Escherichia coli single-stranded DNA binding protein (SSB) is an essential homotetramer that binds ssDNA and recruits multiple proteins to their sites of action during genomic maintenance. Each SSB subunit contains an N-terminal globular oligonucleotide/oligosaccharide binding fold (OB-fold) and an intrinsically disordered C-terminal domain. SSB binds ssDNA in multiple modes in vitro, including the fully wrapped (SSB)65 and (SSB)56 modes, in which ssDNA contacts all four OB-folds, and the highly cooperative (SSB)35 mode, in which ssDNA contacts an average of only two OB-folds. These modes can both be populated under physiological conditions. While these different modes might be used for different functions, this has been difficult to assess. Here we used a dimeric SSB construct with two covalently linked OB-folds to disable ssDNA binding in two of the four OB-folds thus preventing formation of fully wrapped DNA complexes in vitro, although they retain a wild-type-like, salt-dependent shift in cooperative binding to ssDNA. These variants complement wild-type SSB in vivo indicating that a fully wrapped mode is not essential for function. These results do not preclude a normal function for a fully wrapped mode, but do indicate that E. coli tolerates some flexibility with regards to its SSB binding modes.


INTRODUCTION
The Second Expert Report, Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective from World Cancer Research Fund/ American Institute for Cancer Research (WCRF/AICR), features general and special recommendations for cancer prevention.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate nutritional and lifestyle characteristics of newly diagnosed women with breast cancer according to WCRF/AICR Second Report recommendations.

METHODS
This is a cross-sectional study with a sample of 133 women. Diet data were obtained from a food frequency questionnaire and anthropometric data by standard procedures. The characteristics of study population were evaluated in comparison with the recommendations of the WCRF/AICR Second Report.

RESULTS
Mean age of participants was 51.6 ± 10.98 (range 28-78) years; 35% was obese and 51% had waist circumference higher than the maximum cut-off value. Regarding life style, 80% of participants were sedentary, 89% reported diet presenting energy density higher than 125 kcal/100 g, 51% reported consumption of fruits and vegetables lower than 400 g/day, and 47% reported high consumption of red or processed meat (≥ 500 g per week). Just 3% related consumption of alcoholic beverages above the recommendation (15 g/day), 82% presented the intake of sodium lower than the limit recommended (2.4 g/day), and the use of dietary supplements was reported by 11% of the subjects. Finally 51% of women reported breast feeding for less than 6 months.

CONCLUSION
Inadequacies were observed related to behavior factors that can result in weight gain, such as inadequate physical activity and high energy density diet.


This article examines the ways in which social support is provided to the young employees of companies in Russia. Through analysing the data of comparative monographic research, the purposes, priorities, tools and effects of corporate policy toward young people can be revealed. The authors arrived at the conclusion that the increased interest of the Russian business leadership toward their younger staff can be explained not only within the general context of modernization. It also is a response to the overall ageing of company personnel and the specific challenges of reproducing labour in the industrial sector of economy. The latter point can explain the selective character of corporate youth policy and its preference toward solving more pressing and current staff shortages. The most serious obstacles to the effective realization of young people's potential in corporate social policy are weak communication and the lack of effective support mechanisms for innovationon the part of workers and specialists, which could create a link between innovation and the desire for professional and career growth.


This paper proposes and implements an intuitive and pervasive solution for neonatal EEG monitoring assisted by sonification and deep learning AI that provides information about neonatal brain health to all neonatal healthcare professionals, particularly those without EEG interpretation expertise. The system aims to increase the demographic of clinicians capable of diagnosing abnormalities in neonatal EEG. The proposed system uses a low-cost and low-power EEG acquisition system. An Android app provides single-channel EEG visualization, traffic-light indication of the presence of neonatal seizures provided by a trained, deep convolutional neural network and an algorithm for EEG sonification, designed to facilitate the perception of changes in EEG morphology specific to neonatal seizures. The multifaceted EEG interpretation framework is presented and the implemented mobile platform architecture is analyzed with respect to its power consumption and accuracy.


Levothyroxine administration has been suggested to be an effective treatment for canine von Willebrand disease (vWd), but evidence supporting this treatment is lacking. Effects of levothyroxine administration were evaluated in 8 euthyroid Doberman Pinschers with plasma von Willebrand factor (vWf) concentrations < 15%, characteristic of type 1 vWd. Levothyroxine (0.04 mg/kg PO q12h) and placebo were administered for 30 days in a 2-period, 2-treatment, double-blinded, crossover design with a 30-day washout period between treatments. Buccal mucosal bleeding time (BMBT), plasma vWf concentration (vWf: Ag), vWf collagen binding activity (vWf:CBA), factor VIII coagulant activity (FVIII:C), and serum concentrations of total thyroxine (T4), free thyroxine (fT4), 3,5,3'-triiodothyronine (T3), and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) were measured on days 0, 2, and 30 of each treatment period. The 8 dogs (1 male, 7 females) had markedly low plasma vWf:Ag (mean, 8.9%; reference range, 70-180%) and vWf:CBA (mean, 11.1%; reference range, >70%). Response to placebo versus levothyroxine treatment was not significantly different between groups at day 0, 2, or 30 for BMBT, vWf:Ag, vWf:CBA, and FVIII:C. Serum T4, fT4, and T3 concentrations were significantly higher and serum TSH significantly lower in the levothyroxine-treated group than in the placebo group at days 2 and 30. Administration of levothyroxine at 0.04 mg/kg caused laboratory evidence of hyperthyroidism but did not affect plasma FVIII:C and vWf:Ag concentrations or vWf-dependent collagen binding and BMBT. The results of this study failed to identify a direct action of levothyroxine supplementation on plasma vWf concentration or activity in euthyroid Doberman Pinschers with vWd.


This study investigates the application of the sliding mode controller (SMC) for induction motor drive variable-displacement pressure-compensated pump (VDPC) system powered by an isolated wind/storage unit. The variable-speed wind turbine (WT) is proposed to drive a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) which, feeds a storing energy unit and stand-alone dynamic load. Energy storage systems are required for power balance quality in isolated wind power systems. Initially, the holistic model of the entire system is achieved, including the PMSG, the uncontrolled rectifier, the buck converter, the storage system, induction machine and the VDPC pump. The power absorbed by the connected loads can be effectively delivered and supplied by the proposed WT and energy storage systems, subject to sliding mode control. The main purposes are to supply 220 V/50 Hz through a three-phase inverter and adjust the IM speed and VDPC pump flow rate. The performance of the proposed system is compared with the neural network control and the conventional PID control. The simulation results show that the proposed system with the SMC and neural network controllers has good performance and good prediction of the electrical parameter waveforms compared with the case of the conventional PID controller.


ABSTRACT This article discusses the lived experience of professional identity during the transition from student to newly qualified practitioner. Current literature emphasises the first year of practice as an important time of transition to a job-role as student social workers move into postqualification practice. However, little research has explored how professional identity is experienced during this significant transition period. A phenomenological research project was undertaken with 17 newly qualified social workers in Australia. Three in-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with each participant across the first 12 months postqualification period. Participants described how they resolved personal, relational, and professional questions about becoming and being a qualified social worker. The findings indicate a need for educators, employers, supervisors and the profession to consider how to better integrate professional identity within curricula, policy, and systems of support, including supervision. IMPLICATIONS Findings from a qualitive study indicate the initial postqualification period involves consolidating, clarifying, and settling into professional identity as a newly qualified social worker. Educators should consider a holistic approach to curriculum development regarding professional identity and how they prepare graduating students to transition from university to qualified practice. The Australian Association of Social Work, supervisors, and managers are prompted to recognise and support the changing and evolving professional identities of newly qualified practitioners.


Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of nutrition education intervention among university students in terms of social, psychological factors and nutrition-related Quality of Life (NQoL) outcomes after receiving a 10-week nutrition education. Longitudinal and randomised study design was adopted for the study. Methods: A total of 417 respondents from four public universities in Terengganu were randomly assigned to either intervention group (IG = 205) or control group (CG = 212). The IG received nutrition education through three tools; 1) conventional lecture, 2) brochures and 3) text messages via short messaging system (SMS) while the CG not received any intervention. Students completed the Malay version of NQoL (6 domains; 49 items; Likert-type responses=1-5) and SF-36 (8 domains; 36 items) at pre-intervention and post-intervention. Data analysis was carried out by using SPSS 16.0 utilising descriptive and parametric statistics. Results: Ninety-one percent of participants (IG = 178; CG = 202) completed the study (age = 19.1±1.1 years; female = 87.6%; Malay = 98.2%). After controlling for possible confounders (eg. weight, waist, hip circumferences and pre-intervention scores for each domain), IG possessed relatively higher NQoL score in Food Impact (p = 0.001), Social / Interpersonal (p = 0.008), Physical Functioning (p = 0.011) and Overall NQoL (p = 0.001). However, Psychological Factors did not show any significant difference for both groups. Conclusion: Although the intervention did not generate significant impact in the psychological component over a period of 10 weeks, significant positive impacts in Social/Interpersonal aspects and NQoL were clearly shown. ASEAN Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 15 (1): January – June 2014: 39-53.


Legionella spp. are waterborne pathogens that can cause Legionnaires' disease, a potentially fatal acute pneumonia. These pathogens can be resistant to many disinfectants and thermal treatments. Furthermore, detection of Legionella spp. is often difficult. Thus, infections with these organisms can be difficult to both diagnose and treat. Bacteriophages are a potential tool to be exploited to aid in the elimination and detection of Legionella spp. in both the environment and in patients, with bacteriophage based diagnostics and therapeutics already successfully developed for many organisms. However, little is known about the bacteriophages capable of infecting Legionella spp. Thus, with little knowledge available in the literature, the aim of this study was to obtain more information on Legionella spp. bacteriophages using both experimental and bioinformatic approaches. Here, a diverse range of Legionella spp. were collected either through isolation from 262 water and soil samples from natural reservoirs and man-made systems, or obtained from Public Health England. These strains were then characterised, used to isolate bacteriophages from the same 262 samples, and were exposed to prophage-inducing agents to isolate bacteriophages directly from the bacteria themselves. While no bacteriophages were isolated from the samples, virus-like particles were observed following induction of Legionella spp. These particles were not like any currently identifi?ed bacteriophages, and warrant further investigation to con?rm they are in fact bacteriophages. A bioinformatic approach was conducted in parallel to these investigations. Using this approach, a total of 717 Legionella spp. genomes in the GenBank database were screened for the presence of prophage-like regions. Although putative complete prophage elements were identi?ed in the Legionella spp. genomes, further investigation concluded that these were due to fX-174 contamination that had not been removed by the submitting group before adding their genomes to GenBank. Other elements were discovered, but with little core recognisable bacteriophage genes. These results show that much more fundamental knowledge remains to be understood about Legionella spp. bacteriophages before extensive work is carried with the aimof developing bacteriophage diagnostics and therapeutics for Legionella spp. infections.


Protecting monkeys from exposure to measles virus is a difficult task. Physical contact is not necessary, and any susceptible monkey that is placed in close proximity with an infected animal is likely to obtain the virus. A program to isolate individually rhesus monkeys from the time of trapping until use in the laboratory was established. A personal investigation of monkey-handling facilities and transportation policies was made in India by talking and working with the monkey trappers through the Kumaon Hills and Upper Ganges Valley. All authorized exporters were visited. Isolation Plan The plan, in brief, was to place the monkeys directly from traps into cages with individual compartments and to keep them segregated from other shipments, as well as from each other, to their destination. To conform with the minimum regulations of the Indian government, cages measured 36 ×19 ×18 in. Cages were partitioned into 4 compartments, with individual food


The majority of processes in the chemical and allied industries involve the storage and conveyancing of granular material, the physics of which is still not particularly well understood. Whilst some non-invasive techniques have been developed, much experimental work unfortunately interferes with the fields being investigated. For this reason and in conjunction with increasing computing power, there has been an increase in simulation based studies. Granular dynamics simulations, being based upon inter-particle interaction laws, give the potential to investigate assemblies at the "micro-level" and have been successful in modelling process conditions in a number of granular flow situations. To date, most analyses of these simulations are essentially static in nature involving "time snapshots". However, in a granular dynamics simulation there is a wealth of data available on a time referenced basis which has the potential to allow a quantitative analysis of the dynamics of assembly evolution. This dissertation describes the development and application of a toolkit for postsimulation analysis. However, the utilities within the toolkit would be equally applicable to large experimental data sets should such data sets exist. The application of the toolset focuses largely on the dynamics of heap evolution in both 2D and 3D with some supportive 3D work on hopper discharge. A major part of the work involves the application of time series techniques (including the wavelet transform) in the context of variable coupling during avalanching. Segregation by self-diffusion receives particular attention and a new mechanism is proposed by which segregation by particle size takes place in the boundary layer of a low impact feed heap displaying a clear velocity gradient during discrete avalanching. Periodic lateral surging is shown to enforce mixing for a high impact feed, a phenomenon which appears to switch off below a certain feed impact. Segregation by self-diffusion is also shown to take place with the conical section of a 3D discharging hopper (in the presence of a velocity gradient) which is in agreement with experimental studies. In the context of the discrete defining events which characterise the evolution of a granular assembly, the discrete wavelet transform is shown to be capable of identifying "time constants" in the absence of real periodicity. A flexible colour coded display capability (for both 2D and 3D) is shown to be helpful in investigating the dynamics in conjunction with the time series methods developed.


follows: (a) absent, (b) poor, (c) moderate, (d) good; the nearest artery to the urethral mucosa evaluated for Doppler velocimetric rates. In the vertical plane 1 cm from the urethrovesical junction was assessed the thickness of the urethral mucosa. The Doppler velocimetric tests were performed before HRT and 1, 3, 6 months following the use of Climen (AG Schering, Germany). For the statistical analysis, the paired t-test was used. Results: Statistically significant differences were found between incontinent postmenopausal and premenopausal women regarding of periurethral vessels score, velocimetric values. The thickness of the urethral mucosa were recorded. From the analysis of results, we found that periurethral vessels score, varied significantly when compared the patients prior the HRT and after 1,3, 6 months use. Other statistically significant differences were seen in velocimetric values prior and after HRT. Conclusions: Our results allow to conclude that HRT in postmenopausal women increase the number of periurethral vessels, well velocimetric values, show increases vascularization throughout the urinary tract to originate from neovascularization, angiogenessis and vascular congestion. There were decrease in urinary symptoms associated with HRT.


Current label switching protocols can use routing, address, and address hierarchy information to group flows for cut-throughs that bypass IP forwarding. This paper examines a label switching solution that uses the IP version 6 (IPv6) address structure to classify and cut-through flows based on address hierarchy. The performance of this approach is examined using actual backbone traffic traces with associated hierarchical address information obtained from Internet address registries, routing arbiter databases and route servers. This hierarchical address information is used to map a hierarchical address structure over the packet level trace. We investigate the relationship between aggregation bit-mask size versus label switching performance. We show that aggregation greater than IPv6 destination site address does not significantly improve performance. Our trace driven simulation studies show that it is possible to reduce the network layer packet forwarding requirements to below 0.15% of total packets at boundary routers within the core network by using IPv6 address hierarchy linked label switching.


Kombucha is a fermented tea that has been consumed since the time of the Tsin Dynasty inChina.1 It is produced from the modification of sweetened tea by a symbiotic culture of bacteriaand yeast. The culture is called a SCOBY and it initiates several transformative chemicalprocesses in sweetened tea that produces ethanol, organic acids, and acetic acid. The purpose ofthis research project was to develop quality analysis and control methods for a regionalkombucha manufacturer. Inorganic and organic ions and metals were determined in finishedkombucha, source materials, commercially available teas, and competitor beverages. Sampletreatment assays and instrument methods were developed for these compounds. IonChromatography (IC) was used to determine organic and inorganic anions while InductivelyCoupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICPOES) was used to determine metals. Anionconcentrations of acetate, chloride, nitrate, phosphate, and sulfate varied between eachkombucha flavor. This is likely due to different additives, such as; fruit juice, spices, andextracts. Acetate was found in the highest concentration, which is to be expected because aceticacid is a major by-product of sweet-tea fermentation. Analyses showed that the concentrations ofaluminum, calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, and sodium were relatively consistent across 10 different kombucha flavors. Concentrations in the kombucha flavors were similar toconcentrations in the competitor beverages and brewed tea samples. In general, calcium,magnesium, and sodium were the most prevalent metals found in the 10 kombucha flavors.


We have calculated the detectable merger rate of primordial black holes, as a function of the redshift, as well as the binary's mass ratio, total mass and chirp mass (observables that have not previously been explored in great detail for PBHs). We consider both the current and design sensitivity of LIGO and five different primordial black hole mass functions, as well as showing a comparison to a predicted astrophysical black hole merger rate. We show that the empirical preference for nearly equal-mass binaries in current LIGO/Virgo data can be consistent with a PBH hypothesis once observational selection effects are taken into account. However, current data do exclude some PBH mass distributions, and future data may be able to rule out the possibility that all observed BH mergers had a primordial origin.


Cloud computing, a rapidly developing information technology has aroused the concern of the whole world. Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information, are provided to computers and devices on-demand, like the electricity grid. Cloud computing is the product of the fusion of traditional computing technology and network technology like grid computing, distributed computing parallel computing and so on. It aims to construct a perfect system with powerful computing capability through a large number of relatively low-cost computing entity, and using the advanced business models like SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) to distribute the powerful computing capacity to end users' hands. This article introduces the background and service model of cloud computing. This article also introduces the existing issues in cloud computing such as security, privacy, reliability and so on. Proposition of solution for these issues has been provided also.


As part of a larger study to assess risk factors associated with hide and carcass contamination of beef cattle during transport to slaughter, a total of 281 salmonellae were isolated from 1,050 rectal, hide, carcass, and environmental samples. For feedlot cattle, salmonellae were recovered from 4.0% of rectal samples, 37.5% of hide samples, 19.0% of carcass samples, and 47.4% of environmental samples. For nonfeedlot cattle, salmonellae were recovered from 10.9% of rectal samples, 37.5% of hide samples, 54.2% of carcass samples, and 50.0% of environmental samples. Overall, the five serotypes most commonly associated with feedlot cattle and their environment were Salmonella Anatum (18.3% of the isolates), Salmonella Kentucky (17.5%), Salmonella Montevideo (9.2%), Salmonella Senftenberg (8.3%), and Salmonella Mbandaka (7.5%). The five serotypes most commonly associated with nonfeedlot cattle and their environment were Salmonella Kentucky (35.4%), Salmonella Montevideo (21.7%). Salmonella Cerro (7.5%), Salmonella Anatum (6.8%), and Salmonella Mbandaka (5.0%). Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of all of the isolates associated with feedlot cattle revealed that 21.7% were resistant to tetracycline, compared with 11.2% of the isolates associated with nonfeedlot cattle. None of the other isolates from feedlot cattle were resistant to any of other antimicrobial agents tested, whereas 6.2% of nonfeedlot cattle isolates were resistant to more than four of the antimicrobial agents tested.


Chronic immune activation that persists despite anti-retroviral therapy (ART) is the strongest predictor of disease progression in HIV infection. Monocyte/macrophages in HIV-infected individuals are known to spontaneously secrete cytokines, although neither the mechanism nor the molecules involved are known. Here we show that overexpression of the newly described co-stimulatory molecule, PD1 homologue (PD-1H) in human monocyte/macrophages is sufficient to induce spontaneous secretion of multiple cytokines. The process requires signaling via PD-1H as cytokine secretion could be abrogated by deletion of the cytoplasmic domain. Such overexpression of PD-1H, associated with spontaneous cytokine expression is seen in monocytes from chronically HIV-infected individuals and this correlates with immune activation and CD4 depletion, but not viral load. Moreover, antigen presentation by PD-1H-overexpressing monocytes results in enhanced cytokine secretion by HIV-specific T cells. These results suggest that PD-1H might play a crucial role in modulating immune activation and immune response in HIV infection.


Mexico is the center of origin and diversification of agave, a highly valued crop in the agroindustry, as well as in Mexican culture. Agaves present unique biological characteristics, such as their high tolerance to abiotic stress that allows them to grow under extreme environmental conditions, and their secondary metabolism that leads to the production of molecules of biotechnological interest. However, the necessary tools to carry out molecular physiology studies in Agave, and disclose the subjacent molecular basis of their particular metabolic capacity, have not been developed. Here we evaluate the performance of a series of commercially available methods for RNA extraction and mRNA purification that may be suitable for the construction of cDNA libraries derived from different A. tequilana tissues, a process described in detail. In addition, we report sequences and methods for the analysis of gene expression using RT-PCR for physiologically relevant agave genes. Expression of rbcS, encoding the small subunit of the RuBisCO; a gene encoding an NADP + dependent malic enzyme; a gene encoding 1-SST fructosyltransferase; and a gene coding for a LEA-like abiotic stress related protein of A. tequilana, was analyzed using this methods. The methods set forth herein, and the libraries generated will subsequently be applied to molecular physiology, functional genomics, and transcriptome analysis of agaves.


Linear cryptanalysis, along with differential cryptanalysis, is an important tool to evaluate the security of block ciphers. This work introduces a novel extension of linear cryptanalysis – zero-correlation linear cryptanalysis – a technique applicable to many block cipher constructions. It is based on linear approximations with a correlation value of exactly zero. For a permutation on n bits, an algorithm of complexity 2 is proposed for the exact evaluation of correlation. Non-trivial zero-correlation linear approximations are demonstrated for various block cipher structures including AES, balanced Feistel networks, Skipjack, CLEFIA, and CAST256. Using the zero-correlation linear cryptanalysis, a key-recovery attack is shown on 6 rounds of AES-192 and AES-256 as well as 13 rounds of CLEFIA-256.


The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder/Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit/Humidity Sounder for Brazil (AIRS/AMSU/HSB) instrument suite onboard Aqua observes infrared and microwave radiances twice daily over most of the planet. AIRS offers unprecedented radiometric accuracy and signal to noise throughout the thermal infrared. Observations from the combined suite of AIRS, AMSU, and HSB are processed into retrievals of atmospheric parameters such as temperature, water vapor, and trace gases under all but the cloudiest conditions. A more limited retrieval set based on the microwave radiances is obtained under heavy cloud cover. Before measurements and retrievals from AIRS/AMSU/HSB instruments can be fully utilized they must be compared with the best possible in situ and other ancillary "truth" observations. Validation is the process of estimating the measurement and retrieval uncertainties through comparison with a set of correlative data of known uncertainties. The ultimate goal of the validation effort is retrieved product uncertainties constrained to those of radiosondes: tropospheric rms uncertainties of 1.0 degC over a 1-km layer for temperature, and 10% over 2-km layers for water vapor. This paper describes the data sources and approaches to be used for validation of the AIRS/AMSU/HSB instrument suite, including validation of the forward models necessary for calculating observed radiances, validation of the observed radiances themselves, and validation of products retrieved from the observed radiances. Constraint of the AIRS product uncertainties to within the claimed specification of 1 K/1 km over well-instrumented regions is feasible within 12 months of launch, but global validation of all AIRS/AMSU/HSB products may require considerably more time due to the novelty and complexity of this dataset and the sparsity of some types of correlative observations.


The inaccuracy of premixed porcelain shades may cause errors when color matching porcelain crowns. Most brands of porcelain are labeled to match shades of the Vita shade guide, but produce slightly different colors from this guide upon firing. The purpose of this study was to quantify in CIE delta E* units the color differences between the Vita shade guide colors and four commercial porcelains for metal ceramic crowns. Two operators prepared shade-guide teeth from six shades of four brands of porcelain. Opaque, body, and incisal layers were fired in the form of shade-guide teeth on Vita ceramic carriers used for making custom shade-guide teeth. The colors of these teeth were measured with a Beckman spectrophotometer with an integrating sphere. The average delta E* values for the differences between the colors of the Vita shade guide and the fired porcelains for each of the brands were 3.1, 2.9, 4.1, and 2.0, respectively, for the first operator and 4.1, 2.6, 2.8, and 1.6, respectively, for the second operator. The color difference between the custom shade-guide teeth and the Vita master shade guide were significantly affected by both brands and shades. The overall average error resulting from the differences in colors between the Vita shade guide and fired porcelains was 3.0 for the first operator and 2.8 for the second operator. The mean delta E* between the teeth prepared by the two operators was 3.6. The color difference between the teeth made by the two operators was not significantly affected by brands or shades.


The issue of estimating the probability of default constitutes one of the foundations of risk systems applied in modern banking. The Basel Committee pays a lot of attention to ways of its estimation and validation. This paper discusses statistical methods enabling PD estimations with consideration of the retail character of a credit portfolio. The author refers to the issue of defining default and to the way of calculating the number of days in arrears. This paper presents the results of research studies obtained on the basis of retail credit portfolio. For selected sub-portfolios, the author makes a comparison of the probability of default, which enables the explicit risk assessment.


We present some general techniques for constructing full-rank, minimal-delay, rate at least one space-time block codes (STBCs) over a variety of signal sets for arbitrary number of transmit antennas using commutative division algebras (field extensions) as well as using noncommutative division algebras of the rational field /spl Qopf/ embedded in matrix rings. The first half of the paper deals with constructions using field extensions of /spl Qopf/. Working with cyclotomic field extensions, we construct several families of STBCs over a wide range of signal sets that are of full rank, minimal delay, and rate at least one appropriate for any number of transmit antennas. We study the coding gain and capacity of these codes. Using transcendental extensions we construct arbitrary rate codes that are full rank for arbitrary number of antennas. We also present a method of constructing STBCs using noncyclotomic field extensions. In the later half of the paper, we discuss two ways of embedding noncommutative division algebras into matrices: left regular representation, and representation over maximal cyclic subfields. The 4/spl times/4 real orthogonal design is obtained by the left regular representation of quaternions. Alamouti's (1998) code is just a special case of the construction using representation over maximal cyclic subfields and we observe certain algebraic uniqueness characteristics of it. Also, we discuss a general principle for constructing cyclic division algebras using the nth root of a transcendental element and study the capacity of the STBCs obtained from this construction. Another family of cyclic division algebras discovered by Brauer (1933) is discussed and several examples of STBCs derived from each of these constructions are presented.


The deaf and speech impaired are loosing of hearing ability followed by disability of developing talking skill in everyday communication. Disability of making normal communication makes the deaf and speech impaired being difficult to be accepted by major normal community. Communication used is gesture language, by using hand gesture communication. The weakness of this communication is that misunderstanding and limitation, it's due to hand gesture is only understood by minor group. To make effective communication in real time, it's needed two ways communication that can change the code of hand gesture pattern to the texts and sounds that can be understood by other people. In this research, it's focused on hand gesture recognition using shaped based hand algorithm where this method classifies image based on hand contour using hausdorff and Euclidian distance to determine the similarity between two hands based on the shortest range. The result of this research is recognizing 26 letters gesture, the accuracy of this Gesture is 85%, from different human hands, taken from different session with different lighting condition and different range of camera from image. It also can recognize 70% different hand contour. The different of this research from other researches is the more the objects are, the less the classification of hands size is. Using this method, hands size can be minimized.