An oxide scale layer always forms at the strip surface during the hot rolling process. Its properties have a large impact on surface quality. The most important features of the oxide layer are its thickness, composition, structure, adherence and coherence. Temperature, time and gas atmosphere determine the growth of oxide layers. In this paper, the high temperature oxidation properties of ultra low carbon steels are discussed in terms of oxide growth mechanism, kinetics and phase morphology. The oxidation kinetics of ultra-low carbon steel (ULC) in air, its scale structure and composition were investigated over the temperature range 923-1473K. Oxidation experiments were performed either under controlled atmosphere or in air, to analyse the oxidation process during strip production. A first series of experiments was carried out in an electric furnace at temperatures ranging from 923 to 1473K, for times between 16 and 7200s. A second series was carried out in a device especially designed to control the atmosphere. After heating under pure nitrogen, the samples were oxidised in air at temperatures between 923-1323K for various oxidation times. Thus treated specimens were characterised by metallography and their scale thickness was measured under the optical microscope. Scale morphology was studied and scale composition confirmed by EDS (Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy) and EBSD (Electron Backscattered Diffraction) analysis. Results show that scale growth under controlled atmosphere is significantly faster than under non controlled conditions, additionally the adherence of the scale formed in the laboratory device was significantly better than the other one. It is clear that scale thickness and constitution depend strongly on the oxidation potential of atmosphere. Computed parabolic activation energies (Ea) values are in good agreement with those found in the literature.


Expression of the chemokine receptor CXCR4 by tumor cells promotes metastasis, possibly by activating prosurvival signals that render cancer cells resistant to immune attack. Inhibition of CXCR4 with a peptide antagonist, T22, blocks metastatic implantation of CXCR4-transduced B16 (CXCR4-luc-B16) melanoma cells in lung, but not the outgrowth of established metastases, raising the question of how T22 can best be used in a clinical setting. Herein, whereas the treatment of CXCR4-luc-B16 cells in vitro with the CXCR4 ligand CXCL12 did not reduce killing induced by cisplatin or cyclophosphamide, CXCL12 markedly reduced Fas-dependent killing by gp100-specific (pmel-1) CD8+ T cells. T22 pretreatment restored sensitivity of CXCR4-luc-B16 cells to pmel-1 killing, even in the presence of CXCL12. Two immune-augmenting regimens were used in combination with T22 to treat experimental lung metastases. First, low-dose cyclophosphamide treatment (100 mg/kg) on day 5 in combination with T22 (days 4–7) yielded a ∼70% reduction of B16 metastatic tumor burden in the lungs compared with cyclophosphamide treatment alone (P < 0.001). Furthermore, whereas anti–CTL antigen 4 (CTLA4) monoclonal antibody (mAb; or T22 treatment) alone had little effect on established B16 metastases, pretreatment with T22 (in combination with anti-CTLA4 mAb) resulted in a 50% reduction in lung tumor burden (P = 0.02). Thus, in vitro, CXCR4 antagonism with T22 renders B16 cells susceptible to killing by antigen-specific T cells. In vivo, T22 synergizes with cyclophosphamide or anti-CTLA4 mAb in the treatment of established lung metastases, suggesting a novel strategy for augmenting the efficacy of immunotherapy. [Mol Cancer Ther 2006;5(10):2592–9]


Prepositional phrase attachment (PP attachment) is a major source of ambiguity in English. It poses a substantial challenge to Machine Translation (MT) between English and languages that are not characterized by PP attachment ambiguity. In this paper we present an unsupervised, bilingual, corpus-based approach to the resolution of English PP attachment ambiguity. As data we use aligned linguistic representations of the English and Japanese sentences from a large parallel corpus of technical texts. The premise of our approach is that with large aligned, parsed, bilingual (or multilingual) corpora, languages can learn non-trivial linguistic information from one another with high accuracy. We contend that our approach can be extended to linguistic phenomena other than PP attachment.


We present high-resolution Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) HI observations and deep Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) optical imaging of two galaxy groups: NGC 4725/47 and NGC 3166/9. These data are part of a multi-wavelength unbiased survey of the gas-rich dwarf galaxy populations in three nearby interacting galaxy groups. The NGC 4725/47 group hosts two tidal knots and one dIrr. Both tidal knots are located within a prominent HI tidal tail, appear to have sufficient mass (M_gas~10^8 M_sol) to evolve into long-lived tidal dwarf galaxies (TDGs) and are fairly young in age. The NGC 3166/9 group contains a TDG candidate, AGC 208457, at least three dIrrs and four HI knots. Deep CFHT imaging confirms that the optical component of AGC 208457 is bluer -- with a 0.28 mag g-r colour -- and a few Gyr younger than its purported parent galaxies. Combining the results for these groups with those from the NGC 871/6/7 group reported earlier, we find that the HI properties, estimated stellar ages and baryonic content of the gas-rich dwarfs clearly distinguish tidal features from their classical counterparts. We optimistically identify four potentially long-lived tidal objects associated to three separate pairs of interacting galaxies, implying that TDGs are not readily produced during interaction events as suggested by some recent simulations. The tidal objects examined in this survey also appear to have a wider variety of properties than TDGs of similar mass formed in current simulations of interacting galaxies, which could be the result of pre- or post-formation environmental influences.


Traditional and modern vocabulary instruction techniques have been introduced in the past few decades to improve the learners' performance in reading comprehension. Semantic mapping, which entails drawing learners' attention to the interrelationships among lexical items through graphic organizers, is claimed to enhance vocabulary learning significantly. However, whether this technique suits all types of learners has not been adequately investigated. This study examines the effectiveness of employing semantic mapping in vocabulary instruction to EFL learners with different perceptual modalities. A modified version of Reid's (1987) perceptual learning style questionnaire was used to determine the learners' modality types. The results indicate that semantic mapping in comparison with commonplace approaches significantly enhanced EFL learners' vocabulary achievement. Although visual learners slightly outperformed other types of learners on the posttest, no significant differences were observed among intermediate learners with different perceptual modalities employing semantic mapping for vocabulary practice.


In this paper, we formulate the problem of synthesizing facial animation from an input audio sequence as a dynamic audio-visual mapping. We propose that audio-visual mapping should be modeled with an input-output hidden Markov model, or IOHMM. An IOHMM is an HMM for which the output and transition probabilities are conditional on the input sequence. We train IOHMMs using the expectation-maximization(EM) algorithm with a novel architecture to explicitly model the relationship between transition probabilities and the input using neural networks. Given an input sequence, the output sequence is synthesized by the maximum likelihood estimation. Experimental results demonstrate that IOHMMs can generate natural and good-quality facial animation sequences from the input audio.


Understanding the nature of ionic hydration at a fundamental level has eluded scientists despite intense interest for nearly a century. In particular, the microscopic origins of the asymmetry of ion solvation thermodynamics with respect to the sign of the ionic charge remains a mystery. Here, we determine the response of accurate quantum mechanical water models to strong nanoscale solvation forces arising from excluded volumes and ionic electrostatic fields. This is compared to the predictions of two important limiting classes of classical models of water with fixed point changes, differing in their treatment of "lone pair" electrons. Using the quantum water model as our standard of accuracy, we find that a single fixed classical treatment of lone pair electrons cannot accurately describe solvation of both apolar and cationic solutes, emphasizing the need for a more flexible description of local electronic effects in solvation processes. However, we explicitly show that all water models studied respond to weak long-ranged electrostatic perturbations in a manner that follows macroscopic dielectric continuum models, as would be expected. We emphasize the importance of these findings in the context of realistic ion models, using density functional theory and empirical models, and discuss the implications of our results for quantitatively accurate reduced descriptions of solvation in dielectric media.


Innovation and transformation in service delivery are taking place around the world as governments recognize the value that can be achieved through innovation and transformation for desired policy outcomes and increased citizen trust in government. Citizens have come to
expect the same level of services from government that they experience in the commercial sector. Research shows there is a strong link between quality of services and the trust and confidence citizens have in their government. Thus, some governments are adopting truly innovative practices that effect changes in service delivery to their citizens.This research aims in evaluating the performance of the service delivery by LAs in Perak. The current issues regarding service delivery by LAs in Perak were Highlighted and analyzed to recommend better strategies and action plan for improving service delivery of PBTs towards a world class status. Therefore, this research highlighted some of the project outcomes and key features of the project that would directly emphasize the focus of this research in evaluating the effectiveness of local authorities in delivering their services to the people of Perak.


This thesis comprises three papers that address the evaluation of potential climate impacts of solid waste management (SWM) systems and processes from a life cycle perspective for purpose of decision-support. Paper I presents a critical review of the carbon footprint quantification and communication practice of large UK-based waste management companies. Results indicated a lack of methodological consistency and transparency in current practice, emphasising the need for a robust, transparent, and standardised approach to corporate carbon footprint quantification and reporting. Paper I also describes the importance of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission factors (EF) in helping stakeholders better understand and address the potential climate impacts of their SWM activities. However, existing EFs were reviewed in Paper II and were found to lack transparency and breadth. Consequently, Paper II presents an original and fully transparent series of GHG EFs for the recycling of a wide range of source-segregated materials . Results showed that materials recycling generally leads to (often substantial) climate benefits, due to avoided primary material production. However, results also highlighted the dearth of available high quality materials recycling life cycle inventory data, which are essential to support effective SWM decision-making. Paper III presents a novel, practical framework for evaluating the potential climate impacts of complex SWM systems through the innovative use of publically-available waste flow data and a combined material flow analysis (MFA) and LCA approach. The performance of a complete, meso-level SWM system was evaluated and the potential effectiveness of real world waste policies was analysed. Results showed that landfilling was the greatest source of potential impacts for the existing system, whilst the increased diversion of food waste from landfill lead to the greatest reduction in potential impacts. Overall, this thesis presents an original, practical analytical framework and valuable information to support decision makers at multiple levels in evaluating the potential life cycle climate impacts of their SWM activities.


In order to study and understand the adsorption process in a liquid-solid interface, it is necessary to know both textural and chemical properties of the adsorbent. It is also important to know the behavior of the solid in a liquid medium, considering that the interaction can produce some changes in the texture and the electrochemical properties when the adsorbent is immersed in a solvent or a solution. The study of the influence of these properties in the adsorption process with techniques like immersion microcalorimetry can provide direct information on particular liquid–solid interactions. The parameter that is evaluated by immersion microcalorimetry is the immersion enthalpy, ΔH im . Immersion enthalpy is defined as the energy change at temperature and pressure constants when the surface of the solid is completely immersed in a wetting liquid in which the solid is insoluble and does not react. The immersion calorimetry can be a ver- satile, sensitive and precise technique that has many advantages for the characterization of porous solids. The versatility of immersion microcalorimetry is because changes in surface area, surface chemistry, or microporosity will result in a change in immersion energy. The interactions solid-liquid can be physical or chemical type, the physical pres- ent a lower amount of energy than that generated when exist chemical interactions.


An emerging body of mental health research provides evidence that callous-unemotional (CU) traits explain significant and meaningful variance among children with disruptive behavior disorders. However, the classroom behavior of students with CU traits has not yet been adequately studied. This study examined this issue using teacher-recorded classroom rule violations (RVs). Participants were 648 children (346 boys; M age = 8.14) from 28 classrooms (kindergarten–sixth grade) distributed across three schools participating in a schoolwide behavioral intervention. Teachers completed rating scales approximately 4 to 6 weeks after the start of the school year, prior to initiating the schoolwide intervention. After completing ratings, teachers recorded daily frequency counts of RVs for each student in their classroom for the remainder of the school year. Growth curve modeling analyses indicated that (a) CU traits were associated with elevated rates of RVs at the start of the school year even after taking attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder (ODD/CD) into account and (b) CU traits were associated with a significant decrease in rates of RVs across the school year. CU traits appear to explain significant and important variance in classroom RVs among elementary school age students.


abstract:In 1862, Japan's Tokugawa shogunate claimed the Ogasawara Islands, a small archipelago between Honshu and Guam, as a part of Japan. In the manageable setting of the islands, the shogunate undertook a colonial experiment that revealed changing attitudes toward non-Japanese ethnicities, modern technologies, and maritime space. Through an examination of four maps, this article shows that Japanese intellectuals had been discussing plans for settler colonialism in the Pacific almost a century before Tokugawa leaders began exploring the open sea as an economic space. In the shogunate's two-tiered strategy, agriculture assimilated the land, and law subjected its earlier settlers. This approach provided a foothold for offshore whaling, which transformed the surrounding seas into a space of production. However, expanding the sphere of Tokugawa influence necessitated a redefinition of the Japanese realm. Geographical notions were reshaped to make the overseas territory a part of the Izu archipelago some 700 kilometers farther north, and the presence of Western settlers was countered with narratives of earlier possession and relocation of Japanese individuals. Officials were particularly intrigued by formerly unknown plant and animal species found on the islands. Exploring economic opportunities in the Pacific sphere, they prepared a geopolitical shift that is often associated with Japan's modern empire. This article, by contrast, locates the origins of modern Japan's "pelagic empire" well before the Meiji Reform and shows how expansionism was reconciled with earlier perceptions of geography.


Introduction: Aim was to know various positions of Vermiform appendix. Acute appendicitis is the most common general surgrical emergency. Obstruction of its lumen is the most common cause of acute appendicitis. The severity of appendicitis along with its various positions may lead to different clinical presentations. Knowledge of positions of appendix is essential for surgeons and physicians to arrive an accurate diagnosis and proper management of appendicitis. Materials and Methods: This study was carried out in fifty adult human cadavers in the Institute of anatomy, Madras Medical College over a period of one year from 2017-2018. The appendix was examined in all the specimens to recognise its various positions. Result: In the present study, Vermiform appendix was retrocaecal in 31 specimens, then pelvic in 16 specimens. The least common postions were post ileal in 2 specimens and subcaecal in 1 specimen. Conclusion: The knowledge of various anatomical positions of appendix is must for surgeons to make proper diagnosis and management of various clinical and pathological conditions related to appendix.


From the point of view of elementary particle physics the gravitational constant G is extraordinarily small. This has led to ask whether it could have decayed to its present value from an initial one commensurate with microscopical units. A mechanism that leads to such a decay is proposed herein. It is based on assuming that G may take different values within regions of the universe separated by a novel kind of domain wall, a "G-wall". The idea is implemented by introducing a gauge potential Aμνρ, and its conjugate D, which determines the value of G as an integration constant rather than a fundamental constant. The value of G jumps when one goes through a G-wall. The procedure extends one previously developed for the cosmological constant, but the generalization is far from straightforward: (i) The intrinsic geometry of a G-wall is not the same as seen from its two sides, because the second law of black hole thermodynamics mandates that the jump in G must cause a discontinuity in the scale of length. (ii) The size of the decay step in G is controlled by a function G(D) which may be chosen so as to diminish the value of G towards the asymptote G = 0, without fine tuning. It is shown that: (i) The dynamics of the gravitational field with G treated as a dynamical variable, coupled to G-walls and matter, follows from an action principle, which is given. (ii) A particle that impinges on a G-wall may be refracted or reflected. (iii) The various forces between two particles change when a G-wall is inserted in between them. (iv) G-walls may be nucleated trough tunneling and thermal effects. The semiclassical probabilities are evaluated. (v) If the action principle is constructed properly, the entropy of a black hole increases when the value of the gravitational constant is changed through the absorption of a G-wall by the hole.


During the application of shotcrete, a part of the concrete bounces back after hitting to the surface, the reinforcement
or previously sprayed concrete. This rebound material is definitely not added to the mixture and considered as waste. In this study, a deep neural network model was developed to predict the rebound material during shotcrete application. The factors affecting rebound and the datasets of these parameters were obtained from previous experiments. The Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) architecture of the proposed deep neural network model was used in accordance with this data set. In the development
of the proposed four-tier prediction model, the dataset was divided into 90% training and 10% test. The deep neural network was modeled with 11 dependents 1 independent data by determining the most appropriate hyper parameter values for prediction. Accuracy and error performance in success performance of LSTM model were evaluated over MSE and RMSE. A success of 93.2% was achieved at the end of training of the model and a success of 85.6% in the test. There was a difference of 7.6% between training and test. In the following stage, it is aimed to increase the success rate of the model by increasing the number of data in the data set with synthetic and experimental data. In addition, it is thought that prediction of the amount of rebound during dry-mix shotcrete application will provide economic gain as well as contributing to environmental protection.


The transmission of JPEG2000 images over wireless channels is examined using reorganization of the compressed images into error-resilient, product-coded streams. The product-code consists of Turbo-codes and Reed-Solomon codes which are optimized using an iterative process. The generation of the stream to be transmitted is performed directly using compressed JPEG2000 streams. The resulting scheme is tested for the transmission of compressed JPEG2000 images over wireless channels and is shown to outperform other algorithms which were recently proposed for the wireless transmission of images.


A capacity analysis in order to set an effective threshold for connection admission control (CAC) associated to the reverse link of a multimedia wireless communication system using CDMA has been developed. Packet transmission has been considered for both real time and non-real time services. A centralized demand assignment algorithm has been implemented in order to provide QoS. Performance in a multicell scenario and in time variant wireless channel conditions has been evaluated considering channel-stated scheduling algorithms. Results obtained from the packet level have provided useful information in order to induce capacity bound in a multiservice system. Delay constraints associated to individual traffic classes have been included in our analysis in order to set a more accurate threshold of CAC.


In the interpretation of texts in modern Old Testament studies, a double change in perspective, which has important consequences for the liturgical use of the Psalms, is currently taking place. In the first reorientation, the movement is "from the hypothetically reconstructed 'original' text to the text written down in bookform and then to the canonical text"; in the second, the attention moves "from the text to the recipient". On the one hand, the whole Psalter and its connec-tions with the totality of Holy Scripture are thus increasingly becoming the focus of attention. On the other hand, reception aesthetical, reader-oriented exegesis is overcoming the cleft caused by a purely historical view, in favour of a situational perspective. The article delineates this change and applies especially the first approach to the Psalms. The Psalter then appears neither as a mere lectionary nor primarily as a prayer text, but as a text for meditation. Its technique of the juxtaposition of certain Psalms (iuxtapositio) and of the chainage or concatenation of keywords (concatenatio) opens up new and diverse dimensions of meaning.This is illustrated according to Psalm 103. Its connections to its immediate context are first explained, upon which a few lines of canonical intertextuality within the whole Bible are traced. We are thus lead to recognise a certain multi-perspectivity, reaching from the Sinai pericope to the Lord's prayer.


Continuous-flow microreactors are an invaluable tool to carry out organic reactions owing to their numerous advantages with respect to batch scale synthesis. In particular, supported catalysts enable heterogeneous catalysis to be conducted in an efficient way. In this thesis, the development and activity of different organic and nanometallic catalysts supported in different ways on the inner walls of glass microreactors, has been presented Their catalytic activity is proven in a variety of acid- catalyzed reactions, C-C cross-couplings, and reductions.

Chapter 2 presents a literature overview about the state-of-the-art of nanoparticle catalysis in microfluidic reactors. The first part of the thesis shows two strategies for the introduction of sulfonic acid groups within microreactors and their activity in several acid-catalyzed reactions. The second part of this thesis deals with the use of dendrimer-encapsulated metallic nanoparticles (M DENs) covalently attached to the inner surface of the microreactors. Pd DENs catalyzed efficiently C-C cross- couplings, such as Suzuki-Miyaura and Sonogashira reactions. Bimetallic Au/Ag DENs were employed in the reduction of 4-nitrophenol.

In summary, the results presented in this thesis highlight the advantages of using supported catalysts within continuous-flow microreactors for heterogeneous catalysis. Functionalization of the large inner surface of microreactors was achieved by using a single layer of an organic acid catalyst, by catalyst-bearing polymer brushes and by dendrimer-encapsulated nanoparticles. The vast portfolio of supported catalysts together with the safety and the efficiency of carrying out many organic reactions will undoubtedly establish microfluidic reactors as a core technology in chemical synthesis and analysis.


The objective of this paper is to develop a computer aided system for leaf medicinal plant identification using ProbabilisticNeural Network. In Indonesia only 20-22% of medicinal plants have been cultivated. Generally, identification process of medicinalplants has been done manually by a herbarium taxonomist using guidebook of taxonomy/dendrology. This system is designed to helptaxonomist to identify leaf medicinal plant automatically using acomputer-aided system. This system uses three features of leaf toidentify the medicinal plant, i.e., morphology, shape, and texture. Leaf is used in this system for identification because easily to find.To classify medicinal plant we used Probabilistic Neural Network. The features will be combined using Product Decision Rule (PDR).The system was tested on 30 species medicinal plant from Garden of Biopharmaca Research Center and Greenhouse Center of Exsitu Conservation of Medicinal Indonesian Tropical Forest Plants, Faculty of Forestry, Bogor Agriculture University, Indonesia.Experiment results showed that the accuracy of medicinal plant identification using combination of leaf features increase until74,67%.The comparative analysis of leaf features has been performed statistically. It showed that shape is a dominant features for plant identification. This system is very promising to help people identify medicinal plant automatically and for conservation and utilization of medicinal plants.


In vitro antibacterial and antifungal activity of the chloroform extracts of the root and the stem of Andrographis paniculata at different concentrations were screened against gram positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, gram negative bacteria Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris and fungi Aspergillus niger, Penicillium chrysogenum by cup plate method. The extracts were found to inhibit the growth of all the bacteria and fungal organisms tested. The effect produced by the extracts were comparable with the standard antibacterial agent, benzyl penicillin and with the standard antifungal agent, fluconazole and were found to be active against all the organisms tested.


For the extrapolation the authors use a relation between ξfCO2 (the difference of fCO2 values of transects and fCO2 value at L4) versus ξS (the difference of salinity values of transects and salinity value at L4). The FVCOM computes the salinity fields, that allow to compute ξfCO2 from ξS on each grid cell of the FVCOM domain. But, in the end to compute the actual fCO2, the ξfCO2 needs to be added to the fCO2 at L4. This is the major weakness of the approach because fCO2 L4 was extrapolated linearly between the samplings at L4. These sampling are irregular, at best every 15days, in some cases with data gaps of a couple of months (mi-April to mi-June in Figure 12). This needs to be clearly stated in text, as a major limitation.


Background/Objective The role of gene expression changes in acne patients treated by oral isotretinoin (ISO) and in influencing the ISO therapeutic effects is still unclear. In this study, we investigated the gene profiles of patients with severe acne who responded variously to ISO therapy. Methods The peripheral blood of 113 acne vulgaris patients (Pillsbury IV grade) was collected before treatment. After 8 weeks of oral ISO, nine acne patients were selected and divided into the following groups. A: effectively treated by ISO, group B: ineffectively treated by ISO, group C: ISO-induced acne flare-up, and 3 healthy subjects were included as control group D. The peripheral blood of patients pre- and post-treatment was subjected to high-throughput RNA sequencing technology and bioinformatics analysis of the separate groups (n = 3). The candidate genes were validated by qRT-PCR. Results Comparing pre- and post-oral ISO treatment, gene expression was changed as 39 genes in ISO-effective group, 345 genes in ISO-ineffective group, and 57 genes in ISO-induced acne flare-up group. Comparing the ISO-induced acne flare-up group with healthy control subjects revealed 34 upregulated genes and 23 downregulated genes, while comparing the ISO-induced acne flare-up group with ISO-ineffective patients identified 1835 changed genes. Expression of GATA2 (2.73 fold, P=0.024512), C4BPA (35.87 folds, P=0.038073), and CCR5 (2.48 folds, P=0.004681) increased in the ISO-induced acne flare-up patients. Meanwhile, the expression of DEFA3 (0.18 fold, P=0.041934), ELANE (0.14 fold, P=0.030767), MMP9 (0.41 fold, P=0.013383), and RPS4Y1 (0.00018 fold, P=0.000986) decreased when compared with ISO-ineffective patients. Conclusion Oral ISO treatment could temporarily alter gene expression in acne patients. ISO therapeutic mechanisms were involved, not only in regulating the inflammatory reaction but also in the process of DNA repair. GATA2, C4BPA, CCR5, DEFA3, ELANE, MMP9, and RPS4Y1 might be susceptible to genes that could participate in the ISO-induced aggravation of acne.


In 1986 a national opinion poll indicated that over half of Irish voters favored an upcoming referendum to remove the constitutional ban on divorce. Yet, after nine weeks of vigorous debate during which forces on both sides of the issue presented their cases to the public, the amendment was defeated.In "Debating Divorce," Michele Dillon uses the divorce referendum debate in Ireland as a base from which to explore the long-standing sociological preoccupation with how societies decide questions of values. Focusing on culture and moral conflict, she examines the stances adopted by the major players in the debate: the government and the political parties, the Catholic church, women, the print and broadcast media, and activists, on both sides.Although the issues of moral conflict that Dillon discusses have special relevance in demarcating Irish cultural values, they also apply to how people in general reason about morals and values. The author highlights the nature of moral discourse, the use of contradictory arguments in moral reasoning, the difficulty of trying to shift moral paradigms during non-revolutionary times, and the impossibility of keeping facts and values distinct as people grapple with conflicting moral claims.Examining the divorce question within historical themes of economic insecurity and Catholic identity, Dillon argues that the discourses articulated during the debate illustrate a universal tension between the forces of tradition and those of modernity. She dissects Irish opposition to divorce in terms of current challenges to rationality and its association with progress and goodness. "Debating Divorce" will appeal to sociologists and scholars of Irish studies, communication, culture, and religion, as well as to general readers with an interest in Ireland or moral discourse.


As the focus of traffic safety stakeholders shifts from passive safety to active safety, the need to predictively evaluate safety systems in addition to identifying driver behaviour in critical situations has come to the forefront. Availability of a wide variety of data has opened up new research possibilities; real world crash data is increasingly accessible through Event Data Recorder (EDR) data, although little information is available about the context of the crash. Naturalistic Driving Data (NDD) addresses this issue by monitoring the driver and vehicle with the help of cameras and sensors. However, there is a lack of real world crashes associated with NDD. Therefore, the need to combine data sources to identify driver behaviour and estimate safety benefit has never been higher. In this study Counterfactual or 'What-if' simulations are performed with EDR data of real rear-end crashes and driver glance behaviours inspired from NDD to assess the impact of different driver glance behaviour on possible outcomes. The data was extracted from the National Automotive Sampling System-Crashworthiness Data System (NASS-CDS) database for use in the What-if simulations. Artificial kinematics or Counter factual kinematics was created by removing the evasive (braking) manoeuver. A glance anchor point (AP) based on literature was chosen. Two distributions (Baseline glance distribution, Reaction time distribution) and a deceleration value were applied to the kinematics at the AP. The Baseline Glance distribution which represented normal everyday driving was inspired from NDD. The reaction time distribution and deceleration value was created and chosen based on literature respectively. The application of the combination of distributions resulted in counter factual outcomes with two possibilities: Crash or No Crash. The Impact speeds of all the counter factual events that resulted in a Crash were calculated. Another batch of simulations was performed replacing the Baseline Glance distribution with the Rockwell glance distribution. The Rockwell glance distribution represented the glance durations associated with a well-known secondary task of tuning a radio. Results were compared between outcomes from Baseline Glance Distribution and Rockwell Glance distribution with the Original crash data as reference. The results showed that the Baseline Glance distribution had lower percentage of crashes when compared to the Rockwell glance distribution. The impact speeds associated with the Rockwell glance distribution were much higher than the Baseline. However, the impact speeds resulting from both distributions were much lower compared to the impact speeds associated with the original crashes which clearly indicated the high severity of the original crashes. The methodology and results from this study provide the necessary framework to evaluate the benefit of rear end collision avoidance safety systems. Also, a basis for understanding driver behaviour prior to critical situations is provided.


Professionals in a rural community started a service delivery program not in spite of, but because of, economic distress, to counteract the increase in child abuse caused by economic depression. Public education is shown to be a necessary tool in the establishment of new services. Language: en


Treatment timings of two insecticides with low water solubility, chlorpyrifos and fonofos, were compared as prophylactic treatments against damage to peanuts, Arachis hypogaea L., by southern corn rootworm, Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi Barber, during 1988 and 1989 in North Carolina and Virginia. Treatments were applied at one of three dates: as a preplant broadcast or in a 41-cm band over the row at planting, in a 41-em band over the row at flowering (mid-June), or later at the more traditional pegging time (mid-July). Early planting and flowering treatments did not result in reductions in the level of control compared with later pegging applications. Peanut yield was quite variable, and few significant differences could be detected among treatments; however, several treatments significantly increased yield compared with untreated plots. Advantages to early application, if done without sacrificing late-season rootworm control, would include less vine damage during application, earlier-season control of other insect pests, and fewer problems with secondary pests. In addition, smaller plants would permit insecticide soil incorporation that would limit the exposure of granular material to birds (and potentially reduce avian risk) and decrease ultraviolet degradation.


Glioblastoma (GBM), the most malignant of brain tumors, has been classified on the basis of molecular signature into four subtypes: classical, mesenchymal, proneural and neural, among which the mesenchymal and proneural subtypes have the shortest and longest survival, respectively. Here we show that the transcription factor PATZ1 gene is upregulated in gliomas compared to normal brain and, among GBMs, is particularly enriched in the proneural subtype and co-localize with stemnessmarkers. Accordingly, in GBM-derived glioma-initiating stem cells (GSCs) PATZ1 is overexpressed compared to differentiated tumor cells and its expression significantly correlates with the characteristic stem cell capacity to grow as neurospheres in vitro. Interestingly, survival analysis demonstrated that PATZ1 lower levels informed poor prognosis in GBM and, specifically, in the proneural subgroup, suggesting it may serve a role as diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for intra-subtype heterogeneity of proneural GBM. We also show that PATZ1 suppresses the expression of the mesenchyme-inducer CXCR4, and that PATZ1 and CXCR4 are inversely correlated in GSC and proneural GBM. Overall these findings support a central role of PATZ1 in regulating malignancy of GBM.


Structural lightweight aggregate concrete (LWAC) members have demonstrated greater fire endurance periods than equivalent thickness members made with normal-weight aggregates. Superior performance is due to a combination of lower thermal conductivity, lower coefficient of thermal expansion, and the inherent thermal stability developed by aggregates that have been exposed temperature greater than 1050°C during preprocessing. Furthermore, LWAC exhibits relatively high thermal insulating value, of which the thermal conductivity can be half as much as that of ordinary normal-weight concrete (NWC). Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to implement fire resistance testing for structural and non-structural elements made of LWAC and NWC to assess and compare their fire behavior.


This book analyzes institutional and structural aspects of the effects of trade liberalization on agriculture in Pakistan. The study stresses the analysis of trade-related policies, physical infrastructure, institutions in the public sector and various economic indicators. It discusses such commodities as rice, wheat, fruits and vegetables, edible oil, coffee, tea and milk. This book gives readers a general view of trade liberalization in Pakistan.


In 1854 the biologist Thomas Henry Huxley pointed to a significant change in the way that reviewers were treating books that endorsed deeply flawed scientific theories. In the past, "when a book had been shown to be a mass of pretentious nonsense," it "quietly sunk into its proper limbo. But these days appear, unhappily, to have gone by." Due to the "utter ignorance of the public mind as to the methods of science and the criterion of truth," scientists were now forced to review such books in order to expose their deficiencies (Huxley 1903, 1). Huxley's observation indicates how the development of a mass reading audience in mid-nineteenth century Britain transformed the very nature of scientific controversy. Scientists were compelled to debate the validity of theories in new public sites, not just in exclusive scientific societies or in specialized scientific journals with limited circulation. It was during the nineteenth century that public controversy—not limited to science alone—became possible for the first time. In this short piece I will discuss how the "communications revolution" produced a public space for the debate over evolutionary theory in mid-nineteenth century Britain. I will focus on periodicals as one of those public spaces in which the debate took place.1 As Huxley found, attempting to resolve a scientific controversy in the general periodical press could be a risky venture. Although a non-specialized journal could provide the public space necessary for reaching the reading audience, maintaining scientific authority in such a site was somewhat problematic.


In the not too distant future, wireless sensor networks are envisioned to proliferate through the entire spectrum of the 'environmental monitoring' market allowing users to monitor a multitude of environments. Thousands or even millions of sensor nodes may span vast geographical areas enabling various environmental parameters to be monitored with significantly higher spatial and temporal resolutions than what is achievable using existing monitoring technologies. In order to manage the large amount of data that will be generated by these numerous sensor nodes, novel querying methods are needed to extract the required information in an energy‐efficient manner. This paper studies the techniques used to manage the queries in a distributed manner and classifies the current state‐of‐the‐art in this field into four main categories: in‐network processing, acquisitional query processing, cross‐layer optimization and data‐centric data/query dissemination. This taxonomy not only illustrates how query management techniques have advanced over the recent past, but also allows researchers to identify the relevant features when designing sensor networks for different applications. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


During the last two decades the increase in allergic diseases in children, such as atopic dermatitis and asthma, has been drastic. However, this is not true for the entire world: the incidence of allergies in children has risen only in developed countries. The observation of this socio-geographic discrepancy has led to careful study of the environmental differences that exist between the diverse settings in which children are born and has resulted in the so-called 'hygiene hypothesis': the 'sterility' of modern hospitals and birth places in the developed world might lead to a lack of microbial stimulation required for the development of a balanced mucosal immune response, including expansion of T-helper (Th) cell subsets that can mediate immune responses. Therefore, this workshop was held to consider in depth the environmental factors that influence the changing pattern of worldwide childhood allergy. This publication is a valuable source of knowledge and update for nutritionists.


ABSTRACT Educational approaches that enable students to actively and directly participate in "real-world" projects are increasingly recognized as valuable pedagogical tools and, as such, being incorporated into university curriculums worldwide. Though not traditionally associated with political science courses, project-based international service learning presents a tremendous opportunity to bring classroom concepts and theories to life, provide an active approach to addressing international challenges, and assist students in the development of the hands-on, problem-solving, team-based, critical-thinking skills that are increasingly important to employers across all sectors. This article seeks to encourage political science faculty to incorporate international service learning—and/or project-based approaches—into their educational offerings. Through examination of the course Global Synthesis in Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies at California Polytechnic State University, we have identified multiple factors that can help promote successful execution of project-based international service learning as a pedagogical tool, and provide additional suggestions for faculty interested in adopting specific aspects of these educational approaches, and/or in doing so closer to home.


Introduction: Meniscal injuries of the knee are common indications for arthroscopic knee surgery. Most of the meniscal tears can be diagnosed by clinical evaluation alone. This study aims to test the accuracy of the commonly performed tests for meniscal tears in our set up.
Method: This was a prospective observational study of 32 symptomatic knees that underwent clinical evaluation followed by arthroscopy. The sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of three clinical tests (McMurray's test, Apley's compression test and Joint line tenderness) were calculated against arthroscopic findings.
Result: Among clinical tests, maximum sensitivity (94.44%) was with Joint Line Tenderness for Medial Meniscus Tear (MMT) and minimum (54.54%) with Apley's Compression Test for Lateral meniscus Tear (LMT). Specificity was maximum (90.48%) with Joint Line Tenderness for LMT and minimum (64.28%) with Apley's Compression Test for MMT. Diagnostic accuracy was maximum (90.6%) with McMurray's test for LMT and minimum (75%) with Apley's Compression Test for MMT and LMT.
Conclusion: All three clinical tests (McMurray's, Apley's compression and Joint line tenderness) were found reliable for diagnosing meniscus tears. Joint Line Tenderness had the best diagnostic accuracy followed by McMurray's test.


In this work, the wavelength derivative reflection (WDR) spectra of CuIn/sub 1-x/Ga/sub x/S/sub 2/ crystals have been investigated in the region of A, B and C series. The n=1, n=2 and n=3 states are determined and contours of exciton lines (n=1) are calculated. The parameters of excitons and bands have been determined for the region of band gap minimum.


There is increasing recognition of the potential for sibling relationships to promote the well-being of youth in out-of-home care. Efficacious interventions now exist to strengthen the sibling relationships for youth in out-of-home care, yet the processes through which these interventions work to enhance sibling relationships remains largely speculative. The current study therefore aimed to identify the critical components of an efficacious dyadic relationship enhancement intervention for siblings in foster care through a secondary analysis of fidelity of implementation and trial outcome data. Data for 168 youth from the treatment condition of the Supporting Siblings in Foster Care study were analysed. Fidelity of implementation was assessed across seven intervention domains: Sibs 4 Life, Positive/Sib Thinking, Activity Planning, Problem Solving, Cooperation, Managing Feelings and Adult Allies. Trial outcome data were drawn from efficacy test results and included a multi-agent construct of sibling relationship quality. Descriptive statistics detailed intervention implementation, and hierarchical linear models examined associations between intervention coverage, comprehension, and engagement, and 18-month improvements to the sibling relationship. Results indicate high fidelity to implementation, and Positive/Sib Thinking was the primary intervention domain associated with sibling relationship improvements. Considerations for future mechanisms-based intervention research with siblings in out-of-home care are provided.


D iphtheria is an acute infectious and communicable disease, caused by toxigenic strains of the Gram-positive rod Corynebacterium diphtheriae . The following discussion presents the unusual case of a patient, substantially older than the age group with which diphtheria is usually associated, who contracted the disease as a result of treatment he was receiving for a totally unrelated condition. Report of a Case On Jan 1, 1977, a 44-year-old man, who was being treated with 75 mg of prednisone per day for disseminated ocular histoplasmosis he had contracted in October 1976, began to suffer from a sore throat. His condition progressively worsened during the next five days, bringing increased difficulty in swallowing and speaking. Examination revealed an inflamed posterior pharynx and three prominent whitish ulcerations on the right septal mucosa, the base of the tongue, and the soft palate. The patient was hospitalized on Jan 6 and symptomatic treatment for relief


Herein, we propose a high-performance micro-supercapacitor (micro-SC) based on microfluidic-oriented core-sheath polyaniline nanorod arrays/graphene (PNA/G) composite fiber electrode where sheath polyaniline nanorod arrays are in situ wrapped on graphene core. The micro-SCs display excellent electrochemical performances including large capacitance (230 mF cm−2), high cycling stability (86.9% retention after 8000 cycles), long-term bending durability and high energy density (37.2 μW h cm−2). This higher performance of the micro-SC is distinctly associated with the core–sheath structure of PNA/G fiber, along with high electrical conductivity (18 734 S m−1) and ion riched pseudo-capacitance. We further integrate micro-SCs into flexible substrates to successfully power various electronics such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), monochrome displays and smart watches. Our finding may open an avenue for microfluidic design of electrochemically active electrodes and may guide the development of next-generation wearable electronics.


Previous work on evaporated films and on measurement of electric breakdown is reviewed and its relation to the present work is shown. Electric breakdown theory is also briefly reviewed. Results of measurements of the breakdown fields of dielectric films between evaporated metal electrodes are then presented. Studies have been made of freshly deposited films in a vacuum which remained unbroken between deposition and testing, and also of films exposed to air saturated with water vapour. The dielectrics investigated were sodium chloride, lithium fluoride, and cryolite (Na3AIF6). Sodium chloride was chosen since it has attracted the attention of numerous previous workers so that, its breakdown field is well known. Lithium fluoride has not been quite so widely studied, but it is unique among the alkali halides in being; only sparingly soluble. This is an important advantage in the work on moist specimens since soluble films tend to disintegrate on exposure to water vapour. Cryolite, another insoluble fluoride, is in common use as a thin film material for optical purposes since it forms films of good stability. If its electrical properties are also suitable it might well be promising as a dielectric for evaporated capacitors. Measurements of its when virtually all moisture was removed before the test, by drying; in vacuum. Three possible explanations of the rise in breakdown field could be broadly distinguished (a) adsorbed moisture is solely responsible, more being present on the films tested under moist conditions than on those dried in vacuum but some. water molecules still remaining on the latter films, or (b) the increase in breakdown field of the specimens dried in vacuum is due to recrystallisation and only the further increase in the specimens tested in the presence of moisture; is directly due to adsorbed layers, or (c) the increase is entirely due to a recrystallisation. Process modified in some way by the simultaneous presence of, the moisture and the electric field to give the further increase in the specimens; tested, under moist, conditions. Experiments were therefore performed in which the films were exposed to a field just below the breakdown value while still in their environment of water vapour but in which the actual test; took place after drying in vacuum. The, results were similar to those for the specimens tested while still in moist air. This is in general consistent only with explanation (c). Some indications were obtained that the breakdown field increases on exposure to moisture for cryolite and sodium, chloride as well as lithium fluoride.


In recent years, many attempts have been made to predict the behavior of bonds, currencies, stocks, or stock markets. The Standard and Poors 500 Index is modeled using different neural network classification architectures. Most previous experiments used multilayer perceptrons for stock market forecasting. A multilayer perceptron architecture and a probabilistic neural network are used to predict the incline, decline, or steadiness of the index. The results of trading with the advice given by the network is then compared with the maximum possible performance and the performance of the index. Results show that both networks can be trained to perform better than the index, with the probabilistic neural network performing slightly better than the multi layer perceptron.


Older adults in need of long-term care often receive help from both informal and formal caregivers. The division of tasks between these different types of caregivers may vary among such mixed care networks. Traditional models of task division suggest that formal and informal caregivers may either supplement each other or specialise in the care activities performed. Our study explores the determinants of various forms of task division in the Netherlands, using data collected in 2007 on 458 mixed care situations. Four types of task divisions of informal and formal care are distinguished: the complementation model [neither Activities of Daily Living (ADL) nor instrumental ADL (IADL) tasks shared, 14%], the supplementation model (both ADL and IADL tasks shared, 39%) and informal and formal specialisation (one type of task shared, one type of task not shared, 27% and 20% respectively). Marginal effects calculated with multinomial regression analyses show that the intensity of care provision, the informal caregivers' motives and the presence of privately paid help - more than care receiver's health - are related to type of task division with formal care. For example, when the informal caregiver provides more hours of help and out of a strong personal bond, the likelihood of informal specialisation increases, whereas the likelihood of formal specialisation decreases. When privately paid help is present, the complementation model is more likely, whereas the supplementation model is less likely to be found. Results are discussed regarding the differential consequences for co-ordination and co-operation in mixed care networks.


In today's world Network on Chip(NoC) is one of the most efficient on chip communication platform for System on Chip where a large amount of computational and storage blocks are integrated on a single chip. NoCs are scalable and have tackled the short commings of SoCs . In the first part of this project the basics of NoCs is explained which includes why we should use NoC , how to implement NoC ,various blocks of NoCs .The next part of the project deals with the implementation of XY routing algorithm in mesh (3*3) and mesh (4*4) network topologies. The throughput and latency curves for both the topologies were found and a through comparison was done by varying the no of virtual cannels. In the next part an improvised routing algorithm known as the extended torus(XTRANC) routing algorithm for NoCs implementation is explained. This algorithm is designed for inner torus mesh networks and provides better performance than usual routing algorithms. It has been implemented using the CONNECT simulator. Then the DART simulator was explored and two important components namely the flitqueue and the traffic generator was designed using this simulator.


Automatic verification of software could save companies from huge losses due to errors in their programs. Existing techniques to prevent and detect errors are mainly based on imprecise heuristics which can report false positives. Formal verification techniques are an alternative to the heuristic approaches. They are more precise and can report errors with higher rigor. However, they cannot be directly applied because current programming languages have no defined semantics that specifies how the source code is interpreted in the execution of programs. Moreover, no existing work tries to develop a semantics for the time domain. The target of this thesis is to provide a verification framework based on a defined time semantics that can help developers to automatically detect time related errors in the behavior of programs. We define a time semantics that allows us to ascribe a meaning to source code statements that alter and use time. Based on the time semantics, we develop an approach to (i) automatically assert time properties and (ii) reverse engineer timed automata, a formal model of the time behavior that is amenable for verification. We plan to evaluate our approaches with quantitative and qualitative studies. The quantitative studies will measure the performance of our approaches in open source projects and the qualitative studies will collect the developers' feedback about the applicability and usefulness of our proposed techniques.


Retinoic acid (RA), a metabolite of vitamin A, is known to regulate dedifferentiation of rabbit articular chondrocytes. The regulatory mechanism of dedifferentiation by RA is not yet understood. Thus, the effect of RA on the regulation of nitric oxide (NO)-induced dedifferentiation was investigated in rabbit articular chondrocytes. RA caused loss of the differentiated chondrocyte phenotype as demonstrated by inhibition of type II collagen expression and proteoglycan synthesis. RA also accelerated NO-induced dedifferentiation in rabbit articular chondrocytes as detected by expression of type II collagen and Sox-9 using Western blot analysis and production of sulfated proteoglycan using Alcain blue staining. Further, RA potentiated NO-induced activation of ERK. Inhibition of ERK with PD98059 (PD) recovered the expression of type II collagen and Sox-9 and production of sulfate proteoglycan in NO-induced dedifferentiated chondrocytes by RA treatment. Our findings suggest that RA accelerates NO-induced dedifferentiation of rabbit articular chondrocytes via the ERK pathway.


This paper presents the results of a systems study to evaluate the technological and economic feasibility of utilizing closed-cycle gas turbines integrated with an advanced-design central receiver for solar power generation. Applicable turbomachinery technologies were reviewed to estimate their future advances expected. System designpoint performance, component size, and cost characteristics of closed-cycle air turbines were estimated, and system operational and control characteristics, including off-design and part-load performance characteristics, are discussed. Critical system components were reviewed to estimate the appropriate testing and development time and cost schedules required.


Lower body ischemia due to bending of a stented graft at the thoracic aorta was rare, particularly when it occurred in several days after surgery. We experienced this complication and performed the 3rd-time thoracic endovascular repair( TEVAR).A 49-year-old man with a chronic aortic dissection of Stanford type B underwent TEVER;however we failed to close the entry because of the tortuously bended distal arch of the aorta. Then it was decided the patient undergo a hybrid treatment with arch replacement and frozen elephant trunk. Seventeen days after the surgery, the blood pressure of the patient's lower limb was reduced rapidly and his renal function deteriorated. Bending of the stent was revealed by computed tomography( CT). The patient underwent the 3rd-time emergency TEVAR, and his symptoms improved.


Human interaction with wearable computers is an important research issue, especially when combined with mixed reality (MR) applications. Natural and non-obtrusive means of interaction calls for new devices, which should be simple to use. This paper considers the design of new interaction hardware, such as a wearable computer pen, a tilt pad, a wand, and a gesture pad designed using accelerometers for such scenarios. The very difficult problem of noise in small hardware accelerometers (in the form of random bias drifts), which seriously impedes it's application in position measurement is also examined in detail. Kalman filtering has resulted in improved results, which are presented herewith. The application of accelerometers to design interfaces for use in mixed reality environments is also explained.


There is an increasing attention both on how inspections and enforcement efforts with respect to regulatory breaches can be made as effective as possible. Regulatory breaches refer to violations of norms that have been prescribed in public regulation, such as, for example, environmental regulation, food safety regulation or regulation aiming at occupational health and safety. The enforcement of this regulation is qualified as regulatory enforcement. It has been claimed that inspections should not be random, but based on risk and target-specific violators and violations. Such a "smart" enforcement policy would be able to increase the effectiveness of enforcement policy. Policy makers are enthusiastic about this new strategy, but less is known about the theoretical foundations, nor about the empirical evidence. This article presents the theoretical foundations for smart enforcement as well as some empirics. Moreover, the conditions under which smart enforcement could work are identified, but also a few potential limits are presented.


Ecological niche models (ENMs) are the primary tool used to describe and forecast the potential influence of climate change on biodiversity. However, ENMs do not directly account for important biological and landscape processes likely to affect range dynamics at a variety of spatial scales. Recent advances to link ENMs with population models have focused on the fundamental step of integrating dispersal and metapopulation dynamics into forecasts of species geographic ranges. Here we use a combination of novel analyses and a synthesis of findings from published plant and animal case studies to highlight three seldom recognised, yet important, advantages of linking ENMs with demographic modelling approaches: 1) they provide direct measures of extinction risk in addition to measures of vulnerability based on change in the potential range area or total habitat suitability. 2) They capture life-history traits that permit population density to vary in different ways in response to key spatial drivers, conditioned by the processes of global change. 3) They can be used to explore and rank the cost effectiveness of regional conservation alternatives and demographically oriented management interventions. Given these advantages, we argue that coupled methods should be used preferentially where data permits and when conservation management decisions require intervention, prioritization, or direct estimates of extinction risk.


Situation on the plastics market in Western European (WE) and Central European Countries (CEC) was compared, with particular consideration of Poland as a country and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as a plastic. Organization of plastic waste utilization in CEC was discussed. Issues of plastics recycling in Poland were presented, concluding that the PET recycling technology in Poland is sufficiently developed and capacity of existing plants is higher than the waste material supply. Launching the countrywide complex waste recovery system is necessary.


Throughout the world, many people have been affected by water related issues in the past, some more extreme than others. In this context, hydrological models have often been used to gain more insight into the situation and to limit negative impacts as much as possible. There are many different types of hydrological models with each their strengths and weaknesses, but all models need a certain amount of reliable data. However, many river basins throughout the globe are poorly gauged which means there are only limited reliable ground observations available. That is why satellite observations provide many interesting opportunities to fill this gap of which many are not yet explored. Therefore the goal of this research was to answer the following main research question: What is the added value of satellite-based observations for hydrological modelling in a semi-arid, data-scarce river basin? This research focused on the Luangwa River in Zambia which is a large tributary of the Zambezi River. This semi-arid river basin is poorly gauged, mostly unregulated and sparsely populated. A process-based distributed hydrological model with sub-grid heterogeneity was developed in this research and modified step-wise when exploring the added value of different satellite observations for different aspects within hydrological modelling. This included analysing the information content of satellite-based river water level, i.e. altimetry, for model calibration, as well as evaporation and total water storage for step-wise model structure improvement and spatial-temporal model calibration. Overall, satellite-based observations have been used successfully to improve our understanding of the hydrological processes in the data-scarce Luangwa river basin, to improve the hydrological model structure and to allow for more reliable parameter identifications in the absence of reliable discharge data. This research focused on a selection of satellite-based observations and hydrological model applications. In other words, there remain many opportunities yet to be explored!


Nature provides a myriad of beautiful objects. Both landscape and still life drawings give the opportunity to present diversities of nature like tree, mountain, sea, etc. This book Drawing Still Life teaches you how to master the art of drawing various still life objects. The book helps you in learning how to use various light source and perspectives to present the most beautiful elements in nature through appropriate pencil strokes and colour.


ABSTRACT The Red Power era (1969-1978), the most pivotal time for Indigenous people in the twentieth century, is commonly associated with a fundamental restructuring of Indigenous-settler colonial relations and a major cultural renewal of self and society across Indian Country. This article examines the social formation of those Indigenous men and masculinities who instigated that profound change and became politically active, questioning domestic colonialism and challenging their subaltern status vis-à-vis dominant U.S. society. More specifically, this article explores the shared experiences of Indigenous male activists within the American Indian Movement (AIM) during its early beginnings between 1968 through mid-1972. AIM (1968–1978) originated in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St-Paul and rose to become the most significant player in Indigenous protest politics at its time. Indigenous men in AIM shared key experiences with settler colonial institutions and the forces of modernity (boarding schools, military service, prisons, the urban experience) that affected their male identities in multiple, complex, and contradictory ways. Western-centric concepts of race, gender, and nation have consistently worked towards the marginalization and oppression of the Indigenous 'other' -commonly through the imposition of colonial standards as a 'civilizing force.' This article argues that the inculcation of Indigenous men with hegemonic ideals, together with experiences of emasculation, have led to an unintended outcome, namely the emergence of a 'protest masculinity.' This 'protest masculinity' arose as a result of and in reaction to assimilationist policies. Paradoxically, Indigenous male activists contested dominant concepts of masculinity, yet at the same time conformed to the very cultural ideals they struggled against. This article offers an understanding of how gender and race bias intersect to disadvantage Indigenous men and how this in turn constitutes a powerful catalyst for change.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess sand-bentonite liners (SBL) which could be used as hydraulic barriers with a controllable quality, relatively low cost and easy operation in solid waste landfills.

Design/methodology/approach
These barriers have been used successfully in various applications and have attracted much attention in a short period of time. The only precautionary use of SBLs is related to the change of their hydraulic properties in high alkaline chemical environments. The main reason for this phenomenon is the presence of high ion exchange minerals in bentonite. By exposure to these environments, it is also laid open to degradation of the montmorillonite microstructure leads to change in hydraulic behavior. Three different compounds were used for laboratory-scale SBL, and diffusion was considered as the dominant mechanism of contamination transmission in these liners. Chlorine ion has been used as pollutant, and its diffusion coefficient was determined in the tested SBLs.

Findings
The sample's diffusion coefficient for the first experiment containing 3% bentonite and 97% Semnan sand were 2.5 × 10^(−9) (m^2/s) and 2.44 × 10 ^(−9) (m^2/s), respectively. Similarly, for two samples with 6% bentonite and 94% Semnan sand, this parameter was equal to 2.17 × 10 ^(−9) (m^2/s) and 2.22 × 10 ^(−9) (m^2/s) and for two samples with 3% agglacial clay, 12% bentonite and 85% Semnan sand was 5.55 × 10 ^(−10) (m^2/s) and 6.11 × 10 ^(−10) (m^2/s). These values correspond to the range reported in previous studies. Also, it was observed that with comparing the diffusion coefficients of test, it was concluded that with increasing bentonite, the molecular diffusion decreases significantly.

Originality/value
In this study, three laboratory samples with different percentages of bentonite, clay and sand were considered and the results obtained from the laboratory were compared with the results obtained from numerical modeling.


Recommender systems are increasingly used to predict and serve content that aligns with user taste, yet the task of matching new users with relevant content remains a challenge. We consider podcasting to be an emerging medium with rapid growth in adoption, and discuss challenges that arise when applying traditional recommendation approaches to address the cold-start problem. Using music consumption behavior, we examine two main techniques in inferring Spotify users preferences over more than 200k podcasts. Our results show significant improvements in consumption of up to 50% for both offline and online experiments. We provide extensive analysis on model performance and examine the degree to which music data as an input source introduces bias in recommendations.


Jatropha curcas is a perennial plant belonging to the Euphorbiaceae family and it is widely used for phytoremediation techniques and biodiesel production. Jatropha curcas is also reported as a medicinal herb. The present study was performed to evaluate the effect of lead on phytochemical properties of the plant. Seedlings of J. curcas were subjected to different concentrations of Pb. The plant materials were prepared for detecting metal accumulation, antioxidant activity and active phytochemical compounds. The content of Pb in the seedlings was measured after one week of the application using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The accumulation of Pb was significantly increased with increasing of the metal in the growth media. The antioxidant activity was measured using 1,1,-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazil (DPPH) assay. It was found to be increased in the plants treated with the highest Pb concentration. The GC-MS analysis revealed presence of different compounds depending on Pb treatment. Some identified compounds were found to have a biological activity as antioxidants such as Hexadecanoic acid, methyl ester; 9,12-Octadecadienoic acid (Z,Z)-,1,3,5,7-Tetroxane; p-Dioxane-2,3-diol and Heptadien-3-yne. The results indicated the ability of the plant to tolerate Pb stress and to induce its antioxidant defense system. Phytochemical screening was found to be valuable to release any risks related to plants of metal affinity to avoid possible adverse effects when used as medicine or for any other purposes.


A new PCA adaptive algorithm is introduced, utilizing a rough fuzzy cluster-based granulation scheme for fault detection and diagnosis purposes. This granulated cluster-based algorithm can be used for segmentation of multivariate time series and initialization of other partitioning clustering methods that need to have good initialization parameters. The proposed algorithm is suitable for mining data sets, which are large both in dimension and size, in case generation. It utilizes Principal Component Analysis (PCA) specification and an innovative granular computing method for detection of changes in the hidden structure of multivariate time series data in a bottom up cluster merging manner. Rough set theory is used for feature extraction and solving superfluous attributes issue. Upper and lower approximations of rough set is calculated based on fuzzy membership functions. These approximations are updated after each granulation stage. Features of a pattern can hence be described in terms of three fuzzy membership values in the linguistic property sets as normal (N), abnormal (A) and ambiguity (a). The algorithm has been tested on an artificial case study and Tennessee Eastman (TE) benchmark process plant. The resulting performances show the successful and promising capabilities of the proposed algorithm.


Tungsten is the heaviest transition metal in the family of common transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs). Despite the essential similarities of TMDCs, the considerable differences in the size and charge of the building elements can make the typical 2D layered structure suitable for various applications. There is not much flexibility on the chalcogen side, as the popular elements are S and Se. Following the successful history of transition metal sulphides in various applications, transition metal selenides are now the rising stars. On the transition metal side, WS2 and WSe2 have recently attracted considerable attention. In comparison with the Mo counterparts, W is more abundant in the Earth's crust and thus cheaper, and less toxic. The significantly larger size of W atoms can substantially tune the TMDC properties. The popularity of molybdenum dichalcogenides has somehow overshadowed the potentials of tungsten dichalcogenides. This manuscript attempts to collect the recent reports on various applications of WS2 and WSe2 to provide a general overview of tungsten dichalcogenides. Due to the popularity of sulphides, the prime focus of the present review is on WSe2, which is an emerging member of this family. Although WTe2 is not a common material like all transition metal tellurides, it is also briefly reviewed as a member of this sub-family of TMDCs owing to its unique properties, which named it as a potential candidate for giant magnetoresistance and superconductivity.


This article deals with the management of exploratory projects and relies on a case study of the space industry to study their supposed strangeness compared with more traditional projects. Indeed, exploratory projects seem to be floating because they lack clear objectives, carefully defined work packages and phases, risk management plans, and so forth. We rely on advances in design theory to demonstrate that exploratory projects actually follow a different logic of expansion that can be managed. We conclude by discussing the contribution of the project mode to the structuring of exploration processes.


Rape (Brassica napus L.) is foraged intensively by honey bees (Apis mellifera). Pesticide applications during bloom are sometimes combined with foliar boron fertilizer applications. Boron has insecticidal properties, and therefore, risk to honey bees cannot be excluded. This study was conducted to test whether foliar boron fertilizers could be hazardous for bees under real field conditions. Six colonies were transferred to a rape field in bloom which was treated with boron (1 kg/ha). Six control colonies were transferred to an untreated rape field approximately 7 km away. Performance parameters of the colonies were measured. Samples of honey and beebread were collected from all colonies before and after boron fertilizer application. The contents of boron and of Al, Cd, Cr, Fe, K, Mn, Ni, P, Pb, S and Zn were measured in honey by inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP MS) and by ICP–atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP‐OES). No significant differences were found in honey yield (P = 0.622), number of capped brood (P = 0.089), number of uncapped brood (P = 0.123) or number of bees (P = 0.87). Application of boron fertilizer did not affect the concentration of boron in honey (P = 0.656) or beebread (P = 0.665). The concentrations of other elements confirmed the suitability of rape nectar for bee nutrition. This study suggests that the application of foliar boron fertilizers in blooming rape is not hazardous for bee colonies.


This study examined the effect of family characteristics and parental status on adolescents' sexual behavior in Okun land of Kogi State. Data were obtained from male and female adolescents in ten Government Secondary Schools among the Okun-Yoruba tribe of Kogi State. The Okun-Yorubas occupied five LGAs of the state. Two schools were selected from each of the LGAs. In all, 781 copies of questionnaire were distributed and 768 were retrieved from respondents. This sample responded to a semi-structured questionnaire which contained both open and closed ended questions on sexual activities among adolescents as facilitated by family and parental background and activities. The findings reveal that adolescents' sexual behaviors are affected by their family or parental sexual life style, income and education level, tutelage, etc. Association between adolescents' sexual behavior and parental indices as mentioned above were tested using the Chi-square test. The t-test was used to determine the significance of the findings while Cramer's V value was used to test the strength of the associations. Results of the Chi-square tests were corroborated by focus group discussion and In-depth interview conducted among respondents and teachers. This allows for triangulation among responses gathered. Conclusions were drawn based on the findings and recommendations proffered.

 Key words: Family, socialization, adolescents, social stratification, sexual behavior.


Software development is slow, expensive and error prone, often resulting in products with a large number of defects which cause serious problems in usability, reliability, and performance. To combat this problem, software measurement provides a systematic and empirically-guided approach to control and improve software development processes and final products. However, due to the high cost associated with "metrics collection" and difficulties in "metrics decision-making," measurement is not widely adopted by software organizations.
This dissertation proposes a novel metrics-based program called "software project telemetry" to address the problems. It uses software sensors to collect metrics automatically and unobtrusively. It employs a domain-specific language to represent telemetry trends in software product and process metrics. Project management and process improvement decisions are made by detecting changes in telemetry trends and comparing trends between different periods of the same project. Software project telemetry avoids many problems inherent in traditional metrics models, such as the need to accumulate a historical project database and ensure that the historical data remain comparable to current and future projects.
The claim of this dissertation is that software project telemetry provides an effective approach to (1) automated metrics collection and analysis, and (2) in-process, empirically-guided software development process problem detection and diagnosis. Two empirical studies were carried out to evaluate the claim: one in software engineering classes, and the other in the Collaborative Software Development Lab. The results suggested that software project telemetry had acceptably-low metrics collection and analysis overhead, and that it provided decision-making value at least in the exploratory context of the two studies.


Background There is limited data on the outcomes of older patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage 5 undergoing renal replacement therapies (RRT) or conservative management (CM). Aims Through conducting the largest study in patients over 70 years old we aimed to establish key factors influencing survival and quality of life of patients who chose either RRT or CM at CKD stage 5. This information is essential to ensure patients and professionals can make informed decisions regarding management in such complex cases. Methods A retrospective observational survival study comparing both groups was conducted. Results 441 patients were included (172 CM, 269 RRT). The RRT group survived for longer when survival was taken from the time GFR <20 ml/min (p<0.001). This remained the case when survival was calculated from GFR 15ml/min (p=0.02) and 12 ml/min (p=0.02). However when stratified for age (greater than 80 years old), Charlson comorbidity score (greater than 8) and WHO performance score (greater than 2) RRT no longer had a statistically significant survival advantage. In terms of quality of life, the RR of an acute hospital admission comparing RRT to CM was 1.6, p<0.05, 95% CI (1.14 to 2.13). 47% of CM patients died in hospital, in comparison the Renal Registry states 69% of RRT patients die in hospital. The CM group also had greater access to specialist palliative care (SPC) resources. 131 CM patients accessed community SPC services versus 0 RRT patients. 85% of CM patients had a SPC consultant review versus 4% of RRT patients. Conclusion For patients over 80 years old, with high comorbidity scores and low performance status RRT did not offer a survival advantage over CM. Additionally, through accessing a dedicated CM pathway patients have greater access to SPC services and are less likely to be acutely admitted to or die in hospital.


(Resume de l'ouvrage) This collection of studies in honor of Francois Bovon highlights the rich diversity found within early expressions of Christianity as evidenced in ancient texts, traditions, symbols, and motifs. Old labels like 'apocrypha' or 'heresy' that for centuries have suppressed much of this evidence are removed, previous assumptions are questioned, and the old data are examined afresh along with the latest discoveries. The studies fall into six areas: ancient gospels, acts, early Christian movements, ancient interpretations, art, and manuscripts. Contributors include James Robinson, Helmut Koester, Harold Attridge, Karen King, and Jean-Daniel Kaestli.


This paper provides an overview of two systems used for the management of infectious disease within the poultry industry on the Delmarva Peninsula. The first system is a paper-based Grid system that was developed in the 1970's. This system divides the peninsula into a total of 3420 unique locations, each covering approximately 5 square miles. The second system is a Geographic Information System (GIS) database that is currently under construction. Each system is critiqued with respect to several of the criteria established by Klaucke et al. (1998) for the evaluation of a surveillance system: simplicity, flexibility, acceptability, representativeness and timeliness. In addition, the objectives of a disease management system in an intensive poultry production area are discussed. A grid-based system is most appropriately used in situations involving a small, easily managed population or geographic location, especially when funding and geographic resources are limited. When multiple diseases or large geographic areas are the focus of a surveillance and monitoring system, or when several different risk factors are to be examined and funding and adequate resources are available, the use of a GIS-based system provides additional flexibility. The database management component of GIS allows for rapid updating of demographic and disease information, and the linkage of the database component with the spatial coordinates of a GIS provides the ability to examine the effects of several risk factors at the same time.


Crashes involving pedestrians are a major concern for authorities in many developed and developing countries. To refrain pedestrians from illegal or unsafe road behavior, authorities introduced three pedestrian penalties in the State of Qatar from August 2019. This paper assesses the awareness, perception, and adaptive intentions of the new amendment to the pedestrians' law. A questionnaire survey, designed in three languages, was distributed online using Qatar University contacts and Twitter account of the General Directorate of Traffic at the Ministry of Interior, State of Qatar. A sample of 521 complete responses was obtained and used for statistical analysis. The results indicated that only 32 % of the respondents were aware of the law amendment before taking this survey. Further, the higher score for perception, adaptive intentions and awareness showed that the respondents were aware of the risks and the law amendment will have a positive effect on their behavior on road as pedestrians. The outcomes of the analysis show the efficacy of the law amendment. However, the actual behavior changes need to be studied by analyzing the pedestrian crash data and conducting a before and after study. Moreover, the study of the effects on pedestrians' behavior, through empirical observations, is proposed to get insight into actual behaviors after law amendment as a part of future work on the topic.


Topology optimization is among the most effective tools for innovative and lightweight structural designs. Multi-material design is considered to achieve better structural performance than single-material design. To significantly reduce the design space dimensionality and facilitate the optimization of multi-material structural design problems, this study proposes an effective topological representation and dimensionality reduction approach based on the material-field series expansion (MFSE) model. In the proposed method, a specified number of material phases is described within a single material field with a piecewise Heaviside projection function. The topology optimization problem is solved by determining the optimal MFSE coefficients. Owing to the single material-field topological description and series expansion, the number of design variables is independent of the finite element mesh and the number of material phases. In terms of dimensionality reduction, the proposed method outperformed all reported state-of-the-art algorithms for multi-material topology optimization. The validity and universality of the proposed method are illustrated in two- and three-dimensional numerical examples.


The formation of Mg vacancy induced by ultra-dilute trivalent impurities in MgO is investigated by a combination of positron lifetime measurements and first-principles calculations. The undoped MgO yields the shortest positron lifetime of 140 ps that is shorter than that of a single crystal sample. The positron lifetime of the doped samples increases with the increase of the Al dopant concentration and is saturated at around 180 ps. This result clearly indicates that the formation of Mg vacancy is induced by Al dopant. The concentration of the other trivalent impurities can be evaluated using the result of component analysis of positron lifetimes. The experimental bulk lifetime of 130 ps, which is obtained by employing trapping model, is well reproduced by the theoretical calculation using the semiconductor model. The calculated defect lifetime is about 20 ps longer than the experimental value. This may be due to the lattice relaxation around Mg vacancy associated with the trapping of positrons.


Abstract Pathogenic viruses represent a small fraction of viral diversity, and emerging diseases are frequently the result of cross-species transmissions. Therefore, we need to develop high-throughput techniques to investigate a broader range of viral biodiversity across a greater number of species. This is especially important in the context of new practices in agriculture that have arisen to tackle the challenges of global food security, including the rising number of marine and freshwater species that are used in aquaculture. In this study, we demonstrate the utility of combining evolutionary approaches with bioinformatics to mine non-viral genome data for viruses, by adapting methods from paleovirology. We report the discovery of a new lineage of dsDNA viruses that are associated with at least fifteen different species of fish. This approach also enabled us to simultaneously identify sequences that likely represent endogenous viral elements, which we experimentally confirmed in commercial salmon samples. Moreover, genomic analysis revealed that the endogenous sequences have co-opted PiggyBac-like transposable elements, possibly as a mechanism of intragenomic proliferation. The identification of novel viruses from genome data shows that our approach has applications in genomics, virology, and the development of best practices for aquaculture and farming.


The Bidding System of the public IT project in Korea is fallen behind, because of the ordering habitual practice based old system, overcompetition based sealed bid and subcontract practice. To innovate this old-fashioned practice for public IT project bidding, this paper wants to generate a proper improvement direction of the public IT project contract law and the related policy through the literature review about the ordering and receiving system in Korea, the practical survey about bidding marketplace in Korea, and competition between bidding system and/or policy of major countries: USA, UK, France and Japan. As a result of practical survey, many problems of the current public IT project bidding system came out and improvement ideas toward future situation turned up. These outputs implicate that the current law and system related public IT project demands better improvement work for the future ubiquitous Korea. Therefore, this paper, to solve these problems about bidding systems and practice, propose the new public IT project contract law and the related policy, reflecting these improvement ideas by the practical survey and the literature review, and benchmarking points from bidding system of other countries.


Trypomastigotes of the CA-I strain of Trypanosoma cruzi, which is practically non-lethal for mice, exhibited adhered antibodies when harvested 25-28 days pi and handled at 4 degrees C, whereas at 37 degrees C they became negative within 10-15 min. Mice injected with these tryp pre-incubated with anti-RA rabbit serum (shown to contained neutralizing antibodies against the homologous strain) developed a significantly lower parasitemia than controls while those pre-incubated with anti-CA-I serum showed only a delay in the parasitemia pattern. Neutralizing activity was undetectable in anti-CA-I rabbit and mouse sera when the test was performed under standard conditions against RA-tryp. On the other hand, neutralizing antibodies were demonstrated in few anti-CA-I mouse serum samples against RA strain when the test was performed increasing the sensitivity in order to reach no more than 75% lethality for controls. In these cases, a close relationship between "infective dose size-immune response achieved" was found, being only a narrow range of inocula able to trigger detectable neutralizing activity (10(4) CA-I tryp inoculum). Variations in the degree of neutralizing activity as a function of the infective doze size was also demonstrated for anti-RA mouse sera and, despite every antiserum prepared with this T. cruzi strain was reactive, the best values were proved for those prepared with inocula up to 10(2) tryp. Above optimal parasite dose size, both strains induced a drop of neutralizing activity.


Abstract. This paper presents a methodology for the attribution and characterisation of Sclerophyll forested landscapes over large areas. First we define a set of woody vegetation data primitives (e.g. canopy cover, leaf area index (LAI), bole density, canopy height), which are then scaled-up using multiple remote sensing data sources to characterise and extract landscape woody vegetation features. The advantage of this approach is that vegetation landscape features can be described from composites of these data primitives. The proposed data primitives act as building blocks for the re-creation of past woody characterisation schemes as well as allowing for re-compilation to support present and future policy and management and decision making needs. Three main research sites were attributed; representative of different sclerophyll woody vegetated systems (Box Iron-bark forest; Mountain Ash forest; Mixed Species foothills forest). High resolution hyperspectral and full waveform LiDAR data was acquired over the three research sites. At the same time, land management agencies (Victorian Department of Environment, Land Water and Planning) and researchers (RMIT, CRC for Spatial Information and CSIRO) conducted fieldwork to collect structural and functional measurements of vegetation, using traditional forest mensuration transects and plots, terrestrial lidar scanning and high temporal resolution in-situ autonomous laser (VegNet) scanners. Results are presented of: 1) inter-comparisons of LAI estimations made using ground based hemispherical photography, LAI 2200 PCA, CI-110 and terrestrial and airborne laser scanners; 2) canopy height and vertical canopy complexity derived from airborne LiDAR validated using ground observations; and, 3) time-series characterisation of land cover features. 1. Accuracy targets for remotely sensed LAI products to match within ground based estimates are ± 0.5 LAI or a 20% maximum (CEOS/GCOS) with new aspirational targets of 5%). In this research we conducted a total of 67 ground-based method-to-method pairwise comparisons across 11 plots in five sites, incorporating the previously mentioned LAI methods. Out of the 67 comparisons, 29 had an RMSE ≥ 0.5 LAIe. This has important implications for the validation of remotely sensed products since ground based techniques themselves exhibit LAI variations greater than internationally recommended guidelines for satellite product accuracies. 2. Two methods of canopy height derivation are proposed and tested over a large area (4 Million Ha). 99th percentile maximum height achieved a RMSE of 6.6%, whilst 95th percentile dominant height a RMSE = 10.3%. Vertical canopy complexity (i.e. the number of forest layers of strata) was calculated as the local maxima of vegetation density within the LiDAR canopy profile and determined using a cubic spline smoothing of Pgap. This was then validated against in-situ and LiDAR observations of canopy strata with an RMSE 0.39 canopy layers. 3. Preliminary results are presented of landcover characterisation using LandTrendr analysis of Landsat LEDAPS data. kNN is then used to link these features to a dense network of 800 field plots sites.


Snake venoms are a natural biological source of bioactive compounds, mainly composed of proteins and peptides with specific pathophysiological functions. The diversity of protein families found in snake venoms is reflected by the range of targets and toxicological effects observed, and consequently, a wide variety of potential pharmacological activities. In this context, in vitro biomimetic models such as spheroid and organoid systems, which are three-dimensional (3D) cell culture models, enable extensive screening and identification of substances with pharmacological potential and the determination of the mechanisms underlying their activities. In this review we summarize the main findings of 3D microenvironment cell culture as a promising model for snake venom research, from producing snake toxins on venom gland organoids to screening pharmacological active compounds on spheroids for drug development.


After penetrating the skin the first instar larvae spread diffusively and rather evenly in the subcutaneous and intermuscular conncective tissue over the whole body of a deer and do not migrate upwards. The number of larvae in the intermuscular tissue decreases with age and increases in subcutaneous cellulose. During migration their growth varies much that can be partially explained by the heterogeneity of the tissus they advance ahead. On the places of larval localisation a granulomatose inflammation appears with a prevalence of lymphoid cells in the infiltrate and location haemorrhages into surrounding tissues.


We examine a class of stochastic deep learning models with a tractable method to compute information-theoretic quantities. Our contributions are three-fold: (i) we show how entropies and mutual informations can be derived from heuristic statistical physics methods, under the assumption that weight matrices are independent and orthogonally-invariant. (ii) We extend particular cases in which this result is known to be rigorously exact by providing a proof for two-layers networks with Gaussian random weights, using the recently introduced adaptive interpolation method. (iii) We propose an experiment framework with generative models of synthetic datasets, on which we train deep neural networks with a weight constraint designed so that the assumption in (i) is verified during learning. We study the behavior of entropies and mutual informations throughout learning and conclude that, in the proposed setting, the relationship between compression and generalization remains elusive.