As medicare services have gotten spreaded, clinical laboratory has been dominant position. So, it has been acted for quality control and clinical pathology accreditation. But there has been quite deficient information to evaluate working space and technical standards of medical laboratory for accreditation. This study goals to figure out accreditation standard and design guideline for clinical laboratory, and to give safe and efficient design information. Methods: This study has been searched by literature for accreditation standards and design guidelines of clinical pathology in USA, UK, and Germany. Results: Three countries have accredited based on working lab space, staff space, storage space, patient space and health and safety equipment. Design guidelines of three countries commonly have focused on worktable layout, worktable distance and module, and specific laboratory biosafety level. And USA guidelines stress on the architectural design such as design process and passage distance for escape, UK stress on the efficiency as functional work flow and construction cost, lastly Germany design guidelines stress on the operator's safety distance and workstation. Three countries have not only accreditation standards but also design guidelines for more specific quality management, separating from accrediting institute. Implications: In korea, it has been needed to make clinical laboratory design guideline for the safe and efficient environment and reliable and competitive medical service.


Bone fracture healing involves the combination of intramembranous and endochondral ossification. It is known that Indian hedgehog (Ihh) promotes chondrogenesis during fracture healing. Meanwhile, Sonic hedgehog (Shh), which is involved in ontogeny, has been reported to be involved in fracture healing, but the details had not been clarified. In this study, we demonstrated that Shh participated in fracture healing. Six-week-old Sprague–Dawley rats and Gli-CreERT2; tdTomato mice were used in this study. The right rib bones of experimental animals were fractured. The localization of Shh and Gli1 during fracture healing was examined. The localization of Gli1 progeny cells and osterix (Osx)-positive cells was similar during fracture healing. Runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx2) and Osx, both of which are osteoblast markers, were observed on the surface of the new bone matrix and chondrocytes on day seven after fracture. Shh and Gli1 were co-localized with Runx2 and Osx. These findings suggest that Shh is involved in intramembranous and endochondral ossification during fracture healing.


Mobile devices have begun to raise questions around the potential for overuse when in the presence of family or friends. As such, we conducted a diary and interview study to understand how people use mobile devices in the presence of others at home, and how this shapes their behavior and household dynamics. Results show that family members become frustrated when others do non-urgent activities on their phones in the presence of others. Yet people often guess at what others are doing because of the personal nature of mobile devices. In some cases, people developed strategies to provide a greater sense of activity awareness to combat the problem. Mobile phone usage was sometimes perceived as beneficial by providing a mechanism for needed disengagement from family members. These findings suggest several opportunities for redesigning mobile device software to mitigate emergent frustrations, and open up new opportunities for nurturing social interactions among family members.


We determined player-to-player distance, body-to-ball contact, and exercise intensity during three training modalities in various football populations. 213 participants were recruited, ranging from 9-year-old boys to young men and 11-year-old girls to middle-aged women. All groups were analysed with video-filming and GPS-based Polar Pro monitors during three types of football training for 20 min, i.e., COVID-19-modified training (CMT) with >2-metre player-to-player distance, small-sided games (SSG), and simulated match-play with normal rules (SMP), in randomised order. Time spent in a danger zone (1.5 m) per-percent-infected-player (DZ PPIP) ranged from 0.015 to 0.279% of playing time. DZ PPIP for SSG was higher (P < 0.05) than CMT and SMP. The average number of contacts (within 1.5 m) with a potentially infected player ranged from 12 to 73 contacts/hour. SSG had more (P < 0.05) contacts than CMT and SMP, with SMP having a higher (P < 0.05) number of contacts than CMT. Time/contact ranged from 0.87 to 3.00 seconds for the groups. No player-to-player and body-to-ball touches were registered for CMT. Total player-to-player contacts were 264% higher (P < 0.05) in SSG than SMP, ranging from 80 to 170 and 25 to 56 touches, respectively. In all groups, a greater total distance was covered during SMP compared to CMT (38–114%; P < 0.05). All groups performed more high-intensity running (33–54%; P < 0.05) and had higher heart rates during SMP compared to CMT. Different types of football training all appear to exert a minor COVID-19 infection risk; however, COVID-19-modified training may be safer than small-sided game training, but also match-play. In contrast, exercise intensity is lower during COVID-19-modified training than match-play.


Classical conditioning is normally thought to strengthen associations between stimuli, and instrumental conditioning is thought to select responses. This difference has been used to account for the usual result that instrumental conditioning produces higher response rates than classical conditioning. The present experiment suggests that the comparison of instrumental and classical tasks has overlooked temporal cues that are often confounded with response contingency, and that the time cues exert a critical influence on response rate. When the two tasks are equated for temporal cues, the response rate of rats is similar in classical and instrumental tasks.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to examine patient delay (time from onset of chest pain to patient seeking medical care) among patients who were admitted to hospital with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS).

DESIGN AND RESULTS
For 337 patients acutely admitted to the Cardiology Department, Odense University Hospital, during a 3-month period in 1998 with suspected ACS, patient delay and the total pre-hospital delay were registered. In addition, information on patient characteristics, patient behaviour and symptom perception was obtained. The median patient delay was 2.85 h (range 0.2-91 h), of this the "silent" patient delay represented 1 h (range 1 min-11.3 h). The total pre-hospital delay was median 3.88 h. Thirty-one per cent of the patients had confirmed acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and this patient group had a significantly shorter patient delay compared with the group without AMI, 2.05 h vs 3.12 h, p = 0.01. Patient delay of more than 2 h was associated with the factors "self-medication" and "wanted to wait and see if the symptoms went away". A smaller than average risk of patient delay was found in the case of "suspicion of heart attack" and "suspicion of a serious condition".

CONCLUSION
Patient delay is considered to be a serious impediment to markedly improving the prognosis in the case of ACS.


This chapter analyzes the transnational institutionalization of the European Unified Patent Court (created in 2013) as a case illustrating government by relationships and mobilization of relational infrastructures in joint regulation of the economy. This court, specializing in patent litigation, originated from a public-private network of corporate lawyers, national judges, and European-level technocrats as institutional (or judicial) entrepreneurs, a collegial oligarchy using their own personal social networks across borders to start negotiating a common interpretation of the European patent and to lobby for the creation of the institution. A neostructural sociological approach is then proposed to frame this example in a more general perspective on institution building. This chapter identifies specific characteristics of institutional entrepreneurs who punch above their weight in regulatory processes, in particular the importance of being part of a collegial oligarchy and having several high, heterogenous, inconsistent, and multilevel dimensions of social status combined with the right rhetorics.


ZnO and ZnO:Mn (at Mn incorporation rates between 1 and 5%) films were obtained at a substrate temperature of 350 ± 5 °C by the ultrasonic spray pyrolysis technique. Optical, structural and morphological properties of ZnO films as a function of Mn amount were discussed. Transmittance spectra, x-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analyses were used to investigate the optical, structural and morphological properties and elemental analyses, respectively. All films have high transmittance, and the band gap changed with Mn incorporation from 3.32 to 3.18 eV. From Urbach tail analysis, the widths of localized states were calculated between 163 and 389 meV. XRD patterns indicated that all films have polycrystalline structures and the best effect on the structural properties of the films was obtained with 4% Mn incorporation. It was seen from SEM micrographs that all films have almost homogeneous surfaces. EDS analyses showed that the amount of Mn element in the solid film increased depending on the increasing Mn incorporation in the solution. As a result, Mn incorporation has a strong effect on the optical, structural and morphological properties of ZnO films and all films, especially the 4% Mn-incorporated one, can be used in optoelectronic industry or photovoltaic solar cells due to their suitable optical and structural properties.


This paper challenges the existing state-of-knowledge about legislative caucuses by arguing that the caucus system reflects and reinforces formal organizing institutions, such as parties and committees, rather than counterbalancing them. We argue that legislators engage in the caucus system in order to maximize the social utility of their relationships. Using a social network framework, we develop and test hypotheses that seek to ascertain the types of legislators that benefit most from the caucus network. We collect data on the complete population of caucuses and their members from the first session of the 110 th U.S. House of Representatives and conduct social network and regression analyses to find evidence that the caucus system both supports the hierarchical structure of the formal leadership institutions and offers a meaningful way for all members to establish and maintain relationships with their colleagues.


We propose a simulation methodology that combines the strengths of discrete fracture models with conventional dual porosity simulation. Constructing a grid and solving for flow in both fracture and matrix in a discrete fracture model is frequently so computationally demanding that only small systems can be studied. In contrast, while dual porosity models are more computationally efficient and can be applied at the field scale, they average the fracture properties and the transfer of fluids between fracture and matrix. In our approach we capture the complex geometry and connectivity of the fractures through explicit gridding of the fracture network. However, to avoid the prohibitive computational cost associated with gridding both the fracture and the matrix, we apply transfer functions to accommodate the flow of fluids between these two domains. We use a physically-based approach to modeling the transfer that overcomes many of the limitations of current formulations. The model is based on CSMP, an object-oriented discrete fracture simulator. We validate the method through comparison with one-dimensional analytical solutions and comparison with experiments and simulations where both fracture and matrix are represented. We then present three-dimensional simulations of multiphase flow in a geologically realistic fracture network.


In designing any corpus, it is necessary to decide what types of texts to include, and how many of each type. (I use the term "text type" as a neutral one which does not imply any specific theoretical stance.) The British National Corpus (Burnard, 1995) made an initial division into written texts and spoken ones (i.e. transcripts of recordings), and within each of these macrocategories, employed further categorisations and subcategorisations. For the spoken component, a first distinction was between "demographic" (conversations: 153 texts) versus "context-governed" (speech recorded in particular types of setting: 757 texts), and the "context-governed" component was further divided according to the nature of the setting (educational/informative; business; public/institutional; leisure: from 131 to 262 texts in each), paralleled by a monologue/dialogue distinction (40%/60%). For the written component, two principal parallel categorisations were used: "domain" (i.e., subject matter, divided into nine classes, viz., imaginative; arts; belief and thought; commerce; leisure; natural science; applied science; social science; world affairs; from 146 to 527 texts in each) and "medium" (five classes, viz., book; periodical; miscellaneous published; published; to be spoken; from 35 to 1,414 texts in each). All figures refer to the BNC World Edition (2001). Text categorisations, as Lee notes, are generally based on "external" criteria -- where/when the text was produced, by/for who, what it is about -- rather than "internal" ones based on its linguistic characteristics. The categorisations used in corpus design tend to be broad rather than delicate, since what corpus designers want to do is to enable users to generalize about and compare different categories. To generalize with any confidence, each category must contain a substantial number of different texts, so that no one text exerts an undue influence on that category (early corpora such as Brown and Lob, which were relatively small, got around this problem by including very short samples from a large number of texts); and each category must contain a wide variety of different texts, so that no one subcategory exerts an undue influence on that category as a whole (Biber, 1993): the greater the variance within a category, the more texts will be needed in order to document that variance. Thus, it may be decided to include roughly equal numbers of texts from different parts of the country, by authors of different sexes/ages or from different types of settings. Within the BNC "context-governed" component, for instance, the "educational/informative" category was designed to include lectures, talks, classroom interaction, and news commentaries, drawing these from different types of institutions in different areas and with a wide range of speakers and topics. Since corpora cannot be infinite, the delicacy of the categorisations to be employed is largely determined by practical considerations. The BNC, which contains just over 4,000 texts, uses a framework which guarantees at least 100 texts in most principal categories. You may or may not like the categories chosen, but the corpus arguably allows you to generalize about these categories -- about spoken and written texts, the nine different domains of written texts, the four different domains of "context-governed" spoken texts, and so forth -- with reasonable certainty that findings will not be unduly biased by any particular text or any particular subcategory of texts. These categories are indicated in the headers to individual texts as attributes of the [less than]catRef[greater than] element, using which it is possible to restrict queries to a particular category or combination of categories. A number of errors of categorisation in the first release of the BNC have been corrected in the World Edition (2001). Users may, however, want to employ different categorisations from those employed by the corpus designers. …


Deep reinforcement learning is revolutionizing the artificial intelligence field. Currently, it serves as a good starting point for constructing intelligent autonomous systems which offer a better knowledge of the visual world. It is possible to scale deep reinforcement learning with the use of deep learning and do amazing tasks such as use of pixels in playing video games. In this paper, key concepts of deep reinforcement learning including reward function, differences between reinforcement learning and supervised learning and models for implementation of reinforcement are discussed. Key challenges related to the implementation of reinforcement learning in conversational AI domain are identified as well as discussed in detail. Various conversational models which are based on deep reinforcement learning (as well as deep learning) are also discussed. In summary, this paper discusses key aspects of deep reinforcement learning which are crucial for designing an efficient conversational AI.


For nearly 30 years, industry and researchers have proposed many software variability tools to cope with the complexity of modeling variability in software development, followed by a number of publications on variability techniques built upon theoretical foundations. After more than 25 years of the practice of software variability, there are not many studies investigating the impact of software variability tools in the industry and the perception of practitioners. For this reason, we investigate in this research work how existing software variability tools fulfill the needs of companies demanding this kind of tool support. We conducted a survey with practitioners from companies in eight different countries in order to analyze the missing capabilities of software variability management tools and we compared the results of the survey with the scientifoc literature through a systematic mapping study (SMS) to analyze if the proposed solutions cover the needs required by practitioners. Our major findings indicate that many tools lack important qualities such as interoperability, collaborative work, code generation, scalability, impact analysis, and test; while the results from the SMS showed these such capabilities are, to some extent, found in some of the existing tools.


News that UK sales of antibiotics for use in food-producing animals continue to fall is welcome.

As data from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) revealed last week ( VR , 2 November 2019, vol 185, p 520), antibiotic sales (a proxy for on-farm antibiotic usage) dropped by 9 per cent between 2017 and 2018.

But can sales keep on falling? In theory, yes, they could keep dropping year on year, eventually reaching zero. Would this be a desirable endpoint? No, because sometimes antibiotics are necessary.

Nevertheless, in the minds of some consumers, 'no antibiotics' is evidently seen as a plus. American food shoppers already pay a premium for meat and dairy products stamped with the slogan 'No Antibiotics Ever.' More and more brands in the USA pride themselves on being 'antibiotic free,' and a small number …


This is the first genetic biodiversity study of M. tuberculosis in Belarus. Thus, we investigated the genetic patterns of strains isolated in the first survey of anti-tuberculosis drug-resistance realized by rpoB gene as part of the Global Project of Anti-tuberculosis Drug Resistance Surveillance (BRIEM, Belarus). A 411-bp fragment of the rpoB gene, containing the sequence of the 81-bp rpoB fragment, was amplified by PCR and the rpoB gene fragments of tuberculosis strains were sequenced using the Amersham auto sequencer. This method uses the variability of nucleic sequences of genes such as beta subunit RNA-ase (rpoB) internal transcribed spacer and other genes. For analysing tree evolution used method UPGMA and Neighbour-Joining and analyzed by MEGA program. Clinical isolates (44/463) were analyzed by using sequencing gene rpoB and genotyped by program MEGA. The results were compared with the international database. MDR was 35% in never treated patients and 13.5% in previously treated patients. Mutations in rpoB gene and katG genes were detected in 95% and 84% of the MDR strains, respectively. Two clusters were found to be identical by the four different analysis methods, presumably representing cases of recent transmission of MDR tuberculosis. This study gives a first overview of the M. tuberculosis strains circulating in Belarus during the first survey of anti-tuberculosis drug-resistance. It may aid in the creation of a national database that will be a valuable support for further studies.


Radio is a powerful communication tool. Experience with rural radio has shown the potential for agricultural extension to benefit from both the reach and the relevance that local broadcasting can achieve by using participatory communication approaches. The importance of sharing information locally and opening up wider information networks for farmers is explored with reference to the specific example of vernacular radio programmes based on research on soil and water conservation. This paper describes this specific experience in the context of rural radio as a tool for agricultural extension and rural development, with reference to the dramatically changing technology environment that is currently influencing information and communication processes worldwide. The implications for policy makers of harnessing rural radio to improve agricultural extension are also discussed.


Objectives As part of the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership (ICBP) SURVMARK-2 project, we provide the most recent estimates of colon and rectal cancer survival in seven high-income countries by age and stage at diagnosis. Methods Data from 386 870 patients diagnosed during 2010–2014 from 19 cancer registries in seven countries (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and the UK) were analysed. 1-year and 5-year net survival from colon and rectal cancer were estimated by stage at diagnosis, age and country, Results (One1-year) and 5-year net survival varied between (77.1% and 87.5%) 59.1% and 70.9% and (84.8% and 90.0%) 61.6% and 70.9% for colon and rectal cancer, respectively. Survival was consistently higher in Australia, Canada and Norway, with smaller proportions of patients with metastatic disease in Canada and Australia. International differences in (1-year) and 5-year survival were most pronounced for regional and distant colon cancer ranging between (86.0% and 94.1%) 62.5% and 77.5% and (40.7% and 56.4%) 8.0% and 17.3%, respectively. Similar patterns were observed for rectal cancer. Stage distribution of colon and rectal cancers by age varied across countries with marked survival differences for patients with metastatic disease and diagnosed at older ages (irrespective of stage). Conclusions Survival disparities for colon and rectal cancer across high-income countries are likely explained by earlier diagnosis in some countries and differences in treatment for regional and distant disease, as well as older age at diagnosis. Differences in cancer registration practice and different staging systems across countries may have impacted the comparisons.


Introduction:
 The Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (K-MFDS) has authorized over 110 artificial intelligence (AI)-software as medical devices (AI-SaMDs) for diagnostic purposes. Herein, we clinically validate the efficacy of a three-tier cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk stratification system developed using Reti-CVD, an AI-SaMD that utilizes retinal images to estimate CVD risk. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of RetiCVD in predicting future CVD risk based on retrospective analysis of a prior prospective cohort study.

 Methods:
 This clinical study was a single-center, retrospective, conformity-design, confirmatory analysis of prior prospective cohort study. For primary endpoint, retinal images were evaluated by Reti-CVD to validate its three-tier CVD risk stratification system. For secondary endpoints, cardiac CT-measured coronary artery calcium (CAC, 0, >0-100, and >100), carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT, <90
 th
 and ≥90
 th
 percentile), and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV, <1800 and ≥1800 cm/s) were also measured as independent variables for future CVD risk. The cumulative incidence of non-fatal and/or fatal CVD events was evaluated. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the hazard ratios (HR) trends.

 Results:
 In this clinical cohort (n=1106), 33 (3.0%) participants had non-fatal or fatal CVD events over 5 years, and RetiCVD scores were significantly associated with increased CVD risk (HR trend=2.02, 95% CI, 1.26-3.24). In a multivariable Cox model incorporating RetiCVD scores, CAC, CIMT, baPWV, and other traditional risk factors, RetiCVD scores for the high-risk tier were significantly associated with increased CVD risk (low risk as a reference; HR=3.56 [1.34-9.51] in high risk), while other biomarkers showed trends toward association: CAC showed a HR of 2.45 [0.88-6.84] in CAC of >100 compared to zero CAC (reference); CIMT showed a HR of 1.50 (0.64-3.51) in CIMT of ≥90
 th
 percentile compared to <90
 th
 percentile; and baPWV showed a HR of 1.27 (0.53-3.03) in baPWV of ≥1800 compared to <1800 cm/s.

 Conclusions:
 This is the first K-MFDS approved AI-software that can potentially stratify future risk as biomarkers, which can have major implications such as identifying high-risk individuals.


With the booming development of information technology, text information is not only remained in paper-based forms, but also in digital forms which have been distributed all over internet. Massive information on the internet provides us so many options while at the same time makes it hard for us to choose which detail information we exactly need. The appearance of media monitoring is going to change the situation and help solve the problem. Meltwater group as a media monitoring company provides a service of tracking and sorting information to enterprises and help them to achieve business goals. These goals may include finding the best time or place to do business campaign and knowing the dynamic information about the competitors.There is a recommender system in Meltwater. When a query has been searched, the corresponding documents which are searched from the database will be presented. The problem for the system is that some of the documents have beenturned out to be misclassified and the correctness rate for the recommendation isnot that high. To help solve this problem and make the search better, this paper will introduce a new algorithm which is based on word embedding approach and users' supervision. The background information of Meltwater group and its existing frame of recommender system will be specifically illustrated at the beginning of the paper. Followed by it will be the exploration of background methods which include LSA (Latent Semantic Analysis), Random Indexing and Word2vec. Besides, the necessary tools such as T-SNE, K-means clustering and hierarchy clustering will also be mentioned in this part.The data sets that are going to be used in this paper will be described after thepart of background methods. Information such as the introduction of the data and the dealing of it will be mentioned in a detail way. The description of the algorithm will appear in the middle of the paper with detail steps. Followed by it is the evaluation. The algorithm will be evaluated by using several different data sets and the confusion matrix will be used as a means of measurement. Finally, a summary of the method as well as future suggestions will be made at the end of the paper.


Real-space renormalization-group techniques for quantum systems can be divided into two basic categories - those capable of representing correlations following a simple boundary (or area) law, and those which are not. I discuss the scaling of the accuracy of gapped systems in the latter case and analyze the resultant spatial anisotropy. It is apparent that particular points in the system, that are somehow `central' in the renormalization, have local quantities that are much closer to the exact results in the thermodynamic limit than the system-wide average. Numerical results from the tree-tensor network and tensor renormalization-group approaches for the 2D transverse-field Ising model and 3D classical Ising model, respectively, clearly demonstrate this effect.


Large X-ray surveys are a powerful tool to study the large-scale structure (LSS) of the Universe. The scientific impact of LSS studies using active galactic nuclei (AGN)
in X-ray surveys can be significantly increased by conducting wider and deeper X-ray surveys and studying the surface brightness fluctuations of the unresolved cosmic X-ray background (CXB).

In the first part of this Thesis, we have investigated the prospects of using the AGN sample to be detected by the upcoming eROSITA all-sky survey (eRASS) for LSS studies. We show that eRASS will detect about 3 million AGN in the 0.5-2.0 keV band. This will result in a ~30 times larger number of sources and a ~30 times better sensitivity than its 25 year old predecessor, the ROSAT all-sky survey (RASS). We show that this unprecedented AGN sample will have a median luminosity of ~10^44 erg/s, which is typical for the entire AGN population in this energy band. It will have a median redshift of z ~ 1 and approximately 40% of the objects will be in the redshift range of z = 1-2, where the bulk of the X-ray emission of AGN is produced. About 10^4 - 10^5 AGN are predicted to be beyond redshift z = 3 and about 2 000 - 30 000 beyond z = 4, which will potentially include some of the earliest AGN in the Universe. We demonstrate that, given these unique properties, the eRASS-AGN sample will be able to significantly improve our current knowledge of the AGN spatial density as a function of redshift and luminosity over a wide range of cosmic time. Further, we show that it will enable us, for the first time, to perform detailed redshift- and luminosity-resolved studies of the clustering strength of X-ray selected AGN. All these measurements will dramatically improve our understanding of the growth of supermassive black holes over cosmic time and its implications for galaxy evolution. We demonstrate for the first time that, given the breadth and depth of eRASS, it will be possible to use AGN as a cosmological probe via baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements. We will be able to convincingly detect BAOs in the currently uncharted redshift range of z ~ 1-2, which will improve the constraints on the current cosmological model.

In the second part of this Thesis, we have conducted the most accurate measurement to date of the brightness fluctuations of the unresolved CXB in the 0.5-2.0 keV band for angular scales of ~2' we measure a significant excess with up to an order of magnitude difference in comparison to the standard AGN clustering model. We demonstrate that an instrumental origin can be excluded. However, we also show that the excess can neither be explained with any known X-ray source population by looking at strength of its clustering signal and the shape of its energy spectrum. It might be caused by more than one type of source but the dominant source appears to have extragalactic origin. Finally, we make predictions on how eRASS will be able to advance the studies of the unresolved CXB.


The epidermal growth factor (EGF) homologues encoded by vaccinia virus, myxoma virus, and malignant rabbit fibroma virus have been shown to contribute to the pathogenicity of virus infection upon inoculation of susceptible hosts. However, since the primary structures of these growth factors and the disease profiles induced by different poxvirus genera vary substantially, the degree to which the various EGF homologues perform similar roles in viral pathogenesis remains unclear. In order to determine whether different EGF-like growth factors can perform qualitatively similar functions in the induction of myxomatosis in rabbits, we created recombinant myxoma virus variants in which the native growth factor, myxoma growth factor (MGF), was disrupted and replaced with either vaccinia virus growth factor, Shope fibroma growth factor, or rat transforming growth factor alpha. Unlike the control virus containing an inactivated MGF gene, which caused marked attenuation of the disease syndrome and substantially less proliferation of the epithelial cell layers in the conjunctiva and respiratory tract, the recombinant myxoma virus strains expressing heterologous growth factors produced infections which were both clinically and histopathologically indistinguishable from wild-type myxomatosis. We conclude that these poxviral and cellular EGF-like growth factors, which are diverse with respect to primary structure and origin, have similar biological functions in the context of myxoma virus pathogenesis and are mitogenic for the same target cells.


The aim of the studies presented in this thesis was the search for niche differentiation between the ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in aquatic environments. Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria are chemolitho-autotrophic microorganisms responsible for the first, mostly rate-limiting step of the nitrification process, i.e. the conversion of ammonia into nitrite. The recent development of molecular techniques had overcome the difficulties inherent to the classic cultivation-based methods applied to these slow-growing bacteria. Finally, a large diversity of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria has been uncovered in several aquatic environments. However, only a few studies focused on niche differentiation between these bacteria within the same estuarine or freshwater environment. The studies reported in this thesis demonstrated the existence of an intriguing niche differentiation between ammonia-oxidizing bacteria driven by different factors, such as ammonia and oxygen availability, salinity, tidal regime, physical-chemical characteristics of the substrate for the biofilm formation and anthropogenic influences. In particular, in shallow freshwater lakes dominated by submerged macrophytes ammonia-oxidizing bacteria appeared to utilize the epiphyton as a niche in addition to the benthic and pelagic compartments (Chapters II and III). The molecular detection of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria on the leaves of submerged macrophytes, like Potamogeton pectinatus, is the first time ever to be reported (Chapter II and III). Diversity, numbers and activity of benthic, pelagic and epiphytic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria was influenced by the characteristics of both the compartments and the lakes in which the samples were collected (Chapter III). Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria showed higher diversity, numbers and activity in the benthic compartment in comparison to the pelagic compartment (Chapter III). Members of the Nitrosomonas oligotropha lineage dominated the pelagic compartment and were present in the benthic section together with members of the clusters 0 and 3 of the Nitrosospira lineage. The epiphyton was colonized by both pelagic and benthic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria. The dynamics of colonization of the epiphyton by benthic and pelagic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria were investigated in a microcosm experiment (Chapter IV). Results showed that benthic ammonia oxidizers colonized the surface of the macrophytes both during the sprouting of the tubers and the resuspension of sediment particles. Moreover, being attached to the macrophytes surface appeared to be favorable for pelagic species that were otherwise not detectable in their original compartment. Restoration procedures applied to the lakes in the past at different intensities, appeared to influence the overall fitness of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria negatively (Chapter III). Briefly, the best restored lake, i.e. Lake Nuldernauw, nowadays colonized by a Charophytes meadow showed the lowest diversity, numbers and potential activity of ammonia-oxidizing cells. The influence of anthropogenic inputs on the niche differentiation of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria was also shown in a study along a freshwater-estuarine gradient in addition to the effects of salinity as well as ammonia and oxygen availability (Chapter V). Salinity showed to be a steering factor for the succession from salt-sensitive to salt-tolerant ammonia-oxidizing species in freshwater sediment during a microcosm experiment with controlled environmental perturbations (Chapter VI). Finally, the studies presented in this thesis contributed to the knowledge on the niche differentiation between ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in freshwater and estuarine ecosystems by describing the epiphyton of submerged macrophytes as a novel niche for ammonia oxidizers and by describing the response of these bacteria to natural and anthropogenic environmental perturbations.


The causality debate surrounding the social health gradient is not a boxing match in which a knockout blow will eventually be delivered. In middle and at older ages, there are pronounced effects of new health events on household income and wealth, but it is an open question how much earlier in the life-cycle such a sweeping statement is true. While economic resources also appear to impact health outcomes, this may be most acute during childhood and early adulthood when health levels and trajectories are being established. Innovative methods that help isolate economic and health shocks would be informative on this vexing issue of causality. Economists have already used 'natural experiments' such as lotteries to isolate wealth effects. On the health side, clinical trials—which often contain tens of thousands of observations—have focused on the efficacy of treatment and on health outcomes. These trials could be expanded to include more economic content so that the impacts of health on economic status can be measured. These issues are important and economists should participate in the verdict that will eventually be rendered. Keywords : health expenditure, income, relationship, household


The work aimed at studying a novel topical niosomal gel formulation of hydroxychloroquine for the management of oral lichen planus. Niosomes have been reported as conceivable vesicles to deliver drug molecules to the desired mucous membrane or skin layers. Hydroxychloroquine niosomes were designed using different methods of preparation. Tween 20 and cholesterol in molar ratio (1:0.5) were used. The prepared systems were characterized for entrapment efficiency, particle size and in vitro drug release. Different factors affecting the encapsulation of hydroxychloroquine in niosomes were studied vs. varying the type of surfactant, the cholesterol:surfactant molar ratio and the amount of the drug. The selected noisome formulation was dispersed in different gel formulations and evaluated according to the in vitro drug release and the physical stability. The results showed that the type of surfactant, cholesterol ratio and incorporated amount of drug altered the entrapment efficiency and the in vitro release of hydroxychloroquine from niosomes. The optimum formulation was prepared by reverse phase evaporation technique using Brij 98:cholesterol molar ratio (1:1.5) and containing 20 mg of hydroxychloroquine and incorporated in 20% w/v Pluronic F-127 gel. A doubleblind, controlled clinical study was performed using two groups of patients. Group A (n = 11) who received hydroxychloroquine niosomal gel formulation, one application-a-day over 4 months showed 64.28% reduction in the size of lesions and the average score of pain was reduced from to Compared to placebo group B (n = 5), who showed only 3.94% reduction in the lesion size and the average score of pain was remained Our results suggest that these niosomal formulations could constitute a promising approach for the topical treatment of oral lichen planus in short time with less side effects and no recurrence after stopping the treatment. International journal of pharmaceutics 2013, December Abstract


Introduction. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the demand for prehospital emergency care in different countries. Objective. The aim of the present study was to identify the variables associated with psychiatric calls to the Prehospital Emergency Care Services (PECS) in the province of Malaga. Method. An observational retrospective study based on calls made to the PECS and registered in the computerized database of the Coordination Emergency Centre during one year (N = 163 331). Independent variables included 1. sociodemographic variables: sex and age; and 2. variables related with the characteristics of each call: time of day, type of day, time of year, caller identification, number of resources needed, number of patients attended and type of solution. The χ 2 test was used to compare of the variables. A multivariant logistic regression analysis was also carried out. Results. Psychiatric calls accounted for 7% of the total calls and were associated with: younger age, female gender, calls made in the evenings and afternoons, a lower number of patients attended, the call being performed by other individual calling on the patient's behalf, and no ambulance transportation. Discussion and conclusion. The calls concerned with mental health problems have specific characteristics which need to be taken into account in order to provide a better care for psychiatric patients.


The problem of Approximate Maximum Inner Product (AMIP) search has received increasing attention due to its wide applications. Interestingly, based on asymmetric transformation, the problem can be reduced to the Approximate Nearest Neighbor (ANN) search, and hence leverage Locality-Sensitive Hashing (LSH) to find solution. However, existing asymmetric transformations such as L2-ALSH and XBOX, suffer from large distortion error in reducing AMIP search to ANN search, such that the results of AMIP search can be arbitrarily bad. In this paper, we propose a novel Asymmetric LSH scheme based on Homocentric Hypersphere partition (H2-ALSH) for high-dimensional AMIP search. On the one hand, we propose a novel Query Normalized First (QNF) transformation to significantly reduce the distortion error. On the other hand, by adopting the homocentric hypersphere partition strategy, we can not only improve the search efficiency with early stop pruning, but also get higher search accuracy by further reducing the distortion error with limited data range. Our theoretical studies show that H2-ALSH enjoys a guarantee on search accuracy. Experimental results over four real datasets demonstrate that H2-ALSH significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art schemes.


Background and Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine the patterns of patient teach-back experience (also known as "interactive communication loop") and determine its association with risk for diabetic complications and hospitalization, and health expenditures among individuals with diabetes. Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 2901 US adults aged 18 years or older with a confirmed diagnosis of diabetes was conducted using data from the 2011 to 2016 Longitudinal Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Survey-design adjusted multivariable models were used to examine whether having patient teach-back experience at the baseline year (Year 1) is associated with development of diabetic complications, hospitalization, and health expenditure at follow-up year (Year 2). Health expenditures were adjusted for inflation and expressed in 2017 US dollars. All adjusted models included patient sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Results: Analyses found that patients with teach-back experience were less likely to develop diabetic complications (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 0.70; 95% CI, 0.52–0.96) and be admitted to the hospital due to diabetic complications (AOR, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.29–0.88) at 1-year followup. Patients having teach-back experience also had a significantly smaller increase in total expenditures of $1920 compared with those not having teach-back of $3639 (a differential change of −$1579; 95% CI, −$1717 to −$1443; P < .001). Conclusions: Teach-back could be an effective communication strategy that has potential to improve health outcomes, resulting in savings in diabetes care.


In non-immunocompromised children, infections with mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) are rare, except for cervical lymphadenitis. We report here a 34-month-old boy who developed osteomyelitis and septic arthritis due to MAC. No findings could be revealed for immunodeficiency. He was treated successfully for 12 months with combined therapy consisting of clarithromycin, rifabutin and protionamid.


LEGAL ASPECTS OF OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY. Bridgit Dimond. Blackwell Science, 1997. 372pp. £16.99. ISBN 0 632040742. At a time when legal and ethical issues are becoming more and more prominent in the day-to-day practice of occupational therapists, this text provides an essential resource. It is sensitive to the lay person who has limited knowledge of the structure of the English legal system and the associated legal terminology. The range of information attempts to address the work, specific client groups and the different environments in which an occupational therapist might practise. Additionally, it focuses on legal issues of management, employment, education and research. . The accountability of the occupational therapist in civil and criminal proceedings gives valuable insight into the expectations of the legal system. The book is divided into sections, each made up of several chapters. The introductory chapter explores the philosophy, knowledge and skills of occupational therapy, thus providing a baseline for the subsequent chapters. The current and future position of occupational therapy within the health and social care context is highlighted with reference to the Blom-Cooper report. Several chapters are dedicated to client-centred care, specific client groups, management and specialist topics. Within these chapters there is thorough analysis of the rights of the client, the issues specific to the situation and statutory regulation. One of the specialist topics focuses on complementary medicine. This adds significantly to the debate about the standards of practice and the use of complementary therapies by occupational therapists. Throughout the text there are case examples, summaries of statutes, rights and regulations. Each chapter contains questions and exercises for the reader which could provide valuable staff or student discussion. The author has attempted to address the legal responsibilities for occupational therapists within a variety of care situations, including private practice, and has shown considerable insight into the work of the profession and the legal information essential to practice. The profession has been waiting for a book that addressed the important issues of the law and practice. This book clearly fulfils the need and should be an essential purchase and point of reference for all occupational therapists and students. Anne Candelin, Principal Lecturer, University College of Ripon and York St John.


Nanocrystalline antimony chalcogenides belong to a class of materials that offer significant potential for photovoltaics, display and lighting applications. However, a lack of synthetic methodologies that allow facile solution-based access to these nanomaterials currently restricts their practical use. Herein, a new synthetic route for the controlled preparation of antimony selenide nanostructures through colloidal chemistry is reported. A collection of nanostructures ranging from nanorods and nanocrystals to hollow spheres was successfully synthesized through the reported methodology, for which the morphological control during the particle formation was accomplished through both modulation of ligand chemistry for passivating the nanocrystal surface and accurate adjustment of the precursor ratio.


The physical and functional interaction between the transcription factor p53 and its negative regulatory partner protein Hdm2 (Mdm2 in mouse) is a key point of convergence of multiple signaling pathways that regulates cell proliferation and survival. hdm2 mRNA transcription is induced by p53, forming the basis of an auto-regulatory feedback loop. Growth and survival factor-activated Ras-Raf-MEK-ERK signaling can also regulate Hdm2 expression independently of p53, contributing to the pro-survival effect of these factors. In murine fibroblasts, this occurs through the regulation of mdm2 mRNA transcription. Here we show that, in human breast cancer epithelial cells, MEK-dependent regulation of Hdm2 expression also occurs at a post-transcriptional level. Pharmacological blockade of MEK activity in T47D cells inhibits Hdm2 protein synthesis by 80–90%. This occurs in the absence of changes in the expression of the major hdm2-P1 mRNA transcript and only an ∼40% reduction in hdm2-P2 transcript levels. The amounts of both transcripts that are associated with polyribosomes and are, hence, being actively translated are reduced by >80% by the MEK inhibitor, U0126. We show here that this is due to the inhibition of hdm2 mRNA export from the nucleus when MEK activity is inhibited. In MCF-7 breast cancer cells that express wild-type p53, Hdm2 is required to suppress p53-dependent transcription when MEK kinase is active. Regulation of the nuclear export of hdm2 mRNA provides, therefore, a mechanism whereby mitogen-stimulated cells avoid p53-dependent cell cycle arrest or apoptosis by maintaining the dynamic equilibrium of the Hdm2-p53 feedback loop.


Environmentally sound greenhouse production requires that: demand for market products is understood; greenhouse design addresses the climate circum-stances; input resources are available and consumed efficiently, and; there must be a reasonable balance of production products to the environmental impacts from system. Engineering greenhouse production systems to meet these requirements must include: a cost-effective and structurally sound facility; various sub-systems controlled to interact harmoniously together; and educated and experienced system operators. The major components of the environmentally sound greenhouse are: Super-structure and glazing (for a specific location and climate conditions); Climate control sub-systems (ventilation, heating, cooling, CO2 control, pest protection, energy conservation, shading/lighting); Monitoring and control (for system operations data; decision-support systems; and, operations control procedures); Automation systems (for quality control, and effective resource utilization); and Crop nutrient delivery system (for control of plant root zone environment). Effective greenhouse engineering design, operations and management, must incorporate input from academic, private and public sectors of society. Therefore this team of researchers, educators, industry/ business, and experienced crop production operators has cooperated to include a current real-world applications perspective to the presentation. Greenhouse produc¬tion systems are described that not only include the fundamentals for success, but also the combination of sub-systems, at appropriate technological levels to meet the design requirements and restrictions for success. The collaborators on this presentation have capabilities and experiences of successful greenhouse production systems from around the world that range from simple, low-input systems to highly complex production systems. Our goal is to emphasize the current basics of greenhouse design, and to support the symposium about greenhouse production systems for people.


Many studies have implicated the basal ganglia in the suppression of action impulses ('stopping'). Here, we discuss recent neurophysiological evidence that distinct hypothesized processes involved in action preparation and cancellation can be mapped onto distinct basal ganglia cell types and pathways. We examine how movement-related activity in the striatum is related to a 'Go' process and how going may be modulated by brief epochs of beta oscillations. We then describe how, rather than a unitary 'Stop' process, there appear to be separate, complementary 'Pause' and 'Cancel' mechanisms. We discuss the implications of these stopping subprocesses for the interpretation of the stop-signal reaction time—in particular, some activity that seems too slow to causally contribute to stopping when assuming a single Stop processes may actually be fast enough under a Pause-then-Cancel model. Finally, we suggest that combining complementary neural mechanisms that emphasize speed or accuracy respectively may serve more generally to optimize speed–accuracy trade-offs. This article is part of the themed issue 'Movement suppression: brain mechanisms for stopping and stillness'.


We have isolated 145 fertile mutants of C. elegons that are defective in egg laying and have characterized 59 of them genetically, behaviorally and pharmacologically. These 59 mutants define 40 new genes called egl, for egg-laying abnormal. Most of the other mutants are defective in previously identified genes. The egl mutants differ with respect to the severity of their egg-laying defects and the presence of behavioral or morphological pleiotropies. We have defined four distinct categories of mutants based on their responses to the pharmacological agents serotonin and imipramine, which stimulate egg laying by wild-type hermaphrodites. These drugs test the functioning of the vulva, the vulval and uterine muscles and the hermaphrodite-specific neurons (HSNs), which innervate the vulval muscles. Mutants representing 14 egl genes fail to respond to serotonin and to imipramine and are likely to be defective in the functioning of the vulva or the vulval and uterine muscles. Four mutants (representing four different genes) lay eggs in response to serotonin but not to imipramine and appear to be egg-laying defective because of defects in the HSNs; three of these four were selected specifically for these drug responses. Mutants representing seven egl genes lay eggs in response to serotonin and to imipramine. One egl mutant responds to imipramine but not to serotonin, The remaining egl mutants show variable or intermediate responses to the drugs. Two of the HSN-defective mutants, egl-1 and her-l(n695), lack HSN cell bodies and are likely to be expressing the normally male-specific program of HSN cell death. Whereas egl-1 animals appear to be defective specifically in HSN development, her-l(n695) animals exhibit multiple morphological pleiotropies, displaying partial transformation of the sexual phenotype of many cells and tissues. At least two of the egl mutants appear to be defective in the processing of environmental signals that modulate egg laying and may define new components of the neural circuitry that control egg laying.


Cell and plastid membranes play a critical role in plant response to chilling stress. Fall color retention (chilling tolerance) of bermudagrass (Cynodon sp.) is known to vary with cultivar and management practices. A growth chamber study was conducted to characterize the lipid composition of three bermudagrasses in response to chilling stress. The grasses selected were 'Tahoma 31' (chilling-sensitive) and 'Tifway' (chilling-tolerant) interspecific hybrid bermudagrass (C. dactylon × C. transvaalensis) and 'Celebration' common bermudagrass (C. dactylon), which served as an internal standard. Plants were subjected to simulated fall conditions defined as an 8/2 °C (day/night) temperature regime with 10-hour photoperiod and evaluated for chilling response for 42 days before allowing plants to enter an apparent dormancy. Plant leaves were sampled for lipidomics analysis at 0, 14, and 42 days of chilling treatment (DOT) and again after 40 days of recovery from dormancy (during which temperatures were adjusted to mimic average spring conditions for Oklahoma). 'Tifway' demonstrated the lowest electrolyte leakage (EL) and visual discoloration at 42 DOT, while 'Tahoma 31' had the greatest EL and discoloration on the same date, and 'Celebration' was intermediate of the two. Prolonged exposure to chilling stress generally increased digalactosyldiacylglycerol and phosphatidylcholine (PC) content and decreased monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG) content, with 'Tahoma 31' showing the greatest increase in PC and decrease in MGDG. The double bond index, an indicator of fatty acid unsaturation, was greatest in 'Tifway' at 42 DOT. Each cultivar increased in fatty acid unsaturation, with Tifway demonstrating the greatest increase in MGDG unsaturation. Multivariate discriminant analysis identified six individual lipid species that contributed most to the cultivar response to chilling. These findings suggest unsaturation level of plastid lipids, particularly MGDG, is important for chilling tolerance and therefore fall color retention of bermudagrass. Furthermore, this study provides evidence that chilling tolerance can be negatively associated with freezing tolerance in bermudagrass.


Author(s): Chachad, Ravi Girish | Advisor(s): Norowolski, Susan M | Abstract: ABSTRACTPurpose: Increased sugar consumption is associated with metabolic conditions that can result in poor health outcomes. To investigate the impact of sugars such as glucose and fructose in the body, this study aims to determine the timing of effects and assess the impact of these effects. This study aims to demonstrate acute effects in metabolism as a result of sugar metabolism.Methods: Six male participants were imaged on a 3T MRI scanner at a fasted state then subsequently every hour for up to eight measurements. Between scanning sessions, they consume a 13C labeled glucose or fructose shake, have breath collected, and have blood drawn; this is repeated on a separate day to satisfy the other experimental condition. The MRI exam consists of Proton Density Fat Fraction (PDFF), proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (1H MRS), and 13C MRS. The images are processed to analyze liver volume and the spectra from the MR Spectroscopy are normalized and the peaks are quantified.Results: Liver volume is significantly different from baseline measurements at 2-, 3-, and 4-hours post-feeding with p=0.032, p=0.003, and p=0.009 respectively. Fat content is significantly different from baseline measurements at 3- and 4-hours post-feeding with p=0.026 and p=0.048 respectively. Different MR measures of fat fraction in the body produce a significant positive correlation (p=0.003). The median change of lipids (CH2) positively correlates with the median change in glycerol (p=0.011). Fat fraction does not significantly correlate with the blood measures taken, but when high choline and low choline groups are separated, new formed lipids in the blood and long-term storage of fat differ significantly, p=0.021 and p=0.03 respectively.Conclusions: Choline classification of participants resulted in a difference in new lipids in the blood and long-term storage in the liver. Low choline individuals tended to export less lipids in the blood and store more in the liver. High choline individuals exported more lipids and retained less in the liver. MR exams of the liver evaluate the health of the liver and burden to abdominal organs, whereas blood collection provided a glimpse into cardiovascular burden.


With increasing pressure for a more ecological approach to marine fisheries and environmental management, there is a growing need to understand and predict changes in marine ecosystems. Biogeochemical and physical oceanographic models are well developed, but extending these further up the food web to include zooplankton and fish is a major challenge. The difficulty arises because organisms at higher trophic levels are longer lived, with important variability in abundance and distribution at basin and decadal scales. Those organisms at higher trophic levels also have complex life histories compared to microbes, further complicating their coupling to lower trophic levels and the physical system. We discuss a strategy that builds on recent advances in modeling and observations and suggest a way forward that includes approaches to coupling across trophic levels and the inclusion of uncertainty.


An impact evaluation of a pro-poor market system development programme, 'Making Markets Work for the Poor' (M4P), poses several methodological issues for evaluators. M4P interventions intend to change the contextual conditions in which stakeholders take business decisions so that it triggers change processes in the wider social system and ultimately benefits poor people. An impact evaluation design for such a programme thus needs to be robust enough to adequately capture these systemic outcomes, acknowledging dynamic changes in intervention delivery as well as in market conditions over time. Theory-based evaluation can provide learning and accountability when it incorporates methods that allow a critical reflection on the key causal steps in an intervention's theory of change. We present our learnings about indicators and methods to reflect on the importance of the contributions to market system change of a large M4P programme in Ethiopia.


A programmable micro mirror has been used in a near infrared spectrometer in order to achieve the purpose of signal multiplexing, to solve the problem of low luminous flux when using single slit and to increase the signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. Use Hadamard Transform (HT) and programmable micro mirror as its encoding mask to detect the whole spectrum with a single detector, research and analyze the enhancement of SNR of the weak signal. First of all, the mask symbol number is fixed as 63-order based on the Hadamard Transform principle, calculate the optimal S-Matrix, and then the encoding mask has been realized by micro mirror. At last, carry out some experimental verifications as well as data analyzing, discuss the alternating spectrum signal which produce an effect on transformational algorithm, bring out the coadded upswing plan. The result shows that: the conflict of resolution and SNR can be well settled with Hadamard multiplex. The SNR can be increased by the factor of 3.5, which is identical with the theoretic result.


The introduction of computerized post-coordination has solved many of the problems of pre-coordinated subject access. However, the adoption of computerized post-coordination results in the loss of some pre-coordination benefits. Specifically, the effect of hiding terms within the context of others is lost in post-coordination which gives lead status to every document term. This results in spurious matches of terms out of context. Library patrons and Internet searchers are increasingly dissatisfied with subject access performance, in part because of unmanageably large retrieval sets. The need to enhance precision and limit the size of retrieval sets motivates this work which proposes partial coordination, an approach which incorporates the advantages of computer search with the ability of pre-coordination to limit spurious partial matches and thereby enhance precision.


By 27 months of age, toddlers hearing a novel verb in transitive syntax are able to (1) establish an initial representation for the verb based on its syntactic properties alone, even in the absence of a relevant visual scene, and (2) retrieve this representation later when a candidate causative referent comes into view. This ability is important considering that over 60% of the verbs that mothers produce in conversations with their children refer to events that are not currently observable. Here, we advance this finding in two ways. First, we demonstrate the same ability in 21-month-olds, who do not yet show mastery of transitive structures in their own productions. Second, we use analyses of toddlers' eye gaze to explore the time-course with which they process the novel verb and assign its referent when candidate scenes become available. These results (1) provide the first evidence that 21-month-olds establish a representation of a novel verb's meaning from syntax alone, and (2) establish that they process and assign meaning to novel verbs with a similar time-course to that for novel nouns. The findings are thus relevant to our understanding of both word learning and lexical processing of novel words.


Blind super-resolution (SR) methods aim to generate a high quality high resolution image from a low resolution image containing unknown degradations. However, natural images contain various types and amounts of blur: some may be due to the inherent degradation characteristics of the camera, but some may even be intentional, for aesthetic purposes (e.g. Bokeh effect). In the case of the latter, it becomes highly difficult for SR methods to disentangle the blur to remove, and that to leave as is. In this paper, we propose a novel blind SR framework based on kernel-oriented adaptive local adjustment (KOALA) of SR features, called KOALAnet, which jointly learns spatially-variant degradation and restoration kernels in order to adapt to the spatially-variant blur characteristics in real images. Our KOALAnet outperforms recent blind SR methods for synthesized LR images obtained with randomized degradations, and we further show that the proposed KOALAnet produces the most natural results for artistic photographs with intentional blur, which are not over-sharpened, by effectively handling images mixed with in-focus and out-of-focus areas.


This paper is aimed to examine the effects of scaffolding on the development of higher-order thinking skills as evidenced in the academic writing of undergraduates at tertiary levels in the university education system. A lot of empirical research so far has examined the applicability of scaffolding in acquiring writing skills; however, few of them have studied the motivational aspect of scaffolding and its impact on the acquisition of writing skills of English as foreign language (EFL) learners. This study argues both motivational and demotivational factors with respect to scaffolding. During this study, the learner's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) in accordance with Vygotsky's principles shall also be studied to determine whether the learners in the process of writing are following teacher's implicit instructions and teachers are dealing appropriately with the deployment of scaffolding techniques. References shall be drawn from the findings of Nunan (1991) who felt a positive feedback functions as an incentive to students and fairly motivates them and those of Ellis (2008; 2010; 2012; 2013) who apprehended that a negative feedback may be "potentially dangerous" to students and can damage their receptivity to learning. The findings of the study bear evidence of how the teachers, as well as the learners, follow similar patterns in understanding the scaffolding technique in the acquisition of writing skills.


The effect of maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (MAPP) coupling agents on properties of a new composite made of recycled carbon fibers and recycled polypropylene (rCF/[rPP + MAPP]) was studied experimentally. This new material presented significantly improved properties, compared to the previous generation, without the addition of MAPP (Giannadakis K, Szpieg M and Varna J. Mechanical performance of recycled carbon fibre/PP. Exp Mech 2010; published online.). This was mostly attributed to improvement of the fiber/matrix interface. The inelastic and time-dependent behavior of the MAPP modified composite material in tension was analyzed. A series of quasi-static tensile and creep tests were performed to identify the material model, which accounts for: (a) damage-related stiffness reduction, (b)development of stress and time-dependent irreversible strains described as viscoplasticity, (c) nonlinear viscoelastic behavior. The damage-related stiffness reduction was found to be less than 10%. Although damage-dependent stiffness was not the main source of nonlinearity, it was included in the inelastic material model. In creep tests, it was found that the time and stress dependence of viscoplastic strains follows a power law, which makes the determination of the parameters in the viscoplasticity model relatively simple. The viscoelastic response of the composite was found to be linear in the investigated stress domain. The material model was validated in constant stress rate tensile tests.


It is important to investigate potential changes in temperature, precipitation and solar radiation for assessing the impacts of future climate change on agricultural production for specific regions. In this study, climate scenarios of precipitation, temperature and solar radiation for the North China Plain (NCP) were constructed in terms of stochastic daily weather sequences. A nonhomogeneous hidden Markov model (NHMM) was used to downscale daily precipitation projections at 32 stations during winter wheat and summer maize growing seasons for a baseline (1966–2005) and a 21st century (2080–2099) A1B scenario, using selected general circulation models (GCMs). A climatological seasonal cycle of regional‐averaged daily reanalysis precipitation was used as input to the down‐scaling for the baseline simulation; this input was then scaled by the precipitation changes from GCM projections to generate down‐scaled stochastic simulations of precipitation in the 21st century. Temperature was generated using a weakly stationary generating process, conditional on precipitation occurrence, with 21st century additive changes taken from the GCMs at the regional scale. Three hypotheses about changes in solar radiation (−20%, 0% and 20%) were made considering the large uncertainty in its future change. The down‐scaled simulations exhibit station increases in the mean daily rainfall of 13.9–69.7% in the scenarios driven by the GCM with the projected largest and multi‐model mean precipitation increase for the wheat season, with changes of 0.4–29.9% for the maize season. In the scenario driven by the GCM with the largest projected precipitation decrease, the simulated rainfall decreases at all stations, with changes ranging from −24.6 to −0.1% for the wheat and maize seasons, respectively. Temperature increases by about 3.7 °C for the wheat season and 3.6 °C for the maize season.


BACKGROUND & AIMS
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) reduces the risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) in patients with Barrett's esophagus (BE) with high-grade dysplasia (HGD), but its effects in patients without dysplasia are debatable. We analyzed the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of RFA for the management of BE.

METHODS
We constructed a decision analytic Markov model. We conducted separate analyses of hypothetical cohorts of patients with BE with dysplasia (HGD or low-grade [LGD]) and without dysplasia. In the analysis of the group with HGD, we compared results of initial RFA with endoscopic surveillance with surgery when cancer was detected. In analyzing the group with LGD or no dysplasia, we compared 3 strategies: endoscopic surveillance with surgery when cancer was detected (S1), endoscopic surveillance with RFA when HGD was detected (S2), and initial RFA followed by endoscopic surveillance (S3).

RESULTS
Among patients with HGD, initial RFA was more effective and less costly than endoscopic surveillance. Among patients with LGD, when S3 was compared with S2, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was $18,231/quality-adjusted life-year, assuming an annual rate of progression rate from LGD to EAC of 0.5%/year. For patients without dysplasia, S2 was more effective and less costly than S1. In a comparison of S3 with S2, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were $205,500, $124,796, and $118,338/quality-adjusted life-year using annual rates of progression of no dysplasia to EAC of 0.12%, 0.33%, or 0.5% per year, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
By using updated data, initial RFA might not be cost effective for patients with BE without dysplasia, within the range of plausible rates of progression of BE to EAC, and be prohibitively expensive, from a policy perspective. RFA might be cost effective for confirmed and stable LGD. Initial RFA is more effective and less costly than endoscopic surveillance in HGD.


Urban streetscapes are outdoor areas in which the general public can appreciate green landscapes and engage in outdoor activities along the street. This study tested the extent to which the degree of awareness of urban street trees impacts attention restoration and perceived restorativeness. We manipulated the degree of awareness of street trees. Participants were placed into four groups and shown different images: (a) streetscapes with absolutely no trees; (b) streetscapes with flashes of trees in which participants had minimal awareness of the content; (c) streetscapes with trees; and (d) streetscapes with trees to which participants were told to pay attention. We compared the performance of 138 individuals on measures of attention and their evaluations of perceived restorativeness. Two main findings emerged. First, streetscapes with trees improved the performance of participants on attentional tests even without their awareness of the trees. Second, participants who had raised awareness of street trees performed best on the attentional test and rated the streetscapes as being more restorative. These findings enhance our knowledge about the role of an individual's awareness of restorative elements and have implications for designers and individuals who are at risk of attentional fatigue.


Social media, such as microblogging, is a potentially powerful medium through which the city and its citizens can connect, particularly during times of crisis or extreme events. Yet neither the city nor its citizens are monolithic entities. We propose methods to integrate geographic, topical, and social information and behavior to improve situational understanding throughout the city, and enable more effective public and official response. We demonstrate this approach using Twitter data from the 2011 London riots.


Recent literature has proposed multivariate capability indices, but does not suggest a method for measuring quality characteristics in a way that links production irregularities directly to their causes. Our objective is to present a new approach to multivariate capability indices that uses process-oriented basis representation (POBREP) which allows the computing of cause-related index values. The proposed method focuses on independent process-oriented multivariate data by employing regression coefficients as data. These coefficients measure the amount of the characteristic patterns induced by particular problems or incidents that can occur in the system. Two examples from the electronics industry (the chip capacitor process and solder paste process) use simulated data and Monte Carlo integration to demonstrate the new process-oriented capability method. A reduction of estimation error was realized when using process-oriented capability. For the chip capacitor problem, capability error is 24–54% when using ordinary multivariate data. However, when using process-oriented data the error is less than 3%. Capability is difficult to compute from sample data in the solder paste example without the process-oriented approach. Future research should propose a multivariate capability measure for dependent process-oriented data.


The large system analysis of randomly spread direct-sequence code-division multiple-access systems operating over frequency-selective fading channels is considered. Iterative multiuser detection and decoding (MUDD) based on generalized posterior mean estimation and single-user sum-product decoding is assumed to be used at the receiver. The channel state information (CSI) at the MUDD is mismatched and obtained by a linear channel estimator whose initial decisions are iteratively refined with the help of information feedback provided by the MUDD. Furthermore, a new training method by means of probability-biased signaling is proposed. The results indicate that in the large system limit and under certain threshold loads, a near single-user performance with perfect CSI can be achieved using a vanishing training overhead. It is also found that for the considered setups, the iterative linear minimum mean square error based channel estimator is near optimal for relatively slowly time-varying multipath fading channels.


The detection of oestrogen and progesterone receptor (ER and PgR) levels in human breast carcinoma has traditionally been performed using a biochemical radioligand binding method. This method has

several disadvantages including the requirement for generous tissue samples, the production of radioac- tive waste products and the inability to exclude non-malignant cellular material from the assay process. An alternative method for detecting hormone receptors is available with the use of a monoclonal antibody specific for the ER or PgR receptor using immunocytochemical assay (ER-ICA or PgR-ICA). Although designed for use on frozen section material, with modifications this method can be used on

paraffin sections of routinely fixed and processed tissue, on archival material and on very small specimens. Further, an objective assessment or scoring of staining intensity is possible using computerized video-image analysis.

Forty-three cases of primary breast carcinoma, treated from 1989 to 1991 at Goulburn Valley Base Hospital, Shepparton were assessed for ER and PgR content using both the radioligand method and

immunohistochemistry with video-image analysis, and the results were compared. Of the 43 cases, ER- ICA and ER had a concordance of 81% (P < 0.001, r = 0.58) and in 39 cases, PgR and PgR-ICA had a

concordance of 87% (P < 0.001, r = 0.54). Because the sample for radioligand assay is of uncertain composition and the immunohistochemical stain can be scored specifically for malignant epithelium, a

degree of discordance is thought to be mostly attributable to the limitations of the radioligand assay.


This paper describes the organizational characteristics, benefits, referral, utilization, and costs of mental health services within 17 health maintenance organization (HMOs) comprising The HMO Group in 1990. All 17 health plans responded to the questionnaire, resulting in a 100% response rate. Responses to the survey reflected the complexity of the HMO mental health services field. Overall, The HMO Group members provided mental health service coverage, partly dependent upon state mandates, employer group priorities, and local competitive benefit structures. HMOs reported that service utilization rates and the productivity of their mental health providers were critical information needs. Overall, the responses reflected the need for continued information sharing between The HMO Group members, the modification of management information systems, and continuation of establishing a mental health aggregate data base.


Alumina, with high melting point (2050°C), high hardness and mechanical strength, and excellent abrasion resistance, is one of the most common raw materials used in self-flow refractory castables (SFRC) for monolithic linings and is commercially available in various fine to coarse size classes. However, the performance of the refractory lining depends not only on the properties of its ingredients but also on its easy installation (good flowability). The aim of this work was to evaluate the relationship between the flowability index (FI) of fresh castable and the specific surface area (SSA) of its particles, which is mostly determined by the finer particles content. The results obtained showed that, by controlling the proportion between matrix and aggregate, it is possible to control the SSA of the refractory castable and find a mathematical relationship between the specific surface area and the minimum flowability index required to obtain a self-flow refractory castable. It is, thus, possible to optimize the refractory castable size composition and obtain an estimate for FI as a function of SSA. Using a minimum 45 wt.% matrix content in the castable mixture, a SSA value above 2.215 m2/g is obtained, which leads to FI ≥ 80%, the recommended value for self-flow.


Estimating the 6DOF pose of objects is an important function in many applications, such as robot manipulation or augmented reality. However, accurate and fast pose estimation from 3D point clouds is challenging, because of the complexity of object shapes, measurement noise, and presence of occlusions. We address this challenging task using an end-to-end learning approach for object pose estimation given a raw point cloud input. Our architecture pools geometric features together using a self-attention mechanism and adopts a deep Hough voting scheme for pose proposal generation. To build robustness to occlusion, the proposed network generates candidates by casting votes and accumulating evidence for object locations. Specifically, our model learns higher-level features by leveraging the dependency of object parts and object instances, thereby boosting the performance of object pose estimation. Our experiments show that our method outperforms state-of-the-art approaches in public benchmarks including the Siléane dataset [35 and the Fraunhofer IPA dataset [36]. We also deploy our proposed method to a real robot pick-and-place based on the estimated pose.


This study is concerned with the contouring control for multiaxis (n-axis) motion system. The equivalent errors, consisting of n - 1 equivalent contour errors and 1 tangential error, are proposed to simplify the design of contouring controller. Instead of the actual contour error, which is, in general, a complicated function of axial positions, the equivalent errors are taken as the new control objective. The contouring control problem becomes the stabilization of the equivalent errors. To this aim, the method of integral sliding mode control is employed. The proposed method can be applied to both linear and nonlinear plants following arbitrary smooth paths. Numerical and experimental results on an XY table driven by linear motors clearly verify the theoretical analysis. An experimental comparison of the proposed method with conventional methods is also provided for an XY table driven by conventional motors. The results show that the proposed method is especially useful for high-speed contouring applications.


Background: It is reported that progestin and adipoQ receptor 4 (PAQR4) has a tumorigenic effect on human breast cancer, but the role of PAQR4 in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of PAQR4 in NSCLC. Methods: Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and immunohistchemical (IHC) staining were used to analyze the expression of PAQR4 in HCC tissues and adjacent normal tissues. MTT, colony formation assay, flow cytometry (FCM), wound healing assays and transwell invasion assays were used to investigate the effects of PAQR4 on cell proliferation, colony formation, cell cycle, migration and invasion. Murine xenograft model assay was carried out to characterize the effects of PAQR4 knockdown on tumor growth in vivo. Results: In this study, we found that the expression of PAQR4 was significantly upregulated in the NSCLC tissues of patients compared with that in the matched non-cancerous tissues. In addition, we found that PAQR4 was also significantly up-regulated in the NSCLC cell lines compared with normal human lung epithelial cells. Besides, we found that the over-expression of PAQR4 promoted promoted proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion of the NSCLC cells, whereas the knockdown of PAQR4 inhibited proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion of the NSCLC cells. Furthermore, mechanistic studies showed that the CDK4-pRB-E2F1 pathway was involved in NSCLC. Conclusion: Hence, these results suggest that PAQR4 may be used as a new target in NSCLC therapy.


Introduction: Pilots have unique regulatory and environmental visual needs. They also have certain expectations for a vision examination. We propose that optometrists' knowledge of the specific visual needs and expectations of pilots is limited. Both optometrists and pilots were surveyed to determine if the vision care needs and expectations of pilots are being met by optometrists. Methods: One hundred optometrists were surveyed about their knowledge of aviation regulations and the visual demands associated with flying. One hundred-twenty pilots were surveyed to determine their expectations for vision examinations. Results: The majority of pilots recognized the need for vision examinations beyond those provided in their flight physicals. Their major concerns were for evaluation of any medical problems, obtaining correct lens powers, sunglass tints, and information on vision enhancement. Optometrists were relatively unfamiliar with forms and procedures needed to report the results of their vision examinations to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). They were also relatively unfamiliar with the vision needs of presbyopic pilots. Few offered vision enhancement services that might be of interest to pilots. Discussion: Optometrists can better serve their pilot patients by becoming aware of vision care issues that are of interest to pilots. Also, familiarity with the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR, Part 67) would facilitate communication between optometrists and pilots. However, the responsibility for meeting the needs and expectations of the pilot does not lie entirely with the optometrist. The percentage of pilots within an optometrist's patient base may be less than one percent. Therefore, a significant responsibility lies with the pilot to educate his or her optometrist.


Deposits of large boulders above modern limits of storm waves along the coast of southern New South Wales record catastrophic wave action. The largest boulders that were moved weigh 80-90 tonnes, and the maximum height of wave action was 32 m. Hydraulic reconstruction indicates flow depths of 3.4 and perhaps > 4 m and velocities of 5.5 m/s to 10.3 m/s. Cavitation features on some rock surfaces support the estimates of maximum velocities. A remarkably limited range in the orientation of imbricated boulders along 150 km indicates that the deposits record a single event that approached from the SE. to SSE. The fabric and size of the deposits point to a tsunami wave train rather than to exceptional storm waves. The most probable source of the wave train is the Macquarie Ridge in the south Tasman Sea. An earliest Holocene age for the event is indicated by a thermoluminescence determination of 9.5ka from sand associated with one boulder deposit, and by the transport of some boulders from below present sea level.


abstract
 The present paper investigates the sense making practices of participants in interaction within the context of reception studies of advertising and explores the cognitive nature of intertextuality and interdiscursivity as evidence of conceptual integration. The paper argues that sense making, through its intertextual and interdiscursive nature, is a carrier of attitudinal disposition which is manifested in the lexical selection of evaluative items arising from conceptual integration. The data examined for this study were collected from informants in focus groups when discussing a series of printed adverts that make reference to works of art. The results of the analysis indicate that intertextuality and interdiscursivity can be seen as constituting evidence of the conceptual phenomena of blending theory in sense making from where evaluative disposition emerges. They further suggest that both are processes in the audience's sense making process rather than merely a feature of texts.


The influence of the alkyl side-chains on the electronic structures, molecular packing and charge transport for five naphthalene diimide (NDI) derivatives, four [1]benzoselenopheno[3,2-b][1]benzoselenophene (BSBS) derivatives and three [1]benzothieno[3,2-b]benzothiophene (BTBT) derivatives is systematically investigated by density functional theory calculations coupled with a tunneling enabled hopping model. The results show that the introduction of long alkyl chains does not affect the energy levels of frontier molecular orbitals and reorganization energies, but can modify the molecular packing in organic semiconductors. It is found that for the π–π stacking systems such as NDI derivatives and BSBS-C10/C14, the charge mobility decreases with alkyl chain length, which is due to the displaced stacking along the short axis of the molecular plane, while for the herringbone stacking systems such as BTBT derivatives and BSBS-C8/C12, the charge mobility increases with alkyl chain length, due to enhanced π⋯π interaction along the stacking direction and the displaced stacking along the short axis of the molecular plane, respectively.


This study investigated whether curriculum modifications predicted student and teacher behaviors related to the general education curriculum and if there were differences in ecological, student, and teacher variables depending on the presence of such curriculum modifications. The study observed 45 high school students with disabilities during instruction in core content areas. Findings indicated that there were significant differences in student and teacher variables depending on the presence of curriculum modifications. When curriculum modifications were provided, students were engaged in more academic-related responses and fewer competing behaviors and teachers were engaged in fewer classroom management activities. Implications and recommendations from these findings are provided pertaining to the importance and implementation of curriculum modifications for students with disabilities in general education settings.


Despite the ample literature on currency crises, the effect of currency crises on foreign direct investment FDI activity has been largely unexamined. This paper tests the sensitivity of three measures of U.S. outbound non-bank FDI activity to currency crises in 21 emerging economies. The findings of this analysis suggest that contrary to the common perception, currency crises do not seem to have a negative effect on FDI activity in the crisis economy. Indeed, we find some evidence that currency crises may increase FDI activity in the affected country. These results underline the stable nature of FDI relative to other types of international capital flows and as a safer mode of financing for emerging economies.


Today children who are not fluent in English--legal and illegal immigrants, refugees, and native born--are the fastest growing portion of our population, accounting for more than half the children in classrooms in many city schools. Bilingual education programs established by federal and state laws have required that such students be taught basic subjects in their native languages rather than in English. Judged by most applicable measures--such as achievement scores and dropout rates--these programs have not been successful. This edition includes new material on recent efforts to reform bilingual education, on the growing trend across the country toward English language programs, on the latest national research studies, and on the movement to make English the official language of the United States. Forked Tongue is a devastating inside account of how the twenty-eight-year experiment in bilingual education has failed our language-minority children--and why. Rosalie Porter draws on local, state, and international experience to provide us with the first authoritative account of which policies, programs, and practices actually succeed with the children they are intended to serve. Forked Tongue will be of interest to educators, sociologists, and scholars interested in second language acquisition.


This research is motivated by large scale problems in urban transportation and labor mobility where there is congestion for resources and uncertainty in movement. In such domains, even though the individual agents do not have an identity of their own and do not explicitly interact with other agents, they effect other agents. While there has been much research in handling such implicit effects, it has primarily assumed de- terministic movements of agents. We address the issue of decision support for individual agents that are identical and have involuntary movements in dynamic environments. For instance, in a taxi fleet serving a city, when a taxi is hired by a customer, its movements are uncontrolled and depend on (a) the customers requirement; and (b) the location of other taxis in the fleet. Towards addressing decision support in such problems, we make two key contributions: (a) A framework to represent the decision problem for selfish individuals in a dynamic population, where there is transitional uncertainty (involuntary movements); and (b) Two techniques (Fictitious Play for Symmetric Agent Populations, FP-SAP and Soft- max based Flow Update, SMFU) that converge to equilibrium solutions. We show that our techniques (apart from providing equilibrium strategies) outperform "driver" strategies with respect to overall availability of taxis and the revenue obtained by the taxi drivers. We demonstrate this on a real world data set with 8,000 taxis and 83 zones (representing the entire area of Singapore).


The aim of the paper is to empirically examine how perceived safety and procedural justice effect satisfaction service recovery of domestic airline passengers in Nigeria. The study uses survey method, quantitative in nature. Using PLS SEM the conceptual model was tested with a sample of 444 passengers obtained through cluster sample. From the result, both perceptions of safety and procedural justice are important to domestic airline passenger satisfaction when evaluating the airline's recovery effort in Nigeria. Empirical evidence showed that satisfaction service recovery is directly influenced by perceived safety and procedural justice.The main limitation is that the study uses cross-sectional sample of airline passengers. It also relied on information from prospective domestic airline passengers, while neglecting other type of passengers. The research shows that passengers' perception of safety, determine their satisfaction with service recovery. It shows that in situations of failure similar to the present, safety perception, procedural justice should be given preference during service recovery.The study fortifies the justice theory in service recovery of domestic airline context by including perception of safety. However, through empirical testing the perception of safety, procedural justice variables determine satisfaction with recovery. It suggests that airline industry faced with service failure need to consider the passengers' perception of safety and procedural justice during recovery.


According to the Veridicality Thesis, information encapsulates truth. An important implication of this thesis is that misinformation and disinformation are not types of information at all. The first clear formulation of the thesis is provided by Dretske (1981). Floridi (2011), a more recent defender of the Veridicality Thesis, offers two novel arguments in defense of this thesis. His first argument, the argument from splitting, is based on two different usages of adjectives: attributive and predicative. Floridi claims that 'false' in 'false information' is used attributively, which implies that 'false information' is not a kind of information. In his second argument, the argument from semantic loss of information, he argues that without the Veridicality Thesis it becomes difficult to make sense of the ordinary phenomenon of semantic erosion. The literature is lacking in a comprehensive and detailed treatment of Floridi's arguments. In particular, an analysis of his quite lengthy and technical second argument is lacking. This is what I intend to do in this paper. The conclusion of my analysis is, unfortunately, a negative one: neither of the two arguments offered by Floridi is strong enough to establish the desired conclusion. My analysis shows that the argument from splitting commits a basic fallacy, petitio principii . As for his second argument, I argue that it is possible to account for semantic erosion even without adopting the truthfulness requirement for information. In short, my analysis shows that the logical structures of Floridi's arguments are not sufficiently strong enough for establishing the Thesis.


The application of microprocessor-based phasor measurements to novel adaptive protection schemes is presented. The concepts of digital adaptive protection in which relay characteristics are modified in response to external signals and conditions in the system, are examined. The importance of real-time phasor measurements in adaptive protection systems is illustrated by two examples. The first involves obtaining synchronizing information about phasor measurements to be used for current differential protection of a multithermal line. By estimating the reference angles for the phasor measurements the effect of synchronized sampling can be obtained without the expense of synchronizing equipment. The second use is the adaptive setting of out-of-step blocking and tripping. Traditional approaches experience problems because the settings are, of necessity, compromises based on offline studies. By reacting to real-time phasor measurements from selected buses in interconnection, it is shown that improved out-of-step blocking and tripping is possible. >


In this paper, a new two-step write scheme is proposed to minimize sneak-path leakage in complementary memristor (CM) array, where no selection device is needed. When R RESET/R SET = 100, the new two-step write scheme can increase the array size of CMs 10 times larger than the conventional write. If R RESET/R SET is increased to 500, we can increase the passive array size up to 1000 × 1000 with maintaining the read sensing margin lager than 10% of VDD. The two-step write scheme will be very essential in realizing passive cross-point array without any selection device that is known to be the ideal architecture for future 3-D memories.


In a dynamically changing World, the process of educating students at universities must also change. The changes implemented, however, should be well thought out. The events of the last two years related to the pandemic have caused a global revolution in teaching methods, which have had to be modifi ed to transfer knowledge remotely. Such ad hoc changes are contributing to a change in how higher education is viewed, especially in the context of traditional fi elds of studies such as the law, which have so far been reluctant to embrace new trends in curriculum design and educational methods. Because of their natural attachment to national legal systems, these faculties have been slower than others to undergo internationalisation, i.e. student exchanges in the educational process (due to diffi culties with subjects being recognised abroad). For years, the Nordic countries, and especially Finland, have been among the leading countries in the world with regard to shaping effective and innovative systems of education, including higher education.