Every day, we interact with deformable objects such as cloth, hair, paper, and more. Within computer graphics these deformable bodies need to be simulated, whether it is skin for a medical simulation, an application to test stress levels on a bridge for an engineer, or just simply to look believable within a virtual landscape. Methods such as the mass spring model have allowed video games to efficiently recreate the movement of 2D soft bodies such as cloth and hair, however the simulation of more solid objects using this method has issues. In this project, a modified Finite Element Method has been used in order to simulate soft body deformations of thicker objects in a real-time environment, intended for use either as a tool to export these elements or to show the potential applications of the finite element method within video games. The application was created in C++, and uses OpenGL, NGL and Eigen libraries. A visually believable deformation is created within the application, which could be used as a tool for artists as well as a showcase of the methods in real time. Finally, the application has been running with an average framerate of 82 frames per second (fps), exceeding the aim of 60 fps.


Continuous and recycling cultures were carried out with Aspergillus niger N402 wild-type and a glucoamylase overproducing transformant to investigate growth and product formation characteristics. In shake flask cultures, the amount of glucoamylase produced by the transformant was about five times more than by the wild-type strain. In contrast with these results, a twofold overproduction was found in glucose-limited continuous cultures, while no overproduction was found under maltodextrin-limitation. Two regions of specific growth rates could be distinguished, one at specific growth rates lower (domain I) and one at specific growth rates higher than 0.12 h-1 (domain II). In domain I changes in mycelium morphology and conidia formation were observed. It has been concluded that maintenance requirements are dependent on the specific growth rate over the whole range of measured growth rates. The deviation in linearity in the linear equation of substrate utilization, caused by this phenomenon, should be considered when continuous cultures with filamentous fungi are performed. In recycling cultures, xylose as limiting carbon source repressed glucoamylase production very strongly. Under maltodextrin-limitation a fivefold overproduction was found. After about 150 h , the total amount of glucoamylase produced was still increasing, while total amount of product, measured as carbon, remained constant. After this time no increase in the amount of biomass formed was observed. These results suggest autolysis and cryptic growth taking place in a recycling fermenter and cell death rate equalling growth rate.


BACKGROUND
Cholinergic transmission loss is one of the major features in Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEI) are moderately active in AD. α7nAChR (alpha-7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor), encoded by CHRNA7 (Nicotinic Cholinergic Receptor Alpha-7 gene), is involved in the cholinergic neurotransmission and AD pathogenesis. α7nAChR is a putative receptor of amyloid beta (Aβ). The complex α7nAChR-Aβ is found in neuritic plaques and AD cortical neurons. In normal physiologic conditions, α7nAChR-Aβ interaction leads to receptor activation. Genetic polymorphisms (SNPs) of CHRNA7 and/or CHRFAM7A (fusion gene containing CHRNA7 partial duplication) may be a possible susceptibility trait to dementia, potentially useful to identify high risk or responder individuals. CHRFAM7A-2-bp deletion or CHRNA7 SNPs (rs1514246, rs2337506, rs8027814) seem protective factors in different forms of dementia including AD.

OBJECTIVE
Correlation between(SNPs) of CHRNA7 and/or CHRFAM7A and cholinesterase inhibitors in AD.

METHODS
Literature review.

RESULTS
Among the leading AD therapeutics, Donepezil (DP) and galantamine (AChEI) induce upregulation of α7nAChR protein levels, protecting neurons from degeneration. Patients carrying rs8024987 (C/G) or rs6494223 (C/T) respond better to AChEI. In the caucasic population rs6494223 TT subjects are 7-15% of the total. α7nAChR upregulation induced by DP is higher in lymphocytes from TT subjects than in CC or CT as well as calcium uptake.

CONCLUSION
The correlation between genetic and functionality data may have an impact on several aspects of disease presentation and therapy, helping in prediction pattern of AD presentation and treatment efficacy. As a consequence it may lead to better patients quality of life and longer periods of self- sufficiency. Moreover, it may contribute to clarify AChEI mechanisms of action.


This paper highlights the contribution of women and children to the sugar industry in Fiji by examining the importance of family labour in the historical development of the smallholder system and describing the present situation for the study participants. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted during 1996- 97, on the island of Vanua Levu in the northern region of Fiji. The twenty smallholder households in the study comprised both Fijian and Fiji Indian respondents who relied primarily on selling sugar cane for their cash income. How inequalities within the household in terms of allocation of labour and resources are legitimated is outlined. Resource distribution within the household in regards to two important issues for the sugar industry, land and trade liberal- isation, are examined. In light of global trends in trade liberalisa- tion and probable falls in sugar prices, future strategies for survival identified by Fijian and Fiji Indian smallholders are also discussed. The case study demonstrates that the sugar industry is still largely reliant on family labour and, particularly for low socio-economic smallholders, the unremunerated labour of family members makes an essential contribution to the production of sugar cane.


Purpose: This paper synthesizes existing research on tools and methods that support data-driven business model innovation, and maps out relevant directions for future research.
Design/methodology/approach: We have carried out a structured literature review and collected and analysed a respectable but not excessively large number of 33 publications, due to the comparatively emergent nature of the field.
Findings: Current literature on supporting data-driven business model innovation differs in the types of contribution (taxonomies, patterns, visual tools, methods, IT tool and processes), the types of thinking supported (divergent and convergent) and the elements of the business models that are addressed by the research (value creation, value capturing and value proposition).
Research limitations/implications: Our review highlights the following as relevant directions for future research. Firstly, most research focusses on supporting divergent thinking, i.e. ideation. However, convergent thinking, i.e. evaluating, prioritizing, and deciding, is also necessary. Secondly, the complete procedure of developing data-driven business models and also the development on chains of tools related to this have been under-investigated. Thirdly, scarcely any IT tools specifically support the development of data-driven business models. These avenues also highlight the necessity to integrate between research on specifics of data in business model innovation, on innovation management, information systems and business analytics.
Originality/value: This paper is the first to synthesize the literature on how to identify and develop data-driven business models, and to map out (interdisciplinary) research directions for the community.
Keywords: Business model innovation, data-driven business models, research agenda.

Article classification: Literature review


AIM: Development of de-novo anti-HLA antibodies in the post-transplant period might be the earliest finding of later chronic antibody mediated rejection. In this study, we aimed to investigate the incidence and risk factors of de-novo anti-HLA antibodies in our kidney allograft recipients. MAterIAl and MetHOdS: After exclusion, 91 (64M/27F) patients having functional graft and negative HLA antibody before the transplantation were taken into the analysis. Anti-HLA antibodies were evaluated by the Luminex method. reSultS: Duration of posttransplantation time was 38±31 months and the mean age was 38±10. Mean estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was 68±19 ml/min, and the biopsy proven acute rejection rate was 15.2 %. Anti- HLA antibody was observed in 12 patients (13.1%). When the anti-HLA antibody positive group was compared with the negative group, estimated GFR (58±26 ml/min vs. 69±18 ml/ min, (p=0.05)), living donor/cadaveric donor (5/7 vs. 66/13 (p=0.004)), and acute rejection (6/12 (%50) vs. 8/79 (%10.1) (p=0.002)) were significantly different between the groups. Deceased donor and acute rejection were independent risk factors for development of anti-HLA antibody (p=0.008 and p= 0.004, respectively) on multivariate analysis. COnCluSIOn: In conclusion, anti-HLA antibody can be seen after renal transplantation even in stable patients. Acute rejection and deceased donor transplantation are the major risk factors for development of anti-HLA antibodies.


This article charts the development of the modern astronomical observational system. I am interested most acutely in the digitization of this system in general, and in the introduction of adaptive optics in particular. I argue that these features have been critical in establishing the modern observatory as a factory for scientific data, rather than as a center of calculation in its own right. Throughout, the theoretical focus is on the nature of technological evolution in the observational system, understood as inextricably bound up with both the system-internal drive to surpass the limits imposed upon the distributed cognition of the researcher and the boundary at which empirical objects resolve themselves into technical objects. In short, this article explores the historically constituted character of expert astronomical perception, arguing that it is impossible to understand without constant reference to its material substrate.


The integration of distributed power plants that rely on renewable energy sources (RESs) is a major challenge for system operators (SOs) due to the variable nature of the input energy (e.g., wind and solar irradiation) to these power sources. A key solution to such a challenge is to coordinate and combine the power generation of these sources such that their behavior is closer to a conventional and dispatchable power station, taking into account the limitations imposed by the battery storage system (BESS), so it is seen as a hybrid power plant (HPP) from the SOs' viewpoint. This paper develops a model of HPP that encompasses two generation technologies, wind and photovoltaic farms, which are assisted by a BESS. The paper proposes a comprehensive control method that can smooth the HPP output with minimized energy rejection whilst enabling the HPP to provide synthetic inertia and primary frequency response, which are grid-code compliant. The proposed control method is validated through various scenarios, which are implemented on a detailed electromechanical test system modeled in MATLAB/Simulink. The results show and quantify the achieved improvement on stabilizing the HPP capacity factor under variable wind speed. The HPP also enhances the system response to frequency events.


Software innerSourcing has been attracting attention over the past decade in terms of procuring human resources. It can make any employee become a member of all projects in the company by adopting an Open Source Software (OSS) development style. For encouraging healthy employee participation on software innerSourcing, it is important to understand what motivates them. This report creates a visual model using the iStar framework, a goal and actor-oriented modeling methodology, to develop an understanding of employee motivation for software innerSourcing. We interview six employees who participated in one web application development project via software innerSourcing. We then create iStar models based on the interview results. They can be used to explain what motivates employees to use their time for other projects in software innerSourcing.


This is a study of the lexical effects on New Zealand English of the legal, social and economic changes brought about by the fourth Labour government and its successor during the decade from 1984 - 1994, during which period the New Zealand public sector was radically reformed. In order to carry out this study a corpus of approximately five million written words was compiled, consisting of three parallel sets of documents from four domains of use in the public sector. Chapter One provides the rationale for scoping the study both to this particular ten-year period and to the lexis of four particular government departments, namely The Treasury and the Ministries of Social Welfare, Health and Education. A review of previous related work in the field of lexicography, and the aims and specific research questions which motivated the study, are located at the end of this first chapter. Chapter Two explains the reasons behind the selection of three particular documents for use as data sources: the Annual Reports, the annual Corporate Plans, and the triennial Briefings to the Incoming Government. This chapter also describes the methodology used to determine words for inclusion in the glossary which is located in Appendix I. The advantages and pitfalls of the Google search method are discussed, as are the approaches taken to dealing with multiword units, proper nouns, abbreviations and words of Maori origin. The construction and arrangement of the glossary are explained here, including the basis for selection of citations. In Chapter Three an overview of each ministry's dataset is given in terms of its linguistic characteristics, and the results of the study are described. The penultimate chapter catalogues the discovery of a rich vein of figurative language throughout the documents of the New Zealand Treasury, as evidenced by varied and extended metaphors used to express economic concepts. This chapter gives a brief account of metaphor theory and discusses the methodology used for identification of metaphors in the dataset. The fifth and final chapter of this study sums up the overall findings and points the way towards useful future research in this field. A major part of this study consists of the aforementioned lexicon in Appendix I of New Zealand-specific words from these domains and their illustrative citations. This lexicon is a record of the NZE words used in a particular dataset in the public sector of New Zealand. It amounts to approximately 260 entries supported by 660 citations, which were collected via an exhaustive data search of three types of government document over one decade. These terms are not new in the sense that they first appeared in NZE during the decade of this study, but approximately two-thirds of them are new in the sense that they do not appear in any dictionary of English. This collection of terms constitutes a cultural and historical archive, which records the distinctive identity of New Zealand's public sector as it underwent a revolutionary era of profound political and economic change.


Which sites would be best to revive cultivating crops and vegetables? In Swiss mountains, the area used for arable farming decreased by over 50% from 1990 to 2010. We are interested in methods able to integrate different knowledge forms and viewpoints with spatial reference. Arable farming contributes to culture, local knowledge, and landscape aesthetics. At the same time it is dependent on those elements. Therefore, biosphere reserves are candidates for reviving arable farming. Here, an approach called participatory mapping is used to find the suitable sites. Airborne photos serve as a basis with a direct reference to the physical world. Various stakeholders then create a thematic map by drawing suitable areas on top of the photos. While participatory mapping was applied on a broad range of topics, this method lacks scientifically sound guidelines for best application. Hence, we research required sample size and the influence of mapping scales and technologies. In addition, we examine precision, accuracy, and validity of the data gathered through participatory mapping. We further look into additional effects such as social learning or emerging conflicts as a consequence of the mapping process. In this project, arable farming in the protected areas serves as a case study. However, the method has much broader application possibilities.


Abstract As industries are increasingly adopting the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) additive manufacturing (AM) process, it is crucial to understand the process closely and to find ways to improve the final quality of the finished parts. The LPBF process is capable of producing tailored designs, which are lighter in weight and having strength comparable to conventional components. However, the acquired surface texture and some of the mechanical properties of LPBF-produced components are still sub-standard compared to the conventional components. As of now, the post-processing technique is witnessed as the only sustainable approach to enhance the mechanical and microstructural performance of the additive products since any further optimization of the LPBF processing parameters is reported inefficient in bringing the relevant changes in the as-built LPBF parts. So far, several post-processing techniques such as thermal, mechanical, and/or chemical-based have been applied to different additive materials, and the results have been beneficial. This article reviews the effects of post-processing operations on the surface integrity properties of as-built LPBF parts, namely surface roughness, microhardness, microstructure, mechanical strength, corrosion, and wear resistance. The results of the post-processing operations are also discussed and compared with the as-built and conventional conditions for different engineering materials.


With the diversification of paid search advertising channels, e-commerce enterprises are paying more and more attention on how to evaluate the effectiveness of different paid search advertising channels correctly and accurately to choose the optimal advertising channel or channels. We develop a multivariate time series model to investigate the spillover effect of paid search advertising channels based on the ad click-through rate and conversion rate, and calibrate the model using an e-commerce site's web log data. We determine the long-term equilibrium relationship between each channel's advertisement clicks through the co-integration test and evaluate the effect of short-term fluctuations in the interaction between each channel advertisement clicks through the vector error correction model. Based on the empirical results, this paper puts forward suggestions on the advertising strategy of this e-commerce website.


Geological models are preferably built with very fine grids in a 3D dimensional geometry to capture reservoir complexity and heterogeneity. However, simulating such detailed models with sizes that can range to the 100's of millions of cells is a huge challenge for current commercial CPU (Central Processing Unit) simulators as the results cannot be achieved within an acceptable time frame and simulation may last days or weeks.
 These long run times cause a delay in achieving a robust history matched or production forecast model as it constrains the ability to effectively characterize the uncertainty range of subsurface parameters and potential development solutions. Restricting the number of alternate scenarios in this manner diminishes the ability to arrive at solutions which may lead to loss of business opportunity and economic value. The alternatives have been used by oil and gas industry so far to reduce simulation run time, are either upscaling fine grid models to a coarser grid, consequently reducing the number of cells or increasing the number of nodes on a high-performance cluster so that simulation results can be achieved more rapidly by parallel computing using CPU based simulators. The former solution is limited by reservoir complexity and the latter by the scaling limits of the software. However, recent advances in high performance technical computing using Graphic Processing Units (GPU) has generated significant interest in the performance characteristics of a GPU-based simulator. This paper demonstrates performance of new generation of GPU based simulator as compared to CPU based simulators. A simulation run time of 9-11 hours on a 4-core CPU based simulator was reduced to 25-40 min on 1 GPU based simulator with tight bounds on results.


The major defects in ammunition production and the production process of liner are discussed. The propagation mechanism of detonation wave in defective filling as well as energy density of detonation wave the influence on jet motion is studied in this paper. Through the experiment of liner, the law of jet motion in defective filling is simulated. The simulation result shows that deviation of the jet motion trajectory would reduce the power of anti-armor.


We present the design and implementation of RF-EATS, a system that can sense food and liquids in closed containers without opening them or requiring any contact with their contents. RF-EATS uses passive backscatter tags (e.g., RFIDs) placed on a container, and leverages near-field coupling between a tag's antenna and the container contents to sense them noninvasively. In contrast to prior proposals that are invasive or require strict measurement conditions, RF-EATS is noninvasive and does not require any calibration; it can robustly identify contents in practical indoor environments and generalize to unseen environments. These capabilities are made possible by a learning framework that adapts recent advances in variational inference to the RF sensing problem. The framework introduces an RF kernel and incorporates a transfer model that together allow it to generalize to new contents in a sample-efficient manner, enabling users to extend it to new inference tasks using a small number of measurements. We built a prototype of RF-EATS and tested it in seven different applications including identifying fake medicine, adulterated baby formula, and counterfeit beauty products. Our results demonstrate that RF-EATS can achieve over 90% classification accuracy in scenarios where state-of-the-art RFID sensing systems cannot perform better than a random guess.


The detection of the binary system PSR B1259‐63/SS 2883 with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) of four imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes is reported. PSR B1259‐63, a radio pulsar with a highly eccentric orbit around a very luminous, massive star was observed around its periastron passage in February/March 2004. Very high energy (VHE) gamma‐ray emission has been predicted to be produced in the interaction region of the pulsar wind and the photon field of the star, where accelerated electrons are believed to undergo Inverse Compton scattering. The flux of the gamma‐ray emission should then depend on the pulsar orbital phase. Gamma‐ray signals with a significance > 10σ were detected above an energy threshold of ∼ 380 GeV. The measured flux varies significantly on timescales of days. The spectrum derived from the pre‐periastron data has a flux level of 7% of the Crab Nebula flux and a photon index of Γ = 2.7 ± 0.3stat.


1 Holdstock DJ, Misiewicz JJ, Smith 'l', Rowlands EN. Propulsion (mass movements) in the human colon and its relationship to meals and somatic activity. Gut 1970;11:91-9. 2 Donald IP, Smith RG, Cruikshank JG, Elton RA, Stoddart ME. A study of constipation in the elderly living at home. Gerontology 1985;31:112-8. 3 Brocklehurst JC, Khan MY. A study of faecal stasis in old age and the use of 'Dorbanex' in its prevention. Gerontologia Clinica 1969;11:293-300. 4 Read NW, ''imms JM, Barfield LJ, Donnelly TC, Bannister JJ. Impairment of defecation in young women with severe constipation. Gastroenterology 1986;90:53-60. 5 Bannister JJ, Davison P, 'T'imms JM, Gibbons C, Read NW. Effect of stool size and consistency on defaecation. Gut 1987;28: 1246-50.


Specialized facilities for tuberculosis (TB) have all but faded from the American health care system. With the introduction of isoniazid and other effective therapies, patients with TB became part of the mainstream of patients treated in general care hospitals and outpatient settings. This success, however, caused the awareness of TB to decrease among health care providers and the public. This complacency has now come to an abrupt halt with the heavily publicized outbreaks of multidrug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in New York and Florida. 1 Public awareness and fear of TB has been heightened through media coverage, including a recent cover story in Newsweek entitled "TB: Why It's Back and How We Can Protect Ourselves" ( Newsweek . March 16,1992: 52-57). The fear of widespread dissemination of TB to other patients, health care workers, and the general public has prompted interest in reopening special TB facilities. But would these facilities, in fact,


In a further attempt to study the role of genetics in vitamin D deficiency rickets, 400 rachitic infants randomly chosen and aged from 6 months to 2 years (14.3 +/- 3.5 months) were investigated for sex differences and ABO typing. A significant (P < 0.001) predominance of the male sex was found, sex ratio being 1.43. Blood group A was significantly (P < 0.001) associated with rachitic patients whether males or females. Alkaline phosphatase values were significantly (P < 0.01) higher in male infants 91% of them had levels above 30 K.A. units, while the corresponding percentage of girls was 72%. This indicates that the disease is more severe among males. The study gives added support for the belief that there is a genetic factor in nutritional rickets.


We report on a new vector model of an erbium doped fiber laser mode locked with carbon nanotubes. This model goes beyond the limitations of the previously used models based on either coupled nonlinear Schrodinger or Ginzburg-Landau equations. It results in a new family of vector solitons with fast evolving states of polarization experimentally observed in our previous papers.


While our frameworks for the analysis of textual information and verbal communication are rich, our means for performing the same investigations of visual information are comparatively weak. Given the increasingly visual orientation of our culture and technologies, this is problematic. This poster presents a case for the study of ad hoc visualizations as both communicative practice and information behavior. Ad hoc visualizations are images spontaneously created during conversations. Often corresponding to moments of heightened clarity or coordination, the creation of such visualizations can be viewed within a broad communicative context, alongside linguistic and other non-textual modes of exchange. Further study of image-enabled discourse, and specifically ad hoc visualizations, will contribute to the field of information science by extending existing research related to information behaviors into the realm of information creation. It will also provide a more inclusive framework for the study of visual information.


The effects of topically applied hemoglobin, methemoglobin, hemin, ferrous chloride (FeCl2) and ferric chloride (FeCl3) were investigated by observation through the operating microscope to determine their effect on the normal and spastic canine basilar artery. Following transclival exposure, the artery was made spastic by puncture or topical barium chloride. No consistent changes in arterial diameter were seen with topical hemoglobin, methemoglobin, or hemin. The buffered ferrous ion (Fe++) caused marked vasodilation at concentrations of 10 microgram/ml. The buffered ferric ion (Fe++) caused mild vasoconstriction at similar concentrations. The possible role of iron (a component of hemoglobin) in vasospasm following subarachnoid hemorrhage and subsequent hemoglobin degradation is discussed.


effective than single-agent therapy; well, it all depends what you mean by "more effective." It is true that the aggressive combined regimens applied in advanced breast cancer produce more immediate objective responses; but, as has recently been pointed out, this has not been reflected in any overall improvement in survival.7 Furthermore, a recent paper has shown that a sequence of single agents used in advanced breast cancer will eventually produce the same result as combining all agents together at the first injection.8 Next, a consensus of opinion broadcast from the National Institutes of Health by a group of distinguished and committed medical oncologists, does not make me tremble at the knees as if a pronouncement has come down from Mount Olympus. Medical oncologists in America are notorious for their tunnel vision and have to continue struggling to justify their very existence as a specialty. Furthermore, as already pointed out, practice in the United States can never be transplanted to the United Kingdom or the developing world without an enormous investment in capital and recurrent expenditure.


After his "Leben Jesu" (1835) and his unsuccessful vocation in Zurich Straus developed, according to the social analysis of cultural reproduction theory by Pierre Bourdieu, the habitus of a victim of his own belief, a martyr. This habitus is shown in the works he wrote after the end of his academic theological career. In "Leben und Schriften des Dichters Nicodemus Frischlin" (1856) and in "Ulrich von Hutten" (1858) he portrays two authors who were both unsuccessful in their work and their lives and became victims of their beliefs. Not only these biographies but also the translation of Huttens Latin oeuvres modified Straus' habitus: in giving popularity to forgotten authors and works he felt that the time had come to rehabilitate his "Leben Jesu", especially because he considered it to be a milestone of theological development. He thus modified the habitus of a martyr into the habitus of a risen hero. Instead of creating a new edition of his "Leben Jesu" he wrote the popular version "Leben Jesu, fur das deutsche Volk bearbeitet" (1864), followed by "Der alte und der neue Glaube" (1872). Nietzsche's very polemic critique of this last work in "Unzeitgemasse Betrachtung" (1873) deals closely with the modified habitus of Straus and shows the latter to have become yet again a martyr of his own beliefs.


Social structure emerges from the interaction and information exchange between individuals in a population. The emergence of groups in animal and human social systems suggests that such social structures are the result of a cooperative and cohesive society. Using graph based models, where nodes represent individuals in a population and edges represent communication pathways, we simulate individual influence and the communication of ideas in a population. Simulations of Dunbar's hypothesis (that natural group size in apes and humans arises from the transition from grooming behaviour to language or gossip) indicate that transmission rate and neighbourhood size accompany critical transitions of the order proposed in Dunbar's work. We demonstrate that critical levels of connectivity are required to achieve consensus in models that simulate individual influence.


Modeling of seismic data takes two forms: those based on physical or geological (phenomenological) models and those that are data-driven (probabilistic) models. In the phenomenological approach, physical and geologic models are tied to seismic data either through geologic analogs or principles of structural deformation and sedimentary deposition. The results are then compared to the observed data, and the model is iterated as necessary to improve agreement. In contrast, probabilistic modeling looks at patterns in the data. The data could include raw seismic observations or seismic attributes. Probabilities can then be assigned to observations or potential observations; however, many common techniques such as neural networks and clustering do not explicitly take this step.


We use a classroom game, the "wallet Game", to show that in standard ascending, i.e. English, auctions of close-to-common-values objects, even slight asymmetries between bidders can have very large effects on prices. Examples of small asymmetries are a small value advantage for one bidder or a small ownership of the object by one bidder; the effects of these asymmetries are greatly exarcabated by entry costs or bidding costs. We discuss applications to Airwaves Auctions and Takeover Battles including the Glaxo-Wellcome Merger.


Summary form only given, as follows. While machine vision research has continued to improve multi-fold over the past few decades, it still significantly falls short of the abilities and efficiencies of the primate visual cortex system. The primate brain is especially superior as pertains to comprehending and interacting with complex natural environments. In energy-efficiencies, the brain is estimated to be five to six orders better than current machine vision solutions. While there is much consensus on the superiority of biological vision systems over machine systems on most vision tasks, the approaches leading to the better efficiencies and flexibility akin to the visual cortex are still widely debated. In this talk, I will highlight recent efforts at architecting customized digital hardware systems using neuromorphic algorithms as one successful approach to achieving better energy efficiencies. I will also outline emerging embedded visions applications.


This edition of Market Segmentation includes the key elements that made the first edition the resource for marketing professionals. Its state-of-the-art demographic and psychographic segmentation techniques and case studies are completely updated to reflect the latest data and applications. This expanded edition also covers international market segmentation and database marketing/single source data to help analyze market opportunities. Topics include: the pre-segmented market; physical attributes; statistical software; segmentation resources; developing global market strategies.


For many people art is at once a form of self-expression and discovery, and collage, based on the idea of spontaneously layering images and symbols, is a perfect medium for this process. This book approaches collage by theme, with five chapters representing 20 projects. These chapters deal with the expression of personal creativity, exploring and recording relationships, dreaming and wishing, finding inspiration in nature and creating visual memoirs. The instructions explain how to create a personal project, with necessary techniques and ideas for substituting personal themes and materials. The book concludes with a gallery of 26 projects by leading artists in the field, to inspire readers in their own collages.


While human‐induced stressors such as warming and pollutants may co‐occur and interact, evolutionary studies typically focus on single stressors. Rapid thermal evolution may help organisms better deal with warming, yet it remains an open question whether thermal evolution changes the toxicity of pollutants under warming. We investigated the effects of exposure to a novel pollutant (zinc oxide nanoparticles, nZnO) and 4°C warming (20°C vs. 24°C) on key life history and physiological traits of the water flea Daphnia magna, a keystone species in aquatic ecosystems. To address the role of thermal evolution, we compared these effects between clones from an experimental evolution trial where animals were kept for two years in outdoor mesocosms at ambient temperatures or ambient +4°C. The nZnO was more toxic at 20°C than at 24°C: only at 20°C, it caused reductions in early fecundity, intrinsic growth rate and metabolic activity. This was due to a higher accumulated zinc burden at 20°C than at 24°C, which was associated with an upregulation of a metallothionein gene at 20°C but not at 24°C. Clones from the heated mesocosms better dealt with warming than clones from the ambient mesocosms, indicating rapid thermal evolution. Notably, rapid thermal evolution did not change the toxicity of nZnO, neither at 20°C nor at 24°C, suggesting no pleiotropy or metabolic trade‐offs were at work under the current experimental design. Evaluating whether thermal evolution influences the toxicity of pollutants is important for ecological risk assessment. It provides key information to extrapolate laboratory‐derived toxicity estimates of pollutants both in space to warmer regions and in time under future global warming scenarios. In general, studying how the evolution of tolerance to one anthropogenic stressor influence tolerance to other anthropogenic stressors should get more attention in a rapidly changing world where animals increasingly face combinations of stressors.


Cleavable cell surface radiolabelling reagents were used to measure the endocytosis and recycling of class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC) glycoproteins in human B-lymphoblastoid cells. It is shown that mature class II alpha beta dimers on the cell surface are constitutively endocytosed and that recycling can be demonstrated even from small endosomal pools. Endocytosis was blocked when cellular ATP levels were depleted or when clathrin polymerization was inhibited, implicating clathrin-coated pits in the endocytic process. Taken together with earlier studies, these results suggest that mature class II MHC molecules are constitutively endocytosed and recycled from acidic peripheral endosomes which may enhance their capacity to bind and present T cell epitopes which do not require processing.


Summary The precipitation of iron, aluminium and silicon released during the weathering of rocks in a humid equatorial climate is described. While the composition of the weathering rock determines the composition of the solution from which the precipitates are deposited the type of precipitate is determined largely by the texture of the rock in which it is formed. Pure iron-oxide concretions are found only in weathered igneous rocks and shales, seams of secondary quartz crystals are found in weathering quartzites, and composite seams of crystalline quartz enclosed in iron-oxide layers are found in beds ranging in composition from argillaceous quartzites to sandy shales. It is suggested that this separation of iron and silicon from a composite solution is due to dialysis, the colloidal iron when first deposited on the walls of an intermittently drying crack forming a semi-permeable membrane which allows the crystalloid silica to pass through into the crack. The precipitation of aluminium as gibbsitic concretions is associated with shales, the form of the concretions being controlled by the structure of the weathering rock. Weathering processes are controlled by the density of the surface vegetation, the decomposition of which may account for the low pH values found in certain rocks. In other rocks the sulphide content is sufficient to account for the very low pH values found in the weathering zone.


This paper reports the results of investigations of shellfish toxin contamination of products obtained from Shanghai seafood markets. From May to October 2003, 66 samples were collected from several major seafood markets. Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) and diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) toxins in shellfish samples were monitored primarily by a mouse bioassay, then analysed by HPLC for the chemical contents of the toxins. According to the mouse bioassay, eight samples were detected to be contaminated by PSP toxins and seven samples were contaminated by DSP toxins. Subsequent HPLC analysis indicated that the concentrations of the PSP toxins ranged from 0.2 to 1.9 µg/100 g tissues and the main components were gonyautoxins 2/3 (GTX2/3). As for DSP, okadaic acid was detected in three samples, and its concentration ranged from 3.2 to 17.5 µg/100 g tissues. Beside okadaic acid, its analogues, dinophysistoxins (DTX1), were found in one sample. According to the results, gastropod (Neverita didyma) and scallop (Argopecten irradians) were more likely contaminated with PSP and DSP toxins, and most of the contaminated samples were collected from Tongchuan and Fuxi markets. In addition, the contaminated samples were always found in May, June and July. Therefore, consumers should be cautious about eating the potential toxic shellfish during this specific period.


Beta diversity, the compositional variation among communities, is often associated with environmental gradients. Other drivers of beta diversity include stochastic processes, priority effects, predation, or competitive exclusion. Temporal turnover may also explain differences in faunal composition between fossil assemblages. To assess the drivers of beta diversity in reef-associated soft-bottom environments, we investigate community patterns in a Middle to Late Triassic reef basin assemblage from the Cassian Formation in the Dolomites, Northern Italy, and compare results with a Recent reef basin assemblage from the Northern Bay of Safaga, Red Sea, Egypt. We evaluate beta diversity with regard to age, water depth, and spatial distance, and compare the results with a null model to evaluate the stochasticity of these differences. Using pairwise proportional dissimilarity, we find very high beta diversity for the Cassian Formation (0.91 ± 0.02) and slightly lower beta diversity for the Bay of Safaga (0.89 ± 0.04). Null models show that stochasticity only plays a minor role in determining faunal differences. Spatial distance is also irrelevant. Contrary to expectations, there is no tendency of beta diversity to decrease with water depth. Although water depth has frequently been found to be a key factor in determining beta diversity, we find that it is not the major driver in these reef-associated soft-bottom environments. We postulate that priority effects and the biotic structuring of the sediment may be key determinants of beta diversity.


How should we learn visual representations for embodied agents that must see and move? The status quo is tabula rasa in vivo, i.e. learning visual representations from scratch while also learning to move, potentially augmented with auxiliary tasks (e.g. predicting the action taken between two successive observations). In this paper, we show that an alternative 2-stage strategy is far more effective: (1) offline pretraining of visual representations with self-supervised learning (SSL) using large-scale pre-rendered images of indoor environments (Omnidata), and (2) online finetuning of visuomotor representations on specific tasks with image augmentations under long learning schedules. We call this method Offline Visual Representation Learning (OVRL). We conduct large-scale experiments - on 3 different 3D datasets (Gibson, HM3D, MP3D), 2 tasks (ImageNav, ObjectNav), and 2 policy learning algorithms (RL, IL) - and find that the OVRL representations lead to significant across-the-board improvements in state of art, on ImageNav from 29.2% to 54.2% (+25% absolute, 86% relative) and on ObjectNav from 18.1% to 23.2% (+5.1% absolute, 28% relative). Importantly, both results were achieved by the same visual encoder generalizing to datasets that were not seen during pretraining. While the benefits of pretraining sometimes diminish (or entirely disappear) with long finetuning schedules, we find that OVRL's performance gains continue to increase (not decrease) as the agent is trained for 2 billion frames of experience.


ABSTRACT The article is underpinned by the idea that the national courts/judges are expected to act as decentralized European Union (EU) judges. This is motivated by the fact that the general knowledge concerning the impact of EU law on the functioning of national courts as EU judges and the process of Europeanization of national judiciaries is still somewhat scattered and fragmented. The central ambition of this article is to provide a theoretical framework that would contribute to the understanding of Europeanization of judiciaries by: (1) offering a definition and theoretical developments useful for the study of Europeanization and its dynamics; (2) exploring the diverse indicators to operate the concept; and (3) providing explanations on how Europeanization might happen by identifying the distinct mechanisms potentially in play. By and large, the article proposes theoretical and empirical developments, which will facilitate embracing the project of constructing a composite framework for the socio-legal study and measurement of the Europeanization of national courts.


This thesis aims to investigate the key linkages between public and private sector sustainability reporting of goals and targets. Employing a case study method of Canadian organizations, a content analysis of 109 sustainability reports, along with 22 in-depth interviews were conducted. A review of the literature revealed that extant research in the field of sustainability reporting largely focuses on the private sector, with little attention given to the public sector. Even more so, few studies have explored the linkages between the two sectors. Therefore, this study aims to address an important research gap. Drawing insight from institutional theory, the study provides a comprehensive analysis of the key similarities and differences in public and private sector sustainability reporting goals and targets. Further, it works to outline the advantages, disadvantages, barriers and challenges to linking goals and targets. Finally, it concludes with recommendations on how linking reporting of goals and targets between the public and private sectors should be fostered.


We use the GCN4 oligomerization domain to engineer a covalently linked parallel polyprotein dimer based on the well-studied I27 domain of titin. We use single molecule atomic force microscopy techniques to stretch single polyprotein fibers and verify their mechanical properties. We find that the engineered polyprotein dimers extend in perfect register, doubling the unfolding force and halving the persistence length while keeping the contour length increase unchanged. These experiments directly confirm the mechanical scaling laws proposed for parallel bundles of modular proteins.


Poly(etherether-ketone) (PEEK) suspensions in ethanol and isopropanol containing also α-alumina and hydroxyapatite powders were studied. An innovative method was used in the study of the quality of suspensions. We studied suspensions by means of zeta potential and grain-size measurements. The comparison amongst the different suspensions was carried out by using statistical and chemometric tools, especially by the use of an explorative test based on the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The chemometric analysis was performed by involving different combinations of each type of powder and each type of solvent.


A case of meningioma en plaque presenting as a tumor in the right middle ear is described. A review of the relevant literature indicates only three previous reports of an en plaque meningioma occurring in the posterior cranial fossa. The unusual features of this tumor are described and the clinical manifestations and diagnosis discussed in detail.


The Laptev Sea, as a part of the world's widest continental shelves surrounding the Arctic Ocean, is a key area for understanding the land–ocean interaction in high latitude regions. With a yearly freshwater input of 511 km3, the Lena River—one of the eight major world rivers—has an influencing control over the environment of this Arctic marginal sea, which is ice-covered during most of the year.

In this paper, the first measurements are presented of the major and trace element distribution within the <20 μm grain size fraction of surficial sediments and of particulate matter in new and young ice from the Laptev Sea (Siberian Arctic). The concentration and distribution of major and trace elements have been determined in 51 surficial sediment samples covering the whole Laptev Sea shelf south of the 50 m isobath. Thirty-one samples of particulate matter in newly formed ice were taken during the freeze-up period in 1995.

Median concentration levels of heavy metals in surficial sediments (Ni (46 μg g−1), Cu (26 μg g−1), Zn (111 μg g−1) and Pb (21 μg g−1) are within the concentration range of marine unpolluted sediments. Also the sediment-laden ice showed no indication of anthropogenic perturbation of the trace metal inventory. Spatial distribution patterns of heavy metals are mainly determined by variation of mineral composition and different fluvial sediment sources in the eastern and western Laptev Sea.

The Laptev Sea shelf is cut by five north–south trending submarine valleys. Enrichment of manganese in the oxic surficial sediment layer within these valleys and the occurrence of small ferromanganese nodules are caused by a high input of dissolved and particulate Mn from the Lena River and a strong diagenetic cycling of Mn on the Laptev Sea shelf. Evidence is given that the content of As in surficial sediments is also strongly affected by diagenetic cycling. This causes surficial sediment As concentrations of more than 100 μg g−1. Enrichment of Mn and As was mainly observed in the submarine valleys distant from the major river mouth. The sediment dilution due to higher sedimentation rates near the river outlets and a strong sediment re-working by ice gouging in the shallow areas are the principle causes for the absence of diagenetic accumulation in this region.

During the formation of new ice scavenging of riverine suspended matter and resuspension of sediments followed by an incorporation of particles into the ice are important processes for the river–shelf–ocean transport of particulate trace elements. It could be shown that particle-loaded ice posseses the same geochemical signatures as the suspended matter and surficial seafloor sediments in the area of ice origin. This has also strong implications for the contaminant transport on the Arctic shelves and allows to use the geochemical signature of sea ice for the reconstruction of ice drift pattern within the Arctic Ocean.


Recently, mobile payment platforms such as NFC based Apple pay, and the QR code encrypted Alipay, gradually entered the new mobile payment market Hong Kong. However, most of the local consumers are hesitating to continue using these mobile payment platforms after an initial try. We believe this is largely because of the presence of the entrenched traditional payment habits. On the basis of psychology theory of habit, this study explores the influence of the traditional payment habit on the new mobile payment habit, especially in the early stage of mobile payment market. It also investigates the antecedents and consequences of mobile payment habit. Based on the two habit learning mechanisms, facilitating conditions (as an associative mechanism) and perceived usefulness and enjoyment (as two reward mechanisms) are predictors of mobile payment habit; continuance intention of mobile payment and continuance use of mobile payment become the outcomes of mobile payment habit.


We assessed the prevalence and seasonal variations of intestinal schistosomiasis in association with age, sex, breed and rearing system of cattle and goats in different districts of Bangladesh. Fecal samples from 240 cattle and 146 goats were examined. Schistosoma eggs were found in 47.5% cattle and 43.84% goats. Two species of schistosomes were identified. No mixed infection was recorded. Prevalence of Schistosoma indicum was higher in cattle (42.5%) than in goats (34.25%) whereas goats (9.59%) were more susceptible to Schistosoma spindale infection than cattle (5.0%). Age, sex, breed, rearing system and topography of the country had significant (P<0.01, P<0.05) effect on the prevalence of schistosomiasis among cattle, whether only seasons of the year had significant (P<0.01) effect on schistosome prevalence among goats of Bangladesh. Higher infection rate was found in rainy season, in older age group, in males, in local breeds (cattle) and animals reared under semi intensive system. Prevalence was highest in the Rangpur district and lowest in the Dhaka district. The prevalence of intestinal schistosomiasis was very high among cattle and goats in the study area irrespective of age, sex, breed, seasons and rearing system of cattle and goats.


Kevin Lynch's The Image of the City (1960) is a seminal urban design theory notable for its clear delineation of urban form, empirically rooted methodology, and synthesis of architecture and planning as an important domain. Since its publication in 1960, however, urban experience has evolved alongside the pervasiveness of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Given this new information landscape, we present two research efforts that seek to define the legibility of cities today. The first approach investigates the relevance of Lynch's five urban elements and the effects of ICTs on environmental perception during wayfinding. Findings show that mental images of cities are shifting in focus to include places of functional significance, and when ICTs are used, Lynch's elements have less spatial accuracy compared with analog methods. This can affect how planners and designers apply physical, social, and economic significance to urban elements, which can also influence the methods they use to evaluate, design, and plan cities. The second approach expands on Lynch's work by investigating the city through data, both to develop new understandings of cities and to advance the toolkit professionals use to examine urban issues. Our research seeks to enhance Lynch's work with technological considerations and equip professionals with approaches to analyze the impact of ICTs on urban experience.


Research has indicated that there are some notable differences in the nature of peer-victimisation in preschool compared with 'bullying' as identified in older groups. However, one difficulty in making these comparisons has been that none of the methodologies employed with preschoolers are directly comparable with those used with older children.

AIMS: This study developed a new methodology to enable comparisons between the peer-nominations given by 5 year olds and 8 year olds. Consistency and test-retest reliability of peer nominations for each age group was examined. Agreement between peer, self and teacher reports for children aged 5 and 8 years was assessed.

METHOD: 68 five year olds and 69 eight year olds and their teachers from a school in South-East England took part in the study. Children's peer- and self- nominations and teacher nominations for the Participant Roles of aggressor, reinforcer, assistant, defender, outsider and victim (passive and provocative) were examined.

FINDINGS: The findings suggest that 5 year olds are less able than 8 year olds to agree upon and reliably nominate their classmates for roles other than aggressor (and provocative victim to a degree). There was some agreement between peers and teachers at 8 years, but that younger children's peer nominations did not show a consistent relationship with teacher-nominations. Self nominations at either age did not show a clear relationship with either teacher or peer nominations.

CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that these findings may reflect either children's developing abilities to identify and report these perhaps less obvious behaviors or the developing nature of peer-aggression, becoming more group-related with age. We explore these findings in relation to children's developing cognitive abilities and the development of social relationships during early childhood.


This LLM dissertation is a critical analysis of the law as it relates to the conflicts of interest which face insurance intermediaries trading in London's wholesale insurance market. When conflicts of interest exist between an agent's fiduciary duty to its principal; other principals, or its own interests, the law is called upon to provide an equitable resolution to disputes. The diffusion, via multiple layers of market participants, of insurable risks and financial rewards in the insurance market, in order to maximize the efficient use of available capital, including market participants domiciled offshore or under non-UK or EU regulatory regimes, makes traditional legal remedies focused on resolving bilateral disputes between directly contracting parties difficult to apply to London's international insurance market. Through critical analysis of the functioning of the wholesale insurance market in London (and the role of intermediaries), it is clear that the law of agency and regulatory law both fail to create an effective paradigm for resolving complex transactions. In some instances, regulatory law appears at odds with the doctrine of agency (itself derived from simpler relationships than exist in the wholesale insurance market today) and there are examples of market practices that exacerbate conflicts of interest further. Legislative responses have focused on agency where it has a direct impact on paying insurance claims, but have not created a doctrine that reflects or addresses the complex web of agency relationships found today. As a matter of social policy it is suggested that by re-shaping the doctrine of agency, legislators could provide clarity to situations usually put before the courts to decide on the basis of facts, previous dicta and the binary structure of agency i.e. who is acting for whom?


This paper describes a novel, principled approach to real-valued dataset reduction based on fuzzy and rough set theory. The approach is based on the formulation of fuzzy-rough discernibility matrices, that can be transformed into a satisfiability problem; an extension of rough set approaches that only apply to discrete datasets. The fuzzy-rough hybrid reduction method is then realised algorithmically by a modified version of a traditional satisifability approach. This produces an efficient and provably optimal approach to data reduction that works well on a number of machine learning benchmarks in terms of both time and classification accuracy.


Advertising, just like medicine and engineering, is a universal discipline of study, providing insight into understanding the business process anywhere in the world. Ideally, due to its universal nature, that is how advertising should be taught. For decades, marketers and advertisers have amassed an array of strategies, tactics, and principles that, it is claimed, can be applied to any particular advertising campaign. In todays technological world, the challenge is to apply that knowledge to the discipline of online advertising, the assumption being that there is no need to claim any special status for a specific marketing effort such as sports, electronics, or clothing. Online Advertising and Promotion: Modern Technologies for Marketing educates executives and students on how to meet online advertising and Internet marketing challenges for both present and future tactics. The book will outline the changes and challenges that have impacted how online advertising decisions are being made and how decision-makers are getting their information in an online world.


This work provides an architecture that incorporates depth and tactile information to create rich and accurate 3D models useful for robotic manipulation tasks. This is accomplished through the use of a 3D convolutional neural network (CNN). Offline, the network is provided with both depth and tactile information and trained to predict the object's geometry, thus filling in regions of occlusion. At runtime, the network is provided a partial view of an object. Tactile information is acquired to augment the captured depth information. The network can then reason about the object's geometry by utilizing both the collected tactile and depth information. We demonstrate that even small amounts of additional tactile information can be incredibly helpful in reasoning about object geometry. This is particularly true when information from depth alone fails to produce an accurate geometric prediction. Our method is benchmarked against and outperforms other visual-tactile approaches to general geometric reasoning. We also provide experimental results comparing grasping success with our method.


Accurate determination of the input function is essential for absolute quantification of physiological parameters in positron emission tomography and single-photon emission computed tomography imaging, but it requires an invasive and tedious procedure of blood sampling that is impractical in clinical studies. We previously proposed a technique that estimates simultaneously kinetic parameters and the input function from the tissue impulse response functions and requires two blood samples. A nonlinear least squares method estimated all the parameters in the impulse response functions and the input function but failed occasionally due to high noise levels in the data, causing an ill-conditioned cost function. This paper investigates the feasibility of applying a Monte Carlo method called simulated annealing to estimate kinetic parameters in the impulse response functions and the input function. Time-activity curves of teboroxime, which is very sensitive to changes in the input function, were simulated based on published data obtained from a canine model. The equations describing the tracer kinetics in different regions were minimized simultaneously by simulated annealing and nonlinear least squares. We found that the physiological parameters obtained with simulated annealing are accurate, and the estimated input function more closely resembled the simulated curve. We conclude that simulated annealing reduces bias in the estimation of physiological parameters and determination of the input function.


Abst ract . The basic principles of regulation of banking activity, worked out by the Basel committee on questions of supervision and regulation of banking activity, were investigated. The advantages and drawbacks of pro-cyclical and countercyclical models of regulation of banking activity were examined. The expediency of realization of regulation on the basis of individual estimation of particular banks and also estimations of risks that have system character was proved. It was recommended to implement the principle of countercyclical regulation in Ukraine taking into account the business cycle of economy. Ke y words : principles of effective banking supervision, supervision on the basis of individual estimation of risks, supervision on the basis of estimation of system risks, countercyclical regulation, pro-cyclical regulation.


Modern cognitive neuroscience has focused on mapping what information is processed both where and when in the brain as an initial step towards understanding how information is processed by the brain. Brain mapping is most commonly performed using the linear encoding model a computational tool that can be used to align brain measurements with numerical stimulus representations that can be informative of the underlying neural processes. But as we move towards more naturalistic experimental settings and start to work with increasingly complex stimulus representations, it becomes important to test the boundaries of what we are able to learn using existing computational tools so we can adjust them accordingly. In this work, we examine two potential limitations of the linear encoding model. First, we look at a specific problem setting that shows that the existing framework does not always allow us to disentangle where specific stimulus-related information is processed in the brain. As an initial step towards addressing this issue, we propose a new framework that can be used to group together areas of the brain that are responsible for processing similar information. Second, we explore whether using a more expressive, nonlinear encoding model can allow us to better align the internal representational spaces of artificial neural networks, from which we can derive more complex and potentially more informative stimulus representations, with those of the brain. Overall, our proposed extensions to conventional encoding approaches can help neuroscientists unlock a richer and more complete space of brain mappings.


Electronic resources have become a vital part of research collections. Online journals and databases are solidly planted in academic library collections and in the research habits of faculty and students. Over the past several years, academic libraries have seen this increasing demand for electronic resources expand into electronic books. Collection budgets have shifted to meet this demand through the increased acquisition of electronic books and electronic book packages. However, the sheer number of titles involved has made providing digital access to electronic books through traditional cataloguing extremely challenging. It has become clear that traditional in-house cataloguing of electronic books is neither feasible nor sustainable, even with cooperative cataloguing tools such as Z39.50 and WorldCat. And as cataloguing departments see decreases in staff resources but increases in the number of titles requiring access for users, they are forced to consider new ways of managing catalogue records. Like many other institutions, the University of Calgary has chosen to use external sources of catalogue records for electronic books. It has become evident from doing so that publishers, academic libraries, vendors, and library service providers need to collaborate on an expanded scale in order to ensure sustainable workflows for academic institutions and the best possible digital access for users. This paper covers the challenges that the University of Calgary has faced with electronic book cataloguing and digital access and its new-found success in managing these activities by partnering with Serials Solutions, Yankee Book Peddler (YBP), and ebrary. The focus is on the collaborative efforts made by all of these parties to make electronic resources available on a mass scale through the library catalogue and beyond.


: Under the aegis ofof computer vision and deep learning technology, a new emerging techniques has introduced that anyone can make highly realistic but fake videos, images even can manipulates the voices. And this technology is widely known as Deepfake Technology. Although it seems interesting techniques to make fake videos or image of something or some individuals but it could spread as misinformation via internet. Deepfake contents could be dangerous for individuals as well as for our communities, organizations, countries religions etc. As Deepfake content creation involve a high level expertise with combination of several algorithms of deep learning, it seems almost real and genuine and difficult to differentiate. In this paper, a wide range of articles have been examined to understand Deepfake technology more extensively. We have examined several articles to find some insights such as what is Deepfake, who are the responsible for this, is there any benefits of Deepfake and what are the challenges of this technology. We have also examined several creation and detection techniques. Our results found that although Deepfake is threat to our societies, proper measures and strict regulations could prevent this.


The implementation of water conservation and water demand management (WC/WDM) at municipal level has been inadequate for many years, despite South Africa being one of the driest countries in the world. This could be attributed to a lack of planning, and not realising the consequences and potential benefits of water restrictions. Many South African municipalities do not have a WC/WDM strategy and business plan although many books, publications and software packages have been produced to assist water supply managers. Most of the existing strategies are also vague and of little value, and the municipalities do not have the necessary financial, technical and institutional capacity to support such a strategy. Municipalities often fail to realise that most WC/WDM activities will pay for themselves and that financial institutions will fund these projects if a proper business case could be compiled. Ironically municipalities have complained that they are unable to obtain funding while most financial institutions complain that they cannot find bankable projects because of the poor quality of the applications and strategies. This guideline provides a simple and pragmatic approach to the development of a WC/WDM strategy and business plan which will enable municipalities to plan, obtain funding, implement and ensure the overall sustainability of water resources in the municipality and the country as a whole. Keywords: water conservation, demand management


Rat liver arginase contains a dimanganese(II,II) center per subunit that is required for catalytic hydrolysis of l-arginine to form urea and l-ornithine. A recent crystallographic study has shown that the Mn2 center consists of two coordinatively inequivalent manganese(II) ions, MnA and MnB, bridged by a water (hydroxide) molecule and two aspartate residues [Kanyo et al. (1996) Nature 383, 554-557]. A conserved residue, His141, is located near the proposed substrate binding region at 4.2 A from the bridging solvent molecule. The present EPR studies reveal that there is no essential alteration of the Mn2 site upon mutation of His141 to an Asn residue, which lacks a potential acid/base residue, while the catalytic activity of the mutant enzyme is 10 times lower vs wild-type enzyme. The binding affinity of l-lysine, l-arginine (substrate), and Nomega-OH-l-arginine (type 2 binders) increases inversely with the pKa of the side chain. Binding of l-lysine is more than 10 times weaker, and the substrate Michaelis constant (Km) is >6-fold greater (weaker binding) in the His141Asn mutant than in wild-type arginase. L-Lysine and Nomega-OH-L-arginine, type 2 binders, induce extensive loss of the EPR intensity, suggesting direct coordination to the Mn2 center. From these data and the pH dependence of type 2 binders, we conclude that His141 functions as the base for deprotonation of the side-chain amino group of L-lysine and the substrate guanidinium group, -NH-C(NH2)2+ and that the unprotonated side chain of these amino acids is responsible for binding to the active site. A different class of inhibitors (type 1), including L-isoleucine, L-ornithine, and L-citrulline, suppresses enzymatic activity, producing only minor change in the zero-field splitting of the Mn2 EPR signal and no change in the EPR intensity, suggestive of minimal conformational transformation. We propose that type 1 alpha-amino acid inhibitors do not bind directly to either Mn ion, but interact with the recognition site on arginase for the alpha-aminocarboxylate groups of the substrate. A new mechanism for the arginase-catalyzed hydrolysis of L-arginine is proposed which has general relevance to all binuclear hydrolases: (1) Deprotonation of substrate l-arginine(H+) by His141 permits entry of the neutral guanidinium group into the buried Mn2 region. Binding of the substrate imino group (>C=NH), most likely to MnB, is coupled to breaking of the MnB-(mu-H2O) bond, forming a terminal aquo ligand on MnA. (2) Proton transfer from the terminal MnA-aqua ligand to the substrate Ndelta-guanidino atom forms the nucleophilic hydroxide on MnA and the cationic NdeltaH2+-guanidino leaving group. Protonation of the substrate -NdeltaH2+-group is likely assisted by hydrogen bonding to the juxtaposed anionic carboxylate group of Glu277. (3) Attack of the MnA-bound hydroxide at the electrophilic guanidino C-atom forms a tetrahedral intermediate. (4) Formation of products is initiated by cleavage of the Cepsilon-NdeltaH2+ bond, yielding urea and L-ornithine(H+).


It is well known that prostaglanding are biological mediators which are closely related to inflammation and immunity. To explore the role of PGE2 and PGF2 alpha in inflammation and immunity of human palatine tonsils, the levels of PGE2 and PGF2 alpha in diseased tonsils from 62 patients were measured. It is suggested that PGE2 and PGF2 alpha are present in the tonsillar tissue as inflammatory mediators. The levels of PGE2 and PGF2 alpha may be regarded as the major indicators of activation in chronic tonsillitis and represent the immunologic function of the palatine tonsils to a certain degree. The impairment of the ability of immunologic response in tonsils by inflammation may be related to PGE2. The more severe the inflammation, the more hazardous to the local immunologic defence of tonsils is. It is possible that PGE2 plays an important role in this respect.


In this paper, we tackle the problem of depth completion from RGBD data. Towards this goal, we design a simple yet effective neural network block that learns to extract joint 2D and 3D features. Specifically, the block consists of two domain-specific sub-networks that apply 2D convolution on image pixels and continuous convolution on 3D points, with their output features fused in image space. We build the depth completion network simply by stacking the proposed block, which has the advantage of learning hierarchical representations that are fully fused between 2D and 3D spaces at multiple levels. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on the challenging KITTI depth completion benchmark and show that our approach outperforms the state-of-the-art.


This unique collection of essays honors the memory of Robert F. Wagner, Jr., who served New York City in many capacities, including president of the Board of Education, deputy mayor, and chairman of the Planning Commission. Experts in the area of urban policy who knew Wagner discuss the most daunting issues facing cities today: fiscal crisis, poverty, racial tension, education, health and welfare, crime, public housing, transportation, public space. The contributors, in addition to the editor, include Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna E. Shalala, Peter C. Goldmark, Jr., Diane Ravitch, Joseph A. Fernandez, Paul Goldberger, Stanley Brezenoff, Ester R. Fuchs, Nathan Leventhal, Dick Netzer, Roger Cohen, William J. Dean, Robert R. Kiley, Christopher Stone, and J. Phillip Thompson.


The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays key roles in the regulation of blood pressure and body fluid dynamics. It is now recognized that a wide variety of tissues and organs, including the heart, vasculature, kidney and nervous system, among others, contain a local tissue RAS, which exerts autocrine/paracrine effects and acts independently of the systemic RAS. In 2006, we isolated and characterized proangiotensin-12, a component of the tissue RAS in rat small intestine. Similar angiotensin-related peptides had never been reported in humans. When we screened human urine gel filtration fractions for bioactive peptides using an antibody raised against the N-terminal portion of Angiotensin II (Ang II), we found a highly immunoreactive peptide with an apparent molecular weight of about 5,000. Therefore, we purified this peptide from 5.5 L of human urine using ion-exchange, gel-filtration, and affinity chromatography, and finally reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) steps. We isolated and identified a novel Aogen-derived peptide, Big angiotensin-25 (Bang-25), which is composed of 25 amino acids and is N-glycosylated on its 14th amino acid (Asn) and has a cysteine linked to its 18th amino acid (Cys). We then assessed the distribution of Bang-25 in tissues by immunostaining with an antiserum raised against the C-terminal portion of the peptide. We found that Bang-25 was abundantly expressed in a number of human tissues, including kidney, heart, adrenal gland, pancreas and placenta. In the kidney, Bang-25 is localized predominantly to podocytes. Then, compared with angiotensinogen, Bang-25 is rapidly cleaved by chymase to Ang II, but is resistant to cleavage by renin. In the present study, we have isolated and identified a novel Angiotensin-derived peptide, Bang-25, which is composed of 25 amino acids and is N-glycosylated on its 14th amino acid (Asn) and has a cysteine linked to its 18th amino acid (Cys). The identification of Bang-25 suggests the existence of a RAS processing cascade different from the renin-catalyzed cleavage of Angiotensin to Ang I, and provides a potential target for assessing tissue RAS status and for the development of new therapeutic approaches to related diseases.


The Cox statistic for non nested models is used to test the probit and logit specifications estimated by Bardasi and Monfardini (1997) for the occupational choice of the Italian workers among the private, the public and the self-employed options. Computation of different versions of test is performed, some of which rely on simulation of the pseudo-true value. The bootstrap technique is then applied to control for the actual properties of the test. The results of the testing procedure indicate the probit as the more adequate model, supporting previous evidence found against the IIA assumption imposed by the logit formulation.


In the past, nonlinear dynamic systems have been proposed as a suitable representation for motor control. It has been shown that it is possible to learn desired complex control policies by a nonlinear transformation of an existing simpler control policy, which is based on a canonical dynamic system. The resulting control policies were termed dynamic movement primitives. The main result of this paper is an approach to learning parametrized sets of dynamic movement primitives based on a library of example movements. Learning was implemented by applying locally weighted regression where the goal of an action is used as a query point into the library of example movements. The proposed approach enables the generation of a wide range of movements that are adapted to the current configuration of the external world without requiring an expert to appropriately modify the underlying differential equations to account for percepetual feedback.


As competition in the service industry grows, delivering high-quality service to meet customers' needs and expectations becomes paramount. In order to achieve a thorough understanding of customers, companies are increasingly adopting Customer Relationship Management (CRM) initiatives. However, CRM does not have the process vision necessary to cope with complex and cross-functional processes. This problem is better handled by Business Process Management (BPM) initiatives, which, by their turn, struggle to built-in customer intelligence in their systems. Based upon systems theory, we discuss the roles of CRM and BPM in an integrated approach to deliver customer fulfillment. As the evolution of service-oriented approaches requires us to consider both customer interactions and experiences as key elements of service processes, we present a broader perception of service processes involving these two perspectives. Also, we discuss the architecture of a customer-facing system comprising customer processes that are aimed at better dealing with customer interactions.


Clinically useful and measurable patient outcomes that are sensitive to nursing interventions are needed to determine the effectiveness of nursing care. Nursing Outcomes Classification (NOC) researchers are evaluating the reliability, validity, and usefulness of the first 190 published outcomes in 10 sites representing the continuum of care. Preliminary analysis of inter-rater reliability and construct or criterion validity of 15 outcomes are described. Results indicate NOC outcomes can be used to accurately document the effectiveness of nursing interventions.


This paper reviews the literature which models lease covenants using option‐pricing techniques, probabilistic measures of risk and the contractual misalignment of incentives. These quantitative models, in conjunction with conventional discounting mathematics, offer ways to gauge the effects on rent of changes to many lease clauses. With the exception of discounted cash flow analysis to adjust rents for leasing incentives, none appears to be used in practice yet. The program has been designed to bridge the gap between academic developments in this field and current practices in rental valuation. The program works from rental values set on benchmark or standard lease conditions in that market and adjusts for different clauses. The program displays all the stages in calculating the effects of each changed clause and operates entirely from parameters set by the user. Trials of this program are described.


Background: Bacterial infections, particularly those of the respiratory tract, are a serious cause of mortality worldwide despite vaccinations and optimized treatment strategies. Prior to the introduction of antibiotics, passive immunotherapy was widely used to treat a range of bacterial infections. A successful opsonin based treatment, however, requires effective clearance by phagocytic cells. Augmented passive immunotherapy (API) is a novel treatment strategy that combines pathogen specific immunoglobulin (IVIG) and the immunomodulating peptide P4 to treat fulminant bacterial infections. Using in vivo, in vitro and ex vivo models of pneumococcal infection, this thesis aimed to describe host responses to API.
Methods: The in vivo recruitment and activation of phagocytes following peptide treatment in the absence of infection was characterised using flow cytometry and electron microscope imaging. These findings were translated to murine infection models by treating pneumococcal septicemia with intravenous peptide administration and pneumococcal pneumonia with intranasal peptide administration. In vitro phagocytosis killing assays were used to determine the ability of P4 to augment bacterial killing of a range of pneumococcal serotypes and describe the involvement of phagocytic Fcγ receptors. Ex vivo assays of phagocytic function of human neutrophil and alveolar macrophages were used to translate murine and in vitro findings.
Results: Peptide administration in the absence and presence of infection led to rapid recruitment of monocytes, neutrophils and macrophages and their activation as demonstrated by increased FcγR expression. Intravenous peptide administration during septicemia led to significantly increased survival rates in models of invasive and acute invasive pneumococcal diseases in young and aged mice of various genetic backgrounds. Intranasal peptide administration during pneumonia prevented the onset of septicemia and subsequent host mortality. Increased survival was associated with reduced bacterial burden in affected tissue. Peptide treatment of neutrophil cell lines, human neutrophils and alveolar macrophages modulates FcγR expression resulting in augmented phagocytic killing of opsonised pneumococci.
Conclusion: Augmented passive immunotherapy is a synergistic treatment that enhances natural host immune responses to infection by opsonizing pathogens and inducing their effective phagocytic clearance.


We derive the phonon spectrum and the corresponding modulational instability conditions of an array of traps containing Bose-Einstein condensates with each trap linked to adjacent traps by tunnelling. It is shown that modulational instability regimes always exist regardless of the sign of the two-body interaction.


The United Habitation in Marseilles is the master wok of Le Corbusier, the well-know architect. Over the fifty years of its existence, the researches concentrate on its light and shadows and color scheme of the facades, etc. However, the most important original intent of the designer is the optimization of the indoor thermal environment, especially the use of cross ventilation. As green building has drawn more and more attention nowadays, this article will focus on the indoor natural ventilation conditions of two standard cells of the Marseilles Unit, which are known as the 'upper E' apartment and the 'lower E' apartment, by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. Compared with the data of Middle corridor type dwelling, verify the superiority of its architectural layout.


The manufacturing system developed in this paper is mainly used for the ultra-precision grinding of the hard-cutting materials, such as high strength steel and carbonized tungsten, which are characteristics with axisymmetric aspheric surface. Under the priority of accuracy and grinding rigidity to design the key components of multi-axis linked parallel grinding system of aspheric surface, such as high speed grinding spindle, B axis grinding rotary table, clamps and center high adjusting system. Maximum speed of the grinding spindle is 90,000rpm, spindle rotating accuracy is 0.1μm, rotation-angle-accuracy of B axis is , center height adjusting accuracy is 0.1μm, using the system can realize parallel grinding of aspheric surface[1].


Web Engines are a useful tool for searching information in the Web. But a great part of this information is non-textual and for that case a metric space is used. A metric space is a set where a notion of distance (called a metric) between elements of the set is defined. In this paper we present an efficient parallelization of a pivot-based method devised for this purpose which is called the Sparse Spatial Selection (SSS) strategy and we compare it with a clustering-based method, a parallel implementation of the Spatial Approximation Tree (SAT). We show that SAT compares favourably against the pivot data structures SSS. The experimental results were obtained on a highperformance cluster and using several metric spaces, that shows load balance parallel strategies for the SAT. The implementations are built upon the BSP parallel computing model, which shows efficient performance for this application domain and allows a precise evaluation of algorithms.


This paper reported on the one-step synthesis of polystyrene-quantum dots (PS@QD)nanoparticles using microemulsion polymerization method. The synthesized QD and PS@QD nanoparticles were characterized by UV, fluorescence spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and fluorescence microscopy. The PS@QD is highly luminescent, which have the potential to be used as fluorescent probes in biological staining and diagnostics.


In mammals, growing oocytes with a diameter less than 80% of that of full-grown oocytes cannot start meiotic maturation, and their maturation promoting factor (MPF) cannot be activated by hormonal stimulation or isolation from follicles. The aim of the present study was to identify the key molecules responsible for meiotic failure of these growing oocytes (referred to as "small oocytes" in the present study). To this end, we altered the expression of the molecules involved in MPF activation in the small oocytes of pigs by injecting them with mRNA or antisense RNA (asRNA) and examined the effects on the meiotic ability of the small oocytes. Immunoblotting analyses revealed three defects in small oocytes compared with full-grown oocytes, an inactive mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade, a failure of cyclin B synthesis and an insufficient amount of Cdc2. Injection with mRNAs of Mos, the uppermost molecule of the MAPK cascade, cyclin B1, cyclin B2 or Cdc2 into small porcine oocytes indicated directly and for the first time that the cause of meiotic failure of porcine small oocytes is an insufficient amount of Cdc2 rather than MAPK inactivation or failure of cyclin B synthesis. Next, in order to suppress Myt1 and Wee1B, which phosphorylates at inhibitory phosphorylation sites of Cdc2 and inactive MPF, we injected their asRNAs into the porcine small oocytes and found that the Wee1B asRNA significantly increased meiotic ability, whereas the Myt1 asRNA had no effect. When Cdc2 overexpression and suppression of Wee1B expression were simultaneously induced in the small oocytes of pigs, about 70% of the small oocytes resumed meiosis, and this rate was nearly comparable with that of the full-grown oocytes. These results strongly suggest that an insufficient amount of Cdc2 and continuous activation of Wee1 B are the cause of meiotic failure of small oocytes in pigs.


Monoecy and parthenogenesis exist in certain male and female gametophytes of the brown alga Undaria pinnatifida. The inheritance of these traits is not known. In this study, we made a cross between a male and a female gametophyte clone which could exhibit monoecy and parthenogenesis phenotypes, respectively, and obtained their next‐generation gametophyte offspring. We found that under conditions suitable for gametogenesis, all of the male offspring (n = 100) exhibited monoecy phenotype and all of the female offspring (n = 100) only formed oogonia and underwent parthenogenesis, suggesting that monoecy and parthenogenesis phenotypes are inheritable. Then, we established a doubled haploid (DH) population through monoecious selfing and parthenogenesis, and evaluated the young sporophyte growth and the maximum quantum yield (Fv/Fm) of 10 "male" and 10 "female" DH lines. On day 60, the average length of the "male" DH lines was significantly larger than that of the "female" DH lines, while their average Fv/Fm values were not significantly different. Monoecious selfing seemed superior to parthenogenesis as the sporophyte formation efficiency, and the young sporophyte growth was better in the former than in the latter. We also crossed two monoecious gametophytes with another male gametophyte, and a parentage analysis showed success of obtaining hybrid sporophytes, indicating that the female gametes released by the monoecious gametophyte can actually be fertilized by sperm. The approach of establishing a DH population proposed here will be useful in genetic breeding and quantitative trait loci mapping in U. pinnatifida and may be applicable to other kelp species.


Reed and coniferous wood can be used for energy production via thermochemical conversion, for instance by gasification. The rate-determining step of the gasification process is the reaction between the char and the gaseous environment in the gasifier, whose rate depends on variables such as pressure, temperature, particle size, mineral matter content, porosity, etc. It is known that reactivity can be improved by increasing the temperature, but on the other hand the temperature achieved in the reactor is limited due to the ash fusion characteristics. Usually, the availability of reed as a fuel is locally modest and, therefore, it must be blended with other fuels such as wood. Blending of fuels brings together several problems relating to ash behaviour, i.e. ash fusion issues. Because there is no correlation between the ash fusion characteristics of biomass blends and their individual components, it is essential to carry out prior laboratory-scale ash fusion tests on the blends. This study compares the reactivity of reed and coniferous wood, and the ash fusion characteristics of blends of reed and coniferous wood ashes. When compared with Douglas fir and reed chars, pine pellets have the highest reactivity. Reed char exhibits the lowest reactivity and, therefore, it is advantageous to gasify reed alone at higher gasification temperatures because the ash fusion temperatures of reed are higher than those of woody fuels. The ash produced by reed and wood blends can melt at lower temperatures than ash from both reed and wood gasified separately. Due to this circumstance the gasification temperature should be chosen carefully when gasification of blends is carried out.


This paper aims to provide a general view of the background and current state of building performance simulation, which has the potential to deliver, directly or indirectly, substantial benefits to building stakeholders and to the environment. However the building simulation community faces many challenges for the future. Several challenges relate to the need to provide better design support. Issues include early phase design support, multi-scale approaches (from construction detail to district level), uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, robustness analysis (employing use and environmental change scenarios), optimization under uncertainty, inverse approach (to address "how to" instead of being able to answer "what if" questions), multi-physics (particularly inclusion of electrical power flow modeling), and integration in the construction process (using building information modeling (BIM), process modeling, etc). Another group of challenges relates to the need to provide support for building operation and management. The issues include accurate in-use energy consumption prediction and model predictive control.


The aim behind frequent itemset mining is to find all common sets of items defined as those itemsets that have at least a minimum support. There are many well known algorithms for frequent itemset mining. Some of which are Apriori, Eclat, RElim, SaM, and FP-Growth. Although each of these algorithms is well formed and works in different scenarios, the main drawback of these algorithms is that they were designed to perform on small chunks of data. These limitations were imposed based on time that they were developed. The notion of big data was not up and running at these times. So in the present scenario these algorithms won't perform well on the current statistics of data present. So we propose a new approach of implementing these well known algorithms on a parallelized manner so that it can handle the data perfectly. The proposed work parallelizes, dynamic frequent itemset mining algorithm, Faster-IAPI with spark RDD framework. The main goal of selecting Apache Spark is that it overcomes the limitations of the Hadoop architecture which was basically designed to handle big data processing in a parallelized manner. The main drawback of the architecture was that it doesn't handle the Iterative algorithms very well. This drawback is rectified in spark which handles it well. In this approach this algorithm is applied to find correlation between different symptoms of patients in faster and efficient manner and provides the support for the prediction of occurrence of disease based on the symptoms.


Background : Pulmonary tuberculosis contributes to increased morbidity and mortality in severely malnourished children in endemic settings. Despite high clinical suspicion, few tuberculosis prevalence estimates exist in malnourished African children. Diagnostics such as Xpert MTB/RIF may help to determine pulmonary tuberculosis prevalence, however its performance in severely malnourished children is largely unknown. Methods: We conducted a prospective observational study evaluating Xpert compared to smear microscopy and liquid culture on induced sputums among severely malnourished children (aged 6 to 60 months) at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi. From February 1 to May 30, 2012, children who met World Health Organization 2006 guidelines for severe acute malnutrition were evaluated using clinical symptoms, tuberculin skin tests, chest radiographs, and induced sputums. National Institute of Health (NIH) consensus case definitions were used to estimate tuberculosis prevalence. Results: Three hundred severely malnourished children (median age 18.5 months, IQR 12.1-25.6) had one induced sputum performed; 295 (98.3%) received two. Fifty-two (17.6%) were HIV-infected. Over 25% had tuberculosis exposure with 48/297 (16.2%) reporting contact and 40/287 (13.9%) with positive TST. Two (0.7%) patients had confirmed tuberculosis by Xpert and culture, but only one had positive smear microscopy. Twenty (6.7%) patients fulfilled probable and 97 (66%) met possible tuberculosis NIH case definitions. Overall mortality was 9.7%. Conclusions: Microbiologic confirmation likely underestimates the prevalence of pulmonary tuberculosis in severely malnourished children. In our study, Xpert on induced sputums did not increase case finding. Future studies are needed using Xpert among targeted groups of severely malnourished children and on non-sputum specimens.


Certain broad general principles of electronic reliability become obvious when reliability is viewed as one of a number of important aspects of the broad general problem of achieving most efficient and effective performance of some desired task using electronic equipment. 1) The reliability of an electronic device or system depends not only upon the intrinsic properties of the device, but also on the tasks it is required to perform, the characteristics of the demand for performance, and the conditions under which successful performance of the tasks is demanded. 2) The over-all reliability objective is not merely the prevention of failures; instead it is the achievement of successful system performance. 3) Failure is important only because of its effect on the external situation, and it is not important in itself. These principles are perhaps so self-evident as to sound like platitudes, yet their implications are seldom fully recognized. Accepting them as valid leads to the conclusion that to attempt to insure success merely by improving the failure characteristics of individual parts of an equipment or system is to neglect many fascinating and attractive approaches to reliability improvement. The achievement of successful, failure-resistant systems is the type of problem suitable for attack by the classic scientific method and by specific techniques used in operations research. A rationale for the development of reliable systems is developed from such a viewpoint and presented in the form of a system development check-list.


Future large-scale sensor networks may comprise thousands of wirelessly connected sensor nodes that could provide an unimaginable opportunity to interact with physical phenomena in real time. These nodes are typically highly resource-constrained. Since the communication task is a significant power consumer, there are various attempts to introduce energy-awareness at different levels within the communication stack. Clustering is one such attempt to control energy dissipation for sensor data routing. Here, we propose the time-controlled clustering algorithm to realise a network-wide energy reduction by the rotation of clusterhead role, and the consideration of residual energy in its election. A realistic energy model is derived to accurately quantify the network's energy consumption using the proposed clustering algorithm