses on how to extract and integrate this information in order to construct a Data Warehouse that makes it available. The manual process of extracting and integrating information is expensive and complex. That is the reason why we suggest the development of a tool, based on Wrappers and Mediators, which allows the extraction of information from the Web and integrate it automatically. Wrappers are in charge of information extraction, which is based on page's structure and a query enriched using a domain ontology. Mediators perform data integration in order to combine information from several sources, solving the conflicts that may appear due to contradictory information, taking into account the trust of the sources. An important characteristic we consider in our proposal is that information contained in the Web changes constantly; therefore a mechanism that supports system evolution becomes essential. For this reason we propose the generation of metadata that keeps the traceability of the process, allowing managing the impact of the source changes on the whole system.


OBJECTIVE: To test whether psychosocial factors at work are predictors of rates of sickness absence. METHODS: The study population consisted of middle aged men and women employed by the French national electricity and gas company (EDF-GDF) in various occupations and followed up since 1989 by annual self administered questionnaires and independent data obtained from the medical and personnel departments of EDF-GDF. The 1995 questionnaire provided information about three psychosocial work factors: psychological demands, decision latitude, and social support at work. Sick-ness absence data were provided by the company's social security department. The occurrence of spells and days of absence in the 12 months after completion of the 1995 questionnaire was studied. Potential confounding variables were age, smoking, alcohol, and marital status, assessed in the 1995 questionnaire, and educational level and occupation, assessed from data provided by the personnel department. This study was restricted to the 12,555 subjects of the initial cohort who were still working and answered the self administered questionnaire in 1995. RESULTS: Low levels of decision latitude were associated with more frequent and longer sickness absences among men and women. Low levels of social support at work increased the numbers of spells and days of absence among men only. These associations weakened after adjustment for potential confounding factors, but remained significant. CONCLUSION: The study indicates that psychosocial factors at work, especially decision latitude, are predictive of sickness absence.


Large changes in the Lake Chad surface area occurred during the Holocene and had an impact on aquifer recharge, yet little is known on past and present pattern of the aquifer hydrodynamics. Two complementary MRS field surveys (23 soundings) were conducted in 2008 and 2010 for accessing of the free water content and hydraulic properties of aquifers in the semiarid northwestern part of Lake Chad Basin. High MRS water contents (10-35 %) and permeability values (10-3 to 10-2 m/s) were shown below present-day Lake Chad. At distance, below the former clayey deposits of the Megalake Chad, lower MRS water content (8-13 %) and permeability (10-4 to 10-3 m/s) values were estimated for the unconfined aquifer. These low porosity and permeability values suggest limited aquifer fluxes, in accordance with the occurrence of isotopically determined palaeo-groundwaters below the clayey plain. Intermediate and homogenous hydraulic properties (MRS water content and permeability values ranging from 16 to 25% and 1.10-3 to 3.10-3 m/s, respectively) were found in the valley of the Komadougou River which currently represents the main source of recharge for the aquifer. This study proved the decisive contribution of MRS for quantifying past and present surface-water/groundwater exchanges interactions in flat sedimentary basins.


Building a conversational embodied agent to execute real-life tasks has been a long-standing yet quite challenging research goal, as it requires effective human-agent communication, multi-modal understanding, long-range sequential decision making, etc. Traditional symbolic methods have scaling and generalization issues, while end-to-end deep learning models suffer from data scarcity and high task complexity, and are often hard to explain. To benefit from both worlds, we propose JARVIS, a neuro-symbolic commonsense reasoning framework for modular, generalizable, and interpretable conversational embodied agents. First, it acquires symbolic representations by prompting large language models (LLMs) for language understanding and sub-goal planning, and by constructing semantic maps from visual observations. Then the symbolic module reasons for sub-goal planning and action generation based on task- and action-level common sense. Extensive experiments on the TEACh dataset validate the efficacy and efficiency of our JARVIS framework, which achieves state-of-the-art (SOTA) results on all three dialog-based embodied tasks, including Execution from Dialog History (EDH), Trajectory from Dialog (TfD), and Two-Agent Task Completion (TATC) (e.g., our method boosts the unseen Success Rate on EDH from 6.1\% to 15.8\%). Moreover, we systematically analyze the essential factors that affect the task performance and also demonstrate the superiority of our method in few-shot settings. Our JARVIS model ranks first in the Alexa Prize SimBot Public Benchmark Challenge.


Magnetic properties, electrical resistivity and magnetoresistance of the Ni50Mn37(Sn1 xInx)13 (x=0.2, 0.5) Heusler alloys were studied in magnetic fields up to 360 kOe in the temperature range 4-400 K. It was found that the alloys exhibit a martensite phase transformation at a critical temperature TM240 K for x=0.2 and TM350 K for x=0.5. The TM temperature is lower than the Curie temperature of the austenite phase TCA in the alloy with x=0.2 and is higher than TCA in the alloy with x=0.5. The spontaneous martensite transformation in both alloys is accompanied by a large change (~48%) of the electrical resistivity. A large negative magnetoresistance (~45%) is observed for the alloy with x=0.2 upon the field-induced martensite transformation. The analysis of the obtained results allows us to conclude that the large magnetoresistance in the alloys is mainly due to the changes in the crystal structure and only slightly depends on the changes in the magnetic ordering.


Objective: The aim of this study is to determine whether a one-hour image-rich didactic lecture given to sonographers can successfully teach them the TI-RADS (Thyroid Imaging, Reporting and Data System) lexicon, to improve their recognition of malignant thyroid nodules. Methods: A one-hour image-rich didactic lecture on TI-RADS was designed that encompassed the diagnostic criteria for thyroid malignancy and technical tips to better demonstrate thyroid nodules. A lecture was presented to 34 sonographers across multiple sites. The study examined the effects of the lecture by comparing the results of a pretest, an immediate posttest, and a two-week delayed posttest. Results: All 34 sonographers participated in the lecture intervention and each assessment. The prelecture assessment scores ranged from 13% to 73% with an average of 46%. Immediately after the lecture, the assessment scores ranged from 27% to 100%, with an average of 77%. Two weeks after the lectures, scores ranged from 27% to 93%, with an average of 70%. Compared to the pretest, there was a statistically significant increase in average scores immediately after and two weeks after the lecture. Conclusion: It is critically importance to have a reliable, noninvasive method to identify thyroid nodules that have a greater chance of malignancy. A didactic lecture could successfully teach, result in knowledge retention, and increase sonographers' confidence in the TI-RADS lexicon.


: The method for the determination of enzymic activity in turbid, lipaemic sera, which involves clearing by polyanion precipitation with heparin and magnesium chloride, was critically reviewed. In the diagnosis of diseases of the liver and pancreas, which are frequently associated with hyperlipoproteinaemia, only residual enzyme activities are measured in the cleared serum after polyanion treatment. In the measurement of glutamate dehydrogenase and in the Phadebas test for alpha-amylase, the enzymes are inactivated by treatment with heparin and magnesium chloride. On the other hand, as a result of polyanion precipitation gamma-glutamyl transferase is transferred, together with lipoproteins and chylomicrons, to the lipid-rich supernatant. Acid phosphatase also exhibits only residual activity in cleared serum. The activity of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, leucine arylamidase, cholinesterase, creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, and alpha-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase, and the activity of alpha-amylase in the Merckotest are not affected by polyanion treatment of the serum.


Four cases of liver-refractory macrocytic anemia are described. Three were treated with folic acid perorally and reacted well.

The first was an instance of nontropical sprue with atrophy of the spleen that was diagnosed clinically and confirmed at postmortem examination. The megaloblastic anemia also became completely refractory to crude liver extracts and liver digested with gastric juice.

The second case was successfully treated with liver extracts for twelve years. After that time she suddenly became refractory with severe leucopenia. Folic acid in large doses had an excellent effect and the patient has kept relatively normal blood values for about a year without further treatment of importance. It should be noted that the morbid condition of the tongue could not be influenced by folic acid.

The third case should probably be classified as idiopathic steatorrhea. Folic acid gave a full remission of the macrocytic anemia.

The fourth case resembled typical pernicious anemia more closely, as a histamine-fast achlorhydria was present. This patient had been refractory to liver treatment but reacted well to folic acid in ordinary doses.

The fifth case was a typical instance of idiopathic stcatorrhea with probable atrophy of the spleen. She had a moderate anemia that was refractory to liver extracts. Folic acid perorally and intramuscularly neither influenced the anemia nor the fecal fat.

In a series of cases of uncomplicated pernicious anemia, the immediate response to folic acid in doses of 20 to 30 mg. daily was good. Full remissions as regards hemoglobin and erythrocytes could be expected with a total dosage of 400 to 600 mg.

Certain cases of pernicious anemia refractory to liver extract may respond to folic acid. This indicates that the two substances probably have different mechanisms of action.


We examine sample characteristics and elicited survey measures of two studies, the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), where interviews are done either in person or by phone, and the Understanding America Study (UAS), where surveys are completed online and a replica of the HRS core questionnaire is administered. By considering variables in various domains, our investigation provides a comprehensive assessment of how Internet data collection compares to more traditional interview modes. We document clear demographic differences between the UAS and HRS samples in terms of age and education. Yet, sample weights correct for these discrepancies and allow one to satisfactorily match population benchmarks as far as key socio- demographic variables are concerned. Comparison of a variety of survey outcomes with population targets shows a strikingly good fit for both the HRS and the UAS. Outcome distributions in the HRS are only marginally closer to population targets than outcome distributions in the UAS. These patterns arise regardless of which variables are used to construct post-stratification weights in the UAS, confirming the robustness of these results. We find little evidence of mode effects when comparing the subjective measures of self-reported health and life satisfaction across interview modes. Specifically, we do not observe very clear primacy or recency effects for either health or life satisfaction. We do observe a significant social desirability effect, driven by the presence of an interviewer, as far as life satisfaction is concerned. By and large, our results suggest that Internet surveys can match high-quality traditional surveys.


Anthropometry and clinical examination best evaluate the morphology of repaired cleft lip and nose. An original, accurate, and practical image analysis of the lip and nose, which takes advantage of the mathematic, geometric, and organizational capabilities of public domain NIH-Image software (http://rsb.info.nih.gov/nih-image/), has been developed and tested over the past 6 years. A modified structured physical examination form that complements this analysis is under study. Accuracy of NIH-Image-based anthropometry was compared with direct measurements of 22 linear distances on the lip and nose. Twenty-five sets of direct measurements were taken, prospectively, on 15 children with repaired cleft lip over a 6-year period. The results were submitted to regression analysis. Then, relevant lip and nasal tip aesthetics were evaluated by the measuring capabilities of NIH-Image to create a quantitative assessment tool. For each episode, 15 possible faults were weighted, according to aesthetics and deformity, to provide an adverse score. The sum of the 5 lip scores, 10 nose scores, and combination gave respective grades. The analysis was modified to stratify congenital deformity to relate severity of disease to outcome. This analysis was applied to digitized images of 19 consecutive children, immediately prior to repair of complete unilateral cleft lip and nose, at the time of palate repair, and annually from the age of 3 to 6 years. There were 19 NIH-Image-based measurements of the congenital deformity and 35 measurements of surgical results; four children had three sets of records, eight had two sets, and seven had one set. Descriptive statistics were applied. Following 556 paired direct and computer-assisted measurements, exceptional linear correlation was shown with a Pearson R coefficient of 0.96. The best correlation was lines within the plane of the camera lens, with the average difference ranging between 0.025 and 0.997 mm. Visual inspection of frontal and submental photographs of excellent, good, and poor results substantiates the ability of this analysis to quantify and grade a spectrum of relevant cleft lip and nasal anatomy. For these 19 patients, there was a broad range of performance scores, approximating a normal distribution. The mean of the NIH-Image-based analysis scores, 16.91, was a (very) good grade. A single standard deviation of 6.88 extended up into excellent and down to fair. The congenital analysis indicated a range of deformity. Comparing deformity with outcome, simple regression analysis had a coefficient of determination (R 2 ) of 0.223, indicative of a weak positive relationship. An accurate and practical morphologic computer-assisted outcome assessment of repaired cleft lip and nasal deformity has been developed. There is a weak direct correlation between severity of deformity and outcome. Testing in multiple clinics is warranted.


This paper is devoted to design a control system for robot manipulator to optimize motor torque due to external impulsive loading exerted on the manipulator. Under impulsive loading, overloading may occur in the absence of any monitoring on the torque. To avoid the overloading, impedance control is proposed as a force control strategy. Here impedance control based on force feedback of which has hit the end-effector modifies the reference trajectory. In fact, instead of resisting against impulsive loading up to extreme power of the motor, the proposed design generates small movements in the direction of impact. Therefore, the motor produces less torque in comparison to the absence of impedance control. A supervisory system assisting fuzzy logic has been used to adapt impedance controller parameters with various impact conditions. The simulation result confirms the improvement of the manipulator behavior which yields sensible reduction in motor developed torque in comparison to single PID controller.


This study evaluated the conditions of the non-invasive resin-bonded fixed dental prostheses (FDP) and patient satisfaction up to 10 years of clinical function. A total of 23 patients who required fixed prostheses in the areas of mandibular anterior and premolar, and maxillary anterior region received resin-bonded restorations between 1999-2003. In 13 patients with 14 edentulous areas were restored with an adhesive pontic (natural tooth, acrylic and porcelain). Two indirect proximal veneers using resin composite were placed in each space in 10 patients having 13 edentulous spaces. All prostheses were bonded to the proximal surface of adjacent teeth using resin cement based on 4-META/MMA-TBB. No debonding of proximal veneers but 4 pontic debonding was observed which were rebonded and remained functional until final follow up. The abutments in pontic and proximal veneer groups were free of caries and hypersensitivity. Periodontal health was improved after treatment and was maintained for 10 years except for 4 abutments that still showed some bleeding on probing. Non-invasive resin-bonded FDPs are simple, pain-free, less costly treatment procedures that could provide acceptable clinical longevity with high patient satisfaction.


The second of a two-part series, this article analyzes the long-term impact of the Court's ruling in Miranda v. Arizona on the behavior, attitudes, and culture of American police interrogators. The study is based on nine months of observation in an urban police department involving 122 interrogations and 45 detectives. It also relies on 60 videotaped custodial interrogations from two additional police departments. The article reviews the history and evolution of judicial attempts to regulate police interrogation methods through the constitutional law of criminal procedure. The author evaluates the desirability of Miranda as public policy and argues for the adoption of a constitutional rule that requires videotaping of custodial interrogations in all felony cases. Recording interrogations will provide greater credibility and legitimacy to police work, improve the quality of interrogation practices, and preserve the details of the interrogation for future review.


This paper draws upon findings from an ethnographic study of psychiatric service users in a psychiatric institution in Sarawak, East Malaysia. Findings focus primarily on the accounts of nursing staff in relation to attitudes towards psychiatric work and patients. These indicate that despite a rhetoric of decentralized services, a custodial 'asylum' model continues to influence the care of patients at many levels. Negative professional attitudes towards patients lead to issues of both moral and physical containment. However, an associated attitude of stigma and prejudice towards mental illness impacts upon how attractive a career in psychiatric nursing is perceived to be by respondents, subject to gender differentials.


The implementation of an intrusion detection system deals with two problems. First, the need to obtain up-todate statistics encompassing various metrics of interest that can range from network traffic information (e.g., network load or latency) to security alerts. Second, the ability to extract relevant knowledge from the aforementioned data. The first problem is usually tackled through real-time network monitoring using low accuracy techniques such as packet sampling, requiring the placement of expensive hardware components in crucial network points in order to improve accuracy. In this thesis we plan to approach this challenge with programmable networking, a new approach to computer networks that separates the data plane from the control plane, enabling the centralization of network control and the execution of applications that direct the configuration of forwarding devices. This new paradigm includes the programmability of forwarding devices, such as switches, and enables the use of sketching algorithms directly in the data plane, that provide summary statistics about packet flows, allowing a more effective network monitoring. We tackle the second problem through unsupervised machine learning techniques that possess the ability to identify a specific behavior without any prior knowledge or training phase, serving as a powerful instrument to detect suspicious patterns. This work will, therefore, propose the design, implementation, and evaluation of a monitoring system using programmable switches that leverages machine learning algorithms to perform network attack detection.