The role of voltage-gated Ca(2+) (Ca(V)) channels in pain mechanisms has been the object of intense investigation using pharmacological approaches and, more recently, using mutant mouse models lacking the Ca(V)alpha(l) pore-forming subunit of N-, R- and T-type channels. The role of P/Q-type channels in nociception and pain transmission has been investigated by pharmacological approaches but remains to be fully elucidated. To address this issue, we have analyzed pain-related behavioral responses of null mutant mice for the Ca(V)2.1alpha(1) subunit of P/Q-type channels. Homozygous null mutant Ca(V)2.1alpha(1)-/- mice developed dystonia at 10-12 days after birth and did not survive past weaning. Tested at ages where motor deficit was either absent or very mild, Ca(V)2.1alpha(1)-/- mice showed reduced tail withdrawal latencies in the tail-flick test and reduced abdominal writhes in the acetic acid writhing test. Adult heterozygous Ca(V)2.1alpha(1)+/- mice did not show motor deficits in the rotarod and activity cage tests and did not show alterations in pain responses in the tail-flick test and the acetic acid writhing test. Strikingly, they showed a reduced licking response during the second phase of formalin-induced inflammatory pain and a reduced mechanical allodynia in the chronic constriction injury model of neuropathic pain. Our findings show that P/Q-type channels play an antinociceptive role in sensitivity to non-injurious noxious thermal stimuli and a pronociceptive role in inflammatory and neuropathic pain states, pointing to an important role of Ca(V)2.1 channels in central sensitization.


Prior studies have shown how increasing heterogeneity of commons negatively affects product regulation. This work uses a case-study approach and analyses the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium in Italy. Specifically, we applied a ground-theory approach and interviewed stakeholders at different levels (n=24) in the time frame 2012-2013. While our study confirms prior findings on new-comers' efforts to loose strictness in the code of practice, it also shows how Parmigiano Reggiano members organize themselves in subconsortia to better provide resilience to such strategies. The study discusses implications and strategies valuable both for scholars and for geographical indications managers.


Monetary policies are confronted by short and long term challenges. In the short term, "normalization" of money creation and interest rates, following years of unorthodox policies, puts financial stability at risk in major monetary centres and in EMEs. Longer term challenges extend over the theoretical framework of monetary policies and their institutional settings: a lack of clarity and trust in monetary action weakens its effectiveness and endangers financial stability. This paper argues that global coordination is crucial to face these challenges. It proposes to convene appropriate official meetings to coordinate short term normalization and to start facing long term challenges.


Recently a number of successful freespace chip-to-chip and board-to-board optical interconnects have been demonstrated. Here we present some of the results that can be derived as a result of this work.


The ABR Core Examination stresses integrating physics into real-world clinical practice and, accordingly, has shifted its focus from passive recall of facts to active application of physics principles. Physics education of radiology residents poses a challenge. The traditional method of didactic lectures alone is insufficient, yet it is difficult to incorporate physics teaching consistently into clinical rotations due to time constraints. Faced with this challenge, diagnostic medical physicists who teach radiology residents, have been thinking about how to adapt their teaching to the new paradigm, what to teach and meet expectation of the radiology resident and the radiology residency program. The proposed lecture attempts to discuss above questions. Newly developed diagnostic radiology residents physics curriculum by the AAPM Imaging Physics Curricula Subcommittee will be reviewed. Initial experience on hands-on physics teaching will be discussed. Radiology resident who will have taken the BAR Core Examination will share the expectation of physics teaching from a resident perspective. The lecture will help develop robust educational approaches to prepare radiology residents for safer and more effective lifelong practice.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Learn updated physics requirements for radiology residents 2. Pursue effective approaches to teach physics to radiology residents 3. Learn expectation of physics teaching from resident perspective J. Zhang, This topic is partially supported by RSNA Education Scholar Grant.


Mt. Etna is the highest European Volcano and one of the most active in the world. For this reason the investigation of the deep and shallow feeding system of Mt. Etna, and subsequently of his mantle source could give us some information about the eruptive style thus helping to predict future volcanic events. In this respect the complete evolution of Mt. Etna magmatism was considered performing a detailed sampling from Tholeiitic to Recent Mongibello periods.
Backward mass balance fractionations were used to reconstruct the primary composition of Etnean magmas and get some inferences on the petrological composition of their mantle sources. The Tholeiitic suite did not necessitate a backward reconstruction for the presence of real primary un-fractionated compositions. To reach the most evolved terms is hypothesized the involvement of 27% Ol, 14% Cpx, 29% Opx, 15% Plg and 15% Cr-Sp for a total amount of 53.1% of gabbroic material The least differentiated products for each alkaline period were identified and about 17 to 19% of a solid assemblage made up of Ol (87 to 100%) and Cpx (up to 13%) was added to re-equilibrate the basalts with mantle olivine (Fo87). A further subtraction of an average 23.3% of a solid assemblage constituted by Ol (7-18%), Cpx (26-55%) and Plag (21-48%) is needed to get to the most differentiated erupted lavas.Taking into account the volume of the erupted magmas this modeling can be used to evaluate the quantity of material intruded below the volcano edifice. On average an estimation of about 40% of material should be considered beneath it. Thus if according to Neri and Rossi (1992) the whole volcano edifice amounts to about 370 km3, about 150 km3 of magma should be left behind from the magma on its way from the mantle to the surface.
Calculated major element compositions of the primary magmas are well comparable with those obtained by melt inclusions study, while trace element patterns fit well with those reported in the literature. These compositions are also similar to those found in the Iblean Plateau Although Etnean alkaline lavas appear enriched in K, Rb, Th and U and depleted in Ti, Y and Yb. Thus partial melting models were developed for each Etnean magmatic period, based on a mantle composition similar to that of the nearby Iblean lithosphere. Results indicate two different sources for Tholeiitic and Alkaline suites analogously to the modeling developed by Beccaluva et al. (1998). Tholeiitic magmas can be reproduced by about 17% of an amphibole-bearing peridotite source, while alkaline magmas can be reproduced by melting of about 7% an amphibole-phlogopite-bearing peridotite source. Our result are in agreement with those recently advanced by Correale et al. (2014) indicating a large similarity between Mt. Etna and Mt. Iblei mantle sources.
Neri and Rossi (1992) Quaderni di geofisica – Istituto nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia 20
Beccaluva et al. (1998) J. Petrology 39, 1547-1576.
Correale et al. (2014) Lithos, 184-187: 243-258.


Group size and treatment intensity are understudied topics in mathematics intervention research. This study examined whether the treatment intensity and overall intervention effects of an empirically-validated Tier 2 mathematics intervention varied between intervention groups with 2:1 and 5:1 student-teacher ratios. Student practice opportunities and the quality of explicit instruction served as treatment intensity metrics. A total of 465 kindergarten students with mathematics difficulties from 136 intervention groups participated. Results suggested comparable performances between the 2:1 and 5:1 intervention groups on six outcome measures. Observation data indicated that the intensity of student practice opportunities differed by group size. Students in the 5:1 groups received more opportunities to practice with their peers, while students in the 2:1 groups participated in more frequent and higher quality individualized practice opportunities. Implications in terms of delivering Tier 2 interventions in small-group formats and engaging at-risk learners in meaningful practice opportunities are discussed.


Besides the usually known TSV technologies to etch and fill Si interconnects there is a powerful photo-assisted electrochemical etch technology for fine pitch TSV, which goes hand in hand with a liquid fill metallization. Both together allow the generation of high density wiring on and through thick self-carrying interposers, where other technologies fail. Together with any etching technology the liquid fill technology allows an extremely simple process flow to realize conductor lines inside buried channels. Taking the right material combinations there is very low stress inside the substrate, which allows a high design freedom for larger via or systematic aligned via. Using the fill technology for stacked dies an extremely simple and compact 3D wiring is possible. It is less complex than conventional ones since it does not need any seed layer or additional balls between chips. The fill technology has the potential of complete wiring of multichip systems.


Euro redenomination risk is the risk that a euro asset will be redenominated into a devalued legacy currency. We propose a time-varying, country-specific market perception of intra-euro area redenomination risk measure, defined as the quanto CDS of a member country relative to the quanto CDS of a benchmark member country. Focusing on Italy, Spain and France and using Germany as benchmark, we show that the redenomination risk shocks, defined as the unexplained component of the market perception of redenomination risk orthogonal to exchange rate, global, regional and liquidity risks, significantly affect sovereign yield spreads, with Italy and Spain being the countries most adversely affected, followed by France. Finally, foreign redenomination risk shocks spill over and above local redenomination risk shocks, corroborating the fact that this risk is systemic.


Abstract. Mediterranean oak savannas cover about 4 million ha in California (northwest America) and 3 million ha in Spain and Portugal (southwest Europe), and are ecologically and socio-economically important systems. Here we review literature on the interactions between the two dominant elements of savannas – the oak overstorey, the herbaceous understorey, and the surrounding grassland matrix. We focus on the main ecological factors affecting the oak understorey environment: shade, soil moisture, soil nutrients, and animal-mediated effects. We then review the main features of the herbaceous community in the oak understorey, as compared to the adjacent open grassland, in terms of species composition, biomass, diversity, and soil seed bank. We examine processes associated with oak regeneration and growth, and their relationships with the herbaceous layer and other woody plants cover. Finally, we discuss the complex facilitative and interference interactions that occur in oak-grassland systems and review models proposed to explain the dynamics and coexistence of oak trees and herbaceous plants in savannas.


An estimation of increasing the average volume of sedimentation velocity of fine particles in bidisperse suspension due to their capturing in the circulation zone formed in the laminar flow of incompressible viscous fluid around the spherical coarse particle is proposed. The estimation is important for an explanation of the non-monotonic shape of the separation curve observed for hydrocyclones. The average volume sedimentation velocity is evaluated on the basis of a cellular model. The characteristic dimensions of the circulation zone are obtained on the basis of a numerical solution of Navier-Stokes equations. Furthermore, these calculations are used for modelling the fast sedimentation of fine particles during their co-sedimentation in bidisperse suspension. It was found that the acceleration of sedimentation of fine particles is determined by the concentration of coarse particles in bidisperse suspension, and the sedimentation velocity of fine fraction is proportional to the square of the coarse and fine particle diameter ratio. The limitations of the proposed model are ascertained.


How is conceptual knowledge organized and retrieved by the brain? Recent evidence points to the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) as a crucial semantic hub integrating both abstract and concrete conceptual features according to a dorsal-to-medial gradient. It is however unclear when this conceptual gradient emerges and how semantic information reaches the ATL during conceptual retrieval. Here we used a multiple regression approach to magnetoencephalography signals of spoken words, combined with dimensionality reduction in concrete and abstract semantic feature spaces. Results showed that the dorsal-to-medial abstract-to-concrete ATL gradient emerges only in late stages of word processing: Abstract and concrete semantic information are initially encoded in posterior temporal regions and travel along separate cortical pathways eventually converging in the ATL. The present finding sheds light on the neural dynamics of conceptual processing that shape the organization of knowledge in the anterior temporal lobe.


BACKGROUND & AIMS
Intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) provide a barrier that separates the mucosal immune system from the luminal microbiota. IECs constitutively express low levels of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II proteins, which are upregulated upon exposure interferon gamma. We investigated the effects of deleting MHCII proteins specifically in mice with infectious, dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-, and T cell-induced colitis.

METHODS
We disrupted the histocompatibility 2, class II antigen A, beta 1 gene (H2-Ab1) in IECs of C57BL/6 mice (I-AbΔIEC) or Rag1-/- mice (Rag1-/-I-AbΔIEC); we used I-AbWT mice as controls. Colitis was induced by administration of DSS, transfer of CD4+CD45RBhi T cells, or infection with Citrobacter rodentium. Colon tissues were collected and analyzed by histology, immunofluorescence, xMAP, and reverse-transcription PCR and organoids were generated. Microbiota (total and IgA-coated) in intestinal samples were analyzed by 16S amplicon profiling. IgA+CD138+ plasma cells from Peyers patches and lamina propria were analyzed by flow cytometry and IgA repertoire was determined by next-generation sequencing.

RESULTS
Mice with IEC-specific loss of MHCII (I-AbΔIEC mice) developed less severe DSS- or T-cell transfer-induced colitis than control mice. Intestinal tissues from I-AbΔIEC mice had a lower proportion of IgA-coated bacteria compared with control mice, and a reduced luminal concentration of secretory IgA (SIgA) following infection with C rodentium. There was no significant difference in the mucosal IgA repertoire of I-AbΔIEC vs control mice, but opsonization of cultured C rodentium by SIgA isolated from I-AbΔIEC mice was fifty percent lower than that of SIgA from mAbWT mice. Fifty percent of I-AbΔIEC mice died after infection with C rodentium, compared with none of the control mice. We observed a transient but significant expansion of the pathogen in the feces of I-AbΔIEC mice compared to I-AbWT mice.

CONCLUSIONS
In mice with DSS or T cell-induced colitis, loss of MHCII from IECs reduces but does not eliminate mucosal inflammation. However, in mice with C rodentium-induced colitis, loss of MHCII reduces bacterial clearance by decreasing binding of IgA to commensal and pathogenic bacteria.


Phosphorylation of eukaryotic initiation factor 4G (eIF4G) is hypothesized to be an important contributor to the stimulation of protein synthesis in skeletal muscle following meal feeding. The experiments reported herein examined the potential role for a rapamycin-sensitive signaling pathway in mediating the meal feeding-induced elevations in phosphorylation of eIF4G. Gastrocnemius from male Sprague-Dawley rats trained to consume a meal consisting of rat chow was sampled prior to and following 3 h of having the meal provided in the presence or absence of treatment with rapamycin, an inhibitor of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) complex 1 (TORC1). Pretreatment with rapamycin prevented the feeding-induced phosphorylation of mTOR, eIF4G, and S6K1 but only partially attenuated the shift in 4E-BP1 into the gamma-form. In contrast, the feeding-induced increase in phosphorylation of PKCepsilon was not reduced by rapamycin. Rapamycin also prevented the augmented association of eIF4G with eIF4E and the decreased association of eIF4E with 4E-BP1. Similar findings were observed in gastrocnemius from animals after oral administration of leucine. Perfusion of gastrocnemius with medium containing rapamycin partially prevented the leucine-induced increase in phosphorylation of eIF4G. Thus, rapamycin attenuated a feeding- or leucine-induced phosphorylation of eIF4G in skeletal muscle both in vivo and in situ. The latter observation implies that the effects observed with rapamycin were the result of modulation of skeletal muscle signaling mechanisms responsible for eIF4G phosphorylation.


Using a multi–methods approach, we examine socioeconomic and demographic change in Buffalo, New York's, West Side neighborhood. We do this by performing a systematic case study of the neighborhood analyzing census tract data, crime data, key informant interview data from community leaders and organizational representatives, and content analysis data from local newspaper articles. Results suggest that although the neighborhood has shifted dramatically over the last forty–five years, the changes have been uneven across the West Side. Two divergent areas have emerged: one neighborhood fueled by white gentrifiers and another driven by international migrants.


This paper discusses the concepts and structure behing FILCET, a field for interactive learning on the climate-energy transition, designed to improve awarness on the climate-energy crisis (CEC) macro-problem, and communicate the structure and dynamic complexity of key policies available to face this transition. This work present FILCET's basic concepts and their application to the communication and collective learning on the energy transition, and its potential use in understanding the interrelationships existing between climate change, energy policies and innovation strategies in the pursue of sustainable development. This paper describes FILCET, its learning targets, the overall structure and mechanism and the elements of the policy game dimensions and the system dynamics model supporting it, which focuses on the dynamic complexity of CO2 abatement policies for a power market, such as cap and trade. We include comments and observations drawn from the preliminary testing, reflexions on its potential use as a communication tool for sensitizing policy makers, educators, and energy innovation networks.


A better understanding of friction modeling is really important for producing more realistic finite element models of machining processes. This paper presents a methodology to determine the friction at the tool-chip interface. By matching the measured values of the cutting forces with the predicted results from finite element simulations (FEM), a revised friction model on the tool-chip interface is developed. Reasonable distribution of the stress, strain and strain-rate, as well as the temperature fields at the tool-chip interface could be achieved by using this approach. An attempt is made by FEM to obtain a full understanding of relationships between the complex physical behavior and friction at the tool-chip interface. It is found that the sticking-sliding separated area is located at the points with the greatest temperature. And the corresponding relationship between cutting parameters and sticking-sliding friction separated area is found.


To determine the effect of dietary fish oil supplementation on myocardial dysfunction following ischemia-reperfusion, independent of plasma and blood cells, Sprague-Dawley rats were fed fish oil-rich nonpurified diet or butter-enriched diet for 5 d. Myocardial content of long-chain and (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids was greater in the fish oil-fed rats (P < 0.01), whereas (n-6) fatty acid content was lower compared with controls (P < 0.01). Platelet aggregation in fish oil-fed rats was also inhibited. Hearts from all rats were subjected to 15 min of global ischemia and 10 min of reperfusion. In hearts of control rats, ischemia-reperfusion resulted in a marked decrease in force of cardiac contraction, increase in coronary perfusion pressure, appearance of ventricular arrhythmias and release of creatine kinase and thromboxane B2 in the coronary effluent. Dietary fish oil supplementation attenuated myocardial dysfunction induced by ischemia-reperfusion, as indicated by smaller change in force of cardiac contraction (-77% vs. -89%, P < 0.05) and coronary perfusion pressure (+37% vs. +71%, P < 0.001). Concomitantly, release of creatine kinase as well as thromboxane B2 in coronary effluent was lower (P < 0.01). Ventricular arrhythmias occurred less frequently in hearts from fish oil-fed rats. Thus, short-term dietary fish oil supplementation attenuates myocardial dysfunction caused by ischemia-reperfusion by a direct effect on the heart independent of blood and plasma components.


A parametric model was fitted to force curve data gained by a non-invasive impression method that measures force and fluid translocation during mechanical compression of the skin. The ability of the model parameters to estimate high- and low-viscosity fluid flow in compressed areas were evaluated in a silicone rubber model and in six patients with chronic pitting oedema. Different softnesses of silicone rubber gave significantly different parameter values. The flow properties of the silicone model could be analysed in detail with the suggested model. Parameter analysis showed a higher fraction of low-viscosity fluid for oedema than for reference sites. The model parameters could be interpreted in softness value according to an international standard for consistency (ISO 2137). The suggested parametric model gave reliable and detailed information about high- and low-viscosity fluid flow and can be used to estimate intercompartmental fluid shifts in oedematous tissue.


Abstract:This essay argues that the anticolonial efforts of Martinican intellectuals like Aimé Césaire and Frantz Fanon often established a strict dichotomy between a violated, abject, and feminized Martinique and a masculine and authoritative France. In this way, they reify and perpetuate a tradition of colonial literature that establishes Martinican women of color, like the island itself, as both sexually available to the colonizer and resigned to exploitation and abandonment. Through an analysis of two French West Indian women writers—Mayotte Capécia and Suzanne Césaire, both writing during the Vichy occupation of Martinique in the 1940s—the essay suggests that the seemingly monolithic trope of the sexually inviting Martinican woman contains a loophole that could lead to its own dismantling. More specifically, I argue that the element of the supernatural that is often imbedded in the colonial lore of female shapeshifters and sorceresses provides a counterreading to the beautiful and subservient woman of color of colonial fantasies. By situating West Indian femininity in a genealogy of supernatural camouflage, subterfuge, and transformation, Capécia and Césaire undermine misogynist colonial fantasies by revealing teeth, fangs, and venomous hearts beneath the seemingly obliging flesh of the Martinican woman of color.


This paper aims to analyze the economic impacts of UN sanctions on North Korea's banned luxury goods imports. The analysis is based on applying Difference-in-Differences Methods to the gravity model. The results show that North Korea's luxury goods import patterns reflect the aforesaid model. The result of Difference-in-Differences shows that UN Resolutions 1695 and 1718 were ineffective in decreasing North Korea's luxury goods imports. This paper also found that four countries, primarily China, accounted for 91.4% of North Korea's luxury goods imports in 2007, and the share of North Korea's luxury goods accounted for about 5.3% of North Korea's overall imports.


We investigate in a horizontal product differentiation model with North-South trade the implications of a home bias in consumers' demand for labelled goods. We compare mutual recognition and international harmonisation of ecological labels with respect to firms' profits and welfare. Northern consumers perceive a warm glow from buying green, but have information problems with imported labelled products. Firms differ in labelling costs which could help a Southern firm to compensate for the home bias under mutual recognition. Under harmonisation the home bias disappears. Welfare analysis of harmonised labelling shows that a Southern firm gains from adopting a harmonised label - even if there is "eco-imperialism". Given the specific trade structure in our model, harmonisation is a beneficial regime except for the case that labelling costs reach a specific treshold.


Modern agriculture and farmers have been benefiting from the broad possibilities that wireless sensor networks and Internet of Things, in general, can bring to this primary sector and associated businesses. This new approach, also known as precision farming, exploits multiple high-end technologies, typically centered on environmental data sensing of diverse nature, e.g., temperature, humidity, moisture and COx, which can provide valuable indicators regarding the conditions where crops and livestock are produced. For that purpose, the respective sensors can be deployed in specific places in a farm, remaining static, or they can be placed on board of vehicles, such as tractors and unmanned aerial vehicles. Such sensors can also be integrated into wearable devices that are put on livestock individuals to track their positions, behavior and physiological aspects. Furthermore, this advanced technology-based approach to farming includes the respective data processing and analytics, in many cases employing machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques and algorithms, namely to provide the farmer with appropriate and reliable decision support systems. The work presented here focus specifically on a mobile application, which allows to collect inputs from users at the field and includes such human assessments in the automated loop of the sensing data flow in a precision farming system. The developed solution enables new functionalities on such systems, namely towards data auditing and labelling, that can be initiated directly from the field, which is where the sensors are and the respective sensing conditions can be assessed by the mobile app user.


In this work, a tube with internal helical fins is analyzed and optimized from an entropy generation point of view. Helical fins, in addition to providing heat transfer enhancements, have the potential to level the temperature of the tube under non-uniform circumferential heating. The geometric parameters of helical fins are optimized under two different entropy-based formulations. Specifically, this work focuses on comparing the optimal design solution obtained through the minimization of total entropy and through the multiobjective optimization of the thermal and viscous entropy contributions when considered as two separate objectives. The latter quantities being associated with heat transfer and pressure drops, it is shown that, from a design optimization point of view, it is important to separate both entropies which are conflicting objectives.


Downregulation of Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling inhibits cell migration in diverse model systems. In Drosophila pupal development, attenuated JNK signaling in the thoracic dorsal epithelium leads to defective midline closure, resulting in cleft thorax. ABSTRACT Downregulation of Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling inhibits cell migration in diverse model systems. In Drosophila pupal development, attenuated JNK signaling in the thoracic dorsal epithelium leads to defective midline closure, resulting in cleft thorax. Here we report that concomitant expression of the Ciona intestinalis alternative oxidase (AOX) was able to compensate for JNK pathway downregulation, substantially correcting the cleft thorax phenotype. AOX expression also promoted wound-healing behavior and single-cell migration in immortalized mouse embryonic fibroblasts (iMEFs), counteracting the effect of JNK pathway inhibition. However, AOX was not able to rescue developmental phenotypes resulting from knockdown of the AP-1 transcription factor, the canonical target of JNK, nor its targets and had no effect on AP-1-dependent transcription. The migration of AOX-expressing iMEFs in the wound-healing assay was differentially stimulated by antimycin A, which redirects respiratory electron flow through AOX, altering the balance between mitochondrial ATP and heat production. Since other treatments affecting mitochondrial ATP did not stimulate wound healing, we propose increased mitochondrial heat production as the most likely primary mechanism of action of AOX in promoting cell migration in these various contexts.


This study prospectively documents the incidence of penile inflammation in a consecutive sample of boys according to circumcision status whose visit with the physician included a genital examination in a private primary care pediatric practice in rural northern Wisconsin. Penile inflammation was more common in circumcised than noncircumcised boys, especially in the first 3 years of life (exact odds ratio, 8.01, 95% confidence interval, 31-329.15). When adjusted for the number of genital examinations and age younger than 3 years, exact logistic regression found an adjusted exact odds ratio of 7.91 (95% confidence interval, 1.76-77.66). The study found that rather than protecting against penile inflammation, neonatal circumcision increases the risk of penile inflammation, particularly in boys younger than 3 years old.


While Hadoop is the de facto standard big-data middleware, many frameworks have been developed on top of it. Since many SQL-on-Hadoop systems are available, we often consider which engine is best for our queries. We can choose not only query engines but also Java virtual machines (JVMs) as well. As their systems become more complex, however, it is not always true that a single system performs best at any time. Moreover, the performance of a mismatched system may degrade greatly. To exploit the best performance, it is important to know what type of queries are suitable for a system and then to schedule queries for the appropriate system. In this paper, we evaluated the TPC-DS benchmark on a combination of query engines (Spark and Tez) and JVMs (J9 and OpenJDK). We found that using different engines lead to a drawback of over 10 times and that using different JVMs leads to a drawback of 3 times. We also analyzed the characteristics of each combination and then proposed classification models for selecting the best combination of systems with a generated query plan. As a result, we achieved a performance improvement of up to two times in total with the classifier.


As society has moved past the initial phase of the COVID-19 crisis that relied on broad-spectrum shutdowns as a stopgap method, industries and institutions have faced the daunting question of how to return to a stabilized state of activities and more fully reopen the economy. A core problem is how to return people to their workplaces and educational institutions in a manner that is safe, ethical, grounded in science, and takes into account the unique factors and needs of each organization and community. In this paper, we introduce an epidemiological model (the "Community-Workplace" model) that accounts for SARS-CoV-2 transmission within the workplace, within the surrounding community, and between them. We use this multi-group deterministic compartmental model to consider various testing strategies that, together with symptom screening, exposure tracking, and nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPI) such as mask wearing and social distancing, aim to reduce disease spread in the workplace. Our framework is designed to be adaptable to a variety of specific workplace environments to support planning efforts as reopenings continue. Using this model, we consider a number of case studies, including an office workplace, a factory floor, and a university campus. Analysis of these cases illustrates that continuous testing can help a workplace avoid an outbreak by reducing undetected infectiousness even in high-contact environments. We find that a university setting, where individuals spend more time on campus and have a higher contact load, requires more testing to remain safe, compared to a factory or office setting. Under the modeling assumptions, we find that maintaining a prevalence below 3% can be achieved in an office setting by testing its workforce every two weeks, whereas achieving this same goal for a university could require as much as fourfold more testing (i.e., testing the entire campus population twice a week). Our model also simulates the dynamics of reduced spread that result from the introduction of mitigation measures when test results reveal the early stages of a workplace outbreak. We use this to show that a vigilant university that has the ability to quickly react to outbreaks can be justified in implementing testing at the same rate as a lower-risk office workplace. Finally, we quantify the devastating impact that an outbreak in a small-town college could have on the surrounding community, which supports the notion that communities can be better protected by supporting their local places of business in preventing onsite spread of disease.


Evidence of severe torture in Zimbabwe, which is experiencing unrest in the weeks leading up to the country's presidential election in March, has been uncovered by a human rights organisation.

A delegation from Physicians for Human Rights, Denmark, which visited Zimbabwe last month, has reported finding "a series of persons who gave consistent and similar accounts of exposure to torture." Members interviewed 14 people, of whom four were classified as torture victims, while another four gave accounts of ill treatment, one of whom was a sitting MP. The four torture victims had physical wounds consistent with the accounts of their treatment.

The group, which has published its report on a website sponsored by the Zimbabwe Democracy Trust, says it is "very concerned about the politicisation of health care and the harassment of human rights organisations offering treatment to victims of political violence."

Dr Hans Draminsky Petersen, who led the delegation, told the BMJ , "In medical literature acute lesions that beyond any reasonable doubt indicate torture are very rarely described in a series of victims. We think the medical profession should be aware …


In 2002, large riparian parts of the river Kamp in Lower Austria were affected by a flood which eradicated almost all vegetation at the riverside. From 2003 to 2012 the authors documented early stages of succession at five specific sites with characteristic vertical and horizontal distances to the river. Phytosociological releves were performed. Ecological indicator values, life traits, diversity indices (species number, evenness) and Sorensen index were used to describe the development within this period. The results demonstrate that, after five years, succession had usually reached a stage where highly competitive species like Phalaris arundinacea or Alnus glutinosa dominate. The first year after the flood annuals, lots of them common ruderals, dominated. The second year a change to biennial species took place. This transition was paralleled by a numeral maximum of species in the second year. Differences were only evident at a site where vegetation had not been completely eradicated by the flood. At this site a rudimentary stage of annuals was directly followed by an increase of Phalaris arundinacea that had been formerly present as well. Succession dynamics were stronger where conditions did not favor competitive species, which led to higher evenness values. Evenness values decreased, whenever Phalaris or Alnus achieved the dominance. As a matter of fact, these vegetation types showed a minimum in biodiversity. Maxima of evenness were found in vegetation with a high percentage of ruderals and short- living species.


BACKGROUND
Some guidelines encourage mothers to see and hold their babies after stillbirth, which might be traumatizing. The study objective was to investigate the effects of women seeing and holding their stillborn baby on the risk of anxiety and depression in a subsequent pregnancy and in the long term.

METHODS
Thirty-seven organizations recruited women who had experienced stillbirth (N = 2,292 of whom 286 reported being pregnant). Anxiety and depressive symptoms were assessed by using the 25-item Hopkins Symptom Check List.

RESULTS
Among nonpregnant women, seeing and holding their stillborn baby were associated with lower anxiety symptoms (OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.49-0.95) and a tendency toward fewer symptoms of depression (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.51-1.02), compared with pregnant women. Participants who were pregnant also had less depressive symptomatology (OR 0.57, 95% CI 0.43-0.75), but more symptoms of anxiety if they had seen and held their baby (OR 3.79, 95% CI 1.42-10.1).

CONCLUSIONS
Seeing and holding the baby are associated with fewer anxiety and depressive symptoms among mothers of stillborn babies than not doing so, although this beneficial effect may be temporarily reversed during a subsequent pregnancy.


The magnetic properties of soft magnetic materials are based on dynamic behavior of magnetic domain walls. Many domain structure studies have contributed to the progress of magnetic materials. In this paper, the present state of new development in advanced grain-oriented silicon steel is introduced through the aid of dynamic domain observation of real materials with forsterite film. The basic magnetic phenomena of material, such as the dynamic behavior of surface closure domains, domain wall pinning, and domain structure under rotating magnetization, are explained mainly through the observation of static and dynamic domain wall movements under a high-voltage scanning electron microscope. A few techniques for manufacturing the latest grain-oriented silicon steel, such as improvement in alignment with (110) [001] orientation, increase in the number of mobile domain walls, and relaxation of domain wall pinning, are also described through the observation of dynamic domain patterns. Examples of core losses are given for ideal grain-oriented silicon steel as industrial material, and future developments are predicted.


Purpose - – The real estate markets in Asia have attracted significant investor attention as they have grown rapidly in recent years. Both local and foreign investors continue to display a strong appetite for Asian real estate investment projects. Given the different characteristics of listed real estate stocks, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the causal relations between the financial variables of these stocks. This financial analysis can help investors to understand the characteristics of listed real estate companies, provide implications for optimal asset allocation decisions, and also increase the predictability of portfolio returns. Design/methodology/approach - – In this research, the paper investigates the contemporaneous and causal relations between stock returns, trading volume and volatility in a domestic market context and between different national markets for listed real estate companies in seven Asian economies. Findings - – The paper finds that there are positive contemporaneous relations between trading volume and both returns and absolute returns. When the paper examines the causal relations between the financial variables, the evidence implies that current trading volume helps to explain the returns indirectly by leading return volatility; however, trading volume does not help to explain future returns directly. Extending the causality test to international markets, the listed real estate portfolios of the four Southeast Asian countries are found to be more closely correlated than those of the other three countries studied here. Among the four Southeast Asian countries, Singapore, the only developed country, is found to play an influential role, its current financial variables having predictive power for the other countries. Originality/value - – This research provides global investors with a better understanding of the Asian listed real estate market, showing that trading volume contains important information regarding returns, that the characteristics of listed real estate companies are closer to those of the financial market than those of the real estate markets, and that the markets of the major economies have extensive influence over the smaller markets. Moreover, given the scarcity of research on the performance of Asian listed real estate companies themselves, this study improves the completeness of the academic literature.


In opportunistic routing protocol focus on the reliability of sending data packets from source to destination using different methods. Mobility forms an adequate challenge in networks. Generally routing protocols travel along trustworthy path and so problem may be created. A relay form of applicant set is selected for sending information. On each communication the hop which satisfies the selected criteria on receiving the packet will promote the data from source to destination. So we propose an efficient power, speed and link stability protocols that use the property of the location based routing and transmit wireless media. Selecting hops forms basic criteria for sending the data the proposed method will consume more energy and accommodating more hosts. We finally give common approach for accepting the nodes to select a path to destination.


Severe cold rolling and short intercritcal annealing is often used to produce ultra-fine grained ferrite and martensite dual phase steels. In this paper, microstructure and texture of Nb-microalloyed steel following cold rolling and short intercritical annealing is investigated. The results show that cold rolling and annealing resulted in ultra-fine grained dual phase steel consisted of polygonal ferrite in the range of ~1-2 μm in size. In cold rolled material, the texture components are γ fiber (//normal direction) and α fiber (//rolling direction). Partial recrystallization texture was observed following intercritical annealing.


A novel hierarchical multimode molecular stress function (HMMSF) model for linear polymer melts is proposed, which implements the basic ideas of (i) hierarchical relaxation, (ii) dynamic dilution, and (iii) interchain tube pressure. The capability of this approach is demonstrated in modeling the extensional viscosity data of monodisperse, bidisperse, and polydisperse linear polymer melts. Predictions of the HMMSF model, which are solely based on the linear-viscoelastic relaxation modulus and a single free model parameter, the segmental equilibration time, are compared to elongational viscosity data of monodisperse polystyrene melts and solutions as well as to the elongational viscosity data of a bidisperse blend of two monodisperse polystyrenes, and good agreement between model and experimental data is observed. By using a simplified relation between the Rouse stretch-relaxation times and the relaxation times of the melts, the modeling is extended to the uniaxial, equibiaxial, and planar extensional viscosity data of a high-density polyethylene, the uniaxial and equibiaxial extensional viscosity data of a polydisperse polystyrene, the elongational viscosity data of three high-density polyethylenes, and a linear low-density polyethylene. For polydisperse melts, the modeling is again based exclusively on the linear-viscoelastic relaxation modulus with only one material parameter, the dilution modulus, which quantifies the onset of dynamic dilution.


This paper discusses the applying of Multi-layer perceptrons for signature verification and recognition using a new approach enables the user to recognize whether a signature is original or a fraud. The approach starts by scanning images into the computer, then modifying their quality through image enhancement and noise reduction, followed by feature extraction and neural network training, and finally verifies the authenticity of the signature. The paper discusses the different stages of the process including: image pre-processing, feature extraction and pattern recognition through neural networks.


The costimulatory molecule OX40 (CD134) is required in many instances for effective T cell-mediated immunity, controlling proliferation, and survival of T cells after encountering specific Ag. We previously found that the functional targets of OX40 are survivin and aurora B that regulate proliferation and Bcl-2 antiapoptotic family members that regulate survival. However, the intracellular pathways from OX40 that mediate these effects are unclear. In this study, we show that OX40 signaling can target the canonical NF-κB (NF-κB1) pathway in peripheral Ag-responding CD4 T cells. Phosphorylation of IκBα, nuclear translocation of NF-κB1/p50 and RelA, and NF-κB1 activity, are impaired in OX40-deficient T cells. Retroviral transduction of active IκB kinase that constitutively activates NF-κB1 rescues the poor expansion and survival of OX40-deficient T cells, directly correlating with increased expression and activity of survivin, aurora B, and Bcl-2 family members. Moreover, active IκB kinase expression alone is sufficient to restore the defective expansion and survival of OX40-deficient T cells in vivo when responding to Ag. Thus, OX40 signals regulate T cell number and viability through the NF-κB1 pathway that controls expression and activity of intracellular targets for proliferation and survival.


The endosymbiotic bacteria Wolbachia pipientis (wMel strain) has been successfully established in several populations of Aedes aegypti, the primary dengue vector. The virulent Wolbachia strain wMelPop is known to cause several pathological impacts (increased egg mortality, life shortening, etc.) reducing overall fitness in the mosquito Ae. aegypti. Increased egg mortality could substantially reduce egg banks in areas with a lengthy monsoonal dry season, and be employed to eliminate local populations. We tested this application under semi-field cage conditions. First, we determined that wMelPop infection significantly reduced the survival of desiccation-resistant eggs of the dengue vector Ae. aegypti, with shade and temperature having a significant impact; nearly all wMelPop-infected eggs failed to hatch after 6 and 10 weeks in summer and winter conditions, respectively. In laboratory selection experiments we found that egg desiccation resistance can be increased by selection, and that this effect of wMelPop infection is due to the nuclear background of the host rather than Wolbachia. We then conducted an invasion of wMelPop within a semi-field cage using sustained weekly releases of wMelPop infected mosquitoes, with fixation achieved after 9 weeks. The egg populations wMelPop infected and an uninfected control were then subjected to a simulated prolonged monsoonal dry season (2.5 months) before flooding to induce hatching. The wMelPop infected eggs suffered significantly greater mortality than the controls, with only 0.67% and 4.35% of respective infected and uninfected eggs held in 99% shade hatching after 80 days. These studies suggest that wMelPop could be used to locally eliminate populations of Ae. aegypti that are exposed to prolonged dry conditions, particularly if combined with vector control.


In the recent years, ships have experienced an unprecedented growth in complexity prompted by automation, embedded software and increasingly stringent regulation and customer expectations. Systems Engineering approaches have been designed by industries like aerospace or automotive that were facing similar challenges. Shipyards and academic partners initiated the HOLISHIP project in 2016 to develop integrated methods and tools dedicated to ship design. The constraint is to devise approaches that can be implemented in existing shipyards quickly and at limited costs – including limited training costs for experimented ship designers. This paper describes an attempt, based on SysML, to bridge the gap between established systems engineering methods and naval architecture standards. SysML is used as a starting point and then adapted to fit the needs of the shipbuilding industry. The resulting systems engineering approach focuses on the physical description of the ship system. It combines system architecture diagrams that are a cross between traditional Product Breakdown Structures and SysML Internal Block Diagrams; standard SysML State Machines; and "operational scenarios" that are used to make a link between these diagrams. The bottom-line concepts of systems engineering are preserved yet the extremely reduced semantics render the approach easy to learn for ship designers, making it a promising step towards Systems Engineering tools and methods for ship design. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement n° 689074.


The study aims to help teachers develop a supplementary curriculum for kindergarten children in the Philippines who were affected by the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) period brought by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The curriculum focuses on helping children make use of their time at home to experience meaningful learning with their family while understanding what is happening around them and why they need to follow a lot of rules individually, as a family, and as a community. The curriculum proposes the use of home-based learning anchored on Filipino cultural values of strong family relationship and on the philosophy of holistic learning.


In reply: Drs. Boersma and Eefsting are correct in stating that clinical diagnosis was made at an undefined moment during the course of the disease in our study of 100 autopsyconfirmed Alzheimer's disease patients.' The insidious onset of this disease is but one reason for the observed differences in the time from symptom onset to clinical diagnosis among the patients in this cohort. Other reasons include varying caregiver thresholds for seeking medical help and the wide range of primary care physicians and specialists contacted by this cohort and their caregivers. It is noteworthy that, in most instances, the caregiver was a spouse or child living with the patient. Drs. Boersma and Eefsting believe the gender differences reported in our study for age at diagnosis are most likely attributable to social, i.e., marital, status rather than to pathological factors. We agree that marital status does indeed contribute to the explanation for these observed differences. Information pertaining to the patients' marital status at the time of clinical diagnosis was collected. This data was available for 91 % of the sample and is shown in Table 1, stratified by gender,


Let  be a non-zero right module over a ring  with identity. The weakly second submodules is studied in this paper. A non-zero submodule  of   is weakly second Submodule when  ,  where ,  and  is a submodule of  implies either  or   . Some connections between these modules and other related modules are investigated and number of conclusions  and characterizations are gained.


Adhesion characteristics of base-coated single crystal brackets for orthodontics were investigated to evaluate the feasibility for the ceramic bracket applications. Sapphire single crystal ingot were machined, abraded and spray-coated with slurries containing 50 wt% of flux and 40µm, 80µm and 150µm of granules. Maximum adhesion to the base surface of the brackets was observed when the size of granule in the slurries was 80µm. It may be due to higher bonding area of adhesive to granule and to base as a result of interlocking structure which has moderate thickness and uniform distribution of granules. The one-way analysis of variance indicated that there were not significant differences in bond strength measurements between the once and twice coating condition in 80µm and 150µm granule groups. But ARI values exhibited large differences between once and twice coating groups and showed different median or ranges. Adhesive remnant of adhesive resin was minimized when the slurry of 80µm granule was coated once. Reduction in adhesive remnant is likely due to the higher bonding of adhesive resin to granules. No teeth and bracket damages were found in any teeth de-bonded by shear force. The base-coated brackets with higher strength (12.9 MPa) and no adhesive remnant were newly proposed for the orthodontics applications.


With rising energy prices and an increased focus on environmental issues, this paper attempts to answer the question of whether solar domestic hot water (SDHW) technology can be an economically viable investment over a twenty year period for the average residential homeowner in Ottawa, Ontario by modelling different payback levels that occur through fuel savings for natural gas and electricity. Natural gas is the primary energy source for hot water heating but is not available in all jurisdictions, particularly rural areas.

Average and high consumption hot water energy demand was determined by analyzing hourly consumption data from eight sites in Ottawa for a period of between twelve and eighteen months. Three energy price forecasts were used with performance and energy savings from a typical SDHW system completed by RETScreen software. Modelling included: A) a baseline condition; B) a carbon tax; C) an increase in the harmonized sales tax (HST); and D) a combination of both. Scenarios B), C), and D) are assumed to reduce demand assuming a price elasticity of demand for electricity of -0.3 and -0.35 for natural gas.

In the absence of government incentives, all natural gas scenarios resulted in poor economic returns due mainly to the low price of natural gas relative to capital. Based on current and projected electricity prices, only the BAU policy scenario, assuming no adjustment in consumption due to rising prices resulted in the SDHW system being economically viable without incentives. Greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement costs are estimated at between $15 and $20 per tonne CO2, per year and $27 to $30 per tonne CO2 per year for natural gas and electricity, respectively and is comparable to current international prices under emissions trading.


Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems for structural parts of freight wagons are subject to special conditions. An important task of those systems is to detect damage to the leaf springs of the wagons. In such a case, the damaged wagons must be removed from the train and repaired at the next opportunity. However, the framework conditions for such SHM systems for wagon suspensions are a challenge in some other respects: on the one hand, the commercial framework is very tight which prohibits the use of expensive technology. The hardware required for each wheelset must not only guarantee the operation of the SHM algorithms, but also the following functions: data storage, communication with the other wheelsets and a control center somewhere on the rail network, data management and system control and power supply. All tasks have to be performed under extreme environmental conditions like rain, snow, ice, heat, shock loads, dust, etc. Because of these requirements slim and robust SHM algorithms have to be developed. Based on these requirements, the proposed paper deals with the damage detection at the suspension of a railway freight wagon and firstly reveal, that the measured accelerations changes with the damage in a characteristic way. The authors show that the damage of the suspension is accompanied by a reduction in spring energy in the measured signals and a shift of the higher vibration modes. In this context, the paper has no pretense to develop new methodologies for damage identification but the simple findings from the experimental tests can be useful for the design of SHM systems for railway vehicles. At the end, a simple SHM approach for a low number of sensors with practically positions at the wagon is proposed.


This thesis contributes new and unique evidence to the limited body of empirical literature on men's stranger intrusion in public space, commonly termed 'street harassment', through a transdisciplinary study bringing a philosophical framework to the study of violence against women and girls (VAWG). Analysis of 50 women's accounts given during a three stage research process is presented, alongside the development of a theoretical framework combining feminist approaches to VAWG with the gendered existential-phenomenology of Simone de Beauvoir and insights on habitual embodiments from Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Using this theoretical framework the empirical evidence is investigated for what it reveals about modalities of embodied subjectivity women enact in public spaces.

The research had four central aims and it is the achievement of these aims that forms the unique contribution of this thesis. Firstly it develops the reciprocal practice of translating philosophy into the vernacular of women's experiences of VAWG, finding that a philosophical perspective assists a feminist reframing of medical/legal models of VAWG. Secondly it explores reconnecting feminist research on VAWG to women's ordinary experience of men's intrusion, revealing how the necessary focus on policy has led to a steep rise in knowledge about some forms of VAWG to the detriment of investigating men's violence and intrusion in women's everyday lives. The third aim, to understand the consequences of men's intrusion for how women live and experience their bodily-self, resulted in a theoretical framework which suggests possibilities in the work of Simone de Beauvoir for feminists looking to reconnect questions of women's agency and autonomy to a context of structural power relations. Finally this research produced a new body of evidence regarding the practice and experience of men's stranger intrusion in public spaces, through a research process which created new tools for researching the ordinary. In the pursuit of these four aims this research found that, far from the trivialisation it is often afforded, the possibility and reality of men's intrusion forms a fundamental factor in how women understand and enact their embodied selfhood.


The construction of urban landscape sports culture is not only a necessary complementarity to the research field of current cultural construction, but also offers a new field for the cultural development and construction. Based on the national fitness campaign, the construction of urban landscape reflects the principle of human centralization. By methods of literature, case analysis, it probes into the construction of urban landscape sports culture, and integrates urban landscape and sports items in order to seek for a condition that sports, environment and human beings may be kept in harmony, thus, to provide reference and basis for urban management, planning, construction and the development of sports culture. Previous studies focuses on the relationship between urban landscape construction and sports development in theory; With the combination of theory and practice, the paper carries out an in-depth, systematical, overall investigation and analysis on the current situation of sports fields, in order to construct a new mode of city landscape environment and mass sports based on empirical study.


For teachers, the early years in the profession are critical for developing the knowledge and skills of an expert teacher. The 'Teachers of Promise' study examines the experiences of 57 registered teachers who began their employment in New Zealand primary and secondary schools in 2003. The purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which schools employing these teachers are able to enhance the professional learning of their newest members. The article explores the relationship between new teachers and professional learning. Vignettes drawn from the everyday experiences of five teachers new to the profession point to conditions that appear to sustain and/or frustrate teachers in the early years of their teaching careers. The vignettes suggest that the dream of positioning schools as learning communities for students and teachers alike remains far from a reality.


Abstract Undoubtedly, due to its impact on both revenues and the home advantage, social performance is a key factor of success for football clubs. Growing revenues and the government's eagerness to promote football in Turkey in recent years have created desirable conditions for Turkish clubs. However, research into the impact of social performance success has not received much attention, especially in Turkey, despite Turkey being one of the major leagues in Europe. This study aims to fill this gap in the literature. It does so by investigating social performance using a two-stage stochastic frontier analysis drawing on evidence from the Turkish Super League between the 2012/2013 and 2017/2018 seasons. Results from the first stage illustrate that social efficiency leaders change almost every season. Results from the second stage of research identify which specific factors are diminishing the social technical efficiency for clubs in the Turkish Super League. It emerges that the fundamental source of social inefficiency in Turkey is the Passolig, an identification system implemented in 2014. Furthermore, it transpires that heterogeneity among the clubs' hometowns is also highly influential on social efficiency. However, even though attendance has managed to recover back to pre-Passolig levels, social efficiency is still lower than the pre-Passolig levels.


Objectives
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides nutritionally at-risk low-income pregnant women, infants and children up to 5 years of age with foods tailored to their nutritional needs, along with nutrition education. In 2009, USDA made major revisions to WIC food packages to better conform to expert dietary guidance. Notable changes included increased fruits and vegetables, and lower-fat milk for children 2 years and older. This study uses data from the 2008 and 2016 Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study (FITS) to compare foods consumed by children participating in WIC to foods consumed by children not participating in WIC before and after the food package changes.

Methods
FITS 2008 (n = 3273) and 2016 (n = 3235) are cross-sectional nationally-representative surveys of caregivers of children < 4 years living in the U.S. Trained telephone interviewers collected 24-hour dietary data. Tests of interaction were used to determine whether the trends in consumption of select foods between 2008 and 2016 differed between children who participate in WIC compared to those who do not, while controlling for income and household size.

Results
The percentage of WIC infants (6-11.9 months) eating vegetables increased from 2008 to 2016, but the % eating fruit (including 100% juice) was unchanged. WIC infants shifted from being less likely than non-WIC infants to eat babyfood fruits and vegetables in 2008 to being more likely to eat them in 2016; at the same time, the % of WIC participants consuming non babyfood fruit and vegetables declined. The percentage of WIC children (12-23.9 months) drinking whole milk increased and drinking reduced fat (2%) milk decreased in 2016 compared to 2008; whereas older WIC children (24-47.9 months) were more likely to drink low or nonfat milk and less likely to drink reduced-fat milk.

Conclusions
Babyfood fruits and vegetables, added to the WIC food package in 2009, have become important contributors to WIC infants' fruit and vegetable intakes. In 2016, WIC children were more likely to follow expert advice to shift to lower fat milks at ages 2 and above. Significant changes in the relationship of these food patterns to WIC participation between 2008 and 2016 suggest an important public health role of the revised WIC food packages.

Funding Sources
FITS 2008 and 2016 supported by Nestlé Research Center, Lausanne Switzerland.


AIM
To evaluate the contribution of parecoxib to the protocol of multimodal analgesia for simple vesicular lithiasis by laparoscopy.

METHODS
A prospective, randomized, double-blind study was carried out at Habib Thameur Hospital (Tunis). We included 60 patients, ASA I or II, scheduled for cholecystectomy by laparoscopy. The patients were randomized to 2 groups. The parecoxib group (PG) receiving parecoxib 40 mg 30 minutes before the induction and the control group (CG) receiving physiological saline. Data were collected during hospitalization and a follow-up was done one year after the operation by a questionnaire.

RESULTS
The pain scores at rest and at cough were significantly lower in the PG than in the CG during the first postoperative day (p < 10-3). Ten percent of the patients of the CG and no patient of the GP required Morphine in the recovery room (p = 0,07). The requirement of Tramadol was significantly less frequent in the PG (70 % of the PG, 16,6 % of the CG and p < 10-3). A chronic pain was found in 37,5 % and 8 %, respectively, in the GC and GP (p = 0,013). This pain was intense in 2 GC patients requiring analgesics and a work stoppage.

CONCLUSIONS
The results of our study are in favor of the use of Parecoxib 40 mg 30 minutes before laparoscopic cholecystectomy for its effects on acute pain, opioid sparing and chronic pain.


BACKGROUND
Modifiable lifestyle-related factors are associated with risk of coronary heart disease and may also influence kidney disease risk.

STUDY DESIGN
Community-based prospective cohort study.

SETTING & PARTICIPANTS
2,354 African American and white participants aged 28-40 years without baseline microalbuminuria or estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m² recruited from 4 US centers: Birmingham, AL; Chicago, IL; Minneapolis, MN; and Oakland, CA.

FACTORS
Current smoking, physical activity, fast food habits, obesity, and diet quality, which was based on 8 fundamental components of the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, including increased intake of fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, whole grains, and nuts and legumes and reduced intake of sodium, sugar-sweetened beverages, and red and processed meats.

OUTCOMES & MEASUREMENTS
Spot urine albumin-creatinine ratios were obtained at baseline (1995-1996) and three 5-year follow-up examinations (5, 10, and 15 years' follow-up). Incident microalbuminuria was defined as the presence of age- and sex-adjusted albumin-creatinine ratio ≥25 mg/g at 2 or more of the successive follow-up examinations.

RESULTS
During the 15-year follow-up, 77 (3.3%) individuals developed incident microalbuminuria. After multivariable adjustment, poor diet quality (OR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.1-3.4) and obesity (OR, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.1-3.3) were associated significantly with microalbuminuria; current smoking (OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 0.9-2.8) was associated with microalbuminuria, although the CI crossed 1.0. Neither low physical activity (OR, 1.0; 95% CI, 0.5-1.8) nor fast food consumption (OR, 1.2; 95% CI, 0.7-2.3) was associated with microalbuminuria. Compared with individuals with no unhealthy lifestyle-related factors (poor diet quality, current smoking, and obesity), adjusted odds of incident microalbuminuria were 131%, 273%, and 634% higher for the presence of 1 (OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.3-4.3), 2 (OR, 3.7; 95% CI, 1.8-7.7), and 3 (OR, 7.3; 95% CI, 2.1-26.1) unhealthy lifestyle-related factors.

LIMITATIONS
Self-reported dietary history and physical activity, low number of outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS
Consuming an unhealthy diet and obesity are associated with incident microalbuminuria.


The rationale for revascularization in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) is to improve prognosis and relieve symptoms. Revascularization may be indicated in flow-limiting coronary stenosis to reduce myocardial ischemia and its adverse clinical manifestations especially for patients with multivessel CAD. Currently, both US and European guideline statements recommend coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) rather than percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for patients with multivessel CAD (1,2). This recommendation is based primarily on the pivotal Synergy between PCI with Taxus and Cardiac Surgery (SYNTAX) trial, which randomized 1,800 patients with extensive angiographic left main and 3-vessel CAD to either PCI with first-generation stents, paclitaxel-eluting stents, or CABG (3). The SYNTAX trial showed significantly higher rates in achieving the primary endpoint, which was defined as a composite of major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCEs) including death, myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and repeat revascularization, in the PCI group at 1 year. By 5 years, these results showed a more significant separation between CABG and PCI groups for cardiac death, MI, repeat revascularization, and MACCEs, which were all significantly in favor of the CABG group (4). Within the 3-vessel CAD subgroup, in patients with a low SYNTAX score (≤22), which is a novel score for anatomical assessment derived from lesion severity and complexity, the incidence of cardiovascular outcome was similar between the PCI group and CABG group. However, in the intermediate SYNTAX scores [23–32] and high SYNTAX scores (≥33), the incidence of a composite of the MACCEs was significantly higher in the PCI group than in the CABG group. This difference was primarily driven by a higher incidence of repeat revascularization.


This paper presents a research and design method of plug-type IP information monitoring equipment based on parallel algorithm. It mainly uses the Ethernet hub and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology to implement the detection and management of full-duplex IP datagram. Meanwhile using time interval as a judge to analyze and process IP datagram. By detecting, the device can meet the design requirements, with the characteristic of real-time, not to delay the network speed, not take up IP addresses, and low cost.


The intersection of aesthetics and education offers space to understand how the study of perception, sensuous experience, beauty, and art provide the potential for learning and human emancipation. These domains have been persistently understood as necessary to cultivate democratic societies by shaping citizens' moral, ethical, and political sensibilities. Aesthetics is often considered a dangerous and paradoxical concept for educators because it offers the means for both political transformation as well as political manipulation through disruptive, engrossing, all-consuming aesthetic experiences. In short, aesthetic experiences are powerful experiences that make one think, interpret, and feel beyond the certainty of facts and the mundane parts of existence. Aesthetics offers humans the means to heighten our awareness of self and other. Thus, the study of aesthetics in education suggests there is a latent potential that exists in learning beyond simply acquiring objective information to logically discern reality.
 Defining aesthetics, a complicated task given the nature of aesthetics across disciplines, is achieved by taking the reader through three perennial debates within aesthetics that have education import: the trouble with human passions, the reign of beauty, and aesthetic thought beyond beauty. In addition, the influence of aesthetics and imagination on experience and education as articulated most notably by Maxine Greene and John Dewey offers the obvious entry point for educators seeking to understand aesthetics. Looking beyond the philosophical literature on aesthetics and education, new directions in aesthetics and education as seen in the growing literature traced through the study of cognition, behavior, biology, and neuroscience offers educators potentially new sites of aesthetics inquiry. However, the overwhelming trajectory of the study of aesthetics and education allows educators to move beyond the hyper-scientific study of education and alternatively consider how felt experiences—aesthetic experiences—often brought about when fully engaged with others and one's environment, are sites of powerful learning opportunities with moral, ethical, and civic consequences.


PURPOSE
To describe preferred and actual roles in treatment decision making among women with newly diagnosed breast cancer, to describe their sources of information, and to identify and prioritize their information needs.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional survey.

SAMPLE
Seventy-four women recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

SETTING
Two tertiary, outpatient oncology clinics in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

METHODS
Three measures were completed: control preferences card sort, Thurstone scaling of information needs, and ranking of information sources.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Decisional roles, sources of information, and information needs.

FINDINGS
More women (43%) preferred and more (57%) actually assumed a passive role in treatment decision making. This is particularly true of older women. Although 37% of women preferred a collaborative role, only 19% were able to assume such a role. The women preferred personal sources of information (physician, nurse, friend, or relative) over written sources. A medical journal was more relevant to women with higher levels of education. Most information needs included stage of disease, likelihood of cure, and treatment options. The women ranked self-care issues and sexuality as least important; older women, however, ranked self-care issues as more important.

CONCLUSIONS
Women who want collaborative roles in decision making may experience difficulty in achieving such roles. Personal sources of information were more important to women than written sources.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE
Nurses can use a knowledge of women's priorities for information to guide information sharing. Nurses can assess women's desired roles in treatment decision making and facilitate women achieving their preferred roles.


Background: A relatively high proportion of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) females with lung cancer have never smoked. We used an integrative data approach to assemble a large-scale cohort to study lung cancer risk among AANHPIs by smoking status with attention to representation of specific AANHPI ethnic groups. Methods: We leveraged electronic health records (EHRs) from two healthcare systems—Sutter Health in northern California and Kaiser Permanente Hawai'i—that have high representation of AANHPI populations. We linked EHR data on lung cancer risk factors (i.e., smoking, lung diseases, infections, reproductive factors, and body size) to data on incident lung cancer diagnoses from statewide population-based cancer registries of California and Hawai'i for the period between 2000 and 2013. Geocoded address data were linked to data on neighborhood contextual factors and regional air pollutants. Results: The dataset comprises over 2.2 million adult females and males of any race/ethnicity. Over 250,000 are AANHPI females (19.6% of the female study population). Smoking status is available for over 95% of individuals. The dataset includes 7,274 lung cancer cases, including 613 cases among AANHPI females. Prevalence of never-smoking status varied greatly among AANHPI females with incident lung cancer, from 85.7% among Asian Indian to 14.4% among Native Hawaiian females. Conclusion: We have developed a large, multilevel dataset particularly well-suited to conduct prospective studies of lung cancer risk among AANHPI females who never smoked. Impact: The integrative data approach is an effective way to conduct cancer research assessing multilevel factors on cancer outcomes among small populations.


Crop wild relatives of sweetpotato [Ipomoea series Batatas (Choisy) D. F. Austin] are a group of species with potential for use in crop improvement programs seeking to breed for drought tolerance. Stress memory in this group could enhance these species' physiological response to drought, though no studies have yet been conducted in this area. In this pot experiment, drought tolerance, determined using secondary traits, was tested in 59 sweetpotato crop wild relative accessions using potential short-term memory induction. For this purpose, accessions were subjected to two treatments, i) non-priming: full irrigation (up to field capacity, 0.32 w/w) from transplanting to harvest and ii) priming: full irrigation from transplanting to flowering onset (FO) followed by a priming process from FO to harvest. The priming process consisted of three water restriction periods of increasing length (8, 11, and 14 days) followed each by a recovery period of 14 days with full irrigation. Potential stress memory induction was calculated for each accession based on ecophysiological indicators such as senescence, foliar area, leaf-minus-air temperature, and leaf 13C discrimination. Based on total biomass production, resilience and production capacity were calculated per accession to evaluate drought tolerance. Increase in foliar area, efficient leaf thermoregulation, improvement of leaf photosynthetic performance, and delayed senescence were identified in 23.7, 28.8, 50.8, and 81.4% of the total number of accessions, respectively. It was observed that under a severe drought scenario, a resilient response included more long-lived green leaf area while a productive response was related to optimized leaf thermoregulation and gas exchange. Our preliminary results suggest that I. triloba and I. trifida have the potential to improve sweetpotato resilience in dry environments and should be included in introgression breeding programs of this crop. Furthermore, I. splendor-sylvae, I. ramosissima, I. tiliacea, and wild I. batatas were the most productive species studied but given the genetic barriers to interspecific hybridization between these species and sweetpotato, we suggest that further genetic and metabolic studies be conducted on them. Finally, this study proposes a promising method for improving drought tolerance based on potential stress-memory induction, which is applicable both for wild species and crops.


Introduction: Brazil is the second country in the world in cases of leprosy. Early diagnosis of neural involvement is one of the most important goals of treatment. Traditionally, clinical examination is used for diagnosis; however clinical palpation has limitations that can lead to a delay of diagnosis. Ultrasonography (USG) provides objective measurements of neural thickening. The most important parameter in the USG is the cross-sectional area (CSA) of the nerve. To our knowledge, studies evaluating leprosy of the tibial nerve through the USG have not yet been performed. This work aims to analyze USG as a method of evaluation of the posterior tibial nerve in leprosy patients. Methods: This is a nonrandomized, prospective study in patients with leprosy of the tibial nerve, comparing the findings of the USG performed with clinical data for these patients. Results: Sixteen tibial nerves were evaluated in 8 patients, with a mean age of 53.4 years; the highest CSA was 24.6 mm2 with an average of 15.0 mm2, 75% had sensitivity alterations, 33.3% had anesthesia, 16.7% had loss of deep sensitivity, 25% had loss of protective sensitivity and another 25% had decreased sensitivity. Clinically, 25% of the patients had claw toe and 18.75% plantar ulcer. Discussion: USG demonstrated increased CSA of the tibial nerve in 87.5% of the cases; there was considerable variation in CSA size for patients with thickening palpation, which could represent different levels of neural involvement for the same clinical finding. We observed a greater loss of sensation in patients with higher CSA of the tibial nerve, as well as the presence of claw toe and plantar ulcer. Conclusion: USG is a suitable method for assessing neural thickening in leprosy patients. Other studies are necessary for a better correlation of CTA with clinical data and the determination of clinical conducts.


Distant procurement of organs for transplantation requires satisfactory preservation to reduce injury during ischemia and the initial phase of reperfusion. We have studied the mechanism of reimplantation injury after unilateral lung transplantation in isogeneic Fisher rats. The heart and lungs were removed en bloc from donor rats and preserved at 4 degrees C. After 5 hours the left lung was transplanted into a recipient. Radiographic and histologic evidence of pulmonary edema in the transplanted lung at 24 hours confirmed the presence of lung vascular injury. In five rats we performed bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) of both nontransplanted and transplanted lungs at 24 hours posttransplant, immediately after the animal was killed. Results were compared with five normal control lungs. The results showed not only significantly greater number of cells from transplanted lungs compared with nontransplanted and control lungs but cell profiles showed much greater percentages of neutrophils (mean +/- SD) from transplanted (76.8% +/- 13%) compared with nontransplanted (2.8% +/- 3.1%) or control (0.8% +/- 0.8%) lungs. In seven other rats we measured BAL neutrophil activity with stimulated luminol chemoluminescence from transplanted left and nontransplanted right lungs 24 hours after unilateral left lung transplantation. Results (expressed as millivolt X 10(3) neutrophil +/- SD) showed significantly greater activity from transplanted (2.8 +/- 1.7) compared with nontransplanted (0.72 +/- 0.6) lungs. Reimplantation injury of the lung is characterized by pulmonary sequestration of neutrophils, and these cells may play a primary role in mediating vascular damage.


Feature selection has become increasingly important in data mining in recent years. However, the accuracy and stability of feature selection methods vary considerably when used individually, and yet no rule exists to indicate which one should be used for a particular dataset. Thus, an ensemble method that combines the outputs of several individual feature selection methods appears to be a promising approach to address the issue and hence is investigated in this research.
This research aims to develop an effective ensemble that can improve the accuracy and stability of the feature selection. We proposed a novel heuristic ensemble of filters (HEF). It combines two types of filters: subset filters and ranking filters with a heuristic consensus algorithm in order to utilise the strength of each type. The ensemble is tested on ten benchmark datasets and its performance is evaluated by two stability measures and three classifiers. The experimental results demonstrate that HEF improves the stability and accuracy of the selected features and in most cases outperforms the other ensemble algorithms, individual filters and the full feature set.
The research on the HEF algorithm is extended in several dimensions; including more filter members, three novel schemes of mean rank aggregation with partial lists, and three novel schemes for a weighted heuristic ensemble of filters. However, the experimental results demonstrate that adding weight to filters in HEF does not achieve the expected improvement in accuracy, but increases time and space complexity, and clearly decreases stability. Therefore, the core ensemble algorithm (HEF) is demonstrated to be not just simpler but also more reliable and consistent than the later more complicated and weighted ensembles.
In addition, we investigated how to use data in feature selection, using ALL or PART of it. Systematic experiments with thirty five synthetic and benchmark real-world datasets were carried out.


We analyze the contribution of pQCD based semi-hard parton (re)scattering to the reaction dynamics of relativistic heavy-ion collisions at SPS and RHIC. While such processes are able to account for the measured yield of high momentum direct photons at SPS energies, the conditions necessary for jet-quenching are not fulfilled. The situation changes dramatically at RHIC energies.


In this paper, a demonstrative technological implementation of a shipboard 2.15-MVA generation system is described, along with its modeling, numeric simulation, and some factory tests. The system, named Naval Package (NP), is part of a demonstrative program commissioned by Italian Navy for preliminary evaluations of medium-voltage dc supply technologies aimed at equipping its future vessels. The NP is made by a dual-star alternator, whose two stator three-phase windings feed two full-bridge diode rectifiers, respectively. The alternator (rated speed 6300 r/min) is designed to be moved by a 22 000-r/min gas turbine through a gearbox. This paper will present NP innovative issues, with reference to design solutions, operative requirements, dynamic modeling under normal and faulty conditions, and some factory tests.


We present a new approach to study empirically the effect of the introduction of the euro on the pattern of currency invoicing. Our approach uses a compositional multinomial logit model, in which currency choice is explained by both currency-specific and country-specific determinants. We use unique quarterly panel data on the invoicing of Norwegian imports from OECD countries for the 1996–2006 period. We find that eurozone countries have substantially increased their share of home currency invoicing after the introduction of the euro, whereas the home currency share of non-eurozone countries fell slightly. In addition, the euro as a vehicle currency has overtaken the role of the US dollar in Norwegian imports. The substantial rise in producer currency invoicing by eurozone countries is primarily caused by a drop in inflation volatility and can only to a small extent be explained by an unobserved euro effect.


Schools have historically and increasingly played an important role in providing services to meet students' social and emotional, family, health, and academic needs. Coordinating these services in a way that is strategically aligned with a school's academic mission and that efficiently addresses the needs of all students is often challenging and costly. This study is an initial investigation of Boston College's City Connects program, which supports students and schools by evaluating the needs of all students in a school and connecting them to services that are largely provided by community partner organizations. The program aims to help students by connecting them with an individualized set of services to address their academic, social/emotional, family, and health needs. The program also aims to assist schools by connecting them with community agencies and service providers, and streamlining student support referral and management to make the process of providing comprehensive approaches to supporting student learning more strategic and efficient. Prior research has shown evidence of effectiveness of City Connects in terms of increased achievement and educational attainment relative to similar schools that have not implemented the program (City Connects Progress Report, 2014; Walsh, et al., 2014a; 2014b). These positive effects must be weighed against the program's costs in a benefit-cost analysis to determine whether the program is a worthwhile social investment. This report shows that City Connects provides a whole-school comprehensive service at relatively low cost to the schools—schools themselves only bear about 10% of the core costs of the program. However, the methodological complexity of this work is entailed in the estimation of the total cost when considering the partnerships with community organizations. The results show that the total cost of six years of participation in City Connects from kindergarten through fifth grade (the dosage under which effects were measured) is $4,570 per student, which includes a portion of the costs of the community partner services received by the students in City Connects schools. Depending on what share of the community partner services are considered to be above and beyond the baseline level, the total cost estimate can range from $1,540 to $9,320 per student. Under the model that is most plausible based on implementation data, the benefit-cost ratio is 3.0 and the net benefits are $9,280 per student. This result implies that providing the program to a cohort of 100 students over six years would cost society $457,000 but yield $1,385,000 in social benefits, for a net benefit of $928,000. Even under the most conservative assumptions regarding costs and benefits, the program's benefits exceed its costs. Sensitivity tests show that the benefit-cost ratio lies somewhere between 1 and 11.8, with a best estimate of $3.00 in benefits per dollar of cost. Further research can investigate the relationship between the program, schools, and community partners and how services provided by partners compare in treatment versus comparison schools.


Glucose disposal rates (Rd) during an insulin clamp study reflect both basal and insulin-stimulated Rd. To quantify the amount of glucose taken up in response to a known increase ininsulin concentration, two consecutive studies were performed on 10 patients with mild to moderate NIDDM (mean fasting glucose = 146 mg/ dl) and 10 normal subjects. Endogenous insulin secretion was inhibited by somatostatin and plasma glucose level maintained at 180 mg/dl for 5 h. Rd (mg/m2/min) was determined isotopically for 2.5 h at insulin concentrations ∼6 μU/ml and during 2.5 h of physiologic hyperinsulinemia at ∼60 μU/ml (total glucose disposal), with the increase in Rd resulting from the approximate 10-fold elevation of plasma insulin concentration defined as insulin-stimulated glucose disposal. Results showed that the increment in Rd resulting from the elevation of plasma insulin concentration was relatively minor in NIDDM (38 ± 6), increasing from a mean (±SEM) value of 83 ± 8 to 121 ±12. Similar values in normal subjects were 90 ± 7 and 274 ± 26 with an increment of 183 ± 21. Thus, insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in patients with NIDDM was only one-fifth of that in normals, and accounted for only 31% (38 ÷ 121) of total glucose disposal during the clamp study. These data indicate that the majority of previous insulin clamp studies of in vivo insulin action in patients with NIDDM, in which total glucose disposal and insulinstimulated glucose disposal have been equated, have underestimated the magnitude of insulin resistance present in NIDDM. This conclusion is highlighted by the fact that the current study was carried out in patients with relatively mild NIDDM, and the possibility exists that physiologic increments of plasma insulin have essentially no effect on peripheral glucose disposal in patients with moresevere NIDDM.


Movement is the essence of many spatiotemporal phenomena around us. Recent advances in tracking technologies have enabled the collection of tremendous amounts of movement trajectory data. Following in the footsteps of data production, computational methods are being developed in order to extract meaningful patterns from the raw movement data. These patterns, in return, can be related to valuable information about the behaviors of the moving objects under study. However, due to the internal and external factors influencing movement, the behaviors maybe compounds of different patterns at various spatial and temporal scales.
The focus of this thesis therefore lies on investigating the importance of scale and cross-scale analysis in two movement analysis tasks, namely movement classification and trajectory segmentation. In movement classification, the aim is to build a classification model by finding relationships and rules among movement features in order to assign the input data to known classes. In trajectory segmentation, however, the aim is to decompose a movement trajectory into segments of homogenous movement characteristics. These characteristics can be measured by different geometrical, physiological or semantic properties of movement. The relevance of these two analysis tasks are highly recognized in the literature, however, the consideration of cross-scale aspects has the advantage to improve the commonly used single-scale approaches in the tasks of movement classification and trajectory segmentation.
The main contribution of this thesis lies in introducing new methodologies for cross-scale movement analysis. In movement classification, we employed a resampling method for an improvement computation of movement parameters across different temporal scales as input features in the classification. Moreover, the use of discrete wavelet transform (DWT), as another multi-scale measure, is investigated to provide complementary features in movement classification. DWT is further used in trajectory segmentation, where the provided decomposition levels of DWT is used to investigate the variations in movement patterns across different scales.
In the addressed tasks, this thesis shows that cross-scale analysis is needed in order to define an analysis scale which matches better to the scale of phenomena under study and that employing such methods yields better-quality results compared to single-scale analysis. The importance of cross-scale analysis was revealed by application on various movement datasets in real-world applications such as neuropharmacology, behavioral ecology, and biology.


In accordance with the present status of real –time measurement for agricultural machine in the field with burdensome in labors, unsafe in testing and backward in testing method.Wireless data acquisition system for testing based on LabVIEW is introduced in the paper. This system integrates sensor technology, WLAN technology, virtual instrument technology and measurement technology. Compared with running cables test, the Wireless Data Acquisition system becomes safe and easy for moving machine. This system can provide a robust, two –way, TCP/IP connection, which can be linked to the networks of Internet easily. For mobile test or bad- condition measurement, a wide application is pointed out in the end.


The current online reputation systems for online sellers face great challenges from bad-faith behavior such as malicious negative reviews, click farming, mismatch between images and commodities, and forged commodities. To optimize the design of online reputation systems, explore the consumer utilization of credit clues, and describe the law of mutual trust, this paper puts forth three hypotheses about the influencing factors of consumer perception of online seller credibility and integrates various research methods such as an eye-movement experiment, questionnaire survey, econometric analysis, and empirical research. To evaluate the three hypotheses, the display modes of commodities on a current e-commerce platform were optimized, and eye-movement experiments were conducted on original and optimized webpages. Results show that the display of sales growth, the refinement and tagging of review content significantly impacted consumer perception of seller credibility. Further, designers of online reputation systems were advised to display sales trends, provide personalized sales queries, and tag a variety of reviews for consumers to easily ascertain credible sellers. This advice helped curb bad-faith behavior.


Background: Preterm birth is certainly a public health problem. Aside from being an important cause of mortality, prematurity increases the risk of serious lifetime disabilities. Objective: To assess the overall survival, causes of death and neonatal morbidities associated with prematurity of newborns less than 29 weeks of gestational age (GA). Methods: Retrospective study including all preterm infants less than 29 weeks of GA admitted to the level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Centro Hospital Sao Joao in Porto, Portugal, between January 1 st , 2005 and December 31 st , 2016. Newborns were grouped into three groups according to their GA: G23 +0 -24 +6 , G25 +0 -26 +6 , G27 +0 -28 +6 . Results: In this 12-year-period, 160 preterm neonates less than 29 weeks of GA admitted to this NICU met our inclusion criteria. Overall deaths were 60 (37.5%), variating between 25 (92.6%) in the G23 +0 -24 +6 , 23 (46%) in the G25 +0 -26 +6 and 12 (14.5%) in the G27 +0 -28 +6 . The leading causes of death were intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) and sepsis. Early neonatal mortality was 20.6%. Among survivors, 41% had bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), 69% developed late sepsis, 56% retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), 44% IVH and 10% cystic periventricular leukomalacia (cPVL). Conclusions: Mortality rates in this preterm group were high in spite of all the technological and scientific advances. Pulmonary conditions (respiratory distress syndrome and BPD), sepsis and neurologic outcomes (ROP, IVH and cPVL) were still major causes of morbidity. In line with other series, the limit of viability in this cohort of preterm infants is 25 weeks of GA. Prenatal, perinatal and postnatal care still all have a long road ahead, especially when it comes to these "gray zone" newborns.


Dust grains play a central role in the physics and chemistry of cosmic environments. They influence the optical and thermal properties of the medium due to their interaction with stellar radiation; provide surfaces for the chemical reactions that are responsible for the synthesis of a significant fraction of key astronomical molecules; and they are building blocks of pebbles, comets, asteroids, planetesimals, and planets. In this paper, we review experimental studies of physical and chemical processes, such as adsorption, desorption, diffusion and reactions forming molecules, on the surface of reliable cosmic dust grain analogues as related to processes in diffuse, translucent, and dense interstellar clouds, protostellar envelopes, planet-forming disks, and planetary atmospheres. The information that such experiments reveal should be flexible enough to be used in many different environments. In addition, we provide a forward look discussing new ideas, experimental approaches, and research directions.