Transportation planning process (find the best route) can be considered as a strategic, important and complex issue in the same time, due to the need of collecting information and analyzing data to obtain the optimum network (journey of shortest route), ie.,minimizing time,coast, fuel, noise, and air pollution. (GIS), the network should be analysis to find the best route based on shortest distance with minimum time between the origin and destination of journey by using software's algorithm. Moreover, the ability of GIS to generate detailed directions along the route, providing as-you-need-it solutions for common problems. The algorithm divides the network into nodes (ie, start, and lines intersection) and the paths between such nodes are represented by lines. In addition, each line has an associated cost representing the cost (length or time) of each line in order to reach a node. There are many possible paths between the origin and destination, but the path calculated depends on which nodes are visited and in which order. A case study of Al-Ramadi city is choosed for this study, it lies in the west part of Al-Iraq; it's the capital of Al Anbar Governorate and is situated at the intersection of the Euphrates River and Al Warrar River's Channel, northwest of Al-Habbaniyah Lake. The city is 110 km west of Baghdad, 46 km west of Al-Fallujah, and 283 km east of Al-Rutbah. It lies on the major paths to Syrian and Jordanian boarders, so it occupies a strategic planning concern. The objectives of this study is to find the shortest time (least cost path) between zones of Al-Ramadi city, for that the city of Al-Ramadi is divided into (5) Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZ), the centered of each zone is obtained in order to compute the shortest time from the center of first zone (origin) to the center of second zone (destination). The result of this study is a matrix,It shows the least time to travel between the 5 (TAZ), these results can be considered very important to implement Intelligent Transportation System (ITS).


In this edition of BJO , Shenoy et al write of their experience with secondary intraocular lenses (IOLs) placed in aphakic children: 'Refractive outcomes and prediction error following secondary intraocular lens implantation in children: a decade long analysis'. The authors analysed records of 104 children less than 16 years of age, who underwent secondary IOL implantation for aphakia following congenital cataract surgery. The relationship between age at secondary IOL implantation, axial length, keratometry readings and the difference between final refraction and the predicted value (prediction error or PE) was investigated. Prediction error in the enclosed study was affected by the biometry method as well as the age of the patient at the time of secondary IOL placement. Age-based refraction targets are frequently used in paediatric cataract surgery. The current study reviews the possible sources of error in the final outcome. Additionally, it might be useful to look at some of the other present and future challenges related to the use of IOL in children.

Less than a decade after Sir Harold Ridley's first IOLs were implanted in adults, Dr Edward Epstein, a South African, and Prof D Peter Choyce of the UK, successfully implanted these lenses in children.1 It would take another 20-some years before the Federal Drug Administration of the USA approved the IOL for use in adults, an approval that still does not extend to the use of IOL in children. Nevertheless, IOL implantation after cataract removal in children, especially over the age of two years, has become commonplace.

If one speaks only of prevalence, paediatric cataract pales in comparison with that of adults. However, if we take into consideration the burden of blindness in terms of years impacted, then each case of preventable paediatric blindness due to cataract weighs heavily on society. The major barrier to successful …


In this paper we consider the use of an X -chart for controlling a single-stage process. The three controllable variables, as usual, are the interval between consecutive samples, the sample size, and the distance away from the in-control process mean at which the control limits are placed. Costs considered are those of sampling, false alarms, operating when the process is out-of-control, and identification of underlying causes/putting process back in control. Most importantly, we take account of process improvement (reduction in the frequency of out-ofcontrol situations) as causes are determined and possibly eliminated. An optimal procedure for dynamically setting the values of the three control parameters is presented and compared over a wide range of numerical examples with two simpler approaches. There are substantial cost savings associated with taking account of process improvement.


This paper presents the results of a survey of North American jurisdictions with known installations of bicycle-specific traffic signals and a review of available engineering guidance. Surveys were sent to agencies in 21 jurisdictions (19 in the United States and two in Canada) that requested detailed engineering aspects of the signal design such as placement, mounting height, lens diameter, backplate color, type of actuation, interval times, use of louvers, and performance. We reviewed guidance documents produced by the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO); American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO); Transportation Association of Canada (TAC); the CROW design manual for bicycle traffic; and the Canadian, U.S. and Californian manuals on uniform traffic control devices. Responses were received for 63 intersections and 149 separate signal heads. The survey results highlight the current treatments and variations of similar designs. A subsequent review of the documents generally revealed consistent guidance with regard to the design of bicycle-specific traffic signals. The guidance on bicycle signals has grown substantially in recent years, and it is likely that there will be less variety in future designs.


Owing to the worldwide shortage of deceased-donor organs for transplantation, living donations have become a significant source of transplant organs. However, not all willing donors can donate to their intended recipients because of medical incompatibilities. These incompatibilities can be overcome by an exchange of donors between patients. For kidneys, such exchanges have become widespread in the last decade with the introduction of optimization and market design techniques to kidney exchange. A small but growing number of liver exchanges have also been conducted. Over the last two decades, a number of transplantation procedures emerged where organs from two living donors are transplanted to a single patient. Prominent examples include dual-graft liver transplantation, lobar lung transplantation, and simultaneous liver-kidney transplantation. Exchange, however, has been neither practiced nor introduced in this context. We introduce dual-donor organ exchange as a novel transplantation modality, and through simulations show that living-donor transplants can be significantly increased through such exchanges. We also provide a simple theoretical model for dual-donor organ exchange and introduce optimal exchange mechanisms under various logistical constraints.


Charcoal and firewood, together comprising woodfuel, are key in the cooking energy mix in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Charcoal is made by burning wood under controlled oxygen to arrive at a product high in carbon. Firewood is wood burned directly to provide energy. Wood energy, which is gaining in popularity as a sustainable fuel in developed countries, is characterized as a driver of land degradation on the African continent. Instead of wishing for the demise of woodfuel due to its associated negative health and environmental impacts, a systems thinking approach argues that improving technologies and efficiency in wood production, charcoal and firewood processing, transport and trade, and utilization in a circular bioenergy economy meets a range of needs while conserving the environment. This article outlines a sustainable woodfuel theory of change (ToC) that describes how woodfuel can be made sustainable rather than being dismissed as a transitional fuel on its way out. The ToC is based on the knowledge that no energy system is without flaws and that technologies exist for real quantifiable improvements in woodfuel systems while filling the energy-poverty gap. A bold rational decision must be made in rethinking woodfuel in SSA, as failure to advance woodfuel technologies undermines global efforts directed towards land restoration and climate change mitigation. We recommend that an improved and sustainable woodfuel system should be considered as an acceptable modern energy source under SDG 7.


Adam Bromke. Polak w iwiecie. Warszawa: Graf-Punkt, 1995. 297 pp. The review of this book is long overdue, particularly if one considers that its main thematic contents cover the substantial bulk of Canadian political and academic life over a period of forty years. Adam Bromke, one of the most prominent CanadianPolish political scientists during the "cold war" era, gives in his memoirs a lively and colourful account of his activities as a member of the Canadian Association of Slavists, as Chairman of the Department of Political Science at Carleton University in Ottawa, and later as a respected Professor at McMaster University in Hamilton. Sizable fragments of the book are also devoted to his controversial relations with the Polish emigr6 community at large in the Western hemisphere. As his saga unfolds through a long and impressive chain of events, actions, reflections, comments and encounters with important personalities of the time, it is marvelously intertwined with some very open confessions about his private life (not devoid of suffering), his family (married twice), sons and friends. It is done with elegance and grace, without any gossipy inclinations or petty spite and, in the final analysis, lends the book a very human touch. In short, Bromke's memoirs constitute a fascinating rendition of his tenure as a Canadian scholar and a Polish emigre. When he writes about Canada and Poland, he does it with an equal emotional attachment and love for both countries. By and large the book can be divided into three thematic parts: 1) Poland and Polish emigration after World War II; 2) academic career and professional engagement in the Canadian Association of Slavists (CAS) linked with the expansion of Slavic studies in Canada; and 3) contacts with high ranking members of the Canadian and American political establishments which rendered possible the exercise of a certain influence on the formation of a common policy toward the Soviet Union and the presentation of a Canadian political science approach to the question of explaining the enigma of the Soviet bloc in its vagaries. Obviously it is difficult to separate these three realms of activity and intellectual endeavour. Bromke begins his memoirs by relating about his family roots and early youth in Warsaw, his participation in the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) resistance movement, escape to and studies in the West. The latter component of his biography seems to have made a strong impact on the assessment of East-West political relations, particularly after Stalin's death and the XXth Congress of the CPSU. His views were determined not so much by the status of a Polish emigre, but by his Western sense of pragmatism-a factor which eventually brought Bromke into conflict with Polish political emigres who right from the end of the World War II adopted, understandably so, an uncompromising attitude toward Soviet imperial lust for the conquest and subjugation of Central Europe. However, one cannot pass in silence over yet another possible source that may have shaped Bromke's political preferences, namely, Narodowa Demokracja (National Democracy-ND), a political force advocating from the dawn of its existence (mainly through the writings of its leader Roman Dmowski), that is, long before the outbreak of World War I, the necessity of finding some sort of modus vivendi with Russia. Gradually Bromke develops his own ideas and strategies with regard to the question of how to handle the Soviet threat. He arrives at the conclusion that the answer lies in working out a long range programme of dialogue rather than confrontation. It became clear in the second half of the 1950s that one could not count on armed conflict, that is, a third world war-a thought still cherished at the time by some refugees from Eastern and Central Europe. Consequently, in his research and public activities Bromke began to focus on the question of East-West relations, with Poland remaining as his central point of reference. …


The findings from an experimental study to investigate cumulative seismic damage in reinforced concrete columns are presented. Fourteen identical half-scale concrete columns were fabricated and tested to failure. Results from Phase I testing, which included constant amplitude tests to determine the low-cycle fatigue characteristics of the rectangular concrete column, were presented in a companion paper. This paper summarizes results of variable amplitude tests. The imposed displacement histories were obtained from analytical simulations of the model column subjected to a series of earthquakes. Test observations indicate that failure is generally initiated by confinement inadequacy and the rupture of the transverse hoop reinforcement. The tests also demonstrated the potential for low-cycle fatigue fracture of the main longitudinal steel when the specimen was subjected to relatively larger displacement amplitudes. A fatigue-based damage model, derived from the constant-amplitude tests completed in Phase I testing, was applied to the observed response of the three specimens tested in this phase. Findings from the study indicate that the energy capacity of members is ductility-dependent and that fatigue-based damage models offer a reliable means of assessing seismic structural performance.


Studies were performed to determine the contribution of red blood cells to the 31P-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrum of the canine heart in vivo and the feasibility of measuring myocardial intracellular phosphate and pH. This was accomplished by replacing whole blood with a perfluorochemical perfusion emulsion blood substitute, Oxypherol, and noting the difference in the 31P-NMR spectrum of the heart. NMR data were collected with a NMR transmitter-receiver coil on the surface of the distal portion of the left ventricle. These studies demonstrated that a small (approximately 10%) contribution from 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (2,3-DPG) and phosphodiesters in the blood could be detected. The magnitude and shift of these blood-borne signals permitted the relative quantification of intracellular inorganic phosphate (Pi) content as well as intracellular pH. Under resting conditions, the intracellular ATP/Pi was 7.0 +/- 0.8 (n = 19). This corresponds to a free intracellular Pi content of approximately 0.8 mumol/g wet wt. The intracellular pH was 7.10 +/- 0.01 (n = 19). Acute respiratory alkalosis and acidosis, with the arterial pH ranging from approximately 7.0 to 7.7, resulted in only small changes in the intracellular pH (approximately 0.1 pH unit). These latter results demonstrate an effective myocardial intracellular proton-buffering mechanism in vivo.


In publishing and printing of network version field, there are enormous number of TIFF format (CMYK) images which requires too huge space for storing and enough bandwidth for transmitting. Therefore, common need to manipulate huge amount of data brought about the issue of fast lossless compression. 2D integer wavelet transform can be used for lossless compression of static image, such as, 5/3 lifting wavelet is lossless compression of JEPG2000. Today, Multi-core (dual, four or eight cores) CPU technology help to accelerate wavelet transform speed. However, current multi-more is limit for acceleration. In this article, it presents acceleration of 2D integer wavelet transform by CUDA. Using of the NVIDIA graphics processor unit (GPU), multiple thread parallelization give attractive features than traditional CPU computation. Under the dual cores CPU and the CUDA device, the article accelerates HARR and 5/3 lifting wavelet on TIFF format images. For HARR wavelet, analysis and comparison have been done for original image matrix and matrix of transform result. which indicates adjacent four pixels of original image matrix can directly construct the corresponding four pixels of transform result. In addition, the adjacent four pixels have nothing to do with other pixels of transform result. Therefore, parallel HARR wavelet transform can be achieved by CUDA, the unit of kernel is based on four pixels. For 5/3 lifting wavelet, there are four groups of experiments, each of group have two kinds CUDA memory method(global and texture memory). Therefore, there are eight experiments. Firstly, the kernel uses only row transform and transpose computation by unit of row. Secondly, without transpose, the kernel uses both row and column by unit of row. Thirdly, it also computes row and transpose, however, the transform unit is based on single pixel. At last, it computes row and column without transpose, whose unit is also single pixel. The experiment Experimental results on an NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT and an dual cores CPU indicates that the GPU acceleration is obvious with the image resolution increasing whether it is HARR or 5/3 lifting wavelet. For 5/3 lifting wavelet, the second group experiment under texture memory increases about 15 times faster than CPU, and time-consuming decrease 5000ms.


Introduction: Vertebral hydatid cyst is a rare disease with an incidence rate of 0.2-1%. In the spinal cord it can cause pain and severe disability due to compression and instability. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) shows characteristic lesions in T1 and T2. The combination of medical anthelmintic treatment and cyst excision surgery is the most used strategy. Clinical Case: A 47-year-old woman with a history of surgery for hepatic hydatidosis associated with intraoperative rupture, with a 7-month history of disease characterized by oppressive back pain, in belt-like pattern, of increasing intensity up to 10/10, associated with paresthesia in the lower limbs and urinary retention. The MRI revealed a multicystic process in the D5 vertebral body with invasion of the posterior mediastinum and the spinal canal. The diagnosis was confirmed serologically with IgM and IgG. A D5 corpectomy and excision of the cystic lesion was performed using a D5-D6 costo-transversectomy; in addition, a D3-D4 and D6-D7 transpedicular fixation and a D5 body replacement with cylindrical mesh were performed. The evolution was favorable without evidence of recurrence one month after surgery. Conclusion: Vertebral hydatidosis is a rare pathology that requires surgical management combined with prolonged medical treatment with albendazole. Surgery is complex because the presence of multicystic lesions makes extensive surgical resection without rupture of the cyst membrane difficult. Close monitoring of these patients allows detection of recurrence and favors its early management.


North American Palladium Ltd. operates its Lac des Iles open pit palladium mine 85 km north of the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario. The Roby Zone deposit occurs within the mafic/ultramafic Lac des Iles Intrusive Complex (LDI-IC), which was created by multiple pulses of magma of varying composition within several closely spaced chambers. Chaotic lithological distribution, the presence of magmatic breccias, and the rarity of rhythmic layering suggest a dynamic intrusive environment with disruptive magma pulses. As of December 31, 2001, measured and indicated resources for the 950 m long by 815 m wide Roby Zone deposit totalled 159 Mt grading 1.55 g/t Pd, 0.17 g/t Pt, 0.12 g/t Au, 0.05% Cu, and 0.05% Ni at a palladium cut-off grade of 0.7 g/t. The Roby Zone contains an additional 73 Mt of inferred resources at similar grades. The Roby Zone is dominated by varitextured gabbro containing pipes and pods of breccia, and large blocks (~60 m across) of varying lithology. Mineralization at Lac des Iles occurs as: (1) a PGE-and base metal-rich magmatic matrix of breccia (breccia ore); (2) mineralized dikes or sills (gabbronorite in North Roby ore); (3) lower-grade mineralization in varitextured units that are host to the distinctive breccia ore and envelope the North Roby ore; and (4) high-grade mineralization associated with strong silicate alteration exemplified by high-grade ore. The close spatial association of the mineralized breccias with both varitextured units and silicate alteration leads to an interpretation that the energetic magma that created breccia was charged with a dissolved fluid, and that this deuteric fluid exsolved at high temperatures to migrate through crystal mush, enhancing crystallization along its pathways, resulting in variable grain size. This transformation occurred at high temperature and produced sulfide-poor, varitextured gabbro-hosted mineralization exemplified by some of the mineralization in the North Roby Zone, and also found throughout the Roby Zone. The association of hydrous silicate alteration with mineralization can be explained by continuing fluid migration during cooling and continued metal transport.


Abstract. Ensemble-variational methods form the basis of the state-of-the-art for nonlinear, scalable data assimilation, yet current designs may not be cost-effective for reducing prediction error in online, short-range forecast systems. We propose a novel, outer-loop optimization of the ensemble-variational formalism for applications in which forecast error dynamics are weakly nonlinear, such as synoptic meteorology. In order to rigorously derive our method and demonstrate its novelty, we review ensemble smoothers that appear throughout the literature in a unified Bayesian maximum-a-posteriori narrative, updating and simplifying some results. After mathematically deriving our technique, we systematically develop and inter-compare all studied schemes in the open-source Julia package DataAssimilationBenchmarks.jl, with pseudo-code provided for these methods. This high-performance numerical framework, supporting our mathematical results, produces extensive benchmarks that demonstrate the significant performance advantages of our proposed technique. In particular, our single-iteration ensemble Kalman smoother is shown both to improve prediction / posterior accuracy and to simultaneously reduce the leading order cost of iterative, sequential smoothers in a variety of relevant test cases for operational short-range forecasts. This long work is thus intended to present our novel single-iteration ensemble Kalman smoother, and to provide a theoretical and computational framework for the study of sequential, ensemble-variational Kalman filters and smoothers generally.


Hypothesis: Outcomes after intestinal transplantation have improved during the past decade with refinements in surgical techniques as well as advances in immunosuppression and antimicrobial therapy. Design: Retrospective analysis. Setting: Tertiary care medical center, August 1991 through December 2000. Patients: Adult (5) and pediatric (12) patients with intestinal failure. All developed complications from long-term total parenteral nutrition therapy. Median age was 8.6 years and median weight was 22 kg. Interventions: Primary intestinal transplantation with (n=14) or without (n=3) the liver. Main Outcome Measures: Patient and graft survival, viral infections, rejection, and nutritional autonomy. Results: Twenty-one intestinal grafts were transplanted into the 17 recipients. All donors were cadaveric and were matched by ABO blood group and size. Patient survival at 1 and 3 years was 63% and 55%, respectively. Death-censored graft survival at 1 and 3 years was 73% and 55%, respectively. There were 1.5 acute cellular rejection episodes per graft and 3 grafts were lost to rejection. Incidences of infection with the Epstein-Barr virus and cytomegalovirus were negligible with aggressive prophylaxis and preemptive therapy. Nutritional autonomy was achieved in 69% of grafts surviving more than 30 days after intestinal transplantation. Conclusions: Intestinal transplantation is now the standard of therapy for patients with intestinal failure and complications resulting from total parenteral nutrition. Outcomes have markedly improved since initiation of the program. Aggressive immunosuppression as well as prophylaxis and preemptive antiviral therapy have led to low incidences of acute cellular rejection, Epstein-Barr virus, and cytomegalovirus. Finally, nutritional autonomy can be achieved after successful intestinal transplantation.


Bacillus anthracis secretes a tripartite protein complex, forming the toxin known as anthrax toxin. It is composed of the catalytically active proteins, lethal factor (LF) and oedema factor (EF), and protective antigen of 83 kDa (PA83). This toxin complex mediates cytosolic entry through the formation of an oligomeric PA pore, facilitating translocation of LF and EF, an event critical for EF and LF to exert their cytotoxic effects. The requirements for translocation are still poorly understood, and essential for understanding the limitations and possible utility to this pore. Once the dynamics of translocation are more clearly understood, therapeutics for inhibiting LF and EF toxicity could be developed for anthrax treatment, as well as the potential to develop this pore into a drug delivery platform. The project outlined herein was to evaluate the requirements for molten globular (MG) transition during translocation of LF and EF through the PA pore. This study documented the translocation of a variety of biochemically and thermodynamically distinct constructs (protein and protein:DNA), and their ability to pass through the PA pore. Pore translocation was detected by monitoring gene modulation, toxicity, fluorescent microscopy and neutron reflectometry. The ability of LFn-GAL4, antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) complex to translocate and mediate gene modulation was assayed in vitro. The components of this complex were found to be non-toxic individually and together (PA8 3, LFn-GAL4:ASO). This complex was found to be able to deliver ASOs and mediate cytosolic access as demonstrated by the decreased level of endogenous syntaxin 5 post-treatment (77 % ± 11.6). Then the ability of LFn-Ricin toxin A chain (RTAC) to translocate through the pore was evaluated by cytotoxicity. This demonstrated limited cytotoxicity in vitro, indicating that this cationic protein either couldn't translocate or once translocated was no longer a functional enzyme. Further to this, LFn-GFPs ability to translocate, assayed in the presence and absence of the PA pore. LFn-GFP demonstrated translocation in the presence and absence of PA in HeLa cells over 4, 6 and 16 hours. In the presence of PA cytosolic signal increased over this time frame (from 0% of the input to 4%) whereas in the absence of PA cytosolic signal decreased from 4% to 0%). Binding and translocation of deuterated LFn-GFP with the both a lipid-nanodisc and a lipid-nancomplex (NC – a nanodisc containing the protective antigen pore) was followed in real time at pH7.4 and 37oC mimicking physiological conditions and at pH 5.5 mimicking the acidity of late endosomes. Measurements were performed in a variety of solvents, namely H2O, D2O, SiMW and 4MW. Neutron reflectometry (NR) measurements showed approximately 90% coverage of ND and approximately 10% coverage of NC at the silica/solvent interface. A significant change in spectra was observed following ddition of dLFn-GFP, alteration of pH from pH7.4 to pH5.5 resulted in translocation of LFn-GFP into the PA layer on the NC as determined by a decrease in hydration of the ND and an increase in hydration of the PA layer.


Abstract : The Electronic Warfare Integrated Reprogramming Database (EWIRDB) is the primary Department of Defense (DoD) approved source of electronic warfare (EW) data. Its utilization in the areas of battle planning and EW research enables our military forces to effectively exploit the electromagnetic spectrum and shape the outcome of battle. The EWIRDB, however, lacks a viable conceptual data model. EWIRDB data are represented in disjoint parametric tree models that are implementation-oriented; to the extent that the tree structures are used as conceptual modeling tools, their hierarchical form is too restrictive to adequately describe EW data semantics. Moreover, these structures address only technical parametric data. Associated administrative, reference, and comment data are excluded. In practice, the EWIRDB is described in terms of the coded and record-based format of its output media, not its conceptual model. The primary goal of this thesis is the development of a semantically-improved conceptual design of EWIRDB data based on the object-oriented data model (OODM). The secondary goal of the thesis is the specification of a logical design, based on the new conceptual design, to provide the structure for a subsequent implementation of EWIRDB data on the Multimodel and Multilingual Database System (MDBS) in the Laboratory for Database Systems Research at the Naval Postgraduate School. The results of the work contained herein are: (1) an object-oriented conceptual design of EWIRDB data that supports the semantics of both the file format and tree structures, and (2) the specification of an object-oriented logical design for an M2 DBS implementation of sample EWIRDB data


Background The ability to maintain joint stability and motion control of the extremities is important in injury prevention and recovery. Quantitative measurement of proprioception, especially the upper extremity, is difficult and requires expensive equipment. Objective We investigated the reliability of a custom iPhone app to compile accelerometer data and calculate a path length of movement during 20 second trials. Design This study used a prospective test-retest design. Subjects completed three trials on each upper extremity (RA and LA) 48 hours apart (MWF). A convenience sample of subjects was used. Setting The study was conducted at a small liberal arts undergraduate institution. Patients (or Participants) Subjects were students associated with exercise science or athletic training programs. The activity level ranged from recreational athlete to NCAA Division II athletes. Twenty-three subjects started with 15 completing all upper extremity trials. Exclusion criterion was an upper extremity injury in the last month. Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) An iPhone 6 app was developed to utilize accelerometer data in a Cartesian grid. Data was obtained at 20 Hz to calculate a path length of motion for each trial. Each subject stood, holding the iPhone in the palm of the hand directly in front of the shoulder with palm up, attempting to minimize motion for 20 seconds. Main Outcome Measurements Reliability measures were calculated between trials using the path length of motion in each trial. Results The mean path length for RA was 2669 with a standard error of 372, with LA being 2774 and 424. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.86 for the right arm and 0.74 for the left across three trials. Conclusions The accelerometer in an iPhone 6 is a moderately reliable instrument for assessing motion control stability in the upper extremity. We plan to add additional data filtering to the app.


The marriage institution is the basic unit in the anatomical composition of American society as it exists today. The right to marry and the right to divorce when marriage fails have long been held in the highest esteem by our nation's courts. But some citizens of the State of New York are judicially denied the right to terminate their marriages because they are indigents. The court has denied indigents their requested assignments of counsel when the assistance of counsel was unquestionably necessary for prospective matrimonial litigants. The first problem posed by that holding is that it operates as a virtual denial of counsel to indigent matrimonial litigants. Moreover, regardless of whether the assignment of counsel is mandatory or discretionary, some provision for compensating such counsel is required if there is to be a viable system of providing representation for the indigent matrimonial litigant in new York. As a result, indigent matrimonial litigant are being denied meaningful access to the courts and the Court should declare a constitutional right to counsel in matrimonial litigation.


This paper examines the tax policy convergence in the EU-15 during
the period 1965-2005 using a time series approach. The main purpose is
to assess the convergence of the main components of tax revenue -income
and profits, social security contributions, property, general taxes on goods
and services, taxes on specific goods and services- taking as references
Germany, the United Kingdom and the European average. The analysis is
carried out from two complementary perspectives: the tax burden and the
tax structure. Using unit roots and stationarity tests with a structural change,
and also analyzing â-convergence, the results show little evidence of tax
convergence. Convergence appears with similar intensity with respect to the
three benchmarks, and in the years previous to the structural break which, in
general, was situated endogenously at the end of the 1980s or at the beginning
of the 1990s. Moreover, tax convergence is basically centred on income and
profits, and goods and services taxation. The empirical evidence shows that
the autonomy of the countries, their different economic structures and political
preferences regarding the degree of public intervention, prevail over the idea
of fiscal equalization in the EU.


One key challenge of exemplar-guided image generation lies in establishing fine-grained correspondences between input and guided images. Prior approaches, despite the promising results, have relied on either estimating dense attention to compute per-point matching, which is limited to only coarse scales due to the quadratic memory cost, or fixing the number of correspondences to achieve linear complexity, which lacks flexibility. In this paper, we propose a dynamic sparse attention based Transformer model, termed Dynamic Sparse Transformer (DynaST), to achieve fine-level matching with favorable efficiency. The heart of our approach is a novel dynamic-attention unit, dedicated to covering the variation on the optimal number of tokens one position should focus on. Specifically, DynaST leverages the multi-layer nature of Transformer structure, and performs the dynamic attention scheme in a cascaded manner to refine matching results and synthesize visually-pleasing outputs. In addition, we introduce a unified training objective for DynaST, making it a versatile reference-based image translation framework for both supervised and unsupervised scenarios. Extensive experiments on three applications, pose-guided person image generation, edge-based face synthesis, and undistorted image style transfer, demonstrate that DynaST achieves superior performance in local details, outperforming the state of the art while reducing the computational cost significantly. Our code is available at https://github.com/Huage001/DynaST


Civic engagement on Facebook has evolved, but there are still few studies of people's motivations and reasons for liking humanitarian causes on Facebook. Introduced in 2009, the 'like' button has become a part of users' daily Facebook routines and a way for them to engage in humanitarian causes. Content analysis from a survey N = 405 revealed six different liking practices for humanitarian causes on Facebook: 1 socially responsible liking; 2 emotional liking; 3 informational liking; 4 social performative liking; 6 low-cost liking; 7 routine liking. Interestingly, informational-driven liking was much less common than the more socially and emotionally motivated reasons for liking. The majority of the respondents also believe such likes help in promoting humanitarian causes; only a few had unliked such causes. The implications of these findings for understanding the nature and function of Facebook likes as a new form of civic engagement and humanitarian support are discussed.


The quenching step in a glass tempering process is a transient heat transfer phenomenon which is governed by several parameters – Reynolds number (Re) and the nozzle diameter-to-surface distance ratio (H/D) . In this research, the effect of such parameters on the strength and quench time of hemispherical tempered glass are to be analyzed. The quenching process will use the impinging jets quench method, with an equilateral – staggered nozzle arrangements. The process is performed in an ambient air of 60 o C and with a nozzle pitch and diameter of 27 mm and 4 mm respectively.  The study applies variations of Reynolds number: 2300, 10000, 20000, 30000, 40000, 50000, 60000, 70000, 80000, and 87000, and H/D: 2, 6, 9, and 12 . These variations are used to construct and solve a mathematical model, to obtain temperature distribution contours. The contours are then transformed into stress distribution graphs.  From these steps, it is found that the tempered glass strength increases and the quench time decrease along with the increase of Re and the decrease of H/D. It is also found that the allowable range of operation is between Re = 8000 – 25000 for H/D =2 and Re = 8000 – 30000 for H/D = 6, 9, and 12.


The aim of this thesis is to provide a constitutional history of the mysterious years in the 80s B.C. when L. Cornelius Cinna was re-elected to the consulship on four consecutive occasions. Further irregularities abounded in this period, raising the question of how Rome's annual elections were conducted in this period. A large amount of the surviving literature is either biased or uninformed on such matters. As a direct result, few have attempted to interpret the role of Rome's comitia, its voting assemblies, in this period in any sufficient detail. This survey aims to fill this lacuna.  From close inspection of the scattered evidence, it may be argued that Rome's comitia did indeed play a role in the so-called Cinnae dominatio, despite the hoarding of high magistracy by just a handful of individuals. There were laws designed to prevent this domination: men were theoretically allowed to hold the consulship once (at least within a ten-year period); continuatio was forbidden. This study sets out to investigate how Cinna's continuatio came to be tolerated. Some scholars have attempted to explain away this irregularity as a simple product of the turbulent times. After all, electoral irregularities did indeed increase in frequency during times of existential crisis. But Cinna's elections do not adequately harmonize with any precedent in Rome's history.  This study begins with a survey of the Roman constitution in the years leading up to the Cinnae dominatio. The years 91 to 87 were marred by almost continuous warfare in Italy and abroad. However, despite attempts at attaining the consulship by a couple of theoretically ineligible candidates, Rome's electoral restrictions remained robustly in place. All of this changed in late 87 when Cinna marched on Rome with a large army: many political opponents were murdered or exiled; Cinna assumed the consulship soon after. The process by which he became consul has been the subject of great controversy. Although it would seem that comitia were called, the process was irregular. These irregularities would continue even after Cinna died in 84, coming to an end in the years following Sulla's restoration of the traditional republic after 81.


Breast cancer (BC) is the foremost cause of cancer-related deaths in women. BC patients are oftentimes presented with lymph node metastasis (LNM), which increases their risk of recurrence. Compelling data have recently implicated microRNAs in promoting BC metastasis. Therefore, the identification of microRNA (miRNA)-based molecular signature associated with LNM could provide an opportunity for a more personalized treatment for BC patients with high risk of LNM. In current study, we performed comprehensive miRNA profiling in matched primary breast and LNM and identified 40 miRNAs, which were differentially expressed in LNM compared to primary tumors. The expression of 14 miRNAs (Up: hsa-miR-155-5p, hsa-miR-150-5p, hsa-miR-146a-5p, hsa-miR-142-5p and down: hsa-miR-200a-3p, hsa-miR-200b-3p, hsa-miR-200c-3p, hsa-miR-205-5p, hsa-miR-210-3p, hsa-miR-214-3p, hsa-miR-141-3p, hsa-miR-127-3p, hsa-miR-125a-5p, and hsa-let-7c-5p) was subsequently validated in a second cohort of 32 breast and 32 matched LNM tumor tissues. Mechanistically, forced expression of hsa-miR-205-5p, or hsa-miR-214-3p epigenetically inhibited MDA-MB-231 cell proliferation, colony formation, and cell migration. Global gene expression profiling on MDA-MB-231 cells overexpressing hsa-miR-205-5p, or hsa-miR-214-3p in combination with in silico target prediction and ingenuity pathway analyses identified multiple bona fide targets for hsa-miR-205-5p, hsa-miR-214-3p affecting cellular proliferation and migration. Interestingly, interrogation of the expression levels of hsa-miR-205 and hsa-miR-214 in the METABRIC breast cancer dataset revealed significantly poor overall survival in patients with downregulated expression of miR-205 [HR = 0.75 (0.61–0.91)], p = 0.003 and hsa-miR-214 [HR = 0.74 (0.59–0.93) p = 0.008]. Our data unraveled the miRNA-transcriptional landscape associated with LNM and provide novel insight on the role of several miRNAs in promoting BC LNM, and suggest their potential utilization in the clinical management of BC patients.


Through its interactive representation of the Second World War, the Call of Duty series is emblematic of a contemporary form of historical remembrance. This article analyzes the ways in which the series' cut scenes and game play interrelate and represent history, warfare, and traumatic violence. Using Marita Sturken's discussion of screen memories as sites of negotiation between differing conceptions of the past, the essay positions Call of Duty as a digital screen memory that actively produces multiple, competing understandings of historical warfare.


1. Single units that responded to yaw rotation were recorded extracellularly in the caudal inferior olive (IO) of barbiturate-anesthetized cats. Of 276 neurons, 55 responded reliably to yaw, and extensive quantitative data were recorded from 25. 2. No yaw-sensitive IO neuron responded to somatosensory or auditory stimuli but two responded, though unreliably, to flash. 3. Yaw-sensitive IO cells fired at low (1-4 spikes/s), irregular rates during one direction of rotation. Though cells responded reliably during yaw, firing rates varied considerably from cycle to cycle. Rotation speed and acceleration were not represented in any cell's firing rate. 4. Eighty five percent (47/55) of yaw-sensitive cells fired during contralateral rotation, 9% (5/55) during ipsilateral rotation, and 6% (3/55) fired from late in the ipsilateral phase of a sinusoidal oscillation to the middle of the contralateral phase. 5. Responses were tested to 0.1-Hz sinusoidal yaw oscillations with a range of peak angular velocities (1-200 degrees/s). Thresholds were not sharp because of the cycle to cycle variability in response rates but were estimated using averaged responses. The peak rate of the most sensitive cell was driven to criterion (2 SD above spontaneous rate) by an oscillation with a peak velocity of 1 degrees/s. Other cells reached criterion between 5 and 50 degrees/s. 6. Sinusoidal oscillation at all frequencies tested (0.01-0.5 Hz) elicited approximately the same firing rates. Even at 0.01 Hz cells responded well. Responses lagged acceleration by approximately 25 degrees at 0.01 Hz and shifted to later parts of the cycle as frequency increased so that firing lagged acceleration by approximately 200 degrees at 0.5 Hz. 7. Histological reconstruction showed that yaw-sensitive neurons were recorded in olivary subnucleus beta (N beta), the dorsal cap of Kooy (DC), the posterior medial region of the medial accessory division of the inferior olive (MAO), and in the medial-lateral center of the caudal MAO. 8. Yaw-sensitive neurons in the inferior olive provide a signal to the cerebellum that indicates the direction of passive rotation over a wide range of velocity and acceleration. The signal from individual neurons does not reliably encode either rotation velocity or acceleration. Yaw-sensitive IO neurons are therefore unlike other central vestibular neurons but are similar to somatosensory IO cells which signal the presence, but not the intensity of a stimulus.


SUMMARY Transient expression of the transcription factor neurogenin-3 marks progenitor cells in the pancreas as they differentiate into islet cells. We developed a transgenic mouse line in which the surrogate markers secreted alkaline phosphatase (SeAP) and enhanced green florescent protein (EGFP) can be used to monitor neurogenin-3 expression, and thus islet cell genesis. In transgenic embryos, cells expressing EGFP lined the pancreatic ducts. SeAP was readily detectable in embryos, in the media of cultured embryonic pancreases and in the serum of adult animals. Treatment with the γ-secretase inhibitor DAPT, which blocks Notch signaling, enhanced SeAP secretion rates and increased the number of EGFP-expressing cells as assayed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) and immunohistochemistry in cultured pancreases from embryos at embryonic day 11.5, but not in pancreases harvested 1 day later. By contrast, treatment with growth differentiation factor 11 (GDF11) reduced SeAP secretion rates. In adult mice, partial pancreatectomy decreased, whereas duct ligation increased, circulating SeAP levels. This model will be useful for studying signals involved in islet cell genesis in vivo and developing therapies that induce this process.


PURPOSE
This report summarizes a vaccination coverage survey of 65 immigrant and refugee families in San Diego County. It included gathering information from 19 community and government organizations on the immunization system, and on families' barriers impeding immunization.

METHODS
The "rapid appraisal" exploratory method flexibly used several research methods, such as informant interviews and door-to-door surveys, changing methods as new questions were uncovered. The researcher went alone, or with organizations' staffs, to interview families, record their vaccination records, and give them forms telling which vaccine doses they lacked.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
The 4:3:1 (4 DTP, 3 polio, 1 MMR) vaccination series completion rate among children while they were aged 19-35 months old ranged from 33% in those born in 1984-1985, to 60% in those born in 1996-1997. The hepatitis B vaccine completion coverage rate among children in the 1984-1993 birth cohorts was 73%. The hepatitis B vaccine completion coverage rate among Hmong, Vietnamese, and Chinese adolescents ranged from 86%-100%, and among the Kurdish was 85%, Somali 73%, Lao 43% and Cambodian adolescents 35%.

CONCLUSIONS
The hepatitis B vaccine completion coverage rate was higher among Hmong, Vietnamese, and Chinese adolescents probably because they lived near clinics and schools providing the vaccine to many, and among the Kurdish and Somali because they received many doses in refugee programs. The families experienced immunization barriers involving transportation, languages, little knowledge of immunizations, and missed opportunities. Two populations have cultural barriers: numerous European-Americans believe in anti-vaccine ideas; and many East Africans have little knowledge of the English language and the American system.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Health personnel should continue using current methods to promote immunizations. Community organizations' staffs should consistently check vaccination records, and health officials should do more trainings for those staffs. The National Task Force on Hepatitis B Immunization, Focus on Asians and Pacific Islanders should broaden its work from Asians and Pacific Islanders, to other nationalities with intermediate or high hepatitis B endemicity.


ABSTRACT Many streams of research have shown that familiarity influences positive attitudes. Such research streams have driven marketing strategies with the explicit goal of exposing potential customers to repeated stimuli, specifically to advertisements. These marketing strategies have been employed in many contexts, including online. This research paper argues that the online environment, being far richer than traditional means of conveyance, has a different constellation of constructs affecting attitudes. Due to this richness, simply applying the principle of repetition does not make logical sense. Further, this research hopes to extend the traditional view of advertising to the online environment by proposing two additional constructs, other than repetition, that influence attitudes of advertisements. These two factors are personal relevance and interactivity. To explore this idea, two empirical studies are undertaken to test the relationships between interactivity, personal relevance and attitudes. The first is a survey study (N=97), and the second employs a laboratory experiment (N=118). Results support that advertisement interactivity significantly affects attitudes toward the online ads, the website, and the product featured in the advertisement. Personal relevance was also shown to significantly affect attitude toward the ad in both studies. Keywords: eCommerce, familiarity, interactivity, online advertising, personal relevance 1. Introduction Any typical interaction with a web site, whether it is purchasing a sofa, reading the news, or even returning a web based email, will have a visible and sometimes ostentatious advertisement. No manner how much time, effort, or money is spent on keeping advertisements at bay, they just keep coming because advertisers believe repetition is the key to selling goods and services. What do advertisers and their clients get out of this typical online dissemination strategy? And is repetition the only factor that is important in such a context? Or are there more effective means to advertise online? This research addresses the above questions. The Theory of Reasoned Action [Ajzen & Fishbein 1980] shows that attitude has a strong relationship with predicting behavior, meaning that understanding the impact of online advertising on a user's attitudes has many implications for consumer behavior [e.g., Fishbein & Middlestadt 1995; Herr 1995; Olson & Zanna 1993]. Attitude formation has also been shown to be influenced by constant repetition of advertising messages [Cacioppo & Petty 1989; Festinger1954; Festinger et al. 1950; Garcia-Marques & Mackie 2001; Kunst-Wilson & Zajonc 1980; Miller 1976; Zajonc 1968]. Marketers have been using repetition with many different forms of media (e.g., radio and television commercials, billboards, magazine ads, and telemarketing). Based on these past successes, marketers have tried to use similar techniques in online advertising. These techniques include pop-up/down ads (commercials), banner ads (billboards), and unsolicited emails (telemarketing). However, past research has shown that the Internet is a very different medium due to its interactive nature and higher level of control of the media [Liu & Shrum 2002; Rayport & Jaworski 2003]. Also, little is known about how online factors influence Internet users' attitudes toward online advertising. Yet marketers repeatedly expose Internet users with the same techniques. In this paper, we investigate both the influence advertisement interactivity and personal relevance has on a user's' attitudes. These two factors are intuitively important to understand in the context of online advertising because both are directly related to the differences that have been found between online advertising compared to offline. These specific differences are the level of control a user has over the environment and the one-to-one interaction that is possible online [Liu & Shrum 2002]. …


The Farm Scale Evaluations (FSEs) of genetically modified herbicide-tolerant crops (GMHT) compared the effects of conventional and GMHT crop management regimes on weed densities. Weeds were sampled in quadrats at 5 distances along 12 transects systematically arranged within experimental half-field treatment units. Weed densities declined with increasing distance from field margins. Random variation within transects was about 80% of the total within-half-field variation, i.e. relatively large variation at a small scale. The spatial autocorrelation between counts on the same transect declined as the distance between quadrats increased. Sampling schemes with fewer distances along transects required more transects but fewer quadrats to achieve similar precision as the 5-distance scheme; on average 32 quadrats were sufficient. The frequency of detection of treatment effects (5% level) was little affected by using six or even three transects (30 and 15 quadrats respectively). However, the use of the 12 transects greatly improved the detection of treatment effects at 1% and 0.1% levels. The effectiveness of the reduced schemes for detecting differences between treatments (5% level) with as few as three transects compared with 12, reflects, in part, the relatively large treatment effects (e.g. 1.5-fold or greater), which emerged for many of the sampling occasions. The FSEs provide an unusually extensive data set. Both the data and the methodology developed for their design and analysis are valuable for the planning of future weed sampling schemes.


This study was carried out to reveal the mental models of the secondary school students from different grade levels regarding the concept of space. At the same time, within the context of the study, it was aimed to determine the factors playing a role in the construction of their concepts of space. The study employed the special case study design, one of the descriptive methods. The study was conducted in the spring term of the 2016-2017 school year and the sampling of the study is comprised of the students attending a private secondary school in a city located in the western region of Turkey. In the study, a data collection tool including four open-ended questions developed by the researchers to determine the students' mental models of the "space" was used. The collected data were analyzed by using descriptive statistical techniques. The findings of the study have revealed that the students mostly associate the concept of the space with the concepts of emptiness (53 students), infinity (50 students), planet (48 students) and star (28 students). These findings are also supported by the students' drawings and the Celestial Bodies Mental Model was found to be the model most frequently used by the students.


A reliable antemortem diagnostic method is needed for determining infection with canine distemper virus (CDV). The utility of immunohistochemical detection of CDV antigen was examined was examined for samples of nasal and footpad epithelium and haired skin in dogs with and without detectable CDV antigen in the lung and/or brain. Tissues from 57 dogs at risk of CDV infection were tested. Viral antigen was found in the lung and/or brain of 28 dogs. Among these dogs, viral antigen was demonstrated in the epithelial cells of the nasal mucosa in 24 of 27 dogs, in the footpad epithelium in 24 of 26 dogs, and in the haired skin of the dorsal neck in 26 of 27 dogs. Among the 29 dogs without CDV antigen in either the lung or brain, 1 dog had positive staining for viral antigen in the skin and nasal mucosa. Biopsies of haired skin of the dorsal neck, which is relatively simple to sample, can be used for antemortem immunohistochemical testing for acute and subacute infection with CDV.


Dyreson and Snodgrass have drawn attention to the fact that, in many temporal database applications, there is often uncertainty about the start time of events, the end time of events, and the duration of events. When the granularity of time is small (e.g., milliseconds), a statement such as "Packet p was shipped sometime during the first 5 days of January, 1998" leads to a massive amount of uncertainty (5×24×60×60×1000) possibilities. As noted in Zaniolo et al. [1997], past attempts to deal with uncertainty in databases have been restricted to relatively small amounts of uncertainty in attributes. Dyreson and Snodgrass have taken an important first step towards solving this problem.
In this article, we first introduce the syntax of Temporal-Probabilistic (TP) relations and then show how they can be converted to an explicit, significantly more space-consuming form, called Annotated Relations. We then present a theoretical annotated temporal algebra (TATA). Being explicit, TATA is convenient for specifying how the algebraic operations should behave, but is impractical to use because annotated relations are overwhelmingly large.
Next, we present a temporal probabilistic algebra (TPA). We show that our definition of the TP-algebra provides a correct implementation of TATA despite the fact that it operates on implicit, succinct TP-relations instead of overwhemingly large annotated relations. Finally, we report on timings for an implementation of the TP-Algebra built on top of ODBC.


Purpose : To determine the number of initial chromatid breaks induced by low- or high-LET irradiations, and to compare the kinetics of chromatid break rejoining for radiations of different quality. Material and methods : Exponentially growing human fibroblast cells AG1522 were irradiated with γ-rays, energetic carbon (290 MeV/u), silicon (490 MeV/u) and iron (200 and 600 MeV/u). Chromosomes were prematurely condensed using calyculin A. Chromatid breaks and exchanges in G2 cells were scored. PCC were collected after several post-irradiation incubation times, ranging from 5 to 600 min. Results : The kinetics of chromatid break rejoining following low-or high-LET irradiation consisted of two exponential components representing a rapid and a slow time constant. Chromatid breaks decreased rapidly during the first 10 min after exposure, then continued to decrease at a slower rate. The rejoining kinetics were similar for exposure to each type of radiation. Chromatid exchanges were also formed quickly. Compared to low-LET radiation, isochromatid breaks were produced more frequently and the proportion of unrejoined breaks was higher for high-LET radiation. Conclusions : Compared with γ-rays, isochromatid breaks were observed more frequently in high-LET irradiated samples, suggesting that an increase in isochromatid breaks is a signature of high-LET radiation exposure.


Objective : We sought to identify the percentage of nonmusculoskeletal and musculoskeletal conditions treated by interns in the National University of Health Sciences (NUHS) Student Clinic compared to chiropractic and allopathic health care professionals. Methods : The information gathered was taken from the charts of patients treated in the fall trimester, dated September 12, 2011 through December 9, 2011. The data collected included ICD-9 codes for the conditions treated, the number of patient visits, age, and gender, and was evaluated using Microsoft Excel. Results : Over half of the 113 eligible patients were women with a mean patient age of 28 years, an average of three treated diagnoses, and a mean of seven treatments. Those treated only for musculoskeletal conditions totaled 52% of the patients; 48% of the patients were treated for nonmusculoskeletal conditions, or musculoskeletal plus nonmusculoskeletal conditions. Conclusion : The NUHS Student Clinic interns are treating a greater percentage of nonmusculoskeletal conditions and a lesser percentage of musculoskeletal conditions than practicing chiropractic physicians. The student interns also treat a lesser percentage of nonmusculoskeletal and a greater percentage of musculoskeletal conditions than allopathic practitioners. This comparison would suggest that NUHS is nearing its institutional goal of training its student interns as primary care practitioners.


The Palaeoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic Annagh Gneiss Complex structurally underlies the Dalradian sequence in north Mayo, Ireland, and has been proposed as the depositional basement to Dalradian metasediments. The Annagh Gneiss Complex was deformed, metamorphosed and migmatized during the Grenville Orogeny and later reworked under amphibolite-facies conditions. This paper focuses on the timing of the post-Grenville events and particularly on the possible presence of post-Grenville, pre-Grampian deformation that could be attributed to the Knoydartian Orogeny. Seven U–Pb titanite analyses from Annagh Gneiss Complex gneisses have a weighted mean 207Pb/206Pb age of 963 ± 8 Ma, which dates cooling after the main Grenville metamorphism. Locally, a later phase of titanite growth at 943 ± 8 Ma post-dates the last phase of Grenville deformation. The weak discordance of the titanite data suggests that post-Grenville events had little effect on the U–Pb system in titanite. If the discordance was caused by a tectonic event, this is likely to have occurred during the early Ordovician Grampian Orogeny rather than in the Neoproterozoic. Within the Annagh Gneiss Complex, cross-cutting metadolerites provide a structural marker allowing post-Grenville deformation to be distinguished. In contrast, correlative metadolerites cutting the adjacent Dalradian metasediments share all Grampian deformation events affecting their host. Ar–Ar hornblende ages from the post-Grenville metadolerites indicate that reworking of the Annagh Gneiss Complex and the first episodes of Dalradian deformation occurred during the Grampian Orogeny in this part of Ireland. One sample yields a 475 ± 4 Ma Ar–Ar plateau age, which is interpreted to date Grampian deformation. Younger Ar–Ar hornblende and Rb–Sr mica ages record post-Grampian cooling. Neither field nor isotopic evidence for the Knoydartian Orogeny has been found in this part of Ireland.


Home care for children dependent on ventilators or other equipment is increasingly common. Until recently, such children remained in acute-care hospitals, using vast amounts of resources, even when they required less-than-acute care. Less than a decade ago, only a few demonstration projects in this country routinely attempted to return ventilator-dependent children to their homes and back into the community. 1 Today, an expanding home-care industry assists many established centers, pediatricians, and specialists in this transfer. The trend toward home care has been stimulated by rising societal expectations, awareness of the needs of the disabled, the increasing number of children rescued from formerly lethal conditions but sustaining disability in the process, and the high cost of inpatient care in acute-care facilities. Clearly, the foremost pressure is financial. Third-party payers, both public and private, do not believe they can sustain the high costs of maintaining such children in


This paper focuses on the application of computer vision and convolutional neural network techniques in the automotive industry to reduce the amount of time required to locate a vacant parking spot and to reduce driving time. The main motivation for a vacant parking spot detector is such that today's drivers are facing major difficulties in finding available spots in largely populated cities. This often time leads to increased congestion and frustration for the driver because they are forced to continue their search for a parking spot. Our approach is able to solve this issue and provide the driver with useful information through the use of transfer learning methodologies. The main contribution of this paper is to examine and improve on previously implemented transfer learning methods in order to better increase the detection accuracy. This paper differs from previous attempts such that it considers all environmental factors such as weather and time of day. Other models are not able to handle these conditions with a high accuracy and subsequently falter. When compared to previous attempts, our implementation focuses solely on the reliance of transfer learning. The results indicate that our model is capable of identifying vacant parking spaces under all conditions with competitive accuracies. The proposed model is able to surpass the accuracy of the latest attempt at solving this issue.


. We demonstrate that banana-shaped molecules 1,3-phenylene bis(4-methoxybenzylidene amine) can assemble themselves into diffraction gratings when the melt of the banana-shaped compound, which was sandwiched between two pieces of glass substrates, is cooled to room temperature. Polarizing optical microscopic characterization shows that a pattern of periodic modulation of the refractive index can be developed in the thin films formed by the banana-shaped compound. Despite the gratings are groove free, their optical properties are the same as classically ruled gratings. Our work provides an alternative method for manufacturing diffraction gratings by harnessing the self-assembly of banana-shaped molecules.


Foreword. Preface. Acknowledgments. About the Authors. 1. Introduction. Book Structure . Glossary. I. ESTABLISHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF VENTURES. 2. Beginnings-Establishing a Venture. The Price of Success and Failure. The Idea. The Management Team. External Advisors. Incorporation. Incorporation in Delaware. 3. Financial and Business Planning. The Company's Business Cycle. Financial Statements. Financial Projections. Cost Structure Analysis and Forecasting. Cash Flow Forecasting. Market Analysis and Strategic Planning. Strategic Alliances. The Business Plan. 4. Employee Recruitment and Compensation. Employee Recruiting. Employee Compensation in the Technology Segments. Granting Options to Employees. Taxation of Stock Options. Performance-based Compensation. Incentives to Tie Employees to the Company. Considerations in Employment Termination. 5. Intangible Capital and Intellectual Property. Patents. Copyright Law. Trademark Law. Trade Secrets. Issues with Employees. NDA-Non-Disclosure Agreements. Considerations in the Granting of Licenses. II. FINANCING THE VENTURE. 6. Milestones and Sources of Financing the Venture. Financing in Stages. Milestones in Venture Development. Scope of Financing and the Company's Value. Stages in Raising Venture Capital. Sources of Capital. 7. Practical Aspects of Raising Venture Capital. Basic Terms. Deciding How Much Capital to Raise. Valuing the Company for the Purpose of Raising Capital/Determining According to Which Value Capital Will be Raised. The Process of Raising Venture Capital. 8. Legal and Contractual Aspects of Raising Venture Capital. Legal Restrictions on Raising Private Capital. 9. Valuation of Companies. Methods Based on Multiples. Methods for Discounting Cash Flows and Residual Income. The Real Options Method. Value to Investors or Strategic Investors and Buyers. The Discount Rate Used by Venture Capital Funds. Issuing Stock to Investors. The Venture Capital Method. Appendix-Basic Terms in Measurement. III. VENTURE CAPITAL INVESTORS. 10. Venture Capital Funds. Private Equity Funds and Venture Capital Funds. Venture Capital Investment Characteristics. Venture Capital Funds and Their Investors. Venture Capital Funds and Their Portfolios. The Added Value of Venture Capital Funds. The Development of the Venture Capital Industry in the United States. The Venture Capital Industry at the Dawn of the Third Millennium. The Structure and Activities of Venture Capital Funds. Exit Strategies of Investments by Venture Capital Funds. The Return on Venture Capital Funds. 11. Other Venture Capital Investors. Private Investors (Angels). Corporate and Other Investors. Financial Institutions Which Invest Directly in Funds. Other Sources of Capital. IV. RAISING CAPITAL FROM THE PUBLIC. 12. Raising Capital from the Public-Introduction. Deciding to Go Public. Preparing the Company for an IPO. 13. The Public Offering Process. Stock Markets in the United States. Forming the IPO Team. The Process. The Underwriting Agreement. The Registration Statement. Liability under U.S. Securities Laws. Changes in the Registration Process. Following the IPO. Selling Shares That Are Exempt from Registration. Foreign Companies Raising Capital. V. MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS, BANKRUPTCIES, AND DISSOLUTION. 14. Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)-Introduction. The Scope of the Phenomenon. Types of Corporate Restructuring. Strategic Classification. Why Do Mergers and Acquisitions Occur? Do Mergers and Acquisitions Create Value? Sales and Mergers Versus IPOs. Case Study-The Sale of Chromatis to Lucent. 15. Conducting the M&A Transaction. Mergers. Sale and Acquisition of Assets. M&A Strategy. The Consideration in Mergers and Acquisitions. The Process. Tender Offers. 16. Additional Legal Aspects. Legal Rules Governing Mergers and Acquisitions. Merger or Acquisition Agreements. Antitrust Issues. Fairness Opinions. 17. Other Restructuring. Other Types of Restructuring: Spin-offs, Split-offs, Carve-outs, and Letter Stocks. Equity Carve-outs (Spin-out IPOs). Letter Stocks/Targeted Stocks. The Rationale of Separate Listing of Units. 18. Bankruptcy and Dissolution of Companies. Legal Rules Governing Bankruptcy and Dissolution in the United States. Additional Issues Concerning Bankruptcy of Startup Companies. Glossary. Further Readings. Index.


Abstract Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now makes a powerful argument that by every measure, the conditions of human life have been improving steadily for the past 200 years. This improvement can be attributed not just to the spread of the principles of enlightenment announced in the eighteenth century but also to the evolved properties of the human mind, which have been liberated by modernity. Pinker writes in support of this development and in opposition to the ideological and academic resistances to it. His book has itself generated resistance among those he criticizes, and while many of these criticisms are unwarranted, Pinker's book raises serious questions that it does not fully address.


A mixed conducting oxide with a nominal composition Sr(Ti0.3Fe0.7Ru0.07)O3−δ (STFRu) is studied, in comparison with SrTi0.3Fe0.7O3−δ (STF) oxide, as an anode for solid oxide fuel cells. Exposing STFRu to reducing fuel conditions at 800 °C for 4 h results in the exsolution of essentially all of the Ru and a small fraction of the Fe from the oxide, and the formation of Ru1−xFex nanoparticles on the oxide surfaces. Most of the nanoparticles have the hexagonal structure expected for Ru-rich alloys, and thermogravimetric analysis suggests the composition x ∼ 0.2. A small fraction of bcc-structure, presumably Fe-rich, nanoparticles are also detected. Comparison of cells with STFRu and STF anodes shows that the presence of Ru induces a reduced polarization resistance and increases the maximum power density under most cell operating conditions, particularly at lower temperatures and hydrogen partial pressures. For example, at 700 °C and 30% H2 fuel, the maximum power density is 0.1 W cm−2 for STF compared to 0.3 W cm−2 for STFRu. There is also a significant change in the shape of the current–voltage curves and the pH2-dependence of the anode polarization resistances RP,A ∝ (pH2)−m, from m ∼ 0.5–1.0 for STF to m ∼ 0.11–0.29 for STFRu; these suggest that Ru1−xFex nanoparticles improve anode performance by promoting hydrogen adsorption.


As the next Party Congress loomed in 2017, China's top leaders in 2016 endorsed President Xi Jinping as the leadership "core," a move that may allow his further consolidation of political power. The economy grew at a targeted 6.7%. Beijing challenged the new Taiwan administration, and sought to consolidate its muscle-flexing in the South China Sea. The likely direction of US relations under Donald Trump remained uncertain.


CONTEXT AND OBJECTIVE
An association between mood disorders and overt thyroid dysfunction is well established, but there are few data on the potential for thyroid hormone levels closer to the reference range to correlate with psychological well-being.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS
We analyzed the relationship between psychological well-being and free T(4) (fT4), free T(3) (fT3), TSH, and total rT(3) in 697 patients on thyroid hormone replacement therapy at entry to a randomized, controlled trial of combined T(4) and T(3) replacement therapy. All patients were on 100 mug or more T(4).

INTERVENTIONS AND MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Psychological well-being was assessed with General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12), Thyroid Symptom Questionnaire, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.

RESULTS
fT(4) and TSH showed a strong correlation with GHQ-12 scores (fT4 - b: -0.16, P = 0.005; TSH - b: 0.663, P = 0.04). No correlations were seen between the GHQ scores and fT3 (b: 0.318, P = 0.275), rT(3) (b: 0.095, P = 0.95), rT(3) to fT4 ratio (b: 71.83, P = 0.09) or fT3 to rT(3) ratio (b: 0.05, P = 0.32). The correlations remained when the data set was limited to patients with TSH in the range 0.3-4.0 mIU/liter. Similar correlations were seen with the Thyroid Symptom Questionnaire, although not with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale scores.

CONCLUSIONS
Differences in fT4 and TSH concentration, even within the reference range, may be a determinant of psychological well-being in treated hypothyroid patients although not necessarily with symptoms typical of anxiety or depression.


Strong physical unclonable function (PUF) is a promising solution for device authentication in resource-constrained applications but vulnerable to machine learning attacks. In order to resist such attack, many defenses have been proposed in recent years. However, these defenses incur high hardware overhead, degenerate reliability and are inefficient against advanced machine learning attacks. In order to address these issues, we propose a dynamic multi-key-selection obfuscation for strong PUFs (DMOS-PUF) to resist machine learning attacks. The basic idea is that several stable responses are derived from the PUF itself and pre-stored as the obfuscation keys in the testing phase, and then a true random number generator is used to select any two keys to obfuscate challenges and responses with simple XOR operations. When the number of challenge-response pairs (CRPs) collected by the attacker exceeds the given threshold, the obfuscation keys will be updated immediately. In this way, machine learning attacks can be prevented with extremely low hardware overhead. Experimental results show that for a 64x64 Arbiter PUF, when 32 obfuscation keys are used and even if 1 million CRPs are collected by attackers, the prediction accuracies of Logistic regression, support vector machines, artificial neural network, convolutional neural network and covariance matrix adaptive evolutionary strategy are about 50% which is equivalent to the random guessing.


Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) serves as the example par excellence of a successful anti-corruption agency. Yet, the Agency works in one of the more corrupt jurisdictions world-wide (the People's Republic of China). To what extent can the ICAC – and the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO) which regulates its work – contribute to reductions in corruption on the Mainland? In this paper, we look at the ways in which the ICAC – technically a Chinese agency (albeit operating in a legally independent jurisdiction) – can help to reduce and prevent corruption on the Mainland. We find that with the proper modifications to the POBO, the Agency can reduce the value of corruption on the Mainland between $5-$20 billion. Through the right regulatory design, these amendments can help actually increase tax revenue by about $200 million per year. We also analyse the political-economy aspects of the reform – and present an example of an optimal reform path. Using economic analysis to assess the costs and benefits of reform – as well as the winners as well as losers of reform – this paper provides an illustration of evidence-based legislative analysis.


OBJECTIVES
We sought to assess the effects of a school-based intervention program on cardiovascular disease risk factors in urban girls.

METHODS
We compared heart health knowledge, health behaviors, cardiovascular risk factors, and physical fitness among a group of 442 multiethnic teenaged girls (310 experimental participants vs 132 control participants). Testing was conducted before and after a 12-week program of vigorous exercises integrated with lectures and discussions on diet, exercise, stress, and smoking.

RESULTS
Significant differences in body fat, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart health knowledge, and whether breakfast was eaten were observed between experimental participants and control participants.

CONCLUSIONS
An integrated program of exercise and heart health-related lectures and discussions had a beneficial effect on health knowledge, health behaviors, and onset of risk factors for coronary artery disease among urban girls.


Evaluation of product design concepts is an important and critical problem, considering incomplete and imprecise information in the early stages of product design process. In order to solve this problem, grey theory, fuzzy sets and information axiom are combined in this study under the name of grey-fuzzy information axiom for solving product concept evaluation problem for the first time. The information axiom has the capability to solve multi-attribute evaluation problems. Grey and fuzzy set theories are complementary methods for quantification uncertainty. Applicability of the proposed method is demonstrated on the evaluation of dishwasher design concepts. It has been shown that grey-fuzzy information axiom is an appropriate tool to be used for the concept evaluation problem in case of having different types of uncertainties.


We report the characterization of correlated photon pairs generated in dispersion-engineered silicon slow-light photonic crystal waveguides pumped by picosecond pulses. We found that taking advantage of the 15-nm flat-band slow-light window (vg ~ c/30), the bandwidth for correlated photon-pair generation in 96- and 196-μm-long waveguides was at least 11.2 nm, while a 396-μm-long waveguide reduced the bandwidth to 8 nm (only half of the slow-light bandwidth due to the increased impact of phase matching in a longer waveguide). The key metrics for a photon-pair source: coincidence to accidental ratio (CAR) and pair brightness were measured to be a maximum 33 at a pair generation rate of 0.004 pair per pulse in a 196- μm-long waveguide. Within the measurement errors, the maximum CAR achieved in 96-, 196-, and 396-μm-long waveguides is constant. The noise analysis shows that detector dark counts, leaked pump light, linear and nonlinear losses, multiple pair generation, and detector jitter are the limiting factors to the CAR performance of the sources.


Agent relativists about vagueness (henceforth 'agent relativists') hold that whether or not an object x falls in the extension of a vague predicate 'P' at a time t depends on the judgemental dispositions of a particular competent agent at t. My aim in this paper is to critically examine arguments that purport to support agent relativism by appealing to data from forced-march Sorites experiments. The most simple and direct versions of such forced-march Sorites argu- ments rest on the following (implicit) premise: If competent speakers' judgements vary in a certain way, then the extensions of 'P' as used by these speakers must vary in the same way. This premise is in need of independent support, since otherwise opponents of agent relativism can simply reject it. In this paper, I focus on the idea that one cannot plausibly reject this premise, as that would commit one to implausible claims about linguistic competence. Against this, I argue that one can accommodate the data from forced-march Sorites experiments in a way that is compatible with a plausible picture of linguistic competence, without going agent relativist. Thus, there is reason to be sceptical of the idea that such data paired with considerations about linguistic competence can be invoked in order to lend any solid support to agent relativism. Forced-march Sorites arguments of this kind can, and should be, resisted.


As a part of wood-plastic composite (WPC) material development, this research evaluated the resistance of WPC formulations to fungal decay and biocide leaching. In laboratory tests using small WPC samples exposed directly to brown-rot and white-rot fungi, there were no weight losses caused by decay in most formulations. Formulations with relatively high wood content and not protected by zinc borate exhibited moderate weight losses. Scanning electron microscopy of WPC specimens supporting fungal growth show mycelium concentrated in the interfacial gaps between the wood and thermoplastic component near the specimen surface. The relative influence of each material component on the WPC resistance to decay was analyzed by simplex analysis. Of the various component term effects, the most influential was that relating to composite wood content. Increases in talc concentration also resulted in greater weight losses. An increase in high-density polyethylene (HDPE) in the formulation reduced susceptibility to weight loss during the accelerated decay test. Zinc borate at 2 percent concentration, the lowest level tested, prevented any weight loss. Our conclusion is that either the inclusion of zinc borate or limiting the wood content of WPC can effectively prevent fungal decay. The very low leach rate as determined by laboratory testing appears to be controlled mainly by dissolution of the zinc borate and not by diffusion. The tests show that zinc borate will take at least 20 years to completely dissolve and leach from the material. Results indicate that careful material design can prevent fungal decay of WPC even under severe exposures.


This study examines the anticonvulsant profile of interactions between 2-chloro-N6-cyclopentyladenosine (CCPA, a selective adenosine A1 receptor agonist) and four conventional antiepileptic drugs (AEDs: carbamazepine--CBZ, phenobarbital, phenytoin and valproate) in the mouse maximal electroshock seizure (MES) model. Acute adverse effects produced by AEDs in combination with CCPA were determined in the chimney test (motor performance) and passive avoidance task (long-term memory). Results indicate that CCPA administered alone at 0.25 and 0.5 mg/kg significantly elevated the electroconvulsive threshold in mice. Additionally, the agent at a sub-threshold dose of 0.125 mg/kg potentiated the anticonvulsant activity of CBZ by reducing its ED50 in the MES test from 11.2 to 7.7 mg/kg (p < 0.01). In contrast, 8-cyclopentyl-1,3-dimethylxanthine (DPCPX, a selective adenosine A1 receptor antagonist at 5 mg/kg) abolished the enhanced anticonvulsant effects offered by the combination of CBZ with CCPA (0.125 mg/kg). Moreover, CCPA (0.125 mg/kg) co-administered with other tested AEDs had no significant impact on their antiseizure properties in the MES test in mice. Neither CCPA (0.125 mg/kg) administered singly, nor in combinations with conventional AEDs (at their ED50s) affected motor performance in the chimney test and long-term memory in the passive avoidance task. No pharmacokinetic alterations in brain CBZ concentrations were observed after administration of CCPA at 0.125 mg/kg. It may be concluded that CCPA, acting selectively on adenosine A1 receptors, enhances pharmacodynamically the antiseizure effect of CBZ in the MES test.


In this paper we are concerned with stakeholders' participation in the development of an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system for health facilities in Malawi, Africa. We draw on insights gained during the process of an Action Research project, which involved different stakeholders. We examine the different roles and forms of participation of these stakeholders. Through this, we illustrate how participation changes over time and co-evolves with the progress of the project. Our analysis also reveals that, in rural low-resource settings, expected end-users of EMR systems do not always have the health domain knowledge or expertise to effectively participate in such design projects. Therefore, participation of managers and other health domain experts is essential in order to supplement users' limited specialized knowledge of the domain.


The main purpose of this study is to investigate how regulation, competition, governance structure, and business diversification strategy affect the cost structure of firms. By using 358 observations comprised of public utility firms and manufacturing firms from 1989 to 2002, we estimate the translog cost function. From our empirical analysis, the following results are obtained: (i) The regulation factor does not affect the cost structure. (ii) Compared with the regulation factor, the competition factor shows a quite clear effect on a firm' s cost reduction. (iii) As a company diversifies further from its core industry into other industries, all of the firm' s business costs increase, indicating an apparent lack of economies of scope. (iv) The governance factor has an important effect on a firm' s cost structure. As the ratio of foreign shareholders increases and there is more dependence on one main bank, the costs of a firm decrease.


Topography is one of the important factors affecting soil carbon accumulation in a tropical ecosystem. Slope effects vary in magnitude in different agro-ecosystems. The study was conducted to evaluate the influence of topography on soil nitrogen and carbon equestration in Mbano Imo State, Nigeria. Three profile pits were dug along a landscape of approximately 200 meters, one on each topographic position. Each profile pit was demarcated into 4 equal depths of 30 cm apart and 3 replicated soil samples were collected from each of the depths for laboratory analyses. Analysis of variance and correlation analysis were used for data analysis. From the results, the average bulk densities and moisture content varied between 1.36-1.59 g cm-3 and 6.43-7.27% with the footslope (valley position) containing significantly (p=0.05) higher values. 0-30 cm depth had the least bulk density value compared to other depths. At 0-30, 30-60, 60-90 and 90-120 depths, carbon and nitrogen sequestration varied depending on the landscape position. At the depth of 0-30 cm in upslope (summit), mid-slope and footslope, organic carbon, total nitrogen, carbon and nitrogen sequestration were the highest (p=0.05). 30-60 cm depth of the footslope sequestered significantly higher carbon (520.30) than that of the summit (376.74 g cm-2) and mid slope (26.64) (p=0.05). Considering the three different topographic units, the footslope sequestered significantly (p=0.05) highest quantities of carbon (629.42 g cm-2) and nitrogen (33.18 g Nm-2) than the up slope (249.36 g cm-2, 23.39 g Nm-2) and mid slope (170.72 g cm-2, 14.80 g cm-2). Also, organic carbon and total nitrogen were highest in the foot slope compared to the mid and up slopes. Generally, ANOVA result revealed higher availability and sequestration of carbon and nitrogen at 0-30 cm depth and valley position.


The sport of arm wrestling requires very little equipment, and can take place anywhere a flat surface is available. As such, undertrained participants often compete, with inevitable injury. Humeral fractures, and elbow injuries are well described, but scapular fractures have not previously been reported in the literature. Language: en


We present an alternative inference framework for the Gaussian process-based extended object tracking (GPEOT) models. The method provides an approximate solution to the Bayesian filtering problem in GPEOT by relying on a new measurement update, which we derive using variational Bayes techniques. The resulting algorithm effectively computes approximate posterior densities of the kinematic and the extent states. We conduct various experiments on simulated and real data and examine the performance compared with a reference method, which employs an extended Kalman filter for inference. The proposed algorithm significantly improves the accuracy of both the kinematic and the extent estimates and proves robust against model uncertainties.


A systematic study of the manganese-mediated alpha-radical addition of carbonyl groups to olefins is presented. After an in-depth investigation of the parameters that govern the reaction, a first round of optimization allowed the development of a unified stoichiometric set of conditions which was subsequently assessed during the exploration of the scope. Due to observed limitations, the knowledge accumulated during the initial study was reengaged to quickly optimize promising substrates that were so far inaccessible under previously reported conditions. Altogether these results led to the creation of a predictive model based on the pKa of the carbonyl compound and both the substitution and geometry of the alkene coupling partner. Finally, a departure from the use of stoichiometric manganese was enabled through the development of a robust and practical electrocatalytic version of the reaction.


Catering fairest is an undertaking in the fields of food service who handles reserving food .To perform food customers reservations required to come directly into place a caterer in order to obtain the information needed . This application is expected to be can expanding network marketing on catering fairest as well as providing an alternative for customers in transact reservations. This final, writer built a system of using a web reservations. Web subscribers will more readily in transact reserving, because of reservations can be done anywhere and anytime without having to dating caterer. all the wayOther benefits also can be perceived by of admin, with using a web of admin can be more easily access data reserving without having seen a record book reservations or computer who are outta my office catering. The result of this research is that a system based on the web, the implements of programming to solve the reservations which uses the internet links between providers and consumers. Key word : catering , the the information system , web 9


Disasters could cause communication systems partially or completely down. In such a case, relief operations need a rapidly deployed communication system to save lives. Exchanging information among the rescue team is a vital factor to make important decisions. Communication system required to be robust to failures, rapidly deployable, easily maintainable to provide better services. Wireless ad-hoc networks could be the choice of establishing communication with the aid of existing infrastructure in a post-disaster case. In order to optimize mobile ad-hoc network performance, address the challenges that could lead to unreliable performance is required. One and most crucial key challenge is routing information from a sender to receiver. Due to the characteristics of a disaster environment such as signal attenuation, communication links exist between rescue crew is short-lived, suffer from frequent route breakage, and may result in unreliable end-to-end services. Many routing protocols have been proposed and evaluated in different network environments. This paper presents the basic taxonomy of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks and the state of the art in routing categorizes (Proactive, Reactive, Geographic-aware and Delay tolerant Networks (DTN)). The comparison of existing routing protocols in Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks indicates that overhead in Proactive and Geographic is competitive with delay in Reactive and DTN routing.


The climate catastrophe to come is traumatically affecting, whether in its micro and macro manifestations, in the threat it poses to existing ways of life, in its upending of entrenched understandings of the workings of the world, or in the injury it is doing to particular lives and wider ecologies. It works on ecologies and bodies alike as a kind of wounding, one not simply or solely to the everyday stuff of biological life but to the very constitution of experience and expression. Critiquing and extending writing on climate, trauma, and aesthetic experience by E. Ann Kaplan (2016), Timothy Morton (2013), and others, this article argues that these affects of climate catastrophe are traumatically affecting without necessarily being traumatizing: they are jarring, rupturing, disjunctive experiences of future crisis in the now. This article traces these affects of apocalypse as they circulate traumatically in three texts: George Miller's film Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Marina Zurkow's animation Slurb (2009), and Briohny Doyle's novel The Island Will Sink (2016). Climate catastrophe, that most threatening yet elusive of hyperobjects, marks and emerges irresistibly from within these works, not simply as theme, setting, or symbol but as the form of their affectivity. This intensity presses into the present from the future, shaping how the catastrophe to come is felt today and exposing crucial tensions between aesthetic expression and lived experience.


Shane (2009) has suggested that encouraging more people to become entrepreneurs is bad public policy because it is existing firms that bring jobs and productivity growth and not new firms. To test this view this article shifts the perspective onto existing firms and away from start-up by examining firm survivability in the regions and countries of the UK and its relationship with employment and productivity growth. The article provides some evidence to support Shane's (2009) view that it is existing firms that are important for economic development.


IMSI Catchers are used in mobile networks to identify and eavesdrop on phones. When, the number of vendors increased and prices dropped, the device became available to much larger audiences. Self-made devices based on open source software are available for about US$ 1,500. In this paper, we identify and describe multiple methods of detecting artifacts in the mobile network produced by such devices. We present two independent novel implementations of an IMSI Catcher Catcher (ICC) to detect this threat against everyone's privacy. The first one employs a network of stationary (sICC) measurement units installed in a geographical area and constantly scanning all frequency bands for cell announcements and fingerprinting the cell network parameters. These rooftop-mounted devices can cover large areas. The second implementation is an app for standard consumer grade mobile phones (mICC), without the need to root or jailbreak them. Its core principle is based upon geographical network topology correlation, facilitating the ubiquitous built-in GPS receiver in today's phones and a network cell capabilities fingerprinting technique. The latter works for the vicinity of the phone by first learning the cell landscape and than matching it against the learned data. We implemented and evaluated both solutions for digital self-defense and deployed several of the stationary units for a long term field-test. Finally, we describe how to detect recently published denial of service attacks.


We study the inference and experimentation problem of an agent in a situation where the outcomes depend on the individual's intrinsic ability and on an external variable. We analyze the mistakes made by decision-makers who hold inaccurate prior beliefs about their ability. Overconfident individuals take too much credit for their successes and excessively blame external factors if they fail. They are too easily dissatisfied with their environment, which leads them to experiment in variable environments and revise their self-confidence over time. In contrast, underconfident decision-makers might be trapped in low-quality environments and incur perpetual utility losses.


Activation of CD1d-restricted invariant NKT (iNKT) cells by α-galactosylceramide (αGalCer) significantly suppresses development of diabetes in NOD mice. The mechanisms of this protective effect are complex, involving both Th1 and Th2 cytokines and a network of regulatory cells including tolerogenic dendritic cells. In the current study, we evaluated a newly described synthetic αGalCer analog (C20:2) that elicits a Th2-biased cytokine response for its impact on disease progression and immunopathology in NOD mice. Treatment of NOD mice with αGalCer C20:2 significantly delayed and reduced the incidence of diabetes. This was associated with significant suppression of the late progression of insulitis, reduced infiltration of islets by autoreactive CD8+ T cells, and prevention of progressive disease-related changes in relative proportions of different subsets of dendritic cells in the draining pancreatic lymph nodes. Multiple favorable effects observed with αGalCer C20:2 were significantly more pronounced than those seen in direct comparisons with a closely related analog of αGalCer that stimulated a more mixed pattern of Th1 and Th2 cytokine secretion. Unlike a previously reported Th2-skewing murine iNKT cell agonist, the αGalCer C20:2 analog was strongly stimulatory for human iNKT cells and thus warrants further examination as a potential immunomodulatory agent for human disease.


Design for Environment (DfE) has become an important consideration in design processes in various industries. However, designers are typically burdened by product functionality and cost reduction objectives. The complexity of environmental analyses of designs makes the implementation of DfE principles that much harder. Software tools that perform quick estimates of the environmental impact for a given design option will assist designers in developing products that are environmentally friendly. The near universal adoption of CAD software packages for product design means that CAD models provide us with a valuable source of information for developing such tools. The paper proposes a design for a software tool that will generate quantitative indicators using volume and material data from CAD models. The indicators are generated with minimal input from the designer and are intended to enable the comparison of multiple design options. The availability of these indicators is intended to promote environmentally responsible design by minimizing content levels of restricted substance and the environmental cost of production. The paper discusses the data sources required, the database design, calculation methodology and two possible software architectures for the software tool.Copyright © 2009 by ASME