A utility monitoring project has evaluated radiant barrier systems (RBS) as a new potential demand site management (DSM) program. The study examined how the retrofit of attic radiant barriers can be expected to alter utility residential space conditioning loads. An RBS consists of a layer of aluminum foil fastened to roof decking or roof trusses to block radiant heat transfer between the hot roof surface and the attic below. The radiant barrier can significantly lower summer heat transfer to the attic insulation and to the cooling duct system. Both of these mechanisms have strong potential impacts on cooling energy use as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2. The pilot project involved installation of RBS in nine homes that had been extensively monitored over the preceding year. The houses varied in conditioned floor area from 939 to 2,440 square feet; attic insulation varied from R-9 to R-30. The homes had shingle roofs with varying degrees of attic ventilation. The radiant barriers were installed during the summer of 2000. Data analysis on the pre and post cooling and heating consumption was used to determine impacts on energy use and peak demand for the utility. The average cooling energy savings from the RBS retrofit was 3.6 kWh/day, or about 9%. The average reduction in summer afternoon peak demand was 420 watts (or about 16%).


In this paper a new method is shown for reconstructing binary contours from its two orthogonal projections. The paper focuses on the reconstruction of contours whose inner territory is hv-convex. Since the inner territory of the contour is hv-convex, the first and the last row and column of ones are comprised from one part, while all other rows and columns consist of two streaks of ones. An additional constraint is that all ones in the matrix have exactly two 4-neighbours. To find the solution, a branch and bound method is used which allows the cutting of the edges during tree development. The algorithm works best for smaller matrices up to size 50×50 pixels.


4-Chloro-7-nitrobenzofurazan possesses at least one highly electrophilic centre (C-6) that is much more reactive towards nucleophiles than position C-4, the irreversible alkylating site of this reagent. Possible consequences of the electrophilic character of 4-chloro-7-nitrobenzofurazan for its application as a protein-labelling reagent are discussed.


This study was carried out in Marondera District, Mashonaland East Province, Zimbabwe in 2009 and 2010 to evaluate the state of traditional medicine in the area and document views of people on whether traditional medicine could be taught at schools. Data was collected from traditional healers, medical doctors, nurses, pharmacists, A-level chemistry students, their teachers, their headmasters & heads of science departments, parents, chiefs, religious leaders, and other influential people in the district. Instruments included questionnaires, interviews, documents and observations. The state of traditional medicine was comparable to that of any other area in the country. Participants agreed to inclusion of traditional medicine in the school curricula but differed on the modalities of teaching the subject. Most traditional healers preferred to have traditional medicine taught as a separate subject whilst most members of each of the other groups of participants thought the subject would most profitably taught as part of existing science subjects. Traditional healers felt that inclusion in existing subjects would pollute their values. The other groups thought the subject would enrich science subjects for example chemistry and the mainstream medical knowledge.


Phytophthora colocasiae is a destructive fungal pathogen of taro (Colocasia esculenta), which causes taro leaf blight. This disease destroyed Samoa's taro export industry and led to local food shortages following introduction of the pathogen in 1993. In support of a Pacific regional taro resistance breeding programme, laboratory studies in New Zealand aimed to develop a leaf disc bioassay for identifying taro genotypes with disease tolerance. A medium has been developed that will retard senescence of the leaf discs for over 14 days. The rate of leaf disc infection and subsequent lesion development varied with incubation temperature, leaf age and taro cultivar. An understanding of these factors and the variation they cause has resulted in a laboratory leaf disc assay for testing resistance of different taro cultivars to taro leaf blight.


Objective:  To develop and evaluate a web-based interactive information skills tutorial integrated into the curriculum. To determine whether the tutorial was acceptable to students and explore the use of a skills assessment tool in identifying whether the tutorial improved skills.
Methods:  The development of a tutorial on OVID medline to teach transferable information skills. A small cohort study to evaluate students' views on the tutorial and its effects on information skills.
Results:  Thirteen objective assessments were usable. There was a statistically significant improvement in mean final assessment scores, compared with mean pre-training scores, F(2,14) = 11.493, P = 0.001. Eleven (85%) students had improved their overall information skills. The improvement in overall searching skills was enhanced by referral to the tutorial.
Conclusions:  The tutorial was successfully developed and integrated into a Masters programme curriculum. In this setting, it appears to reinforce active learning, and was well received by students, who developed core generic searching skills and demonstrated improved information skills in the short and longer term. Students could use the tutorial for revision and study at a time and place of their choosing. Further evaluation is required to assess the impact of using the tutorial with large groups of students, and as a stand-alone teaching medium.


chapter on the history and use of tuberculin in Lupus Vulgaris with a warning against the use of general ultraviolet light and tuberculin in the presence of pulmonary tuberculosis. Dr. Aitken is much concerned with the public health and social aspects of the disease and suggests the formation of regional Lupus centres. It is to be hoped that the recent remarkable work with Calciferol will render Lupus a much more curable and less dreaded disease than it has been, and it is a pity that the book was published just too soon to mention the new treatment.


We examined and compared findings from studies aimed at detecting and quantifying an effect of insulin per se on counter-regulatory responses to hypoglycaemia. The experimental protocols used in many of these studies were very different with regard to study design and patient population, resulting at times in inconsistencies and discrepancies. Taken together, the results from this extensive body of work clearly indicate that, at similar levels of hypoglycaemia, greater hyperinsulinaemia results in enhanced counter-regulatory responses. This enhancement includes higher circulating levels of counter-regulatory hormones (adrenaline, noradrenaline, cortisol and growth hormone, but not glucagon), more intense activation of hypoglycaemic symptoms (both neural-sympathetic and adrenal-sympathetic), and greater deterioration of neuropsychological skills. The insulin-induced enhancement of counter-regulatory responses is not influenced by gender, is present in several animal species, and applies to healthy subjects as well as to patients with Type I diabetes. The underlying mechanisms remain speculative, and possibly include a direct neuromodulatory effect and/or suppression of glucose utilization in various areas of the brain, which either independently or in a hierarchical fashion trigger the sequence of downstream counter-regulatory events.


ABSTRACT: Bottle incubations were conducted to examine how exposure to seawater containing 8000 ppm carbon dioxide (CO2; pH 6.95) influenced the growth and reproduction of the keystone copepod Calanus finmarchicus. The chosen concentration of CO2 is expected to occur over 100s of cubic kilometres of seawater as a result of marine CO2 storage/disposal, and is also representative of the predicted 'worst-case' atmospheric CO2 scenario in the year 2300. Growth (egg production and biomass loss) in adult female copepods was not affected by the simulated ocean acidification. In contrast, a maximum of only 4% of the eggs successfully yielded nauplii after 72 h in the experimental treatment. Our results demonstrate that environmental risk assessments for marine CO2 storage/disposal must look beyond adult mortality as an endpoint. Furthermore, if CO2 is to be disposed of in the deep sea, the location and timing of such activities must take into consideration the overwintering populations of C. finmarchicus.


Path checking, the special case of the model checking problem where the model
under consideration is a single path, plays an important role in monitoring,
testing, and verification. We prove that for linear-time temporal logic (LTL),
path checking can be efficiently parallelized. In addition to the core logic,
we consider the extensions of LTL with bounded-future (BLTL) and past-time
(LTL+Past) operators. Even though both extensions improve the succinctness of
the logic exponentially, path checking remains efficiently parallelizable: Our
algorithm for LTL, LTL+Past, and BLTL+Past is in AC^1(logDCFL) \subseteq NC.


A novel ultrasound multigate system, capable of computing in real-time the FFT of Doppler signals from 64 range cells, is proven suitable for detection of low blood velocities. By imposing appropriate weighting windows to the signals that are to be Fourier transformed, possible clutter components are restricted within a few frequency bins. Filtering, where really necessary, is limited to a first-order IIR HPF. Hence, most of the information related to useful Doppler frequencies are maintained. In particular, the maximum frequency of each spectrum, which is known to be related to the maximum velocity within the corresponding sample volume, turns out to be, to a large extent, unaffected by clutter. Detection of maximum frequencies from the various sample volumes is thus proposed as a reliable means to reconstruct the true profile down to velocities proximal to zero.


Spin-polarized small-angle neutron scattering (Pol-SANS) measurements for nano-crystalline Nd-Fe-B magnet have been performed in order to clarify the magnetic reversal behavior. Due to high transparency of neutron beam, magnetic and nuclear microstructures in the `bulk' can be observed by SANS. Obtained SANS patterns arising from magnetic domain changes were analyzed by Teubner-Stray model, phenomenological correlation length model, to quantify the periodicity, density and morphology of magnetic domains. The results indicate that magnetic reversal evolves with magnetic domains which have the similar size of the grains. However, even in nano-crystalline system, single domain grain reversal is not realized.


health, Dr. Spottiswoode Camiieron, lhas also sent a jetter to all miedical men, statingu that in aniy case in wlliCil the miiedical man deenms it advisable, le wvill direct that onie of tllc women inspectors slhall at onice visit the house and give suclh assistance in tlhc calrying out of his directions as may be lnecessary. The co-opcationi of tlie mneidical .profcssion is confidelntly expected, and it is lhoped tlhat the adloption of the Act will condutice to tlle lowerinia of the inifanlt iiloitality anid to the. developm-lenlt of a hliglher standard in the clhildreln of this large miianutifacturilng


The current dental environment has suffered via many dietary changes over the years; from a extra abrasive low-sugar eating regimen to a softer, extra acidic and extra sugary evolved eating regimen. This has been evidenced through the increase in dental diseases, along with caries and erosion, leading to a surge of the need for fillings and extractions. This is especially well-known in pediatric sufferers. New dietary adjustments were delivered into society, such as vegetarianism and veganism. These in flip have had an impact on the dentition, such as reduced calcium consumption from dairy merchandise in veganism and a less abrasive weight loss program in vegetarianism thru the exclusion of chewing meat.

Another essential thing in nowadays??? Society is stress. This has a big effect through wear and myofascial pain because of bruxism, irregular consuming styles that would lead to dental diseases, smoking which compromise periodontal health and the boom in consuming problems, which include bulimia, which increase the danger of dental erosion. It is the aim of this presentation to assess the anatomical modifications of the jaw; dentition and oral cavity and the progression of oral sicknesses over time as eating regimen and society have advanced.

An unhealthy food plan has been implicated as chance elements for several continual diseases that are recognized to be associated with oral illnesses. Studies investigating the connection among oral sicknesses and weight loss plan are limited. Therefore, this examine become carried out to describe the relationship among healthy eating habits and oral health popularity. The dentistry has an important role in the prognosis of oral diseases correlated with weight-reduction plan. Consistent nutrients suggestions are important to enhance fitness. A negative diet changed into extensively associated with multiplied odds of oral ailment. Dietary recommendation for the prevention of oral illnesses has to be part of recurring patient schooling practices. Inconsistencies in dietary recommendation can be connected to insufficient schooling of professionals. Literature shows that the nutrition schooling of dentists and oral fitness schooling of dietitians and nutritionists is constrained.

The idea of oral health correlated to high-quality of life stems from the definition of fitness that the WHO gave in 1946. Health is known to be "a country of complete bodily, mental, and social properly-being and no longer simply the absence of

ailment or infirmity". The packages for the prevention of oral illnesses challenge teaching approximately oral hygiene and healthy consuming, fluoride prophylaxis, periodic test-ups, classes of professional oral hygiene, and secondary prevention programs. The time period "bio nutrition" refers to the essential interactions which exist among diet, use of vitamins, genetics, and development. This time period emphasizes the function of nutrients in maintaining health and stopping pathologies at a natural, mobile, and subcellular degree. Diet affects the development of the oral hollow space: depending on whether there is an early or past due dietary imbalance, the consequences are truly extraordinary. In fact, an early nutritional imbalance influences malformations most. Moreover, the exceptional additives of the stomatognathic apparatus go through intervals of extreme growth alternated with periods of relative quiescence: it is clear that a dietary imbalance in a completely active length of increase will produce more harm.

A shortage of nutrients and minerals in the section earlier than theory influences the improvement of the destiny embryo, influencing dental organogenesis, the increase of the maxilla, and skull/facial improvement Caries is a demineralization of the inorganic a part of the teeth with the dissolution of the organic substance due to a multifactorial etiology. The demineralization of the enamel and of the dentine is resulting from organic acids that shape within the dental plaque due to bacterial pastime, thru the anaerobic metabolism of sugars determined inside the diet. The improvement of caries calls for the presence of sugars and microorganism however it's miles stimulated by means of the susceptibility of the enamel, by means of the kind of bacteria, and by the amount and excellent of the salivary secretion.

Saliva is supersaturated with calcium and phosphate with a pH same to 7, a degree that favors remineralization. When acid stimulation is just too strong demineralization prevails till the formation of a carious lesion very low stages of dental caries are discovered in remoted communities with a conventional way of life and coffee consumption of sugars. As quickly as financial situations enhance and the amount of sugars and different fermentable carbohydrates increases in the food plan, a super increase in dental caries is observed. This has been seen inside the Inuit of Alaska and in populations in Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan, and the islands of Tristan da Cunha and Sant'Elena.


OBJECTIVE To compare the effects of the ACE inhibitor perindopril and the β-blocker carvedilol on blood pressure and endothelial functions in N1DDM patients with hypertension. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We conducted a double-blind randomized trial in 26 patients with NIDDM and mild hypertension. A 4-week run-in placebo period preceded the active 12-week treatment with perindopril (4–8 mg daily) or carvedilol (25–50 mg daily). Endothelial functions were assessed by evaluating the hemodynamic (mean blood pressure, leg blood flow) and rheological (platelet aggregation, blood viscosity, and blood filterability) responses to an intravenous bolus of 3 g L-arginine, the natural precursor of nitric oxide. RESULTS Both perindopril and carvedilol significantly reduced mean blood pressure (P < 0.001) and increased leg blood flow (P < 0.05) to the same extent; blood filterability remained unchanged in both perindopril- and carvedilol-treated groups. Carvedilol reduced platelet aggregation and blood viscosity significantly (P < 0.05) but perindopril did not. Before treatment, the hemodynamic and rheologic responses to L-arginine were significantly lower in patients (P < 0.05–0.01) than in 20 nondiabetic nonhypertensive control subjects. After 12 weeks of treatment, both drugs normalized the hemodynamic responses to L-arginine. Platelet aggregation response to L-arginine was ameliorated by carvedilol and remained unchanged in the perindopril group. CONCLUSIONS At the doses used, both drugs effectively reduce blood pressure and normalize the hemodynamic responses to L-arginine. The implications of the ameliorated endothelial function for the poor cardiovascular outlook of the NIDDM hypertensive patient need further assessment.


This paper examines the emergence of the representation of dialect with Chinese characters (fangyan wenzihua) on the Internet. The online dialect writing is primarily identified as a subject of Internet language and youth language study. The CMC discourse as a hybrid register mixing spoken and written language features facilitates the written use of oral dialect on the Internet. Deviating from the standard Chinese writing system, the Internet-savvy youth transcribe their native dialects on an ad hoc basis, which celebrates multiplicity, creativity, individuality and resists uniformity, standardization, and institutionalization. Taking the SHN website (www.shanghaining.com) as a case study, the paper discusses how the written Shanghai Wu words are explored to mark a distinct visual style and to articulate a distinct local youth identity. Furthermore, this paper examines the dominant strategy of phonetic borrowing in dialect transcription on the Internet. It is argued that diachronically, the youth's phonocentric obsession tapped into the May Fourth tradition of the baihua vernacular movement that was heavily influenced by the European logocentrism; and synchronically, the celebration of dialect sound on the Internet echoes the contemporary soundscape of local dialects formed in the mass media in recent years.


Most South Asian governments have concentrated on emulating a Western style of healthcare service, with the result that an elite few are overmedicalised whereas the majority are neglected. However, community participation in the development of local health services could provide a solution

Despite a remarkable improvement during recent decades in many countries' overall health and nutrition statistics and macro-economic indicators,1 some 10.8 million children aged under 5 years still die annually worldwide, of which 34% occur in South Asia alone.2 It is too simplistic to relate improvements in economic indicators with better health because this does not take account of inequality, change in focus of public health priorities, and, most importantly, the involvement of the community in improving health. This article discusses some of the most prominent examples in South Asia of involvement of the community in planning, managing, and evaluating health projects. However, showing a direct relation between community development and improved health remains a challenge.

Community development is becoming one of the most popular subjects in the context of public health interventions. Although an accurate definition of community development is problematic, a reasonable description would be the empowerment of a community to obtain self reliance and control over the factors that affect their health. Unfortunately, South Asia, so richly endowed with natural and human resources, has suffered for centuries from poverty and consequent ill health. It has, however, a rich heritage of community initiatives such as the establishment of education facilities, religious institutions, and orphanages and the construction of roads. It is unfortunate that health has remained the responsibility of governments, outside agencies, and, of course, the private sector (both formal and informal) and the provision of medical services has become big business.3

Most of the public and private health services in South Asia have …


: Tía Cayetana's inn is an old road motel erected at the end of the 19th Century at Torrebaja (Spain). This inn was built using local vernacular construction techniques, i.e., with a structure made of gypsum pillars, and floors built with beams and gypsum vaulting. The facades and interior walls were built in a combination of stone masonry for the basement and either rammed earth walls or thin stone slabs wall for the upper parts. The local city hall bought the building and entrusted the rehabilitation of the building to the authors of this paper for its future use as a four-star hotel, i.e., the same use for the building more than one hundred years after its original completion. The authors of this paper made an exhaustive study of the fabrics of this building, its construction, material pathologies… and, taking into account these data, elaborated the restoration project for the building that previewed the use of the same original structure made of gypsum to be reinforced with compatible techniques. This article introduces the analysis of the local constructive technique based on the general use of gypsum for the vertical and horizontal structure, the bonding of fabrics and the external and internal coatings, and their structural performance. It also describes the reasoning that took the authors to respect the existing structure in its original condition and the reinforcements made mainly at the foundations and at the floors to assume the new weight of a four-star hotel.


The prescription of antipsychotic medication in children and adolescents (<18 years of age) has increased immensely for a wide range of disorders including psychoses, bipolar disorder, conduct disorder, pervasive developmental disorder and obsessive–compulsive disorder. This has led to some concerns particularly as the evidence base in some areas is not strong, and antipsychotic medication – both first generation (FGA) and second generation (SGA) – is associated with considerable side-effects. Evidence from an increasing number of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) points to therapeutic efficacy with moderate to large effect sizes. However, some RCTs have a small number of participants, are of short duration, and many are industry funded. The use of antipsychotics alongside psychosocial interventions can be recommended in certain disorders, provided there is continued, careful monitoring. It is important to note, however, that for many conditions the use of antipsychotics is not licensed in the UK.


Light or electromagnetic wave scattered by a single sphere or a coated sphere has been considered as a classic Mie theory. There have been some further extensions that were made further based on the Mie theory. Recently, a closed-form analytical model of the scattering cross section of a single nanoshell has been considered. The present paper is documented further, based on the work in 2006 by Alam and Massoud, to derive another different closed-form solution to the problem of light scattered by the nanoshells using polynomials of up to order 6. Validation is made by comparing the present closed-form solution to the exact Mie scattering solution and also to the other closed-form solution by Alam and Massoud. This study is found to be, however, more generalized and also more accurate for the coated spheres of either tiny/small or medium sizes than that of Alam and Massoud. Therefore, the derived formulas can be used for accurately characterizing both surface plasmon resonances of nanoparticles (of small sizes) or nanoantenna near-field properties (of medium sizes comparable with half wavelength).


We study the task of embodied visual active learning, where an agent is set to explore a 3d environment with the goal to acquire visual scene understanding by actively selecting views for which to request annotation. While accurate on some benchmarks, today's deep visual recognition pipelines tend to not generalize well in certain real-world scenarios, or for unusual viewpoints. Robotic perception, in turn, requires the capability to refine the recognition capabilities for the conditions where the mobile system operates, including cluttered indoor environments or poor illumination. This motivates the proposed task, where an agent is placed in a novel environment with the objective of improving its visual recognition capability. To study embodied visual active learning, we develop a battery of agents - both learnt and pre-specified - and with different levels of knowledge of the environment. The agents are equipped with a semantic segmentation network and seek to acquire informative views, move and explore in order to propagate annotations in the neighbourhood of those views, then refine the underlying segmentation network by online retraining. The trainable method uses deep reinforcement learning with a reward function that balances two competing objectives: task performance, represented as visual recognition accuracy, which requires exploring the environment, and the necessary amount of annotated data requested during active exploration. We extensively evaluate the proposed models using the photorealistic Matterport3D simulator and show that a fully learnt method outperforms comparable pre-specified counterparts, even when requesting fewer annotations.


Men slurp banana pudding from the hips of a black-latex-clad woman lying on atable in a room filled with liquid nitrogen smoke. This is just a single episode inthe culinary life of New York City (Parasecoli, 2009). Elsewhere, a long queue ofAfrican-Americans is patiently waiting for a soup kitchen in Harlem to open. Thetemperature is 35°C in the shade. These two images are at the extreme oppositesof the spectrum of the subject of food.1 The role of food in planning sustainableforms of land use in the United States – and in New York City in particular – isthe theme of this chapter.The culinary culture of New York City mirrors the ethnic and social structureof the population of this metropolis. In other words, you are what you eat. NewYork City is sometimes referred to as a 'gastropolis' (gaster is the Ancient Greekword for 'stomach'), a metropolis where life revolves around eating and being eaten (Hauck-Lawson & Deutsch, 2009; Lee & Audant, 2009; de Silva, 2009). Thisknowledge is essential for planners and designers who want to promote sustainability;the food chain is the key to a more sustainable way of life. Spatial planningcan play an important part in this in terms of design, such as establishing frameworks for combining and separating types of space at various levels of scale. In the state of New York, this primarily occurs at the level of the local community (town, borough), which makes it difficult to keep an eye on the bigger picture (city, county, region, state, metropolitan area, watershed, climate zone). This is just a single observation after a three-month visit to New York City and the Hudson Valley.The investigation described below focuses on a region with a radius of about100 kilometres from downtown Manhattan. This region includes New York City(with its five boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and StatenIsland), with a population of more than 8 million, plus another several millionpeople in the New York metropolitan area extending into four or five states. TheHudson Valley, which stretches north from New York City up past Albany, is usedas a sample for this metropolitan area. By selecting this river valley, it is possible to look at conurbations, expanses of water, agricultural fields, meadows, and forests. The Hudson River Valley is part of the metropolitan landscape of New York City. 6292 T&F Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Food Planning.qxp_Royal_A 08/04/2016 10:06 Page 53The label 'metropolitan landscape' refers to the fact that land use in this area canonly be indicated by constantly referring to the economic strength, lifestyles andpatterns of behaviour of the residents of the metropolis in question. The metropolis is an economic, social, and political force field, which shapes and moulds the landscape in a constant process of change. In this ontext, 'landscape' is seen as a complex of physical characteristics in the environs, which give visual expression to the way people and animals use the land, constructed objects, vegetation, water, and air. A central question in this chapter relates to the way in which the food systemdoes or does not have an impact on the metropolitan landscape. Changes inpatterns of behaviour and land use (which are closely connected to the food chainin New York City and its surroundings) will be examined in detail. Specifically, wewill look at whether there are signs of a change or transition into a more sustainable way of dealing with the environment under the influence of changing ideas about the quality of food. The findings are based on conversations with experts,visual observation, websites, and a study of the literature.2 The motivation for thisexploratory study is the idea that the developments in New York City may provideinspiration for planning and designing the metropolitan landscape in theNetherlands and Western Europe (LaBelle, 2005a).


The interplay between genetic and epigenetic factors plays a central role in mammalian embryo production strategies that superimpose ex vivo or in vivo manipulations upon strain background characteristics. In this study, we examined the relationship between genetic background and the phenotypic properties of mouse metaphase-II (M-II) oocytes that were matured under in vivo (IVO) or in vitro conditions, either in a basal (IVM) or a supplemented (IVM + ) medium. Differences existed amongst inbred (C57BL/6), outbred (CF-1, Black Swiss, NU/NU) and hybrid lines (B6D2F1) induced to superovulate with regard to cytoplasmic microtubule organizing center (MTOC) number but not spindle size or shape, except for larger and asymmetrical spindles in Black Swiss oocytes. When oocytes were matured in culture, meiotic spindle and cytoplasmic phenotypic properties of M-II oocytes were affected relative to in vivo conditions and between strains. Specifically, measures of meiotic spindle size, shape, polar pericentrin distribution and cytoplasmic MTOC number all revealed characteristic variations. Interestingly, the overall reduction in cytoplasmic MTOC number noted upon IVM was concomitant with an overall increase in spindle and polar body size. Maturation under IVM + conditions resulted in a further decrease in cytoplasmic MTOC number, but spindle and polar body characteristics were intermediate between IVO and IVM. How these oocyte phenotypic properties of maternal origin may be linked to predictive assessments of fecundity remains to be established.


In the present paper the influence of the reference system with regard to the characterization of the surface finishing is analyzed. The effect of the reference system's choice on the most representative surface finishing parameters (e.g. roughness average Ra and root mean square values Rq) is studied. The study can also be applied to their equivalent parameters in waviness and primary profiles. Based on ISO and ASME standards, three different types of regression lines (central, mean and orthogonal) are theoretically and experimentally analyzed, identifying the validity and applicability fields of each one depending on profile's geometry.


The thesis examines the political dynamics behind the contemporary trend towards pension privatization in Europe. Its aim is to develop a theoretical model that can explain not only why governments have increasingly replaced their public pay-as-you-go systems with private fully-funded schemes, but also why there is considerable diversity both in the extent and in the content of pension privatization. Private pension funds can indeed be governed by a variety of institutional arrangements and can have very different types of links with the financial system. They do not necessarily contribute to a financialization of the economy. The thesis takes issue with the idea that pension privatization would be primarily the result of a new pensions orthodoxy promoted by international organizations such as the World Bank or of an electoral strategy that consists in attracting the votes of the middle class. I argue that the driving force behind the more or less dramatic rise of funded pensions in Europe is a series of lobbying campaigns launched by the financial industry, and their varying influence. Financial firms have a vested interest in the development of a market in private pensions, which should profit them as an industry. However, pension reform is an issue that matters to voters and can therefore prove dangerous for party politicians. Moreover, it involves complex changes that directly affect key material interests of employers and workers. In this context, the success of financial firms' campaign for pension privatization depends on their capacity to forge alliances with a variety of actors. This in turn contributes to limit the influence financiers can exert. The argument is tested using a comparative historical analysis of pension debates in the United Kingdom, France and Poland since the beginning of the 1980s.


Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) could be the first important step towards adjusting the public Administration to the requirements of the digital era by introducing new e-disputes. In this context, this article examines the significance of the emergence of consumer ODR systems in EU as a new mechanism for resolving disputes, online ones included. It takes a theoretical research approach to evaluate the nature and scope of ODR development in the emerging field of e-governance and combine it with a comparative data analysis to identify the core positive and negative challenges in the use of ODR. Some EU member states have already adopted ODR as a tool for digital e-government and others are still in the period of its implementation. ODR has already proved effective resolution for at least some disputes (e.g. cross-border disputes), but unfortunately has not yet reached its full potential. The lack of relevant ODR case law is another issue that contributes to only gradual usage of ODR systems and their efficiency. Key findings are formulated as a list of challenges that EU has to face for efficient use of ODR and it as an important part within innovative European e-governance in the future.


During a two-term observational study of my Secondary English Language Arts (ELA) class, I introduced "surrealism" to the existing curriculum. Jot notes, personal interviews, and a self-study comprised my data strands. The Covid-19 pandemic struck shortly before my scheduled in-person interviews. This uncertainty disrupted my doctoral study plans, but offered a valuable opportunity for critical reflection. The fears and questions prompted by the pandemic were captured in the vulnerable "safe space" of our at-home Zoom interviews. This process thus prompted my contemplation about interviews as a continued method for combatting the stagnancy of educational spaces.


The present work describes a simple and reproducible direct-read system for onsite monitoring of beryllium on surfaces of work areas. It is based on the colorimetric reaction of beryllium with active ingredients deposited in a swab. A color comparator consisting of beryllium color chart was designed to enable the semi-quantitative determination of beryllium in surface samples. The system provides a minimum detection limit of 0.01 microg sample(-1). Metals tested for any interference effect include Al(3+), Ba(2+), Cd(2+), Cu(2+), Co(2+), Cr(3+), Cr(6+), Fe(3+), Hg(2+), Mg(2+), Ni(2+), Pb(2+), Ti(4+) and UO(2)(2+). Validation of the system showed no significant effect from metal interferences on the quantification of beryllium.


The ability to mimic human notions of semantic distance has widespread applications. Some measures rely only on raw text (distributional measures) and some rely on knowledge sources such as WordNet. Although extensive studies have been performed to compare WordNet-based measures with human judgment, the use of distributional measures as proxies to estimate semantic distance has received little attention. Even though they have traditionally performed poorly when compared to WordNet-based measures, they lay claim to certain uniquely attractive features, such as their applicability in resource-poor languages and their ability to mimic both semantic similarity and semantic relatedness. Therefore, this paper presents a detailed study of distributional measures. Particular attention is paid to flesh out the strengths and limitations of both WordNet-based and distributional measures, and how distributional measures of distance can be brought more in line with human notions of semantic distance. We conclude with a brief discussion of recent work on hybrid measures.


A human T-lymphoblast cell line, CCRF-CEM/R1, resistant to methotrexate by virtue of increased dihydrofolate reductase activity, was grown in stepwise increasing concentrations of methotrexate. This additional selection pressure resulted in a cell line, CCRF-CEM/R2, resistant to methotrexate by virtue of both an elevation of dihydrofolate reductase activity and a marked decrease in methotrexate transport. The R1 and R2 cells were approximately 70- and 350-fold more resistant to methotrexate than were the parent cells. The effects of three folate antagonists were studied on these cell lines and also on CCRF-CEM/R3 cells, characterized by impaired methotrexate transport but normal levels of dihydrofolate reductase. The elevated reductase subline CCRF-CEM/R1 was cross-resistant to triazinate [Baker's antifol, NSC 139105; ethanesulfonic acid compounded with alpha-(2-chloro-4-[4,6-diamino-2,2-dimethyl-S-triazine-1-(2H)-yl] phenoxyl)-N,N-dimethyl-m-toluamide (1:1)] and trimetrexate (NSC 249008, JB-11, TMQ; 2,4-diamino-6-[(3,4,5-trimethoxyanilino)methyl]quinazoline), two nonclassical folate antagonists. In contrast, the transport defective subline, CCRF-CEM/R3 was not cross-resistant to these two compounds. In cells resistant to MTX by virtue of both mechanisms, CCRF-CEM/R2, triazinate, and trimetrexate were partially cross-resistant. All three methotrexate-resistant sublines showed minor cross-resistance to isoaminohydroxyquinazoline (IAHQ, NSC 289517; 5,8-dideazaisopteroylglutamate), a folate antagonist inhibitor of thymidylate synthase. These data demonstrate that methotrexate-resistant tumor cells may be effectively inhibited by antifolates with different route of entry into cells or with different enzyme targets.


Northern Australia has changed rapidly over the past 10 to 20 years with its regional economies becoming increasingly internationally connected. There have been many gains to the Australian economy through the development and investment opportunities which have presented themselves in this dynamic region of Australia. This includes the development of rich energy and mineral resources, the development of pastoral and agricultural industries, growth in tourism expenditure and investment in strategic transport and communications infrastructure. Along with these development gains, the region faces a number of challenges or 'growing pains'. Can the prosperity of Northern Australia be sustained as we enter a global recession and longer term pressures emerge?


The Playground Game is a web-based game that was developed for teaching research methods and statistics to nursing and social sciences students in higher education and vocational training. The complexity and abstract nature of research methods and statistics poses many challenges for students. The Playground Game aims to address this issue and bridge the gap between theory and practice by providing students with a playful practical problem case that they have to analyse and evaluate: the player's task is to make substantiated judgements about a study that was carried out to decide upon the most suitable location for laying out a children's playground in a fictitious town. This paper reports about the evaluation of the Playground Game among 103 students of the bachelor psychology programme from Leuven University. A pre-questionnaire preceding the game was used to collect information about the students´ individual characteristics and included a self-assessment. A post-questionnaire collected the students´ appreciations and comments, and included the same self-assessment as well as five additional test questions. This set-up allowed us to not only collect the players' judgements and appreciations about the game, but also to assess achieved learning gains. All student activities were carried out online. As an additional step we have set up a quasi-experiment for exploring to what extent score mechanisms and audio cueing could be used for influencing (reducing) the players' trial-and-error behaviours. The students were randomly distributed over 4 groups each of which was linked to a different version of the game. We implemented two different game score mechanisms and either used short audio cues indicating a correct or incorrect decision, or omitted these. Technically the Playground Game was implemented on the EMERGO platform, which is an open source educational gaming platform developed by the Open University of the Netherlands (www.emergo.cc). The game (so far only a Dutch language version is available) is an outcome of the CHERMUG project (Continuing and Higher Education in Research Methods Using Games), which was sponsored by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission.


Hypercalcemia with concomitant elevation of serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) and PTH-related protein (PTHrP) levels was found in a patient with advanced gastric carcinoma and multiple liver metastases. The most common features are hypercalcemia associated with hypersecretion of PTHrP and physiological suppression of PTH secretion in the syndrome of humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy (HHM). Although we initially made a diagnosis of primary hyperparathyroidism concomitant with HHM due to gastric cancer, diagnostic imaging studies, such as echography, CT, sestamibi scintigraphy, and autopsy findings, did not reveal evidence of any parathyroid tumors or ectopic parathyroid glands in the mediastinum. Both primary and metastatic tumor cells showed positive staining with PTH-specific antibody as well as PTHrP-specific antibody on immunohistochemical examination. PTH concentration in the cytosolic fraction of the metastatic tumor was elevated compared to that from a control patient with no calcium metabolic disorders in vitro. These findings indicated that PTH secreted ectopically by gastric cancer cells, not by parathyroid glands, caused hypercalcemia in this patient. To our knowledge, this is the first case report of PTH-secreting gastric carcinoma cells. We report the case and a review of the previous reported PTH-secreting non-parathyroid tumors along with the mechanisms of secretion.


This paper addresses the problem of estimating, analyzing and tracking objects moving with spatio-temporal rotational motion (i.e. the angular velocity of spinning or orbiting motions). It is assumed that the digital signals of interest are acquired from a camera and structured as digital image sequences. The trajectories in the signal are two-dimensional spatial projections in time of motion taking place in a three-dimensional space. The purpose of this work is to focus on the rotational motion, i.e. estimate the angular velocity and acceleration. In natural scenes, rotational motion usually evolves on a trajectory and then composes with translational or accelerated motion. This paper shows that the trajectory parameters and the rotational parameters can be efficiently estimated and tracked either simultaneously or separately. The final goal of this work is to provide selective reconstructions of moving objects of interest. This paper constructs new continuous wavelet transforms that can be tuned to both translational and rotational motion. The parameters of analysis that are taken into account in these rotational wavelet transforms are space and time position, velocity, spatial scale, angular orientation and angular velocity. The continuous wavelet functions are finally discretized for signal processing. The link between rotational motion, symmetry and critical sampling is also presented. Simulations have been performed with estimation, detection and tracking on natural scenes.


Without instabilities, the gas in the protoplanetary disk approximately a forming protostar remains in orbit rather than falling onto the protostar and completing its formation into a star. Moreover without instabilities in the fluid flow of the gas, the dust grains within the disk's gas cannot accumulate, agglomerate, and form planets. Keplerian disks are linearly stable by Rayleigh theorem because the angular momentum of the disk increases with increasing radius. This has led to the belief that there exists a large region in protoplanetary disks, known as the dead zone, which is stable to pure hydrodynamic disturbances. The dead zone is also believed to be stable against magneto-rotational instability (MRI) because the disks' cool temperatures inhibit ionization and therefore prevent the MRI. A recent study Marcus et al. (2013) shows the existence of a new hydrodynamic instability called the Zombie Vortex Instability (ZVI), where successive generations of self-replicating vortices (zombie vortices) fill the disk with turbulence and destabilize it. The instability is triggered by finite-amplitude perturbations, including weak Kolmogorov noise, in stratified flows with Brunt-Väisälä frequency N, background rotation Ω and horizontal shear σ. So far there is no observational evidence of the Zombie Vortex Instability and there are very few laboratory experiments of stratified plane Couette flow with background rotation in the literature. We perform systematic simulations to determine where the Zombie Vortex Instability exists in terms of the control parameters (Reynolds number Re, σ/f and N/f). We present a parameter map showing two regimes where ZVI occurs, and interpret the physics that determines the boundaries of the two regimes. We also discuss the effects of viscosity and the existence of a threshold for Re. Our study on viscous effects, parameter map and its underlying! physics provide guidance for designing practical laboratory experiments in which ZVI could be observed.


The increasing globalization in the world has generated a market for more and more international students studying aboard and increasing number of university graduates working on overseas projects. For these reasons, universities have been developing international oriented curricula to foster skills that meet the requirements of diverse cultures. As part of the process, overseas field trip has become even more important in architecture curriculum. One strategy to enhance students' design and communication skills in diverse geographical and cultural locations is to work with the universities in the visiting countries on joint projects.

The arrangements of the joint projects with overseas universities should be considered in two dimensions. On the one hand, lectures and reading lists need to be systematically formalized to provide knowledge of the local culture. On the other hand, cultures and societies change in time and place, the design skills not only need to be sensible to the local culture and environment, but also need to engage the critical thinking in order to analysis the new context, find the problems, and come up with proper design solutions.

In the joint projects, different from designing in the studio, the design process is a communication and discussion process. The process of learning about the local culture is the process of finding the solutions to problems. Find the right problems locally, create solutions and understand the impacts of the design on the local users are parallel activities. By using two China trips as case study this paper will discuss the organisation and arrangement of the joint projects, especially the way to foster cross-culture awareness and inter-cultural communicative strategies in a four step task. This task is for students to record expectations, experience and reflections of their learning processes before, during and after the trip.


Circulation. 2017;135:00–00. DOI: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000000480 TBD, 2017 e1 ABSTRACT: The learning healthcare system uses health information technology and the health data infrastructure to apply scientific evidence at the point of clinical care while simultaneously collecting insights from that care to promote innovation in optimal healthcare delivery and to fuel new scientific discovery. To achieve these goals, the learning healthcare system requires systematic redesign of the current healthcare system, focusing on 4 major domains: science and informatics, patient-clinician partnerships, incentives, and development of a continuous learning culture. This scientific statement provides an overview of how these learning healthcare system domains can be realized in cardiovascular disease care. Current cardiovascular disease care innovations in informatics, data uses, patient engagement, continuous learning culture, and incentives are profiled. In addition, recommendations for next steps for the development of a learning healthcare system in cardiovascular care are presented.


Four hundred and forty-six patients with acute myocardial infarction were assigned to one of three departments in a hospital on the basis of the day of the week they were admitted. The members of this group were treated with hydrocortisone during the first three days of their hospitalization. For a comparison group, 491 patients assigned in a similar way to other medical departments were chosen. The aim of this study was to compare death rates only. We conclude that: (1) mortality in the treated group was 14.5 percent as compared to 23.2 percent in the comparison group; (2) patients suffering from their first infarction had a significantly better chance of survival in the treated group, compared to those with recurrent infarction, whether treated or not treated; and (3) in the first three days of treatment there is a significantly lower mortality rate in the treated group. We believe that our results suggest an important place for the use of hydrocortisone in cases of fresh myocardial infarction in hospitals.


This paper provides a comparative analysis of methods for the empirical ex post evaluation of merger control decisions. It develops a competition-policy oriented framework of assessment criteria for the leading evaluation methods and applies them to structural modeling and simulation, differences-in-differences methods, event studies as well as survey-based methods. It concludes that a method-mix is recommendable, however, under the exclusion of event studies that fail to secure a minimum level of reliability regarding the evaluation results. Furthermore, it warns against overly optimistic expectations about the effects of systematic impact evaluations of merger decisions.


In this paper, we investigate an innovative Ovonic Threshold Switching Selector (OTS) based on Multilayer structure (ML). Thanks to physico-chemical analysis and electrical characterization we show how MLs properties and structure can be tuned thanks to the engineering of each individual layer stoichiometry, thickness and interfaces. Ge/N-doped SbSe-based MLs OTS are analyzed by FTIR and Raman spectroscopy revealing the structural features present in the as-deposited materials and the strong interaction among individual layers at interfaces. We demonstrate the improved variability control of electrical parameters wrt standard OTS achieved by co-sputtering technique, and the high endurance capability of MLs OTS up to more than 2•109 cycles with stable nA leakage current. Moreover, we show how Ge-N bonds play a huge role on OTS thermal stability at 400°C and how they can be tuned more easily in ML OTS. These developments pave the way towards a new class of OTS materials and their engineering, ensuring high temperature stability and best tuning of electrical performances.


Many marine algae produce 3-dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), a potent osmoprotective compound whose degradation product dimethylsulfide plays a central role in the biogeochemical S cycle. Algae are known to synthesize DMSP via the four-step pathway, l-Met → 4-methylthio-2-oxobutyrate → 4-methylthio-2-hydroxybutyrate → 4-dimethylsulfonio-2-hydroxy-butyrate (DMSHB) → DMSP. Substrate-specific enzymes catalyzing the first three steps in this pathway were detected and partially characterized in cell-free extracts of the chlorophyte alga Enteromorpha intestinalis . The first is a 2-oxoglutarate-dependent aminotransferase, the second an NADPH-linked reductase, and the third an S- adenosylmethionine-dependent methyltransferase. Sensitive radiometric assays were developed for these enzymes, and used to show that their activities are high enough to account for the estimated in vivo flux from Met to DMSP. The activities of these enzymes in other DMSP-rich chlorophyte algae were at least as high as those in E. intestinalis , but were ≥20-fold lower in algae without DMSP. The reductase and methyltransferase were specific for the d-enantiomer of 4-methylthio-2-hydroxybutyrate in vitro, and both the methyltransferase step and the step(s) converting DMSHB to DMSP were shown to prefer d-enantiomers in vivo. The intermediate DMSHB was shown to act as an osmoprotectant, which indicates that the first three steps of the DMSP synthesis pathway may be sufficient to confer osmotolerance.


Gene ontology annotation is known to be a very complicated multilabel classification task, and the hierarchical multilabel classification (HMC) approaches with local classifiers have been shown to be effective for the task. In a traditional HMC method, a set of hierarchically organized simple local classifiers are usually used, each of which for one hierarchical level separately. In this paper, we propose a novel hierarchical multilabel classifier implementing the whole set of hierarchically organized local classifiers in one deep convolution neural network (CNN) model with multiple heads and multiple ends (MHME). The proposed MHME CNN model consists of three parts: the body part of a deep CNN model shared by different local classifiers for feature extraction and feature mapping; the multiend part of a set of autoencoders performing feature fusion transforming the input vectors of different local classifiers to feature vectors with the same length so as to share the feature mapping part; and the multihead part of a set of linear multilabel classifiers. Furthermore, a sophisticated recursive algorithm is designed to train the MHME CNN model to realize the functions of a set of hierarchically organized local classifiers. In this way, by sharing a deep CNN with multiple local classifiers, we are able to construct more powerful local classifiers for each level with limited training samples, and to achieve better classification performance. Experiment results on various benchmark datasets show that the proposed deep CNN‐based model has better performance than the state‐of‐the‐art traditional models. Moreover, it gives rather good performance even under a transfer learning. © 2020 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


This paper presents the test results of the energy converting efficiency of piezoelectric Bridge transducer for harvesting stress driven energy in asphalt pavement. The arc and the trapezoidal Bridge transducer were made for performance comparison. The Bridge transducers were tested by Universal Testing Machine (UTM) under different frequencies and distributed load. The output voltage was recorded by digital storage oscillograph. 4 groups of data were obtained. The maximum output voltage of 232V was recorded from the arc Bridge transducer in the initial laboratory test, which was conducted under 0.4 MPa with 5 Hz half-sine loads. However, only 106V maximum output voltage was measured from the trapezoidal Bridge transducer under the same load and 154V was measured under 0.7 MPa with 5Hz half-sine loads. The results show the possibility of harvesting energy from pavement. Higher energy converting efficiency of arc Bridge transducer was measured compared to the trapezoidal Bridge transducer.


The characterization and modelling of carbonate reservoirs can still be significantly improved to account for complex property and fracture network heterogeneities at scales difficult to resolve in the subsurface. The objective of this research is to develop and establish workflows for high fidelity geological modelling and characterization using modern and ancient carbonate outcrop analogues.
 As a first step, we carefully selected high quality modern and ancient analogues to create comprehensive data sets on depositional heterogeneities. Advanced instrumentation and techniques were used such as 3D drone surveys, high-resolution surface geophysical surveys (50 MHz-100 MHz, and seismic), chirp sub-bottom profiler and high-resolution bathymetry mapping. These high-end techniques are paired with tried and tested standard geological techniques of measuring stratigraphic sections anchored by outcrop spectral gamma ray logs, analysis of sediment samples (texture, grain size, mineralogy, geochemistry) and fracture/fault surveys all integrated with full cores drilled in the outcrops. Using these, data models can be created for depositional and fracture heterogeneities at different scales and populated with ranges of property data like those found in actual reservoirs. The outcome will be a series of models for various carbonate reservoir settings and well location patterns with the goal of supporting drilling/exploration operations and reducing future development costs.
 The project is based on two large-scale research projects of Jurassic carbonates outcropping in central KSA and a large modern carbonate platform in the Red Sea. Jurassic outcrops were analyzed using a unique dataset of measured sections including spectral gamma ray logs (300 vertical m), drone photogrammetry data (4×4 km2 overflight and several km's of vertical cliffs), seismic data (2 km), and GPR data (8 km). Data expose lateral heterogeneities, facies dimensions, and fracture networks at different scales. The modern carbonate outcrops are an ideal laboratory to investigate lateral facies heterogeneities and their relation to environmental factors influencing sediment distribution (prevailing winds versus storms, climate and nutrients). Around 800 km of hydroacoustic data, 50 sediment cores and 200 sea-floor samples were collected exposing significant and complex heterogeneities.
 The outcome of these research projects significantly increases our understanding of property heterogeneity, facies distribution, fracture networks, and architecture of complex carbonate reservoirs. Resulting multi-scale modelling approaches and associated facies templates will improve the prediction of spatial heterogeneities of facies in subsurface reservoirs of similar settings. In addition, these datasets can be used as input for static analogue models and dynamic simulations to test sensitivities and determine optimum development scenarios for improving ultimate recovery.


Secure compilation is a discipline aimed at developing compilers that preserve the security properties of the source programs they take as input in the target programs they produce as output. This discipline is broad in scope, targeting languages with a variety of features (including objects, higher-order functions, dynamic memory allocation, call/cc, concurrency) and employing a range of different techniques to ensure that source-level security is preserved at the target level. This paper provides a survey of the existing literature on formal approaches to secure compilation with a focus on those that prove fully abstract compilation, which has been the criterion adopted by much of the literature thus far. This paper then describes the formal techniques employed to prove secure compilation in existing work, introducing relevant terminology, and discussing the merits and limitations of each work. Finally, this paper discusses open challenges and possible directions for future work in secure compilation.


Metropolitan city planning and development including advanced transportation infrastructures have caused to increase the separation of working and living spaces. This separation dramatically increases commuting population throughout metropolitan areas. Moreover, many commuters prefer to drive cars which generate much more transportation costs and air emissions than public transportation options such as bus and subway. Seoul in South Korea is not an exception for this challenge. Recently most of the people agree that air emissions including carbon dioxide are the significant factor for climate change. It brings about a lot of social, economic, and environmental issues, which force to legislate the environmental policies and regulations to reduce air emissions. In this study, we analyzed the commuting pattern, size, and distance of 79 counties around Seoul to evaluate the implications of eco-friendly car technologies and transportation policies for carbon reductions. Our results show that the gross annual carbon emissions of commuting cars would be reduced from 4,150 to 3,163 thousand metric tons between 2005 and 2035 in spite of the growth of the ratio of car commuters through improving fuel efficiency. We could expect that regional government support for the propagation of eco-friendly cars is the most effective way to reduce carbon emissions for commuters.


Factor XIII has recently been recognized to play an important role as a fibrinstabilizing factor to accelerate the wound healing process. We made an attempt to analyze the effect of how Factor XIII affects the results of the healing process at the site of a microvascular anastomosis. The strong fibrin stabilizing property of plasma Factor XIII maintained its high activity when administered intravenously and was effective for wound healing in a low‐activity state made by subcutaneous administration of carbon tetrachloride. The enhanced network formation of the Factor‐XIII‐injected group was indicated by the accelerated maturation of the fibrin structure at the anastomotic site, exhibited both qualitatively and quantitatively. Stimulation and acceleration by Factor XIII of the healing process at the site of microvascular anastomosis were observed. It is therefore suggested that clinical use of Factor XIII may enhance the microvascular repair process. Details of the analysis using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and a computerized graphic analyzer system (CGAS) are reported.


Background Adherence is a key factor in achieving good clinical outcomes in patients undergoing long-term treatment. Meeting with patients is fundamental in educating them on correct drug use, and recommending dietary and lifestyle changes. Purpose To assess the clinical pharmacist (CP) counselling programme, up to the discharge and outpatient visits, to improve medicines adherence, reduce adverse drug events, and encourage positive behaviour. Materials and Methods CP counselling was addressed to adult abdominal and cardiac surgery patients, including transplanted patients. The topics discussed were: importance of prescribed drugs and therapeutic indications, directions, and potential side effects. A drug information sheet was given to all patients. A survey was then conducted by the ISMETT Pharmacy Service from 1 May to 30 September 2012. Results The survey included 524 patients, of whom 54.6% were transplant patients and 45.4% cardiology patients; 326 were male and 198 female, with a mean age of 56 ± 15.1. Of these patients, 97.5% (511/524) knew that respecting therapeutic recommendations improves outcomes and 85.3% (447/524) reported that the CP had explained the importance of correct dosage and mode of administration. However 11.5% (60/524) didn't know the correct mode of administration and 6.3% (33/524) didn't take their drugs on time. 4.8% (25/524) reported occasionally missing a dose, 32% of them (8/25) because of a lack of symptoms, and 68% (17/25) because of a regimen of multidrug treatment. CP counselling was repeated for patients who didn't completely adhere to treatment. For clinical reasons and to increase patient compliance, the physician and CP changed the treatment from mycophenolate mofetil to mycophenolic acid for 7 patients, from immediate release tacrolimus to an extended release formulation for 1, and from mycophenolate mofetil to everolimus for 1. All patients reported that CP counselling had a positive effect and 58.6% asked to meet with the CP more often. Conclusions Our survey confirmed that CP counselling improves patient outcomes and safety, results in stricter adherence to treatment and changes in patient behaviour, and contributes to better outcomes and faster convalescence. No conflict of interest.


In recent years, decentralized bilevel optimization problems have received increasing attention in the networking and machine learning communities. However, for decentralized bilevel optimization over networks with limited computation and communication capabilities, how to achieve low sample and communication complexities are two fundamental challenges. In this paper, we make the first attempt to investigate the class of decentralized bilevel optimization problems with nonconvex and strongly-convex structure corresponding to the outer and inner subproblems, respectively. Our main contributions in this paper are two-fold: i) We first propose a deterministic algorithm called interact (inner-gradient-descent-outer-tracked-gradient) that requires the sample complexity of O(nϵ-1) and communication complexity of O(ϵ-1) to solve the bilevel optimization problem, where n and ϵ > 0 are the number of samples at each agent and the desired stationarity gap, respectively. ii) To relax the need for full gradient evaluations in each iteration, we propose a stochastic variance-reduced version of interact (svr-interact), which improves the sample complexity to [EQUATION] while achieving the same communication complexity as the deterministic algorithm. Our numerical experiments also corroborate our theoretical findings.


Abstract Two new species of Discorhabdella are described from Sagami Bay, Japan. Discorhabdella has been suggested to have an ancient Tethyan origin according to discovery of their unique pseudoastrose acanthostyles from late Eocene to Oligocene deposits. This is the first record of the genus from the northwest Pacific and first record of the family Crambeidae from Japan. Discorhabdellahispidasp. nov. is distinctive within the genus by possession of special sigmoid microscleres and C-shaped isochelae with short alae. Discorhabdellamisakiensissp. nov. is characterized by short choanosomal subtylostyles, and their length overlapped with that of the ectosomal subtylostyles. Only one other species, Discorhabdellatuberosocapitata (Topsent, 1890), has the same spicule composition. However, all spicule types are larger in D.tuberosocapitata than those of D.misakiensissp. nov., and the shape of the isochelae is different: the alae are more widely opened in D.tuberosocapitata. An identification key to species of the genus Discorhabdella is also provided. The discovery of two new species from warm temperate northwest Pacific extends the geographical distribution of the genus Discorhabdella.


Beauty is something that is troubling for women. Beautiful image itself is glued to the women themselves, and the beauty myth to say this to us. Where beautiful quality really is, an objective and universal, public and media to create this. This makes women want to own a beauty, because the man must have wanted a beautiful woman. Pressure is what makes women suffer, do anything to get their beauty even if it hurt bad because basically it is a disease that must be healed. Magazine is a magazine adult women in Indonesia under license from Cosmopolitan magazine in the United States and in Indonesia the license is held by PT.
Higina Alhadin. Higina Alhadin. Cosmopolitan magazine allegedly carrying supports the beauty myths and fantasies brought about beauty.
Based on the above background the researcher formulated the following issues, the meaning and idea of what racial superiority are contained in Cosmopolitan magazine and also the myths of what is contained in Cosmopolitan magazine. Concrete steps to address the above problems is to represent the symbol of racial superiority -symbol of beauty that is within the rubric of Special section: Body Beauty in Cosmopolitan magazine.
There are many successful women in a career, get rich and high social position in society.
However the still bound by things related to the physical. They always looked at myself negatively for their Fisk or age less than ideal growing increasingly older. Beauty myth states that the quality is pretty bebar called real, objectively and universally. But it is not entirely
true, beauty is a system that is in economic circles, beauty is also determined by the political system. Capitalist system plays a role in the myth of beauty, capitalism began to set standards of facial beauty to the body ideal for women. The higher the women's desire for an
ideal look, the more open capital owners to develop its business ranging from beauty products and services to transform the body into an ideal that is displayed as the mass media.
Then choose the appropriate method to explore the meaning and idea of beauty in Cosmopolitan magazine. The method is felt appropriate qualitative methodology interpretative of the semiotic analysis of this study uses a semiotic approach to Roland Barthestwo order signification, denotative and connotative of non-verbal signs and marks the verb in the magazine that examined the use of narrative structural analysis of Roland Barthes.
There is one article that examined the issue of Cosmopolitan magazine in June 2009.
. The results showed that the idea of beauty is found that the standard of beauty is a woman with white skin, long nose, tall, thin, smooth. The idea of beauty is still oriented women's white race or races kaukasoid, which is a form of white racial superiority, which it is supported in the home country of Cosmopolitan magazine license the United States as a country with a superior race.


Purpose: Several studies have reported that radiofrequency (RF) fields, as emitted by mobile phones, may cause changes in gene expression in cultured human cell-lines. The current study was undertaken to evaluate this possibility in two human-derived immune cell-lines. Materials and methods: HL-60 and Mono-Mac-6 (MM6) cells were individually exposed to intermittent (5 min on, 10 min off) 1.9 GHz pulse-modulated RF fields at a average specific absorption rate (SAR) of 1 and 10 W/kg at 37 ± 0.5°C for 6 h. Concurrent negative and positive (heat-shock for 1 h at 43°C) controls were conducted with each experiment. Immediately following RF field exposure (T = 6 h) and 18 h post-exposure (T = 24 h), cell pellets were collected from each of the culture dishes and analyzed for transcript levels of proto-oncogenes (c-jun, c-myc and c-fos) and the stress-related genes (heat shock proteins (HSP) HSP27 and HSP70B) by quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Results: No significant effects were observed in mRNA expression of HSP27, HSP70, c-jun, c-myc or c-fos between the sham and RF-exposed groups, in either of the two cell-lines. However, the positive (heat-shock) control group displayed a significant elevation in the expression of HSP27, HSP70, c-fos and c-jun in both cell-lines at T = 6 and 24 h, relative to the sham and negative control groups. Conclusion: This study found no evidence that exposure of cells to non-thermalizing levels of 1.9 GHz pulse-modulated RF fields can cause any detectable change in stress-related gene expression.


Living organisms of our earth can be divided into two groups, the prokaryotes and the eukaryotes. Eukaryotic cells have a nucleus, a special compartment in the cell, where the genetic material, the DNA is located. The DNA in the prokaryotic cell is floating freely in the cell. The eukaryotes, that is where we belong to, together with animals, plants and fungi. Bacteria and archaea belong to the prokaryotes. Archaea resemble bacteria but in certain features they resemble more the eukaryotes. That is the reason why they form a distinct group within the prokaryotes. ... Zie: Summary


Objectives: Two to 5% of scaphoid fractures are missed on initial presentation. The failure of early recognition and treatment are considered to contribute to delayed union and non-union. Despite advances in diagnostic imaging, a dogmatic approach has persisted in the management of patients with clinical suspicion but no radiographic evidence of scaphoid fracture. A critical analysis of the current treatment protocol of indiscriminate cast immobilization and serial clinical and radiographic follow-up is presented. Methods: A prospective study involving 90 patients with clinical signs suggestive of scaphoid injury, followed up until a definite boney injury was demonstrated or the patient was discharged. A review of the literature was conducted to question the need for immobilization in these patients and the potential use of other forms of diagnostic imaging in screening for occult scaphoid fractures. Results: The incidence of true fractures of the scaphoid was 6.66% (5/75). Ten patients (13.33%) had other injuries around the wrist unrelated to the scaphoid. Eighty per cent of the patients had no definite boney injury and were needlessly immobilized, and followed up. A total of 128 scaphoid casts, 135 sets of scaphoid X-rays, 135 clinic appointments and a cumulative 148 weeks of cast immobilization involved patients with normal wrists. Conclusion: The incidence of radiologically inapparent fractures of the scaphoid is low. The use of a tender anatomical snuff box as the only clinical sign in the diagnosis of scaphoid injury is unsatisfactory. Other injuries around the wrist must be carefully excluded. There is insufficient evidence to support immobilizing all patients with clinical scaphoid fractures. For suspected fractures with no radiological evidence, symptomatic treatment is probably sufficient. Most occult fractures are visible at 2 weeks. Both magnetic resonance imaging and bone scintigraphy are accurate and cost effective and should be performed earlier rather than later.


Building on calls within the health literature for a deeper engagement with the concept of agency, we utilize nationally representative survey data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 13,592) to develop an empirical conception of the traditional treatment of health agency focused on two social psychological constructs that build upon current foci on personal control within the stress process model: (1) "subjective vitality" and (2) a forward-looking orientation ("optimism"). We find an interesting paradox: adolescents with higher health-based agency early in the transition to adulthood have significantly higher status attainment (occupational and educational) outcomes, but early mental health advantages disappear over the transition to adulthood. This suggests that while subjective beliefs about health agency put adolescents on trajectories toward higher socioeconomic status, they also set them up for declines in mental health due to unachieved expectations. There seem to be objective upsides and subjective downsides of possessing greater agency in adolescence.


Third generation sequencing technologies Pacific Biosciences and Oxford Nanopore Technologies were respectively made available in 2011 and 2014. In contrast with second generation sequencing technologies such as Illumina, these new technologies allow the sequencing of long reads of tens to hundreds of kbp. These so called long reads are particularly promising, and are especially expected to solve various problems such as contig and haplotype assembly or scaffolding, for instance. However, these reads are also much more error prone than second generation reads, and display error rates reaching 10 to 30%, according to the sequencing technology and to the version of the chemistry. Moreover, these errors are mainly composed of insertions and deletions, whereas most errors are substitutions in Illumina reads. As a result, long reads require efficient error correction, and a plethora of error correction tools, directly targeted at these reads, were developed in the past ten years. These methods can adopt a hybrid approach, using complementary short reads to perform correction, or a self-correction approach, only making use of the information contained in the long reads sequences. Both these approaches make use of various strategies such as multiple sequence alignment, de Bruijn graphs, Hidden Markov Models, or even combine different strategies. In this paper, we describe a complete survey of long-read error correction, reviewing all the different methodologies and tools existing up to date, for both hybrid and self-correction. Moreover, the long reads characteristics, such as sequencing depth, length, error rate, or even sequencing technology, have huge impacts on how well a given tool or strategy performs, and can thus drastically reduce the correction quality. We thus also present an in-depth benchmark of available long-read error correction tools, on a wide variety of datasets, composed of both simulated and real data, with various error rates, coverages, and read lengths, ranging from small bacterial to large mammal genomes.


According to reliable scientific data, Sea Level Rise due to Climate Change, is a fact. Amongst various social, economic and legal implications, the issue of State Sovereignty is one of the least taken into account. Certain methods, including the use of Artificial Islands and Structures (A.I.S.), for tackling the problem of gradual sinking of lands, especially in Small Island and Low Lying states, are proposed or already deployed (e.g. the "sovereignty marker", Yamamoto and Esteban, 2010). The use and status of A.I.S. has been dealt with only scarcely by the UNCLOS. On the other hand, environmental and safety issues have been much more thoroughly elaborated on national and regional level, but only for exploration and exploitation platforms. The use of A.I.S., as a means of conserving Territorial Soveignty over vanishing areas, is an upcoming aspect, which is yet to be taken under consideration by both scientific community and policy makers. Artificial Islands as human habitats, Land Reclamation Projects, Sovereignty Markers for submersing islands, are some of the most noteworthy ideas. The lack of an integrated and coherent framework on their legal status acts as a setback for their adoption as an effective means against the problems that Sea Level Rise poses on Territorial Sovereignty. The scope of this presentation is to highlight the possible uses of A.I.S. vs. Sea Level Rise, to underline the lack of international legal framework concerning their deployment and use and to present several legal options and actions that should be undertaken in order to promote the use of A.I.S.


Geometric analysis of shapes plays an important role in the way the visual world is perceived by modern computers. To this end, low-level geometric features provide most obvious and important cues towards understanding the visual scene. A novel intrinsic geometric surface descriptor, termed as the Geodesic Field Estimate (GFE) is proposed. Also proposed is a parallel algorithm, well suited for implementation on Graphics Processing Units, for efficient computation of the shortest geodesic paths. Another low level geometric descriptor, termed as the Biharmonic Density Estimate, is proposed to provide an intrinsic geometric scale space signature for multiscale surface feature-based representation of deformable 3D shapes. The computer vision and graphics communities rely on mid-level geometric understanding as well to analyze a scene. Symmetry detection and partial shape matching play an important role as mid-level cues. A comprehensive framework for detection and characterization of partial intrinsic symmetry over 3D shapes is proposed. To identify prominent overlapping symmetric regions, the proposed framework is decoupled into Correspondence Space Voting followed by Transformation Space Mapping procedure. Moreover, a novel multi-criteria optimization framework for matching of partially visible shapes in multiple images using joint geometric embedding is also proposed. The ultimate goal of geometric shape analysis is to resolve high level applications of modern world. This dissertation has focused on three different application scenarios. In the first scenario, a novel approach for the analysis of the non-rigid Left Ventricular (LV) endocardial surface from Multi-Detector CT images, using a generalized isometry-invariant Bag-of-Features (BoF) descriptor, is proposed and implemented. In the second scenario, the geometric regularity and variability of the cortical surface fold patterns at the 358 Dense Individualized and Common Connectivity-based Cortical Landmarks (DICCCOL) sites are quantitatively analyzed using Geodesic Context Histogram, a histogram constructed using GFE values in the spatial neighborhood of a surface point. In the third and final application scenario, we formulate a partial shape matching based technique, that can analyze the structure of the geometric shapes of the images and match them in a concise and meaningful manner directly, rather than relying on metadata to solve the problem of Content Based Image Retrieval. Index words: Shape Analysis, Geometric Features, Partial Shape Matching, Joint Geometric Embedding, Geodesic Field Estimate, Biharmonic Density Estimate, Cardiac Morphology, Cortical Folding Patterns Geometric Analysis of Shapes and Its application to Medical Image Analysis


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide an input-output life cycle assessment model to estimate the carbon footprint of US manufacturing sectors. To achieve this, the paper sets out the following objectives: develop a time series carbon footprint estimation model for US manufacturing sectors; analyze the annual and cumulative carbon footprint; analyze and identify the most carbon emitting and carbon intensive manufacturing industries in the last four decades; and analyze the supply chains of US manufacturing industries to help identify the most critical carbon emitting industries.

Design/methodology/approach

Initially, the economic input-output tables of US economy and carbon footprint multipliers were collected from EORA database (Lenzen et al., 2012). Then, economic input-output life cycle assessment models were developed to quantify the carbon footprint extents of the US manufacturing sectors between 1970 and 2011. The carbon footprint is assessed in metric tons of CO2-equivalent, whereas the economic outputs were measured in million dollar economic activity.

Findings

The salient finding of this paper is that the carbon footprint stock has been increasing substantially over the last four decades. The steep growth in economic output unfortunately over-shadowed the potential benefits that were obtained from lower CO2 intensities. Analysis of specific industry results indicate that the top five manufacturing sectors based on total carbon footprint share are "petroleum refineries," "Animal (except poultry) slaughtering, rendering, and processing," "Other basic organic chemical manufacturing," "Motor vehicle parts manufacturing," and "Iron and steel mills and ferroalloy manufacturing."

Originality/value

This paper proposes a state-of-art time series input-output-based carbon footprint assessment for the US manufacturing industries considering direct (onsite) and indirect (supply chain) impacts. In addition, the paper provides carbon intensity and carbon stock variables that are assessed over time for each of the US manufacturing industries from a supply chain footprint perspective.


Recent work has demonstrated that Monte Carlo photon transport (MCPT) simulation is a practical and accurate dosimetry tool for characterizing brachytherapy dose distributions in the presence of complex three-dimensional (3D) geometries. Because of the steep dose gradients encountered in this application, the choice of estimation algorithm, i.e., the algorithm for extracting dose estimates from individual photon histories, is critical to ensure adequate spatial resolution and computational efficiency. While conventional MCPT dose estimation techniques are sufficiently accurate in many cases, they inevitably fail with the point of interest is located near media interfaces, since they require the point of interest to be contained by a region of homogeneous medium of several millimetres in diameter. This severely limits the domain of application of MCPT in brachytherapy dosimetry and prevents dose estimation at points such as those immediately behind lead shields contained in gynaecological applicators, or simulation of small intricately structured detector response. We have successfully adapted to an MCPT code a neutron-flux estimator, the one-more-collided flux estimator (OMCFE), which overcomes this problem. OMCFE is derived from the familiar next-flight estimation algorithm, and, through the use of a photon trajectory resampling scheme, does not require homogeneous media at the point of interest. it is therefore a true point-dose estimator. OMCFE was tested against a variety of one- and three-dimensional benchmark problems. These benchmarks included mono-energetic point sources of 30 and 600 keV, as well as a 3M model 6702 125I seed, a 137Cs tube, and an 192Ir seed in geometries approximating common brachytherapy dosimetric problems. OMCFE agrees closely with conventional MCPT dose estimation algorithms in solving these benchmark problems, while in many cases being much more efficient.


Researchers assumed naturally occurring mentoring (also called informal mentoring) to be non-existent among Indian school teachers. Therefore, in order to promote mentoring among them development of a program by organisations, which is called formal mentoring, has been suggested. However, the success of formal mentoring is related to collegiality and equality which is common in the West than in Asia. The hierarchical Asian culture was found to affect its outcome in previous research. Also, it is important to understand the concept of informal mentoring first, which is vague and highly contextual, if one wishes to promote formal mentoring. Therefore, this research scrutinises the context among Indian teachers for the (1) existence and concept of 'informal mentoring', (2) familiarisation with the term 'mentoring', (3) demographic factors which may affect the extent of informal mentoring received, (4) level of satisfaction with the present continuous professional development (CPD) practices, and (5) perceived preferences for informal mentoring, formal mentoring and supervision (i.e., the traditional analogous practice). A mixed-methods approach using questionnaires (N=171), semi-structured interviews (N=16) and documents (N=2) has been applied with six schools and an educational expert. The results confirm the existence of 'informal mentoring' among teachers and reveal its concept. The findings also illustrate that only few teachers are familiar with the term 'mentoring'. However, the situation varies between government and private schools. The demographic variables impact negligibly on the extent of informal mentoring received. Teachers are satisfied with the present CPD practices but there is a statistical significant difference between the participating schools. 98% of the participating teachers preferred mentoring to supervision. Interestingly, private and government schools differ in their preference to informal or formal mentoring. The adoption of 'formal mentoring' has been argued where 'informal mentoring' is embraced and can be promoted without intensive modifications. However, careful planning is suggested where teachers prefer formal mentoring.


AIMS
Deep neck infections are rare but potentially fatal complication of pulpal abscess of the teeth. If an infection can progress rapidly from a toothache to a life threatening infection, then it is critical that dentists be able to recognize the danger signs and identify the patients who are at risk. Mediastinitis is a severe inflammatory process involving the connective tissues that fills the intracellular spaces and surrounds the organs in the middle of the chest. This pathology has both an acute and a chronic form and, in most cases, it has an infectious etiology. This study want to expose the experience acquired in the Oral and Maxillo-facial Sciences Department, Policlinico Umberto I, "Sapienza" University of Rome, regarding two clinical cases of disseminated necrotizing mediastinitis starting from an odontogenic abscess.

METHODS
We report two clinical cases of disseminated necrotic mediastinitis with two different medical and surgical approaches. The radiographic and photographic documentation of the patients was collected in the pre-and post-operatively. All patients underwent a CT scan and MRI.

RESULTS
Mediastinitis can result from a serious odontogenic abscess, and the extent of its inflammation process must be never underestimated. Dental surgeons play a key role as a correct diagnosis can prevent further increasing of the inflammation process.

CONCLUSIONS
A late diagnosis and an inadequate draining represent the major causes of the elevated mortality rate of disseminated necrotizing mediastinitis.


In this paper we propose two distinct enhancements to the basic "bag-of-keypoints" image categorisation scheme proposed in [4]. In this approach images are represented as a variable sized set of local image features (keypoints). Thus, we require machine learning tools which can operate on sets of vectors. In [4] this is achieved by representing the set as a histogram over bins found by k-means. We show how this approach can be improved and generalised using Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs). Alternatively, the set of keypoints can be represented directly as a probability density function, over which a kernel can be defined. This approach is shown to give state of the art categorisation performance.


This paper reviewed the environmental consequences reported in more than three thousand accidents. Fifty-nine of the accidents reported environmental consequences, seven reported no environmental consequences, and for the remaining accidents, no information was available. Generally, the properties of a chemical, the dilution of the amount released, and the environmental conditions at the spill site are the parameters that determine the short-term environmental consequences. To evaluate the long-term effects, which have almost never been studied in the accidents reviewed, persistence, the tendency to accumulate in sediment and biota, and the long-term sub-lethal and chronic effects are the main parameters to be considered. While ecological consequences of accidents have been investigated more frequently in recent years, there has been no consistency in reporting methodology. An accident investigation methodology and a reporting format should therefore be developed and implemented on a broad international scale.


Murine infection with the facultative intracellular pathogen Listeria monocytogenes was studied as a model of cell-mediated immunity. Overwhelming lethal infection with Listeria developed when mice were given a secondary challenge with a protein antigen at the same time as Listeria infection. Three days after infection, mice immunized with ovalbumin and then challenged with Listeria and ovalbumin had up to 2.1(10)6 times as many viable Listeria organisms in their spleens as mice challenged only with Listeria. The suppressive effect of secondary challenge with a protein antigen was found to be antigen-specific, transient, and not dependent on route of challenge with either Listeria or ovalbumin. Secondary challenge with a protein antigen suppressed both the primary and the secondary responses to Listeria. Immune serum, or affinity-purified antibody, was found to transfer the suppressive effect to nonimmune mice. These findings demonstrate that acute formation of immune complexes causes a transient state of high susceptibility to infection with an intracellular pathogen. Possible mechanisms for, and implications of, these findings are discussed.


This article describes results obtained when human liver cells obtained from reduced grafts are cultured in a chemically defined medium. Remnants of livers after reduction for pediatric transplantation were processed by a multiple cannulation system through the existing vasculature, which allowed the homogeneous perfusion of collagenase. The graft weight ranged between 55 and 1000 g (median value: 145.6 g). The yield ranged between 0.13 x 10(6) and 38 x 10(6) cells/g of tissue (median value 14.73 x 10(6) cells/g), and the viability was 61.17 +/- 27.43%. The total number of cells ranged between 57.6 x 10(6) and 12 150 x 10(6) cells (median value: 740 x 10(6) cells). Cells were cultured for 30 days. Albumin synthesis was observed during the first 2 weeks, with a peak value at day 6 (27.85 +/- 1.77 micro g/mL). Urea production was detected during the first week (peak value at day 6: 17.12 +/- 2.11 mg/dL). Light microscopy showed the presence of cells in a monolayer. Biliary pigments were observed at day 20. By immunohistochemistry, positive cells for albumin, for hepatocyte marker, cytokeratin 19, CD 34, CD 68, and for alpha actin for smooth muscle, were observed. Our results showed that hepatocytes obtained from reduced liver grafts are easily cultured and are able to maintain viability and functionality in vitro. This alternative source of human cells maintained under controlled culture conditions may play an important role in the development of a bioartificial liver.


This study focuses on the Kuibyshev reservoir (Volga River basin, Russia)—the largest in Eurasia and the third in the world by area (6150 km2). The objective of this paper is to quantitatively assess the dynamics of reservoir bank landslides and shoreline abrasion at active zones based on the integrated use of modern instrumental methods (i.e., terrestrial laser scanning—TLS, unmanned aerial vehicle—UAV, and a global navigation satellite system—GNSS) and GIS analysis of historical imagery. A methodology for the application of different methods of instrumental assessment of abrasion and landslide processes is developed. Different approaches are used to assess the intensity of landslide and abrasion processes: the specific volume and material loss index, the planar displacement of the bank scarp, and the planar-altitude analysis of displaced soil material based on the analysis of slope profiles. Historical shoreline position (1958, 1985, and 1987) was obtained from archival aerial photo data, whereas data for 1975, 1993, 2010, 2011, and 2012 were obtained from high-resolution satellite image interpretation. Field surveys of the geomorphic processes from 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2014 were carried out using Trimble M3 and Trimble VX total stations; in 2012–2014 and 2019 TLS and UAV surveys were made, respectively. The monitoring of landslide processes showed that the rate of volumetric changes at Site 1 remained rather stable during the measurement period with net material losses of 0.03–0.04 m−3 m−2 yr−1. The most significant contribution to the average annual value of the material loss was snowmelt runoff. The landslide scarp retreat rate at Site 2 showed a steady decreasing trend, due to partial overgrowth of the landslide accumulation zone resulting in its relative stabilization. The average long-term landslide scarp retreat rate is—2.3 m yr−1. In 2019 earthworks for landscaping at this site have reduced the landslide intensity by more than 2.5 times to—0.84 m yr−1.