Tobramycin was administered to cats and its serum concentration vs time data were analyzed by use of a noncompartmental model. In the first experiment, 5 mg of tobramycin/kg of body weight was administered IV, IM, and then SC to 6 cats, 3 weeks apart. After IV administration, the mean +/- SD total body clearance of tobramycin was 2.21 +/- 0.59 ml/min/kg, and the apparent volume of distribution at steady state was 0.19 +/- 0.03 L/kg. The mean residence time was 90.5 +/- 16.2 minutes, with a harmonic mean serum half-life of 68.9 +/- 9.7 minutes. Blood urea nitrogen and serum creatinine concentrations were increased 3 weeks after the IV injection and also 3 weeks after the IM injection, which suggested possible renal damage. Moreover, large area under the curve values developed after IM and SC administrations, resulting in bioavailabilities of 159.5% and 189.9%, respectively, with no change in elimination rate. These results suggested a change in distribution, possibly caused by saturation of renal binding sites by residual tobramycin from the previous injection of 5 mg/kg. In experiment 2, 6 other cats were given 3 mg of tobramycin/kg by the same routes as before, but using a crossover design. Bioavailability after IM and SC administrations was 102.5% and 99.2%, respectively, indicating complete absorption of tobramycin. The BUN concentration increased in 3 cats, and serum creatinine concentration increased in 1 of these 3 cats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


This dissertation consists of two parts. The first part considers social housing from a microeconomic perspective and looks at the self-selection into social housing, as well as at how this influences consumption patterns, household mobility within and from the social housing sector, and the wage rates workers earn. The second part is macroeconomic in nature and considers the joint effect of housing and labor market price rigidities on local skill composition. Also, it is investigated whether social housing influences the skill composition of the local labor force. Chapter three studies consumption patterns of homeowners and tenants in social housing: The last group spends less on housing and more on basic goods, recreation and alcohol and tobacco. Also, evidence for consumption differences between restricted and unrestricted tenants of social housing is found. Restricted tenants spend less on housing and more on recreation, although the size of the effect is limited. No evidence is found that the level of consumption is affected by house prices. Chapter four considers the effect of rent control benefits on moving within and from the social housing sector. Estimation results are based on a unique household panel dataset for the years 2006 through 2008 that has been constructed from administrative records provided by Statistics Netherlands. Results indicate that the effect of rent control benefits on household mobility is large for transitions within the social housing sector, whereas it is limited for transitions from the social housing sector. These results suggest that rent control has a limited effect on the demand for owner-occupied housing. Chapter five tests whether the wage rate is affected by housing tenure type using a large panel for the years 2006 through 2008 based on administrative records. The analysis reveils that conditioning on worker skill is very important: Without controlling for the sorting mechanism of low-skilled workers into social housing one would conclude that homeowners earn 25 percent higher wages compared to tenants of social housing. In contrast, if one controls for sorting according to skill, there is no evidence that homeowners or tenants living in social housing earn different wages compared to tenants of private housing. The model in chapter six shows that the effect of housing market and labor market price rigidities on local skill composition is skill-specific. In general, both housing market price rigidities and labor market price rigidities have an amplified effect on city composition after a shock to the productivity of high-skilled labor. However, rent control housing vouchers mitigate the effect of nominal wage rigidities if the productivity of low-skilled workers changes. About one third of the Dutch housing stock is rent-controlled. As these houses are mainly allocated to low-skilled workers, rent-controlled housing might reduce the share of high-skilled workers. Chapter seven finds evidence for such a negative relationship, although the size of the effect is modest. A ten percentage point increase of the rent-controlled housing stock is found, ceteris paribus, to reduce the percentage of high-skilled workers in a region with 1.5 percentage points.


This note presents an efficient approach for the evaluation of multi-parametric mixed integer quadratic programming (mp-MIQP) solutions, occurring for instance in control problems involving discrete time hybrid systems with quadratic cost. Traditionally, the online evaluation requires a sequential comparison of piecewise quadratic value functions. We introduce a lifted parameter space in which the piecewise quadratic value functions become piecewise affine and can be merged to a single value function defined over a single polyhedral partition without any overlaps. This enables efficient point location approaches using a single binary search tree. Numerical experiments with a power electronics application demonstrate an online speedup up to an order of magnitude. We also show how the achievable online evaluation time can be traded off against the offline computational time.


Summary. Using two‐colour phenotypic analysis with anti‐CD38 antibody, human myeloma cells can be classified into VLA‐5− immature and VLA‐5+ mature cells. We examined the relationship between variations of these subpopulations and clinical responses during treatment in multiple myeloma (MM). 39 patients with MM were treated with combined chemotherapy. First estimation of clinical responses after induction therapy showed that early clinical responses were correlated with the percentage of immature myeloma cells present after induction therapy (P < 0.01), not at diagnosis. After three courses of cyclic maintenance therapy, immature myeloma cells significantly decreased in proportion along with a decrease in total myeloma cells in maintained or more responsive cases (P < 0.01). On the other hand, immature myeloma cells were still found in high proportions in non‐responsive cases with no change (NC) or minor response (MR) (P < 0.01). Furthermore, in relapsing cases from partial response (PR) or progressive disease (PD) from non‐responsive cases, immature myeloma cells increased markedly. Therefore these results show that high proportions of VLA‐5− immature myeloma cells remaining after induction therapy and during maintenance therapy correlate well with a declining clinical course of MM during maintenance therapy.


Purpose In recent years, there has been a public health emphasis on improving health literacy and education to increase patients' understanding of health and disease. While completing a Rural/Urban Underserved Opportunities (R/UOP) preceptorship in White Salmon, a project was developed aimed at promoting health education in the community. In creating this project, the following goals were set: increase general health knowledge in the community, with an emphasis on preventative care, create a sustainable medium for health education, and teach patients to find reliable health information on the internet. Methods These goals were accomplished through a preventative health newsletter distributed in the local newspaper. The topics for articles emerged after consultations with the physicians and public health nurse about important local health issues, and from observations made in the clinic. Results Although there was no formal assessment of the effectiveness of this project because of time constraints in the community, evaluations of similar projects have demonstrated that effective dissemination of preventative health education results in a decreased incidence of accident and disease. Anecdotal information from the focused community for this project indicated that the information provided was well received. A review of the literature revealed that patients with better health literacy and those who understand their disease process more thoroughly have better health outcomes. Conclusions Newsletters, brochures, patient education materials, as well as a variety of online medical information sources, are all important resources for patients. They can be helpful supplements to patient-physician communication on health promotion and disease prevention. Providers and public health workers can improve health literacy by collaborating to produce patient education materials written at an appropriate literacy level and providing pertinent information on particular health subjects.


Purpose - – The overarching question here is whether common balanced scorecards (BSCs) are possible between partners in supply networks. The purpose of this paper is to form four independent samples of Brazilian input suppliers, producers, distributors and retailers from the agri-food industry to identify how many of the metrics used in BSCs can be related to specific supply chain (SC) roles. Design/methodology/approach - – A survey of 121 agribusiness companies was undertaken. Usage of indicators was identified through percentages, while the groups of performance indicators for the SC roles considered were identified through two reference values. Findings - – Customer satisfaction was the single metric present within the BSC framework for all SC roles. Different SC roles showed different compositions of indicators used. Research limitations/implications - – The research findings are descriptive and based on responses provided by senior managers. A new perspective of the use of specific performance metrics by different SC participants is seen. Practical implications - – Performance measurement within SCs needs to consider the specific measures used by different roles within the SC. The data suggest that any implementation of performance measurement systems for supply networks should consider performance indicators that are common to the role-type and specific to the constituent companies. Originality/value - – The findings contribute to the debate on whether a common set of measures in a scorecard can be used between SC partners. The findings suggest that it may be very difficult to achieve a BSC framework that is common and practical for all SC participants and that other alternatives should be investigated.


Today Information Technology has gained momentum in our day today life. Information Technology means use of computers and internet to store and manipulate the information. So all the organizations, industries and also every individual are using computers to store and share or communicate the information. So here security is much important while storing and communicating the information over internet or through computer and its devices to avoid unauthorized access. For this security various techniques are available. Among them the most common and easy to use is a password. For security purpose every application provides user authentication. From ancient days, secret data or code is used for hiding and this gives security to information. Most traditional approach is in which we have to pass through username and password. Authentication process is divided into Token based authentication Biometric based authentication and Knowledge based authentication. Many web applications provide Knowledge based authentication which includes alphanumeric password and graphical password as well. In today's changing world when we are having number of networks and personal account some sort of easy authentication schema needs to be provided.


Sir, We read with great interest the retrospective study by Wong et al . [1] about the validity of applying NICE guidance in the management of men with low-risk prostate cancer. Namely, whether active surveillance (AS) was an appropriate primary recommendation in men diagnosed with low-risk disease in an unscreened population. The authors caution against AS after fi nding that about one-third of men with 'low-risk' disease on TRUS-guided biopsy were found to have more advanced disease in the prostatectomy specimen.


We have used the chicken retina as a model for investigating cell cycle regulation and cell fate commitment during central nervous system development. This thesis focuses on the characterization of and commitment to the horizontal cell fate in the retina. Horizontal cells are interneurons that provide intraretinal signal processing prior to information relay to the brain. We have identified molecular markers that selectively distinguish the three subtypes of horizontal cells, previously described in the chicken retina based on morphology. Subtype specific birth-dating revealed that horizontal cell subtypes are generated consecutively by biased progenitors that are sensitive to the inhibitory effects of follistatin. Follistatin stimulates proliferation in progenitors by repressing the differentiation signal of activin. Initially, injection of follistatin led to a decrease in committed horizontal cells but as the inhibitory effect dissipated it resulted in an increased number of horizontal cells. During development committed horizontal cell progenitors migrate to the vitreal side of the retina where they become arrested in G2-phase for approximately two days. When the arrest is overcome the horizontal cell progenitors undergo ectopic mitosis followed by migration to their designated layer. The G2-phase arrest is not triggered or maintained by any of the classic G2-arrest pathways such as DNA damage or stress. Nevertheless, we show that the cyclin B1-Cdk1 complex has a central role in maintaining this G2-phase arrest. Two transcription factors, FoxN4 and Ptf1a, are required for the generation of horizontal cells. We show that these factors are also sufficient to promote horizontal cell fate. Overexpression of FoxN4 and Ptf1a resulted in an overproduction of horizontal- and amacrine cells at the expense of ganglion- and photoreceptor cells. We identified Atoh7, a transcription factor required for the generation of ganglion cells, as a Ptf1a transcriptional target for downregulation. Our data support a common horizontal/amacrine lineage separated from the ganglion/photoreceptor lineage by the action of Ptf1a. In conclusion, these data describe several novel characteristics of horizontal cells enhancing our understanding of neural development and cell fate commitment.


As one of the most promising renewable green energies, hydrogen power is a popularly accepted option to drive automobiles. Commercial application of fuel cell vehicles has been started since 2015. More and more hydrogen safety concerns have been considered for years. Tunnels are an important part of traffic infrastructure with a mostly confined feature. Hydrogen leak followed possibly by a hydrogen fire is a potential accident scenario, which can be triggered trivially by a car accident while hydrogen powered vehicles operate in a tunnel. Water spray is recommended traditionally as a mitigation measure against tunnel fires. The interaction between water spray and hydrogen fire is studied in a way of numerical simulations. By using the computer program of Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), tunnel fires of released hydrogen in different scales are simulated, coupled with water droplet injections featured in different droplet sizes or varying mass flow rates. The cooling effect of spray on hot gases of hydrogen fires is apparently observed in the simulations. However, in some circumstance, the turbulence intensified by the water injection can prompt hydrogen combustion, which is a negative side-effect of the spray.


Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is used for communication among sensor nodes operating on, in or around the human body in order to monitor vital body parameters and movements. A typical sensor node in WBAN should ensure accurate sensing of the signal from the body, carry out low-level processing of the sensor signal, and wirelessly transmit the processed signal to a local processing unit. One of the main limitations of the WBAN radio receiver at Imec-Holst Centre, is its poor performance in the presence of excessive interference in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) band. Several WLAN, bluetooth and Zigbee devices are expected to operate in the same band, causing interference to the WBAN system. The ability to tolerate the presence of unacceptable interference in this band is crucial in order to minimize the energy consumption of the WBAN system. By designing suitable spectrum sensing algorithms using network cooperation, all the available spectral holes (white spaces) in this band can be obtained accurately and efficiently, thereby improving interference tolerance level of the WBAN system. This thesis work focuses on developing energy detection based cooperative spectrum sensing algorithms, that would enhance the interference tolerance capability of WBAN system in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz ISM band. The available spectral holes in this band are expected to be accurately and efficiently obtained by introducing adaptive scheduling techniques in these spectrum sensing algorithms. The challenge lies in designing these algorithms when considering multiple interferer's in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz ISM band, since numerous devices of different applications are expected to be operating in close proximity, using the same band. The proposed algorithms are investigated and compared with respect to various sensing parameters including accuracy, efficiency, energy and complexity.


BACKGROUND
The exact mechanism(s) of atherosclerosis in humans remains elusive, but one theory hypothesizes that this deleterious process results from the oxidative modification of low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Research suggests that foods rich in dietary phenolic compounds with antioxidant activity can mitigate the extent of LDL oxidation in vivo. With regard to the different classes of flavonoids, there appears to be a structurefunction relationship between the various moieties/constituents attached to the flavonoids' three ring system and their impact at retarding LDL oxidation.

METHODS
This article summarizes the findings to date of both in vitro and in vivo studies using foods or phenolic extracts isolated from foodstuffs at inhibiting the incidence of LDL oxidation. Three bases: SCOPUS, Web Science, and PubMed were used for search.

RESULTS
An often used method for the determination of antioxidant properties of natural phenolic compounds is the LDL oxidation assay. LDLs are isolated from human plasma and their oxidation is induced by Cu2+ ions or 2,2'-azobis(2-methylpropionamidine) dihydrochloride (AAPH). The sample is incubated with a phenolic extract or individual/isolated phenolic compounds. LDL oxidation is then monitored by various chemical methods (e.g., measurement of the generation of conjugated dienes and trienes). This technique confirmed the antioxidant properties of several extracts as obtained from plant material (e.g., grapes, berries, orange, grapefruit, coffee, tea, chocolate, olives, nuts) as well as the individual phenolic compounds (e.g., luteolinidin, apigenidin, caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, catechin, quercetin, rutin). Several studies in vivo confirmed protective effects of phenolic compounds against LDL oxidation. They covered the healthy subjects with hyperlipidaemia, overweight, obesity, metabolic syndrome, heavy smokers, patients receiving haemodialysis, patients with peripheral vascular disease, and subjects at high cardiovascular risk. The studies comprise individuals of all ages, and the number of participants in the different experiments varied widely.

CONCLUSION
Properly designed double-blind, placebo-controlled randomised clinical trials offer stronger evidence as to the impact of dietary phenolics consumption at retarding LDL oxidation. More such clinical trials are needed to strengthen the hypothesis that foods rich in dietary phenolic compounds with antioxidant activity can mitigate the extent of LDL oxidation in vivo.


Cyanobacteria have played a profound role in shaping the biosphere, most notably through the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) with the advent of photosynthesis1. Cyanobacteria also contribute to global primary production through biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) using nitrogenase2,3, an oxygen-labile enzyme complex that evolutionarily predates the GOE4. Current literature reports nitrogenase activity in unicellular cyanobacteria is protected from oxygen through diurnal separation of photosynthesis and BNF5. However, historic conditions of continuous-light and warm temperature at polar latitudes during the Triassic and Cretaceous may have created a selective advantage amongst unicellular cyanobacteria for non-temporal mechanisms of maintaining nitrogenase activity in the presence of oxygen. Here we report constitutive nitrogenase activity concurrent with a net-gain of oxygen through photosynthesis in a continuous-light adapted culture of the unicellular cyanobacteria, Cyanothece sp. ATCC 51142. Nitrogenase activity in the adapted culture exhibited dependence on light and an increased resilience to artificially raised oxygen-tension compared to traditional culture. We predict cyanobacteria closely related to Cyanothece sp. ATCC 51142 also possess this physiology and found an accessory predicted proteome with functional relevance. This work provides a model of light-driven, oxygen-tolerant, constitutive nitrogenase activity and suggests this physiology may be conserved in closely related unicellular diazotrophic cyanobacteria with implications for primary production in polar ecosystems and potential biotechnological application in sustainable agriculture production.


Introduction: Cancer of breast has emerged as the leading site of cancer in India. E-cadherin (E-CD) is one of calciumdependent transmembrane glycoprotein mediating cell–cell adhesion. It has its application in differentiating invasive ductal carcinoma not otherwise specified (IDC-NOS) vs invasive lobular carcinomas (ILCs) and predicting the aggressiveness of the tumor. In this study, we intend to see E-CD expression in breast carcinoma by immunohistochemistry (IHC), comparing its status with histological grade and type.


A multiscale method for computing the effective behavior o f a class of stiff and highly oscillatory ordinary differential equa tions (ODEs) is presented. The oscillations may be in resonance with one another and the reby generate hidden slow dynamics. The proposed method relies on correctly t racking a set of slow variables whose dynamics is closed up to perturbation, and is sufficient to approximate any variable and functional that are slow und er the dynamics of the ODE. This set of variables is detected numerically as a pr eprocessing step in the numerical methods. Error and complexity estimates are o btained. The advantages of the method is demonstrated with a few examples, incl uding a commonly studied problem of Fermi, Pasta, and Ulam.


This article undertakes a survey of the plays of Aristophanes in order to reveal what they tell us about concepts of attractiveness and body image. Old Comedy presents us with a view of beauty from a largely male perspective, and, instructively, the vast majority of comments that male characters make concern the appearance of females rather than boys or youths. Women are regularly discussed in comedy in terms of their body parts, e.g. and especially their breasts, and the ideal woman is, perhaps predictably, youthful. Further characteristics in women such as pale, smooth skin and well-tended pubic hair also attract positive comments. Male beauty is perhaps more complex. One ideal is certainly that of the broad-shouldered, tanned youth with gleaming skin and a small penis who exercises in the gymnasium. But there is also evidence of pale-skinned, effeminate youths being viewed in a positive light. In addition to looks, clothing and scent can add to women's erotic appeal, and actions such as playing with phallic-shaped food are seen as flirtatious in both sexes. This article explores overlaps in the ways in which male and female beauty is described and suggests that these correspondences are partly explicable through the similar ages at which boys and girls are considered to be at their peak. The discussion also reveals the almost complete lack of attention paid to facial features – both in Aristophanes and classical Greek literature as a whole.


In the quest to model various phenomena, the foundational importance of parameter identifiability to sound statistical modeling may be less well appreciated than goodness of fit. Identifiability concerns the quality of objective information in data to facilitate estimation of a parameter, while nonidentifiability means there are parameters in a model about which the data provide little or no information. In purely empirical models where parsimonious good fit is the chief concern, nonidentifiability (or parameter redundancy) implies overparameterization of the model. In contrast, nonidentifiability implies underinformativeness of available data in mechanistically derived models where parameters are interpreted as having strong practical meaning. This study explores illustrative examples of structural nonidentifiability and its implications using mechanistically derived models (for repeated presence/absence analyses and dose–response of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and norovirus) drawn from quantitative microbial risk assessment. Following algebraic proof of nonidentifiability in these examples, profile likelihood analysis and Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo with uniform priors are illustrated as tools to help detect model parameters that are not strongly identifiable. It is shown that identifiability should be considered during experimental design and ethics approval to ensure generated data can yield strong objective information about all mechanistic parameters of interest. When Bayesian methods are applied to a nonidentifiable model, the subjective prior effectively fabricates information about any parameters about which the data carry no objective information. Finally, structural nonidentifiability can lead to spurious models that fit data well but can yield severely flawed inferences and predictions when they are interpreted or used inappropriately.


Several constraints hinder livestock development in Adamawa Cameroon, particularly the scarcity of pastures in dry season which causes transhumance practice that is source of agropastoral conflicts. In this respect, the effects of intercropping maize-forage plants on plants productivity were conducted. Randomized complete block design with 05 treatments (03 monocrops: maize; Stylosanthes guianensis and Brachiaria ruziziensis; 02 intercropping: maize-S. guianensis and maize–B. ruziziensis) and 03 replications were used. Development, growth and production parameters are studied. Results show that intercropping Z. mays-B. ruziziensis delays flowering and fruiting of maize plants. Maize seeds yield from monocrop and from intercropping with S. guianensis are respectively 1.5 fold and 1.44 fold higher than that from maize–B. ruziziensis intercropping. Overall, there is no significant effect between B. ruziziensis monocrop and maize–B. ruziziensis intercropping on B. ruziziensis growth. S. guianensis biomass from monocrop is 1.75 fold higher than that from intercropping with maize. Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) of maize-S. guianensis intercropping (1.51) is greater than that of maize–B. ruziziensis intercropping (1.30). The both studied intercropping systems are advantageous, but maize-S. guianensis intercropping system is the most benefic. By practicing maize-S. guianensis and maize–B. ruziziensis intercropping systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, we contribute not only to ensure food security, but also the rational management of cultivable land, the availability of forage and reduction of agropastoral conflicts while ensuring sustainable agriculture.


The Artova ophiolite complex (AOC) is exposed along the northwestern and eastern margins of Yozgat area in Turkey. The Mn-deposit in the Buyukmahal area is part of this ophiolite complex. The deposit is in banded and lenticular forms and hosted by a radiolarite unit overlying the volcanics. Pyrolusite and magnetite are the main minerals of the manganese ore in the Buyukmahal (Yozgat) area. The gang minerals in the deposit are composed only of quartz and calcite. In this study, mineralogy, major oxide, trace element and REE contents of Buyukmahal manganese mineralization are evaluated. The geochemical data indicate that Buyukmahal mineralization does not originate from a pure hydrothermal or pure hydrogenous source but from a system consisting of both sources. It is also asserted that the mineralization was first developed on a sea floor spreading center within the Alpine Ophiolite System and then obducted as part of the AOC.


The aim of this study is to research the effect of the preferences of the students concerning PowerPoint presentations in financial accounting courses on their final scores. The data was collected from questionnaires that were applied to 77 students taking Financial Accounting I course in Anadolu University. According to the results of the study; The preference of the students about PowerPoint presentations have no significant effect on their final scores. However when the preferences about PowerPoint presentations are combined with an appropriate study environment, this effect positively increases the final score.


A Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain producing an extracellular surfactant (biosurfactant) was isolated. The growth of this strain, referred to as 50.3, on a mineral glycerol-containing medium produces an emulsifying activity (60%) and decreases the surface tension of the culture liquid by a factor of 2.8 (to 25 mN/m). The optimum conditions for its growth and production of biosurfactants: intense aeration, pH 7.0-8.0, and the presence of Mg2+. The optimum biosurfactant properties were achieved when glucose was used as the only source of carbon and energy and NH4Cl was used as a source of nitrogen. The biosurfactant was isolated from the culture liquid by extraction and precipitation.


BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer as a mortal disease affected both sexes of all ethnic and racial human groups. Former studies have indicated some mutations in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in different human cancers. Complex I NADH has the most subunits encoded by mtDNA. For a better understanding of the mtDNA abnormality in colorectal cancer some genes of this complex is screened for existence of mutations. METHODS: One of the main regions of the mtDNA encoding protein was screened by PCR-RFLP followed by DNA sequencing. The obtained sequences were aligned with the revised Cambridge Reference Sequence (rCRS). Each alteration recorded as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), deletions or insertions. RESULTS: Eight mutations were found in 15 samples out of 30 studied populations and no mutation detected in other 15 samples. Among these 15 mutated samples, 7 different mutations were found in 7 patients, that means one mutation per patient and the 8th mutation (T4216C) was common in the rest of 8 samples; in other words T4216C mutation in 27% of tested samples was identified (8 patients out of 30 patients). The existence of T4216C mutation was found to be significantly different (p ≤ 0.05) between tumoral patient's tissue and adjacent normal tissue. CONCLUSIONS: Results showed that a high frequency of somatic alterations of mtDNA occurs during the carcinogenesis and/or the progression of colorectal cancer. Based on the mtDNA mutation pattern observed in this study and other previously studies it is believed that looking for somatic mutations in mtDNA would be one of the diagnostic values in early detection of cancer.


During the last few decades, considerable developments have been achieved in the area of computer-aided polymer processing, such as: injection molding, thermoforming, and profile extrusion. Injection molding is one of the most important processes of thermoplastic materials. Even though injection molding is simple in principle the real process is quite complex. The complexity of the problem rises from the unsteady and non-isothermal process and the rheological behavior of the molten polymer. The problem is generally solved using numerical techniques and realistic rheological models for quantitative analysis. Usually a good process simulation will predict the final shape of the product and the location of different defects. One of the major defects in the injection molding process is the formation of weldlines that lead to surface imperfections and weak spots in the part. A weldline is a three dimensional region with complex morphology. The location of the weldline is highly dependable on the location of the gates in the mold and the shape of the product. In this paper two different parts with visible weldlines will be compared to the simulation results. The prediction of the weldline location in a relatively complex shape is in good agreement with the real product.


The paper deals with the history of immunology, the contribution of Nobel prize winners to its progress. It analyzes the achievements of immunology and its contribution to the development of basic biology, biotechnology, medicine, and agriculture. The greatest attention is paid to latest developments which are of high scientific, social, and economic values. These include the interpretation of the structure of immunoglobulins, the mechanisms responsible for the development of immunological responses, as well as hybridome immunobiotechnology, advances in immunogenetics, immunopharmacology, clinical immunology. The Russian developments of priority are the design of new-generation immunotoxins, the clinical use of the new-generation immunomodulators having a controlled structure, such as polyoxidonium, an nontoxic biodegraded synthetic polymer that has an immunostimulating action and detoxifying activity, the discovery of bone marrow bioregulatory molecules, the design of myelopid, their based immunomodulator showing its analgetic opiate-like action, the isolation, purification, synthesis, and characterization of individual myelopeptides (MP-1 to MP-6) which are constituents of myelopid.


This is the final paper in a series that introduces geodesic molecular dynamics at constant potential energy. This dynamics is entitled NVU dynamics in analogy to standard energy-conserving Newtonian NVE dynamics. In the first two papers [T. S. Ingebrigtsen, S. Toxvaerd, O. J. Heilmann, T. B. Schrøder, and J. C. Dyre, J. Chem. Phys. 135, 104101 (2011); T. S. Ingebrigtsen, S. Toxvaerd, T. B. Schrøder, and J. C. Dyre, ibid. 135, 104102 (2011)], a numerical algorithm for simulating geodesic motion of atomic systems was developed and tested against standard algorithms. The conclusion was that the NVU algorithm has the same desirable properties as the Verlet algorithm for Newtonian NVE dynamics, i.e., it is time-reversible and symplectic. Additionally, it was concluded that NVU dynamics becomes equivalent to NVE dynamics in the thermodynamic limit. In this paper, the NVU algorithm for atomic systems is extended to be able to simulate the geodesic motion of molecules at constant potential energy. We derive an algorithm for simulating rigid bonds and test this algorithm on three different systems: an asymmetric dumbbell model, Lewis-Wahnström o-terphenyl (OTP) and rigid SPC/E water. The rigid bonds introduce additional constraints beyond that of constant potential energy for atomic systems. The rigid-bond NVU algorithm conserves potential energy, bond lengths, and step length for indefinitely long runs. The quantities probed in simulations give results identical to those of Nosé-Hoover NVT dynamics. Since Nosé-Hoover NVT dynamics is known to give results equivalent to those of NVE dynamics, the latter results show that NVU dynamics becomes equivalent to NVE dynamics in the thermodynamic limit also for molecular systems.


Ending the global tuberculosis (TB) epidemic by the year 2035 is one of the most ambitious goals of the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO strategy is based on three major pillars: improving TB prevention and care, supporting bold policies, and enhancing research and innovation [1]. A better understanding of TB epidemiology, enhanced retention in care and employment of standardised regimens are mandatory to get closer to TB eradication both in low- and high-prevalence countries [2–5]. Mathematical modelling can be a useful tool to understand epidemiology and control of TB in low-prevalence countries, thus leading to better approaches in terms of public health interventions [6]. In this tough challenge for clinicians, the key actions are early diagnosis of TB patients with symptoms or signs suggestive for TB within migratory flux through a nation, and tracking of these patients as well as dealing with increased TB presentation in iatrogenically immunocompromised patients [7, 8]. Low-cost interventions aimed at improving patient-contacts recording, containing outbreaks, and enhancing adherence to diagnostic work-up and follow-up are welcome to better manage the disease burden [9]. Furthermore, a dramatic improvement in diagnostic paths and therapeutic approaches is needed nationally and globally to reach the WHO endpoint [10]. Therefore, healthcare providers who take daily care of TB patients require proper tools to access comprehensive data, for managing patients during follow-up, and for data collection and analysis in multicentre observational clinical trials (MCTs) [11]. Time to change the single-centre approach to TB http://ow.ly/lCeM30hBcbB


The Integrated Timetabling and Vehicle Scheduling Problem (IT-VSP) is a generalization of the well-known Vehicle Scheduling Problem (VSP). In the IT-VSP the trips in the original timetables may be modified in terms of arrival and departure times in order to minimize a new objective function that considers both operational costs and passenger transfer costs. Starting from a base timetable, the allowed modifications include shifting the departure time from the first station of each trip and also the extension of dwell times at important stops where large flows of passengers are expected to transfer between different trips. We consider transfers between bus trips scheduled by the model, but also transfers to other fixed lines that intersect the lines considered in the IT-VSP. We present a MIP formulation of the IT-VSP able to solve small instances of the problem, and a matheuristic approach that uses the compact MIP to solve larger instances of the problem. The idea is to iteratively solve restricted versions of the MIP selecting at each step a subset of trips where modifications are allowed, while all other trips remain fixed. The performance of the proposed matheuristic is shown on a case study with real-life instances provided by the main service provider in the greater Copenhagen area. The effect of allowing dwell times is compared to previous approaches to the problem where trips are only allowed to be shifted in time.


Juvenile-to-adult phase transition is an important shift for the acquisition of adult vegetative characteristics and subsequent reproductive competence. We identified a recessive precocious (pre) mutant exhibiting a long leaf phenotype in rice. The long leaf phenotype is conspicuous in the second to the fourth leaves, which are juvenile and juvenile-to-adult transition leaves. We found that morphological and physiological traits, such as midrib formation, shoot meristem size, photosynthetic rate and plastochron, in juvenile and juvenile-to-adult transition stages of the pre mutant have precociously acquired adult characteristics. In agreement with these results, expression patterns of miR156 and miR172, which are microRNAs regulating phase change, support the accelerated juvenile-to-adult phase change in the pre mutant. The mutated gene encodes an allene oxide synthase (OsAOS1), which is a key enzyme for the biosynthesis of jasmonic acid (JA). The pre mutant showed a low level of JA and enhanced sensitivity to gibberellic acid, which promotes the phase change in some plant species. We also show that prolonged plastochron in the pre mutant is caused by accelerated PLASTOCHRON1 (PLA1) function. The present study reveals a substantial role of JA as a negative regulator of vegetative phase change. Summary: The juvenile-adult phase change in rice is regulated by the PRECOCIOUS gene, which encodes an enzyme involved in jasmonate biosynthesis and hence regulates jasmonate levels.


Major research issues in information retrieval are reviewed, and developments in knowledge-based approaches are described. It is argued that although a fair amount of work has been done, the effectiveness of this approach has yet to be demonstrated. It is suggested that statistical techniques and knowledge-based approaches should be viewed as complementary, rather than competitive.<<ETX>>


Background:
 In January of 2013, Aultman Hospital was selected among 500 hospitals nationwide to participate in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) Initiative. The hospital chose to participate using the stroke patient population during the acute hospital stay and services up to 90 days after hospital discharge. During the discovery phase, data was analyzed that helped to identify opportunities for stroke patients across the continuum of care.

 Purpose:
 To identify areas of opportunity to reduce all-cause readmissions and to improve transitions of care across the continuum for stroke patients.

 Methods:
 A multi-disciplinary steering committee came together to review the analyzed data and identify care coordination opportunities. Reviewed data included stroke patients from 2008 to current, with a strong focus on readmissions and complications of care. A care coordinator position was created to follow all Medicare stroke patients for 90 days following discharge. The position provides a consistent person that would ensure that individual needs are met across the continuum and possibly prevent readmissions. Several interventions have been initiated that have helped to prevent readmission to the hospital system such as: facilitation of visiting physician for home bound patients, obtaining therapy orders for patients post-discharge, medication counseling, referrals to physicians when appropriate, and providing family support.

 Results:
 In 2012, the all-cause readmission rate for stroke patients was 8.8%. In 2013, the readmission rate for stroke patients was 9.4%. From January of 2014 to April of 2014, the readmission rate decreased to 9.0%. After implementation of the high risk care coordinator position in May of 2014, the readmission rate has decreased to 5.8%.

 Conclusions:
 Throughout Aultman's journey with the BPCI, common themes remain: the need for collaboration of services for stroke patients to ensure continuity of care and to streamline the encounter for the patient. Aultman's BPCI for Stroke team was able to identify ways to reduce stroke readmissions, prevent complications of care for stroke patients, and reduce the overall financial impact to an overburdened public health system.


Noble metal nanoparticles and two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) crystals offer unique optical and electronic properties that include strong exciton binding, spin-orbital coupling, and localized surface plasmon resonance. Controlling these properties at high spatiotemporal resolution can support emerging optoelectronic coupling and enhanced optical features. Excitation dynamics of these optical properties on physicochemically bonded monoand few-layer TMD crystals with metal nanocrystals and two overlapping spherical metal nanocrystals were examined by concurrently (i) DDA simulations and (ii) far-field optical transmission UV-vis spectroscopic measurements. Initially, a novel and scalable method to unsettle van der Waals bonds in bulk TMDs to prepare monoand few-layer crystals was performed. Examination of the solution-based and electrochemical deposition of metal nanocrystals on 2D TMD crystals, comparing their optical, electronic, and optoelectronic characteristics was accomplished via characterization methods. Subsequently, DDA simulations for noble metal semiconductor nanocrystal and noble metal noble metal nanocrystal heterostructures analyzed the effects of metal type, geometry, and orientation for the predefined nanoantennae parameters. Results from these computational and experimental optical spectra demonstrate promising percent error difference, in which distinguished quantitative effects of 2D TMDs crystals metal nanocrystals and metal nanocrystals metal nanocrystals facilitated optoelectronic activity in the UV-Vis-NIR region. New experimental and theoretical insights into energy conversion interactions between coupled plasmonic and excitonic materials spanning the optical regimes were established towards their applications in optoelectronic and biological engineering platforms.


A prospective study of 100 newborns and young babies suffering from purulent meningitis was carried out over a period of 11 months in the radiology department of CHU in Treichville. All the children included in the study were hospitalised in the pediatric department of the CHU. We found cerebral complications in 76% of cases. The most frequent complication was ventricular dilation which occurred in 82.6% of cases. Pericerebral bleeding occurred in 9.3%, cerebral ischemia in 3.5%, brain abscesses in 2.3% and ventriculitis in 2.3% of cases. Our study demonstrated the two important uses of trans-fontanelle ultrasound scans in the study of meningitis: (i) in diagnosis, for the detection of cerebral complications; (ii) in treatment, interventional use of ultrasound makes it possible to evacuate intra-cranial septic fluids.


Southern parts of the Foothills terrane, Sierra Nevada, California, consist of western and eastern sequences of volcanic rocks and overlying slate-gray wacke units separated by a multiply deformed and lithologically chaotic central belt. Structural and strain studies suggest that the intensity of regional ductile deformation decreased from greater than 50% shortening in the western belt to less than 30% shortening in the eastern belt and that much of this ductile deformation is younger than the timing usually assumed for the Nevadan orogeny. These structures are in turn deformed by a large ductile shear zone representing the southern continuation of the Bear Mountains fault zone. This shear zone separates the western and central belts, has an oblique east-over-west sense of movement, and deforms the western margin of the Guadalupe igneous complex. These observations suggest that the eastern and western volcanic sequences are pieces of arcs amalgamated along the Bear Mountains fault zone during and after Nevadan deformation.


Background. Different studies have assessed hummingbirds' preferences for feeding resources, mainly according to floral characteristics such as shape, color, and morphology, in addition to the nectar concentration, quantity, and sugar composition of flowers visited. Flower preferences can also depend on hummingbirds' life history with respect to flower use. Hence, latitudinal migrant hummingbirds likely differ from resident species as they are accustomed to using a wider range of resources. In this study, we assessed the flower preferences of a migrant and a resident species that are common during winter in northern Mexico using both observational and experimental methods. Methods. We assessed hummingbird preferences for the most common plant species in the study region. In particular, we compared the preferences of two common hummingbird species, one resident (Amazilia beryllina) and one latitudinal migrant (Selasphorus rufus), for the most regionally common plant species, Cestrum thyrsoideum and Salvia iodantha, which have different color flowers yet produce similar energetic rewards. We calculated the Jacob selectivity index from preference data obtained under natural field conditions and with a flight cage in order to evaluate specific interactions. Results: Both hummingbird species showed different visitation rates to the studied plants under natural conditions in the study site. A. beryllina visited the yellow flowers of C. thyrsoideum more frequently, while S. rufus visited the fuchsia flowers of S. iodantha with greater frequency. In the flight cages, both species preferred the fuchsia flowers of S. iodantha when presented in similar or lesser abundance than the yellow flowers. Discussion. Under natural conditions, A. beryllina visited C. thyrsoideum to a greater extent in comparison with S. iodantha yet preferred S. iodantha in the flight cage when other hummingbirds were absent and even when S. iodantha was not the most abundant species. This could confirm that competition is an important process that drives the niche displacement of A. beryllina. On the other hand, the latitudinal migratory species S. rufus maintained its preferences for flowers of a familiar color under both natural and experimental conditions. Conclusions. Our results


Species often encounter, and adapt to, many patches of locally similar environmental conditions across their range. Such adaptation can occur through convergent evolution if different alleles arise and spread in different patches, or through the spread of shared alleles by migration acting to synchronize adaptation across the species. The tension between the two reflects the degree of constraint imposed on evolution by the underlying genetic architecture versus how effectively selection and geographic isolation act to inhibit the geographic spread of locally adapted alleles. This paper studies a model of the balance between these two routes to adaptation in continuous environments with patchy selection pressures. We address the following questions: How long does it take for a novel, locally adapted allele to appear in a patch of habitat where it is favored through mutation? Or, through migration from another, already adapted patch? Which is more likely to occur, as a function of distance between the patches? How can we tell which has occurred, i.e., what population genetic signal is left by the spread of migrant alleles? To answer these questions we examine the family structure underlying migration–selection equilibrium surrounding an already adapted patch, in particular treating those rare families that reach new patches as spatial branching processes. This provides a way to understand the role of geographic separation between patches in promoting convergent adaptation and the genomic signals it leaves behind. We illustrate these ideas using the convergent evolution of cryptic coloration in the rock pocket mouse, Chaetodipus intermedius, as an empirical example. Author Summary Often, a large species range will include patches where the species differs because it has adapted to locally differing conditions. For instance, rock pocket mice are often found with a coat color that matches the rocks they live in, these color differences are controlled genetically, and mice that don't match the local rock color are more likely to be eaten by predators. Sometimes, similar genetic changes have occurred independently in different patches, suggesting that there were few accessible ways to evolve the locally adaptive form. However, the genetic basis could also be shared if migrants carry the locally beneficial genotypes between nearby patches, despite being at a disadvantage between the patches. We use a mathematical model of random migration to determine how quickly adaptation is expected to occur through new mutation and through migration from other patches, and study in more detail what we would expect successful migrations between patches to look like. The results are useful for determining whether similar adaptations in different locations are likely to have the same genetic basis or not, and more generally in understanding how species adapt to patchy, heterogeneous landscapes.


A core mechanism of unified growth theory is that accelerating technological progress induces mass education and, through interaction with child quantity‐quality substitution, a decline in fertility. Using unique new data for 21 OECD countries over the period 1750–2000, we test, for the first time, the validity of this core mechanism of unified growth theory. We measure a country's technological progress as patents per capita, R&D intensity, and investment in machinery, equipment, and intellectual property products. While controlling for confounders, such as income growth, mortality, and the gender wage gap, we establish (1) a significant impact of technological progress on education (positive) and fertility (negative); (2) that accelerating technological progress stimulated the fertility transition; and (3) that the baseline results are supported in 2SLS regressions using genetic‐distance weighted foreign patent‐intensity, compulsory schooling years, and minimum working age as instruments.


Photonics applications rely greatly on what physicists call nonlinear optics the different way in which materials behave depending on the intensity of light that passes through them. The greater the nonlinearity, the more promising the material for real-life applications. Now a team, led by Robert W. Boyd, Professor of Optics and Physics at the University of Rochester and the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Quantum Nonlinear Optics at the University of Ottawa, has demonstrated that the transparent, electrical conductor indium tin oxide can result in up to 100 times greater nonlinearity than other known materials. [14]


Introduction Narrow band imaging (NBI) utilises optical filters to enhance the visibility of fine mucosal microvasculature. Wavelengths of light used in NBI are shorter (between 415–540 nm) corresponding to the wavelengths most intensely absorbed by haemoglobin. We aimed to quantitatively compare the effect of improvement in contrast enhancement using NBI among various series of Olympus endoscopes (240, 260 and 290 series) using serial dilutions of haemoglobin. Method We compared the visibility of human blood diluted with increasing concentrations (from ½ to 1/223) of distilled water in a 24 well transparent plastic plate. Still images of the wells (overview and individual) were captured using GIF Q240 and GIF H260 endoscopes with a LUCERA spectrum CV260 processor (Olympus, Keymed, UK) and GIF H290 endoscope with an ELITE CV 290 processor (Olympus, Keymed UK) with white light and NBI. Images were independently analysed by three groups of endoscopists for the presence of blood; endoscopists with experience in NBI use (NBI-experienced), endoscopists with no former NBI experience but who have obtained accreditation by Joint Advisory Group (JAG) for diagnostic endoscopies (NBI-Naive) and doctors with no prior endoscopy experience (novices). Inter-rater agreement was assessed using Kappa statistics. The median visible dilution was defined as the limit of visibility for the presence of haemoglobin in the overview image. Results 45 participants (15 each of NBI-experienced, NBI-naïve and novices) completed the study. With conventional white light the median dilution at which all 3 groups noted the presence of haemoglobin was 1/215 using all three generations of endoscopes. This improved using NBI to 1/217for GIF Q240, 1/219for GIF H260 and 1/2 20for GIF H290 series of endoscopes. The kappa values for inter-rater agreement was substantial for all 3 generations of endoscopes using conventional white light (κ >0.7) while it was only moderate to fair for all 3 generations of NBI (κ >0.5). Conclusion NBI more effectively enhanced the contrast of diluted blood compared to conventional white light. These differences improved with successive generations of NBI but not with conventional white light. Inter-rater agreement was fair for NBI, but substantial for conventional white light. Effective training and more objective criteria for the presence of blood could help improve inter-observer agreement. Studies are needed to assess the clinical utility of newer generation NBI in the detection of early neoplasia and assessment of inflammation. Disclosure of interest None Declared.


Objectives To objectively assess light physical activity (PA), moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), step counts and number of 10 min MVPA bouts and their association with physical function among older adults. Design Cross-sectional design. Setting Urban community setting in Taiwan. Participants 127 Taiwanese older adults aged over 65 years (mean age=70.8±5.3 years; 72% women). Primary and secondary outcome measures Triaxial accelerometers were used to measure PA variables for 10 hours/day for seven consecutive days. Then, five physical function components (handgrip strength, single-leg stance, 5-metre walk speed, timed up and go and sit-to-stand test) were measured. Multiple linear regressions were used to perform separate analyses for older men and women. Results For older women, daily MVPA time (β: 0.39, 95% CI: 0.12, 0.64; p=0.004), daily step counts (β: 0.46, 95% CI: 0.12, 0.78; p=0.009) and number of 10 min MVPA bouts (β: 0.27, 95% CI: 0.001, 0.53; p=0.049) were positively associated with handgrip strength after adjusting for accelerometer wear time, sedentary time and other confounders. Furthermore, daily MVPA time was positively associated with a single-leg stance (β: 0.25, 95% CI: 0.02, 0.49; p=0.036) and higher daily step counts were associated with shorter walking speed performance (β: −0.31, 95% CI: −0.57, −0.001; p=0.049). None of the variables of the objectively assessed PA patterns was associated with physical function outcomes among older men due to their small sample size. Conclusions Daily MVPA, MVPA bouts of at least 10 min and accumulated daily steps are important for improving physical function among older women. Future prospective research should establish causal associations between PA patterns and functional ability among older adults.


High operation temperatures are a main impact factor for long-term reliability. An efficient cooling approach is crucial especially for high performance computing processors (HPC). As reference, the "International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors" (ITRS) predicted a power consumption of about 700W for data center server processors [1]. Different cooling approaches were investigated already [2]. Unfortunately, current solutions are not sufficient to fulfill high thermal HPC specifications. On one hand, the insufficient cooling performance is raising the chip junction temperature over the critical point. On other hand, the high performance requirements (e.g. low latency time, higher bandwidth) force to use 3D-Integration of components, which is additional raising the heat build-up [3, 4, 5]. Therefore, only the direct integration of a cooling approach within the 3D-stack can eliminate the overheating bottleneck at all. The fluidic cooling approach has a high potential to fulfill the requirements for this direct fluidic integration approach [6]. This work shows the integration and realization of microfluidic features (microfluidic channels and fluidic inlets/outlets) into an interposer. Furthermore we present the integration of this fluidic interposer into a System in Package (SiP) in order to realize a dual side chip cooling for a heat dissipation of 672W (168W/cm-2 which correlates with predicted power consumption of data center server processor according ITRS-Roadmap [1].


In this article, the epistemic-entrenchment and partial-meet characterizations of Parikh's relevance-sensitive axiom for belief revision, known as axiom (P), are provided. In short, axiom (P) states that, if a belief set K can be divided into two disjoint compartments, and the new information φ relates only to the first compartment, then the revision of K by φ should not affect the second compartment. Accordingly, we identify the subclass of epistemic-entrenchment and that of selection-function preorders, inducing AGM revision functions that satisfy axiom (P). Hence, together with the faithful-preorders characterization of (P) that has already been provided, Parikh's axiom is fully characterized in terms of all popular constructive models of Belief Revision. Since the notions of relevance and local change are inherent in almost all intellectual activity, the completion of the constructive view of (P) has a significant impact on many theoretical, as well as applied, domains of Artificial Intelligence.


Several continuous manufacturing processes use stochastic texture images for quality control and monitoring. Large amounts of pictorial data are acquired, providing important information about both the materials produced and the manufacturing processes involved. However, it is often difficult to measure objectively the similarity among such industrial stochastic images or to discriminate between the texture images of stochastic materials with distinct properties. Nowadays, the degree of discrimination required by industrial processes often goes beyond the limits of human visual perception. This paper proposes a new approach for multiresolution stochastic texture discrimination in the industry (e.g., nonwoven textiles and paper), which is focused on sheet formation properties. The wavelet transform is used to represent stochastic texture images in multiple resolutions and to describe them using local density variability as features. At each resolution, the wavelet subbands approximate image gradients. The image gradients are modeled as Gaussian colored noise, and the gradient magnitudes, as Rayleigh probability density functions. Based on this representation, a multiresolution distance measure for stochastic textures is proposed. Some experimental results are reported, and ideas for future work are presented with the conclusions


In this article I explore screendance's affair with social media, and the logics of production and consumption endemic to dancing for and with smartphones. I use an incidental encounter with two people making a dance video to try and make sense of the ways in which screendance practices and practitioners are being changed by social media technologies. The writing is built on the work of Harmony Bench, Shoshana Zuboff, Alan Jacobs, Zygmunt Bauman, Neil Postman, Yuk Hui and Annie Pfingst and Helen Poynor. I use their scholarship and art to construct an experimental and non-linear seven-part narrative about how screendance can become a set of practices that visibly contradict the extractive datafication of humans in motion.
Part 1—Two young people and their camera—describes the encounter with two people filming their dancing, and serves as the platform on which this writing is based. In part 2—An assumption about what happened next—I introduce the theme of hiding that runs throughout the article, and make a case for my assumption that these two people were making their screendance for social media. Part 3—Algorithmic choreography—introduces the relationship between choreography in screendance and social media algorithms. Part 4—Being in (the) economic common—explores the digital commons as outlined by Bench, and its relationship to visibility, technology and profit-making. Part 5—Myth and the right to a future tense—discusses Jacobs and Zuboff and how they both deploy hiding to consider a future that transcends technocratic rationalism. In part 6—Hidden in the future I zip forward far into the future and remember a 2016 screendance work by Annie Pfingst and Helen Poynor. I do this to as a strategy to imagine a non-technocratic world. Finally, part 7—To distill production from consumption—describes how, through social media, we in screendance have acquired a logic of consumption disguised or hidden as a mode of production.


Existing geographic information systems (GIS) are intended for expert users and consequently, do not provide any machine intelligence to assist users. This paper presents a Bayesian framework that will incorporate expert knowledge in order to retrieve all relevant datasets given an initial user query. The framework uses a spatial model that combines relational, non-spatial and spatial data. This spatial model allows efficient access of relational linkages for a Bayesian network, and thus improves support for complex and vague queries. The Bayesian network assigns causal probabilities to these relational linkages in order to define expert knowledge of related datasets in the GIS. In addition, the framework will learn which datasets are best suited for particular query input through feedback supplied by the user. This contribution will increase the performance and efficiency of knowledge extraction from GIS by allowing users to focus on interpreting data, instead of focusing on finding which data is relevant to their analysis. The initial user query can be vague and the framework will still be capable of retrieving relevant datasets via the linkages discovered in the Bayesian network.


In this work we present MTEX-CNN, a novel explainable convolutional neural network architecture which can not only be used for making predictions based on multivariate time series data, but also for explaining these predictions. The network architecture consists of two stages and utilizes particular kernel sizes. This allows us to apply gradient based methods for generating saliency maps for both the time dimension and the features. The first stage of the architecture explains which features are most significant to the predictions, while the second stage explains which time segments are the most significant. We validate our approach on two use cases, namely to predict rare server outages in the wild, as well as the average energy production of photovoltaic power plants based on a benchmark data set. We show that our explanations shed light over what the model has learned. We validate this by retraining the network using the most significant features extracted from the explanations and retaining similar performance to training with the full set of features.


In the present paper, the non-equilibrium grain-boundary segregation of P atom was studied in low alloy steels subjected to a low tensile stress at different temperatures. The AES (Auger electron spectroscopy) experiments and dynamic analyses were conducted to study on the non-equilibrium grain-boundary segregation of P atom. The research results show that non-equilibrium segregation of phosphorus occurred at the grain boundaries of the steels 2.25Cr1Mo and 12Cr1MoV, while the critical time reached about 0-1 hour at constant temperatures 773 and 813K. The relationship between the diffusion rate and the diffusion time for the complex and the phosphorus atom was investigated based on the experimental results. Eventually the diffusion coefficients of complex and P were calculated with using a proposed dynamic model.


Background Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is characterized by an unfavorable cardiometabolic profile, including derangements of glucose metabolism indices and inflammatory pathways. Dietary habits may be associated with patients9 biochemical characteristics. Aims and objectives To investigate whether frequency of food group consumption is associated with clinical characteristics of OSA patients. Methods 134 individuals (76.1% males, age: 49±10y) with polysomnography-diagnosed OSA were included in the analysis. Nutritional assessment was performed using a food frequency questionnaire and food group consumption (servings/day) was evaluated. Lipid levels, glucose metabolism indices (insulin, HOMA-IR) and inflammation markers (TNF-a and adiponectin) were measured, using appropriate assays in fasting blood samples. Results TNF-a levels were negatively correlated with whole grain and legume consumption (rho=-0,264, P=0,027 and rho=-0,321, P=0,007, respectively). In addition, a significant negative correlation was observed between adiponectin levels and red meat consumption (rho=-0,322, P=0,007). Finally, HOMA-IR index was positively correlated with refined grain, red meat and soft drink consumption (rho=0,212, P=0,040, rho=0,232, P=0,024, and rho=0,207, P=0,045, respectively). No association was found between fasting lipid levels and food group consumption. Conclusions Increased whole grain and legume consumption and reduced red meat consumption exhibit anti-inflammatory effects, whereas increased refined grain, red meat and soft drink consumption is associated with insulin resistance in OSA patients.


In order to cope with large case studies arising from the application of formal methods in an industrial setting, this paper presents new techniques to support hierarchical proof planning. Following the paradigm of difference reduction, proofs are obtained by removing syntactical differences between parts of the formula to be proven step by step. To guide this manipulation we introduce dynamic abstractions of terms. These abstractions are parameterized by the individual goals of the manipulation and are especially designed to ease the proof search based on heuristics. The hierarchical approach and thus the decomposition of the original goal into several subgoals enables the use of different abstractions or different parameters of an abstraction within the proof search. In this paper we will present one of these dynamic abstractions together with heuristics to guide the proof search in the abstract space.


Abstract Previous studies on geographical distribution of economic activity in Turkey demonstrate that firms are localized in major metropolitan areas as well as a set of emerging regions. The aim of the paper is to complement the findings of the studies on regional and industrial concentration in Turkey's manufacturing industry by exploring whether regional specialization and industrial concentration patterns changed during the 1980–2000 period. The paper further aims to explore the driving forces of industrial concentration in Turkey's manufacturing industry, particularly during Turkey's economic integration process that started with trade liberalization after 1980 and further developed with the Customs Union in 1996. Regional specialization and industrial concentration are measured by GINI indices Turkey's NUTS-2 regions at the four-digit level for the years between 1980 and 2000. To investigate which variables determine industry concentration, systematic relation between the characteristics of the industry and industrial concentration is tested. Following the method proposed by Paluzie, Pons and Tirado, a panel regression equation is estimated, where the dependent variable is the Gini concentration index and the independent variables are the variables that represent the characteristics of the sectors that follow the predictions of classical trade theory, new trade theory and new economic geography. The major finding of the study is that during 1980–2000, Turkey's regions became more specialized and industry became more concentrated. Increases in the average values of regional specialization and industrial concentration support the prediction developed by Krugman hypothesis that regions become more specialized and industries become more concentrated with economic integration. In exploring the driving forces of industrial concentration, the findings demonstrate that firms tend to cluster in regions where there are economies of scale.


Objectives: The purpose of this scoping review was to identify the risk factors and screening uptake for prostate cancer. Design: Scoping review. Methods: Arksey and O'Malley's framework guided this review; five databases (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Academic Search Complete and Cochrane Library) and grey literature were searched. Screening was undertaken against predetermined inclusion criteria for articles published before July 2023 and written in English. This review is reported in line with PRISMA-Sc. Results: 10,899 database results were identified; 3676 papers were removed as duplicates and 7115 papers were excluded at title and abstract review. A total of 108 papers were full-text reviewed and 67 were included in the review. Grey literature searching yielded no results. Age, family history/genetics, hormones, race/ethnicity, exposure to hazards, geographical location and diet were identified as risk factors. Prostatic antigen test (PSA), digital rectal examination (DRE), transrectal ultrasound (TRUS), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) and prostate biopsy were identified as screening/diagnostic methods. The evidence reviewed highlights moderate knowledge and screening uptake of prostate cancer with less than half of men reporting for PSA screening. On the other hand, there is a year-to-year increase in PSA and DRE screening, but factors such as poverty, religion, culture, communication barriers, language and costs affect men's uptake of prostate cancer screening. Conclusion: As prostate cancer rates increase globally, there is a need for greater uptake of prostate cancer screening and improved health literacy among men and health workers. There is a need to develop a comprehensive prostate cancer awareness and screening programme that targets men and addresses uptake issues so as to provide safe, quality care. Strengths and limitations of this study: (1) A broad search strategy was utilised incorporating both databases and grey literature. (2) The PRISMA reporting guidelines were utilised. (3) Only English language papers were included, and this may have resulted in relevant articles being omitted.


This thesis investigates the pathogenicity of a Chlamydia-related bacterium: Waddlia chondrophila, which is suspected to cause abortion in bovines as well as miscarriages in humans. Macrophages represent the first line of defense of the innate immunity against invading pathogens, we thus studied the interaction between W. chondrophila and human macrophages. We observed thal W. chondrophila multiplied very efficiently inside monocyte-derived macrophages.
Diagnostic tools to detect obligate intracellular bacteria are lacking so we developed a Waddtia specific realtime PCR based on the 163 rRNA encoding gene. Since W. chondrophrla could be involved in human miscarriage, we analyzed samples from women having miscarriage or uneventful pregnancy. Waddlia serologies results confirmed an association between the presence of W. chondrophrla antibodies and miscarriage (23.2% versus 14.6% in the control group, p-value 0.044).
As W. chondrophila's pathogenicity was suggested, we studied its antibiotic susceptibility. W. chondrophila revealed to be susceptible to macrolides and tetracylines but resistant to beta-lactams and fluoroquinolones. This resistance to fluoroquinolones could be explained by mutations in the quinolone resistance determining region of the gyrase (GyrA) and topoisomerase lV (ParC) encoding genes. ln conclusion, this thesis allowed to precise the role of W. chondrophila in human miscarriage. However, more studies will be necessary to fully understand the pathogenesis of W. chondrophila in adverse pregnancy outcomes.


The mechanisms of reduced cardiorespiratory fitness (CF) in renal transplant recipients (RTR) have not been studied closely. This study evaluated the relationships between CF and specific cardiovascular risk factors (metabolic syndrome [MS], physical inactivity, myocardial ischemia, and atherosclerotic burden) in glucose-intolerant RTR. Data were recorded on 71 glucose-intolerant RTR (mean age 55 yr; 55% male; median transplant duration 5.7 yr). MS was defined using National Cholesterol Education Programme Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. Resting and exercise stress echocardiography were performed, and myocardial ischemia was identified by new or worsening wall motion abnormalities. Cardiorespiratory fitness was determined using peak oxygen uptake (VO(2)) by expired gas analysis. Atherosclerotic burden was assessed by carotid intima-media thickness (IMT). Mean peak VO(2) was 19 +/- 7 ml/kg per min and was significantly lower than predicted peak VO(2) (29 +/- 6 ml/kg per min; P < 0.001). Patients with MS (63%) had reduced CF (17 +/- 6 versus 22 +/- 8 ml/kg per min; P = 0.001) and were more likely to be physically inactive (76 versus 48%; P = 0.02). CF was reduced in 14 patients with myocardial ischemia (15 +/- 3 versus 20 +/- 7 ml/kg per min; P = 0.05). CF was positively correlated with male gender, height, and physical activity and inversely correlated with number of MS risk factors and IMT (adjusted R(2) = 0.66). Carotid IMT added incremental value to clinical variables in determining VO(2) (adjusted R(2) = 0.65 versus 0.63; P = 0.04). Reduced CF is associated with physical inactivity, MS, and atherosclerotic burden in glucose-intolerant RTR. Further studies should address whether increasing exercise and modifying MS risk factors improve CF in RTR.


In the ocean there are mainly two ways of characterizing the properties of the sediment structure. One technique is to observe the properties by physically collecting core samples by in-situ instrumentation. The other is to use remote techniques to estimate the acoustic properties of the sediment and from these observations invert the sediment thickness and sound velocity by interpreting the reflected sound. One of the drawbacks of the acoustic technique is that its range sometimes may be limited by gas trapped in the sediments, which severely impedes the sound propagation. This situation is often encountered in the Stockholm archipelago. For these areas it is possible to use low-frequency electromagnetic fields to achieve basically the same type of sediment property description. A model-based technique has been developed for characterizing the sediment conductivity and thickness by inversion of electromagnetic data. A field trial was undertaken in May 2007 where electromagnetic data was collected by a towed sensor which also included a one-axis electromagnetic multi-frequency source in addition to the electric receiver. Results from the analysis are presented and discussed in terms of its appropriateness for use in footprint techniques for determining sediment layer thickness and sediment conductivity along the tow track.


In the Indonesian educational system, learner autonomy has been demanded to be promoted in the teaching and learning process of recent curriculum implementation. Unfortunately, it cannot be denied that learner autonomy still poses a challenge to be implemented in Indonesia since the teacher-centered learning is still dominant. Therefore, it is essential to explore both teacher's and students' perception of learner autonomy in one study. By employing a case study, this study used the interview, observation and questionnaire as the principal data collection methods to see in-depth the teacher's and students' perception of learner autonomy. An English teacher and thirty-six students from twelve grade of one senior high school in Indonesia were involved in eliciting their perceptions on learner autonomy and how the teacher's efforts in promoting learner autonomy in the 2013 Curriculum . The findings showed that the teacher understood the basic features of learner autonomy as learners' independent learning activity outside the classroom. This study also underlined that the teacher had had the initiative to promote learner autonomy in the 2013 Curriculum implementation by making some efforts. However, the teacher has not yet provided the learning process with a wide variety of authentic materials. It was found that the learners' attitude toward those three perspectives on learner autonomy did not indicate the students to be autonomous learners because they were still accustomed to the teacher-centered learning environment.


This research aimed to (1) study perception of people and private institution on maritime tourism development in Tagalaya, Kumo and Kakara in North Halmahera regency and (2) to study implementation of the community based maritime tourism development in Tagalaya, Kumo and Kakara in North Halmahera regency. It used descriptive method to describe and analyze perception and participation and people empowerment activity. It used qualitative approach, which result in descriptive data in form of written or oral words of observed people. The processed data was then discussed systematically to get picture of the condition with final results of conclusion. Data was collected through in-depth interview, observation and documentation with informants of people, government, and administrator of tourism resorts selected purpo-sively. Results of the research indicated that first: people perceive the development model as providing work. They perceived tourism facility should be improved. About human re-sources, they perceive that it was very supporting. In addition they perceive manage-ment of the tourism object is low indicated with less optimal service level. Moreover, promotion was required with improvement of the resorts first. Second: people in the three tourism resorts participated in the maritime tourism development. The participa-tion was in attending meeting, dissemination, security and order/cleanness. Their contri-bution was manifested in form as management of tourism object, establishing food shop, providing home stay, preparing maritime transportation, doing tourism infrastructure development project in the resorts and cooperating with private sectors. Community empowerment was done through development of tourism village by government of ad-ministrator through training and education, dissemination, partnership, and capital aid for infrastructure development. Maritime tourism development model in North Halmahera regency can be implemented in human resource, management, and more intensive promotion, community participa-tion and empowerment to create the integrated planning and management.


On multicore processors, co-executing applications compete for shared resources, such as cache capacity and memory bandwidth. This leads to suboptimal resource allocation and can cause substantial performance loss, which makes it important to effectively manage these shared resources. This, however, requires insights into how the applications are impacted by such resource sharing. While there are several methods to analyze the performance impact of cache contention, less attention has been paid to general, quantitative methods for analyzing the impact of contention for memory bandwidth. To this end we introduce the Bandwidth Bandit, a general, quantitative, profiling method for analyzing the performance impact of contention for memory bandwidth on multicore machines. The profiling data captured by the Bandwidth Bandit is presented in a bandwidth graph. This graph accurately captures the measured application's performance as a function of its available memory bandwidth, and enables us to determine how much the application suffers when its available bandwidth is reduced. To demonstrate the value of this data, we present a case study in which we use the bandwidth graph to analyze the performance impact of memory contention when co-running multiple instances of single threaded application.


Consider the future with less fossil fuel and no new natural or technological energy sources. How can it be peaceful and prosperous? More and more leaders concerned with the global future are warning of the impending crisis as the surge of unsustainable growth exceeds the capability of the earth's resources to support our civilisation. But while history records the collapse of countless civilisations, some societies and ecosystems have managed to descend in orderly stages, reducing demands and selecting and saving what is most important. Although some scientists predict disaster, this book shows how our world can still thrive and prosper in a future where we live with less and charts a way for our modern civilisation to descend to sustainable levels. The authors make recommendations for a more equitable and co-operative world society, with specific suggestions based upon their evaluations of trends in global population, wealth distribution, energy sources, conservation, urban development, capitalism and international trade, information technology, and education. This thoughtful and provocative book will force us to confront our assumptions and beliefs about our world's future, which is all too often taken for granted.<


The first volume of J. M. Coetzee's autobiography - or autobiographical fiction - Boyhood, appeared in 1997 and its sequel, Youth, in 2002. A striking feature of both these works is that the author, while naming the protagonist within them John Coetzee, refers to this younger self in the third person. This led the TLS reviewer, Peter Porter, to decide that Youth was a novel, and to compare it inappropriately with Disgrace (Porter 2002). Porter was the wrong choice as reviewer : he has not read, and knows no reason why he should have read Boyhood. Indeed, he must also have read Youth rapidly and carelessly. He has no idea of the complex relationship of intimacy and detachment which Coetzee has achieved with his protagonist, most obviously through his use of the third person, but also through other, more delicate strategies of distancing, the most pervasive of which is that of the 'immanent voice' which signals to the reader that s/he must go beyond the obvious indications of the text to understand fully what the author intends.


To investigate the biological functions of the helix-loop-helix Id3 protein, we have examined the effects of ectopic modulation of Id3 expression on in vitro induced differentiation of mouse C2C12 myoblast cells. Transient and stable C2C12 transfectants expressing either inducible or constitutive levels of exogenous Id3 were impaired in their ability to differentiate in response to removal of mitogenic serum growth factors. Stable Id3 transfectants displayed an enhanced proliferative capacity associated with a delay in exit from the cell cycle in response to differentiation induction. Antisense blockade of Id3 potentiated differentiation and exit from S phase of the cell cycle. These observations suggest that Id3 functions as a negative regulator of differentiation by integrating mitogenic growth factor signaling into the gene regulatory program maintaining cell cycle progression.


Traditionally, research on job insecurity (JI) has focused on organizational consequences and employees' psychophysical well-being. However, some recent studies explored potential extraorganizational outcomes of JI in relation to consumption and major life decisions. The present study, drawing on Conservation of Resource Theory, overcomes the limits of previous works by examining the effects of changes in JI through a simulation experiment design. Using a sequence of two different scenarios, 377 participants were asked to evaluate their JI and their inclination towards daily consumption and some major life decisions. Findings confirm that changes in JI affect such extraorganizational outcomes. It is also suggested that an improvement in job security leads to an increase in both consumption and major life decisions, which – in absolute values – is higher compared to the decrease that follows a reduction of job security.


Cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2) is an enzyme involved in tumorigenesis, and inhibitors of the enzyme are increasingly used as adjuvant modulators in anticancer therapies due to their synergistic effects with traditional chemotherapeutics. COX‐2 is also reported to cause resistance towards antitumor agents, such as cisplatin. Here, the first covalently linked conjugates of cisplatin and COX inhibitors are reported. These conjugates exhibit concerted transport of both drugs into tumor cells and simultaneous action upon intracellular cleavage. These platinum(IV) complexes show highly increased cytotoxicity compared with cisplatin and are even able to overcome cisplatin‐related resistance of tumor cells. While the results reported show that COX‐2 inhibition is not directly responsible for the potent activities of these conjugates, they do represent useful tool compounds for the elucidation of the influence of COX inhibitors on the efficacy of antitumor agents.


Scholars of political behavior increasingly embed experimental designs in opinion surveys by randomly assigning respondents alternative versions of questionnaire items. Such experiments have major advantages: they are simple to implement and they dodge some of the difficulties of making inferences from conventional survey data. But survey experiments are no panacea. We identify problems of inference associated with typical uses of survey experiments in political science and highlight a range of difficulties, some of which have straightforward solutions within the survey-experimental approach and some of which can be dealt with only by exercising greater caution in interpreting findings and bringing to bear alternative strategies of research.


The synthesis of heteroleptic Cu(I) complexes with coumarin-functionalized aminodiphosphine and diimine ligands is described. The complexes show yellow to deep-red phosphorescence in the solid state at ambient temperature with quantum yields up to 21%. The emission color of the complexes can be tuned by systematic modifications in the ligand system.


This working paper is concerned with the informal institutionalization of contacts between European institutions and religious organizations launched by Jacques Delors and its aftermath: the formal institutionalization of these contacts started by Jose Manuel Barroso. It was with Jacques Delors that the relationship between religion and the European project gained in importance. As president of the European Commission he recognised the social role of European religions by inviting them to the project "A Soul for Europe," which aimed to find a more robust source of legitimacy for the European project. Subsequently, I describe the incorporation of Art. 17 in to the Lisbon Treaty obliging dialogue with churches, religious and philosophical organizations, which is in my opinion a direct aftermath of the "Soul for Europe." It is my argument in this paper that the "religious" project of Jacques Delors in many respects failed, as he did not find a meaningful role for religion in European integration in the way he was hoping for, nor did he find the robust source of legitimacy for the European project.


SMS can be utilized as a new opportunity that can be applied to improve current educational practices and processes in a variety of fields, including distance education. This study is an in-depth qualitative inquiry into distance education students' perception and experience in mobile learning via SMS. A set of interview questions was used as the survey method to gather primary data from five students enrolling in the School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia. The findings revealed that SMS learning generally was perceived positively by the respondents. They agreed that SMS learning is convenient, useful as reminder and relevant to their studies. Apart from few issues raised, respondents agreed that their SMS learning experiences were great, helpful and they generally satisfied with the system.  As implications, the study shed lights on the potential of SMS learning as an effective and innovative paradigm in pedagogy particularly in distance education environment.


In this paper we investigate an example of a very widely applied model for the delivery of IT services to rural and poor populations. The model is one where limited intervention to support infrastructure and coordinate resources is combined with market-based delivery of IT services to the end user (what we call here the "sustainable franchise model"). Though this model has been deployed world-wide by governments, NGOs, and development institutions in the past few years, there has been little research into the determinants of success in such a model. In this paper we examine the example of n-Logue, a franchise of over 1000 locally-owned, Internet kiosks in rural villages in India. We seek to assess how this new sustainable franchise model has worked in practice by analyzing data from 74 of n-Logue's kiosks. Among other things, we find that gender and education do not affect success, while location and other measures of social standing (age and caste) do. We also find that the uses that villagers have for IT services are not so different from those which first world users have. The lessons we draw from this example are that while local customs and practices must be taken into account (e.g. the caste system), it is not a foregone conclusion that social biases (e.g. against women) cannot be mitigated by good program design.


Losses of inhibitory control may be partly responsible for some friendly fire incidents. The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART; Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, 1997) may provide an appropriate empirical model for this. The current investigation aimed to provide an ecologically valid application of the SART to a small arms simulation and examine the effect of different proportions of enemy to friendly confederates. Seven university students engaged in a small arms simulation where they cleared a building floor using a near-infrared emitter gun, tasked with firing at confederates representing enemies and withholding fire to confederates representing friends. All participants completed three conditions which were differentiated by the proportion of enemies to friends present. As hypothesized, participants failed to withhold responses more often when the proportion of foes was higher, suggesting that a prepotent motor response routine had developed. This effect appeared to be disproportionately more substantial in the high foe condition relative to the others. Participants also subjectively reported higher levels of on-task focus as foe proportions increased, suggesting that they found this more mentally demanding. Future research could examine closer the nature of the performance reductions associated with high proportions of foes, as it appears that this is more complex than a simple linear relationship.


In the first chapter, I investigate the effects of the Residential Lead Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act. Enacted in 1996, the lead hazard disclosure policy requires sellers and landlords to disclose known lead-based paint hazards to potential buyers or renters. Employing a difference-in-differences approach, I find evidence that the law prompted some families with children to reallocate toward homes without significant lead risks, increased lead mitigation in rental properties, and reduced blood-lead levels among children in rental properties. However, because white families appear to be more responsive to information disclosure than other groups, the information disclosure law might exacerbate racial disparities in lead exposure.

In the second chapter, I estimate the spatio-temporal dynamics between wildfire and infant birthweight. Exposure to wildfire smoke is determined using the latitude and longitude coordinates of each infant's home address and a fine-scaled, spatial dataset of wildfire smoke plumes re-constructed in GIS from satellite images of the landscape. Using a difference-in-differences estimation strategy, model estimates show that wildfire smoke leads to a 4% to 6% reduction in birthweight. These effects are most pronounced among mothers exposed during their second and third trimesters of pregnancy and attenuate with respect to distance to a fire. We find no statistically significant relationships between proximity to wildfire and the birthweights of infants located outside the path of wildfire smoke.

In the third chapter, I examine the relationship between hurricanes, the salience of flood risk, and residential property investment. Utilizing a difference-in-differences estimation strategy, I find a significant increase in the probability a homeowner invests in a damaged building located in a statutorily designated flood risk area. However, I find no change in the rate of property investment in damaged homes located outside of these areas. Results suggest that a recent storm may elevate households' perceptions of flood risk; however, we show that the primary mechanism driving these changes is a household's exposure to storm damage. We find no evidence of saliency effects in regions less proximate to storm damage. These findings cast doubt on the potential for an information-based regulation to align risk-perceptions with risk-actualities.


A treatment already given permits velocity-feedback systems to be designed for adequate stability margin at low frequencies. At the higher frequencies allowance must be made for the modifying effects of the relatively impure blocked voice-coil "inductance." Because of the nature of this inductance, a design procedure was developed in terms of closed-loop voltage response at the voice-coil terminals. A relatively simple compensation could be provided to produce a suitable balance in the acoustic frequency response at the low, middle and upper audio frequencies. Stable operation also was obtained with no signs of parasitic oscillations. Practical examples, on testing, established the closeness of certain simplifying approximations used in the design. Results indicate how this type of feedback can suppress the fundamental resonance and extend the bass response. An important feature of the design is that it is based upon measurements of voice-coil impedance of the loudspeaker in its enclosure but without the need to block the voice-coil motion.


The farmers working in the farm lands are solely dependent on the rains and bore wells for irrigation. Even if the farmland has a water-pump, manual intervention by the farmers is required to turn the pump ON/OFF whenever needed. Therefore using an Android application which helps the farmer to ON/OFF the motor without his physical presence in the field. This paper has real time sensing and control of an irrigation system. When the condition of water in the agricultural farm is abnormal then the system automatically switches OFF. Based on the soil moisture, through relay the pumping motor will be automatically switch on or off which saves the water and on the other hand the plant can get most appropriate water level which increases the productivity of the crop. Using GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) technology which is used to inform the user about the exact condition of the field. This information is passed onto the user request in the form of SMS (Short Message Service). The proposed system provides uniform and required water level for the agricultural farm and it avoids water wastage.