Background Equity is at the heart of any attempt to universalize health care. However, given the limited resources available for health in India, 'progressive universalism' appears to be more realistic than comprehensive universal health coverage (UHC) for the entire population. This calls for some form of targeting, either based on wealth status, geography, caste or any other factor. The choice of means for targeting will depend on two factors: (1) the extent of inequality across each of the population groups; and (2) the ease of detecting the worse offs using a given criteria. In this paper, we analyse data from a household survey from Haryana state, to understand which inequalities in utilisation of health care services are important. This will help orient policy for best targeting the public subsidies. Methods Multi-stage systematic random sampling was used to select 51,656 households across 21 districts of Haryana state, India. Coverage of preventive (maternal and child health services) as well as curative (outpatient care and hospitalisation) services was assessed, along with evaluation of financial risk protection. Coverage of maternal and child health services was studied based on eight indicators: seven indicators concerning maternal and child health and one indicator concerning family planning. Inter-district inequalities were compared based on four indicators: full antenatal care, full immunisation, institutional delivery and contraceptive prevalence rate. Intra-district inequalities were analysed by evaluating the coverage of three indicators at sub-centre level: full antenatal care, full immunisation and institutional delivery. Similarly, for each of the indicators for preventive and curative service coverage and financial risk protection we assessed wealth status, caste, education and occupation. Wealth-based inequalities were assessed using a concentration index. A summary index of UHC was computed which was also assessed across each district. Geometric mean was used to aggregate individual indicators and compute the summary index. Findings Population coverage for preventive and curative services is presented. Adjusting for wealth-based inequality, the coverage for all the indicators was less than the unadjusted coverage by 0.1% to 6.7% in absolute terms and by 0.1% to 27% in relative terms. Coverage of services was lowest among the disadvantaged groups including those belonging to Muslim community, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes, and those without literacy and/or formal education. There was no significant effect of occupation. The summary index for UHC varied from 71% in Kurukshetra district to 12% in Mewat district. Significantly high inter- and intra-district inequalities were observed. Conclusion Geographic inequalities are more important than wealth-based inequalities in Haryana state. There is need to re-orient targeting strategies, applying a geographic approach, while moving towards universal health care. Grant funding (National Rural Health Mission, Haryana) for research but no other competing interests.


This study describes pre-service teachers' and collaborating teachers' perspectives of a professional development training, which focused on co-planning and co-teaching in secondary mathematics. Data were garnered from 19 pre-service teachers and 23 collaborating teachers, using a pre-survey, a professional development survey, and personal reflections. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and the qualitative data were analyzed using a constant comparative analysis. The findings suggest that the professional development helped participants conceptualize how co-planning and co-teaching could be enacted during clinical experiences. We also found that all participants valued collaboration and communication opportunities, hands-on activities, and providing explicit examples for a mathematical context. The collaborative pairs noted they wanted to have more opportunities to engage in co-planning to better enact the co-teaching strategies. The findings of this paper have implications for teacher preparation programs, which seek to prepare pre-service teachers and facilitate professional development training for collaborating teachers and pre-service teachers.


Rapidly proliferating cells such as cancer cells and embryonic stem cells rely on a specialized metabolic program known as aerobic glycolysis, which supports biomass production from carbohydrates. The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster also utilizes aerobic glycolysis to support the rapid growth that occurs during larval development. Here we use singular value decomposition analysis of modENCODE RNA-seq data combined with GC-MS-based metabolomic analysis to analyze the changes in gene expression and metabolism that occur during Drosophila embryogenesis, spanning the onset of aerobic glycolysis. Unexpectedly, we find that the most common pattern of co-expressed genes in embryos includes the global switch to glycolytic gene expression that occurs midway through embryogenesis. In contrast to the canonical aerobic glycolytic pathway, however, which is accompanied by reduced mitochondrial oxidative metabolism, the expression of genes involved in the tricarboxylic cycle (TCA cycle) and the electron transport chain are also upregulated at this time. Mitochondrial activity, however, appears to be attenuated, as embryos exhibit a block in the TCA cycle that results in elevated levels of citrate, isocitrate, and α-ketoglutarate. We also find that genes involved in lipid breakdown and β-oxidation are upregulated prior to the transcriptional initiation of glycolysis, but are downregulated before the onset of larval development, revealing coordinated use of lipids and carbohydrates during development. These observations demonstrate the efficient use of nutrient stores to support embryonic development, define sequential metabolic transitions during this stage, and demonstrate striking similarities between the metabolic state of late-stage fly embryos and tumor cells.


Although reductive metabolism of Cr(VI) always results in the production of Cr(III) and extensive Cr-DNA binding, cellular studies have indicated that different reduction processes are not equivalent in the induction of mutagenic events. Here, we examined mutagenicity and formation of Cr-DNA damage by Cr(VI) activated in vitro by one of its important reducers, glutathione (GSH). Our main focus was on reactions containing 2 mM GSH, corresponding to its average concentration in CHO (1.8 mM) and V79 (2.6 mM) mutagenicity models. We found that Cr(VI) reduction by 2 mM GSH produced only weak mutagenic responses in pSP189 plasmids replicated in human fibroblasts. Reductive activation of Cr(VI) with 5 mM GSH resulted in approximately 4-times greater DNA adduct-normalized yield of mutations. Mutagenic DNA damage formed in GSH-chromate reactions was caused by nonoxidative mechanisms, as blocking of Cr-DNA adduction led to a complete loss of mutagenesis. All GSH-mediated reactions also lacked significant DNA single-strand breakage. We developed a sensitive HPLC procedure for the detection of GSH-Cr-DNA cross-links based on the dissociation of DNA-conjugated GSH by Cr(III) chelation and its derivatization with monobromobimane. Weak mutagenicity of 2 mM GSH reactions was associated with a low production of mutagenic GSH-Cr-DNA cross-links (5.0% of total Cr-DNA adducts). In agreement with their greater mutation-inducing ability, 5 mM GSH reactions generated 4-5 times higher levels of GSH-DNA cross-linking. Overall, our results indicate that chromate reduction by physiological concentrations of GSH is a weakly mutagenic process, which is consistent with low mutagenicity of Cr(VI) in ascorbate-deficient cells.


Cu2ZnSnSe4 (CZTSe) thin films were deposited onto soda lime glass substrates by thermal evaporation using the pure elemental sources. The influence of the sequential deposition order of Zn and Sn precursor layers for different evaporation cycles were investigated. In situ annealing at 400 °C under Se evaporation was applied to promote conversion of precursor layers to quaternary compound structure and additionally, subsequent post-annealing processes under nitrogen atmosphere at 450 °C was carried out to improve the crystalline behavior. The analyses concluded that the substrate temperature kept at 400 °C during selenization was not adequate to form homogenous CZTSe structure and as a result of post-annealing treatment, the polycrystalline quaternary CZTSe film structure was obtained. Structural analysis showed that in comparison with the initial Sn precursor layer, the growth process starting with Zn was found to be the preferable method to form better crystalline CZTSe structure. Furthermore, the stacking layer order and annealing processes showed the important effect on the stoichiometry and surface morphology of the films. The optical band gap energies were around 1.10 eV and also from Tauc plots, 1.40 eV was observed due to the admixture of secondary phases. The room temperature resistivity values and hole carrier densities were obtained around 10−2 Ω cm and 1019 cm−3, respectively. The mobility values of the samples were found in between 0.51 and 0.75 cm2 V−1 s−1.


OBJECTIVE
To compare effects of 2 acetylcholinesterase inhibitors on recovery quality of horses anesthetized with isoflurane.

ANIMALS
6 horses in phase 1, 7 horses in phase 2A, and 14 horses in phase 2B.

PROCEDURES
The study comprised 3 phases (2 randomized, blinded crossover phases in horses undergoing orthopedic procedures and 1 prospective dose-determining phase). In phase 1, horses were anesthetized with isoflurane and received neostigmine or saline (0.9% NaCl) solution prior to anesthetic recovery. Phase 2A was a physostigmine dose-determining phase. In phase 2B, horses were anesthetized with isoflurane and received neostigmine or physostigmine prior to recovery. Objective recovery events were recorded and subjective visual analogue scale scores of recovery quality were assigned from video recordings.

RESULTS
Recovery measures in phase 1 were not different between horses receiving neostigmine or saline solution. In phase 2A, 0.04 mg of physostigmine/kg was the highest cumulative dose that did not cause clinically relevant adverse behavioral or gastrointestinal effects. Horses receiving physostigmine had higher mean ± SD visual analogue scale recovery scores (70.8 ± 13.3 mm) than did horses receiving neostigmine (62.4 ± 12.8 mm) in phase 2B, with fewer attempts until sternal and standing recovery. Incidence of colic behavior did not differ among groups.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Inhibition with physostigmine improved anesthetic recovery quality in horses anesthetized with isoflurane, compared with recovery quality for horses receiving neostigmine. Inhibition of central muscarinic receptors by inhalation anesthetics may underlie emergence delirium in horses recovering from anesthesia.


With an ultrafast refractive index change in an optical fiber, frequency entanglement of twin photons is modulated on the fly. The frequency conversion of light has proved to be a crucial technology for communication, spectroscopy, imaging, and signal processing. In the quantum regime, it also offers great potential for realizing quantum networks incorporating disparate physical systems and quantum-enhanced information processing over a large computational space. The frequency conversion of quantum light, such as single photons, has been extensively investigated for the last two decades using all-optical frequency mixing, with the ultimate goal of realizing lossless and noiseless conversion. I demonstrate another route to this target using frequency conversion induced by cross-phase modulation in a dispersion-managed photonic crystal fiber. Owing to the deterministic and all-optical nature of the process, the lossless and low-noise spectral reshaping of a single-photon wave packet in the telecommunication band has been readily achieved with a modulation bandwidth as large as 0.4 THz. I further demonstrate that the scheme is applicable to manipulations of a nonclassical frequency correlation, wave packet interference, and entanglement between two photons. This approach presents a new coherent frequency interface for photons for quantum information processing.


Recent Hobbes scholarship argues that legal rationalism is the key to understanding his concept of representation; the commonwealth entails the sum total of the individual wills who compact to create it. But as jurist Carl Schmitt recognized, certain aspects of Hobbes's famous Leviathan narrative transcend this rationality. He points out that the commonwealth, according to Hobbes, constitutes a "real unity" of the multitude in one Sovereign head rather than a simple aggregation of individuals, suggesting that something supernatural, in addition to legal rationality, undergirds Hobbes's concept of representation. This article argues that Thomas Hobbes was invoking an alternative, theological notion of representation along with that of legal authorization. The prototype of this theological representation is the relationship of Jesus Christ to the members of his church-body, a familiar image to seventeenth-century English Christians. The work of twentieth-century theologian Karl Barth helps to explain this concept in detail, and, with Schmitt, reveals the continued significance of theological representation for modern politics as well as for religion.


Over the past two decades, research on the impacts of a diverse range of public policies and income inequality has seen rapid growth. Despite the large number of publications to date, there remain important lacunae in our understanding of how policy interventions might help to reduce income inequality. This paper aims to fill this void by providing a systematic literature review of 270 publications that examine four key policy areas: (1) tax policy, (2) social benefits, (3) labour market interventions, and (4) education policy. We describe patterns of empirical findings and implications drawn from the reviewed publications. The strengths and weaknesses of the existing literature are also discussed, along with potential future research avenues.


Language brokering in conflict zones is an activity that has been performed since antiquity due to the pervasiveness of conflict in human history. Although interpreting was recognised as a profession in the 20th century, interpreting in conflict scenarios has continued to be to a large extent a non-regulated occupation mainly carried out by ad-hoc interpreters who have not undergone any formal training. In some conflicts, however, interpreters working for international organisations have been present. This group of interpreters has presumably possessed adequate professional skills and experience that are much-needed for the parties hiring them. The literature on interpreting in conflict is limited in comparison to other spheres of interpreting, in spite of the increasing awareness and interest on this topic, and recorded evidence about the role of interpreters is scarce and seldom chronicled. Few studies have dealt to date with the specific role of interpreters in recent conflicts, and practically none of them have aimed to describe the role of the interpreter working on the ground for international organisations in protracted conflicts. The war in Bosnia is one example of a protracted conflict involving interpreters working for international organisations. The author drew on primary sources —direct testimonies— in order to explore the role of interpreters in this conflict. To this end, a survey targeted at interpreters who worked in the Bosnian war in the framework of an international organisation was conducted in order to shed light on the characteristics that define their profile and status, occupation, role that they have played in the different stages of the conflict (preparatory process, warfare or war operations as such, post-war scenarios), training, working practices and procedures, attempts at neutrality and ideology. Responses to the survey shed light on a number of important issues, including training backgrounds, potential challenges, modalities practiced and requirements —which are different from other settings—, and the relationship between the role of the interpreter and the stage of the conflict. The findings also highlight certain shortcomings related to the definition of the activities performed, the existence of specific training programmes, the role of the interpreter, the protection received, or the protocol of behaviour or action. The presenter would discuss these findings in detail and argue their relevance for understanding interpreting in areas of protracted conflict.


This doctoral thesis consists of three essays on the nature and evolution of informational efficiency in an emerging market context. Each essay uses firm and aggregate level data from an emerging market, namely the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange (TISE).

The first essay explores the state of informational efficiency in an emerging market setting and how this efficiency evolves over time. It addresses a key issue in the emerging markets informational efficiency literature: informational efficiency is not a static feature of markets but evolves over time with changes in market features and the investor behaviour. The analysis initially applies a battery of econometric tests of the random walk (variance ratio and signed-rank tests) to the full sample returns of aggregate and stock level data from the TISE, to determine whether the market is informational efficient. The findings show that the market is informationally inefficient at the aggregate level, which is accounted for by the severe lack of efficiency in the bulk of stocks traded on the exchange. This result could imply that by and large, stock prices in an emerging market setting may not be accurate signals for resource allocation. The next part of the analysis considers whether this state of informational efficiency varies over time, by applying the more robust signed-rank test in a rolling sub-sample framework to the stock and aggregate level data. The analysis shows that over time, there are transient periods of informational efficiency, which alternate with periods of inefficiency at the aggregate market level. This pattern of time-varying efficiency is largely mirrored by the Banking stocks of the TISE. Such results could mean that informational efficiency in an emerging market setting may improve in some periods but worsen in others. This does not conform to the classical Efficient Markets Hypothesis, which claims that markets should show a clear trend toward higher states of efficiency over time.

The second essay analyses the effects of several market microstructures and financial reforms on time-varying informational efficiency in an emerging market setting. It uses data from the TISE, which is measured at the firm level for the microstructure variables. This allows for the analysis to extract the precise effects of microstructures on efficiency, which may otherwise be hidden by aggregate level data. The analysis is done within a panel regression framework. We find that improvements in the microstructure variables, including liquidity, volatility, automation and the number of shareholders enhance informational efficiency over time. However, the financial reforms, including financial liberalisation and regulation, do not alter efficiency in this analysis. We further find that the liquidity and total shareholders of the banking firms have a greater impact on efficiency, in relation to the other listed firms. Taken together, the results could imply that market microstructures playa more important role in causing informational efficiency in an emerging market setting to evolve over time.

The third essay explores price predictability from a lead-lag cross autocorrelation perspective. In particular, it considers whether the degree of institutional investment across firms induces lead-lag cross-autocorrelation among stocks. The analysis is conducted by applying returns data at the firm level from the TISE in a Vector Autoregressive (VAR) framework. It is found that the institutionally favoured stocks (HI) "lead" the institutionally unfavoured stocks (LO), as the returns of HI predict the returns of LO better than vice versa. Moreover, HI stocks are also found to lead the TISE market portfolio. These patterns of predictability arise because the stock prices of high institutionally owned firms adjust faster to market-wide information, which implies that these prices are more informationally efficient. It is also found that the extent to which HI leads LO increases with the liquidity of the institutionally favoured stocks and the illiquidity of stocks that are not favoured by institutions. Collectively, the results of this essay provide evidence of the positive role played by institutional investors in the price adjustment process: stocks with a high degree of institutional ownership have a faster speed of adjustment, making them more informationally efficient.


Abstract The Gippsland Basin is Australia's most prolific oil and gas province, with initial reserves estimated at 3.6 billion barrels crude/condensate, 0.6 billion barrels liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and 8.3 TCF dry gas. It is located in southeastern Australia, mainly offshore. Significant hydrocarbons were first discovered in 1964, in large structures at the top of the Late Cretaceous-Eocene Latrobe Group. All of the large structures have now been drilled, with current exploration concentrating on fault-dependent and combined stratigraphic structural traps within the Latrobe Group. Hydrocarbon, source rock and maturation data suggest that there is a widespread and uniform non-marine source of Late Cretaceous age. The concentration of hydrocarbons at the top of the Latrobe Group is due to the presence of large structures, an excellent cap seal, and the relatively sandy nature of the underlying, intra-Latrobe section. The distribution of oil versus gas at this level is largely explained by maturation variations and migration pathways within the basin. Vertical migration of up to 2 km is required in most cases. The distribution of oil versus gas is also influenced by minor source rock variations, fresh water washing, biodegradation, and the variable quality of fault seal. Recent exploration studies have concentrated on locating stratigraphic and combination traps, especially within the Latrobe Group. Prediction and subsequent discovery of these traps is a challenging task that has been aided by sequence-stratigraphic and seismic-stratigraphic analysis of the rock record. This has allowed the prediction of reservoir, source and seal geometries and distributions. The techniques used to construct this chronostratigraphic framework are presented, together with examples of its application within fields and on a regional basis.


Introduction The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of ceftriaxone and benzathine penicillin in non-pregnant, immunocompetent adults with early syphilis since there is a lack of clinical evidence supporting ceftriaxone as an alternative treatment for early syphilis without an HIV co-infection. Methods A randomised, open-label controlled study evaluating the efficacy of ceftriaxone and benzathine penicillin was performed in four hospitals in Jiangsu Province. Treatment comprised either ceftriaxone (1.0 g, intravenously, once daily for 10 days) or benzathine penicillin (2.4 million units, intramuscularly, once per week for two weeks). Serological response was defined as at least a 4-fold decline in rapid plasma regain(RPR) titer. Results In all, 301 patients with early syphilis were enrolled in this study; 230 subjects completed the follow-ups. The median follow-up period was 9 months. Among these 230 patients, a serological response was observed in 83.9% and 86.5% at the 6- and 12 month follow-ups, respectively. There were significant differences between the ceftriaxone- and penicillin-treated groups at both the 6- (90.2% vs 80.0%; p=0.012) and 12 month follow-ups (92.0% vs 81.4%; p=0.021), especially in patients with secondary syphilis (p<0.05). Moreover, the Jarisch–Herzheimer reaction was positively associated with treatment regimen prognosis (p<0.05). Conclusion Our serological data demonstrate that this ceftriaxone regimen is more effective than the currently recommended benzathine penicillin regimen for early syphilis in non-pregnant, immunocompetent patients, especially for secondary syphilis.


Geocaching is a way to integrate technology with physical activity. Geocaching utilizes a global positioning receiver system (GPS) that provides coordinates directing participants to find treasures or "caches." With the continued concern over decreased physical activity participation in youth, it was considered that geocaching may be one way to increase physical activity among youth as its novel, fun, and involves technology. From a programming perspective, geocaching may be used as a large special event, drop-in activity, or after-school program. It can be performed as an individual or group. Since it is a relatively new activity, specifically for youth, we were interested in the factors related to geocaching, including psychosocial factors associated with physical activity participation, to determine if geocaching may be of interest for youth physical activity programming. We recruited youth, aged 14–18 years, from a high school in rural western North Carolina. Since geocaching was a novel activity to this group, we created an infrastructure and made our own geocaching course and developed caches while using the www. geocaching.com website. The caches used were small plastic containers that contained a notebook for participants to record their names once found. These caches were set up using GPS coordinates; however, written instructions and clues were also provided. Finally, participants were placed into groups of three to four, and each group was provided with its own GPS receiver. A sample geocache session that had one cache site with clues was performed by each group to make sure they understand the process. In order to further understand the potential geocaching has for improving physical activity participation in youth we had all participants complete a series of questions. The surveys assessed current PA behaviors as well as psychosocial factors including social support of friends and family, self-efficacy, and PA attitudes and behaviors. Additionally, items were created to determine interest and ability for geocaching for this study, as no other geocache scales were available. Results from the Geocaching Interests/Abilities scale created by the authors indicated youth scored high on questions asking if looking for hidden treasures would be fun and more fun than walking. Youth also reported preferences for being outside and enjoyment in using technology. Correlation analysis revealed significant relationships between psychosocial variables and reported PA, but little to no relationship between psychosocial variables and Geocaching Interests/Abilities. Results suggest youth are interested in geocaching regardless of gender, reported PA levels, or traditional psychosocial factors such as social support and self-efficacy. The geocaching program we designed would be an easy one to replicate in any after-school setting or youth group. From a practitioner perspective, geocaching may be an effective way to engage youth in physical activity in a nontraditional manner. In order to promote geocaching at a facility developing brochures, providing signage or using social media may assist in providing sites other ways to promote physical activity to clients.


It is suggested that more explicit representation of the knowledge underlying a system leads to better explanations from that system. The purpose is to provide a background for the two articles following (M.C. Tanner and A.M. Keuneke see ibid., p.50-57; W. Swartout et al. see ibid., p.58-64), which examine explanation in expert systems.<<ETX>>


Sheet metal forming is a common manufacturing practice adopted by the Malaysian automotive industries to form various shapes involving processes such as blanking, piercing, bending, drawing, etc. The formability of sheet metal parts depends very much on the material properties, machine and process parameters and part geometry. This project provides an insight into drawing of low carbon steel axis-symmetrical cylindrical cup using finite element analysis (FEA) that generates the forming limit diagram (FLD) of the part to describe its formability. The DYNAFORM as the FEA simulation software tool evaluates the forming limit strains and thickness of the drawn circular cup. The behavior of the actual drawn part was in good agreement with the simulation results. Concurrently, several process parameters were identified as input factors to carry out the Design of Experiments (DOE) process. The initial process parameters namely the blank holder force (BHF), die and punch radius, and friction of coefficient were selected with their respective maximum and minimum levels to fit into the Research Surface Methodology (RSM) design model. The RSM method was employed to identify the relative influence of each process parameters considered in this study. The Box- Behnken BB (3) design was selected and refining the model was done using the CC (2³) (Central Composite Design) design. Based on the predicted thickness distribution (numerical simulation) of the drawn circular cup and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test, it is evident that the punch/die radius has the greatest influence on the quality characteristic of the drawn low carbon steel blank sheet followed by the BHF and the friction of coefficient. The derived mathematical model for the response was found to fit significantly in predicting the data. The integration of finite element method (simulation) and RSM technique (mathematical modeling) acts as a favorable tool to predict the influence of the process parameters selected. The error range between the actual (numerical simulation) and the predicted values for the attainment of maximum thickness is less than 8% after optimization. It can be concluded that the RSM adapted as mathematical modeling for sheet metal drawing optimization is reasonably accurate and can be used for prediction of thickness variation within the limits of the factors investigated.


Resin lenses have substituted for glass lenses to be dominant productions in eyeglasses market because of lightweight, anti-impaction and easy molding. However, the problem existed that the wear resistance of resin lenses was inferior. In order to increase the wear resistance of resin lenses, we coated DLC film on PC by the method of RF-PCVD, researched the influence of depositing power, gas concentration, time on the performance of coating, chose the optimum technological parameters. The component of coating was testified by XPS. The hardness and wear resistance were tested. The results showed that DLC films deposited on PC could improve the wear resistance of material.


This paper presents an application of a cable fault localization using an instantaneous frequency (IF) estimation in the Gaussian-enveloped linear chirp (GELC) reflectometry. The GELC reflectometry sends a GELC signal into a cable and measures the reflected signals from the faults. A fault distance is calculated by the estimated time delay between the incident and reflected signals. The cross-correlation method for estimating time delay can be affected by the propagation characteristics of the cable and this results in the time offset in the time delay estimation. To reduce the time offset, we propose an IF-estimation-based fault-localization method. The proposed method uses the statistical-model-based detection with the hidden Markov model and the constrained Kalman filtering for estimating the IF of the GELC. We can obtain the time delay between the incident and reflected signals by calculating the time delay between the center frequencies corresponding to the incident and reflected signals, respectively. Experimental results show that the proposed method estimates the accurate fault distance without the compensation term for the time offset. Therefore, the proposed method is an appropriate method for estimating the fault localization in a cable.


This paper studies the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on productivity. Firm microdata are obtained by adding the information from the Company Accounts Data Service to that from the Bank of Italy's survey referring to 1997 ("Indagine sugli investimenti delle imprese dell'industria in senso stretto"). The ICT capital stock is measured by its replacement value and not by its book value; software and databases are excluded from the capital stock. We estimate a Cobb-Douglas production function with a set of input variables including labour, ICT and non-ICT capital, human capital, production characteristics and capacity utilization rates. ICT capital enhances the firm's productivity, with an elasticity close to 3 per cent. By comparing the marginal product of ICT capital with its user cost, we detect the existence of excess returns, pointing out not only a delay in the adoption of these technologies, but also opportunities for further progress in productivity.


Technology is a never ending process. To be able to design a product using the current technology that will be beneficial to the lives of others is a huge contribution to the community. This paper presents the design and implementation of a low cost but ye t flexible and secure cell phone based home automation system. The design is based on a stand-alone Arduino BT board and the home appliances are connected to the input/ output ports of this board via relays. The communication between the cell phone and the Arduino BT board is wireless. This system is designed to be low cost and scalable allowing variety of devices to be controlled with minimum changes to its core. Password protection is being used to only allow authorized users from accessing the appliances at home.


Adults with cerebral palsy (CP) often show upper limb impairments which impact their ability to execute activities of daily living (ADLs). Three adults with CP and five healthy adults performed three types of bilateral and unilateral ADLs: drink, pour, and pick and place tasks. An affordable bilateral assessment system (BiAS) was used to measure wrist kinematic trajectories. Four metrics, total completion time, maximum velocity, smoothness, and phase difference, were used to evaluate each functional task. Overall, adults with CP took a longer time than the healthy subjects to complete all unilateral functional tasks with their non-dominant hand. Moreover, while the healthy controls had similar mean velocities in the dominant and non-dominant hands during the bilateral tasks, adults with CP typically exhibited slower mean velocities in the dominant hand during the bilateral tasks than during the unilateral dominant tasks. Similar to existing literature, we found that adults with CP compensated by slowing the dominant arm to match the non-dominant arm in order to complete the tasks, showing the importance of utilizing bilateral training in upper limb rehabilitation treatments.


During product development, measurements are expensive due to personal effort or restricted resources such as semi-anechoic chambers. It is straightforward to put this workload into a computer which simulates the measurement setup or even the road reality. It should not be forgotten that a trustworthy simulation needs a model which also requires some effort. Finally, the model needs to be validated which is typically done by measurement. So for a single use, modelling may get more expensive than a direct measurement, but models can be reused in later project phases or for other projects. They can also help to get a deeper understanding. Even a good model stays a model which differs from reality, so a complete substitution of measurements and tests, in particular for compliance, is not realistic. The belief that simulation avoids costs of equipment might be disturbed in some cases by license fees for software. There is a lot of free software around which often uses the same algorithms as commercial packages, but in some cases, commercial products are more comfortable to use and faster to learn. Some packages conceal their algorithms so far, that it is hard to understand in detail how a result has been calculated. Sometimes, the source code of free software is open, in particular for academic use the possibility of modification might be interesting.


Darshan is a production-quality I/O characterization tool that captures and summarizes the I/O behavior of parallel applications. It records a variety of information with minimal overhead, including access patterns, number of files accessed, and the amount of time consumed by I/O routines. Darshan's lightweight design makes it suitable for full-time deployment for workload characterization of large HPC systems. Although Darshan was designed for portability, Darshan 2.2.3 is the first release to feature fully integrated support for the Cray XE6 platform, including support for PGI, Cray, Intel, and GNU compilers as well as both static and dynamic linking. This document presents a brief study of Darshan performance and runtime overhead on the Beagle Cray XE6 system operated by the Computation Institute and the Biological Sciences Division of the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory. We find that Darshan introduces negligible end-to-end overhead for I/O-intensive applications and can store characterization data for over 12 million unique files in less than 5 seconds.


A trachytic tephra layer deposited in the lower part of the Upper Miocene (Turolian) diatomite sequence at la Montagne d'Andance (Coiron basaltic province, France) contains glass shards (73 % SiO2), plus crystals of sanidine, ilmenite, biotite, amphibole, clinopyroxene, zircon, sphene and apatite. This composition and other volcanological data suggest a correlation to the Cantal stratovolcano, 150 km distant, better than to the nearer (50 km) Mezenc area. The 7.54 ± 0.06 Ma (± 2 ?) isochron defined by eight 40Ar/39Ar laser fusion analyses of sanidine gives a precise age for the beginning of the fossiliferous sequence, known for its rich flora and fauna. Moreover, unspiked K-Ar ages determined from three basaltic lava flows that pre- and post-date the lacustrine sedimentation are 7.37 ± 0.06, 7.17 ± 0.06 and 7.13 ± 0.06 Ma (± 2[sigma]), thereby bracketing the sequence to a 400 kyr period between ca. 7.5 and 7.1 Ma. These are the first radioisotopic constraints for the lower part of the Turolian continental stage. They imply an age about 20 % younger for the fauna than proposed by previous biostratigraphic correlation. This new chronology is consistent with correlation of the lower limit of the Turolian to the Tortonian-Messinian boundary (7.30 ± 0.15 Ma) of the global marine stages.


OBJECTIVES
This study aimed to identify the prevalence of antenatal depression and the risk factors associated with its development among Omani women. No previous studies on antenatal depression have been conducted in Oman.

METHODS
This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out between January and November 2014 in Muscat, Oman. Pregnant Omani women ≥32 gestational weeks who were attending one of 12 local primary care health centres in Muscat for routine antenatal care were invited to participate in the study (n = 986). An Arabic version of the validated self-administered Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale questionnaire was used to measure antenatal depression. A cut-off score of ≥13 was considered to indicate probable depression.

RESULTS
A total of 959 women participated in the study (response rate: 97.3%). Of these, 233 were found to have antenatal depression (24.3%). A bivariate analysis showed that antenatal depression was associated with unplanned pregnancies (P = 0.010), marital conflict (P = 0.001) and a family history of depression (P = 0.019). The adjusted odds ratio (OR) after logistic multivariate regression analysis showed that antenatal depression was significantly associated with unplanned pregnancies (OR: 1.37; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02-1.86) and marital conflict (OR: 13.83; 95% CI: 2.99-63.93).

CONCLUSION
The prevalence of antenatal depression among the studied Omani women was high, particularly in comparison to findings from other Arab countries. Thus, antenatal screening for depression should be considered in routine primary antenatal care. Couples should also be encouraged to seek psychological support should marital conflicts develop during pregnancy.


Summary

Raphanus raphanistrum (Brassicaceae) is considered amongst the world's worst agricultural weeds. We address critical issues in its management by studying the pathway of colonisation at local scales. For this, we assessed the small-scale spatial genetic structure of 231 samples collected from three different sites across the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa, using 11 nuclear microsatellite markers. Although natural pollen and seed dispersal were expected to be restricted, we found no significant relationship between genetic and geographical distance within sites. Instead, our results suggest that R. raphanistrum had colonised new habitats via jump dispersal, rather than through natural diffusive dispersal at local scales. We did not find evidence for road verges as dispersal corridors, as evidenced by a lack of isolation-by-distance at local scales. Instead, the absence of spatial genetic structure suggests that R. raphanistrum had rapidly spread throughout its current range, possibly facilitated by human-mediated actions. Management plans addressing containment or suppression of the weedy species R. raphanistrum (and possibly other weedy species) should take the high degree of connectivity between distant geographical localities into account.


In general potato suitable cultivated in the highland area, the reasoning is in this altitude area the tuber's growth of potato in which provides the optimum climatic condition. Vegetable such as potato is growth at any time of the year, depending upon the availability of water or irrigation water. The farmers also the cultivation of potato in medium altitude area due to the availability of the area is limited. Therefore cultivation of tubers in medium altitude area is investigated.  Potato Eigenheimer cultivars and Granola cultivars were planted at a medium altitude area of 754 m above sea level; in research station of campus Universitas Padjadjaran west Java Indonesia. The average temperature was 23°C. The treatments were three intervals of irrigation every two days (A1), four days (A2) and six days (A3); and the treatments were applied three of potassium fertilizer (KCL dosage: 50 (P1), 100 (P2) and 150 (P3) (kg/ha) which three levels of nitrogen. The result shows that two days of irrigation intervals (A1) and 100 kg/ha potassium (P2) obtain the highest essential amino acids concentration of Granola cultivar if compared with Eigenheimer cultivar. The interaction between the application of interval irrigation and potassium fertilizer effects to a mineral such as calcium and iron content in the tuber. While the content of both mineral is higher in Granola cultivar than that in Eigenheimer cultivar.


Advancements in information and communication technology have revolutionized the notion of teaching and learning in terms of strategies, context, and methods. One of the most remarkable tools used in teaching and learning in the 21st century is YouTube, especially in language education. The literature demonstrates the need for elaboration of the use of YouTube in university level language skills education settings. In the 2016-2017 academic year a YouTube channel with a variety of supplementary material videos, was used in the Academic Speaking Course offered to all departments at Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. The channel has course-related content input, sample presentations and tasks displaying the expectations of the course, in addition to conversation opening content.  This study aims to investigate students' experiences and perceptions towards the use of this YouTube channel. The study was conducted on 70 students taking the compulsory Academic Speaking Skills course offered to students from varying disciplines in Middle East Technical University. Students were asked to fill out a Google Sheets survey at the end of the course on their perceptions on the benefits and drawbacks of the aforementioned YouTube channel. The data was analyzed based on both descriptive statistics and deductive content analysis. The results indicated that the majority of the students benefited to a large extent from the videos on the playlists of this specifically-designed supplementary material YouTube channel. The findings can contribute to further guiding university language instructors by suggesting the abundance of alternative ways to benefit from YouTube and similar online video source platforms.


Citation for published version (APA): Petersen, M. B. (2018). Participatory Ergonomics Intervention with technical Measurements in the Construction Industry: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial including development of a new method for measuring physical workload. Aalborg Universitetsforlag. Aalborg Universitet. Det Sundhedsvidenskabelige Fakultet. Ph.D.-Serien https://doi.org/10.5278/vbn.phd.med.00110


This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Aspergillus niger strain and inoculum level on the nutritional composition of olive leaves. The experiment had a 2×3 factorial arrangement of treatments with two A. niger strains (ATCC 200345 [A] and ATCC 9142 [B]) and three inoculum levels (104, 106, and 108). Olive leaves were milled to 2 mm and fermented in solid-state by two different A. niger strains and analysed for nutritional composition. Crude protein (CP) was increased linearly as the inoculum level increased. Ether extract (EE) and crude fiber (CF) were decreased linearly in A strain or quadratically in B strain with increased inoculum levels. Crude ash and nitrogen-free extract content did not differ among groups. Strain A increased neutral detergent fiber (NDF) at higher inoculum level, whereas NDF was decreased as inoculum level increased in B strain. The lowest acid detergent fiber (ADF) was obtained from the B strain or 106 inoculum level. The results showed that the effect of two strains on CP and ADF changed similarly with increased inoculum levels. However, two strains affected EE, CF, and NDF content differently with increased inoculum levels. The optimal situations were 108 inoculum level for higher CP, A104 or B104 for higher EE, B106 for lower CF, B106 or B108 for lower NDF, 106 inoculum level or B strain for lower ADF. B strain at 106 inoculation level can be preferred to obtain an average CP and EE content and lower CF, NDF, and ADF content.


The authors consider a grouping issue for a cellular robotic system (CEBOT) with multiple master cells. The CEBOT consists of a large number of autonomous robotic units called cells, that is, the system is one of group robotic systems. To evaluate the grouping effectiveness, the authors use the network energy. They consider each master cell as a coordinator in each sub-network. To evaluate the grouping network, they propose the cross-dependence matrix, which presents the relation between the cells and the task steps depending on a given task. The simulation results present the grouping examples of the cellular network. By describing the grouping issue, the authors also describe the effect for the group structure of an organization or a society.<<ETX>>


The World Health Organization defined mental health as a state of well-being in which the individual is aware of his own abilities, and is able to make a valuable contribution to his community1. On the contrary, the prevalence of mental disorders in the world is worrisome, to cite some figures, depression is a frequent mental disorder and one of the main causes of disability that affects more than 300 million people around the world; bipolar disorder affects around 60 million people worldwide; Approximately 21 million people suffer from schizophrenia; and about 47.5 million show clinical signs of dementia. It is expected that the prevalence of these diseases will increase due to the scarcity of psychiatry. In Peru, the situation in the area of mental health is similar; every year 20% of the adult population suffers from some type of mental disorder; and only 1 in 10 people who require treatment have access to health services. To guarantee the mental health care of more Peruvians, the Health Reform has incorporated specialized care in the Primary Healthcare Level. However, there are currently approximately 700 Peruvian psychiatrists, an amount with which it is impossible to cover care in the more than 7,000 health facilities in the country. In view of this global problem, it is urgent to find out about the factors that contribute to more medical students consider the choice of psychiatry as a medical specialty. Different studies worldwide and nationally suggest that the selection of the medical specialty is influenced mainly by personality and this is not alien to the choice of psychiatry as a specialty to study. In addition, among medical students there are significant differences in their vocational preferences according to sex; According to this, women are the ones who mostly choose psychiatry⁷. On the other hand, the experience in the course during the academic years of the medical career, provide a more realistic view of psychiatry, which contributes to more medical students are interested in pursuing the specialty later. DOI:  https://doi.org/10.25176/RFMH.v18.n1.1275


Abstract There is an understandable desire to use simple unpolarized infrared analysis of unoriented anisotropic samples to extract quantitative information, rather than using more demanding polarized techniques. Owing to the fact that unpolarized infrared absorbance in birefringent media deviates from the Beer-Lambert law, previous studies have either warned against using unpolarized spectroscopy for quantitative purposes, or have used flawed error analysis to justify using simple averages of integrated absorbance of multiple absorbance bands as a proxy for total integrated polarized absorbance in the principal spectra. It is shown here that unpolarized infrared absorbance is correctly calculated by averaging in the transmission domain. The errors in estimates of principal absorbance by averaging of unpolarized absorbance spectra are evaluated using correct theory of unpolarized infrared transmission. Correction schemes for integrated absorbance based on linear-absorbance error calculations are shown to be inappropriate. A theory is developed that allows the sum of the polarized principal absorbance spectra to be estimated from multiple unpolarized measurements of randomly oriented samples. The systematic errors that arise when averaging in the absorbance domain are avoided by use of exact theory rather than an approximation. Numerical simulation shows that applying the new procedure to 10 unpolarized measurements of OH stretching bands in olivine results in convergence of the estimated total integrated principal polarized absorbance to within 10% of the true value for a sample size of 10 measurements, but the technique is limited to spectral regions that do not contain absorption bands that are simultaneously intensely absorbing and strongly anisotropic.


An Act to make provision to require Ministers of the Crown and others when making strategic decisions about the exercise of their functions to have regard to the desirability of reducing socio-economic inequalities; to reform and harmonise equality law and restate the greater part of the enactments relating to discrimination and harassment related to certain personal characteristics; to enable certain employers to be required to publish information about the differences in pay between male and female employees; to prohibit victimisation in certain circumstances; to require the exercise of certain functions to be with regard to the need to eliminate discrimination and other prohibited conduct; to enable duties to be imposed in relation to the exercise of public procurement functions; to increase equality of opportunity; to amend the law relating to rights and responsibilities in family relationships; and for connected purposes. [8th April 2010]


Background Although there is evidence for heightened sexually transmitted disease (STD) acquisition among women who experienced sexual violence, little is known about their patterns of STD testing, STD diagnosis, and STD treatment. Methods Data was drawn from cycle eight of the National Survey of Family Growth (2011–2013). Logistic regression analyses used SUDAAN to examine the link between forced sex and risky sexual behavior as well as forced sex and STD testing, diagnoses, treatment, and connection to care. Results Women who experienced forced sex were more likely to have risky sex (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.56; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.08–2.24), risky partners (AOR, 1.90; 95% CI, 1.11–3.23), and report substance abuse (AOR, 1.80; 95% CI, 1.28–2.53) than women who never experienced forced sex. Women who reported forced sex were more likely to be tested for an STD (AOR, 1.67; 95% CI, 1.34–2.09), and be diagnosed with herpes (AOR, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.13–3.32), genital warts (AOR, 2.55; 95% CI, 1.90–3.41), and chlamydia (AOR, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.03–3.25) than those who have never had forced sex. Results indicated a direct relationship between particular STD diagnoses and treatment in the past 12 months (AOR, 6.81; 95% CI, 4.50–10.31). Further analyses indicate that forced sex moderated the link between STD diagnoses and STD treatment (AOR, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.19–0.98). Conclusions Results indicate that women who reported experiencing forced sex were more likely to be diagnosed with chlamydia, herpes, and genital warts than women who never had forced sex. There may be a need to pay particular attention to women who experienced forced sex and a history of STDs to ensure that they are retained in care.


Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is an enlarged prostate gland caused by progressive hyperplasia of glandular cells or stoma cells from prostate tissues. BPH is a common problem that increases in people from 40 years old. The symptom is lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) that consist of the followings: Strenuous urination, frequent urination, urinary hesitancy and retention. This study aims to know the characteristic of BPH patients in RSU Haji Medan from January to December 2015. Research design of this study is descriptive studies. The population of the study consists of patients who were diagnosed with BPH in RSU Haji Medan from January to December 2015. Total sampling method was used. Research data were retrieved by taking the patients' entire medical record with BPH in RSU Haji Medan from January to December 2015. 84 persons were diagnosed with BPH. The highest age group of the population is 60 to 70 years (34 people (40.5%). The most common complaint of the patients with BPH is the inability to urinate (42 people (50.0%). Common volume size of prostate is 40 to 60 g (people (38.1%). The most common therapy is transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) (people (76.2%). The highest co morbidity is hypertension (20 people (23.8%). The patients that had BPH most in RSU Haji Medan were 60 to 70 years old; the chief complaint is not being able to urinate; common size of prostate volume is 40 to 60 g; the most common therapy that is used is TURP, and the highest co morbidity is hypertension.

 Key words: Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), older group, transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), hypertension.


In this paper we focus on strategic voting behavior when both an election and a signaling motivation affect voters' behavior. We analyze a model of elections with two candidates competing on a one-dimensional policy space. Voters are privately and imperfectly informed about a common shock affecting the electorate's preferences. Candidates are assumed to choose policy in response to information gleaned from election results and according to exogenous factors that may lead to polarization in candidates' policy choices. We analyze a subset of symmetric equilibria in which strategies are symmetric to candidates' names and private signals (CSS equilibria). We show that signaling and election motivations pull voters to vote in different directions. We provide conditions that show the relation between the amount of information aggregated in the election and the motivation that influences voting behavior the most. Finally, we show that when candidates are responsive and polarized, all CSS equilibria are inefficient in the limit. Copyright The Econometric Society 2003.


It is orthodoxy in Australia that when interpreting statutory text, attention turns to the words 'in context'. This context is taken to include extrinsic context, including extrinsic materials. Parliamentary materials represent a significant category of such extrinsic matter. These are materials produced as part of the enactment of the statute in Parliament, such as second reading speeches, explanatory memoranda, and committee reports. But although readers of statutes regularly refer to parliamentary materials and attribute weight to them for the interpretative task, most readers know little about them. This article examines parliamentary materials for federal legislation. The aim of this examination is to highlight factors that may be considered when assessing such materials as interpretative aids. The article reflects preliminary research done as part of a wider research project on the relationship between the legislative process and statutory interpretation.


External corporate communications are regarded as a vital function for both the everyday running and the long-term success of the sport industry in general and the football industry in particular. However, the examination of media relations in football, especially in regards to traditional media, appears to attract little research, regardless of its great impact on corporate reputation and image management. This study examines how media relations are managed, by investigating the current practice in English Premier League clubs. The analysis of the practices employed in the clubs underlines the disparity within them, which is further highlighted by the various Communications and Media departments' structures encountered. From building formal relations between the clubs and traditional media, to developing clubs' own media to exclude traditional media from the communications process, or even sustaining informal personal relations between clubs' employees and members of the media, this study illustrates the key media relations practices encountered within English football clubs.


Bacillus cereus is a common laboratory and environmental contaminant. Reports of severe infections are mainly limited to immunocompromised individuals. In reported cases, the time interval between bacteraemia and neuro-invasion appears to be very short, highlighting the importance of rapid and definitive identification and susceptibility testing of invasive B. cereus. We report a case of a neonatal B. cereus bacteraemia complicated by a brain abscess from a neonatal intensive care unit. The neonate presented with bradycardia and desaturations with increased oxygen requirements. Initial blood culture detected B. cereus but was considered a contaminant. Repeated culturing of the Gram-positive rod was subsequently considered to be significant. Initial ultrasound head scans revealed echogenicity in the right posterior deep white matter. A large central cavity (5 mm diameter) could eventually be observed. The brain abscess resolved after surgical drainage and an extensive 6 weeks of antimicrobial therapy. This case study describes a rare event that illustrates the importance of rapid identification and susceptibility testing of invasive B. cereus isolates from immunocompromised patients.


While the technical side of project management is important, it's often "people problems" that derail even the most meticulously planned of projects. A Survival Guide for Project Managers gives you a complete understanding of what it takes to successfully finish a project, giving you not only valuable tools like Work Breakdown Schedule, Gantt Charts, and Network Analysis, but also tools to communicate, negotiate, listen, and lead. This practical, user-friendly guide walks you through the entire project life cycle, and shows you how to: * Develop the managerial and business skills required of a project manager. * Resolve conflicts and improve negotiation capabilities. * Understand and apply the technical tools of project management. * Establish project teams, and foster collaboration among team members, and more. Now in its second edition, the book has been revised to reflect the latest version of the PMBOK(R) Guide, and includes new material on topics including project risk, cost-schedule index, the project management office, and emotional intelligence as it applies to project management. Packed with useful forms, charts, and other tools, this is the ultimate resource for project managers.


Article history: Received 18 October 2014 Received in revised form 31 December 2014 Accepted 18 January 2015 Available online 1 March 2015


In 2011 an Australian Army CH-47D Chinook was involved in an accident in which a series of uncommanded pitch oscillations were experienced, resulting in one fatality and the loss of the aircraft. The accident was followed by three similar incidents. The Flight Data Recorder was not recovered for the accident but was recovered for the incidents, and this data was used to investigate a possible cause of the oscillations which occurred in the lead up to the accident. Simulations were undertaken to demonstrate that the likely cause of the oscillations was limit saturation of the Advanced Flight Control System. Recovery procedures were developed to help prevent future occurrences, and handling qualities for recovery were assessed. This accident highlighted the importance of testing aircraft systems to their limits and the importance to operators of understanding the implications of these limits.


A novel cDNA-encoding galactose 3-O-sulfotransferase was cloned by screening the expressed sequence tag data base using the previously cloned cDNA encoding a galactosyl ceramide 3-O-sulfotransferase, which we term Gal3ST-1. The newly isolated cDNA encodes a novel 3-O-sulfotransferase, termed Gal3ST-3, that acts exclusively on N-acetyllactosamine present inN-glycans and core2-branched O-glycans. These conclusions were confirmed by analyzing CD43 chimeric proteins in Chinese hamster ovary cells expressing core2 β1,6-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase. The acceptor specificity of Gal3ST-3 contrasts with that of the recently cloned galactose 3-O-sulfotransferase (Honke, K., Tsuda, M., Koyota, S., Wada, Y., Iida-Tanaka, N., Ishizuka, I., Nakayama, J., and Taniguchi, N. (2001) J. Biol. Chem. 276, 267–274), which we term Gal3ST-2 in the present study because the latter enzyme can also act on core1 O-glycan and type 1 oligosaccharides, Galβ1→3GlcNAc. Moreover, Gal3ST-3 but not Gal3ST-2 can act on Galβ1→4(sulfo→6)GlcNAc, indicating that disulfated sulfo→3Galβ1→4(sulfo→6) GlcNAc→R may be formed by Gal3ST-3 in combination with GlcNAc 6-O-sulfotransferase. Although both Gal3ST-2 and Gal3ST-3 do not act on galactosyl ceramide, Gal3ST-3 is only moderately more homologous to Gal3ST-2 (40.1%) than to Gal3ST-1 (38.0%) at the amino acid level. Northern blot analysis demonstrated that transcripts for Gal3ST-3 are predominantly expressed in the brain, kidney, and thyroid where the presence of 3′-sulfation ofN-acetyllactosamine has been reported. These results indicate that the newly cloned Gal3ST-3 plays a critical role in 3′-sulfation of N-acetyllactosamine in both O- and N-glycans.


This paper introduces the Non-State Actors in Armed Conflict Dataset (NSA), which contains detailed information on the state–rebel group dyads included in the Uppsala Conflict Data Project Dyadic Dataset. Existing quantitative studies generally focus on characteristics of countries and conflicts to examine the duration, severity, outcome and recurrence of civil wars, in ways that often ignore the actors in civil wars. The NSA data provides additional information on the organizations involved in conflict dynamics. We describe the structure of the NSA data and the variables included, provide descriptive statistics of the indicators, and discuss areas for future research on non-state actors to enhance our understanding of conflict processes.


The results of intracaecal inoculation experiments on young albino rats with different strains of E. histolytica isolated in cultures from patients with different varieties of clinical amoebiasis, such as acute amoebic dysentery, amoebic liver abscess and chronic amoebic colitis, as well as from asymptomatic infections, have been presented and discussed. Caecal scoring was performed with regard to the condition of the wall of the caecum and the contents of its lumen. Successful infection with virulent amoebae was associated with the presence of considerable ulceration of the caecum, whereas, in infections with avirulent amoebae, the changes were apparently only slight or absent. The virulence and pathogenicity were considerably different for clinical case and symptomless carrier strains of E. histolytica. In the former group, high caecal scores and pathogenicity indices with ulceration of the caecum were noted, whilst in the latter, the amoebae were either virulent or avirulent. Results similar to those for the former group were obtained with two carrier strains only.


A new research report calculates that the U.S. retirement savings crisis continues to worsen, and that the typical working household still has virtually no retirement savings.The report, The Continuing Retirement Savings Crisis, examines the readiness of working-age households, based primarily on an analysis of the Survey of Consumer Finances from the U.S. Federal Reserve System. The study analyzes workplace retirement plan coverage, retirement account ownership, and household retirement savings as a percentage of income, and estimates the share of working families that meet financial industry recommended benchmarks for retirement savings.The key findings of this report are as follows:1. Account ownership rates are closely correlated with income and wealth. Nearly 40 million working-age households (45 percent) do not own any retirement account assets, whether in an employer-sponsored 401(k) type plan or an IRA. Half of these households with no retirement savings are headed by someone between age 45 and 65, and may have too few year to catch up. Households that do own retirement accounts have more than 2.4 times the annual income of households that do not own a retirement account. While retirement account ownership improved for households in the third highest income quartile with 75.6 percent of households holding assets in retirement accounts, retirement account ownership in the lowest income quartile dropped to 21.4 percent in 2013 down from 25.7 percent in 2010 2. The average working household has virtually no retirement savings. When all households are included — not just households with retirement accounts — the median retirement account balance is $2,500 for all working-age households and $14,500 for near-retirement households. Furthermore, 62 percent of working households age 55-64 have retirement savings less than one times their annual income, which is far below what they will need to maintain their standard of living in retirement.3. Even after counting households' entire net worth — a generous measure of retirement savings — two thirds (66 percent) of working families fall short of conservative retirement savings targets for their age and income based on working until age 67. Due to a long-term trend toward income and wealth inequality that only worsened during the recent economic recovery, a large majority of the bottom half of working households cannot meet even a substantially reduced savings target.4. Public policy can play a critical role in putting all Americans on a path toward a secure retirement by strengthening Social Security, expanding access to low cost, high quality retirement plans, and helping low income workers and families save. Social Security, the primary edifice of retirement income security, could be strengthened to stabilize system financing and enhance benefits for vulnerable populations. Access to workplace retirement plans could be expanded by making it easier for private employers to sponsor DB pensions, while national and state level proposals aim to ensure universal retirement plan coverage. Finally, expanding the Saver's Credit and making it refundable could help boost the retirement savings of lower-income families.


Acoustic imaging of elastic targets often results in linear flashes in the image. Delineating these target features could be used in subsequent target detection and recognition schemes; however, the difficulty in this task is not to be underestimated due to the presence of background reverberation or ambient noise in the sonar image. A powerful line‐fitting algorithm which locates the linear flashes in sonar images of elastic objects is presented. The algorithm initially groups the image pixels into neighboring clusters by using the parameters of an intensity‐weighted least‐mean‐squared line fit locally computed over the entire image. The algorithm uses the information of these groups in order to extract the dominant lines from the image. It is noteworthy to realize that compared to the majority of line and edge detection schemes, the algorithm actually parametrizes for each line extracted its length, orientation, location, and intensity. By culling these lines based on their parameters, particular linear...


This paper presents the design and simulation of a circuit consisting of multiple interacting configurable logic blocks (CLBs) using quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA). Previous work on QCA-based field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) has focused on fixed logic and programmable interconnect. In contrast, this work uses CLBs consisting of look-up tables (LUTs). These CLBs have been previously presented in isolation. This paper presents two main contributions. First, we improve the latency and area of the existing CLBs. Second, we simulate four connected CLBs acting as a very simple FPGA. We configure this FPGA to emulate a ripple-carry adder and analyze latency and throughput. We employ a multilevel approach to design specification and simulation. QCADesigner software is used for detailed layout and simulation of the individual CLB. For simulations of multiple-CLB circuits, we use the high-level HDLQ Verilog library instead. This hybrid approach provides a high degree of confidence in reasonable simulation time.


The design of a proprietary loudspeaker for use in IMAX theaters posed some unusual problems while offering a unique opportunity: that of optimizing a loudspeaker design for a predetermined and relatively narrowly defined set of acoustic, geometric, and mechanical conditions. Requirements unique to the application, a specialty cinema format which employs six discrete audio signal channels and makes substantial demands on sound system bandwidth and acoustic output, are explained. Methods used to arrive at the final loudspeaker design are presented. Sound system coverage prediction software was utilized in a novel fashion, significantly reducing the time required to complete the development of the loudspeaker. Investigation of IMAX theater geometries indicated that a vertically asymmetric radiation pattern was highly desirable. Optimum loudspeaker directivity criteria were established, and horns were developed with these criteria in mind. Testing of prototypes indicated that the criteria had been substantia...


miRNAs are small regulatory RNAs involved in the regulation of translation of target transcripts. miRNA biogenesis is a multi-step process starting with the cleavage of the primary miRNA transcript in the nucleus by the Microprocessor complex. Endogenous processing of pri-miRNAs is challenging to study and the in vivo kinetics of this process is not known. Here, we present a method for determining the processing kinetics of pri-miRNAs within intact cells over time using a pulse-chase approach to obtain nascent RNA within a 1-hour window after labeling with bromouridine. We show, that pri-miRNAs exhibit different processing kinetics ranging from fast over intermediate to slow processing and provide evidence that pri-miRNA processing can occur both co-transcriptionally and post-transcriptionally.


1. The Ca(2+)-dependent phosphatidylinositol phosphodiesterase (phospholipase C-type) from the cytosolic supernatant of rat brain was active against exogenous [(32)P]-phosphatidylinositol from pH5.0 to pH8.5. However, the activity in the range pH7.0-8.5 could not be recovered after precipitation with (NH(4))(2)SO(4); most of the enzyme activity was recovered in the 30-50% fraction and showed a single sharp pH optimum at 5.5. 2. The cytosolic supernatant was analysed by isoelectric focusing on acrylamide gels, and assay at pH5.5. Four peaks of phosphodiesterase activity were found at pI ranges 7.4-7.2, 6.0-5.8, 4.8-4.4 and 4.2-3.8. 3. The cytosolic supernatant was also applied to a chromatofocusing column, and again assayed at pH5.5. Four peaks were eluted: minor, but consistent, activity at the beginning of the elution with a pI of near 7.2 or above; a second peak at pH6.0-5.85; a third broad peak with a wide range pH5.3-4.2; and a fourth peak, which was eluted by washing the column with 1m-NaCl, suggesting an isoenzyme with a pI below 4.0 (supported by the result of the isoelectric focusing). 4. If all the chromatofocusing fractions were assayed at pH7.0 or 8.0 (at 1mm-Ca(2+)), only a single sharp peak was detected, with a pI of 4.6-4.8. This peak disappeared on (NH(4))(2)SO(4) fractionation (30-50%) of the cytosolic supernatant, whereas the four peaks with activity at pH5.5 were virtually unaffected. 5. The four activities (assayed at pH5.5) separated by chromatofocusing produced inositol 1:2-cyclic monophosphate, inositol 1-monophosphate and diacylglycerol as enzymic products. 6. We conclude that the Ca(2+)-dependent phosphatidylinositol phosphodiesterase exhibits considerable heterogeneity, both with respect to pH optima of activity, and its isoelectric properties.


The colonization policies of Ancient Rome followed a range of legal arrangements concerning property distribution and state formation, documented in fragmented textual and epigraphic sources. Once antiquarian scholars rediscovered and scrutinized these sources in the Renaissance, their analysis of the Roman colonial model formed the intellectual background for modern visions of empire. What does it mean to exercise power at and over distance? This book foregrounds the pioneering contribution to this debate of the great Italian Renaissance scholar Carlo Sigonio (1522/3–84). His comprehensive legal interpretation of Roman society and Roman colonization, which for more than two centuries remained the leading account of Roman history, has been of immense (but long disregarded) significance for the modern understanding of Roman colonial practices and of the legal organization and implications of empire. Bringing together experts on Roman history, the history of classical scholarship, and the history of international law, this book analyses the context, making, and impact of Sigonio's reconstruction of the Roman colonial model. It shows how his legal interpretation of Roman colonization originated and how it informed the development of legal colonial discourse, from visions of imperial reform and colonial independence in the nascent United States of America, to Enlightenment accounts of property distribution, culminating in a specific juridical strand in twentieth-century Roman historiography. Through a detailed analysis of scholarly and political visions of Roman colonization from the Renaissance until today, this book shows the enduring relevance of legal interpretations of the Roman colonial model for modern experiences of empire.


NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) has captured an extreme and rare event in the regions immediately surrounding a supermassive black hole. A compact source of X-rays that sits near the black hole, called the corona, has moved closer to the black hole over a period of just days.


Blast exposure or head impacts in accidents or contact sports may cause Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), which is one of most crucial and poorly understood areas of research in the 21st century. To date, human tissues especially the skin and brain tissues (white and grey matter especially) are difficult to obtain and work in a lab setting due to ethical and biosafety issues. This has not allowed for much experimental research into the study of the mechanics of brain tissues under impact or dynamic loading, which is the key to TBI investigation. In the current work, tissue surrogates were developed to precisely mimic the linear and non-linear mechanical behavior of the skin, white and grey matter tissues using a low cost, castable (to any shape or size), multi-part silicone based material system. The fabrication methodology involves the iterative mixing of the two or four parts of silicone at certain mix ratios (by weight) to generate a biomechanical behavior similar to the specific tissues at different strain rates. The non-linear stress versus stretch responses of the tissue surrogates were characterized using the Yeoh's hyperelastic constitutive model. Besides TBI studies, these novel tissue surrogates have no biosafety or handling issues, and could be indispensable for replacing cadavers and human tissues for clinical surgical trainings.


THE TOTAL number of qualified dermatologists in Thailand as of 1994 is 240 (150 men and 90 women) for a population of 60 million. Among these, 75% practice in Bangkok and the other 25% practice in the provinces. Consequently, the ratio of dermatologists to the population at large is 1 to 250 000. As many dermatologists practice in Bangkok instead of the provinces, the dermatologic services in the provinces are very limited and insufficient. Patients with chronic skin diseases still believe in coming to the city for better care. Dermatologic training is one of the most popular subspecialties among young physicians in Thailand. There are nine medical schools in Thailand, eight run by the government and one privately run; six medical schools are in Bangkok and the other three are in the provinces. The total number of medical graduates is about 800 per year. According to government regulations, new graduates


The following study is devoted to the phenomenon of unmanned aerial vehicles used throughout known history on the battlefield or for military purposes. The purpose of the following text is to familiarise the reader with an overview with the contemporary and historical employment of the unmanned vehicles on the battlefield. The study also aims to show that the concept of unmanned combat vehicles, also unmanned aerial combat vehicles, is far more ancient than is it is widely known. The article is based on theoretical research methods, mostly multinational academic literature. The author starts with an introduction on the role of limiting soldiers' fatalities and the concept of removing military men from the battleground. Then, the author presents known examples of using unmanned ships in battles from Thucydides' times to the invention of the Hell-burner of Antwerp. Further, the case of first unmanned combat aerial vehicle is presented, the bombing balloons from the nineteenth century, followed by a more contemporary study of the military use of unmanned aircrafts. The article is concluded with an analysis of the present employment of drones when they tend to substitute manned aircrafts on various occasions, especially when a mission is deemed "dull, dirty or dangerous".


An efficient and computationally fast method for segmenting text and graphics part of document images based on textural cues is presented. We assume that the graphics part have different textural properties than the nongraphics (text) part. The segmentation method uses the notion of multiscale wavelet analysis and statistical pattern recognition. We have used M-band wavelets which decompose an image into M/spl times/M bandpass channels. Various combinations of these channels represent the image at different scales and orientations in the frequency plane. The objective is to transform the edges between textures into detectable discontinuities and create the feature maps which give a measure of the local energy around each pixel at different scales. From these feature maps, a scale-space signature is derived, which is the vector of features at different scales taken at each single pixel in an image. We achieve segmentation by simple analysis of the scale-space signature with traditional k- means clustering. We do not assume any a priori information regarding the font size, scanning resolution, type of layout, etc. of the document in our segmentation scheme.


Here we describe briefly the architecture and mechanisms of a "conscious" software agent named IDA who is to act as a type of employment agent. We go on to show how this architecture and these mechanisms allow IDA to deliberate much as we humans do and to make voluntary choices of actions. The technology described, if successful, should allow the automation of the work of many human information agents. The IDA model also makes, hopefully testable, hypotheses about how human deliberation and volition. Deliberation


Introduction: Granuloma faciale is an uncommon disease. Clinical and histopathological features have been described only in case reports or small series. Material and methods: A retrospective study from 2001 to 2012 of patients with granuloma faciale diagnosed at the Department of Dermatology of Garcia de Orta Hospital was performed. The demographic, clinical and histopathological features were evaluated and a review of the literature was performed. Results: During this period, seven granuloma faciale were diagnosed in 5 women and 2 men. The mean age was 56 years. Five patients had a single lesion while 2 had multiple lesions, all of them located on the face. In 6 cases a Grenz zone was identified. The inflammatory infiltrate was mixed, predominantly lymphocytic (6 cases), and extended to the reticular dermis (4 cases). Leukocytoclasia, vascular ectasia and fibrinoid necrosis were detected in 6, 5 and 4 cases, respectively. Fibrosis, hemosiderin and extravasated erythrocytes were found in 3, 2 and 1 patients, respectively. Conclusions: The obtained results support most of the published data. Unlike to the literature, granuloma faciale was more common in women. The detailed characterization of this disease is important to its clinical and histopathological recognition, facilitating the differential diagnosis with other more common dermatoses.


A methodology for discrete simulation has been developed that incorporates many structural characteristics of polycrystalline material properties, such as: texture, grain boundaries, microstructure, phase composition, chemical composition, stored energy, and residual stresses. The computer models that have been developed to study oxidation processes are based on a quantitative description of the oxide and substrate structure. That description allows for the simulation of the transport of metal and oxygen ions along interfaces and bulk portions of material and the formation of oxide structure. The proposed model can help researchers and engineers to understand the physical mechanism of oxidation in order to predict material behavior and optimize material processing and properties. In this paper, the results on the simulation of the oxidation process are presented on different substrates of Zr-Nb alloys, which are used for the manufacturing the pressure tubes used in the CANDU nuclear reactors. The effects of substrate texture, microstructure, grain boundaries, and beta phase distribution on oxidation kinetics and hydrogen permeation are demonstrated.


Ribonucleotide reductase (RNR) is the rate-limiting enzyme in deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate (dNTP) biosynthesis, with important roles in nuclear genome maintenance. RNR is also essential for maintenance of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in mammals. The mechanisms regulating mtDNA copy number in mammals are only being discovered. In budding yeast, RNR overexpression resulted in increased mtDNA levels, and rescued the disease phenotypes caused by a mutant mtDNA polymerase. This raised the question of whether mtDNA copy number increase by RNR induction could be a strategy for treating diseases with mtDNA mutations. We show here that high-level overexpression of RNR subunits (Rrm1, Rrm2 and p53R2; separately or in different combinations) in mice does not result in mtDNA copy number elevation. Instead, simultaneous expression of two RNR subunits leads to imbalanced dNTP pools and progressive mtDNA depletion in the skeletal muscle, without mtDNA mutagenesis. We also show that endogenous RNR transcripts are downregulated in response to large increases of mtDNA in mice, which is indicative of nuclear-mitochondrial crosstalk with regard to mtDNA copy number. Our results establish that RNR is not limiting for mtDNA copy number in mice, and provide new evidence for the importance of balanced dNTP pools in mtDNA maintenance in postmitotic tissues.


This paper studies the stability of nonlinear autoregressive models with conditionally heteroskedastic errors. We consider a nonlinear autoregression of order p (AR(p)) with the conditional variance specified as a nonlinear first order generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH(1,1)) model. Conditions under which the model is stable in the sense that its Markov chain representation is geometrically ergodic are provided. This implies the existence of an initial distribution such that the process is strictly stationary and β-mixing. Conditions under which the stationary distribution has finite moments are also given. The results cover several nonlinear specifications recently proposed for both the conditional mean and conditional variance.


We present our second set of results from our mid-infrared imaging survey of Milky Way giant H ii regions. We used the FORCAST instrument on the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) to obtain 20 and 37 μm images of the central ∼10′ × 10′ area of M17. We investigate the small- and large-scale properties of M17 using our data in conjunction with previous multiwavelength observations. The spectral energy distributions of individual compact sources were constructed with Spitzer-IRAC, SOFIA-FORCAST, and Herschel-PACS photometry data and fitted with massive young stellar object (MYSO) models. Seven sources were found to match the criteria for being MYSO candidates, four of which are identified here for the first time, and the stellar mass of the most massive object, UC 1, is determined to be 64 M☉. We resolve the extended mid-infrared emission from the KW object and suggest that the angle of this extended emission is influenced by outflow. It is shown that IRS 5 decreases in brightness as a function of wavelength from the mid- to far-infrared and has several other indicators that point to it being an intermediate-mass Class II object and not an MYSO. We find that the large-scale appearance of emission in M17 at 20 μm is significantly affected by contamination from the [S iii] emission line from the ionized gas of the giant H ii region. Finally, a number of potential evolutionary tracers yield a consistent picture suggesting that the southern bar of M17 is likely younger than the northern bar.


We present an experimental study of the Ni+2/Ni(OH)2/NH3 reaction-diffusion system in a gel (agar). The system, which consists of a gel containing an inner electrolyte Ni+2 and a diffusing outer electrolyte (NH3/OH-), exhibits pulse propagation due to the concomitant precipitation reaction between Ni+2 and hydroxide ions and re-dissolution due to ammonia. During the propagation of the pulse, a transition to Liesegang banding is shown to take place. The bands are characterized by IR and XRD and are shown to consist of the polymorph -Ni(OH)2 whereas the pulse contains the other polymorph -Ni(OH)2. SEM measurements also reveal a morphological change accompanying the polymorphic transition between the pulse and the bands and uncovering an Ostwald ripening mechanism.


Vector control has been a key component in the fight against malaria for decades, and chemical insecticides are critical to the success of vector control programs worldwide. However, increasing resistance to insecticides threatens to undermine these efforts. Understanding the evolution and propagation of resistance is thus imperative to mitigating loss of intervention effectiveness. Additionally, accelerated research and development of new tools that can be deployed alongside existing vector control strategies is key to eradicating malaria in the near future. Methods such as gene drives that aim to genetically modify large mosquito populations in the wild to either render them refractory to malaria or impair their reproduction may prove invaluable tools. Mathematical models of gene flow in populations, which is the transfer of genetic information from one population to another through migration, can offer invaluable insight into the behavior and potential impact of gene drives as well as the spread of insecticide resistance in the wild. Here, we present the first multi-locus, agent-based model of vector genetics that accounts for mutations and a many-to-many mapping cardinality of genotypes to phenotypes to investigate gene flow, and the propagation of gene drives in Anopheline populations. This model is embedded within a large scale individual-based model of malaria transmission representative of a high burden, high transmission setting characteristic of the Sahel. Results are presented for the selection of insecticide-resistant vectors and the spread of resistance through repeated deployment of insecticide treated nets (ITNs), in addition to scenarios where gene drives act in concert with existing vector control tools such as ITNs. The roles of seasonality, spatial distribution of vector habitat and feed sites, and existing vector control in propagating alleles that confer phenotypic traits via gene drives that result in reduced transmission are explored. The ability to model a spectrum of vector species with different genotypes and phenotypes in the context of malaria transmission allows us to test deployment strategies for existing interventions that reduce the deleterious effects of resistance and allows exploration of the impact of new tools being proposed or developed. Author summary Vector control interventions are essential to the success of global malaria control and elimination efforts but increasing insecticide resistance worldwide threatens to derail these efforts. Releasing genetically modified mosquitoes that use gene drives to pass on desired genes and their associated phenotypic traits to the entire population within a few generations has been proposed to address resistance and other issues such as transmission heterogeneity that can sustain malaria transmission indefinitely. While the ethics and safety of these methods are being debated, mathematical models offer an efficient way of predicting the behavior and estimating the efficacy of these interventions if deployed to specific regions facing challenges to reaching elimination. We have developed a detailed mathematical model of vector genetics where specific genomes code for physical attributes that influence transmission and are affected by the surrounding environment. This is the first model to incorporate an individual-based multi-locus genetic model into a detailed individual-based model of malaria transmission. This model opens the door to investigate a number of subtle but important questions such as the effects of small numbers of mosquitoes in a region sustaining malaria transmission during the low transmission season, and the success of gene drives in regions where extant vector control interventions could kill off gene drive mosquitoes before establishment. Here, we investigate the reduced efficacy of current vector control measures in the presence of insecticide resistance and evaluate the likelihood of achieving local malaria elimination using gene drive mosquitoes released into a high transmission setting alongside other vector control measures.


The decisions of the Twenty-Fourth Congress of the CPSU envisage the more extensive use of the finance and credit mechanism in the interest of accelerating technical progress and in the intensification of production. As applied to credit relations, this means that in accordance with the tasks of the national economic plan, the bank must expediently direct loans chiefly toward the satisfaction of the economy's needs, promoting the increased effectiveness of social production on the basis of technical progress. To this end, it is necessary to organize that credit mechanism which would maximally stimulate each enterprise to meet its plan targets, and increase the bank's influence on the production and circulation of commodities and on the more complete satisfaction of demand. Credit relations must be properly combined with directive plan targets. In his report at the Twenty-Fourth Party Congress, L. I. Brezhnev noted that "in its work to improve the management of the national economy, the Party strictly adheres to a policy of properly combining the directive targets of the central organs with the use of economic levers to influence production. These levers - cost accounting, prices, profit, credit, forms of material incentives, etc. - are called upon to create those economic conditions that will promote the successful work of production collectives and of millions of working people, and will assure a justified assessment of the results of their work."


In 2002, Norwegian film-maker Even Benestad's documentary Alt om min far/All About My Father (2002), featuring Benestad together with his transvestite father, premiered at several film festivals. The film soon won several awards, and was nominated for many more. It can be classified as a foundational piece within a Scandinavian context: it blazed the way for other more genuine, more serious, representations of transgender issues on film. Investigating the trans cinema that has come out of Scandinavia in the aftermath of Benestad's film, this article relates this cinema to the New Queer Cinema and to recent social changes regarding political, medical and legal discourses and possibilities for transgender individuals. The films discussed include Alt om min far/All About My Father (Benestad, 2002); En soap/A soap (Christensen, 2006); Angrarna/Regretters (Lindeen, 2010); Pojktanten/She Male Snails (Bergsmark, 2012); Ta av mig/Undress me (Lindgren, 2013); and Nanting maste ga sonder/Something Must Break (Bergsmark, 2014).


Mutual information (MI) is currently one of the most effective similarity metric in medical image registration. It is an automatic measure, and suitable for multimodal image registration. However it ignores the global spatial information inherent in the images. In addition, the mutual information-based registration is a time-consuming work and can lead to misalignment. A coarse-to-refined medical image registration method is presented in this paper, by combining mutual information with shape information of the images. The gradient images of the registration images generate the principal axes and centroids, and then the two images can be aligned coarsely according to these shape parameters. Mutual information is used to refine the registration. Experiment results demonstrate the presented method reduces the time consumed by 97 percent than the registration using MI alone, which is helpful in clinical applications


Developmental Dyslexia (DD) is a neurobiological condition affecting the ability to read fluently and/or accurately. Analyzing resting-state electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in DD may provide a deeper characterization of the underlying pathophysiology and possible biomarkers. So far, studies investigating resting-state activity in DD provided limited evidence and did not consider the aperiodic component of the power spectrum. In the present study, adults with (n = 26) and without DD (n = 31) underwent a reading skills assessment and resting-state EEG to investigate potential alterations in aperiodic activity, their impact on the periodic counterpart and reading performance. In parieto-occipital channels, DD participants showed a significantly different aperiodic activity as indexed by a flatter and lower power spectrum. These aperiodic measures were significantly related to text reading time, suggesting a link with individual differences in reading difficulties. In the beta band, the DD group showed significantly decreased aperiodic-adjusted power compared to typical readers, which was significantly correlated to word reading accuracy. Overall, here we provide evidence showing alterations of the endogenous aperiodic activity in DD participants consistently with the increased neural noise hypothesis. In addition, we confirm alterations of endogenous beta rhythms, which are discussed in terms of their potential link with magnocellular-dorsal stream deficit.