OBJECTIVES: The high turnover rate of nurses has been a matter of debate among scholars. Nurses' social interaction patterns and the social structure they are situated within may provide clues about possible causes of their high turnover intentions. This study aims to investigate the possible effects of negative and positive ties on the intention of turnover among nurses.
DESIGN & SETTING: A hybrid research methodology was used. Social network analysis was used to reveal the positions of the nurses (n = 126) in the positive and negative networks. A statistical model was formed with varying types of centrality measures, intragroup conflict, and intention to leave variables. The data was collected from all the nurses working in a special branch hospital.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The findings of the study clearly indicate that negative interactions directly and indirectly affect the intention to leave, and the nurses demand professional support from their colleagues. The findings also show the existence of a fragmented social structure among nurses, which suggests the increased importance of brokerage roles.
Managers should closely monitor the negative interactions among nurses, and they need to use conflict management techniques frequently to reduce hostile relations in the business environment. Managers should especially seek ways to increase altruistic tendencies among colleagues because nurses demand professional support ties more than friendship relations.


BACKGROUND
Optimil is an infant formula, manufactured in Israel and introduced to the market in May 2008.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the effect of this formula on infant growth.

METHOD
The study group comprised 52 infants who for the first 6 months of life consumed Optimil, which constituted at least 25% of their total daily intake. Anthropometric data were collected from the records of the well-baby clinics. Weight, length and head circumference at baseline and 3 months thereafter were converted to gender and age-matched standard deviation Z-scores. As an exploratory uncontrolled analysis, questionnaires were sent to the caregivers to assess satisfaction with the formula and to note the rate of constipation, irritability and vomiting as well as apparent palatability.

RESULTS
The baseline Z-scores of all three parameters were below zero but increased significantly after 3 months (-0.2 +/- 0.88 to 0.12 +/- 0.88, P= 0.013 for weight; -0.44 +/- 0.87 to 0.10 +/- 0.72, P< 0.001 for length; and -0.58 +/- 0.78 to -0.1 +/- 0.76, P< 0.001 for head circumference). There was a significant dose-response effect of the formula with weight gain. The formula was generally well accepted, with 8% constipation, 8% vomiting and 6% significant irritability.

CONCLUSIONS
This study provides the first evidence that infants consuming Optimil under age 6 months have adequate growth. Nonetheless, breastfeeding during this period should be preferred in almost all cases.


Summary: The effect of verapamil on death and reinfarction after an acute myocardial infarction was studied in two double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled multicenter trials, the Danish Verapamil Infarction Trials I and II (DAVIT I and II). The studies demonstrated that verapamil 360 mg/day from the 2nd week after an acute myocardial infarction. prevented death and reinfarction, Meta-analyses of the results of DAVITs I and II resulted in a reduction of pooled ratios of 22% (95% confidence limits 1–37. p = 0.04) for death. 21% (5–35. p = 0.02) for first major events (first reinfarction or death). and 27% (6–43, p = 0.02) for first reinfarctions. The effect of verapamil was to prevent myocardial ischemia and reduce sudden death and reinfarction. It is concluded that long-term treatment with verapamil after an acute myocardial infarction may be recommended with the object of reducing overall mortality. major events and reinfarction.


This paper describes an MSc level digital ASIC project course. The majority of the course participants are international students, having a wide spread in previous knowledge in the field of digital HW-design. A course outline adapting to this fact has been developed, changing from one joint VLSI project towards smaller individual projects. The diversity in previous knowledge is evened out by adding lectures regarding design methodology and used EDA-tools, and making the first part of the course purely laboratory. To enhance and highlight different aspects of HDL-design, mandatory assignments allow the students to gradually take command over the complete design flow. As a result, comprehension of digital ASIC design is increased among the students and course administration is reduced.


Abstract : The IMPACT Computer-Administered Instruction (CAI) software subsystem uses Coursewriter 3 as its primary vehicle for providing student instruction. IMPACT Coursewriter 3 instructional material is structured into divisions, with each division having one or more instructional modules. Each module has a Telling (T) section with a Practice (P) subsection, and a Quiz (Q) section. A student may recapitulate any completed module, review his current module's T-section, or jump to the current module's practice or quiz sections. System-scheduled remediation is also provided for in IMPACT's instruction. The Interface controls all intermodule and intramodule transfers. It is used to assemble the appropriate label when a transfer is made. The label is returned to Coursewriter 3 and is used in a Coursewriter 3 branch instruction. Interface permits an author to specify, for each individual student, a separate and unique division and module structure. Thus, it also allows the author to specify an individual course for each student with the course components being drawn from a pool of instructional material. The report contains 132 pages of IBM 370 Assembly language program listings. (Author)


The cloud model is applied to human resources evaluation methods, compared with the previous practice, it no longer stressed precise the expression of the function, it uses three digital characteristics of cloud to realize the transformation between qualitative concepts and quantitative expression. And the qualitative and quantitative mutual dependent relationships are established. The induction of cloud model that reduces the subjectivity of human judgment greatly is objective and standardized.


The need for new and revised structures to reward new forms of scholarship is being examined nationally and globally. It is also being examined on campuses that make up the University of Massachusetts system, all which are classified by the Carnegie Foundation for Community Engagement. This paper reports on the collective exploration by the five campuses of the University of Massachusetts to understand whether the existing academic policies sufficiently and appropriately rewarding community engagement and publically engaged scholarship enact the core mission of the University of Massachusetts to effectively generate knowledge, address social issues, and fulfill its academic and civic purposes.


The coordination between the renal pelvis and ureteral peristalsis is an important part of the hydrodynamics of the upper urinary tract. Pelvic pressure and frequency of ureteral peristalsis were registered simultaneously in 28 adult, female dogs. A mathematical analysis of these observation showed a non-linear relation of a "power function" in approximately 85% of the investigations. Hysteresis was demonstrated between the power functions of the increasing and of the subsequent decreasing diuresis in 15 of the examined dogs. It was concluded that the renal pelvis in a monocalyceal system governs the frequency of ureteral peristalsis and that hysteresis represents a viscoelastic action of the smooth muscle tissue.


We use financial disclosures to develop a novel proxy for net operating loss carryforward (NOL) tax benefits. This approach more accurately identifies firms with tax losses, more precisely measures the tax loss, and better predicts reductions in future taxes than existing proxies. We derive a prediction model, which future researchers can employ to better approximate the NOL tax benefits based on readily available financial data. We also demonstrate how NOL nonlinearity affects measurement of corporate tax status. By proposing a new measure and demonstrating trade-offs across competing proxies, we contribute to the work in public economics, corporate finance, and tax accounting that examines the responsiveness of the business sector to corporate tax incentives.


KB-0742 is an orally available, potent, and selective inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9). Sensitivity profiling across a panel of 800 adherent and suspension immortalized pan-cancer cell lines using the Broad Institute PRISM platform had previously demonstrated MYC amplification as being a driver of KB-0742 sensitivity. We sought to further determine the activity of KB-0742 in breast cancer cell lines, patient-derived cell and organoid cultures, and patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models. KB-0742 decreased the viability of cell lines derived from primary and metastatic breast cancers, including triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs). In a panel of 17 breast cancer cell lines, including 2 human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+), 7 estrogen-receptor positive (ER+), 1 HER2+/ER+ and 7 TNBCs, the effect of KB-0742 on viability was either cytostatic or cytotoxic over the duration of the culture period. KB-0742 was also tested in patient-derived cell lines derived from primary and metastatic tumors including TNBC, and in 2 TNBC MYC-high expressing patient-derived organoid cultures. KB-0742 demonstrated cytostatic and cytotoxic effects on cell growth and superior inhibitory effects on cell growth in the TNBC organoid cultures as compared with paclitaxel and gemcitabine. Since sensitivity to KB-0742 was observed in breast cancer cell lines and patient-derived models, including TNBCs, we evaluated efficacy and target engagement in several MYC-high expressing TNBC PDX animal models. Treatment with KB-0742 using an intermittent dosing schedule (3-days on/4-days off) was well tolerated and resulted in anti-tumor activity comparable to that observed with standard of care chemotherapeutic agents. Tumors collected at 2 and 8 hours post-final dose displayed a decrease in phosphorylated serine residue 2 (pSER2) in the C-terminal domain of RNA polymerase II (RNA pol-II) and decreased MYC protein levels consistent with CDK9 inhibition. These data demonstrate the efficacy of KB-0742 in preclinical models of breast cancer and supports clinical testing in TNBC patients. KB-0742 is currently being evaluated in a phase I dose-escalation trial in patients with relapsed or refractory solid tumors or non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NCT04718675).
 Citation Format: Douglas C. Saffran, Melinda A.L. Day, Nathalie Rioux, Tom Chen, Christina Lee, Suha Naffar-Abu Amara, David B. Freeman, Tressa Hood, Charles Y. Lin, Pavan Kumar, Jorge DiMartino. Preclinical activity of KB-0742, an oral, highly selective, CDK9 inhibitor, in cell lines and in MYC-high expressing, patient-derived models of multiple breast cancer subtypes [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2021 Dec 7-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-08-05.


Identifying pathways of agricultural development that enable substantial productivity improvements is of prime importance for food security and human development across Sub-Saharan Africa. To ensure long-term welfare for its people and landscapes, it is imperative that such agricultural transformations are environmentally sustainable. This study explores the case of Ethiopia and aims to assess constraints and opportunities for a sustainable agricultural transformation, by analysing a) the governance context, b) narratives of agricultural development, and c) strategies employed by "green" non-state actors in the agricultural sector to lever change in the direction they perceive as desirable. By assessing the governance structure, the study finds that many non-state actors face significant legal and practical barriers to action, and that the strong government domination and rigid structures provide limited opportunities for influence. Further, the study finds that agricultural policy is dominated by a "Green Revolution"-inspired narrative focused on production and productivity, although food security and environmental rehabilitation narratives exist alongside. Issues of agricultural production and natural resource management are found to be largely decoupled in policy, which constitutes another barrier for green non-state actors working across the divide. Given these challenging conditions, green non-state actors in Ethiopia choose a strategy of close collaboration with government institutions, which, while offering the possibility of large-scale impact, may also reduce the prospects for more radical change. Applying current theories of sustainability transformations to a new type of system, the study concludes with a call for new conceptualisations of endogenous and exogenous change in future research to ensure that the theory fits a broader range of social-ecological realities.


The two-dimensional space spanned by the velocity gradient invariants Q and R is expanded to three dimensions by the decomposition of R into its strain production −1/3sijsjkski and enstrophy production 1/4ωiωjsij terms. The {Q; R} space is a planar projection of the new three-dimensional representation. In the {Q; −sss; ωωs} space the Lagrangian evolution of the velocity gradient tensor Aij is studied via conditional mean trajectories (CMTs) as introduced by Martín et al. (Phys. Fluids, vol. 10, 1998, p. 2012). From an analysis of a numerical data set for isotropic turbulence of Reλ ~ 434, taken from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) turbulence database, we observe a pronounced cyclic evolution that is almost perpendicular to the Q–R plane. The relatively weak cyclic evolution in the Q–R space is thus only a projection of a much stronger cycle in the {Q; −sss; ωωs} space. Further, we find that the restricted Euler (RE) dynamics are primarily counteracted by the deviatoric non-local part of the pressure Hessian and not by the viscous term. The contribution of the Laplacian of Aij, on the other hand, seems the main responsible for intermittently alternating between low and high intensity Aij states.


Background: Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is a chronic, progressive inflammatory disease of the esophagus characterized by local eosinophilic infiltration accompanied by symptoms of esophageal dysfunction. The aim of this study was to characterize features of EoE dia gnosed regionally and to describe local strategies for its treatment. Methods: The observational survey retrospectively analyzed a data set of child patients with histologically proven EoE from five pediatric endoscopy centers. This analysis focused on describing their general situation (age, gender, symptoms) and also aimed to investigate any possible linkage between age and symptoms or length of dia gnosis period. Demographic features; clinical symptoms; laboratory, endoscopic, and histopathological findings; and chosen treatment of patients were recorded and analyzed. Results: From January 2010 to September 2020, 33 new cases of EoE were reported. Strong association of EoE with male sex is consistent with the results from formerly published studies (81.8%). The median age of symptom onset was 7 years, while the median age for dia gnosis was almost 13 years. The most common symptoms were reflux symptoms in general (39.4%), followed by vomiting (36.4%), and dysphagia (33.3%). Examination for sensitization to food allergens was performed on 23 (69.7%) patients with dia gnosed EoE. Out of these, 17 (51.5% of all cases) were found to be sensitive to some allergens. Most of this subgroup (and 48.5% of all cases) were examined by specific IgE testing, and just 2 (6.1% of all cases) patients were tested only by skin prick tests. Another allergic comorbidity was present in 75.8% of patients, and the most common of these were bronchial asthma and allergic rhinoconjunctivitis (45.5% and 42.2%, respectively). More than two-thirds of patients (69.7%) had abnormal macroscopic findings during dia gnostic endoscopy, and the most common were longitudinal furrows and white exudates. The most common initial modality of treatment was to use proton-pump inhibitors (PPI; 93.9%), followed by food elimination (75.8%) and then by corticosteroid administration (63.6%). The vast majority of patients treated with corticosteroids received a topical preparation (90.9%). Conclusion: This is the first retrospective study on pediatric patients with EoE in the Czech Republic. We found similar features of EoE as reported in formerly published works elsewhere. Collecting long-term prospective observational data in a national EoE register of patients in the Czech Republic would significantly improve our knowledge of this disease.


This thesis examines the impact of intimate partner abuse on women"s experiences of the workplace, a topic that has been under examined within the UK. Taking a pro-feminist perspective, and drawing on Foucault"s conceptualisation of power, the thesis examines the gendered power relations that survivors negotiate in their relationships with their abusive partners and work colleagues in order to sustain their employment. The thesis also addresses a major gap in the literature, namely the experiences of women in professional and/or managerial occupations and the coping strategies they employ in order to sustain their employment.
The thesis draws on 29 in-depth qualitative interviews conducted with survivors of intimate partner abuse who predominantly were employed in skilled, professional and/or managerial occupations. These interviews were conducted via telephone, face-to-face and the internet. Adopting a symbolic interactionist approach, coupled with a Foucauldian perspective on power, it is argued women in professional and/or managerial positions adopt different coping mechanisms to women in unskilled employment in order to sustain their employment. Furthermore, it is argued that for some women disclosure of abuse within the workplace can prove to be a positive coping strategy. However, for those women in managerial positions, it could seriously jeopardise their authority within the workplace. It is also argued that disclosure could undermine the coping strategies that women adopt in order to survive and sustain their employment. This thesis also argues that earning an income and assuming the role of breadwinner within an abusive relationship does not necessarily grant women economic independence, that gendered power relations are far more complex than previous arguments propose.
Finally, this thesis not only contributes towards our theoretical and empirical understanding of gendered power dynamics operating within abusive relationships, but it also has a practical application by informing the development of workplace policies and practices regarding intimate partner abuse.


This paper describes a new standpoint to further understanding the evotvability of A-life systems, that is, quantification of the dependency of system constituents. If a system exhibits evolutionary activity, new events, including the development or extinction of systems constituents, may emerge one after the other. The occurrence of new events would involve a changing complexion in the course of the future direction of system behaviors. In this respect, there have been a considerable number of studies on captunng longterm dynamics in A-life systems in terms of, for example, population dynamics. On the other hand, we focus on the quantification of relational concepts between constituents to clarify the occurrence of fundamental events affecting longterm course of evolution. We apply a quantification method to our A-life simulation model. Sequential analysis of the obtained resulLs enables us to visualize its long-term evolutionary dynamics. We discuss the effectiveness of our approach and the quantified evolutionary dynamics.


This study explored the use of a collaborative and sustained programme of continuing professional development (CPD) to support the adoption of a new pedagogical model within secondary school physical education. Specifically, the research examined the developmental journey of presenting a new conceptual Health-Based Physical Education (HBPE) pedagogical model to teachers and supporting them to implement it in practice. The aim of the research was to examine teachers' experiences during the HBPE-CPD programme and the subsequent impact on their practice. Participants were nine physical educators from two secondary schools in England who worked with the programme for one year. The HBPE-CPD programme involved school-based meetings, reflective activities and on-going support during the model's implementation. Participatory action research was employed as the methodology and the data gathering methods used included teacher reflections, interviews, lesson observations and field notes. Analysis followed an inductive, iterative process involving constant comparison between the different data sources to generate and subsequently code themes. The creation of sustained CPD programmes, with teachers and researchers working collaboratively, encouraged the adoption of the HBPE pedagogical model over time, although competing organisational pressures presented some challenges. Whilst the teachers demonstrated mixed success with their adoption of the HBPE model, there was a sustained shift away from a 'fitness for performance' philosophy with greater emphasis placed on explicitly promoting out-of-class physical activity for all students. These findings illustrate that collaborative and sustained CPD programmes involving external support can support teachers to adopt new ideas and change their practice over time. They also suggest the HBPE model has real promise, particularly in guiding teachers to promote healthy active lifestyles with their students. It is recommended that the model is further refined and new forms of CPD are developed to support teachers' sustained adoption of pedagogical models, such as HBPE. However, a concerted effort needs to be made by all stakeholders in education to ensure that teachers have sufficient time allocated for CPD and are encouraged to engage in pedagogical change.


The three-dimensional hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites have shown huge potential for use in solar cells and other optoelectronic devices. Although these materials are under intense investigation, derivative materials with lower dimensionality are emerging, offering higher tunability of physical properties and new capabilities. Here, we present two new series of hybrid two-dimensional (2D) perovskites that adopt the Dion-Jacobson (DJ) structure type, which are the first complete homologous series reported in halide perovskite chemistry. Lead iodide DJ perovskites adopt a general formula A'A n-1Pb nI3 n+1 (A' = 3-(aminomethyl)piperidinium (3AMP) or 4-(aminomethyl)piperidinium (4AMP), A = methylammonium (MA)). These materials have layered structures where the stacking of inorganic layers is unique as they lay exactly on top of another. With a slightly different position of the functional group in the templating cation 3AMP and 4AMP, the as-formed DJ perovskites show different optical properties, with the 3AMP series having smaller band gaps than the 4AMP series. Analysis on the crystal structures and density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest that the origin of the systematic band gap shift is the strong but indirect influence of the organic cation on the inorganic framework. Fabrication of photovoltaic devices utilizing these materials as light absorbers reveals that (3AMP)(MA)3Pb4I13 has the best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.32%, which is much higher than that of the corresponding (4AMP)(MA)3Pb4I13.


We consider the evolution of small rotational perturbations, with azimuthal symmetry, of the brane-world cosmological models. The equations describing the temporal, radial and angular dependence of the perturbations are derived by taking into account the effects of both scalar and tensor parts of the dark energy term on the brane. The time decay of the initial rotation is investigated for several types of equation of state of the ultra-high density cosmological matter. For an expanding Universe, rotation always decays in the case of the perfect dragging, for which the angular velocity of the matter on the brane equals the rotation metric tensor. For non-perfect dragging, the behaviour of the rotation is strongly equation of state dependent. For some classes of dense matter, like the stiff causal or the Chaplygin gas, the angular velocity of the matter on the brane is an increasing function of time. For other types of the ultra-dense matter, such as the Hagedorn fluid, rotation is smoothed out by the expansion of the Universe. Therefore the study of dynamics of rotational perturbations of brane-world models, as well as in general relativity, could provide some insights on the physical properties and equation of state of the cosmological fluid filling the very early Universe.


Low temperature diesel combustion has been widely investigated over the last few years for reducing in-cylinder emissions of Direct Injection (DI) diesel engines without sacrificing efficiency and fuel consumption. The spatial distribution of the fuel within the combustion chamber and the air-fuel mixing quality are the key factors affecting temperature generation within the cylinder. Avoiding fuel rich areas within the cylinder can significantly reduce the local high temperatures resulting in low NOx formation. This paper investigates the effects of the combustion chamber geometry and spray angle on the air-fuel mixing and emissions formation of a DI diesel engine. A new quantitative factor measuring the air-fuel mixing quality has been adopted in order to analyze and compare air-fuel mixing quality for different piston geometries. The results have shown that pistons with a narrow entrance and a deep combustion re-entrant chamber benefit from increased air-fuel mixtures due to the significantly higher swirl generated within the cylinder. However, the improved air-fuel mixing does not consequently lead to a reduced NOx generation, which is highly affected by the combustion efficiency of the engine.


Faced with an avalanche of oddly-assorted objects and technologies presented as so many keys to bring us into the era of immersive communication, we feel the need to reposition content at the center of our thinking. The aim of this article is to propose a scientific approach and a research protocol aimed at specifying and organizing the works that make up the wide range of current proposals for digital immersive experiences, basing ourselves on the perceptions and feelings of users. We consider that technologies are essential means for producing and transmitting content, while providing it with decisive characteristics, but that they must not be seen as the aim of the mediation. Far from us the idea of demonizing technical objects. We simply seek, as philosopher Gilbert Simondon1 urges us, to return them to their rightful place as objects in which "the human gesture fixed and crystallized into functioning structures" reside, and whose role is to be "mediators between nature and humans". In developing our methodology, we have retained an intentionally restrictive definition of spatial mediations such that they involve the viewer in a spatial perception of the content: physical or virtual mobilization of the body and/or stimulation of spatial, visual and/or auditory perceptions. The corpus of our study will consist of about one hundred works in various "formats", from stereoscopic cinema to virtual reality, for which we will recall or propose definitions. We will present the criteria used to characterize the work and the experience of it (Ex.: activated senses; freedom of control within the space and time of the experience; possibilities for interaction and socialization.) ose criteria will allow us to evaluate different indices (Ex.: presence, immersion, hybridity, engagement of the senses), and to position the works within our mapping, the two defining axes of which will be perception and narration. We will then examine the possible emergence of specific areas of use that might constitute "formats" or "genres", and we will attempt to determine, a posteriori, how technological or economic factors stimulate some of them. At this stage of our research, this article does not seek to publish results but to examine an experimental protocol, choices of specification, and intuitions.


Problem Statement: The island of Cyprus, due to its strategic location, was under the influence of many conquerors throughout the centuries. Cultural traces of these captors have survived to the present day. This long, turbulent history has had a profound effect on the Cypriot educational system, with the most recent influence being the impact of the British Administration during the 19th and 20th centuries. Purpose of Study: This article attempts to reveal the influence and consequences of British Colonial policies on education, focussing on curriculum and its aims in the 20th century. The emphasis is more on the opinion of the recipients of education concerning their experience with the education system and their perception of its success or failure rather than on the aims and goals as set by the administrators and educators. Methods: This study encompasses a qualitative research approach to gain in-depth data based on interviews of Turkish-Cypriots and GreekCypriots of different backgrounds who were students during the colonial times. The data regarding issues of primary and secondary school curriculum and its aims, nationalism and religion at schools, identity, and ties between the two communities and their "motherlands" was recorded, analysed thematically, and presented in detail.  This article is a summary of a chapter in the book called British Colonial Influence on Cypriot Education written by Icim Ozenli Ozmatyatli and published by Lap Lambert Academic Publishing.  Corresponding author: Phd., Near East University, Department of History Teaching, North Cyprus, Mersin 10 Turkey, email@example.com  Assoc.Prof.Dr., Near East University, Department of History Teaching, North Cyprus, Mersin 10 Turkey, email@example.com With thanks to Eftychia Kourempana for her help with the Greek-speaking portion of the research 2 Icim Ozenli Ozmatyatli & Ali Efdal Ozkul Findings and Results: By implementing sometimes extreme measures, the British followed the tactic of "Divide and Rule" which led the two communities to ethic division. The authors discern the trends of the British Colonial policies towards the establishment of a more British society, which was accomplished by influencing the educational and sociopolitical aspects of life on the island. Conclusions: The British educational policies helped both Turkish and Greek Cypriots to create ethno-nationalism, which inspired the subsequent resistance of both communities. Although it is apparent that Cypriots placed a high value on education, this development was confined only within the context of being Greek or Turkish. Indeed, it would appear that within a curricula context, for the most part, this served as a forum in which all parties sought to construct national identities. The cost remains to be seen.


The assumption that the concept of phenomenal consciousness is pretheoretical is often found in the philosophical debates on consciousness. Unfortunately, this assumption has not received the kind of empirical attention that it deserves. We suspect that this is in part due to difficulties that arise in attempting to test folk intuitions about consciousness. In this article we elucidate and defend a key methodological principle for this work. We draw this principle out by considering recent experimental work on the topic by Joshua Knobe and Jesse Prinz (2008). We charge that their studies do not establish that the folk have a concept of phenomenal consciousness in part because they compare group agents to individuals. The problem is that group agents and individuals differ in some significant ways in terms of functional organization and behavior. We propose that future experiments should establish that ordinary people are disposed to ascribe different mental states to entities that are given behaviorally and functionally equivalent descriptions.


The objective of the current paper was to prepare and evaluate various polymeric films for fungal infection treatment and its impact on volunteer patients. Different Eudragit polymeric films containing Ketoconazole as antifungal drug were prepared by solvent casting technique. The prepared films were tested for their physico-mechanical properties as tensile strength, physical endurance, elasticity, water vapor permeation and water loss. The release of ketoconazole from the prepared medicated films was examined. It is involved 20 volunteers suffering from legs fungal infection. Ten of the patients used the films and a follow up study was carried out for 14 days, in comparison with other patients who applied ketoconazole medicated ointment, cream gel and Emulgel. The results revealed that films prepared with Eudragit RL 100 containing glyceryl triacetate produced maximum release of ketoconazole both in vitro and in vivo as compared with other topical dosage forms as ointment, cream, gel and Emulgel. Moreover, the films constitute a simple and convenient method for treatment of various fungal infections. As conclusion, the use of antifungal drugs such as Ketoconazole incorporated in polymeric films, the output results provided promised evidence in the treatment of dermatophytosis.


Open Student Models (OSM) are beneficial for improving students' domain knowledge and meta-cognitive skills. The way in which the student model is displayed may be an important factor which has not been investigated adequately in the context of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS). In our study, the control group had skill meters, while the experimental group additionally could access the OSM represented as a concept list, concept hierarchy or a concept map. The results show that OSM do have a positive effect on students' learning. However, the students showed clear preferences towards simpler representations than the more complex ones.


A thin magnetic film NDRO storage cell has been developed for very high-speed word-organized memories. The storage cell contains two 500-A, 15-mil-square Permalloy film elements with a read and sense line between them. One film element is deposited on a metallic ground plane, so that the read line and its image in the ground plane are coupled to the readout film and decoupled from the storage film. A 3-ns-wide 300-mA read pulse with a 1-ns rise time yields a 4- to 6-mV output signal. Two methods of coincident current writing were investigated. One with the word and digit lines outside the storage cell required 500-mA word current, 80-mA digit current, and a read after write pulse. Writing takes 50 ns and the storage cell will tolerate coincident word and digit disturb currents of 50 and 100 mA, respectively. The other method uses the read and sense lines between the films as word and digit lines. Word currents of 300 mA and digit currents of 50 mA are required to write. The disturb margins are greater, and read after write pulse is not required. Because the eddy currents in the ground plane must decay, writing takes 3 μs. A 512-word, 40-digit test plane has been built and partially populated to determine problems in building a large array. The characteristic impedances and effects of attenuation and delay have been observed. In particular, the output signals are reduced one half because of attenuation and the difference in signal propagation time in the two directions on the sense line.


The cellulose dissolution ability of a liquid zwitterion, the most biocompatible cellulose solvent, was improved by adding a co-solvent, dimethylsulfoxide. Moreover, the biocompatibility of the liquid zwitterion was also improved by adding dimethylsulfoxide although it is toxic relative to the liquid zwitterion. This mixture is an efficient and extremely biocompatible cellulose solvent.


Background Paediatric clinical research represents a challenge and faces particular pharmaceutical constraints. Purpose The main objective was to describe the current pharmaceutical situation in paediatric clinical research in France and Canada. The secondary objective was to identify factors that discourage paediatric clinical research. Materials and Methods Cross-sectional survey of 12 pharmacy departments from France and 12 from Canada with an online 50-question survey (June–September 2012). The median [minimum-maximum] was calculated for each country and compared using the Mann-Whitney or Fisher's exact test. Respondents were asked to rank, in order of importance from 1–10 (1 being the most important), factors that discourage paediatric clinical research. Results There was a similar number of ongoing paediatric clinical trials in France and Canada (38 [10–81] vs. 20 [4–178], p = 0.205). A lower number of pharmacists per hospital was observed in France (17 [11.5–35] vs. 45 [18.9–76.8], p = 0.009), but a similar number of pharmacists were assigned to clinical trials (1.5 [1–3] vs. 1.9 [0.2–17.4], p = 0.921). Institutional protocols represented the majority of paediatric clinical trials in France (61% [14–100] vs. 25% [0–100]). Similar services were offered, but the majority of French respondents offered help with institutional protocol development (91% vs. 50%, p = 0.063). The majority of respondents reported that the payment provided by the investigators was insufficient to cover pharmaceutical support costs and that formulations were not easily obtained from manufacturers. Respondents from both countries ranked more highly the same factors that discourage paediatric clinical research, such as absence of financial interest from the pharmaceutical industry (median rank 2 [1–6] vs. 4 [1–10]), prohibitive cost versus profit ratio (2 [1–3] vs. 3 [2–9]), small patient cohorts per hospital (2 [1–7] vs. 4.5 [1–10] and the non-availability of appropriate drug formulations (3 [1–9] vs. 5 [1–10]). Conclusions Similar constraints were identified in France and Canada. Further studies are required to identify relevant incentives to better support pharmacists' role in paediatric clinical research. No conflict of interest.


One of the key features of a routing protocol is its ability to recover from link or node failures, recomputing routes efficiently without creating temporary loops. Indeed, in real conditions, there is always a trade-off between the overhead due to the periodic generation of control messages and route convergence time. This paper formalizes the problem of the choice of timers for control message generation as an optimization problem that minimizes the route convergence time, constrained to a constant signaling overhead. The solution requires the knowledge of nodes' centrality in the topology and can be obtained with a computational complexity low enough to allow on-line computation of the timers. Results on both synthetic and real topologies show a significant decrease of the transient duration with the consequent performance gain in terms of reduced number of unreachable destinations and routing loops. Our proposal is general and it can be applied to enhance any link-state routing protocol, albeit it is more suited for wireless networks. As a concrete example, we present the extension of OLSRv2 with our proposal, named Pop-Routing, and discuss its performance and the stability of centrality metrics in three large-scale real wireless mesh networks. This exhaustive analysis on traces of the topology evolution of real networks for one entire week shows that pop-routing outperforms the non-enhanced protocol in every situation, even when it runs with sub-optimal timers due to centrality computation on stale information.


Tangramoids are families of 3D objects introduced in [1]. One of these objects, called here the Closed Tangramoid, or simply Tangramoid, has recently been understood as a constant volume morphing of a regular octahedron and has been proven to be a polyhedron [3] in a sense due to Buekenhout [4]. Its plastic features allowing it to be considered as a dynamic sculpture are revisited in this short communication together with technological information on new projects.


BACKGROUND
The Medical and Dental Global Health Professions Student Surveys (GHPSS) are surveys based in schools that collect self-administered data from students on the prevalence of tobacco use, exposure to second-hand smoke, and tobacco cessation training, among the third-year medical and dental students.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Two rounds of medical and dental GHPSS have been conducted in Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, among the third-year medical and dental students, between 2005 and 2006 and 2009 and 2011.

RESULTS
The prevalence of any tobacco use among third-year male and female medical students did not change in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal between 2005 and 2006 and 2009 and 2011; however, it reduced significantly among females in Myanmar (3.3% in 2006 to 1.8% in 2009) and in Sri Lanka (2.5% in 2006 to 0.6% in 2011). The prevalence of any tobacco use among third-year male dental students did not change in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Thailand between 2005 and 2006 and 2009 and 2011; however, in Myanmar, the prevalence increased significantly (35.6% in 2006 to 49.5% in 2009). Among the third-year female students, a significant increase in prevalence was noticed in Bangladesh (4.0% in 2005 to 22.2% in 2009) and Thailand (0.7% in 2006 to 2.1% in 2011). It remained unchanged in the other three countries. Prevalence of exposure to second-hand smoke (SHS) both at home and in public places, among medical students, decreased significantly in Myanmar and Sri Lanka between 2006 and 2009 and in 2011. Among dental students, the prevalence of SHS exposure at home reduced significantly in Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar, and in public places in India. However, there was an increase of SHS exposure among dental students in Nepal, both at home and in public places, between 2005 and 2011. Medical students in Myanmar, Nepal, and Sri Lanka reported a declining trend in schools, with a smoking ban policy in place, between 2005 and 2006 and 2009 and 2011, while proportions of dental students reported that schools with a smoking ban policy have increased significantly in Bangladesh and Myanmar. Ever receiving cessation training increased significantly among medical students in Sri Lanka only, whereas, among dental students, it increased in India, Nepal, and Thailand.

CONCLUSION
Trends of tobacco use and exposure to SHS among medical and dental students in most countries of the South-East Asia Region had changed only relatively between the two rounds of GHPSS (2005-2006 and 2009-2011). No significant improvement was observed in the trend in schools with a policy banning smoking in school buildings and clinics. Almost all countries in the SEA Region that participated in GHPSS showed no significant change in ever having received formal training on tobacco cessation among medical and dental students.


Author(s): Meng, Ling | Advisor(s): Feldman, Lewis J. | Abstract: CLE (CLV3/ESR-like) genes share a putative N-terminal signal peptide and a conserved C-terminal 14-amino-acid CLE motif, from which, recent studies suggest, a new family of 12-amino-acid plant peptide hormones is derived. Using computational approaches, for the first time, the 3D structures of 12-amino-acid CLV3 peptide and CLV1 and CLV2 receptors, and their interacting models were predicted in this study. The putative interacting partners for some CLE peptides were also inferred using statistic machine learning methods. The results from over-expression of some CLE genes suggest that CLE proteins function in a tissue-specific manner. This leads to the question of which region(s) of the CLE sequence determine its functional tissue specificities in planta. Using domain swapping and deletion my results suggest that the CLE motif likely determines much of the functional tissue-specificity of the proteins. However, the results also support a view that sequences outside the CLE motif contribute to CLE function, and show that the CLE signal peptides are required for the entrance of CLE proteins into the secretory pathway and for their functionalities in vivo. But what role, if any, does the variable domain play? Due to probable proteolytic separation, use of a gene-tag system such as GFP may only indicate the sub-cellular localizations of CLE proproteins. Nevertheless, the cleaved tags may indicate where the processing of CLE peptides takes place. Using GFP-tagged and domain swapping, my results show that neither the CLE motif nor the CLE signal peptide controls the localization of the GFP signals of the CLE proteins. Rather, the results show that the variable region determines the localization, implying that the variable region influences where the CLE-GFP is processed. These results further imply that the CLE motif itself may determine its functional tissue-specificity by dictating the direct interaction of each CLE peptide with its optimal receptor(s), whereas the receptor(s) may be available in a tissue-specific manner. On the other hand, the sequences outside the CLE motif may influence CLE function by affecting the processing of CLE peptides, resulting in a change in the availability of CLE peptides in specific tissues and/or cells.Subsequently, my studies on the CLE family focused on CLE14 and CLE20, because over-expression of CLE14/CLE20 caused strong short-root phenotypes. Using CLE promoter and GFP translational fusions, CLE14 and CLE20 were found to be expressed in highly specific domains. Both CLE14 and CLE20 peptides inhibit irreversibly root growth by reducing cell division rates in the RAM. Intriguingly, it was found that exogenous application of cytokinin, but not auxin was able to partially rescue the short-root phenotype induced by over-expression of CLE14/CLE20 in planta, but there was no rescue by in vitro application of the synthesized CLE peptide, suggesting a requirement for a condition provided only by the living plants. The results imply that cytokinin may influence the CLE functions by affecting the processing of CLE peptides in vivo, resulting in a change in the availability and/or abundance of CLE peptides.Gain-of-function analysis provides important insights into understanding the function of different CLE sequence regions. However, the gain-of-function analysis cannot truly reveal the in vivo function of the CLE peptides, as the activity of a given CLE member depends on its availability, which is tightly restricted in a spatial and temporal manner. To explore the in vivo functional nature of CLE14 and CLE20, efforts were made to isolate loss-of-function mutants for CLE14/CLE20. Unfortunately, this effort by screening the T-DNA insertion lines, and using the RNAi silencing approach did not result in the identification of any loss-of-function mutants for CLE14 and CLE20. This result may be explained by the fact that CLE genes have a small coding region with a low expression level, and thus may be less likely to be the targets for T-DNA insertion or for the RNAi silencing mechanism.To date, except for CLV1, CLV2, and the recently identified CORYNE receptor kinase, no other signal receptor has been associated with any other CLE peptide ligands. Furthermore, except for the signal perception mediated by CLV1-3 complex at the cell surface, other cellular components involved in CLAVATA-CLE signaling transduction pathways remain largely unknown. Thus identification of novel corresponding receptors for the distinct CLE peptide ligands, and/or other interacting partners or downstream components will significantly advance our understanding of CLE signal transduction and stem cell homeostasis in plants. To identify such components I screened for the suppressors of the short-root phenotype caused by over-expressing CLE14/CLE20 using EMS mutagenesis and attempted to isolate the corresponding gene(s) using the Illumina sequencing approach. Seven such suppressor lines showing resistance to the application of the CLE peptides were isolated, and 35 candidate loci were obtained from Illumina sequencing of one suppressor (M-59). Further identification and confirmation of the mutation loci are underway. In addition, I identified in Arabidopsis a CLE-like putative peptide family, which shares an overall similar domain structure with the CLE family, e.g., a N-terminal putative signal peptide, a variable region in the middle, and a conserved 13-amino-acid C-terminal CLE-like motif. Exogenous application of a synthetic 12-/13-amino-acid peptide derived from the CLE-like motif of this family caused wavy roots. Similar phenotypes were observed when the full-length sequences of two CLE-like genes are over-expressed individually in the Arabidopsis plants. The finding of a CLE-like family in Arabidopsis opens a new avenue for studies of cell signaling, root growth and development. Finally, I isolated a loss-of-function phenotype for a membrane-associated thioredoxin (Trx h9) characterized by dwarf plants with shortened root meristems and small yellowish leaves. Trx h9 was found to be able to move from cell to cell. Mutagenesis analysis demonstrated that glycine at position 2 (Gly2) was required for its membrane binding, possibly via myristoylation. Both Gly2 and a cysteine in position 4 (Cys4) were needed for the movement, the latter seemingly for protein structure and palmitoylation. These results extend the known boundaries of thioredoxin and suggest a role in cell-to-cell communication in plant growth and specifically in root meristem development. The results from this study provide new evidences and insights towards understanding the molecular basis of the cell signaling in plant meristem activity and development in Arabidopsis.


Nigeria's higher educational institutions have fallen short of expectations, their products (graduates) lack the skills required by the labour market and this trend results in mass graduate unemployment, since they would have assisted them to be self-reliant. This study examines transformation in Nigeria and how business education serves as panacea for youth empowerment and national development. Despite the increasing pace of technological changes in the fields of business and economy generally has rendered the teaching of business skills and the training of skilled manpower ever more challenging. The task of producing skilled human resources development for youth empowerment, productivity and efficiency in society lies with skilled trainers and the quality of the training institutions. The problem posed by this development is the search for graduates and competent business educators with the knowledge and skills needed by employers of labour in business offices, industry and public sector. The implications of the development of a virile higher-level skilled work force for the economy is critically analyze and recommendations are made to relevant beneficiaries.


Ground-penetrati radar (GPR) has been widely used in detecting or imaging subsurface targets. In many applications such as archaeology, utility imaging, or landmine detection, three-dimensiona (3D) images of the subsurface region is required for better understanding of the sensed medium. However, a high-resolution 3D image requires wideband data collection both in spatial and time/frequency domains. Matchltering is the main tool for generating subsurface images. Applying matchltering with the data acquisition impulse response for each possible voxel in the 3D region with the collected data requires both a tremendous amount of computer memory and computational complexity. Hence, it is very costly to obtain 3D GPR images in most of the applications although 3D images are very demanded results. In this paper, a new 3D imaging technique is proposed that willrst decrease the memory requirements for 3D imaging with possible implications for less computational complexity. The proposed method uses the shifted impulse response of the targets that are on the same depth as a function of scanning position. This similarity of target responses for data dictionaries for only 2D target slices is constructed with twice the length in scanning directions and this 2D dictionary is mainly used for generating 3D images. The proposed method directly saves memory due to dimension reduction in dictionary generation and also decreases computational load. Simulation results show generated 3D images with the proposed technique. Comparisons in both memory and computational load with the standard backprojection show that the proposed technique offers advantages in both areas.


Soluble, monomeric Ir(III/IV) complexes strongly affect the photoelectrochemical performance of IrO(x)·nH2O-catalyzed photoanodes for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The synthesis of IrO(x)·nH2O colloids by alkaline hydrolysis of Ir(III) or Ir(IV) salts proceeds through monomeric intermediates that were characterized using electrochemical and spectroscopic methods and modeled in TDDFT calculations. In air-saturated solutions, the monomers exist in a mixture of Ir(III) and Ir(IV) oxidation states, where the most likely formulations at pH 13 are [Ir(OH)5(H2O)](2-) and [Ir(OH)6](2-), respectively. These monomeric anions strongly adsorb onto IrO(x)·nH2O colloids but can be removed by precipitation of the colloids with isopropanol. The monomeric anions strongly adsorb onto TiO2, and they promote the adsorption of ligand-free IrO(x)·nH2O colloids onto mesoporous titania photoanodes. However, the reversible adsorption/desorption of electroactive monomers effectively short-circuits the photoanode redox cycle and thus dramatically degrades the photoelectrochemical performance of the cell. The growth of a dense TiO2 barrier layer prevents access of soluble monomeric anions to the interface between the oxide semiconductor and the electrode back contact (a fluorinated tin oxide transparent conductor) and leads to improved photoanode performance. Purified IrO(x)·nH2O colloids, which contain no adsorbed monomer, give improved performance at the same electrodes. These results explain earlier observations that IrO(x)·nH2O catalysts can dramatically degrade the performance of metal oxide photoanodes for the OER reaction.


Love and marriage brought American anthropologist Elizabeth Enslin to a world she never planned to make her own: a life among Brahman in-laws in a remote village in the plains of Nepal. As she faced the challenges of married life, birth, and childrearing in a foreign culture, she discovered as much about human resilience, and the capacity for courage, as she did about herself. While the Gods Were Sleeping: A Journey Through Love and Rebellion in Nepal tells a compelling story of a woman transformed in intimate and unexpected ways. Set against the backdrop of increasing political turmoil in Nepal, Enslin's story takes us deep into the lives of local women as they claim their rightful place in society--and make their voices heard.


The drive to improve environmental design standards while maintaining stringent comfort controls and project delivery within time and budget constraints demands improved techniques for the analysis and rapid-feedback of the impact that design decisions will have on these criteria. This paper outlines the development and implementation of a new tool for building simulation and analysis at the early design stages. The tool utilises existing open-source and freely-available technologies through a BIM framework to create a cost-efficient, scalable, multi-physics, unified three-dimensional modelling environment for computational fluid dynamics (CFD), thermal energy modelling, day-lighting, shading and life-cycle analysis from early concept design stages. The tool extends the functionality of an open-source three-dimensional modelling and animation tool to allow users to enter or import building information, constructions and other boundary conditions relevant to scientific analysis of building design from within a single modelling environment. Results from a case study on the application of the tool are presented which demonstrate the robustness and flexibility of the modelling framework. Conference theme: Computer Science


We present a fabrication method for silicon nitride solid immersion lenses (SILs) integrated with atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilevers. We demonstrate a scanning optical microscope based on the microfabricated SIL that operates in reflection and transmission modes at a wavelength of /spl lambda/ = 400 nm. In this microscope, light is focused to a spot in a high refractive index SIL held close to the sample. The minimum spot size of a SIL-based microscope, which determines the transverse optical resolution, is /spl lambda//(2n) where n is the refractive index of the SIL. This is smaller than the minimum spot size of /spl lambda//2 in air. The SIL, therefore, makes possible optical resolution better than the diffraction limit in air. The full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) spot size of the SIL-based microscope is measured to be /spl sim/133 nm in transmission mode, which is /spl sim/1.98 times better than the spot size measured without the SIL (264 nm). This improvement factor is close to the refractive index of the silicon nitride SIL (n = 1.96).


MOTIVATION
Over-represented k-mers in non-coding genomic regions often lead to identification of potential transcriptional regulatory sites (TRS). This phenomenon has been employed by many algorithms to predict TRS in silico. Yet, the improvement of these algorithms should be based on deeper understanding of the enrichment feature. To obtain a general distributional profile of TRS in different regions of genomes as well as in different genomes, we here performed a systematic analysis on the over-representation of TRS in intergenic regions and gene upstream regions of yeasts and viral genomes, and the distributional pattern of TRS in intergenic and intron regions of the Drosophila genome. We also explored the way to evaluate the accuracy of TRS consensus sequences by measuring their enrichment.

RESULTS
To measure enrichment, a statistical background model was introduced by comparing TRS frequency in certain regions of genome to either the frequency in the whole genome or the frequency in exon region. This model was applied to different classes of non-coding genomic regions in four genomes. Most of the TRS were observed to be over-represented in the intergenic regions of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) genomes. The enrichment of S.cerevisiae TRS in the 600 bp upstream region of genes was also significant. In Drosophila genome, TRS did not show enrichment in intergenic and intron regions when TRS frequency in the whole genome was taken as background, as we did in other genomes. However, when we took TRS frequency in exon region as background, over 70% TRS are over-represented in those two classes of non-coding regions. This fact indicates the existence of transcriptional regulatory signals in introns. The analysis of some S.cerevisiae TRS, which have inconsistent consensus sequences with different levels of enrichment in intergenic region, suggests the possibility of evaluating the accuracy of experimentally determined TRS by measuring their enrichment in non-coding genomic regions.


Muscle tissue is involved with every stage of life activities and has roles in biological processes. For example, the blood circulation system needs the heart muscle to transport blood to all parts, and the movement cannot be separated from the participation of skeletal muscle. However, the process of muscle development and the regulatory mechanisms of muscle development are not clear at present. In this study, we used bioinformatics techniques to identify differentially expressed genes specifically expressed in multiple muscle tissues of mice as potential candidate genes for studying the regulatory mechanisms of muscle development. Mouse tissue microarray data from 17 tissue samples was selected from the GEO database for analysis. Muscle tissue as the treatment group, and the other 16 tissues as the control group. Genes expressed in the muscle tissue were different to those in the other 16 tissues and identified 272 differential genes with highly specific expression in muscle tissue, including 260 up-regulated genes and 12 down regulated genes. is the genes were associated with the myofibril, contractile fibers, and sarcomere, cytoskeletal protein binding, and actin binding. KEGG pathway analysis showed that the differentially expressed genes in muscle tissue were mainly concentrated in pathways for AMPK signaling, cGMP PKG signaling calcium signaling, glycolysis, and, arginine and proline metabolism. A PPI protein interaction network was constructed for the selected differential genes, and the MCODE module used for modular analysis. Five modules with Score > 3.0 are selected. Then the Cytoscape software was used to analyze the tissue specificity of differential genes, and the genes with high degree scores collected, and some common genes selected for quantitative PCR verification. The conclusion is that we have screened the differentially expressed gene set specific to mouse muscle to provide potential candidate genes for the study of the important mechanisms of muscle development.


This paper investigates liveness detection techniques in the area of eye movement biometrics. We investigate a specific scenario, in which an impostor constructs an artificial replica of the human eye. Two attack scenarios are considered: 1) the impostor does not have access to the biometric templates representing authentic users, and instead utilizes average anatomical values from the relevant literature and 2) the impostor gains access to the complete biometric database, and is able to employ exact anatomical values for each individual. In this paper, liveness detection is performed at the feature and match score levels for several existing forms of eye movement biometric, based on different aspects of the human visual system. The ability of each technique to differentiate between live and artificial recordings is measured by its corresponding false spoof acceptance rate, false live rejection rate, and classification rate. The results suggest that eye movement biometrics are highly resistant to circumvention by artificial recordings when liveness detection is performed at the feature level. Unfortunately, not all techniques provide feature vectors that are suitable for liveness detection at the feature level. At the match score level, the accuracy of liveness detection depends highly on the biometric techniques employed.


Emissions of anthropogenic nitrogen (N) to the atmosphere have increased tenfold since preindustrial times, resulting in increased N deposition to terrestrial and coastal ecosystems. The current sources of N deposition to the ocean, however, are poorly understood. To investigate the sources of nitrate in rainwater deposited to the ocean, two years of daily rainwater samples were collected on the island of Bermuda in the western North Atlantic. Air mass back trajectories were computed for each sample and two dominant regimes were identified: slow moving events that originate over the ocean and occur all year, and fast moving events that originate over the continental USA and occur primarily during the cool season (October–March). Marine‐influenced air masses result in rainwater nitrate with lower concentrations, higher average δ15N, and lower average δ18O (4.4 μM, −1.1‰ versus N2 in air, and 69.0‰ versus Vienna SMOW, respectively) than those influenced by North American air masses (6.3 μM, −5.4‰, and 75.0‰). The δ15N decrease and concentration increase from marine to continental air masses are due to a change in NOx source, with increased anthropogenic inputs associated with continental air. We suggest that heterogeneous halogen chemistry in the marine boundary layer leads to isotopic fractionation. This causes higher δ15N‐NO3− to be deposited near the coast and lower δ15N‐NOx to be transported over the open ocean, yielding a low δ15N for anthropogenic NO3− deposition. It is possible that this process also contributes to variations in δ15N‐NO3− from marine air masses. There is a negative linear correlation (r2 = 0.58) between δ15N and δ18O which is driven by the seasonal change in trajectory influencing both the source NOx and the nitrate formation pathways.


Widely adopted distributor-based systems forward user requests to a balanced set of waiting servers in complete transparency to the users. The policy employed in forwarding requests from the front-end distributor to the backend servers dominates the overall system performance. The locality-aware request distribution (LARD) scheme improves the system response time by having the requests serviced by the Web servers that contain the data in their caches. In this paper, we propose a proactive request distribution (PRORD) that applies an intelligent proactive-distribution at the front-end and complementary pre-fetching at the back-end server nodes to obtain the data of high relation to the previous requests in their caches. The prefetching scheme fetches the Web pages in advance into the memory based on a confidence value of the Web page, which is predicted by the proactive distribution scheme. Designed to work with the prevailing Web technologies, such as HTTP 1.1, our scheme aims to provide reduced response time to the users. Simulations carried out with traces derived from the log files of real Web servers witness performance boost of 15-45 % compared to the existing distribution policies


In this paper, we introduce an approach that supports querying for Semantic Associations on the Semantic Web. Semantic Associations capture complex relationships between entities involving sequences of predicates, and sets of predicate sequences that interact in complex ways. Detecting such associations is at the heart of many research and analytical activities that are crucial to applications in national security and business intelligence. This in combination with the improving ability to identify entities in documents as part of automatic semantic annotation, gives a very powerful capability for semantic analysis of large amounts of heterogeneous content.The approach for supporting Semantic Associations discussed in this paper has four main facets. First, it generalizes these associations into three main classes based on their structural properties, allowing us to reason about them in a domain-independent manner. The second is the provision of an operator ρ for expressing queries about such associations. Third, it uses a graph data model for knowledge representation, allowing the semantic associations search techniques to be built upon the graph algorithms for paths, while integrating knowledge from the schema into the search process. The fourth facet is the use of a notion of context, which allows for restricting the search space and for context-driven ranking of results. Just as a Web search engine looks for relevant documents in the current Web, ρ can be seen as discovering and ranking complex relationships in the Semantic Web.In this paper, we demonstrate the need for supporting such complex semantic relationships. We also give a formal basis to the notion of Semantic Associations and give a brief discussion on our overall approach for discovering and ranking them.


Using truth-value judgment tasks, we investigated the on-line processing of counterfactual conditionals such as If kangaroos had no tails, they would topple over. Face-value plausibility of the counterfactual as well as the complexity of the antecedent were manipulated. Results show that readers' judgments deviate from face-value plausibility more often when the antecedent is complex, and when the counterfactual is plausible rather than implausible. We interpret our results based on the modal horizon assumption of von Fintel (2001) and argue that they are compatible with a variably strict semantics for counterfactuals (Lewis, 1973). We make use of computational modeling techniques to account for reaction times and truth-value judgments simultaneously, showing that implementing detailed process models deepens our understanding of the cognitive mechanisms triggered by linguistic stimuli.


Physiological studies of the rodent somatosensory cortex have consistently described considerable heterogeneity in receptive field properties of neurons outside of layer IV, particularly those in layers V and VI. One such approach for distinguishing among different local circuits in these layers may be to identify the projection target of neurons whose axon collaterals contribute to the local network. In vivo, this can be accomplished using antidromic stimulation methods. Using this approach, the axonal conduction properties of cortical efferent neurons are described. Four projection sites were activated using electrical stimulation: (1) vibrissal motor cortex, (2) ventrobasal thalamus (VB), (3) posteromedial thalamic nucleus (POm), and (4) cerebral peduncle. Extracellular recordings were obtained from a total of 169 units in 21 animals. Results demonstrate a close correspondence between the laminar location of the antidromically identified neurons and their anatomically known layer of origin. Axonal properties were most distinct for corticofugal axons projecting through the crus cerebri. Corticothalamic axons projecting to either VB or POm were more similar to each other in terms of laminar location and conduction properties, but could be distinguished using focal electrical stimulation. It is concluded that, once stimulation parameters are adjusted for the small volume of the rat brain, the use of antidromic techniques may be an effective strategy to differentiate among projection neurons comprising different local circuits in supra- and infragranular circuits.


Background and objecive: Nowadays, waterpipe smoking (WPS) had a growing trend especially among young people. The increased prevalence of tobacco use among women is geing more concerned. Thus, this cross-secional study was carried out to examine the predicing factors afecing coninued intenion of WPS among women consumers in the city of Bushehr, Iran by using the theory of planned behavior. Methods: In this cross secional study, 430 women waterpipe tobacco smokers living in Bushehr were examined using convenience and snowball sampling methods. A researcher-made quesionnaire was used to collect the data. Ater data collecion, data were analyzed using SPSS20 and appropriate staisical tests, including descripive staisics, analyze of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlaion coeicient, Independent t-tests and linear regression. Results: There was an associaion between coninued intenion of WPS and marital status. Afecive aitude (r= 0.57, p= 0.000), instrumental aitude (r= 0.44, p= 0.000), subjecive norms (r= 0.26, p= 0.000), self-eicacy (r= -0.27, p= 0.000) and perceived behavioral control (r= -0.17, p= 0.000) was associated with coninued intenion of WPS. Afecive aitude was the strongest and subjecive norm was the weakest predictors of coninued intenion of WPS (R2=40%). Conclusion: Regarding to the impact of personal aitudes on coninued intenion of WPS, it is recommended that professionals should concentrate their attenion on changing aitudes, reinforce behavioral control and increasing their self-eicacy in coping with WPS temptaion among women consumers. Paper Type: Research Aricle.


BACKGROUND
Semantic dementia is a syndrome within the spectrum of frontotemporal lobar degenerations characterized by fluent progressive aphasia (particularly anomia) and loss of word meaning.

OBJECTIVE
To report a unique case of very early semantic dementia with a slowly progressive course, allowing insights into the early natural history of this disorder.

DESIGN
Case report.

SETTING
A tertiary care center.

PATIENT
A 62-year-old woman who presented with "memory loss" complaints.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Clinical course, neuropsychological data, and magnetic resonance imaging results.

RESULTS
The patient was first evaluated when the results of standard neuropsychological measures were normal but subtle left anterior temporal lobe atrophy was present. During the follow-up period of 8 years, she developed profound anomia and loss of word meaning associated with progressive left anterior temporal lobe atrophy, consistent with semantic dementia. In more recent years, anterograde memory impairment and mild prosopagnosia evolved in association with left hippocampal atrophy and subtle atrophy in the homologous gyri of the right anterior temporal lobe. She remains functionally independent despite her current deficits.

CONCLUSIONS
Early identification of patients who will develop semantic dementia is difficult and might be missed with standard clinical, neuropsychological, and structural neuroimaging evaluations. Recognition of this relatively rare syndrome is important for early diagnosis and prognostication and particularly for therapeutic interventions in the future.


This paper discusses the analytical problems associated with the increasing use of numerical databases in quantitative cross-national research. The authors highlight the need for a better understanding of the way these databases are constructed and their inherent ambiguities and they examine the existing critical literature. The paper makes a case study of data on military interventions and analyses the problems of classification that the authors identified in several well-known databases. The paper concludes that more attention should be given to modelling uncertainty rather than attempting to achieve clear-cut precision.


The aim of the present study was to examine the influence of childhood respiratory infections on adult respiratory health. In 1992–1994, the European Community Respiratory Health Survey recruited community based samples of 20–44-yr-old people from 48 centres in 22 countries. Study participants completed questionnaires and underwent lung function testing. On average, 8.9 yrs later, 29 centres re-investigated their samples using similar methods. Mixed effects models comprising an estimate for the random variation between centres were used to evaluate the relevant associations. In total, 9,175 patients participated in both studies, of whom 10.9% reported serious respiratory infections (SRI) before 5 yrs of age and 2.8% reported hospitalisation for lung disease (HLD) before 2 yrs if age. SRI was associated with current wheeze (odds ratio (OR) 1.9, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.7–2.2), asthma (OR 2.5, 95% CI 2.2–3.1), and lower forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1; 89 mL; 95% CI 54–126), forced vital capacity (FVC; 49 mL; 95% CI 8–90) and FEV1/FVC ratio (−1.2%; 95% CI −1.8– −0.6). Childhood respiratory infections were also associated with new asthma (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.03–2.0), new wheeze (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.0–2.4) and persistent wheeze (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.4–3.6) but not with a decline in lung function. Similar findings were observed for HDL. These associations were significantly consistent across centres. SRI was associated with lower FEV1 when excluding ever asthmatics and current wheezers. The impact of early infections was significantly larger in subjects exposed to maternal or active smoking. The impact of childhood respiratory infections on the respiratory system may not only last into adulthood but also influence development and persistence of adult respiratory morbidity.


This article is located within the literature arguing for attention to Big Ideas in teaching and learning mathematics for understanding. The focus is on surveying the literature of Big Ideas and clarifying what might constitute Big Ideas in the primary Mathematics Curriculum based on both theoretical and pragmatic considerations. This is complemented by an analysis of the evidence for two Big Ideas in South Africa's Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements for Foundation- and Intermediate- Phase Mathematics. This analysis reveals that, while there is some evidence of implicit attention to Big Ideas in the Curriculum, without more explicit attention to these, teachers and, consequently, learners are not likely to develop understanding of Big Ideas and how they connect aspects of mathematics together.


To achieve the available performance gains in half-duplex wireless relay networks, several cooperative schemes have been earlier proposed using either distributed space-time coding or distributed beamforming for the transmitter without and with channel state information (CSI), respectively. However, these schemes typically have rather high implementation and/or decoding complexities, especially when the number of relays is high. In this paper, we propose a simple low-rate feedback-based approach to achieve maximum diversity with a low decoding and implementation complexity. To further improve the performance of the proposed scheme, the knowledge of the second-order channel statistics is exploited to design long-term power loading through maximizing the receiver signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with appropriate constraints. This maximization problem is approximated by a convex feasibility problem whose solution is shown to be close to the optimal one in terms of the error probability. Subsequently, to provide robustness against feedback errors and further decrease the feedback rate, an extended version of the distributed Alamouti code is proposed. It is also shown that our scheme can be generalized to the differential transmission case, where it can be applied to wireless relay networks with no CSI available at the receiver.


In some recent economic growth models there can be decreasing pollution along with increasing per capita income, if the rate of improvement in the environmenta ltechnology is sufficiently high. A central function describes how gross pollution and environmental technology interact to determine net pollution, which in the previous works has a log-linear form. This letter provides an example in which this function is generalized to a CES type. The result is that the environmental technology factor in the long run may be either implausibly potent or almost ineffective in transforming a high gross pollution to a low net pollution if the function deviates from the log-linearcase.


Cultural places such as museums tend to rely on Information Technologies (IT) to support their exhibition and communication to the public. Although technology has undeniable advantages for museums and their visitors, it is not evident that IT contributes both to more enjoyment and to an experience of authenticity. Indeed, little attention has been paid to user reactions with hedonic systems available in cultural heritage sites. The objective of this research is to assess affective and cognitive reactions of museum visitors interacting with IT. We also try to determine the role played by authenticity in visitor interactions with museum technologies. To test our hypotheses, a free simulation experiment was conducted at a French national museum where 184 questionnaires were completed. The results indicate that technologies are not incompatible with perceptions of authenticity and that IT can contribute to edutainment experiences of visitors.


Many contemporary Internet protocols are extensible. Extensions may introduce new functionality, alter the format of protocol messages, affect basic functionality or even modify the protocol modus operandi. Model based testing of extensible protocols faces a number of problems, the most challenging one is that extensions altering basic functionality require changes in the protocol model. It is highly desirable to have a flexible protocol's model which would let test developers to extend the model without rewriting existing parts of the model. The article presents the method for model based conformance testing for extensible Internet protocols which satisfies this requirement. Each extension is specified in a separate unit, the method presents facility to combine those units into entire model for testing the protocol's implementations. The method uses Java language to formalize the requirements. As an example of the method application article presents test suite development for a number of SMTP extensions.


We propose to use Gaussian process regression to accurately estimate the diffusion MRI signal at arbitrary locations in q-space. By estimating the signal on a grid, we can do synthetic diffusion spectrum imaging: reconstructing the ensemble averaged propagator (EAP) by an inverse Fourier transform. We also propose an alternative reconstruction method guaranteeing a nonnegative EAP that integrates to unity. The reconstruction is validated on data simulated from two Gaussians at various crossing angles. Moreover, we demonstrate on non-uniformly sampled in vivo data that the method is far superior to linear interpolation, and allows a drastic undersampling of the data with only a minor loss of accuracy. We envision the method as a potential replacement for standard diffusion spectrum imaging, in particular when acquistion time is limited.


A numerical simulation is used to evaluate the curvature effects of the wall on features of the interaction between discrete jets and cross flow, and therefore on the efficiency of the cooling. The injection is realized in a turbulent limit layer through only one row of openings. Our study was especially based on the SST model that is efficient in the capture of the phenomena near and in the wall. Three turbulence models are used; the k-, the RSM and the SST on a flat plate crossed by throw in order to identify which of these models are more capable to capture the near wall interaction phenomena. Discrete jets are arranged across a surface exposed to a wall boundary layer of parallel compressible stream, as occurs in certain discrete-hole cooling systems for turbine blades. Comparisons of the results of this study are presented in the case of a flat plate crossed by throw inclined of 45° with a rate injection Ra=0.6. These results compared to experimental data proved the aptitude of the SST model, in relation to the other models in this case of problems. Applied for a NACA0012 profile, this model (SST) revealed us the distinct difference of features of the interaction in relation to the flat plate.


This paper introduces LIFT, a combination of a cluster-based service discovery approach with a cross-layer service discovery scheme in order to discover services in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks. In this new proposal, High Capability Devices (HCD) are differentiated from Limited Capability Devices (LCD). HCD are set up as the cluster leaders in each cluster so as to perform most of the service discovery activities. Consequently, messages, memory, energy, computing processes, and bandwidth were reduced due to the optimum usage of network resources. We implemented LIFT on the network simulator Ns-2 under various mobility conditions and cluster topologies. In order to know if our model achieves its goal to minimize resources, we havecompared LIFT with another well-known solution (AODV-SD) in terms of control message overhead and energy consumption. After carrying out many trials and simulations, LIFT improved previous results in the area.


In England around 68,000 children are currently looked after by the state. Sixty two per cent of this population are admitted to care or accommodation in response to abuse and neglect. As the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child acknowledges, the state has a unique responsibility for these children and is expected to ensure their safety, wellbeing and development.

Underpinned by a rights-based framework the publications in the thesis make an original contribution to social work research, policy and practice, in respect of looked after children nationally and internationally. Three cohering theoretical strands - the new sociology of childhood, attachment theory and focal theory, and different methodological lenses, (from participatory research with young people to cross-national analysis of administrative data), are employed to advance understanding of the balance of protective, provisional and participatory rights ( 3 Ps ) for these children and young people. The work focuses upon their life pathways at two key stages in the lifespan: early infancy and adolescence into adulthood.

Consistent with the theoretical underpinnings of the research, the methodological approach employed in two of the four core studies sought to promote children s active participation in the research process, and to give them a voice . The participatory peer methodology adopted moved beyond involving care experienced young people in interviewing their peers, to training and engaging them in several major aspects of the research cycle, including analysis of the data and the design and write up of the findings, to produce accessible peer research reports for young people.

At the national level the work undertaken demonstrates how a needs-based discourse, and orientation towards considering looked after children as objects of concern, can mean that young children s protective rights may be prioritised in policy and practice, at the expense of their provisional and participatory rights. Children s participation rights are also constrained due to assumptions about the (in)capacities of younger children to express their wishes and feelings. In this context parents rights tend to be prioritised at the expense of the rights of the child.

Whereas parents rights may take precedence when children are young, in adolescence the rights of parents are more peripheral. Cross-national comparisons reveal variations in how young people s provisional, participatory and protective rights are balanced as young people negotiate the transition from care to adulthood in western societies, as well as different drivers for reform. Empirical research on recent policy developments in England also illuminates the tensions and dilemmas professionals can face as they attempt to protect and provide for young people, whilst recognising their evolving capabilities and their right to autonomy and active participation in decision making processes. Finally, the studies highlight that young people with the most complex care histories may be denied the right to decide for themselves if they want to remain in foster or residential care into early adulthood.


The major limitation to heart transplantation is the shortage of donor organs. In order to increase the cardiac donor pool, it is important to maintain stable hemodynamics and closely monitor cardiac function in cadaveric organ donors or potent donors. Recently, management of a potential cardiac donor pool has focused on aggressive hemodynamic management protocols and dobutamine stress echocardiography. In our case, management with low dose dobutamine, glucose-insulin-potassium (GIK), and hormone therapy reversed heart failure following brain death and the heart was successfully transplanted. We suggest that aggressive hemodynamic management with low-dose dobutamine, GIK, and hormone therapy can result in the recruitment of more cadaveric hearts in marginal conditions.


One of the important factors resulting in the high-speed machinery performance is its machine tool dynamic characteristic. It will directly influence the final manufacturing capability of the machinery and it is also the important criterion of evaluating machinery performances. Especially, the dynamic characteristic of spindle assembly has large effect on manufacturing capability of machinery. So it is very important both analyzing dynamic-static characteristic of the spindle assembly and machine tool of high-speed machinery and studying the effect to machinery function. Using Finite Element Analysis software did a Finite Element Analysis of spindle assembly of the high-speed machine tool, and some experiments are done to validate the result the Finite Element Analysis results.


The paper is aimed at investigating the physico-chemical and microbial quality of water in 30 shallow wells in Lagos State. Results showed that groundwater quality in Lagos is highly variable from one location to the other. Water parameters were found to exceed set local (SON) and international (WHO) standards. Analysis of pH indicated that groundwater in 14 locations are acidic. The 500mg/l WHO limit for TDS was exceeded in 5 locations while EC limit was exceeded in 4. The presence of zinc and Escherichia coli (e.coli) in water samples calls for attention. From the study, there is no sampling point that did not have at least one parameter exceeding set standards. None of the sampling wells can be considered 'pure'. Therefore, groundwater within the Lagos environment cannot be said to be potable. It is a major concern to users, agencies responsible for water provision and governmental bodies. This paper calls for further research.


We present a reflectometric measurement scheme of group-velocity dispersion for an optical fiber, whose measurement range covers the entire band of optical communication from 1200 to 1700 nm in wavelength by using a wideband supercontinuum source. In our measurement scheme, wavelength-dependent temporal delays are measured for spectrum-sliced supercontinuum pulses that have passed through a fiber under measurement (FUM). A reflectometric configuration is used to increase the accuracy of the measurement results by eliminating the effect of timing instabilities of the light source and the detection electronics. The time of flight is measured by taking the relative delay between two pulses back reflected by the two ends of an FUM. The delay measurement is performed for two wavelengths simultaneously to minimize the effect of the temperature-sensitive drift. We have successfully demonstrated that our scheme can characterize a relatively short single-mode fiber of 10 m with a good measurement accuracy.


Seismic data from the East Greenland shelf show that the northern part of the shelf, north of 75°N, can be subdivided into five, roughly northeast-trending, major tectonic elements. From west to east they are: the Koldewey Platform, the Danmarkshavn Basin, the Danmarkshavn Ridge, the Thetis Basin and the Marginal High. A sixth tectonic element, the Shannon High, has been defined in the southern part of this area. The offshore areas between 72°30′N and 75°N are dominated by Tertiary plateau basalts, which obscure the acoustic signals from the deeper sedimentary succession. Seismic data from the area north of 75°N indicate the presence of a fairly complete succession of ? Devonian to Neogene age, exceeding the recorded interval (8 sec TWT – 13 km) in thickness in the deeper parts of the Danmarkshavn Basin. The succession has been subdivided into 15 seismic mega-sequences. In absence of well control, they have been dated by comparison to the onshore successions of East Greenland and eastern North Greenland, and the offshore successions in the southern Barents Sea and on the mid-Norwegian shelf. The Upper Palaeozoic succession is broadly similar to that of the southern Barents Sea, i.e. marine-dominated, with thick Upper Carboniferous–Lower Permian halite deposits in the northern Danmarkshavn Basin. The Mesozoic succession seems to show greater similarities to the onshore basins of East Greenland: rifting started during the mid-Jurassic and peaked near the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary. The post-volcanic succession reflects deposition on a passive margin subjected to temporary uplift during the early Miocene and the latest Miocene to earliest Pliocene.


Thanks to the collective action of participating smartphone users, mobile crowdsensing allows data collection at a scale and pace that was once impossible. The biggest challenge to overcome in mobile crowdsensing is that participants may exhibit malicious or unreliable behavior, thus compromising the accuracy of the data collection process. Therefore, it becomes imperative to design algorithms to accurately classify between reliable and unreliable sensing reports. To address this crucial issue, we propose a novel Framework for optimizing Information Reliability in Smartphone-based participaTory sensing (FIRST) that leverages mobile trusted participants (MTPs) to securely assess the reliability of sensing reports. FIRST models and solves the challenging problem of determining before deployment the minimum number of MTPs to be used to achieve desired classification accuracy. After a rigorous mathematical study of its performance, we extensively evaluate FIRST through an implementation in iOS and Android of a room occupancy monitoring system and through simulations with real-world mobility traces. Experimental results demonstrate that FIRST reduces significantly the impact of three security attacks (i.e., corruption, on/off, and collusion) by achieving a classification accuracy of almost 80% in the considered scenarios. Finally, we discuss our ongoing research efforts to test the performance of FIRST as part of the National Map Corps project.


The present study aimed to use plant biotechnology techniques and biochemical analyses to achieve promising procedures for regenerated shootlets of Hypericum sinaicum L. via direct/ indirect regeneration. So and related to this concern, this investigation was carried to examine the effect of different explant types and culture conditions, with emphasis on the type and concentrations of plant growth regulators (PGRs) in culture media on shootlets regeneration and prolonged maintenance of in vitro material. The results showed that, direct/indirect shoot formation were induced by all levels of PGRs but the optimum medium for direct shootlets induction and multiplication was MS supplemented with 0.1 mg/l NAA combination with 1mg/l BA compared with other supplementations. The maximum number of direct shootlets regeneration (24 shootlets per explant) was recorded with nodal explant cultured on MS medium supplemented with 0.1 NAA mg/l plus 1mg/l BA under light condition. While the maximum number of indirect shootlets regeneration (14 shootlets per callus) was recorded with the same previous explant cultured on MS medium augmented with 0.5 mg/l TDZ and 0.05 mg/l NAA under light and darkness condition. In this regard, after regeneration was developed, the vegetative growth dynamics patterns were estimated through the following parameters; number of shoots/one piece of callus, length of shoot (cm), fresh weight (g/jar), dry weight (g/jar), dry matter content (%). In addition, determination of hypericin component in in vitro germinated plantlet(s) as control and regenerated shoot was estimated using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) techniques. The highest value of hypericin contents 84.70, 72.18 μg/g dry weights were estimated in direct shoots regeneration derived from nodal and root explants on MS supplemented with 0.1 mg/l NAA+ 1 mg/l BA at light condition. K e y w o r d s


In this work, we present Nyx, a system for mitigating Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks by routing critical traffic from known benign networks around links under attack from a massively distributed botnet. Nyx alters how Autonomous Systems (ASes) handle route selection and advertisement in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) in order to achieve isolation of critical traffic away from congested links onto alternative, less congested paths. Our system controls outbound paths through the normal process of BGP path selection, while return paths from critical ASes are controlled through the use of existing traffic engineering techniques. To prevent alternative paths from including attacked network links, Nyx employs strategic lying in a manner that is functional in the presence of RPKI. Our system only exposes the alternate path to the networks needed for forwarding and those networks' customer cones, thus strategically reducing the number of ASes outside of the critical AS that receive the alternative path. By leaving the path taken by malicious traffic unchanged and limiting the amount of added traffic load placed on the alternate path, our system causes less than 10 ASes on average to be disturbed by our inbound traffic migration. Nyx is the first system that scalably and effectively mitigates transit-link DDoS attacks that cannot be handled by existing and costly traffic filtering or prioritization techniques. Unlike the prior state of the art, Nyx is highly deployable, requiring only minor changes to router policies at the deployer, and requires no assistance from external networks. Using our own Internet-scale simulator, we find that in more than 98% of cases our system can successfully migrate critical traffic off of the network segments under transit-link DDoS. In over 98% of cases, the alternate path provides some degree of relief over the original path. Finally, in over 70% of cases where Nyx can migrate critical traffic off attacked segments, the new path has sufficient capacity to handle the entire traffic load without congestion.


This work presents mEBAL, a multimodal database for eye blink detection and attention level estimation. The eye blink frequency is related to the cognitive activity and automatic detectors of eye blinks have been proposed for many tasks including attention level estimation, analysis of neuro-degenerative diseases, deception recognition, drive fatigue detection, or face anti-spoofing. However, most existing databases and algorithms in this area are limited to experiments involving only a few hundred samples and individual sensors like face cameras. The proposed mEBAL improves previous databases in terms of acquisition sensors and samples. In particular, three different sensors are simultaneously considered: Near Infrared (NIR) and RGB cameras to capture the face gestures and an Electroencephalography (EEG) band to capture the cognitive activity of the user and blinking events. Regarding the size of mEBAL, it comprises 6,000 samples and the corresponding attention level from 38 different students while conducting a number of e-learning tasks of varying difficulty. In addition to presenting mEBAL, we also include preliminary experiments on: i) eye blink detection using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) with the facial images, and ii) attention level estimation of the students based on their eye blink frequency.