The interplay of the subject and concept of ideological interpellation in Adichie's Purple Hibiscus is exemplary of how the Nigerian novel represents the changing experience of nationhood in Nigeria. Adichie's novel adopts the element of voice as a veritable strategy for the constitution of this interplay of subjects and interpellation. Accordingly, the novel negotiates the tension between the two aspects of voice, that of who sees and that of who narrates. Through the homodiegetic character, Kambili, whose name means "That I too may live", Adichie presents a dialectical situation between characters understood as subjects, with the eventual emergence of Kambili to self-knowledge and condition of social responsibility. The aim of this is to examine how Adichie's Purple Hibiscus is typical of how the Nigerian novel engages itself in issues of ideology and how these issues, in turn, crystallize the challenges of nation-ness in Nigeria. We begin by recalling Walter Benjamin's timely assertion that the novel gives evidence of the profound perplexity of living. The significance of Benjamin's assertion for the Nigerian novel is the sense of anxious conjuncture that disavows the fixity and current of certainty in the oral tale. The implication of this for the Nigerian novel is its formal dynamism that enables it to illuminate the changing challenges of nationhood. Key words: characterisation; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; ideology; Nigerian fiction.


Model checking provides a way to automatically verify hardware and software systems, whereas the goal of planning is to produce a sequence of actions that leads from the initial state to the desired goal state. Recently research indicates that there is a strong connection between model checking and planning problem solving. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility of using a newly developed model checking framework, Process Analysis Toolkit (PAT), to serve as a planning solution provider for upper layer applications. We first carried out a number of experiments on different planning tools in order to compare their performance and capabilities. Our experimental results showed that the performance of the PAT model checker is comparable to that of state-of-art planners for certain categories of problems. We further propose a set of translation rules for mapping from a commonly used planning notation - PDDL into the CSP# modeling language of PAT. Finally, we provide evaluations on the translated models against other approaches in the planning domain to demonstrate the effectiveness of using the PAT model checker for planning.


Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of an online tutorial and its impact on improving knowledge and skills of pharmacy students in the clinical problem-solving process that is necessary to implement pharmaceutical care. Methods: This is a prospective interventional study conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions using four novel templates. The first two levels of Kirkpatrick's Model (Reaction and Learning) were used. Results: 129 participants completed all of the online training parts. The findings indicated a significant improvement in the students' knowledge and skills. The participants achieved higher score following the tutorial than the baseline, with a statistically significant difference (p < 0.001). There was a significant improvement in the number of detected treatment-related problems. The majority of students were satisfied with the overall training process and stated a high evaluation score out of 10 (mean = 7.93 ± 1.42, median = 8.00). Conclusion: The educational intervention achieved a substantial positive impact on decision-making skills of participating students and was considered effective in helping them attain basic skills such as teamwork, peer assessment, communication and critical evaluation. Healthcare providers must work together to ensure accurate medication use during care transitions. Pharmacists, as medication experts, play an important role in the implementation process. Pharmacy educators must prepare pharmacy student to use pharmaceutical care in their future practice.


Sectoral data features (i) changing relative expenditures of different sectors, (ii) non-constancy in relative prices and (iii) long-run trends in relative TFP growth rates across sectors. We provide a tractable theory of industry directed technical change, which is able to reconcile these findings. In doing so, this paper emphasizes the importance of directed technical change, nonhomotheticity of preferences and structural change as a long-run phenomenon. Using the input-output tables of the U.S., our theory helps us to reconstruct how structural change in terms of final consumption affects the market size of industry value-added. Arguing that the structural change across broad categories of final consumption is exogenous from the perspective of an individual firm, this gives us an instrument for the industrial market size (at the valueadded level). We then empirically test for the market size effect of induced innovation. Our findings suggest that a 1 percent increase in an industry's market size (relative to GDP) leads to an increase in the TFP growth rate of about 0.3 percentage points over five years.


Real-time holographic recording and an improvement of the response time in ruthenium (Ru)-doped Bi(12)SiO(20) (BSO) crystal at 1064 nm is obtained. Using green light pre-exposure, a significant operation speed of 60 ms is achieved. In addition, the ability for image reconstruction is demonstrated in Ru-doped BSO, supporting further applications as reversible media for real-time image processing at the near-IR spectral range.


The diets and possible competitive interactions related to food were examined for greenside (Etheostoma blennioides), rainbow (E. caeruleum), and fantail (E. flabellare) darters from the Chagrin and Grand Rivers of northeastern Ohio. All 3 species fed heavily upon chironomid larvae in all seasons. In the Chagrin, the chironomids consumed were primarily of the subfamily Orthocladiinae; in the Grand, the subfamily Chironominae was also important to the darters. E. blennioides fed most heavily upon chironomids in both streams in all seasons. E. caeruleum consumed fewer chironomids than did E. blennioides but more than E. flabellare (except in spring). Seasonally important prey taxa for E. blennioides included Simuliidae, Trichoptera, and Ephemeroptera; for E. caeruleum, Trichoptera and Ephemeroptera; for E. flabellare, Plecoptera (especially in winter), Trichoptera, and Ephemeroptera. E. blennioides exhibited greatest selection for Simulium, Orthocladiinae, and Hydroptila; E. caeruleum for Hydroptila, Orthocladiinae, and Baetis. E. flabellare selected for Paracapnia, Baetis, Hydropsyche, and Stenonema. Greatest seasonal dietary overlap was between E. blennioides and E. caeruleum. Lowest overlap was between E. caeruleum and E. flabellare. In both streams, overlap between E. blennioides and E. caeruleum was greatest in winter, lowest in summer. Overlap between either of these darters and E. flabellare was greatest in spring, lowest in winter. Heavy reliance upon the abundant chironomid larvae by the darters may aid in reducing competition and increasing foraging efficiency. Competitive interactions resulting in habitat shifts may result in reduced and different foraging areas for these fishes, which may further decrease competition between these darters. OHIO J. SCI. 83 (4): 201-208, 1983


The steady heat conduction problems under linear temperature load on upper surface in an Al1100/Ti-6Al-4V/SiC 2D-FGM plane plate are analyzed by the FEM. When the variation of the material composition in y-direction is linear, the plane temperature distributions with the changes of composition shape distribution coefficient mx and porosity coefficient Ax in x-direction are obtained. The results show that when mx<0.1, the temperature curve surface is upward convex. The smaller mx is, the bigger relative temperature gradient on the left side of the plate is. When mx>1.0, the temperature curve surface has smaller upward convex trend and becomes downward convex surface gradually with the increasing of the mx (except at =1). The bigger mx is, the bigger relative temperature gradient near the right ceramic side of the plate is. By comparison with the results of an Al1100/SiC 1D-FGM plate, in the 2D-FGM plane plate, when mx=0.5, the maximum value of the temperature difference near metal side increases by 15.6%, but the value near ceramic side reduces by 53%. The temperature curve surface has more obvious variation with the increasing of the Ax in the plate, especially it is when =0.3~0.5 and =0.2~0.5, the changes of the temperature difference value reach the maximum, and compared with Ax=0.0, the value of Ax=3.99 increases by 138.6% at =0.35 and =0.4. The results provide more comprehensive and concrete basis of calculation and the further analysis of thermal stress for the design and optimization of the 2D-FGM plane plate.


This paper reports the finding of an investigation of a surface molecular self-assembly strategy for molecular imprinting of polymer nanowires/nanotubes. It has been demonstrated that 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) templates were spontaneously assembled onto aminopropyl group-modified alumina pore walls by a strong charge-transfer complexing interaction between amino groups and electron-deficient nitroaromatics, forming a novel basis of surface molecular imprinting. While an additional amount of TNT templates was further replenished into a precursor mixture, a stepwise progressive polymerization was designed toward the controllable preparation of TNT-imprinted polymer nanowire/nanotube arrays in an alumina membrane. The imprinted nanowires/nanotubes with a high density of surface-imprinted sites and regular interior sites exhibit the high capacity of binding TNT molecules, which is nearly 2.5-3.0-fold that of normal imprinted particles. Moreover, the imprinted nanotubes and nanowires have approximately 6- and 4-fold increase in the rate of binding TNT molecules, respectively. The combination of surface molecular assembly with nanostructures in the imprinting technique can create more effective recognition sites than the only use of porogens in traditional approaches. This novel, facile strategy reported herein can be further expected to fabricate various molecular recognition nanoarrays for sensing or analytic applications.


The objective of this workshop is to provide an inter-disciplinary forum, in which scientists and practitioners can exchange new ideas and applications on Experience Management (EM). Contributions on practical applications are just as welcome as contributions on current research and research results. What is the role of Experience Management within Knowledge Management? Whereas knowledge management (KM) generally deals with the activities regarding collection from different sources (documents, data, experts, etc.), structuring, documenting, refinement/improvement, evaluation, and distribution of knowledge and its objectives, the relatively new field of EM focuses, in particular, on exemplary knowledge (e.g., in the form of cases) and also looks at the methods and technologies that are suitable for that. The main focus here is on the development, operation, maintenance, evaluation, and integration of Experience Based Information Systems (EBIS), that is information systems that contain exemplary knowledge, support EM and all the necessary processes. The "ingredients" for EM/EBIS come from various areas such as Experience Factory (e.g., with regard to embedding an EM system into the knowledge-relevant processes in a company), ontologies (e.g., as a basis for the domain model respectively vocabulary), data mining and text mining (e.g., on the analysis of existing data and documents), as well as particularly Case-Based Reasoning (CBR). It has been shown that CBR is suitable as a principle and methodology for EM, and a technology for supporting EBIS.


In the current situation of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic, frontline workers are trying hard with maximum possible efforts to lessen the transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) with the help of available resources Due to existing shortages of the Personal Protective Equipments (PPE) more frequently facemasks and respirators, the rational use of these PPEs and their prioritisation becomes absolutely necessary Other measures such as the use of respirators beyond their shelf-life, extended usage, limited reuse of respirators and decontamination, reprocessing and re-use of respirators have to be considered This review article focused on the current situation of shortage of masks, rational use of various types of respiratory protective devices, mask use in laboratories and different methods of decontamination and reprocessing of the respirators Intense literature search of ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and Influenza pandemic 2009 were done and various guidelines inclusive of Centre for Disease Control and prevention (CDC), World Health Organisation (WHO), Public health agency of Canada were adapted for this review


The development of farnesyltransferase inhibitors (FTIs) has been one of the most active areas of anticancer drug development for the past ten years. This review presents a general overview of the developments in this area, along with a critical appraisal of the anticancer activity of FTIs. A historical survey of the protein prenylation field is given, in particular to emphasize the key role played by the Ras oncoprotein in driving the discovery of prenyltransferase enzymes. The different classes of prenylated proteins will be described along with the biochemical characteristics of the key drug target--farnesyltransferase (FTase). Numerous potent farnesyltransferase inhibitors have been developed. The FTIs developed can be separated into three different categories, based on their origin and/or mechanism of action: a) natural products; b) peptidomimetics and other CAAX-competitive inhibitors; c) farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP) mimetics or analogs and other FPP-competitive inhibitors. Along with a survey of newer FTIs in each class, the development of several representative, potent compounds will be discussed in depth as we discuss the potential advantages and liabilities of each class. Particular emphasis is given to the discovery of new, more potent FPP-competitive FTIs of several diverse structural classes. Testing of different FTIs for their ability to block the growth of various cancer cell types in animal models will be discussed. There are a number of key differences between these compounds and traditional cytotoxic cancer chemotherapeutic agents, with surprising exceptions to their expected modes of action. As some FTIs have entered human clinical trials, answers may soon become available to key mechanistic questions concerning the extent and nature of their antitumor growth properties.


OBJECTIVE
Systemic lupus erythematosus is a multisystem disease with many clinical variations, including renal involvement. Our aim was to determine whether lupus nephritis (LN) has a specific seasonality.

METHODS
Reports of renal biopsies performed from 1990 to 2002 were reviewed. Three hundred and seventy-three patients with class II, III, IV, and V LN were identified. Using the modified WHO classification of LN, diagnoses were tabulated and the seasonality (season of diagnosis) of LN was statistically analyzed.

RESULTS
Class IV LN was detected in 179 patients (48%), class II in 63 patients (16.9%), class III in 73 patients (19.57%), and class V in 74 patients (19.9%). No difference could be detected in the number of patients diagnosed in each season when all 373 patients were analyzed as one group. The number of patients with class IV LN was higher during summer and fall than during the winter and spring. In contrast, a higher number of patients with class V LN were observed during the winter and spring seasons than during the summer and fall seasons. The percentage of patients with class V LN was significantly higher during winter and spring than during summer and fall. A similar, though non-significant, trend was seen for class III LN. A striking parallelism was found between the month of occurrence of class III and class V LN. The monthly distribution of the percentage of patients in each month with class III and V LN showed a significant correlation. The monthly distribution of patients with class IV LN was different from those with either class III or V LN.

CONCLUSION
We found that the prevalence of class V LN was significantly higher and that of class III LN non-significantly higher in winter and spring. Parallelism between the monthly occurrences of class III and class V may suggest a common trigger. Analysis of the seasonality of LN may contribute to the understanding of the pathogenesis of LN, which may be multifactorial, as the different classes of LN represent different types of glomerular injury. Further studies are needed to clarify this potentially important observation.


Obesity is a leading global health concern and a major risk factor for type-2 diabetes. Thus, identifying mechanisms linking obesity to insulin resistance is of great importance. Chronic low-grade inflammation of the adipose tissue (AT) observed in obesity has been shown as an important pathophysiological link between obesity and the development of systemic insulin resistance, by various mechanisms. Gap junction (GJ) intercellular-communication, primarily composed of connexin- (Cx) 43, has been recently reported to have immunomodulatory roles in various tissues, and increased Cx43 expression and GJ activity have been implicated in the response of various tissues to chronic stress conditions. We have therefore aimed to study the role of Cx43 in shaping the AT adaptive or maladaptive response to these cellular insults of obesity. In a diet-induced obesity mouse model we demonstrated an increase in Cx43 expression in the intact AT, which could be primarily attributed to increased Cx43 expression in adipocytes. In high fat diet-fed adipocyte-specific Cx43 knock-out mice (AdCx43KO) , we observed increased infiltration of macrophages to the AT as compared to wild-type (WT) mice. This was accompanied by morphologic changes in the AT, with increased variability in adipocyte size. While AdCx43KO mice did not significantly differ from WT mice in body weight, adiposity or food intake, the AdCx43KO mice demonstrated reduced whole-body insulin sensitivity assessed by insulin tolerance test. Mechanistically, we observed that adipocytes can interact directly with neighboring adipocytes as well as with macrophages via Cx43-composed gap junctions, an interaction that is likely to be key in attenuation of the tissue inflammatory response. Our results suggest an immunomodulatory and metabolic role for adipocyte-Cx43 in obesity.

 S.Ron: None. I.Ron: None. M.Rathaus: None. R.Livne: None. A.Tirosh: Advisory Panel; Abbott Diagnostics, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, Merck & Co., Inc., Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, Consultant; Bayer AG, DreaMed Diabetes, Ltd., Research Support; Medtronic, Speaker's Bureau; Eli Lilly and Company.

 Israel Science Foundation (922/17)


In the mammalian inner ear neurosensory cell fate depends on three closely related transcription factors, Atoh1 for hair cells and Neurog1 and Neurod1 for neurons. We have previously shown that neuronal cell fate can be altered towards hair cell fate by eliminating Neurod1 mediated repression of Atoh1 expression in neurons. To test whether a similar plasticity is present in hair cell fate commitment, we have generated a knockin (KI) mouse line (Atoh1KINeurog1) in which Atoh1 is replaced by Neurog1. Expression of Neurog1 under Atoh1 promoter control alters the cellular gene expression pattern, differentiation and survival of hair cell precursors in both heterozygous (Atoh1+/KINeurog1) and homozygous (Atoh1KINeurog1/KINeurog1) KI mice. Homozygous KI mice develop patches of organ of Corti precursor cells that express Neurog1, Neurod1, several prosensory genes and neurotrophins. In addition, these patches of cells receive afferent and efferent processes. Some cells among these patches form multiple microvilli but no stereocilia. Importantly, Neurog1 expressing mutants differ from Atoh1 null mutants, as they have intermittent formation of organ of Corti-like patches, opposed to a complete 'flat epithelium' in the absence of Atoh1. In heterozygous KI mice co-expression of Atoh1 and Neurog1 results in change in fate and patterning of some hair cells and supporting cells in addition to the abnormal hair cell polarity in the later stages of development. This differs from haploinsufficiency of Atoh1 (Pax2cre; Atoh1f/+), indicating the effect of Neurog1 expression in developing hair cells. Our data suggest that Atoh1KINeurog1 can provide some degree of functional support for survival of organ of Corti cells. In contrast to the previously demonstrated fate plasticity of neurons to differentiate as hair cells, hair cell precursors can be maintained for a limited time by Neurog1 but do not transdifferentiate as neurons.


The paper presents development and verification methods and means of requirements and design solutions formal models. They are intended to create complex critical automated information systems in a same model-language and information-software environment for all its participants. The development and verification processes are carried out in an automated way on the basis of subject-oriented ontologies. Ontologies describe the quality management processes of software and hardware complexes at the stages of requirements justification and system design. They are developing by means modeling and design languages SysML, FUML, OCL structures and mechanisms, the Petri nets mathematical apparatus, time automata and time logics. In order to execute of validation and verification for complex of requirements and design solutions, construction and model execution route analysis algorithms in the VM FUML virtual machine environment are developed.  Integration and use methods for specialized verification tools CPN Tools, Rodin, SPIN and Modelica as means to automated testing of complex requirements and design solutions models are proposed.  This complex provides more effective interaction between the customer and the contractor both in the development of requirements and in the design of the system, along with this, detection and provides limination of defects through the automated verification, validation and correction procedures implementation. This approach application will improve the quality of requirements and design solutions, as well as improve economic performance by reducing the financial and time costs,  which associated with the implementation of additional work in the case of defects, and when changing requirements or operating conditions.


Single-frequency fiber amplifiers are promising candidates to fulfill the challenging requirements regarding laser sources in the next generation of interferometric gravitational wave detectors (GWD) [1]. High optical output power levels up to 1 kW are required to increase the sensitivity of such GWDs. For the realization of such high output power, fiber amplifiers with large mode field areas (LMA) are required due to stimulated Brillouin scattering. However, larger core diameters also result in guided higher order modes. For this reason Chirally-Coupled-Core (3C) fibers have been developed, where additional sidecores decouple higher modes via phase matching and evanescent field coupling.


C.A. Wozniak and A. McHughen (eds.), Regulation of Agricultural Biotechnology: The United States and Canada, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-2156-2_1, © US Government 2012 Abstract The regulation of agricultural plant and microbial biotechnology products in the United States of America has a rich history that re fl ects the challenges the federal government has faced in the development of appropriate rules and standards needed to determine their safety to humans and the environment. Several factors – the insuf fi cient global food supply, loss or curtailment of the use of older chemistries to control pests due to risks and environmental persistence, the rising demand for safer food commodities, and the uncertainty surrounding the sustainability of agriculture in this and other countries – have added to these challenges. The chapter introduces the U.S. Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology ("Framework"), and the roles of its members: the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in regulating agricultural biotechnology in accordance with U.S. federal statutes. The Framework agencies use scienti fi c, risk-based approaches in carrying out their regulatory responsibilities for the products of biotechnology. Relying on their experiences with risk assessment and risk management policies and principles for more conventional products, the Framework agencies have adapted new risk and exposure scenarios into their evaluations to ensure the safe use of these products in agriculture.


. Zn1-xMnxO films are prepared by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method. The wurtzite ZnO crystal can be well retained up to a Mn composition of 6.7% and doped Mn ions substituted into Zn sites of ZnO host lattice. All the samples show high transparency over the wavelengths from 450 to 800 nm. Optical transmittance study showed an increase in the bandgap (Eg) with increase in Mn atomic fraction x following Eg=3.26+1.43x eV. Furthermore, the midgap absorption around 420 nm (3 eV) in Mn doped ZnO films suggest that there are impurity levels created by doped Mn ions. The room temperature resistivities of the samples show an increase with the increase of Mn content, which indicates that the doped element is at the status of deep levels.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Objectives: To evaluate the safety and feasibility of physical rehabilitation and active mobilization in patients requiring continuous renal replacement therapy in the ICU. Data Sources: Medline, CINAHL, PubMed, Pedro, and Cochrane Library were used to extract articles focused on physical activity and mobility in this population. Study Selection: Research articles were included in this review if 1) included adult patients greater than or equal to 18 years old requiring continuous renal replacement therapy located in the ICU; 2) described physical rehabilitation, active mobilization, or physical activity deliverables; 3) reported data on patient safety and/or feasibility. The primary outcome was safety, defined as number of adverse events per total number of sessions. Data Extraction: Five-hundred seven articles were evaluated based on title and abstract with reviewers selecting 46 to assess by full text. Fifteen observational studies were included for final analysis with seven studies focused solely on physical activity in patients requiring continuous renal replacement therapy. Data Synthesis: Four-hundred thirty-seven adult ICU patients requiring continuous renal replacement therapy participated in some form of physical rehabilitation, physical activity, or active mobilization. Two major adverse events (hypotension event requiring vasopressor and continuous renal replacement therapy tube disconnection, pooled occurrence rate 0.24%) and 13 minor adverse events (pooled occurrence rate 1.55%) were reported during a total of 840 individual mobility or activity sessions. Intervention fidelity was limited by a low prevalence of higher mobility with only 15.5% of incidences occurring at or above level 5 of ICU Mobility Scale (transfer to chair, marching in place or ambulation away from bed, 122/715 reports). Feasibility in the provision of these interventions and/or continuous renal replacement therapy–specific deliverables was inconsistently reported. Conclusions: Early rehabilitation and mobilization, specifically activity in and near the hospital bed, appears safe and mostly feasible in ICU patients requiring continuous renal replacement therapy. A cautious interpretation of these data is necessary due to limited aggregate quality of included studies, heterogeneous reporting, and overall low achieved levels of mobility potentially precluding the occurrence or detection of adverse events.


This paper mainly discusses security analysis in Web-based information systems. The analysis focuses on current client/server system application environments and system vulnerabilities. The paper also briefly describes a proposed conceptual security model-dual security model (DSM). The model focuses on risk management by identifying possible attacks on the system and addressing them before they can impact significantly system security and business of the organisation. The key design feature of this model is developing a high level risk assessment framework for analysing and evaluating the system environment, interrelated system functions, risk modelling and the evaluation process in Web-based information systems.


We analyse a random graph where the node degrees are (almost) independent and have a distribution with finite mean but infinite variance - a region observed in empirical studies of the Internet. We show that the existence of very large nodes has a great influence on the connectivity. If N denotes the number of nodes it seems that the distance between two randomly chosen nodes of the giant component grows as slowly as log log(N). The essential observation is that very large nodes form a spontaneously arising "core network", which plays a crucial role in the connectivity, although its proportional size goes to zero as N /spl rarr/ /spl infin/. Several results related to the core are proven rigorously, and a sketch of a full proof is given. Some simulations providing illustration of the findings are presented. Consequences of the results are discussed.


In an interesting article published in the editorial of Haematologica, Burgio et al. recall the touching case of a couple that gave natural birth to a child in an attempt to save the life of their daughter affected by Philadelphia-positive chronic myeloid leukemia.1 The new baby was HLA-compatible and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation took place when he was 19 months old (3 April 1987). The article to which we refer explains very clearly that there are currently at least two possibilities for planning the conception of a savior child. The first is by natural procreation, as in the case above; the second takes into consideration "a full blown and technically perfect Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) program which brings into the world a child who satisfies the two requirements needed to save the elder sibling's life: a healthy child who is HLA-compatible". The authors consider it unwise to opt for a normal, natural birth.1

In our opinion, even the second option could prove to be a problematic ethical choice. To explain our point of view, we need to make a fundamental premise: having a baby is not an automatic right. No human life can be justified because it gives rights to another human being. The use of an in vitro fertilization (IVF) technique for the generation of a savior child transforms the possibility or the desire to have a baby into the right to have a baby. This is not the case of natural birth. Although the intention may be the same with both methods (we are not judging the parents' decision), the uncertainty of the result in natural childbirth is Nature's way of reminding us that no one can choose his or her baby.

The second and perhaps most dramatic argument from an ethical point of view, takes into account the possibility of selecting the right savior embryo while discharging the unhealthy or unwelcome one. The possibilities opened up by PGD bring us directly to the problem of the ontological status of the embryo. In 1996, the Italian National Board of Bioethics stated that "the fundamental respect for the human being is due from the beginning, then every experimentation or manipulation are ethically unacceptable. The only allowed intervention on the embryo must have therapeutic purpose".2 The meaning of this statement is that the embryo must be considered a human being from the very beginning. There is abundant scientific evidence to support this view. In fact, from the zygote stage onward, the human embryo has a coordinate, continuous, gradual development and there is not a stage where we can indicate substantial transformation. Therefore, it becomes mandatory to consider the embryo a human being, worthy of protection and moral respect.2–4 The human embryo is a human being. If this is true, as we believe it is, the logical consequence is that we cannot suppress a human being, not even to save another human being, nor can we choose to save a healthy HLA-compatible embryo thereby suppressing the others. Contrary to the opinion expressed by the authors in their article, we do not consider the combination of IVF and PGD the best way to obtain a compatible donor for transplantation. If we balance the pros and cons, we find that the decision to have a baby by natural birth is the best way to respect the dignity of all the human beings involved and, at the same time, to try and save someone else's life. Of course, we are aware that this approach offers no guarantees, but we prefer an uncertain result that fully respects human rights rather than a secure outcome that violates the fundamental right of every human being: the right to live.


: The physician needs to know the signs, symptoms and recommended treatments of drug overdoses. Overdose of hallucinogens usually does not require drug therapy. Overdose of amphetamines ("uppers") may be complicated by the presence of PCP, a dissociative substance. It is important for the physician to be familiar with the street terminology for contemporary drugs of abuse and to be aware of how users obtain these drugs.


In order to develop light weight electrical components, the nano-sized lead free solders have been identified as potential materials to provide better mechanical properties as compared to the conventional solders. Sn–Ag–Cu (SAC) solders have been widely acknowledged as one of the most promising replacements for Sn-Pb solders. In our previous work, mechanical properties of single crystal SAC solder material were investigated through atomistic simulation studies. In this work, the mechanical properties of nanocrystalline SAC305 (nc-SAC305) (96.5Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu) solder have been investigated through molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. A set of modified embedded atom method (MEAM) potential parameters have been proposed for nc-SAC solder. Impact of grain size, strain rate and temperature on the uniaxial tensile properties have been studied. The results have revealed an inverse Hall-Petch relationship in the nc-SAC305 material, and grain boundary decohesion is observed as the dominating failure mechanism. The results also suggest that the ultimate tensile strength of SAC305 significantly increases with increasing strain rate. Moreover, increased ductility and decreased ultimate tensile strength are observed at elevated temperatures.


Broiler chickens, in groups of 10, received a single vaccination by the stick-wing route at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 11 weeks of age with live Clemson University strain of Pasteurella multocida. Twenty non-vaccinates kept in isolation served as controls. Cholera serum antibody titers in all chickens were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay at weekly intervals. Chickens vaccinated once at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 weeks, respectively, attained 25.2%, 28.7%, 34.7%, 46.2%, 51.8%, and 64.6% of the titers of those vaccinated once at 11 weeks of age. Variation in antibody response was greatest in chickens vaccinated at 1 or 2 weeks of age. Additionally, chickens vaccinated at 1 or 2 weeks of age showed the longest response time (5 weeks) to reach maximum antibody titers after a single vaccination. When the original vaccinates were revaccinated at 11 weeks of age, all showed a secondary response equal to or greater than that seen in chickens vaccinated once at 11 weeks of age. Age of the chickens at the time of vaccination and antibody titer were positively correlated (r = 0.997). Overall antibody responses to vaccination were higher and much more uniform as birds increased in age.


Several knowledge management issues arise during the life-cycle of an interactive system. During the design phase software engineers need to acquire from users and domain experts knowledge about what they need and about the intended use of the interactive system. Subsequently, due to the phenomenon of user and system co-evolution, users modify their needs and/or their ways of using the system: knowledge about new user habits becomes then a key factor for planning useful software maintenance and extension interventions. In this paper we propose an agent-based architecture to support knowledge management in the complex process of user and system co-evolution. The architecture is based on the visual workshop hierarchy approach, where different kinds of interactive systems are associated in a hierarchical fashion with the different figures involved in system life-cycle. The approach is complemented with a community of agents which may play two kinds of roles: observer agents in charge of observing and recording user-system interaction at each level of the hierarchy, and recognition agents in charge of analyzing observation records and of extracting patterns of interactions to be submitted to the attention of designers at the appropriate level. A case study in earth science is introduced as a concrete application counterpart to the proposed architecture and a sketch about the implementation, which is currently under way, is provided.


Background Methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG), having a global warming potential 21 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2). Methane emissions from agriculture represent around 40% of the emissions produced by human-related activities, the single largest source being enteric fermentation, mainly in ruminant livestock. Technologies to reduce these emissions are lacking. Ruminant methane is formed by the action of methanogenic archaea typified by Methanobrevibacter ruminantium, which is present in ruminants fed a wide variety of diets worldwide. To gain more insight into the lifestyle of a rumen methanogen, and to identify genes and proteins that can be targeted to reduce methane production, we have sequenced the 2.93 Mb genome of M. ruminantium M1, the first rumen methanogen genome to be completed. Methodology/Principal Findings The M1 genome was sequenced, annotated and subjected to comparative genomic and metabolic pathway analyses. Conserved and methanogen-specific gene sets suitable as targets for vaccine development or chemogenomic-based inhibition of rumen methanogens were identified. The feasibility of using a synthetic peptide-directed vaccinology approach to target epitopes of methanogen surface proteins was demonstrated. A prophage genome was described and its lytic enzyme, endoisopeptidase PeiR, was shown to lyse M1 cells in pure culture. A predicted stimulation of M1 growth by alcohols was demonstrated and microarray analyses indicated up-regulation of methanogenesis genes during co-culture with a hydrogen (H2) producing rumen bacterium. We also report the discovery of non-ribosomal peptide synthetases in M. ruminantium M1, the first reported in archaeal species. Conclusions/Significance The M1 genome sequence provides new insights into the lifestyle and cellular processes of this important rumen methanogen. It also defines vaccine and chemogenomic targets for broad inhibition of rumen methanogens and represents a significant contribution to worldwide efforts to mitigate ruminant methane emissions and reduce production of anthropogenic greenhouse gases.


The use of workflows to support and realize computer simulations, experiments and calculations is well-accepted in the e-Science domain. The different tasks and the parameters of the simulation are therefore specified in workflow models. Scientists typically work in a trial-and-error manner which means they do not know how the final workflow of a simulation has to look like. Therefore, they use a maybe insufficient workflow model as a basis and try to improve this model over multiple iterations to get a better approximation to the problem to solve. So in each iteration multiple trials are based on different variants of the same workflow model. Towards the goal of building variants of workflow models and enabling the reuse of existing scientific workflows in a controlled and well-defined manner, in this paper, we identify how configurable workflow models will support scientists to customize existing workflow models by their configuration. Therefore, we introduce possible configuration options for scientific workflows and how scientists can specify them. Furthermore, we show how configurable workflow models are a first step towards enabling the collaboration among scientists in creating scientific workflows.


Self-attention has become an important and widely used neural network component that helped to establish new state-of-the-art results for various applications, such as machine translation and automatic speech recognition (ASR). However, the computational complexity of self-attention grows quadratically with the input sequence length. This can be particularly problematic for applications such as ASR, where an input sequence generated from an utterance can be relatively long. In this work, we propose a combination of restricted self-attention and a dilation mechanism, which we refer to as dilated self-attention. The restricted self-attention allows attention to neighboring frames of the query at a high resolution, and the dilation mechanism summarizes distant information to allow attending to it with a lower resolution. Different methods for summarizing distant frames are studied, such as subsampling, mean-pooling, and attention-based pooling. ASR results demonstrate substantial improvements compared to restricted self-attention alone, achieving similar results compared to full-sequence based self-attention with a fraction of the computational costs.


A new method for sampling meat surfaces was developed. Bacterial counts of beef carcasses by the cotton swab technique and by the new method showed that the latter gave higher counts. These counts were closely correlated with data obtained by using the swab method. Advantages of the new method are its simplicity, rapidity, and adaptability to routine use on any type of carcass.


(–)-Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) is the widely studied catechin in green tea (Camellia sinensis). Previously, we have reported the low bioavailability of EGCG in rats and mice. As a means of improving the bioavailability of EGCG, we have prepared a peracetylated EGCG derivative (AcEGCG) and herein report its growth inhibitory activity and cellular uptake in vitro, as well as bioavailability in mice. AcEGCG exhibited enhanced growth inhibitory activity relative to EGCG in both KYSE150 human esophageal (IC50 = 10 versus 20 μM) and HCT116 human colon cancer cells (IC50 = 32 versus 45 μM). AcEGCG was rapidly converted to EGCG by HCT116 cells, and treatment of cells with AcEGCG resulted in a 2.8- to 30-fold greater intracellular concentration of EGCG as compared with treatment with EGCG. AcEGCG was also more potent than EGCG at inhibiting nitric oxide production (4.4-fold) and arachidonic acid release (2.0-fold) from lipopolysaccharide-stimulated RAW264.7 murine macrophages. Intragastric administration of AcEGCG to CF-1 mice resulted in higher bioavailability compared with administration of equimolar doses of EGCG. The plasma area under the curve from 0 to infinity (AUC0→∞) of total EGCG was 465.0 and 194.6 [(μg/ml) · min] from the administration of AcEGCG and EGCG, respectively. The t1/2 of EGCG was also increased following administration of AcEGCG compared with EGCG (441.0 versus 200.3 min). The AUC0→∞ and t1/2 were also increased in small intestinal (2.8- and 4.3-fold, respectively) and colonic tissues (2.4- and 6.0-fold, respectively). These data suggest that acetylation represents a means of increasing the biological potency in vitro, increasing the bioavailability of EGCG in vivo, and may improve cancer-preventive activity.


Cartilage proteoglycan aggregate formation was studied by zonal rate centrifugation in sucrose gradients. Proteoglycan aggregates, monomers and proteins could be resolved. It was shown that the optimal proportion of hyaluronic acid for proteoglycan aggregate formation was about 1% of proteoglycan dry weight. The reaggregation of dissociated proteoglycan aggregate Al fraction was markedly concentration-dependent and even at 9 mg/ml only about 90% of the aggregates were reformed. The lowest proportion of link protein required for maximal formation of link-stabilized proteoglycan aggregates was 1.5% of proteoglycan dry weight. It was separately shown that link protein co-sedimented with the proteoglycan monomer. By competition with isolated hyaluronic acid-binding-region fragments, a proportion of the link proteins was removed from the proteoglycan monomers, indicating that the link protein binds to the hyaluronic acid-binding region of the proteoglycan monomer.


Three major linear accelerator vendors offer gantry-mounted single (monoscopic) x-ray imagers. The use of monoscopic imaging to estimate three-dimensional (3D) target positions has not been fully explored. The purpose of this work is to develop and investigate a robust monoscopic method for real-time tumour tracking, combining occasional x-ray imaging and continuous external respiratory monitoring, and compare this with an established stereoscopic method. Monoscopic estimation of 3D target positions is a two-step procedure. Step (1) is similar to the stereoscopic approach using combined occasional x-ray imaging and real-time external respiratory monitoring, i.e. to establish the correlation between the target coordinates T(x, y, z) and the external respiratory signal (R) (sECM: stereoscopic external correlation model). However, in monoscopic estimation, the correlation between the two coordinates (xp, yp) projected on the imager plane and the external respiratory signal (mECM: monoscopic external correlation model) is established. With only a single projection, the component of the 3D target position, which is along the x-ray imaging direction, is unresolved. Therefore, step (2) is used to estimate the unresolved component (z∥) by building a correlation model between the unresolved component and the two other components projected on the imager (ICM: internal correlation model) with a prior 3D target trajectory that may be obtained by 4DCT, MV/kV imaging or 4DCBCT. At the time of prediction, (xp, yp) are estimated from (R) using the correlation model in step (1), and then z∥ is estimated from the estimated (xp, yp) using the correlation model in step (2). The performance of the proposed method was evaluated under various model update intervals and compared with the stereoscopic estimation method using 160 tumour trajectory and external respiratory motion data recorded at 25 Hz from 46 thoracic and abdominal cancer patients who underwent hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy by a CyberKnife system. The precision of the input data used in this study to represent tumour motion was assessed using x-ray imaging to be 1.5 ± 0.8 mm. Monoscopic imaging every 30/60 s with updating ICM every 120/180 s can estimate target positions with a 1 mm root-mean-square error (RMSE) for 63/53% or a 2 mm RMSE for 93/91%, respectively. In contrast, stereoscopic x-ray imaging every 30/60 s can estimate target motion within a 1 mm RMSE for 72/58% or a 2 mm RMSE for 95/92%, respectively. The overall 3D error of the monoscopic estimation is approximately 10% higher than comparable stereoscopic imaging methods when the period between imaging is 1 s or more, and 40% higher for continuous imaging. The promising result may be explained by the fact that superior/inferior motion–the major axis of tumour motion–is fully resolved even in the monoscopic view for coplanar treatments, and tumour motion in each dimension is relatively well correlated.


In this paper we develop a stochastic dynamic general equilibrium model of the Greek economy, in the real business cycle modelling tradition. Household preferences depend on private and public consumption and leisure. Government finances its investment, consumption and transfer payments by means of a proportional income tax rate. Households buy and sell foreign assets in an international capital market and also receive transfer payments from abroad. The volatility, persistence, and co-movement properties of the business cycle component of the data generated by the model are broadly consistent with the actual behaviour of the corresponding actual data of the Greek economy, in 1960–92. We use the model to investigate the response of major macroeconomic variables to temporary and permanent changes in government policy variables, foreign transfers and the rate of return on foreign assets.


Investigations on the distribution, population size, and habitat characteristics of animal populations provide the baselines for sound conservation management. Southeast Asia is considered an important habitat for the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis), but information regarding their population size and habitat characteristics is limited. The present study investigated the distribution and habitat characteristics of humpback dolphins off Donsak, Thailand, and estimated the population size based on photo-identification records. Using the POPAN model, the minimum population size of the humpback dolphins off Donsak was estimated to be 193 (167 to 249; 95% confidence interval), with 36 calves, 58 juveniles, 40 subadults, and 59 adults. The progressively ascending cumulative sighting curve implied that the actual humpback dolphin population size in the investigated area is likely higher than this estimate. Principal components analysis of the environmental characteristics indicated that the adult dolphins tend to occur in deeper and clearer waters relative to the younger age classes. Alterations of the coast environment and coastal anthropogenic activities may be particularly deleterious for younger dolphins. Findings from this study contribute significantly to our understanding of the humpback dolphins in Thailand and provide valuable insight for future conservation management.


Summary A review of 13 ovarian strumal carcinoids in the files of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology has established further evidence that these tumors have both endocrine and neuroendocrine differentiation. The two functional routes of differentiation occur even within individual tumor cells. Immunohistochemical reaction for thyroglobulin was positive in the strumal regions of all 12 cases tested. This positivity was also present in transitional zones where the thyroid follicles merged with nests of carcinoid cells. Electron microscopy performed in six cases showed cells with neuroendocrine granules in the thyroid follicles; these cells resemble the C-cells of the normal thyroid gland. An immunoperoxidase reaction for calcitonin, however, revealed no positivity in any of the cells corresponding to the neuroendocrine cells within the follicles or those in the carcinoid component. Variable positivity for serotonin was observed, however. It is proposed that cells within the struma that have morphologic similarities to the C-cells of the thyroid give rise to the carcinoid component. These cells appear capable of producing thyroglobulin as well as neuroendocrine granules.


Nab-paclitaxel has recently shown greater efficacy in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Insulin like growth factor (IGF) signaling proteins are frequently overexpressed in PDAC and correlate with aggressive tumor phenotype and poor prognosis. We evaluated the improvement in nab-paclitaxel response by addition of BMS-754807, a small molecule inhibitor of IGF-1R/IR signaling, in preclinical PDAC models. In subcutaneous xenografts using AsPC-1 cells, average net tumor growth in different therapy groups was 248.3 mm3 in controls, 42.4 mm3 after nab-paclitaxel (p = 0.002), 93.3 mm3 after BMS-754807 (p = 0.01) and 1.9 mm3 after nab-paclitaxel plus BMS-754807 (p = 0.0002). In subcutaneous xenografts using Panc-1 cells, average net tumor growth in different therapy groups was: 294.3 mm3 in controls, 23.1 mm3 after nab-paclitaxel (p = 0.002), 118.2 mm3 after BMS-754807 (p = 0.02) and −87.4 mm3 (tumor regression) after nab-paclitaxel plus BMS-754807 (p = 0.0001). In peritoneal dissemination model using AsPC-1 cells, median animal survival was increased compared to controls (21 days) after therapy with nab-paclitaxel (40 days, a 90% increase, p = 0.002), BMS-754807 (27 days, a 29% increase, p = 0.01) and nab-paclitaxel plus BMS-754807 (47 days, a 124% increase, p = 0.005), respectively. Decrease in proliferation and increase in apoptosis by nab-paclitaxel and BMS-754807 therapy correlated with their in vivo antitumor activity. In vitro analysis revealed that the addition of IC25 dose of BMS-754807 decreased the nab-paclitaxel IC50 of PDAC cell lines. BMS-754807 therapy decreased phospho-IGF-1R/IR and phospho-AKT expression, and increased cleavage of caspase-3 and PARP-1. These results support the potential of BMS-754807 in combination with nab-paclitaxel as an effective targeting option for pancreatic cancer therapy.


Condensation, or jamming transitions, are observed throughout the natural and social
sciences as prevalent emergent phenomena in complex systems, from shaken granular
gases to traffic congestion. The understanding of the critical behaviour in these systems
is currently a major research topic, in particular a mathematically rigorous treatment
of the associated metastable dynamics. In this thesis we study these phenomena in the
context of interacting particle systems. In particular we focus on two generic models for
condensation, the zero-range process, and the recently introduced inclusion process.
We firstly give a brief review of some relevant aspects of Markov processes, with a particular
emphasis on interacting particle systems and a heuristic description of metastability.
Subsequently, we present a general framework for studying the equivalence of
ensembles, and the large deviations of the maximum site occupation, in interacting particle
systems that exhibit product stationary measures. These original results are based
on relative entropy methods and techniques from the theory of large deviations. They
form the theoretical basis of this thesis, which enables us to find the relevant scales
on which metastability is observed, and to derive refined results on the equivalence of
ensembles.
The general approach is to first derive a large deviation principle for the density
and maximum site occupation under a reference measure. This gives rise to the large
deviations of the maximum in the thermodynamic limit, or a more refined scaling limit,
which describe the metastable behaviour. Also it gives rise to equivalence of ensembles
results, which are used to find the limiting expectation of important observables (such
as the stationary current).
In the second part of the thesis we use these general results to give a detailed analysis
of three cases. We derive the leading order finite size effects for a generic family of
condensing zero-range process. At this scale we observe, and are able to characterise,
metastable switching between
uid and condensed states. Secondly, we study a zerorange
process with size-dependent rates, for which metastable effects are stabilised in
the thermodynamic limit. Here we are able to describe two distinct mechanisms of
condensate motion. Finally, we study condensation of a different origin in the inclusion
process. In this case our general results can no longer be applied directly, since some
of the regularity assumptions do not hold, however the guiding principles still apply.
Following these we make formal calculations that give rise to the relevant stationary
properties. We give a heuristic analysis of the dynamics which turn out to be very
different from those in the zero-range process. Throughout the thesis theoretical results
are supported by Monte Carlo simulations and numerical calculations where appropriate.
Our results contribute to a detailed understanding of the nature of finite size effects
and metastable dynamics close to condensation and jamming transitions. This is vital
in applications in complex systems such as granular media and traffic
flow, which exhibit
moderate system sizes and cannot be fully described by the usual thermodynamic limit.


The growth anisotropy of different facets has been measured in 3 He crystals at 0.55 mK using a low-temperature Fabry-Pérot interferometer and high-resolution pressure measurements. The observed linear dependence of the growth velocity on the driving force shows that facets grow due to the presence of dislocations. The values of the obtained step energies suggest that 3 He has stronger coupling of the liquid-solid interface to the lattice than has been expected. The dependence of the step energy versus the step height is consistent with a quartic power law pointing out that the step-step interactions are of elastic origin.


: The increasing cost and complexity of state-of-the-art radiological equipment, and the need for more comprehensive safety and performance assurance, have increased maintenance expenditures to a level where they have become one of the largest operating expenses of radiology departments. To cope with this ever increasing expenditure, a comprehensive in-house maintenance program was implemented in our institution. This program properly balanced the capability of the radiology department's in-house technical personnel with support provided by equipment manufacturers' service organizations. Quality assurance activities are also included as an integral part of the entire program. Since the implementation of the program, an average 40% reduction in the annual maintenance expenditure has been observed.


Performance optimisation of aerodynamic shapes plays a critical role in aeronautics and the automation of design tasks is an active research field. In this paper an adaptation of Genetic Algorithms to the above problem and its parallel implementation are discussed. We have empirically compared the performance of our parallel version with the sequential one. Experimental findings on a design problem are present,ed and analysed. The results have shown that the parallel approach has allowed to find innovative solutions in a much lower convergence time.


A step and shoot sequencer was developed that can be integrated into an IMRT optimization algorithm. The method uses non-uniform fluence steps and is adopted to the constraints of an MLC. It consists of a clustering, a smoothing and a segmentation routine. The performance of the algorithm is demonstrated for eight mathematical profiles of differing complexity and two optimized profiles of a clinical prostate case. The results in terms of stability, flexibility, speed and conformity fulfil the criteria for the integration into the optimization concept. The performance of the clustering routine is compared with another previously published one (Bortfeld et al 1994 Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Ph.vs. 28 723-30) and yields slightly better results in terms of mean and maximum deviation between the optimized and the clustered protile. We discuss the specific attributes of the algorithm concerning its integration into the optimization concept.


The growing interest in supporting STEM disciplines creates an opportunity for professional organizations that include members from academia and industry to participate in the recruitment and engagement of K-12 students. Professional organizations, because of their industry partners and members, are often in unique situations to center on specific focus areas and are composed of individuals interested in service and outreach. Further, professional organizations are routinely managing present-day "issues" facing certain industries and / or focus areas, creating opportunities for disseminating "real-time" relevance to prospective young students. This paper highlights the efforts of one such professional organization – the Central States Section of the Combustion Institute (CSS/CI) – in creating and executing an Outreach Program that solicits and funds proposals from high school teachers who use the funds to augment their science / engineering classes with some exposure to combustion. The program, now in its fourth year with four successful competition windows, has created opportunities for members of academia and industry to become exposed to issues that K-12 educators face in terms of engaging students in STEM disciplines. The objective of this paper is to provide a guide for professional organizations that consist of members of academia and industry to use in creating their own outreach program and to identify opportunities for bridging the gap between professional organizations and K-12 students and educators. The paper describes the process for developing the CSS/CI program, summarizes "lessons-learned" and provides what are believed to be essential features for making a K-12 outreach program successful.


This thesis explores the process of female making as a creative and socio-political act and how/where/why this creative labour gets 'spent', in terms of energy, outcomes and beneficiaries as well as how it might be situated in the context of contemporary Western Design ontology.

Fieldwork took place over a period of 10 Months, with 11 female participants in two countries, during a number of repeat encounters, which included co-making, participant and ethnographic observations as well as informal interviews. The findings are presented as focused narratives based on three of the participants, through a series of ethnographic/auto-ethnographic accounts, which each conclude in a discussion based on my thematic analysis of that particular woman's making.
Drawing on the fieldwork with all 11 women, the three chapters which follow weave together data and theory into thematic discussions and analysis. The research documents and makes visible both the women's making practices and things acting upon it, through observations of the participants making, and conversations and co-making with participants. A design anthropological approach of 'anthropology as correspondence' (Gatt & Ingold, 2013; Ingold 2013a) informed all data collection, with informal interviews providing the core data and focus of analysis, supported by analysis of visual data such as photography and moving image, as well as field notes and reflective auto-ethnographic writing, based on my experiences with the women and their making.

As a design anthropological study, it situates and analyses female creative practices in a broader human 'making' context, whilst utilising a range of ethnographic, practice-led and co-creative methods, situated within a framework of a feminist inquiry and design discourse. Key theorists informing the analysis are Karen Barad (2007, 2008), Elizabeth Grozs (1999, 2010), Erin Manning (2016), Doreen Massey (2005) and Tim Ingold (2007, 2013a), whilst building on the work of Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock (1981), Cheryl Buckley (1986) and Sheila Rowbotham (1973/a, 1973/b), amongst many others. Key theories triangulated within the discussion and analysis stem from Material Feminism, Design Anthropology and Design Theory. This triangulation, woven around and into the observations and accounts of lived experiences, forms an emergent proposition which considers how female enactments of creative labour can provide us with ways to critique and un-ravel contemporary Design ontology, its modes of production and consumption.
Drawing on post-capitalist scholars such as Kathy Weeks (2011), amongst others, and the writing of Raoul Vaneigem (1967/2006), the penultimate chapter 'Implication for Design Pedagogy' discusses why the implication my findings should be considered in relation to design pedagogy and education yet to come, and to 'futures yet unthought' (Grosz, 1999).


Members of the genus Enterovirus (family Picornaviridae) are believed to be common and widespread among humans and different animal species, although only a few enteroviruses have been identified from animal sources. Intraspecies recombination among human enteroviruses is a well-known phenomenon, but only a few interspecies examples have been reported and, to our current knowledge, none of these have involved non-primate enteroviruses. In this study, we report the detection and complete genome characterization (using RT-PCR and long-range PCR) of a natural interspecies recombinant bovine/porcine enterovirus (ovine enterovirus type 1; OEV-1) in seven (44 %) of 16 faecal samples from 3-week-old domestic sheep (Ovis aries) collected in two consecutive years. Phylogenetic analysis of the complete coding region revealed that OEV-1 (ovine/TB4-OEV/2009/HUN; GenBank accession no. JQ277724) was a novel member of the species Porcine enterovirus B (PEV-B), implying the endemic presence of PEV-B viruses among sheep. However, the 5' UTR of OEV-1 showed a high degree of sequence and structural identity to bovine enteroviruses. The presumed recombination breakpoint was mapped to the end of the 5' UTR at nucleotide position 814 using sequence and SimPlot analyses. The interspecies-recombinant nature of OEV-1 suggests a closer relationship among bovine and porcine enteroviruses, enabling the exchange of at least some modular genetic elements that may evolve independently.


Anthropogenic activities are increasing ocean temperature and decreasing ocean pH. Some coastal habitats are experiencing increases in organic runoff, which when coupled with a loss of vegetated coastline can accelerate reductions in seawater pH. Marine larvae that hatch in coastal habitats may not have the ability to respond to elevated temperature and changes in seawater pH. This study examined the response of Florida stone crab (Menippe mercenaria) larvae to elevated temperature (30°C control and 32°C treatment) and CO2-induced reductions in pH (8.05 pH control and 7.80 pH treatment). We determined whether those singular and simultaneous stressors affect larval vertical movement at two developmental stages. Geotactic responses varied between larval stages. The direction and rate of the vertical displacement of larvae were dependent on pH rather than temperature. Stage III larvae swam upwards under ambient pH conditions, but swam downwards at a faster rate under reduced pH. There was no observable change in the directional movement of Stage V larvae. The reversal in orientation by Stage III larvae may limit larval transport in habitats that experience reduced pH and could pose challenges for the northward dispersal of stone crabs as coastal temperatures warm.


Background: Timely initiation of antenatal care (ANC) clinic attendance during pregnancy helps identify and reduce risk factors in pregnancy.  The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends at least four ANC visits during pregnancy with the first being in the first trimester. In most developing countries including Kenya, the first visit occurs late in some mothers. Aim: This study describes ANC attendance by mothers at clinics in Kwale County. It was conducted with the aim of determining factors affecting ANC attendance in two dispensaries in Kwale County. Design: A cross-sectional study using quantitative research methods was adopted. Results: Two hundred and eighty pregnant women at a gestational age of 20 weeks and above were recruited and interviewed. All the mothers made at least one ANC visit with 19.6% starting in the first trimester. About a quarter of the mothers (24.0 %) came for the first time at nine months gestational age.  There was a significant relationship between late ANC initiation and low or no formal education (p = 0.001) as well as higher parity (p = 0.0001). Mothers with no formal education were four times more likely to initiate ANC clinics late  compared to those with secondary or tertiary education (OR = 4.687; CI 1.765 – 12.447). The likelihood of mothers whose husbands had no formal education initiating ANC later was almost three times more likely as compared to those who had secondary or tertiary education (OR = 2.775; CI 1.107 – 6.960).  Multiparous women were more likely to initiate ANC clinics earlier compared to grand multiparous women (OR = 0.513; CI 0.223 – 1.183). Conclusion: Timely initiation and appropriate ANC attendance was low in Kwale. Low education level and high parity had a significant negative association with timely ANC initiation. There is need for community mobilization and enlightening on the importance of timely ANC attendance for mothers to reap the full benefits of maternal and child health care. Keywords: Maternal, Antenatal, Child, Health, Parity, Multiparous, Grand multiparous.


For normal people who are physically and psychologically they may be easier to resolve conflicts that occur and more able to develop skills. But for people with hearing impairment, not infrequently these conditions will lead to new conflicts. One thing is for real, people with hearing impairment often receive different treatment. Therefore this study aimed to further explore the causal factors of personality disorder threshold experienced by patients. The subjects in this study were men and women who are known to have a personality disorder threshold as much as two people using the observation, the MMPI test. Data collection methods used were interviews, observation and psychological tests, namely SSCT and graphics tests, data analysis used
data analysis process began by reviewing or studying all available data from various sources, ie interviews, observations that have been written in the note field, documents, perform data reduction is done by making abstraction, and compile them in the units, make-categorization categorization while making coding, the final step is to examine the validity of data. From the results of this research note that both subjects have the etiology of personality disorder that is almost the same threshold, namely: Internal factors, the emergence of personality disorders is supported by an introverted personality trait subjects, self-centered, communicative, less mature in controlling emotions, so the subject is not able to adapt to the conditions of his problems, and external factors, which include the family and the environment. Families associated with the pattern of a relationship or interaction with parents is not a subject that has been well maintained. The need for affection, attention is needed early on perceived less by the subject. Environment related to the frequency of subjects who did not get good treatment, such as ribbing that always brought up by her friends own.


BACKGROUND
Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) with the ACURATE neo device has been associated with a non-negligible incidence of paravalvular aortic regurgitation (AR). The new-generation ACURATE neo2 has been designed to mitigate this limitation.

AIMS
The aim of the study was to compare TAVR with the ACURATE neo and neo2 devices.

METHODS
The NEOPRO and NEOPRO-2 registries retrospectively included patients undergoing transfemoral TAVR with self-expanding valves at 24 and 20 centres, respectively. Patients receiving the ACURATE neo and neo2 devices (from January 2012 to December 2021) were included in this study. Predischarge and 30-day VARC-3 defined outcomes were evaluated. The primary endpoint was predischarge moderate or severe paravalvular AR. Subgroup analyses per degree of aortic valve calcification were performed.

RESULTS
A total of 2,026 patients (neo: 1,263, neo2: 763) were included. Predischarge moderate or severe paravalvular AR was less frequent for the neo2 group (2% vs 5%; p<0.001), resulting in higher VARC-3 intended valve performance (96% vs 90%; p<0.001). Furthermore, more patients receiving the neo2 had none/trace paravalvular AR (59% vs 38%; p<0.001). The reduction in paravalvular AR with neo2 was mainly observed with heavy aortic valve calcification. New pacemaker implantation and VARC-3 technical and device success rates were similar between the 2 groups; there were more frequent vascular and bleeding complications for the neo device. Similar 1-year survival was detected after TAVR (neo2: 90% vs neo: 87%; p=0.14).

CONCLUSIONS
TAVR with the ACURATE neo2 device was associated with a lower prevalence of moderate or severe paravalvular AR and more patients with none/trace paravalvular AR. This difference was particularly evident with heavy aortic valve calcification.


In this Master's thesis, we combined the new developments of multimodal Brain-
Computer Interfaces (BCI) and wireless EEG headsets with art by creating
BrainBrush, a multimodal interactive system for creative expressions. With
BrainBrush, users can paint on a virtual canvas using only their heads. They
control the system by moving their heads, blinking their eyes and performing
selections using a BCI.
We used BrainBrush to research how the di�erent modalities contribute to
the user experience and what the added value of BCI is to the system. Thirteen
healthy persons painted with the BrainBrush system. Afterwards, a questionnaire
was administered to assess the usability of the system. Furthermore, extensive
interviews were conducted to evaluate the user experience of the various
input modalities and the added value of BCI.
Most participants who were able to achieve good control over the modalities,
were able to express themselves creatively. However, a number of participants
was not able to express themselves creatively, mostly due to problems with the
reliability of the modalities.
The user experience of the modalities varied. Participants were most positive
about the use of head movement. They were also positive about the use of
eyeblinks, but less positive about the use of the BCI because of the low reliability
and higher relative cost of an error. Recommendations for improvement of the
reliability of the modalities have been given.
Even though the reliability of the BCI was low, the BCI was considered to
have an added value: the use of BCI was considered to be fun and interesting.
The BrainBrush system o�ers a good basis for further developments and
research. By incorporating the suggested improvements, the user experience
should improve further.


I. INTRODUCTION The Fifth Amendment provides that no person shall be "subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb."' To the layperson "twice put in jeopardy" means twice tried. The Supreme Court has firmly established, however, that the Double Jeopardy Clause targets two kinds of multiplicity: multiple prosecutions and multiple punishments.2 The right against multiple punishments is less commonly understood than the right against multiple prosecutions. What does it mean to be punished twice for the same offense? What is the evil that the right guards against? The Court appears to have defined the prohibition in two ways. For years, it explained the right as a guarantee that defendants will suffer no greater punishment than that authorized by the legislature.3 The idea underlying this approach is that legislatures define the scope of punishments,4 and thus, punishment in excess of this legislative authorization is unconstitutionally "multiple." Until recently, the Court seemed to have taken the position that legislative deference is the only function of the right against multiple punishments. In 1989, however, the Court held in United States v. Halper5 that legislatively authorized civil sanctions cannot be imposed in a separate proceeding after the defendant has been prosecuted and punished.6 The Halper Court thus seemed to define multiple punishments in terms of proceedings rather than legislative maximums. These two approaches to the multiple punishments prohibition coexist uneasily. While the legislative deference model recognizes the legislature's power to prescribe punishments, the separate proceedings model effectively undermines that power by prohibiting punishments within legislatively authorized maximums if they happen to be imposed in separate proceedings.7 Thus, some commentators have argued that the two models of multiple punishments doctrine are fundamentally inconsistent.8 The Court's focus on separate proceedings in Halper has also caused problems by blurring the distinction between multiple punishments and multiple prosecutions cases.9 Thus lower courts applying Halper awkwardly import multiple prosecutions doctrine, creating even more confusion.'o Some point to these problems as evidence that the Double Jeopardy Clause should not be read to protect against multiple punishments at all.ll The most vocal of these critics, Justice Scalia, has described the multiple punishments prohibition as "one of those areas" where the Court's jurisprudence "is not only wrong but unworkable as well."'2 This Note suggests that a double jeopardy prohibition on multiple punishments is neither wrong nor unworkable. Rather, the main problem with multiple punishments jurisprudence stems from the Court's failure to identify a single double jeopardy interest underlying its various applications of the right.13 While the Court sometimes states what the prohibition does, it has not articulated what it means.14 The Court could achieve enhanced clarity by tying its multiple punishments jurisprudence to the interest that the Double Jeopardy Clause was originally designed to serve: the interest in preserving the integrity of final judgments. Under this formulation, courts may impose punishment to the full extent authorized by the legislature in one judgment. Any punishment that exceeds the scope of the first final judgment-by exceeding either legislative limits or the limits set by the sentencing authority'5 in the judgment itself-constitutes a second, or unconstitutionally multiple, punishment.ls This analysis places the focus of the multiple punishments inquiry where it belongs-on judgments of punishment, rather than on proceedings or legislative maximums. If the criminal proceeding is the unit that defines multiplicity in the multiple prosecutions context, it is only logical that the lawful judgment of punishment is the corresponding constitutional unit that defines multiplicity in the multiple punishments context. …


Several variables are involved in the patterns of distribution and spatio-temporal occupation of fish in a fluvial system. In this study, we evaluate numerous geographic (cascades, waterfalls and riffles) and physicochemical variables (slope, current velocity, pH, conductivity and dissolved oxygen) in different sections of the Quiman River, and its relationship with fish assemblage. This river is a mountain stream and presents an abrupt orography with various waterfalls, cascades and riffles that affect the connectivity of the river. Therefore, the working hypothesis was to establish if some of these geography and physicochemical variables can influence the spatial segregation of fish in the river. The results showed a significant variation (ANOSIM r = 0.6 p = 0.0006) in the composition of the assemblage along the river, defining a spatial segregation for native species, and a preferential habitat use was established by native species due to low current velocity environments (< 0.64 m s-1) and slope less than 3.5%. Nevertheless, a BEST/BIOENV analysis determined a low relationship between environmental variables and fish assemblage distribution (r = 0.37 p = 0.03). On the other hand, frequency of waterfalls, cascades and riffles decreased in the direction of the flow, in contrast to richness and diversity, even when there is a pisciculture and treatment plant of wastewater in the terminal section. It is suggested to develop more specific studies to understand the influence of geographic variables on native fish populations.


In this paper we study an algorithm of a distributed resource management that is responsible for the admission of constant bit rate (CBR) streams. While a central resource management is aware of all resource states of the distributed system, the distributed managers are not omniscient. The considered management software allows the dynamic deployment of software components to the terminals that can be e. g. real-time capable java platforms. We focus on components which use and provide audio/video services that operate with CBR streams. They are meant to be deployed inside future vehicular on-board distributed systems of the telematics domain at system's run time. The resource management task is to dynamically decide on the admission of the CBR streams depending on the service's importance (priority). We map the admission problem to the well known multi-dimensional knapsack problem in order to get a suitable distributed admission control algorithm. Finally, we show that the distributed algorithm achieves a satisfying quality.


The purpose of this paper is to investigate the optimal placement of piezoelectric actuator for active vibration control of smart structure. The structures can be described in the modal space based on the independent modal space control method and dynamic equations derived from finite element model. The modal damping ratios are derived from modal equations and an optimal target is given by maximizing the modal damping ratios. Accumulation method is adopted to the optimization calculation. Simulations are carried out for active vibration control of a conical shell with distributed piezoelectric actuators. Control effects proved the validity of the optimal method above by compared with the non-optimal results. The optimal method in this paper gives a useful guide for quantity optimization of actuators to piezoelectric structures.


During a 32-month period, 79 extremities in 76 children (age 1 day-13 years, mean = 31 months) were evaluated with regard to iatrogenic vascular injuries. Prospectively, 42 children were studied pre- and post-cardiac catherization. Ten of these children sustained vascular injuries (incidence = 24%). Thirty-four additional children were referred because of 35 iatrogenic vascular injuries as a result of transfemoral cardiac catheterization (n = 20), umbilical artery catheterization (n = 10), or recent surgery (n = 5). All 45 injuries were evaluated by lower extemity segmental Doppler pressure measurements in addition to routine physical examination at the time of injury and at frequent follow-up. An ankle/brachial pressure index (ABI) < 0.9 was considered abnormal. Selected children (ABI < 0.9 for >30 days) underwent orthoroentgenograms to assess limb growth. The average ABI immediately following injury was 0.34 +/- 0.33. Thirty-four injuries were treated nonoperatively. Twelve injuries were excluded from further study due to death (n = 7) or being lost to follow-yp (n = 5). A return of ABI to normal was seen from 1 day to 2 years in 93% of children treated with heparin (n = 14) compared to 63% of children who were simply observed (n = 8) (p < 0.10). The initial severity of ischemia did not correlate with the subsequent rate of improvement. Only patients with absent femoral pulses were selected for operative intervention, which consisted of aortic thrombectomy (n = 2), femorofemoral bypass (n = 2), femoral artery patch angioplasty (n = 1), or femoral artery thrombectomy (n = 7) with no mortality. Nine patients had immediate return of a normal ABI after surgery. A delayed return of ABI to normal occurred in the other two. Nine per cent of surgically treated children and 23% of nonsurgically treated children developed leg length discrepancies (0.5–3.0 cm) as a result of ischemia lasting >30 days. Overall, 91% of the children in this series eventually regained normal circulation following injury and no child lost a limb. This study indicates that iatrogenic pediatric vascular injuries are common and can result in significant limb growth impairment. Immediate operative intervention is highly successful when the injury is proximal to the common femoral artery bifurcation and avoids the prolonged ischemia seen with nonoperative therapy. For moral distal occlusions, heparin therapy provides better results than simple observation. Although therapeutic intervention for these injuries is generally successful, a limb length discrepancy rate of 14% mandates that indications for invasive vascular monitoring and diagnostic procedures be strict.


Background: Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a monogenic disorder characterized by high rates of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and anxiety. A longstanding "hyperarousal hypothesis" in FXS has argued that ANS dysfunction underpins many symptoms of FXS. However, the developmental onset and trajectory of ANS dysfunction, as well as the consequences of ANS dysfunction on later psychiatric symptoms, remain poorly understood in FXS. Insight into the emergence, trajectory, and consequences of ANS dysfunction across early development in FXS has critical implications for prevention, intervention, and optimal outcomes in both typical and atypical development. This longitudinal study investigated whether and when males with FXS evidence atypical ANS function from infancy through early childhood, and how trajectories of ANS function across infancy and early childhood predict ASD and anxiety symptom severity later in development. Methods: Participants included 73 males with FXS and 79 age-matched typically developing (TD) males. Baseline heart activity was recorded at multiple assessments between 3 and 83 months of age, resulting in 372 observations. General arousal and parasympathetic activity were indexed via interbeat interval (IBI) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), respectively. ASD and anxiety symptoms were assessed at 36 months of age or later in a subgroup of participants (FXS n = 28; TD n = 25). Results: Males with FXS exhibited atypical patterns of developmental change in ANS function across infancy and early childhood. As a result, ANS dysfunction became progressively more discrepant across time, with the FXS group exhibiting significantly shorter IBI and lower RSA by 29 and 24 months of age, respectively. Shorter IBI at 24 months and a flatter IBI slope across development predicted elevated anxiety symptoms, but not ASD symptoms, later in childhood in both FXS and TD males. Reduced RSA at 24 months predicted elevated ASD symptoms, but not anxiety symptoms, in both groups. Developmental change in RSA across early development did not predict later anxiety or ASD symptoms. Conclusion: This is the first longitudinal study to examine the "hyperarousal hypothesis" in infants and young children with FXS. Findings suggest that hyperarousal (i.e., shorter IBI, lower RSA) is evident in males with FXS by 24–29 months of age. Interestingly, unique aspects of early ANS function differentially relate to later ASD and anxiety symptoms. General arousal, indexed by shorter IBI that becomes progressively more discrepant from TD controls, predicts later anxiety symptoms. In contrast, parasympathetic-related factors, indexed by lower levels of RSA, predict ASD symptoms. These findings support the "hyperarousal hypothesis" in FXS, in that ANS dysfunction evident early in development predicts later-emerging symptoms of ASD and anxiety. This study also have important implications for the development of targeted treatments and interventions that could potentially mitigate the long-term effects of hyperarousal in FXS.


Introduction Identifying the early stages of dementia is key in care management, clinical trial recruitment and mitigating the impact of cognitive impairment. At present, cognitive tests are most commonly used to investigate early stages of dementia and are often only conducted after initial symptoms of cognitive decline have been identified. There is potential to harness routinely collected data from electronic health records (EHR) to discover markers of early-stage dementia, both in its cognitive and non-cognitive manifestations. However, the extent to which primary care EHR can facilitate earlier diagnosis of dementia has not systematically been examined. We aim to determine the extent to which EHR can be utilized to identify prodromal dementia in primary care settings through a systematic review of the literature. Method We searched electronic medical databases (including Scopus, Web of Science, OvidSP, MEDLINE and PsychINFO) for potentially relevant studies up to and including September 2016 and written in English. We used the following MeSH search terms: "dementia" (including its subtypes), "electronic health records" (variations thereof) and "primary care". Additionally, grey literature was searched including reports released by the government, councils and relevant major UK charities. Results We identified and reviewed 31 studies. In total 35 risk factors and 147 potential markers of early cognitive decline were identified. There was considerable variability across studies as to whether markers were classed as confounders, risk factors, early markers or co-morbidities. Markers predominantly fell within cognitive, affective, motor and autonomic symptoms, prescription patterns of both dementia and non-dementia medication and health system utilization, including type of consultation, frequency of contact and duration. Three studies investigated variation in the markers' predictive strengths at different time points during the prodromal period of dementia. In the 24 months prior to diagnosis of dementia, gait disturbances, changes in weight, number of consultations, specialty referrals and hospital admissions showed the strongest strength of association with dementia diagnosis. Number of consultations, unpredictability in consulting patterns, such as "Did not attend", carer and social care involvement showed the strongest strength of association with dementia diagnosis during a longer prodromal period (up to 54 months). Discussion Tests which specifically investigate cognitive health, such as the Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE) exam, are often only conducted in the period of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) preceding dementia diagnosis, once irremediable damage has occurred. In many cases, these symptoms are conflated with normal ageing, affective disorders, or attenuated by multimorbidities, and are therefore not directly linked to dementia. These results show that there is a broad range of potential markers which could be used to better define prodromal dementia, however very little literature has been published in this area. Conclusion There is significant potential to use routinely collected data from EHR to investigate and define prodromal dementia. The use of EHR allows us to obtain a more complete understanding of early-stage dementia according to its more commonly investigated cognitive signs, as well as non-cognitive presentations. Understanding the breadth and trajectories in prodromal dementia period will be key in facilitating earlier diagnosis.


The Northern Adriatic coastland comprised between the cities of Monfalcone and Cattolica is characterised by locations of great tourist interest, such as the Venice Lagoon and the Romagna Riviera, and areas with a very precarious environmental setting, such as the Valli di Comacchio and the Po river delta. Therefore the coastal management and the design of new defense works of the littoral have to be made with the utmost care, possibly with the aid of numerical predictions of the coastal morphodynamics and the flood risk analysis of the lowland involved. In the study area land may subside due to sediment natural compaction and subsurface fluid (water and gas) withdrawal. At the same time littoral transport of solid material can contribute appreciably to change the shore morphology. Mean sea level may rise permanently due to global climate change and occasionally due to tides and intensive storm events. The predictions of each individual process are obtained using ad hoc mathematical models and the outcome of the numerical simulations are managed with a GIS (Geographical Information System). Coastline evolution until the year 2100 is investigated and risk factor maps of the low-lying coastal areas are generated which account for the hazard of the expected event, and the land economic value and vulnerability.


Natural forcing from solar and volcanic activity contributes significantly to climate variability. The post‐eruption cooling of strong volcanic eruptions was hypothesized to have led to millennial‐scale variability during Glacials. Cooling induced by volcanic eruption is potentially weaker in the warmer climate. The underlying question is whether the climatic response to natural forcing is state‐dependent. Here, we quantify the response to natural forcing under Last Glacial and Pre‐Industrial conditions in an ensemble of climate model simulations. We evaluate internal and forced variability on annual to multicentennial scales. The global temperature response reveals no state dependency. Small local differences result mainly from state‐dependent sea ice changes. Variability in forced simulations matches paleoclimate reconstructions significantly better than in unforced scenarios. Considering natural forcing is therefore important for model‐data comparison and future projections.


Pitch is a perceptual correlate of sound periodicity elicited by vibrating bodies; it plays a crucial role in music and speech. Although perceptual phenomenology of pitch has been studied for centuries, a detailed understanding of its underlying neural mechanisms is still lacking. Early theories suggesting that pitch is decoded in the peripheral auditory system fail to explain the perception of complex stimuli. More recent mechanistic models, focused on how subcortical structures process periodic discharges of the auditory nerve activity, are unable to explain fully key aspects of the processing dynamics observed during electrophysiological recordings. In this thesis, we propose a novel theory describing how subcortical representations of pitch-related information are integrated in cortex and how this integratory process gives rise to the dynamics observed in magnetoencephalographic (MEG) experimental recordings. Auditory evoked fields recorded with MEG reveal a systematic deflection around 100 ms after stimulus' onset known as the N100m. This deflection consists of several components reflecting the onset of different perceptual dimensions of auditory stimuli such as pitch, timbre and loudness. The exact latency of the component elicited by pitch onset, known as the pitch onset response (POR), shows a strong linear relationship with the pitch of the stimulus. Our theory links the POR latency with processing time and explains, in a quantitative manner, the substrate of the relationship between processing time and pitch. Cortical integration is described using a model of neural ensembles located in two adjacent areas, putatively located along the lateral portion of Heschl's Gyrus in human auditory cortex. Cortical areas are hierarchically structured and communicate with each other in a top-down fashion. Pitch processing is modelled as a multi-attractor system whose dynamics are driven by subcortical input. After tone onset, the system evolves from an initial equilibrium position to a new equilibrium state that represents the pitch elicited by the tone. A computational implementation of the model shows that: 1) the transient dynamics between equilibrium points explains the POR; 2) the latency of the transient is directly linked with the time required to reach the new equilibrium state; and 3) that such processing time depends linearly on the pitch of the stimuli. Our theory also addresses the problem of how tones with several simultaneous pitch values are processed in cortex. In Western music, dyads comprising tones with different pitch values are judged as more consonant or more dissonant depending on the ratio of the periods of the involved sounds. The latency of the POR evoked by such dyads also presents a strong correlation with the perceived consonance: dissonant dyads generate later PORs than consonant dyads. Our theory of pitch processing describes consonance (dissonance) as a direct effect of harmonic collaboration (competition) during the cortical integration process: the cortical model shows that harmonic collaboration facilitates convergence, explaining why dissonant dyads require longer processing times and evoke later PORs than consonant dyads.


The primary purpose of an information retrieval (IR) system is to retrieve all the relevant documents, which are relevant to the user query. Latent Semantic Indexing/Analysis (LSI/LSA) based ad hoc document retrieval task investigates the performance of retrieval systems that search a static set of documents using new questions. Performance of LSI has been tested by others for several smaller datasets (e.g. MED, CISI abstracts) however, LSI has not been tested for a large dataset. So, we decided to test LSI for a very large dataset. We used TREC-8 LA Times dataset for our experimentation. We applied three different term weighting schemes and our own stop word list to judge the performance. Recall-precision graph and Coefficient of Variation (CV) were used to evaluate the retrieval performance of LSI based retrieval system. We found tf-idf term weighting scheme performs better than log-entropy and raw term frequency weighting schemes when the test collection became very large.


This paper describes a file system for a programmer's workstation that has access both to a local disk and to remote file servers. The file system is designed to help programmers manage their local naming environments and share consistent versions of collections of software. It names multiple versions of local and remote files in a hierarchy. Local names can refer to local files or be attached to remote files. Remote files also may be referred to directly. Remote files are immutable and cached on the local disk. The file system is part of the Cedar experimental programming environment at Xerox PARC and has been in use since late 1983.