Objective The objective of this study was to determine whether the effectiveness of budesonide comparator is non-inferior to budesonide reference in the prevention of asthma exacerbations. Asthma-related hospitalizations and safety were also examined. Methods This study used a matched, historic cohort design. Data were drawn from the Clinformatics™ Data Mart US claims database and included a 1-year baseline, starting 1 year before the index prescription date, and a 1-year outcome period. Patients received budesonide comparator or reference treatment. The primary outcome was the rate of asthma exacerbations. Non-inferiority for budesonide comparator vs budesonide reference was established if the 95% confidence interval (CI) upper limit of mean difference in proportions between treatments was <15%. Secondary outcomes examined rate of asthma-related hospitalizations and adverse events (AEs). Results The budesonide comparator and reference-matched cohorts each included 3109 patients. The adjusted upper 95% CI for the difference in proportions of patients experiencing asthma exacerbations was 0.035 (3.5%), demonstrating non-inferiority. Cohorts did not significantly differ in the rate of asthma exacerbations (adjusted rate ratio [RR]=1.04, 95% CI: 0.95–1.14) or rate of asthma-related hospitalizations (adjusted RR=1.10, 95% CI: 0.99–1.24) after adjusting for baseline confounders. No asthma exacerbations occurred during the outcome period in 72.9% of budesonide comparator patients and 71.8% of budesonide reference patients. No asthma-related hospitalizations occurred in 77.9% of patients in the budesonide comparator cohort and 79.0% of patients in the budesonide reference cohort. The most frequent AEs were throat irritation (≤0.4% of patients) and hoarseness/dysphonia (0.02% of patients). AEs did not significantly differ between treatment cohorts. Conclusion In this real-life study, non-inferiority of the budesonide comparator vs reference was met for the primary end point of asthma exacerbation rates. Asthma-related hospitalization and AE rates did not differ between the two treatment cohorts. The budesonide comparator is an effective and safe treatment alternative for asthma exacerbations.


: Observations of extended estrus seasons in female white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ) vaccinated with porcine zona pellucida (PZP) immunocontraceptives have led to speculation that management use of PZP would, perversely, increase the rate of deer–vehicle collisions. To test this hypothesis, we studied PZP-treated female deer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland. PZP-treated female deer did not differ from untreated female deer in risk of death by vehicle collision, and the number of deer killed in vehicle collisions was uncorrelated with the number of deer treated with PZP, whether or not population size was controlled for. The reduction in deer population size observed during PZP applications was associated with a reduced frequency of deer–vehicle collisions. Our results suggest that any added collision risk caused by behavioral effects of PZP is unmeasurably small compared to the effects of population management and other mitigation actions.


Objective To assess the prognostic role of serum neurofilament light chains (NfL) for clinically defined multiple sclerosis (CDMS) and McDonald 2017 multiple sclerosis (MS) in patients with clinically isolated syndromes (CIS). Methods We retrospectively analyzed data of patients admitted to our neurologic department between 2000 and 2015 for a first demyelinating event. We evaluated baseline serum NfL in addition to CSF, MRI, and clinical data. Results Among 222 patients who were enrolled (mean follow-up 100.6 months), 45 patients (20%) developed CDMS and 141 patients (63.5%) developed 2017 MS at 2 years. Serum NfL (median 22.0, interquartile range 11.6–40.4 pg/mL) was noticeably increased in patients with a recent relapse, with a high number of T2 and gadolinium-enhancing lesions at baseline MRI. Serum NfL was prognostic for both CDMS and McDonald 2017 MS, with a threefold and a twofold respective reduction in CDMS and 2017 MS risk in those patients with low and extremely low levels of NfL. The results remained unchanged subsequent to adjustment for such established MS prognostic factors as oligoclonal bands, Gd-enhancing lesions, and a high T2 lesion load at baseline MRI. NfL was associated with disability at baseline but not at follow-up. Conclusions Serum NfL have a prognostic value for CIS patient conversion to MS. NfL might play a twin role as biomarker in MS as peak level measurements can act as a quantitative marker of serious inflammatory activity, while steady-state levels can be a reflection of neurodegenerative and chronic inflammatory processes.


The purpose of this research is the identification of a paradigm which fixes the basic concepts and the type of logical relationships between them, whereby direct, govern and evaluate choises on new technologies. The contribution is based on the assumption that the complexity of knowledge is correlated with the complexity of the learning environment. From the existence of this correlation will descend a series of consequences that contribute to the definition of a theoretical construct in which the logical categories of learning become the guiding criteria on which to design learning environments and, consequently, also the indicators on by which to evaluate its effectiveness.


The most important water-soluble products of the radiolytic degradation of anion exchange resins in a cementitious environment are ammonia and methylamines. These ligands do not form complexes with most radionuclides. Exceptions are Ni, Ag, and Pd, which form strong complexes with amines. Other degradation products of anion and mixed-bed ion-exchange resins are of no importance concerning the complexation of trivalent radionuclides. This is shown indirectly by adsorption experiments: The degradation products do not have a significant effect on the adsorption of Eu(III) on calcite. The effect of ammonia and methylamines on the complexation of Ni, Ag, and Pd is investigated by chemical modeling. For Ni and Ag, rather reliable predictions can be made using available thermodynamic data. In the case of Pd, large uncertainties are encountered due to unreliable data and gaps in the set of important species. The system Pd(II)-ammonia-water is explored in detail. Predominant species are inferred by chemical analogy, and their thermodynamic data are estimated. The uncertainty in these estimated and measured but unreliable data is bound by qualitative and quantitative chemical reasoning.


The 11 chapters provide a wide ranging perspective on some of the problems under investigation and several of the systematic approaches currently in use by those concerned with refining the knowledge of the changing environments in the world's drylands during the latter part of the Quaternary. Dealing with a part of the globe that is highly sensitive to small changes of climate, or other stresses such as human impact, this book brings together a set of excellent reviews that will be of great value to students beginning to understand the subject and to paleoenvironmental scientists actively concerned with finding solutions to problems of the region. Additionally, it will be an invaluable archive of important references covering the subject of arid lands palaeoenvironmental research. This volume achieves the aspirations of the International Geological Correlation Programme.


Abstract. Applications of fossil shells of planktonic foraminifera
to decipher past environmental change and plankton evolution require a
robust operational taxonomy. In this respect, extant planktonic foraminifera
provide an opportunity for benchmarking the dominantly morphological species
concepts and classification of the group by considering ecological,
physiological and genetic characters. Although the basic framework of the
taxonomy of extant planktonic foraminifera has been stable for half a
century, many details have changed, not the least in light of genetic
evidence. In this contribution, we review the current taxonomy of living
planktonic foraminifera, presenting a comprehensive standard that emerged
from the meetings and consultations of the SCOR/IGBP Working Group 138
"Planktonic foraminifera and ocean changes". We present a comprehensive
annotated list of 50 species and subspecies recognized among living
planktonic foraminifera and evaluate their generic and suprageneric
classification. As a result, we recommend replacing the commonly used names
Globorotalia menardii by G. cultrata and Globorotalia theyeri by G. eastropacia, recognize Globorotaloides oveyi as a neglected but valid living species, and
propose transferring the three extant species previously assigned to
Tenuitella into a separate genus, Tenuitellita. We review the status of types and designate
lectotypes for Globoturborotalita rubescens and Globigerinita uvula. We further provide an annotated list of synonyms and
other names that have been applied previously to living planktonic
foraminifera and outline the reasons for their exclusion. Finally, we
provide recommendations on how the presented classification scheme should be
used in operational taxonomy for the benefit of producing replicable and
interoperable census counts.


This project improves our understanding of why and how public housing tenants (and in particular sole parents and women with unemployed partners) are able to (re-)enter paid work despite the many barriers. Improving rates of participation in paid work is a key objective of economic and social policy in Australia and other western countries. The projected ageing of the population resulting in a reduction in the ratio of people in paid work to those outside of the workforce is a central concern of economic policy. In the social policy context, successive federal governments since the late 1980s have recognised that being unemployed, or not in the labour force, is associated not only with poor material circumstances but also with many other manifestations of socio-economic disadvantage. Further, such disadvantage may be transmitted across generations and be concentrated in particular places, raising additional concerns. For these reasons, economic and social policies have been directed at moving unemployed people and subsequently working-age people outside of the labour force, many of whom are women, into paid work. A variety of concepts have underpinned the policies of successive federal governments in this area, including active labour market policies, reducing welfare dependency, mutual obligation and, most recently, promoting social inclusion. Within this broader context, housing policy settings since the late 1990s have made more explicit the linkages between rental housing assistance and social and economic participation. The 2009 National Affordable Housing Agreement (NAHA), which provides the current framework for national housing policies, refers to the role of housing assistance in enabling economic and social participation. Of particular concern has been that rates of employment among people living in public housing are very low compared to Australians living in other housing circumstances. Consistent with welfare reform and social inclusion strategies in Australia, the NAHA seeks to create incentives for public housing tenants to take up employment and to create mixed communities that promote social and economic opportunities. There is a growing body of research evidence about public housing and employment in Australia to inform discussion of these policies. In particular, the work of AHURI's National Research Venture on Housing Assistance and Economic Participation (NRV1) has developed an understanding of the sometimes complex issues involved. This work suggests that rates of employment of women living in public housing are particularly low in the context of increases in female participation rates over the last two decades. It appears that women face particular obstacles in moving into paid work, not all of which are observable from secondary data, but that a quarter of such women work despite these obstacles.


Near-infrared diode laser absorption spectroscopy has been demonstrated as an in-situ, non-invasive probe for use with a CVD reactor. The technique has been applied to the CVD of tin oxide onto a glass substrate, and by monitoring the evolution of methane in the reactor, it has been shown that the concentration of methane is correlated with the deposition rate of the tin oxide film. This illustrates the powerful possibilities for monitoring thin film production and properties, in-situ, during deposition.


Nowadays wireless networks are used widely in industry due to the advantagesthat they provide. However, these networks are not as reliable as wired networks.This unreliability is the result of problems like delays, packet lossesand limited bandwidth. One should take care of these problems in advance,to get the best performance of the systems.A packet loss, which is the main focus of this thesis, occurs when a packet ofdata gets lost, either from the sensors to the controller or from the controllerto the actuators in the process. There are many methods to deal with packetlosses. In some methods it is tried to improve the connection, to get lesspacket losses. In other methods, a predictive outage compensator (POC) canbe used before the actuator or the controller to compensate for the eects of thepacket losses on the network control system's performance. The POC sends areplacement signal if it does not receive the sent data in the appropriate time.In this thesis, we consider a system with an unreliable wireless network connectionbetween the controller and the actuator. We study the eect of threePOC methods on the performance of this system: Zero (where a signal witha value equal to zero is sent to the system during the time the connection islost), Hold (where the last received signal is used instead of the lost signal)and optimal method. In our proposed method, knowing some parameters ofthe system together with the monitoring of the control history, we estimatethe lost signal. To nd the systems parameters (or to initialize the system), weuse two dierent system identication methods, oine (or batch) and online(or recursive).To model the connection, we consider two packet loss models, outages and theGilbert Elliot model. An outage is dened as a period when several consecutivepackets are lost. We show that the optimal method improves the performance of the networkedcontrol system remarkably, compared to the other two methods. The conclusionsare veried by simulation results.


In experiments on skin-spot disease of potatoes, caused by Oospora pustulans Owen & Wakef., Kerr's Pink proved the most susceptible of twenty-four commercial varieties; Arran Banner, Majestic and King Edward were highly susceptible; Home Guard and Golden Wonder were highly resistant.

Thymol and tetrachlornitrobenzene, applied as dusts to pits of potatoes at lifting, did not give satisfactory control of the disease. The efficacy of an organo-mercury dip treatment at lifting time was confirmed.

The incidence of the disease was considerably decreased by storing tubers in boxes instead of in pits, by digging the crop about a month before normal harvest, or by cutting the haulms at this time and digging at the normal time.

Ware tubers showed a significantly higher infection than seed tubers of the same crop, indicating that susceptibility of tubers increases towards maturity.

The difference in eye infection between varieties may not be related to that of general superficial infection. It is suggested that, in future, the assessment of varietal susceptibility should be based upon the degree of eye infection, which is in practice the measure of the economic importance of the disease. Tubers having pustules at or near all the eyes gave markedly reduced sprout emergence and plant stand.


BACKGROUND
Herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) infection is usually transmitted sexually and can cause recurrent, painful genital ulcers. In neonates the infection is potentially lethal. We investigated the seroprevalence and correlates of HSV-2 infection in the United States and identified changes in HSV-2 seroprevalence since the late 1970s.

METHODS
Serum samples and questionnaire data were collected during the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) II (1976 to 1980) and III (1988 to 1994). HSV-2 antibody was assessed with an immunodot assay specific for glycoprotein gG-2 of HSV-2.

RESULTS
From 1988 to 1994, the seroprevalence of HSV-2 in persons 12 years of age or older in the United States was 21.9 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 20.2 to 23.6 percent), corresponding to 45 million infected people in the noninstitutionalized civilian population. The seroprevalence was higher among women (25.6 percent) than men (17.8 percent) and higher among blacks (45.9 percent) than whites (17.6 percent). Less than 10 percent of all those who were seropositive reported a history of genital herpes infection. In a multivariate model, the independent predictors of HSV-2 seropositivity were female sex, black race or Mexican-American ethnic background, older age, less education, poverty, cocaine use, and a greater lifetime number of sexual partners. As compared with the period from 1976 to 1980, the age-adjusted seroprevalence of HSV-2 rose 30 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 15.8 to 45.8 percent). The seroprevalence quintupled among white teenagers and doubled among whites in their twenties. Among blacks and older whites, the increases were smaller.

CONCLUSIONS
Since the late 1970s, the prevalence of HSV-2 infection has increased by 30 percent, and HSV-2 is now detectable in roughly one of five persons 12 years of age or older nationwide. Improvements in the prevention of HSV-2 infection are needed, particularly since genital ulcers may facilitate the transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus.


A focused study on determinants of competitiveness for Indian automotive component industry in special context to supply chain activities is presented. The paper delineates the relative importance of various determinants of competitiveness by using analytic network process (ANP). A set of 24 determinants identified through a survey and face-to-face interviews is presented. The survey results find that customer demand to be the most important element for the competitiveness. It further unveils dependency among all the 24 metrics of competitiveness prompting the need for trade-offs amongst the factors. The proposed methodology and findings of the research can provide the supply chain managers and strategists with an important business intelligence and analytical tool to integrate their supply chain strategy with corporate strategy considering the impact of individual factors on overall industrial growth.


We present the renormalisation group analysis of O(N) invariant scalar field theory in the local potential approximation. Linearising around the Gaussian fixed point, we find the same eigenoperators solutions exist for both the Wilsonian and the Legendre effective actions, given by solutions to Kummer's equations. We find the usual polynomial eigenoperators and the Hilbert space they define are a natural subset of these solutions given by a specific set of quantised eigenvalues. Allowing for continuous eigenvalues, we find non-polynomial eigenoperator solutions, the so called Halpern-Huang directions, that exist outside of the polynomial Hilbert space due to the exponential field dependence. Carefully analysing the large field behaviour shows that the exponential dependence implies the Legendre effective action does not have a well defined continuum limit. In comparison, flowing towards the infrared we find that the non-polynomial eigenoperators flow into the polynomial Hilbert space. These conclusions are based off RG flow initiated at an arbitrary scale, implying non-polynomial eigenoperators are dependent upon a scale other than k. Therefore, the asymptotic field behaviour forbids self-similar scaling. These results hold when generalised from the Halpern-Huang directions around the Gaussian fixed point to a general fixed point with a general non-polynomial eigenoperator. Legendre transforming to results of the Polchinski equation, we find the flow of the Wilsonian effective action is much better regulated and always fall into the polynomial Hilbert space. For large Wilsonian effective actions, we find that the non-linear terms of the Polchinski equation forbid any non-polynomial field scaling, regardless of the fixed point. These observations lead to the conclusion that only polynomial eigenoperators show the correct, self-similar, scaling behaviour to construct a non-perturbatively renormalisable scalar QFT.


Aims: A community-based multi-component intervention (increasing awareness of the importance of physical activity in chronic illness management through reading comic books, training regarding warm-up stretching exercises, identifying facilitators and barriers to exercise through photosharing, supporting self-reflection and development of action plans) was developed to promote physical activity (PA) among patients with diabetes and hypertension. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of this intervention on health behaviour (walking) and health outcomes. Design: A non-randomized controlled trial with waitlisted control and pre- and post-measures. Setting: Community centres for the elderly. Participants: A total of 204 older adults with diabetes and/or hypertension were recruited. They were assigned to either the intervention group (IG) or waitlisted to the control group (CG). Intervention: Under the supervision of a nurse, six weekly group meetings were arranged in community centres for the elderly in which the participants freely exchanged their views regarding the barriers and facilitators of regular physical activity. Participants were encouraged to take photos in their neighbourhood or at home and brought these photos to share at the group meetings. The photos showed both the barriers and the facilitators to PA. In the last meeting, each participant worked out a plan to perform PA in the coming four weeks. Measures: PA referred to the number of steps taken per day and it was measured by a Garmin Accelerometer at baseline, Week 6 and Week 10. Other measures included the nine-item Self-Efficacy Scale for Exercise–Chinese version (SEE-C), and the 23-item Chinese Barriers to Exercise Scale and Senior Fitness Tests. Generalised estimating equations (GEE) models compared the outcomes over time between IG and CG. Results: A statistically significant difference in the changes in the average number of steps taken daily between the two groups at Week 10 (mean difference = 965.4; 95% confidence interval: 92.2, 1838.6, p = 0.030) was observed, although the difference at Week 6 was non-significant (mean difference = 777.6; 95% confidence interval: −35.3, 1590.5, p = 0.061). IG participants also showed significant improvements in lower body strength (mean difference = 0.967; 95% confidence interval: 0.029, 1.904, p = 0.043) and lower limb flexibility (mean difference = 2.068; 95% confidence interval: 0.404, 3.731, p = 0.015) at Week 10 compared to CG participants. Conclusion: This multi-component intervention improved the participants' physical activity level and physical fitness, particularly in lower limb flexibility and body strength.


pectinases are important enzymes that are widely used in various industries. In this study, application of enzymatic retting using pectinase enzyme preparation for the production of white pepper (Piper nigrum L.) was conducted. Pectinolytic fungi have been successfully isolated from agricultural soil, decaying fruits and water retted pepper berries samples. High potency index for pectinase was obtained from isolate A6 and FP 13 with value of 3.309±0.131 and 3.133±0.115, respectively. Both isolates were then subsequently selected for further developmej Molecular identification using internal transcribed spacer primers identified both selected fungi as Aspergillus versicolor. Investigation was conducted to select suitable fermentation system for pectinase production using the A. versicolor isolates. The results showed a statistically significant difference where higher pectinase enzyme activity was obtained in solid state fermentation as compared to submerged fermentation for both A. versicolor isolates. In the experiments, isolate A6 showed higher pectinase activity on the basis of exo-polygalacturonase activity and protein concentration as compared to isolate FP13. The use of agricultural waste such as banana peels and pepper wastes as substrate for pectinase production was also assessed. The isolate A6 produced higher pectinolytic enzyme activity when banana peels was used as carbon source. Banana peels were also found to contain higher amount of pectin and deemed as suitable for the fungal growth as well as inducing pectinase production. Sugarcane bagasse was only used as solid support for fermentation. Fermentation parameters for pectinase production by A. versicolor A6 in a gram scale solid state fermentation with banana peels and sugarcane bagasse were at incubation temperature of 30°C with initial media pH of pH 5.5 and MnS04 of 0.02% (w/v). Enzyme characterization studies were also conducted using the crude pectinase enzyme produced. It was shown that the enzyme produced had a higher affinity towards polygalacturonic acid as substrate as compared to pectin indicating a predominantly exoacting polygalacturonase of pectinase present. Cellulase enzyme activity was also detected. Optimum temperature and pH for crude pectinase enzyme activity was determined as 50°C and pH 4.0, respectively. Crude pectinase was also determined to be stable at temperature up to 37°C. It was found to be stable at pH ranging from pH 4.0 to pH 7.0. It was stable when stored at 4°C~ however the enzyme activity decreased to 40% after storage at 25°C for seven days. Partially purified pectinase enzyme was prepared using ammonium sulphate precipitation and enzyme characterization studies based on exo-polygalacturonase were also conducted. Dialyzed fraction of ammonium sulphate precipitation at 60% to 90% showed detectable exo-polygalacturonase activity. Partially purified pectinase also shows a higher affinity towards polygalacturonic acid. Kinetic parameters were determined with Km calculated as 2.642 mgmL-1 and Vmax at 9.434 UmL-I• Optimum temperature and pH was determined to be at 40°C and pH 9.0, respectively. These characteristics differ from crude enzyme. Partially purified enzyme also showed high activity at temperature ranging from 4°C and up to 60°C and pH ranging from pH 4.0 to 10.0 comparable with exopolygalacturonases from other sources. This enzyme did not required metal ions to express its activity and an inhibitory effect was observed with CaCh, ZnS04 and HgCh at high concentration. Trial enzymatic retting for white pepper production was conducted with crude pectinase enzyme preparation extracted from A. versicolor A6 on solid state fermentation system. Decortication of green matured pepper berries at 90% was achieved on day five at 28°C and the decortications results obtained are comparable with commercial enzyme (peelzym, Novozyme). Dried pepper berries samples were known as enzyme retted white pepper. Microbial specifications of the enzymatic retted berries met the standards set by International Pepper Community. Aerobic plate count was less than 250 CFUg-1, total colifonn count was 48 MPNg-1 with Escherichia coli detennined to be less than 3.0 MPNg-1• No Salmonella was detected in the enzyme retted pepper berries. Mold and yeast content was determined to be at 48 CFUg-1• Quality analysis regarding volatile oil, piperine, noovolatile ether extract, total ash and acid insoluble ash content was determined and met the standards set by International Pepper Community. Mycotoxins such as aflatoxin B" B2, 0 1 and 02 were not detected in all samples. Enzymatic retting with crude pectinase enzyme preparation has potential for further development and application as trial enzymatic retting yielded good quality end-products and reduced the time needed in production of white pepper compared to water retting method.


If production technology is divided into three groups -- namely processes with material removal, processes with material addition and processes without a change of workpiece mass, it points out immediately, that the first two groups have been conquered to a large extent by the laser, but the third group suffers from an essential lack of laser application. The reason is, that for these processes, -- mainly forming -- rather strong mechanical forces are needed, that cannot be generated by a deliberation of optical energy. Nevertheless, the strong dependence of the yield strength, that must be reached for plastic deformations, on the temperature shows a way to reduce mechanical forces in forming and to obtain thus a beneficial effect of laser assistance. Moreover, brittle or hard materials as most recent high strength steels or titanium, that cannot withstand deformations at room temperature without cracks or rupture, can be formed successfully with the help of lasers. Compared to conventional hot working, laser heating can be applied only to those regions of the workpiece, where strong deformations take place, thus beneficially reducing production time. Good examples for the above concept are laser assisted deep drawing (LADD) as well as dieless wire drawing (DLWD) and similar forming processes, that have been investigated by the author and his coworkers experimentally and theoretically. The latter studies, that will be presented in the actual paper, show clearly, that the above predictions are true, whereas a reduction of the drawing force up to 50% seems to be feasible and that the difficult materials mentioned above can be formed with high quality without any cracks. Nevertheless, relatively high beam powers in the order of magnitude of 10 Kilowatts must then be used, thus giving rise to a promising application of very high power lasers.


Based on the concept of matrix measure, some simple synchronization criteria for complex dynamical networks are provided. If the coupling strength and the largest nonzero eigenvalue of the coupling matrix satisfy certain conditions, the stability of the synchronization manifold can be ensured. Furthermore, the proposed criteria are less conservative than some existing criteria


Spontaneous or auxin-induced lateral root formation in radish and Arabidopis provides an efficient system in which to examine molecular and cellular events associated with the initiation of a new meristem. Subtracted cDNA libraries made at different times in lateral root initiation were used as a source of genes that are expressed differentially during this developmental process, and expression studies on a small gene family of ribosomal protein genes were conducted. From analysis of cell division patterns in pericycle cells the number of founder cells for lateral roots was established. By the use of in vitro growth assays lateral root formation was determined to be a two-stage process. First a primordium is formed, and subsequently a subset of primordial cells begins to function as the lateral root apical meristem. This mode of root development has implications for pattern formation in newly organizing organs.


Sampling theorems describe which types of signals can be reconstructed and under which conditions. In the 64 years since Shannon's sampling theorem for bandlimited functions, we have learned to sample many other classes of signals, some of them nonbandlimited. However, for signals defined on the sphere, the vast majority of sampling theorems still deal with bandlimited signals. In many applications, the assumption of bandlimitedness is not optimal and hampers the accuracy of the reconstruction. A notable example is diffusion magnetic resonance imaging, the application considered in this thesis. In this work, we produce new sampling theorems that prove that certain nonbandlimited signals on the sphere can be sampled using a finite number of samples. We use them to improve the reconstruction of fiber orientations in diffusion magnetic resonance imaging. We proceed by first showing that certain non-bandlimited signals defined on the unit sphere in three dimensions can be sampled and reconstructed using a finite number of samples. When the sample locations are equiangular, we prove that the reconstruction is exact. We also argue and validate using numerical simulations that fewer samples can be used if they are uniformly distributed. In both cases, the number of samples required depends on the number of degrees of freedom, or rate of innovation, of the signals. Next, we consider different sampling kernels and signal models that can also be sampled at their rate of innovation. We develop an optimal kernel that allows us to sample and reconstruct signals at the critical rate, the number of degrees of freedom. We also consider antipodally symmetric kernels, a case which is not covered by the previous theory. Finally, we prove that orienations integrated along the azimuth and great circles can also be sampled at their rate of innovation. Because signals are often observed in noisy environments, we then investigate how to accurately recover the signals previously described from noisy measurements. We propose two major changes to the reconstruction algorithm: one that improves the results when we do not oversample and one that uses the additional information provided by oversampling. Finally, we apply our results to the recovery of fiber orientations in diffusion magnetic resonance imaging. The main advantage of our method over existing ones is that the angular resolution does not depend on the number of samples that is acquired. In theory, our reconstruction algorithm is able to recover fiber orientations regardless of their crossing angle, given an appropriate sampling scheme. We show, through numerical simulations, that our method is indeed able to distinguish fibers that cross at a very narrow angle.


Agricultural employers increasingly are turning to the foreign guest worker program, known as H-2A, as a means to secure a legal workforce. This paper outlines the procedural aspects and costs of recruiting and hiring H-2A workers. Cost data is from a 2014 survey of citrus harvesters and defines pre-employment costs as filing fees, advertising, surety bonds, travel, and housing. The pre-employment costs associated with guest workers are estimated to be nearly $ 2,000 per worker. The survey was motivated by the '60-minute rule' imposed by the U.S. Department of Labor prior to the 2012-13 citrus harvesting season. Cost data were collected across two crop season, 2012-13 and 2013-14, to analyze the cost implications of the rule. We found that the 60-minute rule significantly increased filing fees. These fees, however, represent a very small share of total costs and overall pre-employment costs associated with the H-2A program did not significantly change.


In this paper we present our results and methods on formally verifying the implementation of an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) network switching fabric using the Verification Interacting with Synthesis (VIS) tool. We also present our experience of using VIS in the reimplementation of this fabric. The design we considered is in use for real applications in the Cambridge Fairisle network. We produced the behavioral and structural descriptions 1 of the switch fabric at different levels of abstraction. We then performed equivalence checking between the structural and behavioral descriptions of each submodule of the implementation hierarchy. Using several techniques presented in the paper, we provided a number of relevant liveness and safety properties expressible in CTL, and accomplished their verification in reasonable CPU time. In addition, we succeeded in discovering several injected design errors using both property checking and equivalence checking. The experience on the verification and reimplementation of the fabric demonstrates that VIS can interact with Synopsys and Verilog-XL simulator easily and hence can be used in the digital design flow to make the design more reliable.


For many years peoples were used to send the message using the post office and other media which is not that secure. Passwords are commonly used by people during log in process to access such as computer, ATM, network, etc. Earlier password based authentication strategy are used with assume single server stored all password to authenticate the client during authentication. In earlier system the passwords necessary which is stored in a single server while authenticate client. The attacker can easily hack on single server, contain all data regarding password are easily available to attacker. In proposed system, where a client and a server, who share a password to authenticate each other and meanwhile establish a cryptographic key by share of messages. Propose system two server authentications, where a password is split into two parts, which are securely share on to the two servers during authentication using the PAKE protocol. The Protocol runs in parallel and is more efficient than existing.


Michael Woodroofe was born in Corvallis on March 17, 1940, and grew up in a small town called Athena in Oregon. Michael graduated from McEwen High School in 1958 and entered Stanford University, from which he graduated four years later with a major in Mathematics. He earned his masters degree and Ph.D. from the mathematics department at the University of Oregon in 1964 and 1965, respectively.

Michael Woodroofe has had a distinguished career and is widely recognized as a preeminent statistician and probabilist. He has broad interests and has made deep and significant contributions in many areas in statistical inference and probability, including biased sampling, shape-restricted inference, sequential analysis, nonlinear renewal theory, modern nonparametric inference, statistics in astronomy and central limit theory for stationary processes. He has published more than 100 research articles, written a SIAM monograph and authored a book. He is a former Editor of the Annals of Statistics, a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.

Michael's professional positions have included being on the faculty of the Department of Statistics at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he has been on faculty for more than 40 years. He was a founding member of the Department of Statistics at the University Michigan in 1969, retaining a joint appointment with Mathematics, and served as the Chair of the Department of Statistics during 1977–1983. In addition, he has held visiting positions at Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Rutgers University.

Michael and his wife, Fran Woodroofe, reside in Ann Arbor. He is the father of one daughter, Caroline, and two sons, Russell and Blake.


A recently reported functionalization of single and multi-walled carbon nanotubes, based on a cycloaddition reaction between carbon nanotubes and a pyrrole derived compound, was exploited for the formation of a doxorubicin (DOX) stacked drug delivery system. The obtained supramolecular nano-conveyors were characterized by wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The supramolecular interactions were studied by molecular dynamics simulations and by monitoring the emission and the absorption spectra of DOX. Biological studies revealed that two of the synthesized nano-vectors are effectively able to get the drug into the studied cell lines and also to enhance the cell mortality of DOX at a much lower effective dose. This work reports the facile functionalization of carbon nanotubes exploiting the "pyrrole methodology" for the development of novel technological carbon-based drug delivery systems.


Objectives: Data describing the incidence and risk factors for colectomy in pediatric ulcerative colitis (UC) is inconsistent. Our aim was to describe the colectomy rate and to identify risk factors associated with colectomy in a large cohort of children with UC with long-term follow-up. Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective chart review of pediatric UC cases that were diagnosed at Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel between 1981 and 2013. Potential predictors for colectomy including age at diagnosis, sex, disease extent, severity indices, and different therapeutic regimens during disease course were assessed. Results: Of 188 patients with pediatric onset UC, 34 (18%) underwent colectomy. Median follow-up was 6.9 years (range, 1–30). Kaplan-Meier survival estimates of the cumulative probability for colectomy were 4% at 1 year and 17% at 10 years from diagnosis. Multivariate Cox models showed that male sex (hazard ratio 4.2, P = 0.001) and severe disease at diagnosis reflected by Pediatric Ulcerative Colitis Activity Index score ≥65 (hazard ratio 8.9, P < 0.001) were associated with increased risk for colectomy. Age, disease extent, ethnicity, family history of inflammatory bowel disease, early introduction of immunomodulators, or treatment with antitumor necrosis factor &agr; agent did not affect the risk of colectomy. Conclusions: Male sex and higher Pediatric Ulcerative Colitis Activity Index score at diagnosis are independent risk factors for colectomy.


Negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) has become a serious reliability issue, and the interface traps and oxide charges play an important role in the degradation process. In this paper, we study the recovery of NBTI systemically under different conditions in the P-type metal–oxide–semiconductor field effect transistor (PMOSFET), explain the various recovery phenomena, and find the possible processes of the recovery.


Spasticity is a motor control disorder common after stroke, which can cause the fingers to involuntarily flex and form a fist. Even in the presence of strong spasticity, functional electrical stimulation can provide hand opening in hemiplegics with spastic finger flexor muscles through stimulation of the extensor digitorum communis muscle and the ulnar nerve. Stimulation of these sites did not reduce the activity in spastic finger flexor muscles, as hypothesized initially, and as might occur through a reciprocal inhibitory mechanism. In fact, flexor activity generally increased during extensor stimulation. In spite of increased flexor activity, the extension force was sufficient to fully extend the fingers. Similarly, stimulation of the finger extensors in able-bodied subjects did not reduce the EMG in the finger flexors, and could even increase it. The influence of voluntary effort on finger extension achieved by stimulation was also studied, since a neuroprosthesis for stroke patients might combine voluntary effort with stimulation. Finger extension was generally diminished when the subject attempted to assist the stimulated extension voluntarily or when stimulation followed voluntary flexion as might occur when trying to open the hand following a voluntary grasp. The largest extension was achieved when the subject remained relaxed. Since voluntary effort influences the degree of hand opening achieved by stimulation, some method of adjusting stimulation levels during task performance would be desirable in a clinically deployed neuroprosthesis. >


Intelligentized distributed system is advanced mode of network operation in agile manufacturing system. In intelligent agile manufacturing, Architecture of knowledge base directly influences intelligent level of manufacture. Application knowledge and reorganization are two sides of implement intelligent application. When application knowledge don't meet needs of application, starting reorganization knowledge base architecture will get new application knowledge. This is second level knowledge base(shallow knowledge and depth knowledge) architecture. Research of knowledge base in agile manufacturing will provide implemented knowledge architecture for intelligent agile manufacturing system and enable whole system high knowledge.


We have investigated the temperature dependence of the dielectric functions of a high-Tc superconducting YBa2Cu3O7-- (Y-123) and a nonsuperconducting PrBa2Cu3O7-- (Pr-123) thin film using spectral ellipsometry. We evaluate the data by means of thermal-difference and sum-rule analysis techniques. We find that a spectral-weight transfer into the bands between 4 and 5 eV takes place before Y-123 becomes superconducting. We identify an anomaly around 1 eV that can be explained by a sudden plasma-frequency drop of the order of an meV around Tc. The absence of any sudden effects in the dielectric properties of Pr-123 suggests that both observations are intimately related to the superconducting state. Our findings point out that high-energy degrees of freedom must be considered for the understanding of high-temperature superconductivity.


OBJECTIVE
To study the effectiveness of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) inhibitor treatment for sarcoidosis refractory to conventional treatments.

METHODS
Five patients (two men, three women) were treated with infliximab. All patients received a loading dose of 3 mg/kg at 0, 2, and 6 weeks and then maintenance infusions every 4-8 weeks. Patients had their dose increased or the dosing interval reduced when the disease relapsed. These patients had active disease despite treatment with corticosteroids and other immunomodulatory agents. All patients had a negative tuberculin skin test.

RESULTS
Sarcoidosis in all patients improved significantly without any serious adverse reactions.

CONCLUSION
This study suggests that TNFalpha is effective in patients for whom conventional treatment fails.


Phishing is an attempt by an individual or a group to thieve personal confidential information such as passwords, credit card information etc from unsuspecting victims for identity theft, financial gain and other fraudulent activities. In this paper we have proposed a new approach named as "A Novel Antiphishing framework based on visual cryptography" to solve the problem of phishing. Here an image based authentication using Visual Cryptography (vc) is used. The use of visual cryptography is explored to preserve the privacy of image captcha by decomposing the original image captcha into two shares that are stored in separate database servers such that the original image captcha can be revealed only when both are simultaneously available; the individual sheet images do not reveal the identity of the original image captcha. Once the original image captcha is revealed to the user it can be used as the password.


Objective: To determine the prevalence of Mycoplasma genitalium (M. genitalium) infection in HIV positive patients by PCR examination in Teratai Clinic of Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital, Bandung in order to reduce sexually transmitted diseases, especially M. genitalium infection in HIV positive patients. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study with consecutive sampling methods. Eighty one HIV positive patients attending the Teratai Clinic of Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital, Bandung were recruited to be the subjects of this study. All subjects underwent history taking, physical examination, and PCR examination for M. genitalium. Specimens were taken from cervical smear in females and first void urine in male. Results: The prevalence of M. genitalium based on the PCR examination in HIV positive patients attended to Teratai Clinic Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital Bandung was 9%. Conclusions: Mycoplasmal infection identification based on PCR examination should be considered for routine screening test to reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases in HIV positive patients. Keywords: Human immunodeficiency virus, Mycoplama genitalium, polymerase chain reaction DOI : 10.15850/ijihs.v2n1.274


Since the 1980s, Britain's Conservative Party has become increasingly critical of the European Union, and of the country's membership of it. So contentious and controversial has this issue become that it was a significant factor in the downfall of three consecutive Conservative Prime Ministers, all of whom found it increasingly difficult to manage their Party in Parliament, and thereby maintain any semblance of Party unity. Initially, during the 1980s and 1990s, the intra-Party divisions were between Europhiles (pro-Europeans) and Eurosceptics, but this demarcation was subsequently superseded by a division between soft Eurosceptics and hard Eurosceptics. The development and deepening of these intra-Party divisions are attributable to a plethora of endogenous and exogenous factors, the combined and cumulative effect of which ultimately led to the 'Brexit' vote in the June 2016 referendum.


With a variety of attacks, this paper proposes a novel solution which requires establishing a trust among all nodes in mobile sensor networks and develops a material scheme which can achieve the goal. The scheme includes a mechanism to establish a trusted relation between all neighboring nodes and avoid untrustworthy nodes during the route discovery process. And it can resist DoS-style flooding attacks. The work presents this scheme, and reports its performance using an extensive set of simulation set of experiments. The results indicate clearly that resisting DoS can be achieved in wireless sensor network. And the additional overhead of our scheme is reasonably low.


Two models, a purely nonbonded model and a cationic dummy atom approach, were examined for the modeling of the binuclear zinc‐containing IMP‐1 metallo‐β‐lactamase in complex with a mercaptocarboxylate inhibitor. The cationic dummy atom approach had substantial advantages as it maintained the initial, experimentally determined geometry of the metal‐containing active site during molecular dynamics simulations in water. The method was extended to the modeling of the free enzyme and the enzyme in complex with a cephalosporin substrate docked in an intermediate structure. For all three systems, the modeled complexes and the tetrahedral coordination of the zinc ions were stable. The average zinc–zinc distance increased by ~1 A in the substrate complex compared with the inhibitor complex and the free enzyme in which a hydroxide ion acts as a bridging ligand. Thus, the zinc ions are predicted to undergo a back and forth movement upon the cycle of hydrolysis. In contrast to previous assumptions, no interaction of the Asn167 side chain with the bound cephalosporin substrate was observed. Our observations are in agreement with quantum‐mechanical calculations and experimental data and indicate that the cationic dummy atom approach is useful to model zinc‐containing metallo‐β‐lactamases as free proteins, in complex with inhibitors and in complex with substrates.


This study is focused on the use of radio frequency magnetron sputtering to modify the surface of porous Ti6Al4V alloy fabricated via additive manufacturing technology. The hydroxyapatite (HA) coated porous Ti6Al4V alloy was studied in respect with its chemical and phase composition, surface morphology, water contact angle and hysteresis, and surface free energy. Thin nanocrystalline HA film was deposited while its structure with diamond-shaped cells remained unchanged. Hysteresis and water contact angle measurements revealed an effect of the deposited HA films, namely an increased water contact angle and contact angle hysteresis. The increase of the contact angle of the coating-substrate system compared to the uncoated substrate was attributed to the multiscale structure of the resulted surfaces.


Advances in automotive industry as well as computing technology are making autonomous vehicle (AV) an appealing means of transportation. Vehicles are beyond the traditional source of commute, and leveled up to smart devices with computing capability. As one of the compelling features of AVs, the autonomous valet parking (AVP) allows for navigating and parking the car automatically without human interventions. Within this realm, long-range AVP (LAVP) extends auto-parking to a much larger scale compared to its short-range counterparts. It is worth noting that AV mobility is a pivotal concern with LAVP, involving dynamic patterns related to spatial-temporal features, such as varied parking and drop-off (or pick-up) demands with diverse customer journey planning. We herein target such critical decision-making on where to park and where to drop/pick-up upon customer requirements during their journeys. Concerning in practice that car parks are equipped with limited parking space, we thus introduce parking reservations and enable accurate estimations on future parking states. An efficient LAVP service framework enhanced with parking reservations is then proposed. Benefited from the intelligent predictions, parking load can be accurately predicted and greatly alleviated at individual car parks, thereby avoiding overcrowding effectively. Results show that significant performance gains can be achieved under the proposed scheme by comparing to other benchmarks, with respect to greatly reduced waiting duration for available parking space, as well as enhanced customer experiences in terms of reduced traveling period, etc. In particular, the number of parked vehicles across the network can be effectively balanced.


Plastic pollution is a problem of global scale and will increase as synthetic polymers continue to be produced, used, and discarded. Microplastic (MPs, <5 mm in size) pollution is of increasing concern, because this is estimated to account for more than 92% of global plastic counts and expected to present risks to aquatic fauna and humans. Often, MPs are too small to be seen and are unevenly distributed in the environment due to differences in shape, size, and density, rendering them difficult to find and quantify in environmental samples. Hence, adequate quantitative and qualitative assessment of these materials remains scarce, particularly in freshwaters and wastewaters that remain largely unexplored. However, both systems receive and transport different types of anthropogenic waste, including MPs, so warrant further attention for identification of mitigation strategies.

The purpose of this research was to fill gaps in knowledge of the role of freshwater rivers and
wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) as transport vectors of MPs to the environment, and generate incisive understanding of the distribution and behaviour of MPs in these systems. These research findings are expected to be relevant to stakeholders and regulators as they can aid in the identification of priority areas for further research, monitoring, and regulation of MP pollution. Therefore, this research focussed on the abundance and distribution of MPs (60-2800 μm) in urban fresh- and wastewater systems in a river whose catchment contains a large city: the River Clyde catchment (4000 km2) in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. First, liquid fractions were sampled at eight treatment stage points within a tertiary WWTP with 184,500 population equivalents and receiving a mix of household and trade effluent. Then, sediment and water samples were collected in the recipient river, the River Clyde, upstream and downstream from the WWTP. In addition, sediment samples were collected from another nearby freshwater river, the River Kelvin, which also drains through Glasgow and the Clyde at its estuary. The overall aim of this research was to assess the extent of MP pollution in these systems and the distribution, transport, and possible fate of primary and secondary types of
MPs. Microplastics were separated from their environmental matrix using the widespread protocols of density separation, hydrogen peroxide oxidation of labile organics, and filtration. Particles were identified by visual sorting followed by chemical confirmation of plastics.

Microplastics were ubiquitous and present in all water bodies in varying quantities: 161-432 MPs kg-1 in the River Kelvin tributary, <1-13 MPs L-1 in the WWTP, 1-26 MPs kg-1 in River Clyde sediment, and 0-4 MPs 24 L-1 in River Clyde water. The WWTP displayed high efficiency, removing 96% of incoming pieces, with the majority removed by the primary treatment stage. However, at least one fibre was observed in treated effluent and this may represent daily discharges of at least 12 million particles to the River Clyde from this WWTP. Total MP concentrations in sediment and water samples of the recipient river were higher in the most downstream site compared to the upstream point furthest from the effluent pipe. Fibre concentrations were higher in downstream sediment samples that may indicate some retention in rivers by sedimentation processes – this is supported by the high abundance of fibres in River Kelvin sediments. Fragments were abundant in the main river sediments in similar concentrations across upstream and downstream sites, suggesting these are more
likely to be introduced from diffuse sources via surface runoff and in-stream transport. The
comparable concentrations observed across sampling events for each of these systems suggest a continuous input of MPs from their source to the environment.

For further insight into the relative distribution of primary and secondary MPs and their potential sources, it is necessary to confirm material composition of these particles. A subset of specimens extracted from wastewater (5%), Clyde sediment (15%), and Clyde water (56%) were analysed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) for this assessment. Secondary MPs especially fibres were predominant, while primary MPs that have received the most media and public attention and prompted plastic and MP strategies, were lowest in concentration. Polypropylene (PP) was the most detected polymer across all analysed particles and was mainly present in the form of fibres and fragments. Polyester and nylon fibres that may be expected in high abundances in wastewater appeared absent in the WWTP in this study, although this was concluded mainly due to size limitations of the characterisation method. However, the PP fibres in wastewater could originate from
sanitary products, medical applications, thermal clothing, and construction materials. This is
important as fibres are often linked to washing machine effluent and currently little information from alternate sources for this type of MPs exists. In River Clyde sediment, fibres identified as polyethylene terephthalate were observed and concluded to originate mainly from fishing gear, based on combined assessment of chemical and visual properties.

Understanding the causes and significance of MP pollution is a new but expanding area of water research. It was important to share these research findings with the community and so this research was published when possible. This thesis is thus constructed from a series of published and unpublished papers.


To examine ANG II receptors in rat median preoptic (MnPO) neurons, we used patch-clamp whole cell recordings in a parasagittal brain slice preparation. Lucifer yellow-filled neurons displayed a simple morphology with two to three aspiny dendrites. Bath-applied ANG II (1-2,000 nM for 30 s) induced a response in 37 of 70 cells. In current-clamp recordings, cells displayed a prolonged (10- to 30-min) depolarizing plateau with action potential discharges and an associated reduction in postburst afterhyperpolarization and spike frequency adaptation. In voltage-clamp recordings (holding potential -65 mV), cells displayed tetrodotoxin-resistant inward currents of 7. 6 +/- 1.9 (n = 5), 9.9 +/- 1.9 (n = 9), and 9.2 +/- 2.2 pA (n = 6) at 10, 200, and 2,000 nM, respectively. Responses were blockable by pretreatment with losartan (2 microM; n = 6) but not by PD-123177 (20 microM; n = 3). Net ANG II-induced current revealed a 7.8 +/- 0. 9% reduction in membrane conductance, decreasing but not reversing at hyperpolarized levels. Neurons expressing a strong hyperpolarization-activated, time-independent inward rectification were more likely to respond to ANG II. There was no correlation between the response of a neuron to ANG II and its response to norepinephrine.


In the last ten years, geographers have increasingly focused upon religion as a significant marker of social and cultural difference. Using such work as a base for discussion, this paper maps out some potential avenues for future work about feminist geographies of religion. I draw simultaneously upon existing trends in the discipline, and experiences of fieldwork with Muslim youth to suggest ways in which feminist approaches might be developed in research on geographies of religion. In doing so, I focus in particular upon three areas of feminist geographical inquiry – gender relations, positionalities and emotions.


Whether investigating research questions or designing systems, many researchers and designers need to engage users with their personal data. However, it is difficult to successfully design user-facing tools for interacting with personal data without first understanding what users want to do with their data. Techniques for raw data exploration, sketching, or physicalization can avoid the perils of tool development, but prevent direct analytical access to users' rich personal data. We present a new method that directly tackles this challenge: the data engagement interview. This interview method incorporates an analyst to provide real-time personal data analysis, granting interview participants the opportunity to directly engage with their data, and interviewers to observe and ask questions throughout this engagement. We describe the method's development through a case study with asthmatic participants, share insights and guidance from our experience, and report a broad set of insights from these interviews.


This paper introduces the task of interacting with an image editing program through natural language. We present a corpus of image edit requests which were elicited for real world images, and an annotation framework for understanding such natural language instructions and mapping them to actionable computer commands. Finally, we evaluate crowd-sourced annotation as a means of efficiently creating a sizable corpus at a reasonable cost.


A prominent clinical feature of severe Covid-19 infection is respiratory failure associated with pulmonary coagulopathy. Recent reports published in Thrombosis and Haemostasis show that treatment with low-molecular weight heparin (LMWH) decreases mortality in critically ill patients with sepsis-induced hypercoagulation, and thus argue for prophylactic administration of the anticoagulant. In addition, the authors point to non-anticoagulant activities of heparin, in particular anti-inflammatory effects with potential to prevent deterioration of the disease. We would like to use this opportunity to clarify the biochemical background of the diverse activities of heparin, and further, how this information may be exploited to generate more efficient treatment of the viral infection. Mechanisms to consider relate to the functional roles of proteins interacting with heparan sulfate (HS), a polysaccharide closely related to heparin.


Cryptanalysis of lattice-based cryptography is an important field in cryptography since lattice problems are among the most robust assumptions and have been used to construct a variety of cryptographic primitives. The security estimation model for concrete parameters is one of the most important topics in lattice-based cryptography. In this research, we focus on the Gauss Sieve algorithm proposed by Micciancio and Voulgaris, a heuristic lattice sieving algorithm for the central lattice problem, shortest vector problem (SVP). We propose a technique of lifting computations in prime-cyclotomic ideals into that in cyclic ideals. Lifting makes rotations easier to compute and reduces the complexity of inner products from O(n3) to O(n2). We implemented the Gauss Sieve on multi-GPU systems using two layers of parallelism in our framework, and achieved up to 55 times speed of previous results of dimension 96. We were able to solve SVP on ideal lattice in dimension up to 130, which is the highest dimension SVP instance solved by sieve algorithm so far. As a result, we are able to provide a better estimate of the complexity of solving central lattice problem.


Background: Mortality can be predicted by intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) volume, but motor recovery in survivors is variable. Motor impairment is likely related to the spatial relationship between the hematoma and corticospinal tract (CST). Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) tractography can be used to visualize white matter tracts in three dimensions. We hypothesized that the interaction between the hematoma and CST would predict motor impairment in ICH patients. Methods: ICH patients with small-moderate hematomas were prospectively imaged with CT and DTI within 14 days of onset. Hematoma volume was assessed on CT using planimetric techniques. Three-dimensional recreations of the ipsilateral CST and the hematoma were made for each patient. The CST was categorized by interaction with the ICH as CST: Unaffected, Displaced, Partially Severed, Completely Severed, and Splitting the ICH. Motor function was classified as 9good9 (NIHSS motor subscale 0-2) or 9poor9 (3-8). Results: Thirty patients (mean age 68±13) underwent CT at a median (IQR) of 2.3 (3.5)h and DTI at 2.0 (3.6, range 0.6-13) days. Median hematoma volume was 8.2 (23) ml. Lesion distribution was: lobar 11 (37%), basal ganglia 18 (60%), brainstem 1 (3%). CSTs were primarily Displaced (n=9) or Unaffected (8), with the remainder being Partially Severed (4), Completely Severed (5), and Splitting the ICH (4). The latter 4 (13%) patients had small ( Motor score at Day 7 was good in 50% of patients. Good outcome was seen in 8 (100%) Unaffected, 4 (44%) Displaced, 1 (25%) Partially Severed, 0 (0%) Severed and 2 (50%) Splitting the ICH patients. Logistic regression indicated that good motor score was predicted by CST category (r=2.3, p=0.016). Conclusion: CST integrity can be maintained when enfolded by small basal ganglia bleeds. Diffusion tractography patterns may be useful for predicting motor scores in small to moderate-sized hematomas.


The largest witch-hunt in human history occurred in early modern Europe, where grisly estimates place the numbers at about 90,000 witchcraft prosecutions, and an overall execution rate of 50%, resulting in roughly 45,000 deaths. However, the execution rates of witches throughout Europe were not consistent. England was on one side of the spectrum with some court circuits having execution rates as low as 19%, while the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) was in stark contrast, accounting for almost half of the total prosecutions in Europe. Some locations in Germany, like Kiel, had execution rates of at least 67%, but the figure could possibly as high as 81%. One of the primary reasons for this large distinction may be the more centralized court system of early modern England, and the lack of a centralized court system in early modern Germany. This note will dive into a comparative legal study between the relative systems of early modern Germany and England and attempt to extrapolate the effects of judicial centralization on witch-hunting intensity.

Furthermore, if judicial centralization was acting as a safeguard to the rights of the innocent despite the policies of local and state governments, is it possible that this force is still at play in the modern federal system of the United States? Perhaps the parallel can be drawn from the witch-hunts in early modern Europe to the civil rights movement in the United States during the 20th century to help illustrate the sliding scale of judicial centralism's effect on mitigating injustice. The United States' federal courts tried to take on a more influential role on the issue of racial segregation in state and local governments during the civil rights movement. This move toward centralization by the federal judiciary in a federal system additionally helps to illustrate the relationship between centralism and federalism.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a qualitative investigation of family employment dynamics in the KwaMashu township economy.

Design/methodology/approach
Using a small area census research method, the researchers identified 1,556 businesses located in a settlement of 2 km2. Of these enterprises, 694 (45 percent) traded in fast moving consumer goods, notably food and/or drink. The main retailers were small shops (spaza shops) and liquor outlets (bars or shebeens), greengrocers, sellers of meat and poultry products, house shops, restaurants, takeaways and tuckshops. Firm surveys were conducted with 270 businesses in four predominant sectors: liquor retail, grocery retail, early childhood educators and hair care businesses.

Findings
The research found that 40 percent of the surveyed firms in these sectors employ family members on a full-time basis, whereas merely 26 percent of firms employ family members on a part-time basis. In the grocery retail sector, about half of family employees are remunerated on a wage basis, the other half are paid in-kind (40 paper of the total) or on a profit share arrangement. In liquor retail and educare sectors, the majority of family members are paid wages. Female-run enterprises employ less family members on a full-time basis (except in the grocery sector), yet employ more family members on a part-time basis with a higher portion of wages paid in-kind.

Research limitations/implications
Family plays an important role in township enterprises. Beyond direct employment, township enterprises fulfill an important social protection and neighborhood relationship function for business operators and their families. The familial relationship to micro-enterprises should be seen through the lens of bricolage (Gras and Nason, 2015).

Originality/value
In this respect, the authors confirm three benefits of family firms: the creation of social protection though family beneficiation, the provision of employment and work experience and the strategic use of family resources.


Behavioral decision-making research has shown that people generally discount future outcomes. This phenomenon is relevant for time management mechanics because their use usually implies immediate costs and only future benefits. If some people discount future outcomes more steeply than others, they should also discount the future benefits of using time management mechanics more steeply and consequently use time management mechanics less often. This hypothesis was tested among 153 German white-collar workers. The steepness of time discounting was inferred from two common behavioral tasks that are typically used to measure time discounting. The use of time management mechanics was assessed using the Mechanics subscale of the Time Management Behavior Scale. Results showed the expected negative correlation between the time discounting measures and the use of time management mechanics. It is argued that time discounting should therefore become a topic taught in time management training.


Safe and potable water is water needed for conducting the activities of man. Potable water is the most important renewable sources and this resource plays important role for survival of most living organisms as well as man based on supplying the water requirements and irrigation water. The trend for increased population and extended sources as well as needing for supplying the man's food ,increased mortality, droughts, loss of water table, penetration of saline waters to potable water sources, change in the quality of water sources, endangering the public health, food safety threat ,malnutrition and starvation, local, regional and international conflicts, evacuation of rural regions due to loss of water (as a main living infrastructure), destruction of biodiversity in the ecosystems and wild life,… are considered as potential threats exposed the water sources particularly potable water sources in the cities and countries levels during future years .By development of urbanization, today, the subject of sources management in the civil areas has been remarkably considered and this paper has been written by that vision. Progress in the urban living made irretrievable damages to the nature and treated many natural sources. One of the most important of these factors includes water pollution and its sources. Water safety, and preventing its pollution and its lost is one of the most important issues in our era, Water contamination is considered as a great environmental complication encountered with due to day-to-day progress of industries and technology. This paper aims to investigate the existing concepts, factors making the contaminations ,alternatives such as managerial methods, existing challenges, and recommendations in the field of preventing and reducing the contamination of water sources and using safe water.


Modulated structures in phosphorous and iodine at high pressure have been studied by ab-initio calculations. In phosphorous the electrostatic interaction between the charge density, i.e. Ewald energy E ew and Hartree energy E h play an important role for the creation of the modulated structure, whereas such roles of E ew and E h are not observed in iodine. Results of a detailed study of the electronic properties are shown and discussed for phosphorous in comparison with those of iodine. Superconductivity in these materials has been discussed in relation to those properties.


Fetching Lexico-Syntactic patterns from text rely on pairs of words (positive instances) that represent the target relation, and finding their simultaneous occurrence in text corpus. Due to existence of WordNet thesaurus (which contains the semantic relationship between words), collecting positive instances is easy. In non-english languages, it's hard to collect large number of positive instances in various contexts. We investigated some new ideas for collecting them in Persian language and finally run the best one and collected approximately 6,000 positive instances.


In this paper I examine the relationship between expatriates' perceptions of their compensation package and their affective commitment. The results of this cross-sectional study amongst 263 Finnish expatriates suggest the mediating role of the employee's perceptions of fulfillment of their employer obligations. This leads to the consideration that employees systematically assess their total reward package, interpret and give meaning to these compensation signals in terms of fulfillment of perceived employer obligations and simultaneously re-adapt or adjust their attitudes at any moment thorough their exchange relationship. In addition, this study gives empirical support for some of Rousseau and Ho's (2000) theoretical arguments regarding psychological contract (PC) issues in compensation. Furthermore it provides evidence that three of the PC feature measures for employer obligations developed by Janssens, Sels and Van den Brande (2003) can be replicated. Finally the implications of these findings for future research are discussed.


Shrinkage processes, such as volumetric shrinkage behavior, and the geometry of the volume shrinkage were studied with respect to the physical ripening naturally occurring in a marine clay soil. Three-dimensional volume shrinkage was characterized using the shrinkage characteristic curve determined on soil clods at different ripening stages. One-dimensional behavior geometry of shrinkage was also determined for undisturbed core samples of 7-cm height and 7-cm diameter at different ripening stages and loads applied. Both the vertical and horizontal components of shrinkage were measured at different moisture ratios varying from saturation to oven dry. It has been found that both volumetric shrinkage and geometry of shrinkage are transient characteristics of physical ripening. Significant physical changes were observed from both saturation and air entry points of the shrinkage curve. Geometry of such a soil is a continuous function of moisture ratio, ranging from unidimensional to isotropic shrinkage, depending on the ripening stage and load.


Early education is replete with debates about "academic" versus "play" approaches. We evaluated 2 interventions, the Building Blocks (BB) mathematics curriculum and the BB synthesized with scaffolding of play to promote executive function (BBSEF), compared to a business-as-usual (BAU) control using a 3-armed cluster randomized trial with more than 1,000 children in 84 preschool classrooms across three districts (multiracial or multiethnic, low income, 27% English Language Learner). Impact estimates for BBSEF were mixed in sign, small in magnitude, and insignificant. Most impact estimates for BB were positive, but only a few were statistically significant, with more in the kindergarten year (delayed effects), including both mathematics achievement and executive function (EF) competencies. Gains in both mathematics and EF can be mutually supportive and thus resist the fade-out effect.


Is God a Vegetarian? is one of the most complete explorations of vegetarianism in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Young, a linguistics and New Testament scholar, attempts to answer the question being asked with greater and greater frequency: "Are Christians morally obligated to be vegetarians?" Many people are confused about the apparent mixed messages within the Bible. On the one hand, God prescribes a vegetarian diet in the Garden of Eden and the apocalyptic visions of Isaiah and John imply the restoration of a vegetarian diet. However, it is also clear that God permits, Jesus partakes in, and Paul sanctions the eating of flesh. Does the Bible give any clear guidance? Close readings of key biblical texts pertaining to dietary customs, vegetarianism, and animal rights make up the substance of the book. Rather than ignoring or offering a literal, twentieth-century interpretation of the passages, the author analyzes the voices of these conflicting dietary motifs within their own social contexts. Interwoven throughout these readings are discussions of contemporary issues, such as animal testing and experimentation, the fur industry, raising animals in factories, and the effects of meat-eating on human health.


R. K. Sande1,2, K. Matre3, T. Kiserud1,2, G. Eide4,5 1Clinical Fetal Physiology Research Group, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway; 2Fetal Medicine Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway; 3Institute of Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway; 4Centre for Clinical Research, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway; 5Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway


Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is among the most frequently reported coexisting psychiatric conditions in children with encopresis. Some case reports state that atomoxetine-a selective presynaptic norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor-approved for treatment of ADHD is also effective in the treatment of coexisting encopresis. Contrasting those reports, here we present a case diagnosed with ADHD and secondary encopresis without constipation whose encopretic symptoms increased after atomoxetine treatment and discuss possible mechanisms.


SUMMARY Major proteins of royal jelly (MRJP) are well characterized in the honey bee, Apis mellifera. They are secreted by hypopharyngeal glands and provide major proteinaceous components of the larval food. To date nothing is known about royal jelly proteins in other bee species. To fill this gap, we screened the genome of the Asian giant honey bee, Apis dorsata, for the two MRJP protein coding sequences MRJP3 and MRJP5. With PCR primers originally designed for A. mellifera we were able to amplify the presumably orthologous sequences in A. dorsata. Sequence analyses revealed high similarity in the two honey bees. As described in A. mellifera we found an orthologous extensive repetitive region in the MRJP3 sequence of A. dorsata. The number of reiterated repetitive motifs is highly variable in different A. dorsata individuals and is therefore well suited as a marker in population studies. The MRJP5 sequence region contains another repetitive region at the orthologous position as described for A. mellifera. These findings confirm the presence and indicate the functional equivalence of MRJP proteins in A. dorsata compared to A. mellifera. The origin of the MRJP protein family can therefore be dated back probably 22 million years ago to a common ancestor of A. mellifera and A. dorsata.


1 Nursing professionals are at the frontline of the health information technology revolution. The Texas Nurses Association and Texas Organization of Nurse Executives partnered to evaluate the changing health technology environment in Texas, in particular the nurses' satisfaction with the use of clinical information systems. A descriptive exploratory study using the Clinical Information System Implementation Evaluation Scale and a newly developed Demographic Survey and the Meaningful Use Maturity-Sensitive Index, with a narrative component, was conducted in 2014 and 2015. Nurses across Texas received an electronic invitation to participate in the survey, resulting in 1177 respondents. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that variables of the Meaningful Use Maturity-Sensitive Index and Clinical Information System Implementation Evaluation Scale show strong interrater reliability, with Cronbach's α scores of .889 and .881, respectively, and thereby inform the survey analysis, indicating and explaining variations in regional and institutional trends with respect to satisfaction. For example, the maturity of a clinical information system within an organization and age of the nurse significantly influence the probability of nurse satisfaction (P < .05). Qualitative analysis of nurses' narratives further explained the nurses' experiences. Recommendations for future research and educational were identified.


The tiny house movement in Australia is increasingly popular. It has been touted as a (part) solution to such intractable problems as housing unaffordability, urban sprawl, homelessness and unsustainable housing. Is this hype justified, and has the 'love' of tiny houses resulted in increasing numbers of tiny house dwellers? This paper reports on a research project comprising three questionnaire surveys, social media analysis and informal interviews of those who love, live and leave tiny houses. Demographically, those who lived in tiny houses were younger (under 30) or older (over 55). Most were single or couples, although a few had young children, and a cluster of single women over 55 was evident. The benefits of living tiny included reduced debt, being part of the tiny house community, sustainable living and the 'freedom' to move with one's own home. This freedom was often perceived rather than actual, as local government restrictions on tiny houses remains the most challenging barrier to tiny houses, and often the main reason for leaving for more conventional dwellings. Other issues included difficulties raising children in small spaces, especially in winter; and small space pragmatics such as composting toilets and cooking smells. In conclusion, tiny houses offer some potential to improve housing choice for those who can afford the upfront cost, may offer low impact urban densification option and can foster more sustainable behaviours. This potential will however, not be achieved unless local and state governments regulate tiny houses as a lawful dwelling type.


In this thesis, the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method for transport phenomena is combined with the simulated annealing (SA) algorithm for digitized porous media reconstruction to study fluid flow and heat transfer in random porous media. It is noted that in contrast to previous studies which simplify porous media as arrays of regularly shaped objects or effective pore networks, the LB+SA method in this thesis can model statistically meaningful random porous structures in irregular morphology, and simulate pore-scale transport processes inside them.
To be specific, this thesis applies the SA algorithm to construct digitized random porous structures based on limited but meaningful statistical morphological information, which is defined either by analytical formulas or experimental samples. Then the LB models are applied to simulate isothermal fluid flow, heat conduction and heat convection in these digitized representations. The results of simulations in this thesis demonstrate that the LB+SA numerical strategy can well resolve pore-scale fluid transport details in random geometries, which is far beyond the common simplifications of real porous media as arrays of regular-shape objects. More significantly, the upscaling averages over the computational volumes and the related effective transport properties were also computed based on these pore-scale numerical results. Good agreement between the numerical results and theoretical predictions or experimental data at REV-scale was found. Moreover, this multiscale approach reveals the intrinsic links between porous structure characteristics to pore-scale and REV-scale fluid transport features. It evidences how the irregular geometries impact the flow and heat transfer processes, and presents unusual phenomenon of occlusion in percolation which cannot be manifested in simplification of porous media as arrays of regular-shape objects.
The numerical simulations in this thesis demonstrate a combination of the LB method with the SA algorithm is a viable and powerful numerical strategy for simulating transport phenomena in random porous media with complex geometries at pore-scale.


It has become an important task for many voltage stability studies to find a voltage stability index. The voltage stability indices provide reliable information about proximity of voltage instability in a power system. In this paper, the L indicator has been proposed, which aims to detect the weakest load buses in the electrical power networks. The L indicator has been checked by its application to the (WSCC 9-bus and IEEE 14-bus) test systems. Finally, the proposed indicator has been applied to the Iraqi power grid (400 kV) considering different contingencies, such as lines outage, generated power reduction and loading increase. The short computation time of this indicator and its efficient detection of the weakest load buses in the Iraqi power grid, allow the operators to apply it in on- line voltage stability monitoring based on measurements.


The CORNISH project is the highest resolution radio continuum survey of the Galactic plane to date. It is the 5 GHz radio continuum part of a series of multi-wavelength surveys that focus on the northern GLIMPSE region (10° < l < 65°), observed by the Spitzer satellite in the mid-infrared. Observations with the Very Large Array in B and BnA configurations have yielded a 1.″5 resolution Stokes I map with a root mean square noise level better than 0.4 mJy beam−1. Here we describe the data-processing methods and data characteristics, and present a new, uniform catalog of compact radio emission. This includes an implementation of automatic deconvolution that provides much more reliable imaging than standard CLEANing. A rigorous investigation of the noise characteristics and reliability of source detection has been carried out. We show that the survey is optimized to detect emission on size scales up to 14″ and for unresolved sources the catalog is more than 90% complete at a flux density of 3.9 mJy. We have detected 3062 sources above a 7σ detection limit and present their ensemble properties. The catalog is highly reliable away from regions containing poorly sampled extended emission, which comprise less than 2% of the survey area. Imaging problems have been mitigated by down-weighting the shortest spacings and potential artifacts flagged via a rigorous manual inspection with reference to the Spitzer infrared data. We present images of the most common source types found: H ii regions, planetary nebulae, and radio galaxies. The CORNISH data and catalog are available online at http://cornish.leeds.ac.uk.


The various ways in which the European Union (EU) exerts influence on the Member States (MS) have been addressed by a number of researchers from different policy areas. Studies on Europeanisation in the field of social policies have extensively focused on soft implementation tools that the EU utilises to induce change in domestic policies – however, only with a marginal view on the dynamics
that the European Social Fund (ESF) may yield in this context. For this purpose, in this Master thesis I analysed to what extent Europeanisation through the use of
the European Social Fund (ESF) has influenced domestic activation policies in Spain. My research was
orientated on a former research conducted in Belgium. Drawing on their findings allowed for consulting
three precise mechanisms - strategic usage, aid conditionality and policy learning –which were
further brought into question in conducted expert interviews to disclose the exact workings of the
ESF on domestic grounds. To allow for the decentralised structure of activation policies in Spain, the
interviews took place on the central level in Madrid and on the regional level, exemplified on Catalonia.
The findings show that the ESF has functioned as a 'selective amplifier' of activation policies in Spain,
for as it has empowered national and sub-national actors to further their capacities to activate,
shown effects on the governance of labour as well as on policy framing. These insights need to be
taken into consideration in future research about Europeanisation in the social area as they break
open new grounds on 'where and how Europe matters' in domestic spheres.


Land degradation caused by erosion was an environmental threat that hampered agricultural production and the causes include: over cultivation, overgrazing, overpopulation and deforestation. Loss of productive land undermined rural livelihoods and national food security. The major factors discouraged farmers adoption of soil conservation measures were labour shortage, land tenure uncertainty, fitness of structures and the farming system. The study assessed effect of soil and water conservation measures on key soil properties in two micro-watersheds of Farta Wereda of South Gonder. Data analyzed using different soft wares. The results revealed that soil chemical and physical properties: soil organic matter, total N, available phosphorous (P), bulk density, infiltration rate and soil texture found a significant difference between conserved and non-conserved. Soil pH and electrical conductivity (EC) did not show significant difference. The non-conserved had the lowest soil organic matter, total N and infiltration rate with highest bulk density, clay content and available P. Soil organic matter content positively correlated with infiltration rate and total N and it negatively correlated with soil bulk density. Cation exchange capacity (CEC) positively correlated with soil pH and available P. The undulating lands were moderately suitable for rain fed agriculture. Hilly and valley lands found suitable for protective forestry and livestock production. Further research shall be conducted for a better understanding for sustainable land use.


Background: Endodontic treatment of immature permanent teeth with necrotic pulp, with or without apical pathosis, poses several clinical challenges. Regenerative endodontics is a promising alternative for the treatment of such immature necrotic permanent teeth. Aim: To assess the regenerative potential of young permanent teeth with necrotic pulps with platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) and blood clot using radiographic and clinical methods. Settings and Design: This was an experimental, in vivo study comparing the two groups. Materials and Methods: Immature necrotic permanent teeth (n = 14) in patients who belonged to the age group of 10-12 years were selected and divided into two groups. Group 1 was treated by conventional revascularization with blood clot and Group 2 with revascularization using PRF. Follow-up was done for 6 months. Standardized radiographs were analyzed for the periradicular healing and apical closure, and clinical analysis was performed using mobility index as compared to baseline values. Statistical Analysis Used: Results were analyzed using Friedman test, Wilcoxon test, and Mann-Whitney U-test. Results: There was increased periradicular healing and apical closure at 3 months and 6 months in Group 2 (PRF) when compared to Group 1 (conventional). Conclusions: Revascularization with PRF procedure leads to better and faster healing, reduced radiolucency, enhanced apical closure, and reduction in mobility of necrotic immature teeth.


Accepted, September 15, 2003. CEREBROVASCULAR MALFORMATIONS AFFECT more than 3% of the population, exposing them to a lifetime risk of hemorrhagic stroke, seizures, and focal neurological deficits. Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) exhibit an immature vessel wall, a brittle hemorrhagic tendency, and epileptogenesis, whereas arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) lack capillary beds and manifest apoplectic bleeding under high-flow conditions. There are also more benign venous anomalies, capillary malformations, and lesions with mixed and transitional features. Advances have been made toward understanding the natural history, radiological and pathological correlates, and clinical management. Yet, mechanisms of lesion genesis and clinical manifestations remain largely unknown, and the clinical behavior in individual patients is highly unpredictable. Lesion pathogenesis likely involves abnormal assembly or maintenance of blood vessels, resulting in dysmorphic vessel phenotypes. Familial CCM disease is in part caused by mutations in a cytoskeletalrelated protein that is likely integral to interendothelial cell connectivity and maturation of the vascular wall. Rare familial forms of AVM disease have been correlated with two different transforming growth factorreceptor components, possibly causing disturbance in signaling during vascular assembly. Relevance of these mechanisms to the more common and otherwise identical sporadic CCM and AVM lesions is being explored. In this report, basic mechanisms of vasculogenesis and angiogenesis and how they possibly relate to the common cerebrovascular malformation lesions are reviewed. Novel concepts are discussed related to the cellular, molecular, and genetic substrates in CCM and AVM as well as to how this knowledge can be applied to predict, explain, and possibly modify clinical disease manifestations.


Get up to speed with a series of performance-enhancing coding techniques and methods that will help you improve the performance of your Unity applications
Key Features
Optimize graphically intensive games using the latest features of Unity such as Electronic Clearance Service (ECS) and the Burst compiler

Explore techniques for solving performance issues with your VR projects

Learn best practices for project organization to save time through an improved workflow
Book Description
Unity engine comes with a great set of features to help you build high-performance games. This Unity book is your guide to optimizing various aspects of your game development, from game characters and scripts, right through to animations.

You'll explore techniques for writing better game scripts and learn how to optimize a game using Unity technologies such as ECS and the Burst compiler. The book will also help you manage third-party tooling used with the Unity ecosystem. You'll also focus on the problems in the performance of large games and virtual reality (VR) projects in Unity, gaining insights into detecting performance issues and performing root cause analysis. As you progress, you'll discover best practices for your Unity C# script code and get to grips with usage patterns. Later, you'll be able to optimize audio resources and texture files, along with effectively storing and using resource files. You'll then delve into the Rendering Pipeline and learn how to identify performance problems in the pipeline. In addition to this, you'll learn how to optimize the memory and processing unit of Unity. Finally, you'll cover tips and tricks used by Unity professionals to improve the project workflow.

By the end of this book, you'll have developed the skills you need to build interactive games using Unity and its components.
What you will learn
Apply the Unity Profiler to find bottlenecks in your app, and discover how to resolve them

Discover performance problems that are critical for VR projects and learn how to tackle them

Enhance shaders in an accessible way, optimizing them with subtle yet effective performance tweaks

Use the physics engine to keep scenes as dynamic as possible

Organize, filter, and compress art assets to maximize performance while maintaining high quality

Use the Mono framework and C# to implement low-level enhancements that maximize memory usage and prevent garbage collection
Who this book is for
The book is intended for intermediate Unity game developers who wants to maximize the performance of their game. The book assumes familiarity with C# programming.