AQA is highly reliant on a large body of examiners who are crucial in ensuring that candidates receive timely and reliable results for their high-stakes examinations. As such, the potential ramifications of low examiner satisfaction are significant. This study aimed to investigate the factors which predicted whether an examiner intended to continue examining for AQA. Examiners (n = 1,368) took part in a postal questionnaire survey concerned with their experiences of examining, and their intentions to continue examining. Most examiners (over 85%) indicated that they were likely to continue examining for AQA. There does not appear to have been a significant increase or decrease in overall intentions to continue examining compared to similar previous work performed by Meadows (2004). Factor analysis of 32 questionnaire items suggested three factors underpinned examiners' intentions to continue examining: 1) the relationship between examining work and work outside examining, 2) the pressures of examining and the support received from AQA, and 3) the incentives to examine. All three factors were significantly correlated with intention to continue examining, and are consistent with the findings of previous research by Meadows (2004). Examiners' responses to questions about recruitment and retention were also analysed. Although there seems to be no immediate threat to examiner retention, the study highlights areas which may impact on examiner retention in the future. For example, there appear to be continuing difficulties for examiners in accepting and adjusting to the move towards online standardisation. Similarly, the results indicate that conflicts between examining work and other employment may discourage examiners to continue examining as they may feel unsupported or undervalued by AQA.


Mobile DRAM is widely employed in portable electronic devices due to its feature of low-power consumption. Recently, as the market trend renders integration of various features in one chip, mobile DRAM is required to have not only low-power consumption but also high capacity and high speed requirement. Due to the mobile devices of smartphone and tablet are more popular in ordinary lives and dominate people's living behavior, the demand of mobile DRAMs is steadily on the increase in the electronics market. This paper intends to expose the standard formulating information of mobile DRAMs such as, low-power double data rate (LPDDR) series memories and Wide-I/O (WIO) DRAMs from the international organization of JEDEC.


In this paper, we consider the detection of OFDM signals used for cognitive radios. Based on the special feature - cyclic prefix embedded in OFDM signals, we propose an optimal Neyman-Pearson likelihood test for the signal detection. We have derived rigorously the probability distribution function of the corresponding decision statistics under frequency selective fading channels and obtained the closed forms of the probability of signal detection and the false alarm rate. The optimal threshold is also derived with respect to a given false alarm rate. Finally, simulations have been conducted to illustrate the promising performance of the proposed detection for OFDM signals under multipath fading environments.


The availability of commercial single antenna GPS units at low cost and discontinuation of selective availability of the system has caused increased interest in flying a stable fixed-wing aircraft using GPS alone. Utilizing such an inexpensive sensor, along with a relatively simple processor, a flight control and guidance system could be developed that would be so inexpensive as to be practically disposable even for some commercial applications. A flight control and guidance system that can operate on single antenna GPS measurements is also a candidate as an ultimate backup mode for any uninhabited air vehicle or piloted airplane given failure of sensors. In this paper, necessary hardware and software developments are described, as well as particular solutions explored in a flight test program.


'Composing the Surface' comprises a collection of ten instrumental works that explore issues relating to a performer's engagement with a given instrumental interface. I consider the notion of 'surface' as the initial motivation for all of my portfolio, a catalyst from which I work outwards into visual art or music. I am concerned with focusing the listener's attention on the performer's interaction with their instrument by using a reduced sonic palette that is explored from multiple perspectives. The notion of performance 'surface' is examined in various ways such as the utilization of fixed hand positions, fluctuations of instrumental sonority resulting from micro-gestural changes and critiquing performance gesture through its translation onto other instruments. I will discuss these issues in three essays, 'Approaching the Surface' which presents an exposition of my concerns with surface; 'Instrumental Interface' will consider two distinct approaches to working with acoustic instruments; and finally, 'Almost Unnoticeable' which discusses an aesthetic for my work.


Abstract Objective To find diets optimised on nutrition and environmental impact close to the current Dutch diet and to identify the most effective and acceptable options for mitigating environmental impact. Design Linear programming was used to optimise diets of Dutch men and women aged 9–69 years, divided into ten age–gender groups. The analysis included nutrient composition, a metric for popularity and life cycle assessments of 207 food products. Greenhouse gas emissions, fossil energy use and land occupation were used to calculate a weighted score for the overall environmental impact. Optimised diets were solutions that minimised changes to the current diet while satisfying all nutritional constraints, with stepwise reductions in environmental impact. Setting The Netherlands. Subjects Dutch children and adults aged 9–69 years. Results Meat was always reduced. Vegetable, fruit and dairy contents remained similar, while bread, fatty fish and legumes increased. The extent of changes depended on age and gender. Beverages were not heavily reduced. Nutrients critical for the outcome were α-linoleic acid, retinol, Ca, Na, Se, dietary fibre, SFA, thiamin and Fe (women of childbearing age). Total protein, essential amino acids and carbohydrates were not critical. Conclusions Reducing meat is the most effective option for lowering the environmental impact of diets in all age–gender groups. Reducing alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages is another option. Leaving out fish and dairy products are not. The differences in nutritional requirements related to age and gender have a significant effect on the composition of the optimised diets.


BACKGROUND
The competitive managed care marketplace is causing increased restrictiveness in the structure of health plans. The effect of plan restrictiveness on the delivery of primary care is unknown. Our purpose was to examine the association of the organizational and financial restrictiveness of managed care plans with important elements of primary care, the patient-clinician relationship, and patient satisfaction.

METHODS
We conducted a cross-sectional study of 15 member practices of the Ambulatory Sentinel Practice Network selected to represent diverse health care markets. Each practice completed a Managed Care Survey to characterize the degree of organizational and financial restrictiveness for each individual health care plan. A total of 199 managed care plans were characterized. Then, 1475 consecutive outpatients completed a patient survey that included: the Components of Primary Care Instrument as a measure of attributes of primary care; a measure of the amount of inconvenience involved with using the health care plan; and the Medical Outcomes Study Visit Rating Form for assessing patient satisfaction.

RESULTS
Clinicians' reports of inconvenience were significantly associated (P < .001) with the financial and organizational restrictiveness scores of the plan. There was no association between plan restrictiveness and patient report of multiple aspects of the delivery of primary care or patient satisfaction with the visit.

CONCLUSIONS
Plan restrictiveness is associated with greater perceived hassle for clinicians but not for patients. Plan restrictiveness seems to be creating great pressures for clinicians, but is not affecting patients' reports of the quality of important attributes of primary care or satisfaction with the visit. Physicians and their staffs appear to be buffering patients from the potentially negative effects of plan restrictiveness.


Gambling by Aboriginal people is increasingly identified as a significant public problem in Australia, eliciting responses mainly concerned with measurement and harm minimisation. We adopt the utilitarian philosophy of John Dewey to critically examine the way this 'problem' is socially constructed. We recast our roles as pragmatic researcher‑activists in the ongoing struggle to have Aboriginal practices taken seriously. We draw particularly on the work of a group of senior Yolnu Aboriginal consultants and re‑present their story of gambling alongside other research on the Aboriginal use of urban gambling spaces. This helps us develop a nuanced explication of the public problem, one that challenges existing discourses and proposed solutions. We identify an Aboriginal space being produced within existing casinos which is only supported reactively by government and casino owners, and met with anxiety by community service providers. We propose the radical idea of Aboriginal urban gambling venues as indicators of what is needed for a successful, state-supported, socially inclusionary and non-exploitative space for Aboriginal people, and what obstacles may stand in the way of achieving this. Through this process, we assess how, as participant researchers, we can help to reformulate of the public problem in a way that is more closely aligned to Aboriginal needs and aspirations.


The recent developments in dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) at low magnetic fields are presented. The first part of the paper is dedicated to DNP theory for 14N nitroxide systems. It is shown that the lower the magnetic field, the higher the DNP factor. In the second part the material necessary to perform DNP in a low magnetic field is described. The third part is devoted to potential biological applications such as oximetry and free radical imaging.


The effective fracture toughness testing of materials intended for application in MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) devices is required in order to improve understanding of how they may be expected to perform upon the micro scale. γ-TiAl based materials are being considered for application in MEMS devices required to operate at elevated temperatures. The effect of different preparation methods upon resulting fracture toughness and development of testing methods for these devices is therefore of importance. Micro-sized cantilevers of the γ-TiAl alloy "Alloy 7" (Ti-46Al-5Nb-1W) were therefore prepared using either mechanical or chemical final stage polishing and subsequently used to evaluate fracture toughness. The effectiveness of the evaluation of micro-sized samples of γ-TiAl in this manner is considered, as well as the effects of the different processing methods and variations in properties according to lamellar orientation.


Introduction: The bronchiolo-alveolar carcinoma is a rare form of adenocarcinoma, which is more often diagnosed at non-smokers. Description: We present a series of 8 patients (7 women), evaluated for bronchiolo-alveolar carcinoma in our clinic between 1th January 2009 and 31th December 2013. Five cases were non-smokers. The median age was 50 years old (range 33-62). The clinical examination showed progressive dyspnea(8), cough(8), increased sputum production (5), fever(2), thoracic pain (3). In 7 patients the chest radiography revealed multiple bilateral pulmonary opacities, with air bronchogram and tendency to necrosis at 1. One patient had 2 pulmonary nodules. The diagnosis required bronchoscopy and tumor cells were identified at broncho-alveolar lavage (5). At 2 patients lung biopsy was needed for the diagnosis and 1 diagnosis was made on necropsy. The most important challenge was the differential diagnosis with the Staphylococcus pneumonia, tuberculosis, vasculitis due to clinical pictures and the bilateral pulmonary abscesses. Four patients received antibiotics and 2 tuberculosis treatment, with no improvement. The delay of diagnosis was between 2 to 15 months. Two patients had lobectomy. All patients received chemotherapy. Survival was poor in 2 cases with 3 and 6 weeks survival from diagnosis. Conclusion: The bronchiolo-alveolar carcinoma is a form of adenocarcinoma, with a high prevalence in nonsmoker women. The diagnosis is often delayed due to the clinical pattern, which may resemble to infectious disease. Due to the extension of the disease at diagnosis, the prognosis in this subtype of lung cancer is poor in most cases.


A significant expectation has appeared towards the governments to keep abreast with the development of information society: in recent years, there has been an increasing necessity of implementing public sector services, interactions and transactions on the web. The goal of this paper is to introduce the concept of web usability by analyzing some European and national e-government portals and online case law databases, such as the website of the European Court of Justice and the EURLex site that allows access to European Union law. The study gives an overview of the main aspects of web usability (like the way users read on the web and writing web content), and emphasizes the importance of constructing usable web forms. To evaluate these sites, a usability test was carried out; the findings of it are also examined. The results of this study indicate that while there is a wide range of services, features made available by the EU and the Hungarian government, the errors revealed by the usability tests could harm the credibility of the organization behind the website or a form, and could make the users frustrated enough to leave these sites. However, these errors are easy to fix; doing so could improve the usability of these pages significantly. As a result, citizens would be encouraged to use electronical ways to contact the state, which could have a great impact on the efficiency and performance of the public sector.


ASL focuses on research and education of new methodologies and novel architectures for current and emerging technologies, and microelectronic devices. These devices form the core technology for communications and personal computing, industry, business, defense, etc. For such devices, there is a need for efficient error detection, diagnosis and recovery protocols. There is also a need for architectures that can combine fault tolerance aspects with performance aspects in an adaptive manner, adapting to different runtime environments and different user requirements. For these goals, we explore adaptive hardware configurations, novel low-power design methodologies and architectures, and adaptive algorithms for the design of a reliable systems. Our recent research projects include self-adaptive microprocessor, architecture design for robust system resilient to permanent and transient faults, and Highly-reliable Intra- and Inter-Chip Network-on-Chip for future Many-core Systems.


Early prediction of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) may facilitate tailored management for neonates at risk. We investigated whether easily accessible flow data from a mechanical ventilator can predict BPD in neonates born extremely premature (EP). In a prospective population-based study of EP-born neonates, flow data were obtained from the ventilator during the first 48 h of life. Data were logged for >10 min and then converted to flow–volume loops using custom-made software. Tidal breathing parameters were calculated and averaged from ≥200 breath cycles, and data were compared between those who later developed moderate/severe and no/mild BPD. Of 33 neonates, 18 developed moderate/severe and 15 no/mild BPD. The groups did not differ in gestational age, surfactant treatment or ventilator settings. The infants who developed moderate/severe BPD had evidence of less airflow obstruction, significantly so for tidal expiratory flow at 50% of tidal expiratory volume (TEF50) expressed as a ratio of peak tidal expiratory flow (PTEF) (p=0.007). A compound model estimated by multiple logistic regression incorporating TEF50/PTEF, birthweight z-score and sex predicted moderate/severe BPD with good accuracy (area under the curve 0.893, 95% CI 0.735–0.973). This study suggests that flow data obtained from ventilators during the first hours of life may predict later BPD in premature neonates. Future and larger studies are needed to validate these findings and to determine their clinical usefulness. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia prediction from ventilator flow data http://ow.ly/uri130i0ZS9


An image as a stochastic signal is one of the most common forms of information. Protecting images from unauthorized access and applying is a correspondingly urgent task. This causes the use of well-known classical encryption methods in the case of image encryption. But the image is a signal that possesses, in addition to typical informativeness, also visual informativeness. Informativeness for modern image processing methods makes it possible to ensure unauthorized access. Creating an attack on an encrypted image is possible in two ways: by traditional hacking of encryption methods, or by classical methods of visual image processing (filtering, highlighting contours, etc.). In this regard, one more requirement is put forward to encryption methods in the case of their application concerning images - this is the complete noise of the encrypted image. This is necessary so that the use of visual image processing methods becomes impossible. The RSA algorithm is one of the most widely known industrial standards for encrypting signals. Unlike symmetric encryption, in an open-key encryption scheme, it is impossible to calculate the decryption procedure, knowing the encryption procedure. Namely, the working time of the algorithm for calculating the decryption procedure is so great that it cannot be implemented on any modern computers, as well as on computers of the future. Such coding schemes are called asymmetric. Therefore, the urgent task is to implement the application of the RSA algorithm so that when encrypting an image: – the cryptographic stability of the RSA algorithm has not become worse; – the full image noise was achieved to prevent the use of visual image processing techniques. The algorithm of elements of the RSA algorithm, as the most resistant to unauthorized decryption of signals, and bitwise operations for a compatible combination during encryption and decryption of images is proposed by the authors. Encryption - decryption is performed without additional noise. The proposed algorithm is applied to images in which there are strictly extracted contours. Elements of the RSA algorithm are assigned to perform bitwise operations on the intensity values of pixels of a color image. The developed algorithm has higher cryptographic stability compared to the traditional RSA algorithm. The authors described the possibilities of using elements of the RSA algorithm in bitwise transformations when encrypting and decrypting images. The results of encryption simulation for cryptographic transformations of color images of a given dimension are presented. Modified models and algorithmic procedures of key formation processes of direct and inverse cryptographic transformations have been developed. They are reduced to elemental mathematical operations.


Cosine similarity function is one of the most popular similarity function for handling the web data in various applications such as recommender system, collaborative filtering algorithms, classification algorithms, etc. Cosine similarity function calculates the similarity between the items as an angle between the vectors representing the two items. The smaller angle is for more similar items. In this paper, a new cosine similarity function is proposed that incorporates the temporal dynamic nature of the web data when calculating the similarity and provide more accurate results. Keywords- Cosine similarity function, temporal dynamics, web data.


All known data on the energy distribution of secondary electrons from collisions of protons with atoms and molecules have been reviewed and differential cross sections have been collected. The two experimental methods used to obtain the data are discussed and possible sources of error pointed out. Theoretical treatments are reviewed and several methods of checking the consistency of the data are discussed. Two semiempirical models have been chosen to represent the differential cross sections, and parameters for these models are given which fit the average of the experimental data, subject to known constraints. Recommended values of differential cross sections are given for ten target gases by means of these models.


The massive production of polymer-based respiratory masks during the COVID-19 pandemic has rekindled the issue of environmental pollution from nonrecyclable plastic waste. To mitigate this problem, conventional filters should be redesigned with improved filtration performance over the entire operational life while also being naturally degradable at the end. Herein, we developed a functional and biodegradable polymeric filter membrane consisting of a polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) matrix blended with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and montmorillonite (MMT) clay, whose surface properties have been modified through cation exchange reactions for good miscibility with PBAT in an organic solvent. Particularly, the spontaneous evolution of a partial core-shell structure (i.e., PBAT core encased by CTAB-MMT shell) during the electrospinning process amplified the triboelectric effect as well as the antibacterial/antiviral activity that was not observed in naive PBAT. Unlike the conventional face mask filter that relies on the electrostatic adsorption mechanism, which deteriorates over time and/or due to external environmental factors, the PBAT@CTAB-MMT nanofiber membrane (NFM)-based filter continuously retains electrostatic charges on the surface due to the triboelectric effect of CTAB-MMT. As a result, the PBAT@CTAB-MMT NFM-based filter showed high filtration efficiencies (98.3%, PM0.3) even at a low differential pressure of 40 Pa or less over its lifetime. Altogether, we not only propose an effective and practical solution to improve the performance of filter membranes while minimizing their environmental footprint but also provide valuable insight into the synergetic functionalities of organic-inorganic hybrid materials for applications beyond filter membranes.


Objective: To evaluate coronal bacterial leakage comparing five endodontic sealers (AH Plus, Apexit Plus, Copaifera sp oil, EndoREZ and Polifil), and comparing root canals filled with EndoREZ sealer/EndoREZ® Points and EndoREZ sealer/conventional gutta-percha points. Material and Methods: 84 human teeth were prepared and filled with gutta-percha points using the single cone technique. Roots were randomly divided into 6 groups: Apexit Plus, AH Plus, Copaifera sp oil, Polifil, EndoREZ, and EndoREZ/EndoREZ Points. After setting time, the roots were incorporated in a leakage model, which upper chamber contained a suspension of Streptococcus mutans , and lower chamber a broth. Leakage was assessed for turbidity in lower chamber for 60 days. Statistic analysis was performed using the nonparametric Kaplan-Meier method (p<0.05). Results: All experimental groups presented leakage during the study's period. The medium time of leakage was: Apexit Plus and AH Plus 6,3 days, Polifil 5,1 days, Copaifera 1,2 days, and both EndoREZ groups infiltrated in the first day. Conclusions: There was no statistically significant difference between the sealers Apexit Plus, AH Plus and Polifil, but they prevented leakage better than Copaifera sp oil and both EndoREZ groups. However, none of the tested sealers was capable of resisting coronal bacterial leakage for more than 22 days.


This book shines a light on the meaning of happiness and how public perceptions of it have changed over time. A question that has engaged philosophers from the days of Aristotle, happiness is a subject of growing academic interest, and its recent integration into government policy is provoking increased debate into its definition and nature. Sandie McHugh and her associates build on the work of social anthropologist Tom Harrison's 'Worktown' Mass Observation study from 1938, repeating the original study today. Together these accounts show how perceptions of happiness have changed over the years for the people of Bolton, UK, and reveal major difference between its definition then and now. This unique study is a useful tool in the understanding and study of happiness, offering invaluable insights for scholars and practitioners working in the fields of social psychology, positive psychology, health psychology and wellbeing.


A methodology is presented for retrieving phytoplankton chlorophyll-a concentration from space. The data to be inverted, namely, vectors of top-of-atmosphere reflectance in the solar spectrum, are treated as explanatory variables conditioned by angular geometry. This approach leads to a continuum of inverse problems, i.e., a collection of similar inverse problems continuously indexed by the angular variables. The resolution of the continuum of inverse problems is studied from the least-squares viewpoint and yields a solution expressed as a function field over the set of permitted values for the angular variables, i.e., a map defined on that set and valued in a subspace of a function space. The function fields of interest, for reasons of approximation theory, are those valued in nested sequences of subspaces, such as ridge function approximation spaces, the union of which is dense. Ridge function fields constructed on synthetic yet realistic data for case I waters handle well situations of both weakly and strongly absorbing aerosols, and they are robust to noise, showing improvement in accuracy compared with classic inversion techniques. The methodology is applied to actual imagery from the Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS); noise in the data are taken into account. The chlorophyll-a concentration obtained with the function field methodology differs from that obtained by use of the standard SeaWiFS algorithm by 15.7% on average. The results empirically validate the underlying hypothesis that the inversion is solved in a least-squares sense. They also show that large levels of noise can be managed if the noise distribution is known or estimated.


The Truth and Reconciliation call to reconciliation has received increasing attention in recent years. This research aims to discuss the notion of reconciliation in relation to Indigenous knowledge and traditional teachings. Interviews with Cree Elders directs the research methods and ways of knowing. What the Elders teach us about relationships provides a pathway towards reconciliation and the development of positive relationships. This research is qualitative in nature and examines the concepts of relationships and provides considerable discussion on the premise that Indigenous teachings provide a foundation for reconciliation. The main efforts and strategies towards reconciliation are educating Indigenous and nonIndigenous Canadians about the truth of our colonial past, a vision for social justice that leads to the development of positive relationships among Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians, and the appreciation of decolonisation efforts in the reconciliation process. Research findings demonstrate that strengthening oral understandings of the Cree people's kinship systems in Northern Manitoba would contribute greatly to reconciliation. Therefore reconciliation can be developed by identifying and promoting teaching processes grounded in Indigenous culture. The Elders that were interviewed in this study shared their knowledge and memories of the dynamics of their Northern Cree kinship systems in which they were raised in.


Leaf area index (LAI) is an important biophysical parameter used to monitor, model, and manage loblolly pine plantations across the southeastern United States. Landsat provides forest scientists and managers the ability to obtain accurate and timely LAI estimates. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between loblolly pine LAI measured in situ (at both leaf area minimum and maximum through two growing seasons at two geographically disparate study areas) and vegetation indices calculated using data from Landsat 7 (ETM+) and Landsat 8 (OLI). Sub-objectives included examination of the impact of georegistration accuracy, comparison of top-of-atmosphere and surface reflectance, development of a new empirical model for the species and region, and comparison of the new empirical model with the current operational standard. Permanent plots for the collection of ground LAI measurements were established at two locations near Appomattox, Virginia and Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Each plot is thirty by thirty meters in size and is located at least thirty meters from a stand boundary. Plot LAI measurements were collected twice a year using the LI-COR LAI-2200 Plant Canopy Analyzer. Ground measurements were used as dependent variables in ordinary least squares regressions with ETM+ and OLI-derived vegetation indices. We conclude that accurately-located ground LAI estimates at minimum and maximum LAI in loblolly pine stands can be combined and modeled with Landsat-derived vegetation indices using surface reflectance, particularly simple ratio (SR) and normalized difference moisture index (NDMI), across sites and sensors. The best resulting model (LAI = −0.00212 + 0.3329SR) appears not to saturate through an LAI of 5 and is an improvement over the current operational standard for loblolly pine monitoring, modeling, and management in this ecologically and economically important region.


The research investigates the application of evolutionary computation in relation to sound based morphogenesis. It does so by using the Sabine equation for performance benchmark in the development of the spatial volume and reflectors, effectively creating the architectural expression as a whole. Additional algorithms are created and used to organise the entire set of 200 reflector components and manufacturing constraints based upon the GA studies. An architectural pavilion is created based upon the studies illustrating the applicability of both developed methods and techniques.


Effective management of the coastal zone is dependent on the availability of accurate information on the distributions of natural resources in both time and space. However, comprehensive and quantitative mapping of the distributions of natural resources is extremely difficult and costly to accomplish. An effort in mapping habitats and natural resources in and around Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, has been undertaken, using physical, geological and chemical information, remote sensing and time-effective field ground-truthing. The mapping is in both digital and atlas format, and will be available for scientific, management and educational uses.


In poor countries the agricultural sector is essential to growth, poverty reduction, and food security. In Sub- Saharan Africa, the agricultural sector employs 65 percent of the labor force and generates 32 per cent of GDP growth (Christian Friis Bach and all, 2008).More than half of rural employment in Sub- Saharan Africa consists of self-employed farmers, many of whom are women. Women generally own less land and the land they have is often of lower quality than the land owned by men. According to the International Development Research Centre, women in Africa only own 1 per cent of the land. Women have to contend with limited access to financial and technical resources. Women lack political influence. However the recent economic crisis that has affected the food crisis may have considerable consequences on African rural women who are mostly vulnerable in African society and may increase some challenges that can limited the African agriculture growth as women is the heart of this sector in Africa even if most of politic don't consider them in the policies. This paper is to evaluate the major effect of this crisis on this vulnerable group In Africa and define some perspective that policies maker could use for Africa Agriculture sustainable growth.. The Descriptive analysis show that the economic crisis has increase in gender inequality in agriculture sector, increase women financial credit access lack, women farmer migration, women farmer income reduction, women land access facilities reduction and their health problem has also increase. It is clear that to solve the economic crisis impact on African agriculture for sustainable growth, policies maker should include more policies which should consider women farmers. Research also should focus more on women vulnerability in agriculture face the economic crisis.


OBJECTIVE
To describe the occurrence of acute and delayed adverse reactions following the administration of an equine-derived F(ab')2 -antivenin in dogs with Vipera berus berus envenomation.

DESIGN
Prospective study (2006-2009).

SETTING
Private small animal clinics and university small animal teaching hospital in Norway.

ANIMALS
Fifty-four dogs with Vipera berus berus envenomation treated with F(ab')2 -antivenin.

INTERVENTIONS
Administration of equine-derived antivenin for treatment of Vipera berus berus envenomation in dogs.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Acute adverse reactions to antivenin administration occurred in 4/54 dogs (7%), and facial swelling occurred in 2/54 dogs (4%), sudden respiratory distress in 1 dog, and vomiting occurred in 1 dog. The adverse reactions were self-limiting in 3 of the dogs, while 1 dog was treated with corticosteroids to reduce the facial swelling that occurred during administration of antivenin. No delayed adverse reactions believed to be associated with the antivenin administration were noted.

CONCLUSIONS
An occurrence of adverse effects comparable to the numbers reported in human medicine (10%) should be expected when administering F(ab')2 -antivenin to dogs with Vipera berus berus envenomation. The results are also comparable with rates of adverse effects reported with antivenin administration for crotalid-envenomated dogs. Further research is required to determine whether there is a relationship between adverse and the number of vials administered or repeated use in the same patient.


With the increasing demand for high-density interconnections, flip-chip packaging has become increasingly used in the electronics industry. Traditional solder bump based interconnects are however unable to meet the challenge of ultra-fine pitch and very high I/O count integration. Consequently, alternative interconnection methods are being investigated for such applications. This paper presents a novel process for flip-chip interconnection through the use of Ni/Au coated polymer microparticles, similar to those already widely used in anisotropic conductive adhesives, but selectively deposited into the required locations under the control of a magnetic field. The particles used in this work consisted of a 9.8 μm diameter polymer core coated with layers of Nickel and Gold with thicknesses of 100 nm and 50nm respectively. Nickel is one of the few metals which demonstrate ferromagnetism and is also often used as the bump material on the bond pads of integrated circuits to allow flip chip bonding. In the work presented in this paper, the particles were suspended in an organic solvent, and placed together with a nickel bumped test chip within a uniform magnetic field created by two solenoid electromagnets. The results showed that the Ni/Au particles moved gradually toward the nickel bumped pads under the controlled magnetic gradient, and selectively deposited onto the bumps, providing a promising method to achieve fine or ultra-fine pitch integration.


Mechanical properties and microstructure of twin-roll cast (TRC) pure aluminium, Al-Fe-Mn-Si (AA8006) and Al-Mg (AA5754) alloy sheets ARB processed at ambient and elevated temperatures (200, 250, 300 and 350°C) were investigated. Processing at elevated temperatures results in better bonding but it produces smaller increases in hardness. AA8006 specimens were processed without any problems up to 7 cycles. The alloy AA5754 suffered from severe edge and notch cracking since the first cycle. The strength was evaluated from tensile test and microhardness measurements; the microstructure was examined using light microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The microstructure was compared to that of conventionally cold rolled (CCR) specimens with true strain ε of 0.8, 1.6, 2.4 and 3.2 corresponding to the strain induced by 1 to 4 ARB cycles. The work hardening of alloy AA8006 saturated after the 3rd cycle, whereas the hardness of alloy AA5754 increased steadily up to the 5th cycle. Very fine grain structure with large fraction of high angle boundaries was observed in both alloys after two cycles of ARB. The grains were refined to submicrometre and nanometre size (down to 90 nm in alloy AA5754). Intensive post-dynamic recovery was observed in AA8006 specimens. The recovery is less pronounced in the AA5754 alloy with high concentration of solute atoms in solid solution.


This paper study some types of the condensation prevention measures in the radiant cooling board. The test bench for its surface condensation's performance is designed and built. In the experiment, four different types of radiation board, which are the grooved surface, Teflon coating surface, super-hydrophobic coating surface and the grooved surface pasted by the PTFE membrane, are investigated. The visual camera is used in observing the condensation process. It is found that: though both the Teflon coating and the super-hydrophobic coating treatment all can reduce the drop fall-off diameter effectively. Further, the super-hydrophobic coating treatment also can delay the fall-off time. The radiant cooling surface, by the measure of the grooved surface pasted by the PTFE membrane, can keep dry continuously. This work may lay the foundation for the simplification of the radiation cooling air conditioning system.


Dysfunction of blood glucose produces health problems with profound consequences. In humans, the central nervous system (CNS) plays a vital role in glucose metabolism. The medial and basomedial amygdalar nuclei contain neurons that alter their firing in response to physiological changes in glucose concentrations and express glucokinase (GK), an enzyme thought to act as a glucose sensor in the CNS. However, little is known about the anatomy and function of these neurons. We have found that amygdala neurons express cfos, a marker of neuronal activation, in response to changes in blood glucose. Using a transgenic mouse with Cre recombinase expression in GK neurons and the retrograde tracer pseudorabies virus (PRV), we have also found that GK-expressing neurons in the amygdala are part of a polysynaptic circuit to peripheral endocrine organs. Finally, modulating the activity of amygdala neurons alters both feeding and glucose metabolism. Together, these data support a role for amygdala glucose-sensing neurons in the regulation of glucose metabolism and behaviors that restore circulating glucose levels to normal. Disclosure K. Devarakonda: None. M. Bayne: None. A. Alvarsson: None. S. Stanley: None.


This review is looking at the way Musca domestica defends itself against harmful molecules. One of the most notable enemies is against oxidative stress. Over the years there were reports that indicated the development of resistance on range of pesticides that are used against the flies. Researches have demonstrated that there are several functional protein molecules which contribute directly or indirectly as a response to oxidative stress and resistance against insecticides. As currently, the whole genome sequencing of the organisms has enabled future study to be conducted in evaluating the behaviour of the targeted protein/enzyme in response to oxidative stress and intake of insecticides in the flies.


Feed crop cultivation dominates land use in North Savo region where the value of dairy milk and beef production is approx. 70 % of the total value of agricultural production. Grass silage is produced on cultivated grasslands through grass-cereal rotations. There are restricted or no markets for silage. Dairy and beef farms, directly dependent on the quantity and quality of silage, are vulnerable to adverse weather conditions. Long-term viability of farming is dependent on the long-term productivity development of feed crop production, and ability to cope with adverse weather conditions, affecting both quality and quantity of feed. Adaptation challenges include more frequent wet and dry conditions, increased pest and disease pressure, and overwintering problems, affecting quantity and quality of grass and cereals harvests. More frequent wet conditions are combined with larger farm size, higher axle loads of heavy machinery, increased risk of soil compaction, and high timeliness costs due to rapidly deteriorating feed quality if not harvested at the right time. Some solutions impose new investments and high costs. Results from bio-physical modeling show a clear need for new cultivars better suited in future climate. Various other solutions discussed with the farmers and extension specialists include improved maintenance of drainage and soil structure, to be promoted by crop rotation, soil improvements such as liming, as well as better crop protection. However, higher grass yields may be realized without considerably increased inter-annual yield variability. Needed long-term investments may thus lead to increased productivity under favorable market and policy conditions.


This study was conducted to describe and illustrate two new species of groundwater amphipods from the northern parts of the Zagros Mountains in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. Mitochondrial (COI) and nuclear (28S rDNA) fragments as well as several morphological traits were used to characterize Niphargus urmiensis sp. nov. and Niphargus fiseri sp. nov. The phylogenetic analyses showed that the nucleotide differences between the recently described species and their close allies are attributed to their distinctiveness. The molecular analysis also introduced that the new species are placed within the clade comprising Iranian species as a sister taxon. The genetic distances between N. urmiensis sp. nov. and N. fiseri sp. nov. are 7.6% and 1.6%, respectively based on the COI and 28S rDNA gene fragments.


This article critically analyses the use of the persistent objector doctrine in unilaterally challenging the validity of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) rights and the related state obligations. The persistent objector doctrine gives effect to state sovereignty and provides a mechanism through which states can object to a customary norm preventing the objecting state from incurring any legal obligations once the norm has emerged. The aim of this article is to reflect on whether the persistent objector doctrine could legitimately be used to negate state obligations that would naturally follow from the crystallisation of customary norms in the area of SOGI rights. In this sense the article is both concerned with analysing (not concluding on) current state practice in terms of understanding if and how the persistent objector doctrine is applied, and with gazing forward in terms of analysing whether, if customary law emerges to protect SOGI rights, the persistent objector doctrine could in fact be applied to limit or comprehensively shield states from SOGI-related obligations. This analysis takes place within the framework of the UNHRC Resolution 32/2, which creates an Independent Expert on Protection against Violence and Discrimination based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, and of the responses of the seven African states that provided statements before the UNHRC in the process leading up to this resolution.


Background: Interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC) are required for normal intestinal motility. ICC are found throughout the human colon and are decreased in the sigmoid colon of patients with slow transit constipation. Aims: The aims of this study were to determine the normal distribution of ICC within the human colon and to determine if ICC are decreased throughout the colon in slow transit constipation. Patients: The caecum, ascending, transverse, and sigmoid colons from six patients with slow transit constipation and colonic tissue from patients with resected colon cancer were used for this study. Methods: ICC cells were identified with a polyclonal antibody to c-Kit, serial 0.5 μm sections were obtained by confocal microscopy, and three dimensional software was employed to reconstruct the entire thickness of the colonic muscularis propria and submucosa. Results: ICC were located within both the longitudinal and circular muscle layers. Two networks of ICC were identified, one in the myenteric plexus region and another, less defined network, in the submucosal border. Caecum, ascending colon, transverse colon, and sigmoid colon displayed similar ICC volumes. ICC volume was significantly lower in the slow transit constipation patients across all colonic regions. Conclusions: The data suggest that ICC distribution is relatively uniform throughout the human colon and that decreased ICC volume is pan-colonic in idiopathic slow transit constipation.


The association of Santorinicele with pancreas divisum has been described. This anatomic condition creates ideal conditions for acute pancreatitis episodes and chronic abdominal pain. Saccular dilation of main pancreatic duct has also been described as incidental finding and causing episodes of acute pancreatitis. However, there is no description of associated chronic abdominal pain. Three detailed cases of Wirsungocele demonstrated by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancretography are presented. Two of them had episodes of acute pancreatitis and one had chronic abdominal pain. All patients were treated by endoscopic biliopancreatic sphincterotomy. After a follow-up for more than two years, none presents clinical recurrence. Endoscopic biliopancreatic sphincterotomy for symptomatic patients with this anatomic condition seems safe and effective.


In developing countries the issue of thorough handling of harvested fish is still problematic especially in respect of the level of post-harvest technology. In Nigeria, the fisheries sub-sector of the agricultural economy is a significant employer of labour, especially in the aspects of fish capture and post-harvest handling. A wide range of handling practices for harvested fish exists and they have economic as well as public health implications. This paper is a review of the existing problems in fish handling technologies at post-harvest in Nigeria. The public health aspects with the associated implications are highlighted. Status of policy on fish hygiene in the country, as well as guides to quality assessment are also discussed. It is the authors' hope that developing countries will lay emphasis on the public health aspects of fish at post-harvest, so that fish products will continue to play their roles as good sources of first class protein. Keywords : fish, post-harvest spoilage, public health Tropical Veterinarian Vol. 22(3&4) 2004: 85-92


In this paper the model matching problem via state-feedback is studied for discrete-time periodic systems. It is shown that, under some zeros matching conditions, it is possible to assign a target input-output periodic (or even time-invariant) system by means of a periodic state-feedback control law.


Here are resources for aviation science, aviation safety, crew resource management, and aviation history found in Pius XII Memorial Library and on the Web.


PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
A lack of testing options for the diagnosis and prognosis of chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) is a barrier to clinical management. Studies that have investigated the role of blood proteins as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for cGVHD were reviewed.

LITERATURE SEARCH
PubMed and Scopus databases were searched for articles published from January 1, 2000, to May 31, 2019. 660 articles were retrieved.

DATA EVALUATION
The authors appraised seven articles based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria to summarize identified blood protein biomarkers for cGVHD.

SYNTHESIS
Several blood proteins were identified as potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. Most of these proteins are thought to be key contributors in cGVHD pathogenesis and, therefore, could be ideal biomarkers to guide clinical management.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
These biomarkers could aid providers in diagnosing cGVHD, identifying patients at high risk for development of cGVHD, and initiating preemptive therapy.


Considering constant decrease of book reading in the country, it is extremely interesting to notice that book zone in social media is constantly expanding. Increasing number of book review blogs, bookstagrams (Instagram book profiles), book vlogs on Youtube as well as new groups and book fanpages created on Facebook, which speedily gain popularity, are the factors which contribute to popularization of reading in Internet. This article focuses on activity of book-related Facebook groups and fanpages, especially their use of specific language forms which emerged there. The environment of readers has created specific terms describing its members. This idea is being copied by commercial publishers, which begin to name their readers after the publishing house name, which aims at making readers more commited to the brand. The aim of this article is to show the use of such language forms, their variations and influence on the recipients.


The development of new methods for the production of complex materials is one of the most important problems in modern solid state chemistry and materials science. This project is attempting to apply the synthetic principles which have evolved in inorganic and organometallic chemistry to the production of technologically important non-oxide ceramics, such as boron nitride, boron carbide and metal borides. Recent work has now resulted in the production of new polymer systems, including poly(B-vinylborazine), polyvinylpentaborane and polyborazylene, that have proven to be high yield precursors to boron-based ceramic materials. Current work is now directed toward the synthesis of new types of molecular and polymeric boron-containing species and an exploration of the solid state properties of the ceramics that have been produced in these studies.


An attempt to elucidate the possible role of prenatal estrogen on the development of feminine sexual behavior and reproductive function was made by treating females with the antiestrogen CI628 prenatally on days 13-19. Control females were prenatally treated with saline or remained untreated. The animals were delivered by caesarian section on day 22 of pregnancy and placed with foster mothers whose newborn pups had been previously removed. Intact peripubertal females in each treatment group were observed for several reproductive measures, including the capacity to become pregnant. Other females were ovariectomized in adulthood and treated with estradiol benzoate (EB) (1, 1.5, 2 or 4 micro g/rat) and 0.5 mg progesterone and tested for receptivity, proceptivity and sexual partner preference. Two weeks after the completion of these tests, the females were injected daily for 7 days with 0.25 mg testosterone and tested for sexual partner preference and mounting behavior. The results obtained showed accelerated vaginal opening, and infertility in the antiestrogen-treated intact females and enhanced receptivity and proceptivity in response to 1 micro g EB in the antiestrogen ovariectomized females. Sexual partner preference and mounting behavior did not differ between groups. These results suggest an involvement of prenatal estrogen on the development of female reproductive function, but not on behavioral differentiation.


Background The chronic effects of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) on the atrioventricular conduction (AVC) system have not been elucidated. This study aimed to evaluate the incidence, predictors, and outcomes of worsened AVC post-STEMI in patients treated with a primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Patients and methods The current analysis included patients from the HORIZONS-AMI trial who underwent primary PCI and had available ECGs. Patients with high-grade atrioventricular block or pacemaker implant at baseline were excluded. Results Analysis of ECGs excluding the acute hospitalization period indicated worsened AVC in 131 patients (worsened AVC group) and stable AVC in 2833 patients (stable AVC group). Patients with worsened AVC were older, had a higher frequency of hypertension, diabetes, renal insufficiency, previous coronary artery bypass grafting, and predominant left anterior descending culprit lesions. Predictors of worsened AVC included age, hypertension, and previous history of coronary artery disease. Worsened AVC was associated with an increased rate of all-cause death and major adverse cardiac events (death, myocardial infarction, ischemic target vessel revascularization, and stroke) as well as death or reinfarction at 3 years. On multivariable analysis, worsened AVC remained an independent predictor of all-cause death (hazard ratio: 2.005, confidence interval: 1.051–3.827, P=0.0348) and major adverse cardiac events (hazard ratio 1.542, confidence interval: 1.059–2.244, P=0.0238). Conclusion Progression of AVC system disease in patients with STEMI treated with primary PCI is uncommon, occurs primarily in the setting of anterior myocardial infarction, and portends a high risk for death and major adverse cardiac events.


Abstract A single-server queueing system with a marked Markovian arrival process of heterogeneous customers is considered. Type-1 customers have limited preemptive priority over type-2 customers. There is an infinite buffer for type-2 customers and no buffer for type-1 customers. There is also a finite buffer (stock) for consumable additional items (semi-products, half-stocks, etc.) which arrive according to the Markovian arrival process. Service of a customer requires a fixed number of consumable additional items depending on the type of the customer. The service time has a phase-type distribution depending on the type of the customer. Customers in the buffer are impatient and may leave the system without service after an exponentially distributed amount of waiting time. Aiming to minimize the loss probability of type-1 customers and maximize throughput of the system, a threshold strategy of admission to service of type-2 customers is offered. Service of type-2 customer can start only if the server is idle and the number of consumable additional items in the stock exceeds the fixed threshold. Stationary distributions of the system states and the waiting time are computed. In the numerical example, we show some interesting effects and illustrate a possibility of application of the presented results for solution of optimization problems.


Similar professional standards link nurses together but healthcare professionals practise across a variety of areas and have different experiences of the workplace. It cannot be assumed that a positive experience in one setting will be replicated in another, even if it is in the same organisation. This article explores the factors that affect workplace culture and outlines the rudiments underpinning nurse engagement from a work perspective. It also analyses staff engagement in the health service sector by examining the status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness (Scarf) model, and demonstrates the relevance of this framework.


Ultrafine MgAl2O4 powders have been successfully synthesized by solid-state reaction from the mixture of AlOOH and MgO at the lower temperature. The samples were investigated by DTA/TG、XRD and SEM analyses. The results showed that AlOOH can be decomposed into γ-Al2O3 from DG/TDA curves, which can improve the activity of Al2O3 and promote the process of solid-state reaction. The XRD analysis showed the single-phase MgAl2O4 was formed at 1400°C. Meanwhile it was detected by ICP-MS that the purity of powders was 99.995%. The SEM images showed that the mineralizer containing fluoride such as AlF3, NH4F can promote the resultant to grow into regular octahedrons and disperse the particles. The XRD analysis indicated the mixture containing 5% AlF3 can transform the integrated MgAl2O4 powders at 1200°C, nearly 200°C lower than general solid-state reaction. Furthermore, The SEM images showed that fluoride can crystal the fine particles into the larger MgAl2O4 crystals, about 0.5~1.5µm.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW This article puts advances in the field of neurogenetics into context and provides a quick review of the broad concepts necessary for current practice in neurology. RECENT FINDINGS The exponential growth of genetic testing is due to its increased speed and decreasing cost, and it is now a routine part of the clinical care for a number of neurologic patients. In addition, phenotypic pleiotropy (mutations in the same gene causing very disparate phenotypes) and genetic heterogeneity (the same clinical phenotype resulting from mutations in different genes) are now known to exist in a number of conditions, adding an additional layer of complexity for genetic testing in these disorders. SUMMARY Although the growing complexity of technical knowledge in the ordering and interpretation of genetic tests makes it necessary for neurologists to consult medical geneticists, limitations in the availability of such professionals often means neurologists will be on the front line dealing with suspected or confirmed neurogenetic conditions. The growing availability of broad genetic testing through chromosomal microarray and next-generation sequencing and the expanded phenotypic spectrum of many conditions has implications for genetic counseling and medical management. This article discusses the various forms of genetic variability and how to test for each of them. It also provides an update on the most common forms of neurologic presentations of genetic disease and a review of testing strategies.


Black Bengal goat is a potential animal genetic resource of Bangladesh. The aim of this study was to investigate the genetic improvement of growth rate (GR) in-situ through a community based breeding program under a low input production system. Data on a total of 451 individuals from 2009 to 2015 in three generations were taken. In the community, two breeding strategies (BS); mating among superior bucks and does (BS1) and mating existing does with superior bucks (BS2) were followed. Mating among existing bucks and does (BS3) were considered as test group. The average GR from 0 to 3m, 3 to 6m, 6 to 9m, 9 to 12m and 0 to 12m were 43.05±0.78, 21.27±0.48, 21.42±0.37, 19.42±0.46 and 36.17±0.28 g/d, respectively. GR at different ages differed significantly (p<0.001) for sex, except at 0 to 3m. Generation and BS influenced GR at all ages significantly. Better growth rates were obtained in BS1 progeny and in later generations. The heritability (h) estimates for GR at different ages ranged from 0.32 to 0.57. The genetic and phenotypic correlations for GR at different ages ranged from 0.02 to 0.87. The average responses for GR varied from 2.31 to 4.52 g/d per generation. It may be concluded that community based breeding program with superior bucks and does is very rationale under low input production system, as it improved growth performance in progressive generations. However, h and rG indicated scope of genetic improvement for GR if rigorous culling of inferior does and bucks can be adopted.


Innovation contest platforms are often organized around specific fields of interest and involve contests that span a variety of interdependent problem domains. While specialization in contests within a problem domain can improve a contestant's performance in a future contest in the same domain, prior research on individual learning also suggests that a contestant can benefit from her related experience—i.e., experience in contests whose problem domains share an interdependency with the focal problem domain. It is, however, unclear whether the benefits of related experience arise symmetrically from upstream related problem domains (i.e., upstream experience) and downstream related problem domains (i.e., downstream experience) or differ among them. Given that an innovation contest platform serves to provide an effective match between contest problem requirements and contestants' skills, it is important to understand how a contestant's prior experience on such a platform contributes to her problem-solving performance. To address the research question, we collect detailed archival data from TopCoder, a leading platform for software development contests, from its launch in 2001 to September 2013. Our dataset comprises detailed participation history of 821 contestants in 3,274 contests across eight interdependent problem domains involving 8,985 observations. We find that while a contestant's related experience on the innovation contest platform has a stronger positive association with her focal contest performance compared to unrelated experience on the platform, the benefits of related experience arise only from downstream experience. No significant performance benefits of upstream experience are observed. We also find that the performance benefits of downstream experience are more salient when the contest duration is shorter. Contrary to the notion of "hyper-specialization" that has been emphasized in previous research, our findings highlight the importance of targeted diversification of experience for participants on innovation platforms. They also shed light on the effective design of innovation contest platforms and resource allocation decisions in complex new product development projects involving interdependent problem domains.


MANY OF US have that one person in our lives who changed everything. For me it was Neil Postman, a professor and author who died in October, 2003. Here's how it happened for me with Neil. I was about three years into my college teaching career and working on my Ph.D. at Columbia University. The college demanded we hold a doctorate if we expected to be retained. There really was no need for this advanced degree, but I wanted to be tenured; I was married, with two children and a mortgage. I had completed all of my courses at Columbia and was doing research for my thesis in 1968. That was the year Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, the Tet Offensive in Vietnam was a disaster, anti-war protests expanded, and Richard Nixon was elected president. I was distracted by those events and becoming more radical by the day. In 1969, I read Neil's book, Teaching as a Subversive Activity (co-authored with Charles Weingartner). The book's manifesto, just what I was looking for, insisted we teachers stop the rigid lecturing and textbook pedagogy, venture away from the standard old and worn-out grading system, and engage ourselves and students in alternative ways of thinking and learning. I ventured to New York University to meet Neil. His office, if you could call it that, was in a large messy room, his desk piled high with books and papers, and there he was smoking a cigarette. He was 34 and I was 32, so we were in the same age bracket. He signed the book and I quickly explained my problems. I needed a doctorate in order to be tenured, and my thesis professor at Columbia had left for another university. While a member of the academic profession, or, better yet, because he was knowledgeable about all the quirks, he quickly understood the problem. Sensing that I was a rebel, as he was, he invited me to transfer my Columbia credits to NYU and become a student in his newly devised Media Ecology department. My background was in European history, and I wasn't sure that a degree in Media Ecology would satisfy my department and college. "What the hell is media ecology?" I asked him. Neil shuffled through a stack of books and handed me Lewis Mumford's Technics and Civilization, asking if I had read it, which I had not. Originally written in 1934, it is a brilliant study of the impact of technology throughout history. A mix of history, political theories, economics, and psychology, Mumford's book fascinated me. The thesis I was working on at Columbia was an exploration of what is called psycho-history. After a few more chats with Neil, and meeting his staff, I took the plunge and enrolled in the Media Ecology department. After completing the required seminars, and revising my thesis to fit Media Ecology paradigms, I passed the orals and was tenured at my college. Neil conducted most of the seminars where we students were allowed to roam over the connections between history, philosophy, culture, linguistics, technologies, the arts, and pedagogy. Another of Neil's mentors was Marshall McLuhan. …


OBJECTIVE
Deep learning has shown great promise for improving medical image classification tasks. However, knowing what aspects of an image the deep learning system uses or, in a manner of speaking, sees to make its prediction is difficult.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Within a radiologic imaging context, we investigated the utility of methods designed to identify features within images on which deep learning activates. In this study, we developed a classifier to identify contrast enhancement phase from whole-slice CT data. We then used this classifier as an easily interpretable system to explore the utility of class activation map (CAMs), gradient-weighted class activation maps (Grad-CAMs), saliency maps, guided backpropagation maps, and the saliency activation map, a novel map reported here, to identify image features the model used when performing prediction.

RESULTS
All techniques identified voxels within imaging that the classifier used. SAMs had greater specificity than did guided backpropagation maps, CAMs, and Grad-CAMs at identifying voxels within imaging that the model used to perform prediction. At shallow network layers, SAMs had greater specificity than Grad-CAMs at identifying input voxels that the layers within the model used to perform prediction.

CONCLUSION
As a whole, voxel-level visualizations and visualizations of the imaging features that activate shallow network layers are powerful techniques to identify features that deep learning models use when performing prediction.


An explosive growth in business applications using the Internet have resulted in a strong demand for some notion of reliability or quality of service. During periods of congestion or failure, the quality of service of all flows is degraded. As a result, a strong need for service differentiation in the flows to provide service guarantees. Today the internet carries different types of traffic with the increased use of peer to peer, HTTP, FTP applications. Web traffic comprises short flows which requires low response time and long flows seen in the internet originate form peer to peer file sharing applications TCP is the dominating protocol that carries majority of the total internet traffic. Recent internet traffic measurement shows most of the TCP flows are short lived. The performance improvement in the internet traffic can be achieved by the advantages of scheduling algorithms to favor short TCP flows first. However long TCP flows competing against short TCP flows starve at some point. Hence, the proposed Dynamic Queue Scheduling (DQS) favors short TCP flows without penalizing the performance of long flows using Dynamic packet scheduling ratio. We observed that the mean transmission time of flows and packet loss significantly decreases in comparison with FIFO and RuN2C.


Understanding genomic structural variation such as inversions and translocations is a key challenge in evolutionary genetics. We develop a novel statistical approach to comparative genetic mapping to detect large-scale structural mutations from low-level sequencing data. The procedure, called Genome Order Optimization by Genetic Algorithm (GOOGA), couples a Hidden Markov Model with a Genetic Algorithm to analyze data from genetic mapping populations. We demonstrate the method using both simulated data (calibrated from experiments on Drosophila melanogaster) and real data from five distinct crosses within the flowering plant genus Mimulus. Application of GOOGA to the Mimulus data corrects numerous errors (misplaced sequences) in the M. guttatus reference genome and confirms or detects eight large inversions polymorphic within the species complex. Finally, we show how this method can be applied in genomic scans to improve the accuracy and resolution of Quantitative Trait Locus (QTL) mapping.


With the growth of streaming data from many domains such as transportation, finance, weather, etc, there has been a surge in interest in time series data mining. With this growth and massive amounts of time series data, time series representation has become essential for reducing dimensionality to overcome the available memory constraints. Moreover, time series data mining processes include similarity search and learning of historical data tasks. These tasks require high computation time, which can be reduced by reducing the data dimensionality. This paper proposes a novel time series representation called Adaptive Simulated Annealing Representation (ASAR). ASAR considers the time series representation as an optimization problem with the objective of preserving the time series shape and reducing the dimensionality. ASAR looks for the instances in the raw time series that can represent the local trends and neglect the rest. The Simulated Annealing optimization algorithm is adapted in this paper to fulfill the objective mentioned above. We compare ASAR to three well-known representation approaches from the literature. The experimental results have shown that ASAR achieved the highest reduction in the dimensions. Moreover, it has been shown that using the ASAR representation, the data mining process is accelerated the most. The ASAR has also been tested in terms of preserving the shape and the information of the time series by performing One Nearest Neighbor (1-NN) classification and K-means clustering, which assures its ability to preserve them by outperforming the competing approaches in the K-means task and achieving close accuracy in the 1-NN classification task.


Although the mechanics of brain tumour cell motility are poorly documented, studies in other cell types-notably fibroblasts--have revealed cell motility to be dependent on dynamic remodelling of the actin cytoskeleton. Initially, protrusion of membrane microspikes or lamellipodia is associated with actin polymerisation and probably involves membrane-anchored myosin I. Subsequent attachment of the cell's leading edge to the substratum is via actin-anchored adhesion complexes and finally generation of tractile forces is believed to involve the formation of contractile actin structures. Co-ordination of these events is even less well understood but recent evidence points to the involvement of the Ras family of GTP-binding proteins, particularly the cdc42-Rac-Rho cascade which appears to choreograph membrane extension and attachment. Furthermore, the growth associated protein GAP-43 (neuromodulin) has recently been demonstrated in brain tumour cells. This protein stabilises membrane protrusions during neuritogenesis in response to external trophic factors and is likely to have a similar role in brain tumour cell invasion.


NanoMagnet logic (NML) is among the emerging technologies that might replace CMOS in the next decades. According to its physical characteristics, to better exploit the potential of this technology-and of other similar ones-the use of parallel architectures with regular layout that avoid long interconnection signals is advised. Systolic arrays (SAs) are among these architectures, being composed of a grid of equal processing elements that are locally interconnected. However, they are usually implemented to execute only a small set of algorithms, and for this reason, throughout the years, they have not been an appealing solution for CMOS. To seriously analyze the potentials of NML, complex architectures must be conceived, and their physical implementation explored considering realistic technological constraints. With the increasing complexity of NML circuits, two issues, then, are noticed: 1) the need for a regular structure arises, that at the same time helps to reduce the intrinsic pipelining nature of NML and can be configured to be used for several applications without developing a dedicated design for each algorithm and 2) the capability to synthesize, place and route NML circuits is fundamental to demonstrate the feasibility of the architecture in two important conditions: efficiently managing the complexity of the design and sticking to the characteristics that are technologically feasible at the time of writing. In this paper, we address these issues presenting a new reconfigurable SA that can be programmed to execute different algorithms, and we provide two examples to show its working principle. Moreover, the array is synthesized and simulated with the aid of the first real tool for nanotechnology circuits that we have conceived, Torino Politecnico Nanotechnology tool. The joint contribution at both the architectural and physical design levels gives a relevant step forward to the state of the art in the demonstration of this emerging technology potential.


ABSTRACT
DETERMINING THE PRIORITY DAM IN CISANGGARUNG WATERSHED In a study of Cisanggarung river basin development project has identified 15 potential dams. In according to the number of potential dam are identified, the limited funds, the difference of conditions, the variety needs of society and government, and the importance of water resources development in Cisanggarung watershed through the dam construction, so this research aimed to determine the priority dam in Cisanggarung watershed. The method used in this research is descriptive evaluative. The method used to determine the priority in this study is AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) and Weighted Average. Parameter that used to determine the priority in this study consist of technical aspect and non technical aspect. Technical aspect consist of topography, geology, hydrology and flood area. Non technical aspect consist of social, accesibility, cost and benefit. Based on this research, we can conclude that: 1) the results of AHP analysis showed that the geological foundation aspects, regarded as the most important technical aspect in determining the priority of the dam, 2) the results of AHP analysis showed that the accessibility aspect of the dam location, regarded as the most important non technical aspect in determining the priority of the dam, 3) the results of this research showed that based on calculations using the method of AHP and Weighted Average, the most prioritized dam is Cihirup. The dam is feasible priority because of both technical and non technical is included in good condition, 4) the results of this research showed that AHP method is more detail than Weighted Average method, because the result of AHP method is closer to the conditions of each dam in the field.


A modeling and prototyping approach for defining system and software requirements and validating them through rapid prototyping is described, and the results of a case study for generating prototype software (representing the total system hardware and software) directly and automatically from the requirements are presented. System/software definitions, which include the requirements and design (architecture), are addressed. The case study applied this approach to selected systems of Boeing 747-400 aircraft. A formal model of system specification was generated. The rapid prototyping task automatically generated thousands of lines of Ada source code from the specification model. The software was executed successfully the first time. The functions and behavior of the system were demonstrated and validated by its users. This study indicated that early execution and validation of system requirements, through the use of formal modeling and rapid prototyping with direct user involvement, can be accomplished.<<ETX>>


Acrylic resins are widely used in the fabrication of denture bases and have been shown to be cytotoxic as a result of substances that leach from the resin. Numerous reports suggest that residual monomer may be responsible for mucosal irritation and sensitization of tissues. This information is important in eddition to the information of the biologiced effect of such materials. The purpose of this study was to know the viability of fibroblast BHK-21cells to the surface of rapid heat cured acrylic resins. The sample of 5 mm in diameter and 1 mm thickness was cured in water bath for 20, 30, and 40 minutes at 100° C. BHK-21 cells were grown in medium eagle to be 2 × 105 cell/ml in 96 well micro titer plates as the added sample and incubated at 37° C for 24 hour. Five hours before the end of the incubation MTT solutionwas added from step one to each well containing cells. Viability cells were measured by spectrophotometer at 550 nm. The data were statistically analyzed by using one-way analysis of variance followed by LSD test. The result indicated that viability of fibroblast BHK-21 cells did not decrease to the surface of resin acrylic rapid heat cured.


Abstract : The contents of the report describe accomplishments during the first half of the Low-Level Critical Air Turbulence (LO-LOCAT) Phase III program. Also included are time histories of some of the larger magnitude gust velocities recorded over the Peterson Field, Colorado route. Approximately 72 hours of low-level (0-1000 feet) turbulence and associated meteorological data recorded from August 16, 1968, through January 8, 1969, are presented. The turbulence environment is analyzed in terms of gust velocity primary peaks, amplitude samples, rms values, maximum values and derived equivalent gusts. Mathematical expressions for turbulence spectra and scale length statistics, and correlations between atmospheric gust velocities and meteorological and geophysical phenomena are shown. The most predominant characteristics of these data are the increases in rms values, scale lengths, Taylor micro scales and maximum gust values as compared to the LO-LOCAT Phases I and II data. These differences are attributed to the increased speed of the Phase III airplane which is providing a better definition of the longer wavelengths of atmospheric turbulence. Instrumentation details, calibrations and checks, data processing, gust velocity data (power spectra, peak and amplitude count, etc.) and test logs are presented in Volume II. (Author)


Cyber Power and the International System Shawn William Lonergan This dissertation is comprised of three separate papers that address how cyber power contributes to national power and the implications for international security posed by cyber operations. The first paper, "Cyber Power and International Stability: Assessing Deterrence and Escalation in Cyberspace," posits that there are unique attributes that define the cyber domain and that have direct implications on deterrence and escalation dynamics between state actors. The second paper, "Arms Control and Confidence Building Measures for the Cyber Domain," explores at various mechanisms that states have traditionally used to foster stability and prevent inadvertent conflict and assesses their applicability to controlling cyber operations. Finally, "The Logic of Coercion in Cyberspace" delves into the role of cyber operations as both inadvertent and deliberate signals and assesses their utility as a coercive instrument of statecraft.


Purpose and Background: The purpose of this project was to educate nurse practitioners (NPs) and nurses (RNs) to promote healthy changes in obese individuals using the principles of Motivational interviewing (MI). Obesity is a growing epidemic in the United States with two out of every three adults considered overweight or obese. Their health problems become costly and deadly. Ideally, RNs and NPs are the front line providers in this struggle of obesity because of their philosophy of health promotion. RNs and NPs can screen and address obesity through lifestyle counseling. Motivational interviewing, a proven and effective counseling method, is useful in enhancing changes directed towards reaching health behavior goals. Methods: This project began after Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, and recruiting graduate nursing students at a western Massachusetts university that are board certified as RN and NP. The first part of the project commenced with pre-survey, then the viewing of an online MI educational session, followed by a written post-survey and at one month to see if participants are utilizing these skills in their practice. Results. Ten participants started and seven participants completed the project. (RN 60%, NP 40%). All were female. RNs and NPs increased their knowledge of MI principles and core skills measured by survey. Implications/Conclusion: The primary outcome of the project was that NPs and RNs demonstrated increased knowledge of MI principles and core skills after completing online training. The secondary outcome was the NPs and RNs recognized the value of MI counseling methods and facilitated the use of MI techniques in practice of obesity management.


Tribulus terrestris is an annual plant in the caltrop family (Zygophyllaceae) widely distributed around the world, that is adapted to grow in dry climate locations in which few other plants can survive .While this plant has lots of properties, the aim of this study is to overview its therapeutic effects than its nutritive and industrial effects. This review article was carried out by searching studies in PubMed, Medline, Web of Science, and IranMedex databases from1994 to 2016.totally, of 100 found articles, 47 articles were included. The search terms were "Tribulus terrestris", "therapeutic", "pharmacological", Various studies have shown that Tribulus terrestris Possess Antiinfertility, DiabetesHeart disease, Anti-inflammatory effects, Antibacterial activity, Liverdisease, Supplemental activity, Kidneydisease, Anti-oxidant properties, Anti-cancer, Aphrodisiac activity, Anti-stress Oxidative stress, Liver and kidney, Hyperplasia, Antioxidant and metal chelator activity and Hepatoprotective activity, Anti- Androgenic Activity, Supplemental Sport, Pro-sexual androgen enhancing effects, Aphrodisiac properties. Tribulus terrestris not likely to become an important alternative to standard medical therapies unless there are changes to the regulation, standardization, and funding for research of these products.


Kroopnick (2010) discussed the bounded solutions of certain non-autonomous differential equations of the second order by using the integral test. In this paper, instead of the integral test, we study the results of Kroopnick (9) by using the Liapunov's function approach. We compare the established results with that of Kroopnick (9). We also give some additional results on the equi-bounded solutions and uniformly-bounded solutions, and an example is given for the illustrations.


Despite the scientific achievement of the last decades in the astrophysical and cosmological fields, the majority of the Universe energy content is still unknown. A potential solution to the "missing mass problem" is the existence of dark matter in the form of WIMPs. Due to the very small cross section for WIMP-nuleon
interactions, the number of expected events is very limited (about 1 ev/tonne/year), thus requiring detectors with large target mass and low background level. The aim of the XENON1T experiment, the first tonne-scale LXe based detector, is to be sensitive to WIMP-nucleon cross section as low as 10^-47 cm^2.
To investigate the possibility of such a detector to reach its goal, Monte Carlo simulations are mandatory to estimate the background. To this aim, the GEANT4 toolkit has been used to implement the detector geometry and to simulate the decays from the various background sources: electromagnetic and nuclear. From the analysis of the simulations, the level of background has been found totally acceptable for the experiment purposes: about 1 background event in a 2 tonne-years exposure. Indeed, using the Maximum Gap method, the XENON1T sensitivity has been evaluated and the minimum for the WIMP-nucleon cross sections has been found at
1.87 x 10^-47 cm^2, at 90% CL, for a WIMP mass of 45 GeV/c^2. The results have been independently cross checked by using the Likelihood Ratio method that confirmed such results with an agreement within less than a factor two. Such a result is completely acceptable considering the intrinsic differences between the two statistical methods. Thus, in the PhD thesis it has been proven that the XENON1T detector will be able to reach the designed sensitivity, thus lowering the limits on the WIMP-nucleon cross section by about 2 orders of magnitude with respect to the current experiments.


The impact of leadership structure and behavior on team or crew performance is well known and has been demonstrated in various studies (see e.g. Guzzo & Dickson, 1996; Zaccaro, Rittmann, & Marks, 2001). However, as far as we know, there is no empirical study available on leadership structures and crew performance in the applied setting of airport security control. This study compares the structure and impact of two different leadership models for security control. The first (older) model consists of one supervisor per sector. In the supervisor's sector, there are three to eight crews at work, each consisting of five security officers (SOs). Each crew independently manages and operates one line of the checkpoint. One of the five SOs in a crew is the crew leader (CL), who works together with the crew as a normal crew member but has a few additional tasks to fulfill. The second (newer) model, which focuses more on integrated crew resource management (CRM) criteria, consists of one supervisor, assisted by two CLs per sector. Together, they form a cohesive leading team. The CLs do not work in the crews anymore but manage two to three lines from behind. The crews still consist of five SOs. It is the new CLs' task to quickly isolate and manage problematic cases so that those do not block the line anymore. Like this, the workload of each team member is reduced. Another task is to keep an eye on the working quality and to communicate with the crews in such a way that working quality is enhanced. The impact of this reinforced leadership on indicators of working quality such as compliance with rules and regulations, as well as its impact on passenger flow (throughput) are analyzed using different statistical procedures such as T-tests, U-tests and Chi-square tests. Moreover, the job models of the new leadership structure are presented in detail and SOs' ratings of their acceptance and liking of both systems are presented. In sum, this study offers another, different approach to the human factors perspective in airport security focusing on leadership structures, crew resource management, and their effects.


Electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) sensors, though rapid and cost-effective, often suffer from poor sensitivity. EIS sensors modified with carbon-based transducers show a higher conductance, thereby increasing the sensitivity of the sensor toward biomolecules such as DNA. However, the EIS spectra are compromised by the parasitic capacitance of the electric double layer (EDL). Here, a new shear-enhanced, flow-through nonporous, nonplanar interdigitated microelectrode sensor has been fabricated that shifts the EDL capacitor to high frequencies. Enhanced convective transport in this sensor disrupts the diffusion dynamics of the EDL, shifting its EIS spectra to high frequency. Concomitantly, the DNA detection signal shifts to high frequency, making the sensor very sensitive and rapid with a high signal to noise ratio. The device consists of a microfluidic channel sandwiched between two sets of top and bottom interdigitated microelectrodes. One of the sets of microelectrodes is packed with carbon-based transducer material such as carboxylated single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT). Multiple parametric studies of three different electrode configurations of the sensor along with different carbon-based transducer materials are undertaken to understand the fundamental physics and electrochemistry. Sensors packed with SWCNT show femtomolar detection sensitivity from all the different electrode configurations for a short target-DNA. A 20-fold jump in the signal is noticed from the unique working electrode configuration in contrast to the other electrode configurations. This demonstrates the potential of the sensor to have a significant increase in detection sensitivity for DNA and other biomolecules.


The triage nurse approached Jan, a rotating intern, with a request to order a head CT scan on a middle-aged woman who had a headache and was vomiting. (All identifying details have been changed.) This was Jan's second week in the emergency department, and she wanted to be cooperative with the triage nurse and also to not miss any serious emergencies, like a stroke or bleeding in the brain, that could cause the patient's headache. She knew that timely diagnosis could avert some of the complications of a stroke or brain hemorrhage. Jan saw no reason to disagree with the nurse's suggestion and was putting the order into the computer when I happened to sit down next to her while working on another patient's chart. She described the case to me, and I asked her to hold off on ordering the CT scan until we could speak with the patient and examine her together. A few minutes later we greeted the woman, who was in a dark room, crying and vomiting. Light hurt her eyes and made the headache worse. The woman was clearly in pain, and I could understand why the triage nurse was concerned. But as we spoke with the patient, we learned that she had a history of migraine headaches and that this particular headache, while worse than most previous ones, was also very similar to her usual migraines. We examined her carefully and found no neurological abnormalities. Instead of ordering the CT scan, I suggested that we administer an antimigraine medication. Within 20 minutes the woman was resting comfortably and we were able to carefully examine her, review her history, and discharge her to go home an hour later without the CT scan or any other tests.


Introduction and aim : Study of plaque pH determines that eating cheese after consuming sucrose can increase the pH of plaque up to baseline . The aim of this survey was to study the effects of three kinds of cheese on plaque pH.
Method and material : This study is a single blind randomized cross over clinical trial which has been performed among ten dental students who were attended in this survey . All the cases were abonded from all kinds of dental hygine means for 48 hours . They were fasting for 2 hours before each session . 5 materials (3 kinds of Cheese, paraffin, sucrose syrup) were examined for 5 weeks on all cases and plaque pH was evaluated in all 4 quadrants before and after using these materials in 60 minutes. pH changing was evaluated and all the datas were analyzed by repetead measure ANOVA statistical test.
Resultes : After using butterkase cheese had highest level of pH among all the tested materials.After that cottage and cream cheese had most effect on increasing plaque pH. These difference in increasing pH for all 4 kind of materials were statistically significant.(p‹0.001)
Conclusion : Eating cheese after eating sucrose syrup increased plaque pH in 7 minute up to baseline. These effects was more significant in eating butterkase cheese other than the other kinds.


In this paper, we build an overlapping generation model to analyze how China's family planning policy affects the demographic structure and the dependency ratios. We also employ the Cointegration Test and Granger Causality Test to examine the relationship between Chinese population dependency ratios and the national savings rate, as well as the relationship between relative productivity differences and the national current account balance. We find that the family planning policy can be sustainable with respect to these metrics. The current account balance reflects the transfer of savings over time and space. We posit that the demographic structure determines the savings transfer over time, while the relative productivity difference determines the savings transfer across the space. This transfer does not change the total welfare calculated on a national or generational basis. Consequently, focusing on improving the consumption rate to boost the economy without consideration of demographic structure transition warrants further serious discussion. Similarly, too much attention to short-term current account surplus or deficit is not productive.


An efficient real time VLSI-CAD tool, the complementary design rule checker (CDRC), composed of one interactive phase and one batch phase is presented. It is a general geometrical design rule model which checks some of the layout constraints in the interactive phase and the other constraints in the batch phase. Those classified constraints are disjointed, and each one of them should be checked only once either during the interactive or batch phase. This system and the embedded layout editor are designed on the basis of the binary balanced quad list quad tree (BBQLQT) and its region query functions. The BBQLQT is more efficient than the most recently published spatial data structure, the Weyten's quad list quad tree. One day, provided that the BBQLQT has been further improved, the performance of the system will be promoted without giving more additional design effort. This system is therefore proven to be fully modularised and independent of any of the other spatial data structures. >


In this article, we first survey the current situation of video processing on the edge for multimedia Internet-of-Things (M-IoT) systems in three typical scenarios, i.e., smart cities, satellite networks, and Internet-of-Vehicles. By summarizing a general model of the edge video processing, the importance of developing an edge computing platform is highlighted. Then, we give a method of implementing cooperative video processing on an edge computing platform based on light-weighted virtualization technologies. Performance evaluation is conducted and some insightful observations can be obtained. Moreover, we summarize challenges and opportunities of realizing effective edge video processing for M-IoT systems.


Background Over one-third of the population of Havelock North, New Zealand, approximately 5500 people, were estimated to have been affected by campylobacteriosis in a large waterborne outbreak. Cases reported through the notifiable disease surveillance system (notified case reports) are inevitably delayed by several days, resulting in slowed outbreak recognition and delayed control measures. Early outbreak detection and magnitude prediction are critical to outbreak control. It is therefore important to consider alternative surveillance data sources and evaluate their potential for recognizing outbreaks at the earliest possible time. Objective The first objective of this study is to compare and validate the selection of alternative data sources (general practice consultations, consumer helpline, Google Trends, Twitter microblogs, and school absenteeism) for their temporal predictive strength for Campylobacter cases during the Havelock North outbreak. The second objective is to examine spatiotemporal clustering of data from alternative sources to assess the size and geographic extent of the outbreak and to support efforts to attribute its source. Methods We combined measures derived from alternative data sources during the 2016 Havelock North campylobacteriosis outbreak with notified case report counts to predict suspected daily Campylobacter case counts up to 5 days before cases reported in the disease surveillance system. Spatiotemporal clustering of the data was analyzed using Local Moran's I statistics to investigate the extent of the outbreak in both space and time within the affected area. Results Models that combined consumer helpline data with autoregressive notified case counts had the best out-of-sample predictive accuracy for 1 and 2 days ahead of notified case reports. Models using Google Trends and Twitter typically performed the best 3 and 4 days before case notifications. Spatiotemporal clusters showed spikes in school absenteeism and consumer helpline inquiries that preceded the notified cases in the city primarily affected by the outbreak. Conclusions Alternative data sources can provide earlier indications of a large gastroenteritis outbreak compared with conventional case notifications. Spatiotemporal analysis can assist in refining the geographical focus of an outbreak and can potentially support public health source attribution efforts. Further work is required to assess the location of such surveillance data sources and methods in routine public health practice.


Recovering causal relationships from data is an important problem. Using observational data, one can typically only recover causal graphs up to a Markov equivalence class and additional assumptions or interventional data are needed for complete recovery. In this work, under some standard assumptions, we study causal graph discovery via adaptive interventions with node-dependent interventional costs. For this setting, we show that no algorithm can achieve an approximation guarantee that is asymptotically better than linear in the number of vertices with respect to the verification number; a well-established benchmark for adaptive search algorithms. Motivated by this negative result, we define a new benchmark that captures the worst-case interventional cost for any search algorithm. Furthermore, with respect to this new benchmark, we provide adaptive search algorithms that achieve logarithmic approximations under various settings: atomic, bounded size interventions and generalized cost objectives.