In 1925, the City of Miami built a trash incinerator in the de jure segregated Afro-Caribbean-American community of Coconut Grove Village West ("the West Grove") amid rows of shotgun style houses and Jim Crow schools. Commonly known as Old Smokey, the incinerator discharged airborne carcinogenic chemicals (e.g., arsenic, benzo(a)pyrene, cadmium, and lead) and produced residual toxic waste (e.g., ash, liquefied plastic, and melted glass) for 45 years until Florida courts finally ordered it closed in 1970. In 1978, notwithstanding community opposition, the City of Miami converted the 4.5 acre Old Smokey site and incinerator building into its Fire-Rescue Training Center which continues to operate today. In 2013 and 2014, West Grove residents working in collaboration with faculty and students from the University of Miami School of Law learned from a whistleblower-leaked municipal environmental report that long-term exposure to Old Smokey's airborne carcinogens and toxic waste dump sites had caused extensive soil and possibly groundwater contamination of homeowner properties and public parks in Coconut Grove and across the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County.This Essay investigates the historical absence of civil rights- and environmental justice-incited legal and political mobilization around Old Smokey in light of Professor Lea VanderVelde's important new book Redemption Songs: Suing for Freedom before Dred Scott. In Redemption Songs, VanderVelde, a distinguished legal historian, builds on her much praised biography of Mrs. Dred Scott and the contemporary work of historians in the field of slavery to study the nineteenth century practices of antebellum freedom suits in St. Louis, Missouri and in the western territories. VanderVelde carves out several lines of inquiry in Redemption Songs useful for historians of race and advocates for the legal-political rights of impoverished racial communities. Closely interwoven, the inquiries seek to ascertain how enslaved men and women learned that their residence in free territories conferred the legal right to sue for freedom and, further, how they advanced that emancipatory right in the St. Louis courts. More specifically, VanderVelde asks, who actually "instructed" the enslaved? Who, in St. Louis, Missouri, and the western territories, "led the way?" Why did some enslaved parents, children, and families "delay" and "wait" to file suit? What were the end results of the lawsuits and what "factors" influenced their in-court and out-of-court outcomes?To resolve these questions, VanderVelde parses the extraordinary collection of freedom suit petitions filed by slaves in St. Louis between 1814 and 1860. These freedom suits, according to VanderVelde, tell stories of nineteenth century caste, class, and racial status. Equally important, the freedom suits tell stories of nineteenth century judges, lawyers, and legal rights consciousness in the contexts of racial advocacy and adjudication. In the same way, civil rights and environmental justice suits tell stories of twentieth and twenty-first century caste, class, and racial status, affecting stories of chronic illness and widespread contamination bound up in the work of judges and lawyers, and informed by an expanding legal consciousness of common law, statutory, and constitutional rights to a healthy and safe environment. By discrete historical turns, freedom suits, civil rights suits, and environmental justice suits tell stories of individual, group, and community rights under conditions of cultural, political, and socio-economic subordination. Viewed from the bottom, these same stories of freedom, civil rights, and environmental justice are also about individual and community power expressed through multifaceted forms of legal-political resistance.The purpose of this Essay is to draw out the lessons of antebellum freedom suits, and, by comparison, modern civil rights and environmental justice suits, to learn how to tell better stories of community power and resistance in Miami and elsewhere. For historians and advocates alike, better stories are not only more accurate descriptively, but also more potent emotionally or expressively and more effective instrumentally or prescriptively. To draw out the historical comparison between freedom and civil rights or environmental justice suits and to hone better legal-political stories of resistance, the Essay revisits the principal set of questions animating VanderVelde's nineteenth century investigation. However basic these questions may appear at first glance, they warrant continuing reassessment and reconsideration by lay and legal advocates, law school clinical faculty, law students, and university scholars. Consider, for example, the threshold question – how do subordinated communities of color learn of their legal rights? Further, how do they advance their emancipatory, civil or environmental justice rights without equal access to courts or effective representation? Who does and who should "instruct" such communities in their legal rights? Who, in St. Louis, Miami, or other inner-city communities across the nation, "leads the way?" Why do some individuals, families, or groups "delay" and "wait" to file suit? What are the end-results of civil rights and environmental justice lawsuits spearheaded by subordinated groups and communities, and what "factors" influence their in-court and out-of-court outcomes? Although beyond the cabined scope of this Essay, these fundamental questions of civil rights, environmental justice, and poverty law frame its broad contours and invigorate wider research on law and social movements. The Essay proceeds in three parts. Part I parses VanderVelde's central notions of subordination, voice, and redemption and illustrates their resonant force in the recently compiled oral histories of Old Smokey survivors. Part II examines VanderVelde's interpretation of St. Louis freedom suits and the Missouri legal rule of freedom-by-residence. Part III recasts VanderVelde's interpretive stance on antebellum freedom suits against the backdrop of Old Smokey to consider legal-political rights campaigns and community resistance strategies in the context of civil rights and environmental justice claims.


This dissertation is a qualitative study that explores mentoring experiences of Catholic teaching nuns– hereafter called sisters and/or women religious– who served in parochial schools in the mid-twentieth century in the Diocese of Syracuse, NY. Teaching sisters comprised the majority of the professional workforce in Catholic schools through ministry as classroom teachers, building principals, diocesan-level administrators, service providers, and more. The purpose of this qualitative study was to develop an understanding of how teaching sisters engaged in mentoring to develop instructional and pedagogical skills in the mid-twentieth century, specifically 1940 through 1965. In addition to researching archival records, this study employs a phenomenological approach and uses oral history methods, enabling sisters to share their experiences in focus groups and oral history interviews. Interview data were recorded, transcribed and analyzed. This study asks the following research questions: 1) What do teaching sisters' oral histories reveal about their development of teaching skills?; 2) What do teaching sisters' oral histories reveal about how formal and informal networks supported their development of these skills?; 3) What do teaching sisters reveal about how support evolved over time?; 4) What do teaching sisters' oral histories reveal about the roles formal and informal networks played in their development as teachers?; 5) Did their support for each others' teaching change over time? The findings suggest that during the first half of the period studied, mentoring was a critical practice that sisters depended upon to develop skills in pedagogical practices, including lesson planning, instructional delivery, student assessment, and daily operations. In the second half of the time period under consideration mentoring practices continued; however, sisters began providing support to help them cope with substantial changes occurring in religious life. Sisters have shared empathy and symbiotic penchants to provide emotional and compassionate support to cultivate congregational and professional success. This research provides individual and congregational experiences that illuminate how mentoring was used as a form of occupational support. First-person narratives, based on the lived experiences of teaching sisters, further add to the existing literature on the history of women religious. MENTOR TEACHING IN FOUR COMMUNITIES OF CATHOLIC SISTERS IN THE MIDTWENTIETH CENTURY (1940-1965) by Melanie Nappa-Carroll B.A., Syracuse University 1994 M.Ed., Boston College, 1997 Dissertation Submitted in partial fulfillment for the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership Syracuse University May 2019 Copyright © Melanie Nappa-Carroll 2019 All Rights Reserved


The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to spread all around the world. Mortality and morbidity rates are increasing-up to now. Although convalescent plasma therapy can be thought to be useful in the treatment of COVID-19, it carries potential risks, such as transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI). In COVID-19 infection, tachypnea, tachycardia, increased need for oxygenation, and the presence of bilateral widespread infiltrates on radiological imagings are evaluated as acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). This clinical situation may develop independently from disease progression in patients receiving convalescent plasma therapy and it is called TRALI. We aimed to present our case to discuss the difficulty of this situation to differentiate from COVID-19 related ARDS.


Clothing business is an area of business which is increasingly preferred by entrepreneurs. However it requires a consideration in making a decision on opening a branch store. One of the mistakes in opening a branch of business is in choosing the location which can pose some risks of big profit loss. So it needs a system that can help to provide recommendations in selecting the location of the business branch. In this study, AHP method and a map visualization are being used. Eight criteria, such as price, area, safety, legality license, distance from other branches, the number of compatitors, the distance from the highway, and the distance from the target marketing are used. Each of these criteria is given weight based on the weighting of Thomas L. Saaty. And its consistency is calculated using consistency using AHP method. If the weights of all criteria are consistent, they can be used as references to provide a ranking of a suitable business branch location. Result of the research shows that the weights of these criteria are consistent. There are three steps of testing, which are functional testing, calculation testing, and user evaluation. The test results prove that this system is able to provide recommendations in selecting the location of the business branch according to the needs of business users.


The issue of professional teaching standards has generated considerable interest from various quarters in Australia and elsewhere. In this paper, I am concerned with examining some of the claims made by advocates for the establishing of uniform standards for the teaching profession. To this end I identify three major claims derived from the Australian literature regarding the benefits that the application of a standards framework would make to the quality of teaching: the introduction of standards should improve the performance of teachers; the introduction of standards will improve the standing of teachers; and standards contribute to the on-going professional learning of teachers. Specifically, I argue that we need to look critically at the issue of professional standards for teachers and the claims that are made by their advocates. In particular, we need to ask whose interests are served by these standards and what are the effects of the imposition of these standards on teachers individually and collectively. Finally, we need to ask whether the standards judged as appropriate for today's teaching conditions and teachers will be equally appropriate in the future. Standards cannot and should not be frozen in time; they must be flexible to the changing conditions of teaching and learning as they occur inside and outside of schools.


In 2007, Estonia was the victim of a significant, coordinated cyberattack, which crippled government communications, newspaper websites, banks and other connected entities in Europe's most Internet-saturated country. At the time, leading theories suggested that Russia, or at the very least elements of its intelligence community, might be somehow involved, spurred by the physical symbolism of Estonia removing Soviet-era monuments from city squares and public spaces (Davis, 2007). Indeed, in an attempt to visibly remove its history of engagement as part of the Soviet Union, Estonian authorities and political figures had become determined to demolish and destroy remaining statues erected pre-1990. Two years after the cyberattack, an event that Wired Magazine colloquially termed "Web War One," further details of the unexpected perpetrators would begin to emerge. According to reports by the Financial Times and Reuters, Nashi, a pro-Kremlin youth group with an estimated membership of 150,000, claimed responsibility for the digital assault against Estonia; they described to authorities a strategy of repeated denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, (Clover, 2009; Lowe, 2009). Nashi members, based on different sources, range between the ages of 17 and 25 (Knight, 2007).


Elevated environmental temperatures associated with anthropogenic warming have the potential to impact host‐parasite interactions, with consequences for population health and ecosystem functioning. One way that elevated temperatures might influence parasite prevalence and intensity is by increasing life cycle completion rates. Here, we investigate how elevated temperatures impact a critical phase of the life cycle of the bird tapeworm Schistocephalus solidus – the growth of plerocercoid larvae in host fish (three‐spined sticklebacks Gasterosteus aculeatus). By 8 weeks post‐infection, plerocercoids recovered from experimentally infected sticklebacks held at 20 °C weighed on average 104.9 mg, with all exceeding 50 mg, the mass considered consistently infective to definitive hosts. In contrast, plerocercoids from sticklebacks held at 15 °C weighed on average 26.5 mg, with none exceeding 50 mg. As small increases in plerocercoid mass affect adult fecundity disproportionately in this species, enhanced plerocercoid growth at higher temperatures predicts dramatically increased output of infective parasite stages. Subsequent screening of thermal preferences of sticklebacks from a population with endemic S. solidus infection demonstrated that fish harbouring infective plerocercoids show significant preferences for warmer temperatures. Our results therefore indicate that parasite transmission might be affected in at least two ways under anthropogenic warming; by enhancing rates of parasite growth and development, and by increasing the likelihood of hosts being able to seek out proliferating warmer microhabitats. Furthermore, our results suggest the potential for positive feedback between parasite growth and host thermal preferences, which could dramatically increase the effects of even small temperature increases. We discuss the possible mechanisms underpinning our results, their likely ecological consequences and highlight key areas for further research.


A facile and green method is developed to prepare mesoporous TiO2/graphite nanosheets composite (TGNS) that possesses uniform flower-like TiO2 particles, high surface area of 337.22 m2 g−1 and a high photocatalytic ability in the visible-light region due to the better surface integrity of graphite nanosheets (GNS) compared to rGO, which accelerates the optoelectronic transmission and prohibits the recombination of the optoelectron and hole (h+), this composite shows excellent near-infrared absorption. The TGNS composite with irregular defects on the edges was prepared using GNS via an environment-friendly physical process—high-pressure homogenization (HPH). Moreover, taking advantage of the broken edges brought on by HPH as starting active points paves a new way for the TiO2 crystal formation on carbon materials. Hence, TiO2 particles can spread uniformly on the GNS.


The role of Asp128 in the catalytic mechanism of the low Mr protein-tyrosine phosphatase (PTPase) from the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe has been investigated by a combination of site-directed mutagenesis and pre-steady-state and steady-state kinetic analysis. The corresponding aspartic acid in the bovine enzyme is located on a loop adjacent to the phosphate-binding loop and forms a hydrogen bond with the oxygen atom of the bound sulfate or phosphate that is structurally homologous to the ester oxygen in substrates [Su et al. (1994) Nature 370, 575-578; Zhang, M., et al. (1994) Biochemistry 33, 11097-11105]. Asp128 has been replaced by a Glu, an Asn, and an Ala. The kcat for the hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl phosphate (pNPP) decreases by factors of 6.7, 400, and 650 for the mutants D128E, D128N, and D128A, respectively. Compared to the wild type, the binding affinity for phosphate is decreased 2 and 4.3-fold, respectively, for the D128A and D128N mutants, whereas no change in affinity is observed for the D128E mutant. An evaluation of the burst kinetics demonstrates that Asp128 plays a role in both the phosphoenzyme intermediate formation (k2) and breakdown (k3). Thus, substitution at Asp128 by a Glu, an Asn, or an Ala reduces k2 by 17, 7480, and 11900 and reduces k3 by 6.2, 380, and 40. The greater effect on k2 and k3 is consistent with a dissociative transition-state for the low M(r)PTPase-catalyzed reaction. Results from the rapid kinetics, partition experiments, and leaving group dependence experiments suggest that for the wild type and D128E mutant, the rate-limiting step is k3, whereas k2 has become rate-limiting for the D128N mutant. With the exception of pNPP, k2 may also be rate-limiting for D128A. Taken together, these results are consistent with Asp128 or Glu128 acting as a general acid to donate a proton to the phenolate leaving group in the phosphorylation step, and the carboxylate side chain plays a role as a general base to activate a nucleophilic water molecule in the dephosphorylation step. The presence of the general acid ensures productive partitioning toward phosphoenzyme formation. In the absence of the general acid, the nature of the transition-state for the phosphorylation step is sensitive to the pKa of the attacking active site thiol group and changes with the structure of the leaving group.


Background: Subclinical hyperthyroidism (SH, defined by low or undetectable serum thyroid stimulating hormone and normal thyroid hormones) is associated with increased cardiovascular risk (CVR) such as atrial fibrillation. Few studies also showed an increased risk of vascular disease and mortality in SH. Inflammation has been shown to play a significant role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. Increased levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), lipoprotein associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2, an inflammatory marker which plays a critical role in atherosclerosis), neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and monocyte to lymphocyte ratio (MLR) have been reported in conditions with increased cardiovascular risk. We aimed to ascertain whether abnormal CRP, Lp-PLA2, NLR and MLR contribute to an increased CVR in SH. Methods: CRP, Lp-PLA2, NLR and MLR in peripheral blood were measured in 30 SH subjects at baseline and after 6 months of treatment with either carbimazole or placebo in a randomized placebo-controlled design. Results: There was no significant difference in CRP, Lp-PLA2, NLR and MLR between carbimazole and placebo treated groups at 6 months. There was also no statistical difference in the above parameters if we compared the change or difference between two visits (visit 2 and visit 0 levels) in both groups. Conclusion: There is no evidence of chronic inflammation in our small cohort of SH subjects. Our finding needs to be confirmed in future studies with larger number of SH subjects. J Endocrinol Metab. 2021;11(1):28-32 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jem723


Super Coaching is for anyone wanting to succeed in a frenetic and unpredictable world. Coaching is an extremely successful new trend: a coach is a cross between a psycho-analyst and personal trainer, someone who is there to motivate and inspire you to work things out for yourself. This book means that you don't have to find your own personal coach - everything you need to know is here. Getting the job done is no longer good enough: relationships, whether with colleagues, customers, friends and family, are our greatest asset and the key to career success and personal happiness. Ben Renshaw's many media credits include relationship coach for C4's award-winning series Perfect Match. Graham Alexander is the founder of business coaching in Europe with just under 20 years' experience in the field. Together they make a unique team, showing you how to follow coaching principles to achieve everything you want in a career and life.


A promising candidate for the growing bandwidth requirements of interactive multimedia services are hybrid fiber-coax CATV networks. They are however very susceptible to noise-funneling. We present a measurement method and statistical postprocessing for both ingress and impulse noise that is independent of the modulation and access technique used. The impact of ingress noise is evaluated for a TDMA/FDMA and CDMA access technique to illustrate this.


Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of histological grade, depth of myometrial invasion, and tumor size to identify lymph node metastasis (LNM) in patients with endometrioid endometrial cancer (EC). Methods A retrospective computerized database search was performed to identify patients who underwent comprehensive surgical staging for EC between January 1993 and December 2015. The inclusion criterion was endometrioid type EC limited to the uterine corpus. The associations between LNM and surgicopathological factors were evaluated by univariate and multivariate analyses. Results In total, 368 patients were included. Fifty-five patients (14.9%) had LNM. Median tumor sizes were 4.5 cm (range, 0.7–13 cm) and 3.5 cm (range, 0.4–33.5 cm) in patients with and without LNM, respectively (P = 0.005). No LMN was detected in patients without myometrial invasion, whereas nodal spread was observed in 7.7% of patients with superficial myometrial invasion and in 22.6% of patients with deep myometrial invasion (P < 0.0001). Lymph node metastasis tended to be more frequent in patients with grade 3 disease compared with those with grade 1 or 2 disease (P = 0.131). Conclusions The risk of lymph node involvement was 30%, even in patients with the highest-risk uterine factors, that is, those who had tumors of greater than 2 cm, deep myometrial invasion, and grade 3 disease, indicating that 70% of these patients underwent unnecessary lymphatic dissection. A precise balance must be achieved between the desire to prevent unnecessary lymphadenectomy and the ability to diagnose LNM.


Backgrkound: Taking into consideration that present-day communication is based on colours and shapes,
the prevalence of anomalies in the chromatic sight in the redgreen axis has been studied in the school boys
of the City of Albacete.
Methods: The test of Ishihara has been used in an aleatory representative sample; and dischromatopsical
pupils, so classified in this test, have been further explored with the anomaloscopy Pickford-Nicolson, in order to know their anomaly kind and degree.
Results: The prevalence obtained is similar to those reported by other studies carried out in the European white race.
Conclusions: Taking into account the transcedence of this phenomenon, we consider that this exploration must be included in the systematic examinations at school labour and general level.


: 1,031 Norwegian physicians were questioned about their attendance at various musical events, and whether they played an instrument or were active in an orchestra or a choir. 36% of the physicians had been to the opera or the ballet during the last year, and 64% to at least one classical concert. 39% had been to a pop, rock or jazz concert. For the first two categories the figures are higher than in a group of Norwegian university graduates. 55% of the physicians can play an instrument, and 18% do so actively. These figures are also higher than in the university graduate group. Participation in an orchestra or choir is highest among general practitioners and public health physicians.


Fe and Y K-edge extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS), Fe (Y) L3,2-edge (L3-edge) x-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and valence-band photoemission spectroscopy (VB-PES) measurements have been carried out to study soft magnetic ternary Fe78-xYxB22 bulk metallic glasses (BMGs). The combined XANES and VB-PES results do not show broadening of the Fe 3d band to support previous interpretation of the reduction of the magnetic moment in BMGs by Y-induced decrease of exchange splitting of Fe 3d orbitals. Instead, the density of delocalized/itinerant Fe 3d states in the vicinity of the Fermi level is found to be reduced by Y substitution, which reduces the strength of itinerant-states mediated ferromagnetic coupling between local spins on the Fe ions and the total magnetic moment of the Fe-based BMGs.


The DEIMOS spectrograph has now been installed on the Keck-II telescope and commissioning is nearly complete. The DEEP2 Redshift Survey, which will take approximately 120 nights at the Keck Observatory over a three year period and has been designed to utilize the power of DEIMOS, began in the summer of 2002. The multiplexing power and high efficiency of DEIMOS enables us to target 1000 faint galaxies per clear night. Our goal is to gather high-quality spectra of ≈ 60,000 galaxies with z>0.75 in order to study the properties and large scale clustering of galaxies at z ≈ 1. The survey will be executed at high spectral resolution, R=λ/Δλ ≈ 5000, allowing us to work between the bright OH sky emission lines and to infer linewidths for many of the target galaxies (for several thousand objects, we will obtain rotation curves as well). The linewidth data will facilitate the execution of the classical redshift-volume cosmological test, which can provide a precision measurement of the equation of state of the Universe. This talk reviews the project, summarizes our science goals and presents some early DEIMOS data.


Aim To compare early versus delayed intravitreal betamethasone as an adjuvant in the treatment of presumed acute postoperative endophthalmitis after phacoemulsification. Methods Patients with presumed postcataract surgery endophthalmitis were included in this prospective, randomised, multicentre study. On admission, patients received intravitreal vancomycin and ceftazidime, and were randomly assigned to intravitreal betamethasone injection (early-IVB) group or no immediate injection (delayed-IVB) group. After 48 h, a second intravitreal antibiotic injection associated with intravitreal betamethasone was given to all patients. In patients with severe endophthalmitis or clinical deterioration, a prompt or delayed vitrectomy was performed. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients achieving a visual acuity (VA) of 20/40 or better at 12 months. The secondary outcomes were the rate of delayed vitrectomy and the rate of complications (retinal detachment and phthisis). Results Ninety-seven eyes of 97 patients were included, 45 in the early-IVB group and 52 in the delayed-IVB group. Overall, 62.9% of patients achieved a VA ≥20/40 at 1 year. There was no statistically significant difference in the visual outcome between the two groups at 1 year, whatever their baseline VA or light perception or hand motion or more (p=0.55 and p=0.10, respectively). The rates of delayed vitrectomy, retinal detachment and phthisis bulbi were not significantly different between the two groups (p=0.42, p=0.37 and p=0.44, respectively). Conclusions Early intravitreal betamethasone had no clear advantage versus delayed injection in the management of presumed postoperative endophthalmitis.


PURPOSE
To simplify clinical routine and to improve medical quality without exceeding the existing resources. Intensifying communication and cooperation between all institutions of patients' health care. The huge amount of documentation work of physicians can no longer be done without modern tools of paperless data processing.

METHODS
The development of ODS was a tight cooperation between physician and technician which resulted in a mutual understanding and led to a high level of user convenience. - At present all cases of gynecology, especially gynecologic oncology can be documented and processed by ODS. Users easily will adopt the system as data entry within different program areas follows the same rules. In addition users can choose between an individual input of data and assistants guiding them through highly specific areas of documentation.

RESULTS
ODS is a modern, modular structured and very fast multiuser database environment for in- and outpatient documentation. It automatically generates a lot of reports for clinical day to day business. Statistical routines will help the user reflecting his work and its quality. Documentation of clinical trials according to the GCP guidelines can be done by ODS using the internet or offline datasharing.

CONCLUSIONS
As ODS is the synthesis of a computer based patient administration system and an oncological documentation database, it represents the basis for the construction of the electronical patient chart as well as the digital documentation of clinical trials. The introduction of this new technology to physicians and nurses has to be done slowly and carefully, in order to increase motivation and to improve the results.


The distribution of dimethylsulfide (DMS), dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) was examined in lead water in pack ice of the Weddell Sea. Samples were taken by pulling water into a syringe from a series of depths from 0.002 m to 4 m and deeper. Concentrations of DMS, DMSP and DMSO remained low throughout the water column relative to surface water, which was highly enriched. Concentrations of the major sulfur compounds increased by over an order of magnitude during periods with smooth surface water conditions. This increase coincided with a profound stratification of the water column, caused by a decrease in salinity of near surface water. We estimate that the DMS emission from leads and open water in Antarctic sea ice could contribute significantly to the yearly DMS flux from the Southern Ocean.


We studied the relationship of the superlattice structure with the doping efficiency in detail by semi-classic calculation and follow experiment. The results show that period length of about 9nm and Al content of 30% is optimal. The Hall, AFM and PL measurement show that the best annealing temperature under atmosphere is about 540°C to 580°C. Finally we obtained the sample with resistivity of 0.31Ω·cm. It can be used for fabricating p type ohmic contact and active layer for blue LED.


A multi-functional dendrimer-coated surface has been prepared for the effective protein immobilization and detection of protein activity. The silicon surface was first modified with positively-charged amino groups using 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES), and subsequently coated with ionic dendrimer porphyrin (DP) by electrostatic interaction. Fluorescence and atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies showed that the dendrimer was homogeneously coated on the APTES-modified silicon surface as dome-shaped features that protruded 1.0–2.5 nm above the surface and had diameters ranging from 50 nm to 100 nm. The dendrimer-modified surface showed a higher capacity to covalently bind proteins, compared to the control surfaces, and the protein activity was higher by a factor of two. Using the fluorescent property of the porphyrin core, the relative amounts of dendrimer and the enzyme-catalyzed reactions on the dendrimer-coated surface were examined by fluorescence microscopy. Glucose oxidase (GOX)-mediated glucose oxidation quenched fluorescence emission from the focal porphyrin core through a peroxidase-coupled system and from the quantitative relationship between quenching and glucose concentration, the GOX-catalyzed reaction could be characterized.


An approach to successive interference cancellation is presented that exploits the structure of the combined signal constellation in a multiuser system. The asymptotic conditional efficiency of a successive detector is defined, based on the conditional probability of error at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), as a quantitative measure for evaluating detector performance at each stage of successive detection. The joint successive interference canceller (JSIC) that jointly detects consecutive users in an ordered set is proposed as an improvement over the conventional successive interference canceller (SIC). The maximal asymptotic conditional efficiency successive interference canceller (MACE-SIC) and its JSIC equivalent (MACE-JSIC) are also derived as the multiuser detectors that achieve the highest asymptotic conditional multiuser efficiency at each stage of successive detection among all possible SIC and JSIC detectors, respectively, given any particular ordering of user signals. The ordering of users achieving the highest asymptotic conditional efficiency at each stage of successive detection is derived. Performance bounds based on the signal constellation structure are derived to quantify the gain of the MACE-JSIC detector compared to the MACE-SIC detector.


Videos are one of the most engaging and interesting mediums of effective information delivery and constitute the majority of the content generated online today. As human attention span shrinks, it is imperative to shorten videos while maintaining most of its information. The premier challenge is that summaries more intuitive to a human are difficult for machines to generalize. We present a simple approach to video summarization using Kernel Temporal Segmentation (KTS) for shot segmentation and a global attention based modified memory network module with LSTM for shot score learning. The modified memory network termed as Global Attention Memory Module (GAMM) increases the learning capability of the model and with the addition of LSTM, it is further able to learn better contextual features. Experiments on the benchmark datasets TVSum and SumMe show that our method outperforms the current state of the art by about 15%.


Photovoltaic technology has been realized as a suitable renewable power source for the fulfillment of increasing world energy consumption with least impact on the environment. Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is one such photovoltaic technology which has gained a great deal of attention due to the low manufacturing cost compared to the conventional Si-based solar cell technologies. Fabrication of DSSCs on flexible substrates enables manufacturing solar cells using cost-effective and speedy roll-to-roll processing systems and also makes the device flexible and light-weight. However, polymer-based DSSCs set restrictions to their materials and fabrication processes. In this thesis, fabrication of DSSCs on flexible polymer substrates have been extensively studied concentrating on the factors related to the slurry preparation, deposition of films and processing of electrodes to improve the mechanical and photovoltaic properties of the device. Initially, mechanically-stable, well adhered TiO2 films based on nanocrystalline P-25 TiO2 slurries were fabricated on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated plastic substrates using ball milling as a part of the processing stage, without the need for binders or high temperature annealing. The strength of the TiO2 films was examined by a novel nanoscratch technique which was developed to assess inter-particle adhesion. Interfacial and photovoltaic properties of flexible dye sensitized solar cells with a ruthenium dye involving two tetra-butyl ammonium carboxylate groups (N-719) were studied. The maximum power conversion efficiency of 4.2% is obtained under illumination of 100mWcm-2, for the electrodes fabricated using 20 hour milled slurry and shorter or longer milling times were found to be less optimal. During the second stage of this work, binder-free titania pastes with high viscosity were developed for the preparation of improved quality electrodes for dye sensitized solar cells on plastic substrates. Rheological behavior of ethanol based titania pastes with the addition of ammonia, hydrochloric acid and water was investigated. The change in the viscosity is correlated with the measured zeta potential of the colloidal titania pastes. Improved inter-particle connectivity and hence better solar cell performance was found for the pastes containing acid or water. However, no such improvements were seen for the pastes containing ammonia. Maximum light to electrical energy conversion efficiencies of 4.9% and 5.0% were obtained for the plastic based dye-sensitized solar cells fabricated using water and acid-added slurries respectively. Thirdly, chemically-sintered, mesoporous ZnO electrodes with improved interparticle connectivity were prepared in the absence of any organic binders, using ammonia as the sole reagent to encourage interparticle connectivity. The reaction with ammonium hydroxide was found to increase the connections between ZnO grains by forming nanorods like a structure. The enhancement of adhesion among ZnO grains was evaluated from nano-scratch technique. Two different xanthene dyes were used to sensitize ZnO electrodes. The photo-voltage of 657 mV, fill-factor of 73 % and photo-current of 4.1 mAcm-2 with the maximum light to-electrical energy conversion efficiency of 2.0 % were obtained for plastic based ZnO|Mercurochrome|electrolyte solar cell under 100 mWcm-2 light intensity. One of the biggest challenges for DSSCs on plastic substrates is the difficulty in making good quality nano porous TiO2 films with both good mechanical stability and high electrical conductivity. Cold isostatic pressing (CIP) is a powder compaction technique that applies an isostatic pressure to a powder sample in all directions. It is particularly suitable for making thin films on plastic substrates and even on non-flat surfaces. During the final stage of this work, cold isostatically-pressed nanocrytalline TiO2 electrodes with excellent mechanical robustness are prepared on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrates in the absence of organic binders, and without heat treatment. The morphology and the physical properties of the TiO2 films prepared by the CIP method were found to be very compatible with requirements for fabricating flexible DSSCs on plastics. This room-temperature processing technique has led to an important technical breakthrough in producing high efficiency flexible DSSCs. Devices fabricated on ITO/PEN films by this method using standard P-25 TiO2 films with a Ru-complex sensitizer yielded a maximum IPCE of 72% at the wavelength of 530 nm and showed high conversion efficiencies of 6.3% and 7.4% for incident light intensities of 100 and 15 mWcm-2, respectively, which are the highest power conversion efficiencies achieved so far for any DSSC on a polymer substrate using the widely-used, commercially-available P-25 TiO2 powder.


* Dry eye syndrome is frequently observed in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma with prolonged pharmacological hypotensive treatment. Purpose: To analyze the effectiveness Tealoz the drug in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma in the treatment of the syndrome of "dry eye." Materials end Methods: the effectiveness of the drug Tealoz studied in 29 patients with primary openangle glaucoma (43 eyes) in the treatment of the syndrome of "dry eye." The control group consisted of 34 patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (54 eyes). Results: during treatment Tealoz noted improvement in Schirmer's test values in 23.3% of cases (10 eyes), Norn sample in 18.6% cases (8 eyes), clearance test in 25.6% of cases (11 eyes), LIPCOF test in 16.3% cases (7 eyes). No significant changes in the results of the samples were found in the control group. Conclusions: Tealoz drug effective in the treatment of dry eye syndrome in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma.


The key results obtained from experimental systems studies over monomode fiber and cable links are given for both direct detection and coherent optical systems. Direct detection techniques have been studied at 1300 nm using conventional lasers and at 1500 nm with narrow line transmitters of the injection-locked and external cavity types. In the case of coherent optical systems, developments of the same transmitters have been used in conjunction with amplitude and phase shift key (PSK) modulation techniques to obtain improved performance. Increases in receiver sensitivity of up to 14 and 17 dB have been obtained using, respectively, heterodyne and homodyne detection techniques. These results approach theoretical predictions and offer the possibility of much greater transmission capacity and extended regenerator spacings for monomode systems.


We study the problem of estimating the covariance matrix of a high-dimensional distribution when a small constant fraction of the samples can be arbitrarily corrupted. Recent work gave the first polynomial time algorithms for this problem with near-optimal error guarantees for several natural structured distributions. Our main contribution is to develop faster algorithms for this problem whose running time nearly matches that of computing the empirical covariance.
Given $N = \tilde{\Omega}(d^2/\epsilon^2)$ samples from a $d$-dimensional Gaussian distribution, an $\epsilon$-fraction of which may be arbitrarily corrupted, our algorithm runs in time $\tilde{O}(d^{3.26})/\mathrm{poly}(\epsilon)$ and approximates the unknown covariance matrix to optimal error up to a logarithmic factor. Previous robust algorithms with comparable error guarantees all have runtimes $\tilde{\Omega}(d^{2 \omega})$ when $\epsilon = \Omega(1)$, where $\omega$ is the exponent of matrix multiplication. We also provide evidence that improving the running time of our algorithm may require new algorithmic techniques.


SUMMARY
We want to evaluate the performance of two FDR-based multiple testing procedures by Benjamini and Hochberg (1995, J. R. Stat. Soc. Ser. B, 57, 289-300) and Storey (2002, J. R. Stat. Soc. Ser. B, 64, 479-498) in analyzing real microarray data. These procedures commonly require independence or weak dependence of the test statistics. However, expression levels of different genes from each array are usually correlated due to coexpressing genes and various sources of errors from experiment-specific and subject-specific conditions that are not adjusted for in data analysis. Because of high dimensionality of microarray data, it is usually impossible to check whether the weak dependence condition is met for a given dataset or not. We propose to generate a large number of test statistics from a simulation model which has asymptotically (in terms of the number of arrays) the same correlation structure as the test statistics that will be calculated from the given data and to investigate how accurately the FDR-based testing procedures control the FDR on the simulated data. Our approach is to directly check the performance of these procedures for a given dataset, rather than to check the weak dependency requirement. We illustrate the proposed method with real microarray datasets, one where the clinical endpoint is disease group and another where it is survival.


OBJECTIVE
To characterize the patient population seeking care for nonurgent medical problems at an emergency department during regular business hours and to determine why these patients chose the emergency department over alternative care sites.

DESIGN
Patient survey (self-administered questionnaire).

SETTING
Emergency department at a tertiary care hospital in Montreal.

PATIENTS
All ambulatory patients presenting on weekdays between 8 am and 5 pm from Nov. 10 to Dec. 8, 1993, whose condition was determined to be nonurgent. Eligible patients had to be residents of Montreal, who did not have a pre-arranged consultation at the emergency department. Of 202 consecutive eligible patients, 200 agreed to participate.

OUTCOME MEASURES
Description of events leading to the visit, including possible attempts by patients to contact their regular physician; patients' knowledge of alternative care options such as provincial CLSGs (centres locaux des services communautaires) and private walk-in clinics.

RESULTS
Of the 200 patients 152 (76%) stated that they had not visited an emergency department within the previous month, and only 10 (5%) stated that they were in extreme pain. At least 70% were aware of alternative care options, however, 120 (60%) felt that the emergency department was the best place for them to receive care for their medical problem. In all, 81 patients (40%) were referred to the emergency department; 62 (77%) were referred by a health care professional, 46 (57%) by a physician.

CONCLUSION
Most patients are aware of alternatives to the emergency department for care of nonurgent medical problems. Nevertheless, a large number are being referred to the emergency department during regular business hours by health care professionals. This inefficient use of expensive hospital resources requires further investigation.


A reconfigurable dual-band LNA is presented. The LNA employs switching capacitors and circuit in to realize the dual-band operation. These methodologies are used to design and implement a reconfigurable LNA for IMT-A and UWB application. The LNA is implemented using TSMC-0.13 μm CMOS technology. Measured performance shows an input matching of better than −13.5 dB, a voltage gain of 18–22.8 dB, with an NF of 4.3–4.7 dB in the band of 3.4–3.6 GHz, and an input matching of better than −9.7 dB, a voltage gain of 14.7–22.4 dB, and with an NF of 3.7–4.9 dB in the band of 4.2–4.8 GHz. According to the measure results, the proposed LNA achieves dual-band operation, and it proves the feasibility of the proposed topology.


In recent years, knowledge graphs have been widely applied to organize data in a uniform way and enhance many tasks that require knowledge, for example, online shopping which has greatly facilitated people's life. As a backbone for online shopping platforms, we built a billion-scale e-commerce product knowledge graph for various item knowledge services such as item recommendation. However, such knowledge services usually include tedious data selection and model design for knowledge infusion, which might bring inappropriate results. Thus, to avoid this problem, we propose a Pre-trained Knowledge Graph Model (PKGM) for our billion-scale e-commerce product knowledge graph, providing item knowledge services in a uniform way for embedding-based models without accessing triple data in the knowledge graph. Notably, PKGM could also complete knowledge graphs during servicing, thereby overcoming the common incompleteness issue in knowledge graphs. We test PKGM in three knowledge-related tasks including item classification, same item identification, and recommendation. Experimental results show PKGM successfully improves the performance of each task.


Selection of suitable performance weights is the main problem in design of a robust H/sup /spl infin// power system stabilizer (PSS). In this paper, a systematic and automated approach based on genetic algorithms (GAs) is proposed. It gives rise to selection of optimal performance weights without any trial and error attempt. The resulting H/sup /spl infin// PSS performs quite satisfactorily under a wide range of turbogenerator operating conditions and is robust against unmodelled low-damped torsional modes. It also provides sufficient robustness against significant changes in transmission line configuration and parameters.


SiC MIS structure with ultra-thin Al2O3 as gate dielectric deposited by Atomic Layer Deposition(ALD) on epitaxial layer of 4H-SiC(0001)80N-/N+ substrate is fabricated. The experimental results indicate that the prepared ultra Al2O3 gate dielectric exhibits good physical and electrical characteristics, including a high breakdown electrical field of 25MV/cm, excellent interface properties(2×1013cm-2•eV-1) and low gate-leakage current (IG=1×10-3A/㎝-2@EOX=8MV/cm). Analysis of current conduction mechanism in deposited Al2O3 gate dielectric has also been systematically performed. The confirmed conduction mechanisms consisted of FP emission, FN tunneling, DT and Schottky emission. And the dominance of these current conduction mechanisms depended on applied electrical field, When the gate leakage current mechanism is dominated by FN tunneling, the barrier height of SiC/Al2O3 is 1.4eV, which can meet the requirement of SiC MISFET devices.


Pre-mRNA splicing in vitro is preceded by complex formation (spliceosome assembly). U2 small nuclear RNA (snRNA) is found in the earliest form of the spliceosome detected by native gel electrophoresis, both in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and in metazoan extracts. To examine the requirements for the formation of this early complex (band III) in yeast extracts, we cleaved the U2 snRNA by oligonucleotide-directed RNase H digestion. U2 snRNA depletion by this means inhibits both splicing and band III formation. Using this depleted extract, we were able to design a chase experiment which shows that a pre-mRNA substrate is committed to the spliceosome assembly pathway in the absence of functional U2 snRNP. Interactions occurring during the commitment step are highly resistant to the addition of an excess of unlabeled substrate and require little or no ATP. Sequence requirements for this commitment step have been analyzed by competition experiments with deletion mutants: both the 5' splice site consensus sequence and the branch point TACTAAC box sequence are necessary. These experiments strongly suggest that the initial assembly process requires a trans-acting factor(s) (RNA and/or proteins) that recognizes and stably binds to the two consensus sequences of the pre-mRNA prior to U2 snRNP binding.


The interaction between a charged metal implant surface and a surrounding body fluid (electrolyte solution) leads to ion redistribution and thus to formation of an electrical double layer (EDL). The physical properties of the EDL contribute essentially to the formation of the complex implant-biosystem interface. Study of the EDL began in 1879 by Hermann von Helmholtz and still today remains a scientific challenge. The present mini review is focused on introducing the generalized Stern theory of an EDL, which takes into account the orientational ordering of water molecules. To ascertain the plausibility of the generalized Stern models described, we follow the classical model of Stern and introduce two Langevin models for spatial variation of the relative permittivity for point-like and finite sized ions. We attempt to uncover the subtle interplay between water ordering and finite sized ions and their impact on the electric potential near the charged implant surface. Two complementary effects appear to account for the spatial dependency of the relative permittivity near the charged implant surface — the dipole moment vectors of water molecules are predominantly oriented towards the surface and water molecules are depleted due to the accumulation of counterions. At the end the expressions for relative permittivity in both Langevin models were generalized by also taking into account the cavity and reaction field.


Amid a worldwide increase in tree mortality, mountain pine beetles (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) have led to the death of billions of trees from Mexico to Alaska since 2000. This is predicted to have important carbon, water and energy balance feedbacks on the Earth system. Counter to current projections, we show that on a decadal scale, tree mortality causes no increase in ecosystem respiration from scales of several square metres up to an 84 km2 valley. Rather, we found comparable declines in both gross primary productivity and respiration suggesting little change in net flux, with a transitory recovery of respiration 6–7 years after mortality associated with increased incorporation of leaf litter C into soil organic matter, followed by further decline in years 8–10. The mechanism of the impact of tree mortality caused by these biotic disturbances is consistent with reduced input rather than increased output of carbon.


Objectives Surgical intervention for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in overweight and obese children may not be as effective as it is in normal-weight children. The purpose of this study was to systematically review the effects of various surgical interventions for OSA in obese children and to meta-analyze the current data. Data Sources PubMed, OVID, and Cochrane databases. Review Methods Databases were searched for studies examining adenotonsillectomy, uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, supraglottoplasty, or tongue base surgeries and combinations in obese children with OSA. Adenotonsillectomy was the only procedure with enough data for meta-analysis; polysomnographic data were extracted and analyzed using a random-effects model. Results For adenotonsillectomy, 11 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Despite significant improvement in the apnea-hypopnea index (22.9 to 8.1 events/h, P < .001), respiratory disturbance index (24.8 to 10.4 events/h, P < .001), and oxygen saturation nadir (78.4% to 87.0%, P < .001), rates of persistent OSA ranged from 51% to 66%, depending on the outcome criterion used. There was evidence of limited effectiveness for surgical interventions to treat OSA in obese children using uvulopalatoplasty (12.5%) and tongue base surgery (74%-88%). Conclusions Surgical interventions for OSA in overweight and obese children are effective at reducing OSA but with higher rates of persistent OSA than reported for normal-weight children. However, the amount of reduction appears to vary by surgical procedure. More attention should be paid toward preoperative weight loss and patient selection, and parents should be provided with realistic postoperative expectations in this difficult-to-treat population.


Beginning about twenty-five years ago, there was a marked increase in the number of single-ply membrane roof designs used to cover and waterproof flat and low-sloped building roofs. Over the past ten years, there has been a substantial increase in the number of installations of white and more reflective single-ply roof systems, mostly using high density cellular foam insulation in the substrate for insulation. A major factor in the increase in the popularity of these highly insulated and more reflective roof systems is the fact that many governments began offering incentives for building owners to use reflective coverings and better insulated roofs. Now, owing to the energy efficient requirements for the design and construction of new buildings put forth in ASHRAE Standard 90.1, "Energy Standard for Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings" and the world's apparent desire to be "green" (or at least appear to be), more and more roof designs will include these reflective single-ply membranes, which use the cellular foam insulation boards to meet these requirements. Using a lower density traditional insulation will mean that the roof will have to be very thick to comply, increasing the costs of installation. High density cellular foams do not absorb water until time, vapor pressure drive, UV and thermal shock break down the foam and it becomes more absorbent. This could be 5-7 years or longer, depending on the roof construction and other factors. This means that any water that enters the roof through a breach (leak) in the membrane goes straight into the building. This is not a good consequence since the failure mode of any roof is water entering the building. Keeping the water out of the building is the purpose of the waterproofing layer. This paper reviews the techniques of moisture testing on building roofs and infrared (IR) thermography, and puts forth the idea and reasoning behind having a sacrificial layer of very absorbent insulation installed in every flat and low-sloped roof so that when a breach occurs, it can easily be found, documented and repaired during an annual infrared inspection; as IR is an effective predictive maintenance technique and condition monitoring best practice for roof maintenance.


In this award-winning novel, acclaimed Brazilian writer Edgard Telles Ribeiro illuminates a dark corner of his country's history. Marcilio Andrade Xavier is a charismatic young diplomat whose intelligence is matched only by his ambition. During the military dictatorship of 1964-1985, Max's artful manoeuvring - political and personal - assures him a meteoric career as democracies topple throughout South America. Yet Max remains an enigma to his colleagues, his friends, and even his wife, who know few details of his involvement with oppressive regimes, let alone the CIA and MI6. Amid embassy machinations, glittering parties, dire acts, and revealing intimate encounters, one of Max's younger colleagues starts piecing together who Max really is, and at what cost he has purchased his dazzling career. A political thriller of the highest order, His Own Man is a chilling anatomy of power, ambition, and betrayal.


BACKGROUND
Intra-arterial chemotherapy (IA) as a treatment to salvage the eye with advanced retinoblastoma is increasingly utilized based on successes reported by institutions around the world mainly through retrospective studies.

OBJECTIVE
To study the feasibility of delivering melphalan directly into the ophthalmic artery in a multi-institutional prospective study in children with newly diagnosed unilateral group D retinoblastoma.

METHODS
The Children's Oncology Group (COG) initiated study ARET12P1 in 2014 and was open to nine institutions. Eligible patients older than six months of age were enrolled. The feasibility of delivering three injections of melphalan into the ophthalmic artery every 28 days was assessed.

RESULTS
Nine institutions participated in this trial. Fourteen patients were enrolled, two of whom were unevaluable for feasibility. Four patients experienced a feasibility failure. In two patients, the ophthalmic artery could not be accessed for the second IA injection, in one the artery could not be accessed for the first injection, and one patient experienced grade 4 hypotension during the procedure.

CONCLUSION
Delivery of prescribed therapy within the context of this study did not meet the feasibility goals of the study with only a 67% feasibility success rate. These results should caution centers that plan to initiate this treatment and suggest investment in training to achieve technical expertise or referral to centers with expertise.


Radiation effects in thick isolation oxides of modern CMOS technologies are investigated using dedicated test structures designed using two commercial foundries. Shallow Trench Isolation and Pre-Metal Dielectric are studied using electrical measurements performed after X-ray irradiations and isochronal annealing cycles. This paper shows that trapping properties of such isolation oxides can strongly differ from those of traditional thermal oxides usually used to process the gate oxide of Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors. Buildup and annealing of both radiation-induced oxide-trap charge and radiation-induced interface traps are discussed as a function of the oxide type, foundry and bias condition during irradiation. Radiation-induced interface traps in such isolation oxides are shown to anneal below 100°C contrary to what is usually observed in thermal oxides. Implications for design hardening and radiation tests of CMOS Integrated Circuits are discussed.


Web mining is the use of data mining technologies to automatically interact and discover information from web documents, which can be in structured, unstructured or semi- structured form. The web has become a major vehicle in performing research and education related activities for researches and students. There is tremendous amount of information and knowledge existing on the web and waiting to be discovered, shared and utilized. We present an enterprise web framework regarding semantic web and mining in training institute, which can be used to not only improve the quality of web mining results but also enhances the functions and services and the interoperability of educational information systems and standards in the educational field. Mining the educational information on the web we are using new Semantic Web Mining technologies, such as Resource description Framework (RDF) and Web Ontology Language (OWL). For on line educational institute web site two important ontology's would need to be built one ontology describing all the educational services provided, with the relation between each other and the other ontology describing the web site. Thus semantic web ontology help build better web mining analysis in educational institute and web mining in-turns helps contract basis more powerful ontology in education.


The author presents a method for creating sound poetry and text/sound music. According to his theory on the musical nature of speech and through the quantification of syllabic stress, the author presents his aesthetics of text/sound music and a detailed description of his original algorithms for manipulating characters representing phonemes. Redefining compositional techniques through his Beyond Babble computer program, The Babble Poet, he synthesizes vocalisms that sound like speech, yet are not, allowing nonsensical words to exist without semantic content and its inherent perceptual baggage. He also explores the applications of his program in composition by composing text/sound tudes synthesizing well-known texts with his method.


Most dynamic languages allow users to turn text into code using various functions, often named eval, with language-dependent semantics. The widespread use of these reflective functions hinders static analysis and prevents compilers from performing optimizations. This paper aims to provide a better sense of why programmers use eval. Understanding why eval is used in practice is key to finding ways to mitigate its negative impact. We have reasons to believe that reflective feature usage is language and application domain-specific; we focus on data science code written in R and compare our results to previous work that analyzed web programming in JavaScript. We analyze 49,296,059 calls to eval from 240,327 scripts extracted from 15,401 R packages. We find that eval is indeed in widespread use; R's eval is more pervasive and arguably dangerous than what was previously reported for JavaScript.


Cropland abandonment is globally widespread and has strong repercussions for regional food security and the environment. Statistics suggest that one of the hotspots of abandoned cropland is located in the drylands of the Aral Sea Basin (ASB), which covers parts of post-Soviet Central Asia, Afghanistan and Iran. To date, the exact spatial and temporal extents of abandoned cropland remain unclear, which hampers land-use planning. Abandoned land is a potentially valuable resource for alternative land uses. Here, we mapped the abandoned cropland in the drylands of the ASB with a time series of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) from 2003–2016. To overcome the restricted ability of a single classifier to accurately map land-use classes across large areas and agro-environmental gradients, "stratum-specific" classifiers were calibrated and classification results were fused based on a locally weighted decision fusion approach. Next, the agro-ecological suitability of abandoned cropland areas was evaluated. The stratum-specific classification approach yielded an overall accuracy of 0.879, which was significantly more accurate (p < 0.05) than a "global" classification without stratification, which had an accuracy of 0.811. In 2016, the classification results showed that 13% (1.15 Mha) of the observed irrigated cropland in the ASB was idle (abandoned). Cropland abandonment occurred mostly in the Amudarya and Syrdarya downstream regions and was associated with degraded land and areas prone to water stress. Despite the almost twofold population growth and increasing food demand in the ASB area from 1990 to 2016, abandoned cropland was also located in areas with high suitability for farming. The map of abandoned cropland areas provides a novel basis for assessing the causes leading to abandoned cropland in the ASB. This contributes to assessing the suitability of abandoned cropland for food or bioenergy production, carbon storage, or assessing the environmental trade-offs and social constraints of recultivation.


Abstract The possibility of deoxofluorination of β-keto esters using SF4 was investigated. The scope and limitation of the reaction were determined. The efficient method for the synthesis of β,β-difluorocarboxylic acids was elaborated based on the reaction. The set of mentioned acids, being the perspective building blocks for medicinal chemistry, were synthesized on multigram scale. The safety of SF4 use was discussed. The described method does not improve upon the safety of using SF4, but practical recommendations for working with the reagent are proposed. Despite the hazards of using toxic SF4, a significant increase of efficacy in the synthesis of medicinal-chemistry-relevant building blocks, based on the reaction, in comparison with earlier described approaches is shown.


REQUIRED) The Business Intelligence (BI) landscape has weathered significant change and consolidation in the late 2000's(1-3). This has left fewer stand alone offerings, and greater integration into "stack" technologies led by significant purchases and integrations by IBM, Oracle and SAP(4-6). While these acquisitions have led to stronger emerging BI and Corporate Performance Management (CPM) power houses it has subjected researchers and businesses to a daunting sales force, with limited ability to derive side by side performance comparisons. Start up costs and the differentiation in underlying hardware requirements make the purchase of two or more technologies cost prohibitive, encouraging Universities, medium and small businesses to move away from the research and investment that served as the foundation for many of the original BI vendors. In recognizing this gap and the need for additional research to continue to drive BI adoption and integration, the purpose of this tutorial is to provide a guided hands-on tour of five BI tools with significant market share. This tour will focus on enabling attendees to gain exposure to and a better understanding of the features, benefits and opportunities of best in breed BI tools.


The aim of this study is to compile plants and identify the important species used for the treatment of infantile colic in Moroccan traditional medicine. A field survey was carried out in a period of 2 years (2012–2014) in 6 cities of Morocco. A total of 222 people were interviewed, including 102 mothers with babies under 6 months of age who report using plants for the treatment of infantile colic and 120 herbalists. A semistructured questionnaire was used and the collected data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. A total of 36 plant species distributed in 34 genera belonging to 18 plant families have been identified as being used in the treatment of infantile colic. The species most commonly cited were: Ammodaucus leucotrichus, Lippia citrodora, Carum carvi, Foeniculum vulgare, Pimpinella anisum, Origanum vulgare , Nigella sativa, Lavandula officinalis, Rosmarinus officinalis, Cuminim cyminum, Mentha pulegium, Zygophyllum geatulum, Punica granatum, Illicium verum and Artemisia herba alba. The majority of informants use complex mixtures of plants, rather than a single plant and most of the remedies are prepared in the form of infusion or decoction but the doses of the plants varied widely and some of them are well known to contain toxic compounds. The ethnopharmacological investigation made in this study identified the vegetal species used in different traditional preparations to treat infantile colic in Morocco. Further studies should be undertaken to investigate the effectiveness of these plants and to determine their chemical composition.


We study the distribution of Eddington luminosity ratios, Lbol/LEdd, of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) discovered in the AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey (AGES). We combine Hβ, Mg II, and C IV line widths with continuum luminosities to estimate black hole (BH) masses in 407 AGNs, covering the redshift range z ~ 0.3-4 and the bolometric luminosity range Lbol ~ 1045-1047 ergs s-1. The sample consists of X-ray or mid-infrared (24 μm) point sources with optical magnitude R ≤ 21.5 mag and optical emission-line spectra characteristic of AGNs. For the range of luminosity and redshift probed by AGES, the distribution of estimated Eddington ratios is well described as log-normal, with a peak at Lbol/LEdd ≃ 1/4 and a dispersion of 0.3 dex. Since additional sources of scatter are minimal, this dispersion must account for contributions from the scatter between estimated and true BH mass and the scatter between estimated and true bolometric luminosity. Therefore, we conclude that (1) neither of these sources of error can contribute more than ~0.3 dex rms, and (2) the true Eddington ratios of optically luminous AGNs are even more sharply peaked. Because the mass estimation errors must be smaller than ~0.3 dex, we can also investigate the distribution of Eddington ratios at fixed BH mass. We show for the first time that the distribution of Eddington ratios at fixed BH mass is peaked, and that the dearth of AGNs at a factor of ~10 below Eddington is real and not an artifact of sample selection. These results provide strong evidence that supermassive BHs gain most of their mass while radiating close to the Eddington limit, and they suggest that the fueling rates in luminous AGNs are ultimately determined by BH self-regulation of the accretion flow rather than galactic-scale dynamical disturbances.


This thesis deals with the establishemnt of the rubber plantation Varanasi in the Bousraa village complex, Mondulkiri Province, Cambodia. The land that the project is changing from forest to plantation has been used by the Bunong, an indigenous group practicing swidden agriculture, for generations. The establishment of the plantation has led to protests, sabotage actions, the generation of dierence in the community and the dispossession of villagers, all in the name of "economic development". The central argument is that by applying the moral economy concept to the Bunong, their relationship to land can be seen as complex and "total", while the idea behind the plantation is to tap an untapped set of resources for commodity production - a purely profit-oriented outlook. This leads to the concept of "development" losing all meaning in context of the case: it becomes obvious that a rethinking of what development is and should be is necessary.


ABSTRACT A major problem in second language acquisition (SLA) is the segmentation of fluent speech in the target language, i.e., detecting the boundaries of phonological constituents like words and phrases in the speech stream. To this end, among a variety of cues, people extensively use prosody and statistical regularities. We examined the role of pitch, duration, and transitional probabilities (TPs) between adjacent syllables in the segmentation of a novel language by native speakers of German and compared their responses with the segmentation by the listeners with a phonologically different native language: Italian. We used an artificial language with different prosodic cues marking the boundaries of statistically defined words. In artificial-language learning experiments, we compared how Germans and Italians use prosodic and statistical cues for segmenting continuous speech. We show that native phonology modulates the processing of prosodic cues in novel languages. While native speakers of Italian interpret prosodic cues at both the word and the phrasal level, native speakers of German interpret them exclusively at the phrasal level. Phrasal prosody can facilitate the segmentation of a novel language when prosodic and statistical cues lead to the same segmentation solution. Word-level prosody does not necessarily facilitate segmentation, but it can disrupt it when statistical and prosodic cues lead to different segmentation solutions.


Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, like Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Support Vector Machines (SVM), etc. have become widespread and can achieve high statistical performance. However their accuracy decreases significantly in energy-constrained mobile and embedded systems space, where all computations need to be completed under a tight energy budget. In this work, we present a field of groves (FoG) implementation of random forests (RF) that achieves an accuracy comparable to CNNs and SVMs under tight energy budgets. Evaluation of the FoG shows that at comparable accuracy it consumes ~1.48x, ~24x, ~2.5x, and ~34.7x lower energy per classification compared to conventional RF, SVM_RBF , MLP, and CNN, respectively. FoG is ~6.5x less energy efficient than SVM_LR, but achieves 18% higher accuracy on average across all considered datasets.


Abstract Landau theory has been used to develop expressions for the elastic anomalies that accompany octahedral tilting transitions in perovskites that are associated with the M and R points of the Brillouin zone. The master equation is a 246 Landau potential with saturation terms that provides phenomenological descriptions of transition sequences from a parent cubic structure through tetragonal or rhombohedral intermediates to orthorhombic or monoclinic product structures. Data from the literature have been used to determine values for all the coefficients required to generate a quantitative description of the Pm3̄ m ↔ I4/mcm transition in SrTiO3, which is taken as a model system. Solutions to the Landau expansion have been adapted to include the general influence of hydrostatic pressure and non-hydrostatic stress on transition temperature and the evolution of the order parameter. Critical examination of elastic constant data from the literature reveals inconsistencies between the results of measurements on tetragonal samples using ultrasonic rather than Brillouin scattering methods. An internally consistent data set has, nevertheless, been assembled. Good qualitative agreement was obtained between the general pattern of calculated and observed variations of all the single crystal elastic constants, and semi-quantitative agreement was obtained for C11, C33, C12, and C13. Some inconsistencies remain in relation to the temperature dependence of the square of the soft mode frequencies in the tetragonal phase, which follow the square of the order parameter rather than its inverse susceptibility, but the 246 potential seems to provide a good description of the structural evolution of SrTiO3 over a wide temperature interval up to the cubic-tetragonal transition point.


Religion in law is notoriously hard to define. And yet because religion is legally protected and enshrined in national constitutions and international law as part of the liberal commitment to freedom of religion, courts in various jurisdictions are left with the essential task of determining what religion is for the purpose of protecting it. One way courts have addressed the uneasy relationship between religion and secular law is to abstain from any involvement in the resolution of religious questions. Thus when confronted with accommodation claims from otherwise generally applicable laws or regulations on religious grounds, courts have largely focused instead on the sincerity of the believer as the primary factor of whether to grant the claim. In this paper, I look at three judicial settings: the U.S. Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of Canada and the European Court of Human Rights and consider their respective approaches to sincerity in accommodation claims. I argue that we must go beyond this uncritical embrace of the sincerity requirement, and consider the problems and costs associated with it.


Purpose - This paper seeks to analyse accountability relationships developed since the introduction of reforms requiring nonprofit primary health organisations (PHOs) to discharge holistic accountability. Design/methodology/approach - Case study data were obtained principally through semi-structured interviews with PHOs and their key stakeholders, observation of formal and informal meetings, and primary and secondary documents. Findings - While government strategy requires these PHOs to discharge holistic accountability, prior hierarchical-based practices linger. A major impediment to securing holistic accountability is the failure of the new strategy to define clearly how the funder and provider should share accountability for improving their community's health. The implementation of holistic accountability was retarded when funders' propensity to control outcomes coincided with providers' lack of enthusiasm for embracing a greater range of stakeholders. The history and structure of individual PHOs was a key indicator of whether they discharged hierarchical or holistic accountability. Research limitations/implications - This case study research is context-specific and may have limited applicability to other PHOs or jurisdictions. However, the study shows that when funders and providers build trust rather than depending on control, holistic accountability relationships can be developed. Practical implications - Despite government intention that primary health care relationships will lead to holistic accountability, this will not occur until funders clearly define responsibilities and trust their service providers. Originality/value - There is a paucity of research into government-sponsored holistic accountability relationships with local nonprofit service providers. This research provides a unique contextual analysis of the perspectives of funders, providers and a wide group of stakeholders and the operationalisation of two different styles of accountability.


A brain atlas is necessary for analyzing structure and function in neuroimaging research. Although various annotation volumes (AVs) for the mouse brain have been proposed, it is common in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the mouse brain that regions-of-interest (ROIs) for brain structures (nodes) are created arbitrarily according to each researcher's necessity, leading to inconsistent ROIs among studies. One reason for such a situation is the fact that earlier AVs were fixed, i.e. combination and division of nodes were not implemented. This report presents a pipeline for constructing a flexible annotation atlas (FAA) of the mouse brain by leveraging public resources of the Allen Institute for Brain Science on brain structure, gene expression, and axonal projection. A mere two-step procedure with user-specified, text-based information and Python codes constructs FAA with nodes which can be combined or divided objectively while maintaining anatomical hierarchy of brain structures. Four FAAs with total node count of 4, 101, 866, and 1381 were demonstrated. Unique characteristics of FAA realized analysis of resting-state functional connectivity (FC) across the anatomical hierarchy and among cortical layers, which were thin but large brain structures. FAA can improve the consistency of whole brain ROI definition among laboratories by fulfilling various requests from researchers with its flexibility and reproducibility.


As competition in the 1990s intensified and markets became global, so did the challenges associated with getting a product and service to the right place at the right time at the lowest cost. The ultimate success of SMEs (small and medium enterprises) depends on their management's ability to integrate their intricate network of business relationships when selecting suppliers. The primary objective of this study is to explore the supply selection approaches of SMEs in Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa. The quantitative research method was used. A convenient non-probability sample of 243 SMEs were chosen. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to respondents. The questionnaire was piloted to 10 respondents. Data was analysed with the Statistica 10 computer package using descriptive statistics, frequency distributions, and ranking of variables. Face and content validity were ensured and Cronbach's alpha values confirm the internal reliability of the questionnaire. It was found that SMEs indeed pay some attention to various supplier selection criteria-e.g. quality of products and services, delivery, and time. They buy from multiple suppliers and, to a lesser extent, from local suppliers due to various reasons. The results show that a coordinated approach to supplier selection is required for effective purchasing.


Theories of sight and spectatorship captivated many writers and philosophers of the eighteenth century and, in turn, helped to define both sexual politics and gender identity. Eliza Haywood was thoroughly engaged in the social, philosophical, and political issues of her time, and she wrote prolifically about them, producing over seventy-five works of literature - plays, novels, and pamphlets - during her lifetime. Examining a number of works from this prodigious canon, Juliette Merritt focuses on Haywood's consideration of the myriad issues surrounding sight and seeing and argues that Haywood explored strategies to undermine the conventional male spectator/female spectacle structure of looking. Combining close readings of Haywood's work with twentieth-century debates among feminist and psychoanalytic theorists concerning the visual dynamics of identity and gender formation, Merritt explores insights into how the gaze operates socially, epistemologically, and ontologically in Haywood's writing, ultimately concluding that Haywood's own strategy as an author involved appropriating the spectator position as a means of exercising female power. Beyond Spectacle will cement Haywood's deservedly prominent place in the canon of eighteenth-century fiction and position her as a writer whose work speaks not only to female agency, but to eighteenth-century writers, gender relations, and power politics as well.


The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) is a key component of the CNS stress and reward circuit. Synaptic plasticity in this region could in part underlie the persistent behavioral alterations in generalized anxiety and addiction. Group I metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) have been implicated in stress, addiction, and synaptic plasticity, but their roles in the BNST are unknown. We find that activation of group I mGluRs in the dorsal BNST induces depression of excitatory synaptic transmission through two distinct mechanisms. First, a combined activation of group I mGluRs (mGluR1 and mGluR5) induces a transient depression that is cannabinoid 1 receptor dependent. Second, as with endocannabinoid-independent group I mGluR long-term depression (LTD) in the adult hippocampus, we find that activation of mGluR5 induces an extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)-dependent LTD. Surprisingly, our data demonstrate that this LTD requires the ERK1 rather than ERK2 isoform, establishing a key role for this isoform in the CNS. Finally, we find that this LTD is dramatically reduced after multiple exposures but not a single exposure to cocaine, suggesting a role for this form of plasticity in the actions of psychostimulants on anxiety and reward circuitries and their emergent control of animal behavior.


Recently, Dokos et al. conjectured that for all $k, m\geq 1$, the patterns $ 12\ldots k(k+m+1)\ldots (k+2)(k+1) $ and $(m+1)(m+2)\ldots  (k+m+1)m\ldots 21$ are $maj$-Wilf-equivalent. In this paper, we confirm this conjecture for all $k\geq 1$ and $m=1$. In fact, we construct a descent set preserving bijection between $ 12\ldots k (k-1) $-avoiding permutations and $23\ldots k1$-avoiding permutations for all $k\geq 3$. As a corollary, our bijection enables us to settle a conjecture of  Gowravaram and Jagadeesan concerning the Wilf-equivalence for  permutations with given descent sets.


The paper proposed a new system of spatial structure: steel- concrete composite ribbed shell, and briefly compared the three analysis methods considering the initial imperfections of structures: the random imperfection mode method, the consistent imperfection mode method and the improved random imperfection mode method. By using of the consistent imperfection mode method and nonlinear finite element analysis software ANSYS, we analyzed a composite steel-concrete ribbed shell with the span of 40m and span ratio f/L=1/4, which is simply supported at its surrounding and is subjected to uniform loading along it's whole span. The critical load and instability regions of this shell are presented. The results show that with the increasing of the initial imperfections, the value of critical load decreased from 27% to 36%; the trend of load-displacement curve and the location of structural instability regions remain unchanged, only the shape of instability regions will change. This indicted that the effect of the initial imperfections within composite ribbed shell is far less than its influence to the single-layer shell. The steel-concrete composed ribbed shell is not sensitive to the initial geometric imperfections and shows a strong post-buckling performance.


The epidemic process (EP) of shigellosis morbidity proceeds in cycles. As shown in this study, cyclic curves are the sum of polyharmonic fluctuations, being the axis of EP. The duration of one cycle is 18 years, and its configuration is stably retained for a long time. In Nizhny Novgorod shigellosis morbidity is strongly correlated with air temperature is summer at the peak of cyclic rises and moderately correlated in the years of low morbidity. In some cities of the Russian Federation fluctuations of air temperature have been found of occur synchronously with disturbances of the magnetic field of the earth. The character and stability of EP cycles provide grounds for the prognostication of shigellosis morbidity. The current cycle will end in the year 2000, and then natural preconditions for a new cyclic rise will appear.


The paper presents the results of comprehensive studies of quantitative and functional parameters of cellular immunity in 283 patients with chronic liver diseases, using various rosette tests and monoclonal antibody phenotyping of immunocompetent cells. The pattern of changes in blood immunocompetent cells and immunoglobulins allows prediction of the natural history of chronic active hepatitis and hepatic cirrhosis of viral and alcoholic origin. The data on autorosette-forming and hepatic-specific lipoprotein-sensitive rosette-forming cells were found to be the most informative. As compared to health, there were substantial changes in the subpopulation composition of immunocompetent cells and immunoglobulins in hepatic cirrhosis. The changes in immunoregulatory theophylline-resistant (OKT4+, OKT8+, T mu and T gamma) and theophylline-sensitive E-rosetting, as well as effector (ICO11+ and ICOHM1+) cells were the leading immunopathogenetic link of hepatic cirrhosis. In the latter, the subpopulation composition of immunocompetent cells depended on the activity of a pathological process, the state of compensation, as well as the levels of HBsAg and blood anti-delta-antibodies. The subpopulation analysis of immunocompetent cells enabled the author to outline the specific features of the immune status of etiological types, as well as predictive types of chronic active hepatitis and hepatic cirrhosis, which may serve as evidence for goal-oriented immunomodulating therapy.


In this paper, we propose a conservative low rank tensor method to approximate nonlinear Vlasov solutions. The low rank approach is based on our earlier work (arxiv: 2106.08834). It takes advantage of the fact that the differential operators in the Vlasov equation are tensor friendly, based on which we propose to dynamically and adaptively build up low rank solution basis by adding new basis functions from discretization of the differential equation, and removing basis from a singular value decomposition (SVD)-type truncation procedure. For the discretization, we adopt a high order finite difference spatial discretization together with a second order strong stability preserving multi-step time discretization. While the SVD truncation will remove the redundancy in representing the high dimensional Vlasov solution, it will destroy the conservation properties of the associated full conservative scheme. In this paper, we develop a conservative truncation procedure with conservation of mass, momentum and kinetic energy densities. The conservative truncation is achieved by an orthogonal projection onto a subspace spanned by $1$, $v$ and $v^2$ in the velocity space associated with a weighted inner product. Then the algorithm performs a weighted SVD truncation of the remainder, which involves a scaling, followed by the standard SVD truncation and rescaling back. The algorithm is further developed in high dimensions with hierarchical Tucker tensor decomposition of high dimensional Vlasov solutions, overcoming the curse of dimensionality. An extensive set of nonlinear Vlasov examples are performed to show the effectiveness and conservation property of proposed conservative low rank approach. Comparison is performed against the non-conservative low rank tensor approach on conservation history of mass, momentum and energy.


In the last few years, clinical procedures undergone huge modifications. Among them, mini-invasive surgery has modified the clinical practice and the quality of life of patients. Shape Memory Polymers (SMPs), a class of stimuli-responsive materials, can be considered ideal candidates for the design of devices for mini-invasive surgical procedures. Such a device can be inserted in a packed in, temporary shape and later can expand at body temperature. A bone defect could be filled by a SMP porous structure, that improves the tissue integration and healing. In this work, two different processing techniques to obtain porous shape memory polymer scaffolds from Calo MER™ and MM-4520, two SMPs, are presented. Porous structures were obtained by micro-extrusion with different chemical foaming agents or with sodium chloride, or by solvent casting/particulate leaching. The morphology, the thermo-mechanical and the shape recovery properties of the SMP porous samples were investigated. Tridimensional porous structures showed a well interconnected morphology, with a pore size in the range aimed for bone interaction applications. The shape memory properties were not significantly affected by the transformation processes: a good ability of recovering the original shape was verified. Therefore, the porous structures, obtained from these SMP materials, appear adequate for an use as bone filler.


A copper(II)-based MOF film (MOF-199/Ni) prepared by electrodeposition shows exceptionally high photocatalytic hydrogen production rates of 8000 μmol h−1 g−1 (based on the mass of MOF-199) and 24 400 μmol h−1 g−1 with Pt as the co-catalyst and eosin Y as the photosensitizer. The activity is one of the highest among all the reported MOF-based hydrogen production systems. With nickel foam as a substrate, the deactivation of MOF-199 is largely alleviated, and the MOF-199/Ni film can be easily recycled and reused after photocatalytic hydrogen production.


This paper estimates the relationship between initial village inequality and subsequent household income growth for a large sample of households in rural China. Using a rich longitudinal survey spanning the years 1987-2002, and controlling for an array of household and village characteristics, the paper finds that households located in higher inequality villages experienced significantly lower income growth through the 1990s. However, local inequality's predictive power and effects are significantly diminished by the end of the sample. The paper exploits several advantages of the household-level data to explore hypotheses that shed light on the channels by which inequality affects growth. Biases due to aggregation and heterogeneity of returns to own-resources, previously suggested as candidate explanations for the relationship, are both ruled out. Instead, the evidence points to unobserved village institutions at the time of economic reforms that were associated with household access to higher income activities as the source of the link between inequality and growth. The empirical analysis addresses a number of pertinent econometric issues including measurement error and attrition, but underscores others that are likely to be intractable for all investigations of the inequality-growth relationship.


The research paper examines the eccentricities and neurotic persona of an abnormal female character in Shobha De's Strange Obsession who is strangely obsessed for an attractive young lady Amrita, travelled from Delhi to pursue a career in modelling. Strange Obsession is a tale of a psychosomatic woman named Meenakshi Iyengar (Minx) who had a miserable and troubled childhood, being a single child of an Inspector General of Police and a social worker mother. Because of her imbalanced development in childhood and being a spoilt child of a powerful Police authority, Minx starts extracting pleasure by exploiting people as a compensation for her own anxieties and insecurities. The heights of alternative homosexuality and criminality are skilfully presented through manipulative strategies and merciless behaviour of neurotic Minx. Moreover the paper emphasizes Simone de Beauvoir and Sigmund Freud' theories of lesbianism and fixation to understand the afflicted psyche and the resultant neurosis with an amalgam of the stark realities of higher-strata modelling world and sadistic homosexual tendencies.


Prostanoids are involved in the phenylephrine-induced contraction of the aorta. Here, we examined whether or not constitutive cyclooxygenase-2 (phosholipases C and A2) is the source of prostanoids in the smooth muscle of the arterial wall of the thoracic and abdominal aorta. Both cyclooxygenase isoforms (COX-1 and COX-2) were expressed in the two aortic segments, but their expression was not altered by phenylephrine, the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide, or the phospholipase A2 inhibitors arachidonyl trifluoromethyl ketone and methyl arachidonyl fluorophosponate. Indomethacin and NS398, which are a non-selective and selective COX-2 inhibitor, respectively, but not SC-560, which is a COX-1-selective inhibitor, inhibited the effect of phenylephrine on the abdominal, but not the thoracic, aorta. Similarly, U73122, which is a phospholipase C inhibitor, and RHC80267, which is a diacylglycerol lipase inhibitor, inhibited the effect of phenylephrine. These findings suggest that prostanoids, which are produced by constitutively active COX-2, influence the contractile response of the abdominal aorta and that the production of arachidonic acid relies on phospholipase C and diacylglycerol lipase.


Library Cares is a series of library-sponsored activities and snack breaks designed to help students navigate the sometimes stressful period during exam week. This campaign is supported by the campus and community partners.


Thirty-four patients with nonresectable adenocarcinoma of the rectum, defined as tumor fixation at digital examination, were examined with MR. All 34 patients had, according to MR imaging, perirectal tumor growth. In 23 (68%) of the patients, the tumor has reached an adjacent organ. Eight of these patients had disturbances of the MR characteristics in the adjacent organ which proved to be due to overgrowth, i.e., to tumor invasion into these structures. In the remaining 15 patients, without disturbed MR characteristics, 7 had tumor overgrowth at laparotomy. When there was a visible space between the tumor and adjacent organs, there was no sign of tumor overgrowth at laparotomy, except in one case. In 24 patients, examined both before and after combined irradiation and drug therapy, tumor regression was registered after treatment. MR imaging seems to be useful in the assessment of resectability and to evaluate preoperative anticancer treatment in patients with nonresectable rectal carcinoma.


Process-aware information systems typically log events (e.g., in transaction logs or audit trails) related to the actual execution of business processes. Analysis of these execution logs may reveal important knowledge that can help organizations to improve the quality of their services. Starting from a process model, which can be discovered by conventional process mining algorithms, we analyze how data attributes influence the choices made in the process based on past process executions using decision mining, or decision point analysis. In this paper we describe how the resulting model (including the discovered data dependencies) can be represented as a Colored Petri Net (CPN), and how further perspectives, such as the performance and organizational perspective, can be incorporated. We also present a CPN Tools Export plug-in implemented within the ProM framework. Using this plug-in simulation models in ProM obtained via a combination of various process mining techniques can be exported to CPN Tools. We believe that the combination of automatic discovery of process models using ProM and the simulation capabilities of CPN Tools offers an innovative way to improve business processes. The initially discovered process model describes reality better than most hand-crafted simulation models. Moreover, the simulation models are constructed in such a way that it is easy to explore various redesigns.