In spatial epidemiology, disease incidence and demographic data are commonly summarized within larger regions such as administrative units because of privacy concerns. As a consequence, analyses using these aggregated data are subject to the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) as the geographical manifestation of ecological fallacy. In this study, we create small area disease estimates through dasymetric refinement, and investigate the effects on predictive epidemiological models. We perform a binary dasymetric refinement of municipality-aggregated dog tumor incidence counts in Switzerland for the year 2008 using residential land as a limiting ancillary variable. This refinement is expected to improve the quality of spatial data originally aggregated within arbitrary administrative units by deconstructing them into discontinuous subregions that better reflect the underlying population distribution. To shed light on effects of this refinement, we compare a predictive statistical model that uses unrefined administrative units with one that uses dasymetrically refined spatial units. Model diagnostics and spatial distributions of model residuals are assessed to evaluate the model performances in different regions. In particular, we explore changes in the spatial autocorrelation of the model residuals due to spatial refinement of the enumeration units in a selected mountainous region, where the rugged topography induces great shifts of the analytical units i.e., residential land. Such spatial data quality refinement results in a more realistic estimation of the population distribution within administrative units, and thus, in a more accurate modeling of dog tumor incidence patterns. Our results emphasize the benefits of implementing a dasymetric modeling framework in veterinary spatial epidemiology.


How a manager′s functional area and hierarchical level affect the roles required by managers in their jobs is examined. The 131 managers in the sample completed a matrix of 20 tasks and 28 qualities required in their jobs. A disjoint clustering technique was used to analyse the data – this is a type of oblique component analysis related to group factor analysis. Subgroups of managers were delineated, seven on the basis of their functional areas, and one group of senior managers/executives. The results indicate that the differences between theories of management work can be attributed to methodological artefacts. However, the argument that management is a set of behavioural skills which is transferable from one functional area to another is questioned, as the results of this study indicate that job‐related contingency variables affect strongly the contents of managerial work.


Eighty Wistar rats were handled at 2 to 5, 6 to 9, or 10 to 13 days of age, or not at all. In adulthood each group was split into halves with one-half of each group receiving electroconvulsive shock treatment. Assays of sugar concentration in the blood serum 24 hours after the convulsions indicated that subjects handled at 2 to 5 days of life exhibited no effect of the treatment, whereas all other groups showed marked increases in blood sugar concentration.


Faith and the State offers a historical development of Islamic philanthropy from the time of the Islamic monarchs, through the period of Dutch colonialism and up to contemporary Indonesia.


The City of San Jose's Active Transportation Program is in the midst of a ten-year plan to complete a 400-mile on-street bikeway network. With more than 250 miles implemented to date, most of the easier projects have been completed. Increasingly, remaining projects are faced with constrained right-of-way without enough space to accommodate a quality bicycle facility. To create space for new bikeways, San Jose has turned to the use of road diets (removal of a travel lane to create space for other features) and/or removal of on-street parking. Â These projects create a number of challenges including design, outreach, environmental clearance, and funding. John Brazil will share lessons learned from several recent projects including Hedding Street, Lincoln Avenue, Park Avenue, and Monterey Road.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of over 20 zinc-dependent proteases with different biological and pathological activities, and many have been implicated in several diseases. Although nonselective MMP inhibitors are known to induce serious side-effects, targeting individual MMPs may offer a safer therapeutic potential for several diseases. Hence, we provide a concise overview on MMP-12, given its association with pulmonary diseases, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and other progressive pulmonary fibrosis (PPF), which may also occur in coronavirus disease 2019.

RECENT FINDINGS
In asthma, COPD, and PPF, increased MMP-12 levels have been associated with inflammation and/or structural changes within the lungs and negatively correlated with functional parameters. Increased pulmonary MMP-12 levels and MMP-12 gene expression have been related to disease severity in asthma and COPD. Targeting MMP-12 showed potential in animal models of pulmonary diseases but human data are still very scarce.

SUMMARY
Although there may be a potential role of MMP-12 in asthma, COPD and PPF, several pathophysiological aspects await elucidation. Targeting MMP-12 may provide further insights into MMP-12 related mechanisms and how this translates into clinical outcomes; this warrants further research.


A cooling system for a fuel cell (FC) powered car within the framework of a European project called INNBALANCE is currently being developed at the German aeronautics and space research centre (DLR).
Given a design of the cooling loop, a thermal model of it has been developed in this master thesis making
use of the software Matlab Simulink(TM), as it is the official simulation program for the INN-BALANCE project
and the one used to share all the models between the project partners.
Once the thermal model was developed, a control system for the next key components of this cooling
system has been designed: the 3-way valve (or bypass valve), the fan of the radiator, the main pump of
the circuit and the pump and heater of a heating system meant to be used in very low ambient
temperatures.
The goal of this control system has been to keep the coolant inlet and outlet of the FC at temperatures of
68°C and 80°C respectively, or more specifically, to keep a maximum temperature difference between the
FC inlet and outlet of 12K.
The designed control system has been tested on a test bed whose components are slightly different to the
ones that will be used on the resulting car of the INN-BALANCE project, however the goal was also to
develop a control system robust enough to be able to cope with any changes on the dimensions and
typology of the components.
For this purpose, the test bench used has a heat exchanger whose coolant pressure loss between inlet and
outlet is very similar to the one of the FC to substitute it.
Another key component different on the test bench is the radiator, whose dimensions are not the
definitive ones and the same applies for the fan that blows air through it.
The experiments performed at the test bench showed a control system capable of keeping the
temperatures at the desired levels as long as the heat dissipation capabilities of the cooling system are not
surpassed.


Background Patients with eating disorders are characterized by pathological eating habits and a tendency to overestimate their weight and body shape. Virtual reality shows promise for the evaluation and management of patients with eating disorders. This technology, when accepted by this population, allows immersion in virtual environments, assessment, and therapeutic approaches, by exposing users to high-calorie foods or changes in body shape. Objective To better understand the value of virtual reality, we conducted a review of the literature, including clinical studies proposing the use of virtual reality for the evaluation and management of patients with eating disorders. Methods We searched PubMed, PsycINFO, ScienceDirect, the Cochrane Library, Scopus, and Web of Science up to April 2017. We created the list of keywords based on two domains: virtual reality and eating disorders. We used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses to identify, select, and critically appraise relevant research while minimizing bias. Results The initial database searches identified 311 articles, 149 of which we removed as duplicates. We analyzed the resulting set of 26 unique studies that met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 8 studies were randomized controlled trials, 13 were nonrandomized studies, and 5 were clinical trials with only 1 participant. Most articles focused on clinical populations (19/26, 73%), with the remainder reporting case-control studies (7/26, 27%). Most of the studies used visual immersive equipment (16/26, 62%) with a head-mounted display (15/16, 94%). Two main areas of interest emerged from these studies: virtual work on patients' body image (7/26, 27%) and exposure to virtual food stimuli (10/26, 38%). Conclusions We conducted a broad analysis of studies on the use of virtual reality in patients with eating disorders. This review of the literature showed that virtual reality is an acceptable and promising therapeutic tool for patients with eating disorders.


Globalisation of trade brought with it a much increased level of forgery and counterfeits. Recent surge of counterfeit activity, afforded by rapid advancing digital reprographic technology, has heightened the urgent need for advanced anti-counterfeit technology. One of the essential features of a good anti-counterfeit/brand protection product is its capability against imitation. Thus, any product of which the special feature could be reproduced by any means, i.e. through deciphering of the mechanism thus reproducing the effect or through imitating the effect via a different and cheaper mechanism, would not be suitable for high-end anti-counterfeit/brand protection applications. Unique colour features have been a widely employed anti-counterfeit feature. This talk will provide a review of the status quo of counterfeit activities and anti-counterfeit technologies, and an overview of relevant future development, with a focus on the role of colour and novel colorants.


This study presents an overview of recent measurements of the dephasing time and gain recovery dynamics in InGaAs/GaAs QD material and devices. Results indicate that the ultrafast gain recovery on a subpicosecond time scale measured at room temperature is related to the presence of several carriers in the excited states of the QD, i.e. to a multiexciton state with several available channels for relaxation.


This study presents Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) implementation of Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM) technique for 5-level Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Inverter (CHB-MLI). The fast and easy generation of switching signals for multilevel inverters (MLI) which has complex switching schemes is an important issue. In addition, because of parallel processing, the use of FPGAs in the field of power electronics has increased. MATLAB-Simulink software and Xilinx System Generator (XSG) are used to analyze CHB-MLI and generate architecture of PWM signals which embedded in FPGA. After implementation on Digilent Genesys II FPGA board, the experimental gate signals waveforms are observed on a digital oscilloscope.


After a long period of stagnancy, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) has recently attracted renewed interest from applied researchers in Management modeling and engineering analysis. At the same seen, the software availability with different alternatives to SEM packages has considerably increased. To guide scholars to have an informed choice and make a better decision, the existing software programs will be reviewed in this paper; their weaknesses and strengths will be identified. Thus, applied researchers should treat the SEM research objectives and their data with caution to the result of this comparison presents in this paper. Specifically we review details of SPSS addition SEM analysis, Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS), and compare it with other SEM programs such as EQS, HLM, Mplus, PLS graph, and LSREL. AMOS will be compared to software packages for Latent variable analysis/ modeling of covariance structure/Path analysis/ mediation analysis. To enrich the result of our comparative review, we rank the presented SEM software through a Multi attribute decision making method, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique, using opinions of a group of SEM experts in field of business modeling, to rank SEM software packages; this ranking study result shows AMOS above others.


Physiology teaching resources have advanced to include innovative pedagogical approaches that meet the learning expectations of the current generation of students, while at the same time ensuring content delivery is accurate and the use of technologies is appropriate. We developed a quick experimental assay protocol to introduce the basic concepts of cardiac rhythms, and to demonstrate simultaneously that smartphone applications are a reliable and cost-effective tool for data collection in teaching the scientific method and performing physiology activities. The cardiac rhythm dance (CRD) protocol engages students in dancing a cardiac cyclelike movement to the rhythm of classical, pop, and samba music, and measuring their own cardiac frequency. Students collected their own data using the app Instant Heart Rate (Azumio). The CRD protocol allowed students to conclude that cardiac cycle-like movements paced by a pop song could represent the normal cardiac rhythm, whereas a classical song induced a significant reduction of heart rate, and the samba song significantly increased heart rate compared with the pop song. After group discussion, students considered that the pop rhythm is more realistic of day-by-day movement rhythms and is equivalent to the steady state of daily cardiac rhythms. Students considered the bradycardic and tachycardic movements to the dancing performed to the classical and samba rhythms, respectively. Thus the CRD protocol provides a multiple sensory-based and active learning resource that can engage students in learning cardiovascular physiology and recognizes smartphones as scientific instruments for collecting data during hands-on activities.


Parallel monitoring of222Rn and its short-lived progeny ( 218Po and214Pb) were carried out from November 2007 to April 2008 close to the top of the Schauinsland mountain, partly covered with forest, in South-West Germany. Samples were aspired from the same location at 2.5 m above ground level. We measured 222Rn with a dual flow loop, two-filter detector and its short-lived progeny with a one-filter detector. A reference sector for events, facing a steep valley and dominated by pasture, was used to minimize differences between 222Rn and progeny-derived 222Rn activity concentrations. In the two major wind sectors covered by forest to a distance between 60 m and 80 m towards the station progeny-derived 222Rn activity concentration was on average equal to 87% (without precipitation) and 74% (with precipitation) of222Rn activity concentration. The observations show that most of the time both detector types follow the same pattern. Still, there is no single disequilibrium factor that could be used to exactly transform short-lived progeny to222Rn activity concentration under all meteorological conditions.


Voltage and Var control (VVC) schemes (i.e., centralized and decentralized controls) are discussed. Probabilistic load flow (PLF) method is applied on a real distribution system; the results from Monte Carlo simulations of both control schemes are compared. Models of WC element (on load tap changer, shunt capacitor and automatic voltage regulator of generator) are discussed. Voltage and reactive power in a decentralized control scheme are regulated independently through WC elements. The centralized VVC control scheme is accomplished by utilizing a genetic algorithm (GA) to minimize the number of buses in which voltage violation occurs. Advantages and disadvantages from both control schemes are discussed. Numerical results from a real distribution system are applied as a test bed.


Mutations in genes encoding chromatin-remodeling proteins are often identified in a variety of cancers. For example, the histone demethylase JARID1C is frequently inactivated in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC); however, it is largely unknown how JARID1C dysfunction promotes cancer. Here, we determined that JARID1C binds broadly to chromatin domains characterized by the trimethylation of lysine 9 (H3K9me3), which is a histone mark enriched in heterochromatin. Moreover, we found that JARID1C localizes on heterochromatin, is required for heterochromatin replication, and forms a complex with established players of heterochromatin assembly, including SUV39H1 and HP1α, as well as with proteins not previously associated with heterochromatin assembly, such as the cullin 4 (CUL4) complex adaptor protein DDB1. Transcription on heterochromatin is tightly suppressed to safeguard the genome, and in ccRCC cells, JARID1C inactivation led to the unrestrained expression of heterochromatic noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs) that in turn triggered genomic instability. Moreover, ccRCC patients harboring JARID1C mutations exhibited aberrant ncRNA expression and increased genomic rearrangements compared with ccRCC patients with tumors endowed with other genetic lesions. Together, these data suggest that inactivation of JARID1C in renal cancer leads to heterochromatin disruption, genomic rearrangement, and aggressive ccRCCs. Moreover, our results shed light on a mechanism that underlies genomic instability in sporadic cancers.


ITO thin films used in PTCDA/Si detector should be made at low temperature for low temperature resistance of substrate. ITO thin films were deposited at low temperature by RF magnetron sputtering. Properties of ITO thin films such as conductivity and transmission measured by 4 point probe and UV spectral photometry respectively. The results show that the sputtering pressure is an important parameter in the deposition of indium tin oxide(ITO) thin films, which affects the properties of ITO films. The optimized parameter for preparation of ITO thin films at low temperature are sputtering pressure 0.45 Pa, sputtering power 45W. Meanwhile, the post-annealing is not necessary.


Sex worker–run community-based organizations (CBOs) in India have worked to curb violence, stigma, and poverty as an effective way to address HIV vulnerability. In addition to preventing and mitigating the impacts of HIV through structural interventions, many CBOs are now leading antitrafficking efforts. As this study explores, inconsistencies between antitrafficking and HIV prevention mandates inhibit sex workers in their efforts to prevent underage sex work while minimizing prospective harms. Within the Indian sociopolitical context, HIV prevention and antitrafficking response programs not only overlap but are often at odds with each other. This article highlights two dominant feminist arguments—advanced by anti–sex work and sex work feminists—that have influenced feminist practice related to sex workers. This study examines forty-one case studies of underage sex workers who were removed from brothels and case-managed by sex worker CBOs in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, India. The findings reveal that, even when executed by sex workers themselves, rescue models do not address structural barriers, thus providing unsatisfactory solutions. Not only are HIV programs compromised, sex workers (both the rescued and rescuer) are potentially exposed to excessive harm. Through the antitrafficking cases observed in the study, sex workers are neither victims nor resilient and effective change agents. An effective model requires that sex workers engage in structural interventions by reexamining the criminal codes that affect them, holding police and protective facilities accountable, and challenging social norms related to gender and sexuality.


We demonstrate an embedded one-dimensional (1D) topological photonic structure based on a III-V photonic crystal (PhC) lattice on silicon. Localized emission is detected from the topological state which forms at the interface between two lattices with different topological invariants, whereby this single mode is centered in the photonic bandgap. The 1D beam structure significantly reduces the area compared to a 2D structure, which together with our embedded fabrication platform is an important metric for future dense integration. The emission from this topological mode shows evidence of lasing in the telecom O-band with the threshold of around ~14 μW at room temperature. Compared to a similar trivial PhC structure, the topological design is inherently single mode. We evaluate the robustness of the topological resonant mode by introducing a defect right at the interface, which does not affect the existence of the topological state.


Public confidence in the courts is a matter of perception or appearance that may be present or absent irrespective of whether public confidence is warranted in fact. Court defenders, who are convinced that judges (on the whole) have acted properly and deserve the public's trust, have thus devoted themselves to ensuring that judges appear to act properly too. This chapter explores the century-long campaign to regulate appearances of judicial impropriety and the consequences of that campaign - intended and not - for an impartial judiciary and public confidence in the courts. The author chronicles the emergence and eventual entrenchment of rules regulating the appearance of judicial impropriety. As regulators came to take appearances ever more seriously, they promulgated enforceable rules that prohibited judges from saying things or associating with others in ways that could create appearance problems. Paradoxically, this effort to strengthen rules regulating appearances by making them more enforceable may (to an as yet uncertain extent) have had the opposite effect, rendering them vulnerable to constitutional challenge on first amendment grounds. The net effect has been a detectable shift away from rules prohibiting speech or association that creates appearance problems, toward rules that implicitly authorize the underlying speech or association but require judges who thereby create appearance problems to disqualify themselves from cases in which such problems would call their impartiality into question. This development has potentially profound implications and suggests the possibility of a new paradigm in which judges are welcomed into the marketplace of ideas and encouraged, not just permitted, to say what is on their minds (on the theory that more speech is always better than less), so that litigants can better inform themselves of judicial biases that may warrant disqualification. There are two possible consequences: One is that judges will start to recuse themselves en masse from cases raising issues upon which they have taken public positions. Second, and more likely, judges will reinterpret the disqualification rules to allow judges to hear cases despite appearance problems created by their speech and association, so as to ensure an adequate judicial workforce. In that event, what was once a system of regulation designed to minimize appearance problems will have gradually given way to a system of partial impartiality that cultivates them.


Directed activation of a system of positive emotional reinforcement induces regulatory effect on limbic-neocortical mechanisms of the sleep-waking cycle organization in rats after chronic alcoholization carried out in periods of decreased and increased circadian rhythms of emotional activity. In animals with high level of positive emotional drive after the alcoholization self-stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus suppresses hypersynchronous paroxysmal activity in waking EEG, decreases the content of waking in the sleep-waking cycle, restores the paradoxical phase of sleep. In animals with inhibition of positive emotional drive in consequence of alcoholization self-stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus has no essential effect on the mechanisms of regulation of the sleep-waking cycle.


When rabbit reticulocytes are incubated with n-butanol, an agent disruptive to the structure and function of cellular membranes, there is a rapid disaggregation of the polyribosomes. Reaggregation is promoted when the n-butanol is diluted below a critical concentration or when the cells are washed free of the alcohol and the incubation is continued. Neither disaggregation nor regeneration will occur in the absence of protein synthesis. These observations suggest that integrity of the reticulocyte membrane is necessary for the attachment of ribosomes to messenger RNA and for the formation of polyribosomes.


Urban building energy analysis has attracted more attention as the population living in cities increases as does the associated energy consumption in urban environments. This paper proposes a systematic bottom-up method to conduct energy analysis and assess energy saving potentials by combining dynamic engineering-based energy models, machine learning models, and global sensitivity analysis within the GIS (Geographic Information System) environment for large-scale urban buildings. This method includes five steps: database construction of building parameters, automation of creating building models at the GIS environment, construction of machine learning models for building energy assessment, sensitivity analysis for choosing energy saving measures, and GIS visual evaluation of energy saving schemes. Campus buildings in Tianjin (China) are used as a case study to demonstrate the application of the method proposed in this research. The results indicate that the method proposed here can provide reliable and fast analysis to evaluate the energy performance of urban buildings and determine effective energy saving measures to reduce energy consumption of urban buildings. Moreover, the GIS-based analysis is very useful to both create energy models of buildings and display energy analysis results for urban buildings.


Differences in topographic structure, vegetation structure, and surface wetness exist between peatland classes, making active remote sensing techniques such as SAR and LiDAR promising for peatland mapping. As the timing of green-up, senescence, and hydrologic conditions vary differently in peatland classes, and in comparison with upland classes, full growing-season time series SAR imagery was expected to produce higher accuracy classification results than using only a few select SAR images. Both interferometric coherence, amplitude and difference in amplitude time series datasets were assessed, as it was hypothesized that these may be able to capture subtle changes in phenology and hydrology, which in turn differentiate classes throughout a growing season. Groups of variables were compared for their effectiveness in Random Forest classification for both Sentinel-1 and Radarsat-2. The Shapley value was used to determine the contribution of each group of variables in thirty scenarios, and Mean Decrease in Accuracy was compared to evaluate its ability to rank variables by relative importance. Despite being dual-pol, the results of classifications using Sentinel-1 coherence (12-day repeat) were significantly better than using fully polarimetric RADARSAT-2 coherence (24-day repeat), likely owing to the difference in baseline and specific acquisition dates of the data in this study. Overall, full growing season Sentinel-1 coherence time series produced higher accuracy results than fully polarimetric quad pol RADARSAT-2 coherence amplitude, difference in amplitude and polarimetric decomposition time series. Using a full growing season of time-series imagery in classification resulted in higher accuracy than using a few dates over a growing season. Using mean decrease in accuracy to rank and reduce variables resulted in a weaker classification than if the entire time series is used.


The root system of wheat seedlings (Triticum aestivum L. SUN 9E) was pruned to two seminal roots. One of the roots was supplied with different levels of NO3, the other was deprived of N. Root respiration and the increment of C and N in roots and shoots were measured to determine the C/N ratio of the phloem sap feeding the N-deprived roots. Thus it was possible to determine translocation of N from the shoots to the roots. It was calculated that the C/N ratio of phloem sap feeding roots of plants growing at optimal and suboptimal N supply was ca 54. A supra-optimal N supply reduced, whilst shading increased, the C/N ratio of phloem sap. At optimal N supply 11% of all N transported to the shoots was retranslocated to the roots. Both a supra-optimal and a limiting N supply increased translocation of N back to the roots to 18% of the N translocated to the shoot, whilst shading of the plants decreased the proportion cycled to 7%. At the optimal N supply, 40% more N was translocated to the roots from the shoot than was incorporated by them. At a lower supply of N, 80% more N was imported from the shoots than was incorporated by these roots. It is suggested that the distribution of N between roots and shoots predominantly occurs in the shoots. The specific mass transfer rate in seminal roots was determined. The highest value was found for roots grown with an optimal N supply: 1.1 mg carbohydrate s−1 cm−2 (sieve tube) which is well within the range observed for other plant organs. Roots supplied with NO3 produced more and longer laterals than N-deprived roots. It is suggested that this is due to the effect of NO3 on import of carbon and other components transported in the mass flow with carbon.


Developing the skill to form derivatives is a slow incremental process even for native speakers of English, starting in elementary school and continuing through high school. In fact, it appears to be a universally challenging area of the lexicon. Nevertheless, studies have shown that it is one of the most important skills to possess for a learner aiming to enlarge his/her L2 vocabulary and that it therefore may be worth the while for learners spending time on gaining mastery of affixation rules.In the present investigation, Swedish university students having studied English as an L2 for at least 10 years were asked to take two similarly constructed tests, both of which were frequency-based (both stem and suffix considered) and focusing on the students' knowledge of productive use of suffixes. The first part of the tests was a gap-filling context-based exercise whereas the second part, digging even further into the students' vocabulary depth, tested the students' knowledge of word families. (The results of native speakers of English were used as a point of reference for the test in English.) The students were also asked to evaluate their L1 and L2 knowledge of suffixation. The present study thus aims to address the following research questions:Considering 1) the frequencies of the stems and suffixes and 2) the meanings of the suffixes and what word classes they form, what 1) quantitative and 2) qualitative knowledge of suffixation do Swedish university students have in English as their L2 as compared to in their L1?


In almost every company, a defined hierarchy, job description and organizational chart defines who is in charge of a certain issue. Nevertheless, most employees will recall situations, in which teams without a predefined leader had to collaborate. Being able to navigate these settings effectively is extremely helpful for the information security professional. More often than not, different departments and heterogenous groups have to work together to improve the security posture of a corporation. An open mind, real interest in the ideas of colleagues as well as a reasonable distribution of responsibilities and tasks is needed. Well known principles in information security are actually quite well suited for these circumstances.


The geo-economy presents Lebanon with challenges associated with being a nexus for regional fault lines and risks from its dependence on capital inflows. Despite markedly improved security conditions since the start of 2015, anxiety over regional turmoil and potential spillover effectspersist. All the while, Lebanon continues to be, by far, the largest host of Syrian refugees (in proportion to the population). In addition, the economy's dependence on its diaspora to finance internal and external imbalances exposes Lebanon to economic and political conditions beyond its influence. Despite these challenges and risks, the political process remains impaired with the vacant presidency completing its second year with uncertain prospects of a near-term resolution. On the other hand, a short-term solution has been found to the garbage crisis that has left piles of trash uncollected on the streets across the country since summer 2015. The Lebanon Economic Monitor provides an update on key economic developments and policies over the past six months. It also presents findings from recent World Bank work on Lebanon. It places them in a longer-term and global context, and assesses the implications of these developments and other changes in policy on the outlook for Lebanon. Its coverage ranges from the macro-economy to financial markets to indicators of human welfare and development.


Using linear kinetic plasma theory the relation between electron density and magnetic field fluctuations for low-frequency plasma waves for Maxwellian background distribution functions of arbitrary temperatures in an uniform magnetic field is derived. By taking the non-relativistic temperature limit this relation is calculated for the diffuse intercloud medium in our Galaxy. The diffuse intercloud medium is the dominant phase of the interstellar medium with respect to radio wave propagation, dispersion and rotation measure studies. The differences between the relation of electron density and magnetic field fluctuations from the linear kinetic theory as compared to the classical MHD theory are established and discussed.


Mixing music is an art form. Like any of the arts,
it requires a high level of training, intuition and
creativity. Technical knowledge alone can help
a mixing engineer understand how to fix a problematic
mix, but it takes instinct to deal with
unique situations and a sense of artistic style to
give a mix a character that's appropriate to the
music and performer.
In last month's article, I explained how to plan and record your
modern metal music project. In this feature, I'll take you through the
next step of the process, mixing the project, with a focus on the technical
and creative aspects of the task. By reading this, you can avoid
the numerous mistakes that novices make and learn procedures and
common approaches to take when mixing modern metal.


In the last decade we treated and followed up 48 children in the Department of Paediatric Surgery in Heidelberg with fractures and cartilaginous injuries of the knee joint. In 13 cases we could see severe osseous injuries localised at the epiphyseal plate. With decreasing frequency, the following conditions occurred: avulsion fractures of the intercondylar eminence, fracture of the tibia head in children, fractures of the patella and avulsions of the tuberositas tibiae. Furthermore, we report about the special problems of foreign bodies incorporated in the knee joints of children, particularly if sewing needles are involved.


The purpose of this research review of gender dimensions within research of municipal planning is to learn from previous studies as a new field of research is being established, namely gender and climate mitigation and adaptation. The research review has shown that women are often depicted as a homogenous group with common interests within the different areas that are included in the study: housing, civil rights to participate and influence political decisions, safety. planning and planning practices, risk and crisis management. The result from the research review encourages further research that broadens the picture of both the multiple lives of women and men and likewise illustrates multiple family forms. This research can challenge the notion of men and women as homogeneous groups. Studies of the construction and reconstruction of gender as a social and cultural category may further develop this field. An intersectional perspective on urban planning may also visualize how gender, ethnicity, family, sexuality, age and class intersect and contribute to various forms of exclusion.


Recently, National Police Agency of Japan has announced a plan to revise a speed limit regulation. Numbers of research have been done to determine an appropriate speed limit, but none of them have taken an analysis by Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) into account. AHP can help to reveal the road users' viewpoints. Therefore, this research proposes the application of AHP to determine the preferable speed limit on Hokkaido roads for logistics-based businesses. Herein, safety, driving comfort and travel time were used as AHP criteria. A verification of AHP with our previous speed limit studies was also accomplished. The results showed that safety was the most important criterion, followed by travel time and driving comfort, respectively. In conclusion, according to the road and traffic conditions, we implied that these preferable speed limits are appropriate for Hokkaido roads. So it could be a guideline to set the new limits for Hokkaido roads. Furthermore, AHP is proposed to be an effective tool to determine these appropriate speed limits.


Objective To investigate the possible coexistence of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations in patients with β myosin heavy chain (βMHC) linked hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) who develop congestive heart failure. Design Molecular analysis of βMHC and mtDNA gene defects in patients with HCM. Setting Cardiovascular molecular diagnostic and heart transplantation reference centre in north Italy. Patients Four patients with HCM who underwent heart transplantation for end stage heart failure, and after pedigree analysis of 60 relatives, eight additional affected patients and 27 unaffected relatives. A total of 111 unrelated healthy adult volunteers served as controls. Disease controls included an additional 27 patients with HCM and 102 with dilated cardiomyopathy. Intervention Molecular analysis of DNA from myocardial and skeletal muscle tissue and from peripheral blood specimens. Main outcome measures Screening for mutations in βMHC (exons 3–23) and mtDNA tRNA (n = 22) genes with denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis or single strand conformational polymorphism followed by automated DNA sequencing. Results One proband (kindred A) (plus seven affected relatives) had arginine 249 glutamine (Arg249Gln) βMHC and heteroplasmic mtDNA tRNAIle A4300G mutations. Another unrelated patient (kindred B) with sporadic HCM had identical mutations. The remaining two patients (kindred C), a mother and son, had a novel βMHC mutation (lysine 450 glutamic acid) (Lys450Glu) and a heteroplasmic missense (T9957C, phenylalanine (Phe)–>leucine (Leu)) mtDNA mutation in subunit III of the cytochrome C oxidase gene. The amount of mutant mtDNA was higher in the myocardium than in skeletal muscle or peripheral blood and in affected patients than in asymptomatic relatives. Mutations were absent in the controls. Pathological and biochemical characteristics of patients with mutations Arg249Gln plus A4300G (kindreds A and B) were identical, but different from those of the two patients with Lys450Glu plus T9957C(Phe–>Leu) mutations (kindred C). Cytochrome C oxidase activity and histoenzymatic staining were severely decreased in the two patients in kindreds A and B, but were unaffected in the two in kindred C. Conclusions βMHC gene and mtDNA mutations may coexist in patients with HCM and end stage congestive heart failure. Although βMHC gene mutations seem to be the true determinants of HCM, both mtDNA mutations in these patients have known prerequisites for pathogenicity. Coexistence of other genetic abnormalities in βMHC linked HCM, such as mtDNA mutations, may contribute to variable phenotypic expression and explain the heterogeneous behaviour of HCM.


Aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy and density-functional theory calculations have been used to investigate the atomic and electronic structure of stair-rod dislocations connected via stacking faults in GaAs nanowires. At the apexes, two distinct dislocation cores consisting of single-column pairs of either gallium or arsenic were identified. Ab initio calculations reveal an overall reduction in the energy gap with the development of two bands of filled and empty localized states at the edges of valence and conduction bands in the Ga core and in the As core, respectively. Our results suggest the behavior of stair-rod dislocations along the nanowire as one-dimensional charge channels, which could host free carriers upon appropriate doping.


This volume contains all the known Old Syriac inscriptions from Edessa and the area around Osrhoene in Northern Mesopotamia from the first three centuries C.E., the number of which has substantially increased over the last decades. The texts are given in estrangelo script and are accompanied by an extensive philological and historical commentary. The originals are presented in photographs and line drawings. The volume also contains chapters on the script of these inscriptions, on the language and on the history and culture of Edessa. Two appendices offer the texts of three parchments written in Syriac and originating from the same area, and of known but still unpublished inscriptions. The book concludes with indices of words and proper names, which are complement to the Dictionary of the North-West Semitic Inscriptions (Brill, 1995), and with a full bibliography.


Colonic adenocarcinoma affects approximately 6% of adults in many Western countries. β-Carotene (BC), a safe, inexpensive, and widely available compound, has been proposed as a cancer chemopreventive agent. To evaluate whether BC shows promise as an inhibitor of colonic carcinogenesis, we studied 20 male subjects who had previously undergone resection of colonic adenocarcinoma. Each subject received β-carotene, 30 mg orally, daily for 6 months. Rectal mucosa was sampled at multiple intervals prior to, during, and following BC administration. Mucosal ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity and serum and mucosal BC concentrations were determined at each interval. ODC activity was inhibited by 44% ( P < 0.05) and 57% ( P < 0.01) after 2 and 9 weeks, respectively, of BC administration and remained low compared with baseline even 6 months following discontinuation of BC. Serum and mucosal BC concentrations increased as expected during BC administration and remained elevated for 6 months following BC discontinuation. The demonstrated inhibition of rectal mucosal ODC activity in these patients with resected colon cancer suggests that BC may prove useful as a cancer chemopreventive agent.


Network-wide control of large-scale urban traffic networks using a hierarchical framework can be more efficient and flexible than centralized strategies for reducing the traffic congestion in big cities, because it can adequately address some problems that occur in controlling such large systems, e.g., computational complexity, multiple control objectives, weak robustness to uncertainties, and so on. In this paper, we propose a two-level hierarchical control framework for large-scale urban traffic networks. At the upper level, based on decomposing a heterogeneous traffic network into several homogeneous subnetworks, a higher level optimization problem using the concept of macroscopic fundamental diagram is formulated to deal with the traffic demand-balance problem. At the lower level, the controller with a more detailed traffic flow model for each subnetwork determines the optimal signal timing within the given region under the guidance of the upper-level controller through communication. For the application of this architecture in real time, the model-based predictive control approach is utilized so as to obtain the best solutions for both levels. Moreover, in order to decrease the computational complexity, a distributed control scheme within each subnetwork is developed at the lower level. The proposed approach is evaluated by simulation under different scenarios on a hypothetical urban traffic network, and the performance is compared with that of other control strategies.


Thousands of Iraqis have settled in Egypt since 2003, escaping death threats, torture, kidnappings and military attacks to face uncertainty in their lives and increasing strain on the psychosocial challenges in their new lives. This explorative study describes the psychosocial stress faced by these Iraqi refugees in Egypt. Two hundred and four Iraqis in Egypt filled in a checklist focussing on four groups of stress factors. The data provided by this study demonstrate the contribution of violence to Iraqi refugees' life from a number of sources. More than 56% have experienced multiple traumatic situations before immigration and the refugees themselves report major impacts on their health, mental health and socio-economic demands. A motivated desire to return home was preferred by only one third of respondents.


Herein, we discuss three methods to partition the total molecular energy into additive atomic contributions within the framework of Bader's atoms-in-molecules theory and in the particular context of Kohn-Sham density functional theory. The first method is derived from the virial theorem, whereas the two other schemes, termed "standard" and "model", are based on Pendás' interacting-quantum-atoms decomposition. The methods are then compared for a dataset of molecules of interest for direct application in organic chemistry and biochemistry. Finally, the relevance of the three methods for the prediction of intrinsic reactivity properties (e.g., electrophilicity) or for unravelling the nature of chemical bonding (e.g., in halogen bonds, beyond the pure electrostatic point of view), is examined and paves the way for their more systematic use for the in silico design of new reactants.


We describe SCoT, a Spoken Conversational Tutor, which has been implemented in order to investigate the advantages of natural language in tutoring, especially spoken language. SCoT uses a generic architecture for conversational intelligence which has capabilities such as turn management and coordination of multi-modal input and output. SCoT also includes a set of domain independent tutorial recipes, a domain specific production-rule knowledge base, and many natural language components including a bi-directional grammar, a speech recognizer, and a text-to-speech synthesizer. SCoT leads a reflective tutorial discussion based on the details of a problem solving session with a real-time Navy shipboard damage control simulator. The tutor attempts to identify and remediate gaps in the student's understanding of damage control doctrine by decomposing its tutorial goals into dialogue acts, which are then acted on by the dialogue manager to facilitate the conversation.


A major drawback of surrogate-assisted evolutionary algorithms is their limited ability to perform in high-dimensional scenarios. This paper describes a possible meta-algorithm scheme for the application of surrogate models to high-dimensional optimization problems. The main assumption of the proposed method is that for some of these expensive problems the nonlinear interactions between variables are sparse. If these interactions can be represented as a band matrix, they can be exploited by applying low-dimensional heuristic solvers in a sliding window fashion to the high-dimensional problem. A special type of composite test function is presented and the proposed meta-algorithm is compared against standard evolutionary algorithms.


This study explores the use of Social and Environmental Performance Indicators (SEPIs) by European companies, starting from the premise that little is known about how companies internally plan, implement, and monitor their Corporate So-cial Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. More specifically, given the increasing cri-tiques raised against companies' CSR practices and the related CSR-washing debate, this study investigates the extent to which firms use SEPIs by distinguishing between internal (i.e., decision-making and control) and external (i.e., disclosure) types of use. It also examines the organizational factors associated with such different uses (namely, size, industry, and compliance to social or environmental cer-tification standards). Empirically, the study is based on a survey conducted across a sample of 129 European firms. This work contributes to the social and environmental accounting literature by collecting and analyzing large-scale empirical evi-dence that provides a better understanding of the relationships between external and internal uses of indicators, as well as of the influence of firm characteristics on such uses, across both the social and the environmental dimension of the CSR domain.


PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare 2 methods of suprapubic catheter (SPC) change, instillation and observation. The instillation method requires instillation of saline to the bladder prior to SPC removal; the observation method is completed taking note of the angle and length at which the indwelling SPC is withdrawn and observation of urine from the newer catheter when inserted. DESIGN: Nonrandomized crossover trial. SUBJECTS AND SETTING: Fifty-nine community-dwelling adults who were long-term SPC users participated in the study. There were 38 males and 21 females, with a mean age of 68.5 years. Most had chronic, progressive, or complex comorbidity. The mean duration of SPC use was 3.5 years. METHODS: Participants underwent 4 SPC changes using the instillation method, followed by 4 changes using the observation method. Data were collected using a 3-part survey document; it queried demographic and catheter-related clinical information, the number of symptomatic catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) requiring antibiotic treatment, the number of catheter blockages that occurred during data collection, and nurses' experiences during catheter changes (including narrative feedback-related problems, concerns, or comments in relation to each catheter change). The comparative CAUTI and blockage outcomes were analyzed using McNemar's test for 2 paired samples. Narrative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: There were 231 SPC changes using the observation method. No episodes of catheter displacement occurred. Analysis of nurses' narrative revealed concerns regarding "slowness" of urine drainage from the newly inserted catheter. This concern was addressed by promotion of adequate hydration prior to catheter change. There were 120 paired useable surveys included in the CAUTI and blockage incidence comparison; no statistically significant differences in CAUTI occurrences were found based on catheter change method (11 vs 11, P = .7728). No differences in the catheter blockage episodes were found based on catheter change method (8 vs 6, P = .7237). CONCLUSION: The observation method of SPC change was as effective as the instillation method.


This thesis focusses on the intersection 3D Boolean set operation on voxel data represented as surfaces, with other 3D surface based vector data, in GIS. The Application of this research makes the linkage with geohydrology possible: based on the vectorised GeoTOP (TNO) data the water infiltration and storage capacity of specific locations can be determined.


Controlling the structure and dynamics of thin films of ionizable polymers at water interfaces is critical to their many applications. As the chemical diversity within one polymer is increased, controlling the structure and dynamics of the polymer, which is a key to their use, becomes a challenge. Here molecular dynamics simulations (MD) are used to obtain molecular insight into the structure and dynamics of thin films of one such macromolecule at the interface with water. The polymer consists of an ABCBA topology with randomly sulfonated polystyrene (C), tethered symmetrically to flexible poly(ethylene-r-propylene) blocks (B), and end-capped by a poly(t-butylstyrene) block (A). The compositions of the interfacial and bulk regions of thin films of the ABCBA polymers are followed as a function of exposure time to water. We find that interfacial rearrangements take place where buried ionic segments migrate toward the water interface. The hydrophobic blocks collapse and rearrange to minimize their exposure to water. The water that initially drives interfacial reengagements breaks the ionic clusters within the film, forming a dynamic hydrophilic internal network within the hydrophobic segments.


The current rapid growth in the economy and the patterns of consumers' consumption and behavior worldwide are the main cause of environmental deterioration. As the environment continues to worsen, it has become a persistent public concern in the developed countries and has recently awakens developing countries to the green movement. This paper is essentially exploratory in nature and has two objectives. The first objective is to compare gender with attitudes towards the environment and green products. The second objective is to investigate the relationship between attitude towards the environment and green products. Result from the independent sample t-test shows that there were no significant differences between gender in their environmental attitudes and attitudes on green products. The rotated factor matrix validated the underlying dimensions of environmental attitudes into three major dimensions (environmental protection, government's role, and personal norm). Results from the multiple linear regression analysis revealed that consumer attitudes on the government's role and their personal norm towards the environment contributed significantly to their attitude on green product. Further investigation revealed that personal norm was the most important contributor to the attitude towards green product. However, environmental protection did not contribute significantly to consumers' attitudes on green product.Keywords: Environmental attitude; green products; consumer behaviour; Malaysia


Background: In the present clinical trial, we compared the efficacy and safety of the generic clopidogrel besylate (CB) with the innovator clopidogrel hydrogen sulfate (CHS) salt in patients eligible to receive clopidogrel. Methods: A prospective 2-arm, multicenter, open-label, phase 4 clinical trial. Consecutive patients (n = 1864) were screened and 1800 were enrolled in the trial and randomized to CHS or CB. Primary efficacy end point was the composite of myocardial infarction, stroke, or death from vascular causes, and primary safety end point was rate of bleeding events as defined by Bleeding Academic Research Consortium criteria. Results: At 12-month follow-up, no differences were observed between CB (n = 759) and CHS (n = 798) in primary efficacy and safety end points (age, sex, history of percutaneous coronary intervention adjusted odds ratio [OR], 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.41-1.21 and OR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.51-1.29, respectively) between CHS and CB. Analyses of efficacy and safety in subgroups that were defined according to the qualifying diagnosis revealed that there was no difference between CHS and CB. Conclusion: The efficacy and safety of CB administered for 12 months for the secondary prevention of atherothrombotic events are similar to that of CHS. (Salts of Clopidogrel: Investigation to ENsure Clinical Equivalence, SCIENCE trial; ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:NCT02126982).


Purpose: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project recently uncovered four molecular subtypes of gastric cancer: Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), microsatellite instability (MSI), genomically stable (GS), and chromosomal instability (CIN). However, their clinical significances are currently unknown. We aimed to investigate the relationship between subtypes and prognosis of patients with gastric cancer. Experimental Design: Gene expression data from a TCGA cohort (n = 262) were used to develop a subtype prediction model, and the association of each subtype with survival and benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy was tested in 2 other cohorts (n = 267 and 432). An integrated risk assessment model (TCGA risk score) was also developed. Results: EBV subtype was associated with the best prognosis, and GS subtype was associated with the worst prognosis. Patients with MSI and CIN subtypes had poorer overall survival than those with EBV subtype but better overall survival than those with GS subtype (P = 0.004 and 0.03 in two cohorts, respectively). In multivariate Cox regression analyses, TCGA risk score was an independent prognostic factor [HR, 1.5; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.2–1.9; P = 0.001]. Patients with the CIN subtype experienced the greatest benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy (HR, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.16–0.94; P = 0.03) and those with the GS subtype had the least benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy (HR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.36–1.89; P = 0.65). Conclusions: Our prediction model successfully stratified patients by survival and adjuvant chemotherapy outcomes. Further development of the prediction model is warranted. Clin Cancer Res; 23(15); 4441–9. ©2017 AACR.


The focus of work of medical physicists in 1980's was on quality control and quality assurance.
Radiation
safety was important but was dominated by occupational radiation protection. A series of over exposures of patients in radiotherapy, nuclear medicine and observation of skin injuries among patients undergoing interventional procedures in 1990's started creating the need for focus on patient protection. It gave medical physicists new directions to develop expertise in patient dosimetry and dose management. Publications creating awareness on cancer risks from CT in early part of the current century and over exposures in CT in 2008 brought radiation risks in public domain and created challenging situations for medical physicists. Increasing multiple exposures of individual patient and patient doses of few tens of mSv or exceeding 100 mSv are increasing the role of medical physicists. Expansion of usage of fluoroscopy in the hands of clinical professionals with hardly any training in radiation protection shall require further role for medical physicists. The increasing publications in journals, recent changes in Safety Standards, California law, all increase responsibilities of medical physicists in patient protection. Newer technological developments in dose efficiency and protective devices increase percentage of time devoted by medical physicists on radiation protection activities. Without radiation protection, the roles, responsibilities and day-to-day involvement of medical physicists in diagnostic radiology becomes questionable. In coming years either medical
radiation protection may emerge as a specialty or medical physicists will have to keep major part of day-to-day work on radiation protection.
Learning Objectives:
1.
To understand how radiation protection has been increasing its role in day-to-day activities of medical physicist
2.
To be aware about international safety Standards, national and State regulations that require higher attention to radiation protection than in past
3.
To be aware about possible emergence of medical
radiation protection as a specialty and challenges for medical physicists.


The Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) is increasingly becoming the chosen technology for current and future precision neutrino oscillation experiments due to its superior capability in particle tracking and energy calorimetry. In LArTPCs, calorimetric information is critical for particle identification, which is the foundation for the neutrino cross-section and oscillation measurements as well as searches for beyond standard model physics. One of the primary challenges in employing LArTPC technology is characterizing its performance and quantifying the associated systematic uncertainties. MicroBooNE, the longest operating LArTPC to date, has performed numerous such measurements, including studies of detector physics and electromagnetic shower reconstruction. Here we present results on the operation and performance of the detector during its data taking, highlighting accomplishments toward calorimetric reconstruction, calibration, and detector physics.


This paper presents results of field work during December-February 1980-81 at three sites in Argentina on the escape behaviour of White-headed Flightless Steamer Ducks Tachyeres leucocephalus, Flying Steamer Ducks T. patachonicus, and Magellanic Flightless Steamer Ducks T. pteneres. The three species studied differed in use of escape modes, not including flight. T. leucocephalus differed substantially from the generally more similar T. ptereres and T. patachonicus in frequency of escape modes, diversity of escape behaviour, and two-act behavioural sequences. Escape behaviour of pursued T. leucocephalus and T. patachonicus were affected by flock size and gunfire. We speculate that escape diving is used primarily to elude aerial predators (especially by ducklings) and that steaming functions as a target-obscuring method for escape from underwater predators.


Purpose – Th e present paper adds to the most recent current of literature that highlights the importance of innovation in services, analyzing a setting – Portugal – which is relatively backward in terms of innovation performance. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a sample of 4128 companies (including 1489 service companies) that answered the Community Innovation Survey 2008, we assessed, by resorting to logistic regressions, the determinants of innovation performance in Portuguese companies. Findings – 1) Workers who have the 1st cycle of higher education have a positive and signifi cant impact on the innovation of service companies whereas PhDs are detrimental to companies' innovative performance; 2) Companies in the service sector in general, and in KIBS in particular, that eff ectively invest in external and (continuous) internal RD 3) External scientifi c sources of information for innovation are crucial (and much more than in manufacturing) to the innovation performance of service companies, especially of KIBS; 4) Similarly to manufacturing, participation in innovation activities in cooperation with foreign partners appears as a key factor in the innovative performance of service companies. Originality/value – The study demonstrates the influence of companies' openness and the relative importance attributed to diff erent sources of information for innovation on innovation outcomes of service companies (and KIBS) compared to manufacturing industries.


The effect of water stress, commencing from the late cell division period, on in vivo grain growth was studied in relation to grain sucrose, water status and in vitro starch synthesis. Detached ear experiments were conducted to assess the effect of sink dehydration on grain filling processes under non-limiting source conditions. Water stress caused premature grain desiccation and resulted in a marked decline in grain sucrose and reduced grain weight. Both sucrose uptake and conversion to starch in vitro were increased by mild water stress (solute potential (Ψs)−0·8 MPa). However, a decline in Ψs below this optimum resulted in reduced sucrose uptake and starch synthesis not attributable to a reduced supply of sucrose. Stressed grains which failed to accumulate dry matter in vivo showed significant starch synthesis when cultured in vitro. Grains from in situ and osmotically stressed plants showed a lower capacity for starch synthesis in vitro. The results indicate that grain filling processes under stress conditions are limited by (1) low substrate availability and low Ψs within the sink i.e. an unfavourable seed environment (non-lasting effect) and (2) reduced synthetic capacity of the sink (carry-over effect).


Current laboratory tests demonstrate vibration and orientation control of a highly flexible vehicle using only the GPS carrier to measure motion. A 30 ft long test structure has been constructed that is suspended from above, and moves in a manner analogous to that of a flexible orbiting platform. Experiments show simultaneous rigid-body orientation and elastic vibration control by closing a feedback loop from the GPS differential carrier phase (DCP) measurements to onboard thrusters.

Use of the subcentimeter-level differential position information in DCP measurements is challenging because of inherent, and arbitrarily large, measurement biases (cycle ambiguities). This paper presents a new bias ambiguity resolution algorithm that combines measurements taken during motion of the structure with a model of the platform dynamics to initialize the unknown biases. The techniques presented are applicable to systems that exhibit relative motions with frequencies ( 1 cm) that are detectable by current receivers.


PurposeWith the simultaneous increase of natural hazards and land- and resource-vulnerable women in the rural coasts of Bangladesh, large- and medium-scale infrastructure and livelihood programmes by government and non-government-organisations have been plenty. Yet, gender-responsive and livelihood-integrated infrastructure for these women's adaptation against increasing coastal vulnerabilities has been scarce. This paper outlines an infrastructure framework for improving their livelihood resilience in the scarcity of similar research.Design/methodology/approachA case study approach was assumed for this research. Based on a conceptual framework, in-depth interviews and focus-group-discussions with vulnerable women and key-informant-interview of NGO/government respondents were primarily used for data collection at Latachapli – a disaster-vulnerable coastal village in Southwest Bangladesh. Findings were derived primarily through inductive thematic coding.FindingsRural coastal women's livelihood vulnerabilities result from the lack of adequate, spatial/infrastructural and integrated (socio-economic) facilities and institutions. There is a clear need for a community-level and gender-responsive spatio-physical platform to create income generation/livelihood diversification opportunities irrespective of seasonalities, skill/capacity development and sharing/networking possibilities.Research limitations/implicationsDue to case-specificity, research findings are representative but not generalisable. Further research is needed, especially at the intersection of gender, inequality and infrastructure design/planning regarding vulnerable women's resilience.Practical implicationsThis proposed infrastructure framework can be considered for similar disaster-vulnerable rural coastal settings as a development policy and a physical infrastructure.Originality/valueThis case study's in-depth probing into vulnerable coastal women's livelihoods contributes to a growing body of knowledge, highlights their complex needs, and re-conceptualises gender-responsive infrastructure in similar communities' sustainable development. Piecemeal funding for social services will be more effective if coordinated with and allocated to appropriate engineering infrastructure. With access to proper community facilities and diverse livelihood opportunities all around the year (in this case, a multipurpose gender-sensitive infrastructure), communities would be more empowered to self-organise and support each other in delivering necessary soft services.


Insect orientation and circadian rhythms are sensitive to static magnetic field (MF) 1, 2. We've previously shown that mammalian-like CryII is indispensable for magnetoreception of cockroach Blattella germanica. Recently, we focused on its circadian rhythm. We found congruent impact of UV light, MF and also broad-band radiofrequency field (RF) all slowing the rhythm down. The clock was even more sensitive to RF than to MF. Considering the ubiquity of RF noise the findings have consequences for environment and health protection.


Healthpolicy in many countries emphasises the public release of comparative data on clinical performance as one way of improving the quality of health care. Evi- dence to date is that it is health care providers (hospitals and the sta V within them) that are most likely to respond to such data, yet little is known about how health care providers view and use these data. Case studies of six US hospitals were studied (two academic medical centres, two private not-for-profit medical centres, a group model health maintenance organisation hospital, and an inner city public provider "safety net" hospital) using semi-structured interviews followed by a broad thematic analysis located within an interpretive paradigm. Within these settings, 35 interviews were held with 31 individuals (chief executive of-ficer, chief of sta V , chief of cardiology, senior nurse, senior quality managers, and front line sta V ). The results showed that key stakeholders in these providers were often (but not always) antipathetic towards publicly released comparative data. Such data were seen as lacking in legitimacy and their meanings were dis- puted. Nonetheless, the public nature of these data did lead to some actions in response, more so when the data showed that local performance was poor. There was little integration between internal and external data systems. These findings sug- gest that the public release of comparative data may help to ensure that greater attention is paid to the quality agenda within health care providers, but greater e V orts are needed both to develop internal systems of quality improvement and to integrate these more e V ectively with external data systems.


Immediately before the end of the Soviet Union, a Special Exhibition was held in Moscow, showing Egyptian objects from fifty Museums in ten former Soviet Republics. At the same time, Professors Berlev and Hodjash, two eminent Russian Egyptologists, prepared a catalogue of all known Egyptian objects in the Soviet Union, including Aegyptiaca found on the territory of the former USSR. These Museums are now scattered over several independent states, and today it would be impossible to bring together such a documentation. This volume therefore contains a unique survey of Egyptian treasures in all parts of the former Soviet Union.


Approximately 15 states in the United States test Administrative Law on their bar examinations, and that number has increased and is likely to keep increasing. The growing inclusion of Administrative Law as a bar subject reflects a growing recognition that almost all lawyers will need some knowledge of Administrative Law in their practices, regardless of field of expertise. Moreover, the increase implicitly acknowledges that neither Civil Procedure nor Criminal Procedure ? two common and more traditional bar subjects ? adequately prepare budding lawyers to deal with an administrative tribunal. Nevertheless, only about 20 American law schools require their students to take Administrative Law. Moreover, these schools split fairly evenly between those, like the Columbia University School of Law, that require their first-year students to take a course that gives them a general introduction to the regulatory state, and those law schools, like the Franklin Pierce School of Law, that require the full Administrative Law course as an upper-division requirement. In contrast, LL.B. programs in the UK and Australia routinely require all law students to take Administrative Law. Their inclusion of Administrative Law as a required subject -- often in the first or second year, reflects a realization that Administrative Law is in fact a different practice that normal courtroom law. As one commentator has noted for Australian law, [t]he position occupied by administrative tribunals and the type of law applied therein, known as administrative law, is a matter of great importance. Moreover, UK and Australian law schools are more apt to describe Administrative Law as a course about the relationship between the citizen and the state (University of Wales), the control of power as exercised by government and other 'public' bodies (Queen's University of Belfast), Control of Discretionary Power (Cambridge). Finally, Australian law schools show a distinct tendency to describe Administrative Law as a practice-oriented course. Bond University, for example, discusses access to government information and the nature and scope of administrative and judicial review of government decisions and actions in terms of the order in which they can arise in practice, while Flinders University incorporates the theory and practice of legal interviewing into its required Administrative Law course. My presentation and paper will explore the reluctance of American law schools to require that all law students be exposed to at least the basics of Administrative Law through a comparison of how UK, Australian, and American law schools currently treat Administrative Law as a subject. In particular, I will argue that whereas UK and Australian law schools tend to portray Administrative Law as a practice- and procedure-oriented subject with, at least in the UK, important international connections, American law schools currently describe Administrative Law in three basic ways: (1) as a subject with strong connections to Constitutional Law; (2) as an amalgam of various constitutional, statutory, and procedural doctrines; and (3) as a specific facet of how the American legal system functions, with its own specific rules and procedures. In addition, my presentation will use the comparative approach to explore the extent to which American law schools continue to view Administrative Law as a course for public interest lawyers-to-be, but not for lawyers in general.


Tracing and reference counting are uniformly viewed as being fundamentally different approaches to garbage collection that possess very distinct performance properties. We have implemented high-performance collectors of both types, and in the process observed that the more we optimized them, the more similarly they behaved - that they seem to share some deep structure. We present a formulation of the two algorithms that shows that they are in fact duals of each other. Intuitively, the difference is that tracing operates on live objects, or "matter", while reference counting operates on dead objects, or "anti-matter". For every operation performed by the tracing collector, there is a precisely corresponding anti-operation performed by the reference counting collector. Using this framework, we show that all high-performance collectors (for example, deferred reference counting and generational collection) are in fact hybrids of tracing and reference counting. We develop a uniform cost-model for the collectors to quantify the trade-offs that result from choosing different hybridizations of tracing and reference counting. This allows the correct scheme to be selected based on system performance requirements and the expected properties of the target application.


Drawing on a rich two-year ethnographic study that followed evolutionary biologists in their everyday work, this paper explores the making of scientific knowledge through the spatial conceptual imagery developed by Deleuze and Guattari (1987). In particular, this paper focuses on a field expedition to the South Pacific and investigates how different rhythms, forces and intensities are harmonized and assembled in the production of scientific knowledge. Within this setting, maintaining a balance between striating and smoothing forces is an important, yet difficult task. On many occasions, alternative rhythms and 'tropical forces' jeopardized the success of the expedition, despite the scientists' best efforts to formalize the research process and bring the striations of the laboratory into the forest. Paradoxically, these challenges also played a key role in the inquiry as they opened new possibilities and ultimately led to more intense engagements with the tropical forest and its rhythms and spatiality.


Monospecific anti-[rat alpha-foetoprotein(alpha-FP)] immunoglobulin G was coupled to CNBr-activated Sepharose-4B (4.5 mg/ml packed volume of gel) to yield an adsorbent. The immunoaffinity column was used to isolate alpha-FP from neonatal-rat skin. Purified skin alpha-FP was found to be immunologically and electrophoretically similar to serum alpha-FP. It yielded a single band with mol.wt. 68000 on sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis. However, on polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis under non-denaturing conditions, the alpha-FP displayed slow- and fast-moving variants similar to those observed in serum alpha-FP. A Scatchard plot of oestradiol binding to the alpha-FP yielded an association constant of 2.5 X 10(9)M-1 by dextran-coated-charcoal and 0.75 X 10(8)M-1 by Sephadex-gel-filtration procedures respectively. Skin explants from newborn rats were found to incorporate [14C]leucine into immunoprecipitable intracellular alpha-FP. Cycloheximide inhibited the synthesis of alpha-FP in skin explant culture. Our results indicate that newborn-rat skin contains alpha-FP that is similar to serum alpha-FP and which may arise in neonatal-rat skin as a result of synthesis in situ.


Comparing the responses of participants in reasoning experiments
to the normative standard of Bayes' Theorem has been
a popular empirical approach for almost half a century. One
longstanding finding is that people's belief revision is conservative
with respect to the normative prescriptions of Bayes'
Theorem, that is, beliefs are revised less than they should be.
In this paper, we consider a novel explanation of conservatism,
namely that participants do not perceive information
provided to them in experiments as coming from a fully reliable
source. From the Bayesian perspective, less reliable evidence
should lead to more conservative belief revision. Thus,
there may be less of discrepancy between normative predictions
and behavioural data than previously assumed.


Presents a method for automatically generating test cases according to structural coverage criteria. We show how a model checker can be used to automatically generate complete test sequences that provide a pre-defined coverage of any software development artifact that can be represented as a finite state model. Our goal is to help reduce the high cost of developing test cases for safety-critical software applications that require a certain level of coverage for certification, e.g. safety-critical avionics systems that need to demonstrate MC/DC (modified condition and decision) coverage of the code. We define a formal framework which is suitable for modeling software artifacts like requirements models, software specifications or implementations. We then show how various structural coverage criteria can be formalized and used to make a model checker provide test sequences to achieve this coverage. To illustrate our approach, we demonstrate how a model checker can be used to generate test sequences for MC/DC coverage of a small case example.


To ascertain if decentralization of mental health services, making them more accessible to the public, would be reflected in a decrease in the dropout rate, a comparison was made between dropout rates just prior to and immediately following decentralization. This involved examining 1350 closed files representing cases seen during a three-year period after decentralization and comparing the findings with those of a previous study of files of 588 cases seen during a year before decentralization. The dropout rate decreased from 46% to 43%; while statistically significant, this change was too small to be of any practical importance. However, analysis of demographic and clinical variables in the post-decentralization sample proved most interesting. On the whole, it confirmed the findings from previous investigations, i.e. dropouts tended to be younger, less well-educated, of low socioeconomic status (SES), and were most commonly diagnosed as having a personality disorder. Although some therapists had a comparatively large proportion of dropouts, this discrepancy may reflect the distribution of difficult cases rather than the effectiveness of the therapists.


Upon learning that 95% of all fatal traffic accidents occur within three miles of one's home, an acquaintance moved to another residence four miles away and is still alive today. The world might be a much better place if most obstacles could be overcome this handily. Unfortunately, the problem of allied health personnel shortages appears to be more intractable. Because the situation is complicated in nature, it is most unlikely that any single remedy will suffice. Public and private interests have joined forces in many states, but it is abundantly clear that conventional market forces are unlikely to prevail. These forces usually focus on supply and demand. While shortages may cause entry-level salaries to rise, they do not stimulate academic institutions to increase their output nor will they affect the availability of research funding and/or doctoral training programs. Current market forces compel health facilities to engage in bidding wars for scarce manpower. Although individual job seekers may benefit, this practice does not increase the number of training program graduates. The federal government has a decisive role to play in assuring an adequate number of personnel to meet this nation's health care needs. Assistance is necessary in the form of providing entry- and advanced-level traineeships to accelerate the flow of part-time students pursuing doctorates, and to fund model student recruitment/retention projects. This role should encompass attracting students (particularly from minority and underserved portions of the population) to academic programs. The Disadvantaged Minority Health Improvement Act, PL 101-527 that was enacted in November 1990, contains only minimal provisions for allied health. Eligibility for student scholarship assistance is restricted to a small handful of allied health professions. Moreover, allied health is not eligible for the loan repayment program aimed at individuals who agree to serve on the faculty of health professions schools that historically train individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. It is difficult to envision how serious underrepresentation of minorities in allied health will be affected by this legislation. Clearly, special consideration by the federal government is required to produce a cadre of allied health caregivers drawn from the ranks of those whom they serve. Allied health research is needed to expand the basis for practice, increase knowledge, and generate studies pertaining to the efficacy of practice. Funding is required to support the development of scholars and scholarship in allied health institutions to ensure a pool of qualified faculty members. Finally, many difficulties result from a lack of governmental visibility.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


This paper considers how research into teachers' theories in English language teaching (ELT) can enhance our understanding of instruction, and provide the basis of effective teacher development (TD) work. The nature of teachers' theories is illustrated with examples from classroom research on grammar teaching. A TD strategy through which teachers examine the theories underlying their own work in teaching grammar is also outlined, together with materials to assist teachers in implementing this strategy.


In order to develop stamping well pump with high efficiency, 4SP14 stainless steel stamping well pump was set as an example. Combined with the features of stamping technology, this research was taken on raising the efficiency of stamping well pump, using hydraulic design of impeller and CFD and regression test method. The experiment was designed with four factors including impeller inlet angle Δβ1, impeller outlet angle β2, and impeller outlet width b2 and inlet width of guide vane B3. 30 groups of programs were designed according to CCD central composite test method. The whole flow field of well pump at the operating point was simulated by FLUENT using the standard k-ε model, SIMPLE algorithm, first-order upwind scheme. 30 group of efficiency were obtained. Use regression equation to fit the function relationship between the efficiency value and each factor. Through the analysis of the regression equation, the optimal combination of geometric parameters can be found as inlet angle 4º, outlet angle 27.5º, outlet width 9.5mm and inlet width of guide vane 11.5mm. After manufactured and tested according to the above geometric parameters, the efficiency of the optimal model pump reaches 60.28%, which reaches the international advanced level.


Introduction: Adnexal torsion (AT) is a gynecologic emergency with a nonspecific presentation especially in pregnancy. Given the serious implications of delayed therapy on ovarian function and maternal morbidity, the diagnosis of AT should be considered in all pregnant women presenting with acute lower abdominal pain. We present a case of AT complicating an early pregnancy and further delve into literature to highlight the challenges encountered in the management of AT in early pregnancy.
Case Report: A 26 year old priming ravida presented at 8 weeks gestation with acute right sided low abdominal pains for 2 day duration. Her subsequent workup suggested AT necessitating a laparoscopic evaluation where right adnexectomy was carried out due to hemorrhagic and necrotic changes. She was subsequently put on progesterone therapy though she suffered a miscarriage on the 5th day following the surgery. She recovered well from the surgery.
 Conclusion: Adnexal torsion is a serious gynecologic emergency in pregnancy. It should be suspected in all cases of acute abdominal pain in pregnancy alongside the other differentials. Early operative intervention should be instituted preferably by laparoscopy in order to preserve ovarian function.


The formation mechanisms of unburned hydrocarbons (HC) in low NOx, homogeneous type Diesel combustion have been investigated in both standard and optical access single cylinder engines operating under low load (2 and 4 bar IMEP) conditions. In the standard (i.e. nonoptical) engine, parameters such as injection timing, intake temperature and global equivalence ratio were varied in order to analyse the role of bulk quenching on HC emissions formation. Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) imaging of in-cylinder unburned HC within the bulk gases was performed on the optical-access engine. Furthermore, studies were performed in order to ascertain whether the piston topland crevice volume contributes significantly to engine-out HC emissions. Finally, the role of piston-top fuel films and their impact on HC emissions was studied. This was investigated on the all-metal engine using two fuels of different volatilities. Parallel studies were also performed on the optical-access engine via in-cylinder tracer Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) imaging. Results obtained in the standard and optical access engines revealed that bulk quenching represents one of the most significant sources of unburned HC for the wall guided combustion chamber geometry. Bulk quenching occurs as a result of incomplete fuel oxidation reactions in regions where the local equivalence ratio is either too fuel-lean or too fuel-rich or alternatively in excessively low temperature zones within the combustion chamber. Experimental data obtained from both the standard and optical access engines also revealed that liquid film formation occurs, and is particularly prevalent for early Start Of Injection (SOI) strategies. Furthermore, liquid films remain present at the end of combustion and are believed to represent a significant source of engine-out HC emissions. In-cylinder imaging of liquid films suggest that the film eventually detaches from the piston surface later during the expansion stroke, resembling a flash boiling phenomenon. The results appear to confirm that unburned fuel arising from piston-top fuel films contribute directly to the engine-out HC emissions.


Background Medicinal plants are widely used in many cultures, traditions, and civilizations worldwide. Plants with high contents of the valuable biological compounds can efficiently cure many diseases. This study is aimed at assessing, for the first time, the anti-α-amylase, antilipase, antimicrobial, and cytotoxic activities of Nonea obtusifolia (Willd.) DC. of five extracts from Palestine. Methods The antimicrobial activity was estimated using well diffusion method for N. obtusifolia plant of five extracts against eight ATCC (American Type Culture Collection) and clinical isolates. The cytotoxic effects for these extracts were evaluated against HeLa (cervical) carcinoma cells using MTS (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium) assay. Moreover, the lipase and α-amylase inhibitory properties were determined using standard biomedical assays. Results The acetone extract of N. obtusifolia plant showed a more potent α-amylase inhibitory compared with acarbose with IC50 values of 25.7 ± 0.08 and 28.18 ± 1.22 μg/ml, respectively. Additionally, the acetone and methanol extracts revealed moderate antilipase activity compared to orlistat with IC50 values of 30.19 ± 0.11, 33.11 ± 0.13, and 12.3 ± 0.35 μg/ml, respectively. The methylene chloride extract was found to inhibit the growth of all the tested bacterial and fungal strains and also found to have potential cytotoxic effect against HeLa cancer cell line. Conclusion This research work reports for the first time the biological activity of N. obtusifolia from Palestine, and the results were promising indicating that N. obtusifolia extracts contain valuable bioactive molecules that have a potential anti-α-amylase, antilipase, antibacterial, and antifungal cytotoxic potentials. Therefore, N. obtusifolia could have a medical significance in the future.


Renewable energies are increasingly contributing to the overall volume of the electricity grid and demand besides high efficiency, greater flexibility of the conventional fossil power plants. To optimize these objectives, extensive CFD calculations are required in most cases. For example, transient CFD calculations are only rarely combined with an optimizer because of their high demand on computational resources and time. Surrogate models, which are mathematical methods to learn and approximate the relationship between input and output parameters, are a common way to solve these problems. Once they are trained, they can perform the evaluations within seconds and replace the expensive simulation. Of course, real calculations are still needed to generate the training data. Therefore, it is useful to apply efficient and sequentially extensible design plans.
 This paper presents a new surrogate model method, based on a deep neural network learning the non-stationary hyperparameters of combined Gaussian process covariance matrices. It is used to approximate the complex and time consuming transient CFD simulation of a combined high-intermediate pressure steam turbine double shell outer casing. To minimize the exergy loss, the exhaust geometry is optimized in a single and multi-objective optimization on the surrogate models. The multi-objective optimization also includes the uniform velocity distribution of the steam in different areas of the casing, to predict the thermal loading of the steam turbine inner casing and to avoid an imbalanced thermal loading. A sequential sampling approach combined with a sensitivity analysis is used to find the minimum number of samples needed to train the surrogate models in order to gain sufficient prediction quality.
 Additionally, the paper describes the initial geometry, its numerical setup and the required control mechanisms to avoid noisy designs, which might complicate the surrogate model training. There is also a comparison of the initial and chosen optimal designs.


Study Design. T2 mapping was used to quantify the water content of lumbar spine intervertebral discs (IVDs) and facet joints before and after physiological loading. Objective. The aim of this study was to clarify the interaction between lumbar spine IVD and facet joints as load-bearing structures by measuring the water content of their matrix after physiological loading using T2 mapping magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Summary of Background Data. To date, few reports have functionally evaluated lumbar spine IVD and facet joints, and their interaction in vivo. T2 mapping may help detect changes in the water content of IVD and articular cartilage of facet joints before and after physiological loading, thereby enabling the evaluation of changes in interacted water retention between IVD and facet joints. Methods. Twenty asymptomatic volunteers (10 female and 10 male volunteers; mean age, 19.3 years; age range, 19–20 years) underwent MRI before and after physiological loading such as lumbar flexion, extension, and rotation. Each IVD from L1/2 to L5/S1 was sliced at center of the disc space, and the T2 value was measured at the nucleus pulposus (NP), anterior annulus fibrosus (AF), posterior AF, and bilateral facet joints. Results. In the NP, T2 values significantly decreased after exercise at every lumbar spinal level. In the anterior AF, there were no significant differences in T2 values at any level. In the posterior AF, T2 values significantly increased only at L4/5. In the bilateral facet joints, T2 values significantly decreased after exercise at every level. Conclusion. There was a significant decrease in the water content of facet joints and the NP at every lumbar spinal level after dynamic loading by physical lumbar exercise. These changes appear to play an important and interactional role in the maintenance of the interstitial matrix in the IVD NP and cartilage in the facet joint. Level of Evidence: 3


Compact chip-scale comb sources are of significant interest for many practical applications. Here, we experimentally study the generation of supercontinuum (SC) in an axially varying integrated waveguide. We show that the local tuning of the dispersion enables the continuous blue shift of dispersive waves thanks to their trapping by the strongly compressed pump pulse. This mechanism provides new insight into supercontinuum generation in a dispersion varying integrated waveguide. Pumped close to 2.2 $\mu$m in the femtosecond regime and at a pulse energy of $\sim$ 4 pJ, the output spectrum extends from 1.1 $\mu$m up to 2.76 $\mu$m and shows good coherence properties. Octave-spanning SC is also observed at input energy as low as $\sim$ 0.9 pJ. We show that the supercontinuum is more robust against variations of the input pulse parameters and is also spectrally flatter in our numerically optimized waveguide than in fixed-width waveguides. This research demonstrates the potential of dispersion varying waveguides for coherent SC generation and paves the way for integrated low power applications, such as chip-scale frequency comb generation, precision spectroscopy, optical frequency metrology, and wide-band wavelength division multiplexing in the near-infrared.


Metaprogramming is widely supported by several programming languages. There exist metaprogramming at time of editing, compilation, and execution. In many languages metaprogramming is defined by a protocol that determines in what time and what can be done. Metaprogramming allows a programmer to "participate" in the build process. One of the ways to do this is through meta-objects built by ordinary users that are loaded by the compiler. Meta-objects can make conferences, modifications, and code generation either in the source code or in the Abstract Syntax Tree. However, to use metaprogramming it is necessary to have an in-depth knowledge of the programming language, thus making it tedious and costly to use. On the other hand, we have the visual generation of code. For example, several IDEs support code generation for GUI (Graphical User Interface) in several programming languages although they do not interact directly with the compiler. In this work, we present a plugin for the Eclipse IDE and a Codegs library. Codegs are a special type of compile-time metaobject in Cyan supported by the plugin to the Eclipse IDE, providing visual resources at edit time. The plugin communicates with the compiler through the of Cyan Metaobject Protocol.


Bilateral filtration has proven an effective tool for denoising CT data. The classic filter uses Gaussian domain and range weighting functions in 2D. More recently, other distributions have yielded more accurate results in specific applications, and the bilateral filtration framework has been extended to higher dimensions. In this study, brute-force optimization is employed to evaluate the use of several alternative distributions for both domain and range weighting: Andrew's Sine Wave, El Fallah Ford, Gaussian, Flat, Lorentzian, Huber's Minimax, Tukey's Bi-weight, and Cosine. Two variations on the classic bilateral filter, which use median filtration to reduce bias in range weights, are also investigated: median-centric and hybrid bilateral filtration. Using the 4D MOBY mouse phantom reconstructed with noise (stdev. ~ 65 HU), hybrid bilateral filtration, a combination of the classic and median-centric filters, with Flat domain and range weighting is shown to provide optimal denoising results (PSNRs: 31.69, classic; 31.58 median-centric; 32.25, hybrid). To validate these phantom studies, the optimal filters are also applied to in vivo, 4D cardiac micro-CT data acquired in the mouse. In a constant region of the left ventricle, hybrid bilateral filtration with Flat domain and range weighting is shown to provide optimal smoothing (stdev: original, 72.2 HU; classic, 20.3 HU; median-centric, 24.1 HU; hybrid, 15.9 HU). While the optimal results were obtained using 4D filtration, the 3D hybrid filter is ultimately recommended for denoising 4D cardiac micro-CT data, because it is more computationally tractable and less prone to artifacts (MOBY PSNR: 32.05; left ventricle stdev: 20.5 HU).