Method of Lines (MOLs) is introduced to solve 2-Dimension steady temperature field of functionally graded materials (FGMs). The main idea of the method is to semi–discretized the governing equation of thermal transfer problem into a system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) defined on discrete lines by means of the finite difference method. The temperature field of FGM can be obtained by solving the ODEs with functions of thermal properties. As numerical examples, six kinds of material thermal conductivity functions, i.e. three kinds of polynomial functions, an exponent function, a logarithmic function, and a sine function are selected to simulate spatial thermal conductivity profile in FGMs respectively. The steady-state temperature fields of 2-D thermal transfer problem are analyzed by the MOLs. Numerical results show that different material thermal conductivity function has obvious different effect on the temperature field.


Abstract Throughout the socialist experiment between 1974 and 1992, the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) ran a network of internment camps officially known as reeducation centers. Established in remote rural sites to mentally decolonize wayward members of urban society and putative enemies of the socialist revolution, the camps became a dumping ground for unwanted citizens accused of all kinds of wrongdoing. Although the Frelimo leaders envisioned a pedagogical institution that would undo the damage of colonialism by transforming reeducatees into new social beings, the gap between the idea of rehabilitation and the reality of detention was abysmally wide. Austerity – the order of the day throughout the fifteen years of socialist experiment in Mozambique – conditioned and defined the organic functioning of reeducation camps. Unlike internment camps elsewhere, Mozambique's camps were not strictly regimented. The carceral regime that emerged not only set Mozambique's reeducation centers apart from camps elsewhere, they were also far from the technocratic moralism and panoptic ambitions of the ruling party.


External fixation has proven to be a viable minimally invasive treatment option for elderly patients with trochanteric fractures. Postoperative complications has limited external fixation in relation to inadequate pin fixation. We compared Orthofix pertrochanteric fixator (OPF) with hydroxyapatite-coated pins to dynamic hip screw (DHS) with AO/ASIF stainless-steel screws in osteoporotic trochanteric fractures. Methods: Forty patients were divided into two groups and randomized for treatment with 135° 4-hole DHS (Group A) or OPF with four hydroxyapatite-coated pins (Group B). Inclusion criteria was: female, age ≥ 65 years, AO fracture type A1 or A2 and BMD lower than -2.5 T-score. All fixators were removed at 3 months. Results: There were no differences in patient age, fracture type, BMD, ASA, hospital stay and reduction quality. Average number of blood transfusions was 2.0 ± 0.1 in Group A, whereas there were none in Group B (p < 0.0001). Operative time was 64 ± 6 minutes in Group A and 34 ± 5 in Group B (p < 0.005). Post-operative femoral neck shaft angle was 134 ± 6° in Group A, and 132 ± 4° in Group B (ns). In Group A, fracture varization at 6 months was 6 ± 8°, in Group B 2 ± 1° (p = 0.002). Harris hip score was 62 ± 20 in Group A and 63 ± 17 in Group B. (n.s.) In Group B, no pin infection occurred. Pin fixation was maintained over time, as shown by no significant difference between pin extraction and corresponding insertion torque. Discussion and Conclusion: In external fixation with hydroxyapatite-coated pins there was no need for blood transfusions and fixation was superior, as confirmed by less varization at long-term.


The Repositioning Family Planning initiative was established to ensure that family planning remains a priority for donors policymakers and service providers in sub-Saharan Africa in an era in which HIV malaria and tuberculosis programs dominate the global health agenda and receive a majority of available resources. Many countries noted the lack a mechanism for assessing the success of repositioning family planning efforts. In 2011 in response to this gap the MEASURE Evaluation Population and Reproductive Health project developed a results framework to assess efforts to reposition family planning. The Framework for Monitoring and Evaluating Efforts to Reposition Family Planning can be used by international donors governments and health programs to evaluate their efforts; identify gaps in strategies to reposition family planning in countries; and inform funding decisions program design policy and advocacy and program planning and improvement. In 2012 Futures Group with funding from the Hewlett Foundation applied the framework to assess Mauritanias progress in repositioning family planning. This report presents the results of this application which can serve as a baseline for future assessments.


We describe a case of a 2-year-old mare that presented with a large firm swelling on the lateral aspect of the right tarsus. Diagnostic ultrasound demonstrated a fluid filled cavernous mass that was not clearly demarcated from the surrounding subcutaneous tissue. Contrast radiography with intralesional injection of contrast medium showed accumulation of the medium in the caverns of the mass and in the saphenous vein. Contrast enhanced computed tomography demonstrated 2 vascular meshes, one deep and one more superficially, closely associated with the mass. Surgical excision of the mass was performed and a vascular hamartoma was diagnosed based on histopathology. The horse showed no signs of recurrence 7 months after surgery.


In this research, we have designed and developed a programming experience system. The target users of the system are 1st and 2nd graders of elementary schools as well as infants who do not have programming experience. We aimed to achieve two goals, that by using our system: (1) users can become interested in programming without using keyboards and (2) they can select appropriate commands according to a situation by encouraging them in understanding the relationship between commands and their execution results. In addition, our system was implemented by using the camera function of a smartphone and augmented reality (AR) technologies. In this system, users can program by using operation cards without keyboards. We conducted a preliminary experiment to evaluate the efficacy of our system. In the experiment, with 9 children who were 1st or 2nd grade elementary students, we investigated the degree of achievement of the children who played in a game environment using the operation cards constructed in the real world. Experimental results revealed that (1) our system may be effective in terms of achievement of our research purpose, and (2) the children can be categorized into several types to make it easier for our system to support users' programming activities according to their types.


Abstract The Water Poverty Index is an integrated tool developed on the basis of extensive consultation with a range of scientists, practitioners and policymakers. It is primarily designed for use at the community level to enable more holistic water-resource assessments on a site-specific basis. It can however be applied at different scales to suit different needs. One of the motivations to design such a tool was an attempt to move away from the conventional, purely deterministic, approaches to water assessment, relying primarily on models and large-scale data. In today's world such an approach is inappropriate, ill representing the complexities of modern water-allocation decisions where economic, political and social issues all have a powerful role to play. This paper highlights some applications of the Water Poverty Index at different spatial scales and discusses the implications of applying indicators at these different scales.


Ketamine has been demonstrated to inhibit norepinephrine uptake in the adrenergic neuronal membrane, an action similar to that of cocaine. This study evaluated possible potentiation of five vasoactive amines, norepinephrine, epinephrine, tyramine, dopamine, and isoproterenol, by ketamine in the isolated rabbit heart at 35, 30, 25 and 20 C. The hearts were perfused with one of the vasoactive amines alone, ketamine (500 Mg/ml) alone, and combinations of ketamine with the amines, in random order. Heart rate, left ventricular dP/dt, and left ventricular systolic, diastolic, and mean pressures were recorded. Heart rate was decreased by ketamine alone; this effect became less significant with increasing hypothermia. No significant change from control was observed at 25 or 20 C. Heart rate increased significantly during perfusion with ketamine plus norepinephrine, epinephrine, or tyramine compared with control, and during perfusion with these amines alone at 35 C. The potentiation of heart rate caused by ketamine plus norepinephrine compared with norepinephrine alone was not affected by cooling to any temperature, while the difference between extents of potentiation by epinephrine or tyramine with and without ketamine decreased with cooling, becoming insignificant at 25 C or less. Dopamine and isoproterenol produced greater increases of heart rate alone than when perfused with ketamine, the differences becoming less with cooling. Left ventricular dP/dt was significantly decreased by ketamine alone, this effect becoming less apparent with cooling. Ketamine combined with norepinephrine, epinephrine, tyramine, isoproterenol, or dopamine significantly increased dP/dt over control, while only ketamine combined with norepinephrine, epinephrine, and tyramine significantly increased dP/dt compared with these vasoactive amines alone. Potentiation of left ventricular dP/dt by ketamine plus epinephrine or tyramine (compared with these amines alone) became less apparent with cooling. When ketamine was combined with norepinephrine, however, similar extents of potentiation were observed at all temperatures compared with norepinephrine alone. Ketamine plus isoproterenol or dopamine decreased dP/dt compared with the amines alone at 35 C, this effect becoming less apparent with cooling. These results indicate that ketamine, like cocaine, may be a catecholamine Uptake 1 inhibitor.


Abstract:Present-day Latvia is a multi-ethnic society divided by the traumatic experiences of the twentieth century. It was both a locus of the Holocaust and a society deeply affected by decades of Soviet rule. Today, Latvia's Jewish community is trying to negotiate its place as a re-emergent historical minority in the space between two dominant ethno-cultural communities, Latvian speakers and Russian speakers. After outlining the expressions of antisemitism in both the Lettophone and Russophone milieus since 1991, this article argues that competing nationalist narratives of threat and ownership of the state best explain antisemitism in contemporary Latvia. The fluctuating influence of the 1941 Rumbula Massacre on popular memory culture is a recurrent point of reference, which illustrates my argument. Recent events suggest a new, more conciliatory, trend where Jews are seen as an integral part of the people of Latvia, rather than as a potential risk to the state and nation.


Printing of droplets of pure solvents containing suspended solids typically leads to a ring stain due to convective transport of the particles toward the contact line during evaporation of the solvent. In mixtures of volatile solvents, recirculating cells driven by surface tension gradients are established that lead to migration of colloidal particles toward the center of the droplet. In favorable cases, a dense disk of particles forms with a diameter much smaller than that of the droplet. In the latter stages of drying, convective transport of the particles radially toward the contact line still occurs. Two strategies are described to fix the distribution of particles in a compact disk much smaller than the initial diameter of the drying droplet. First, a nanoparticulate clay is added to induce an evaporation-driven sol-gel transition that inhibits convective flow during the latter stages of drying. Second, a nonadsorbing polymer is added to induce depletion flocculation that restricts particle motion after the particles have been concentrated near the center of the droplet. The area of the resulting deposit can be as little as 10% of the footprint of the printed droplet.


A new approach for the design of two-band FIR filter banks with short system delays is proposed. The method is based on the perfect reconstruction condition and takes into consideration the characteristics of the individual filters. It involves minimizing an objective function by optimization. Two design examples are presented to illustrated the design procedure.<<ETX>>


The objective of this study was to investigate the presence and origin of polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMNLs) in the amniotic fluid of mares giving birth to healthy foals. Material from 25 mares was included. Amniotic fluid was collected during parturition before breakage of the amniotic vesicle. Manual microscopic cytologic evaluation was made on cytospin preparations after staining. PMNLs were found in all amniotic samples examined. The genomic DNA was extracted from 12 of the amniotic fluid samples and was genotyped. The results indicate that the PMNLs originate from the foetus.


The U.S.-Japan relationship has undergone many changes since the end of World War II. Perhaps the most dramatic and least understood transition was the change in perceptions and values that allowed these two former enemies --countries which shared substantially fewer ties of kinship and culture than did the United States and Europe - to become the closest of allies in a remarkably short period of time. Philanthropy and Reconciliation examines the critical role of civil society, and particularly of American and Japanese philanthropy, in rebuilding the U.S.-Japan relationship in the postwar period. Foundations and individual philanthropists set out to promote democracy in Japan, reconstruct the foundations of mutual understanding between Japan and the United States, and encourage a continuing dialogue on the future of the relationship. To do this, they provided generous support for strategic institution building, the development of human resources through support for individual study and training, the promotion of American studies in Japan and Japanese studies in the United States, and a broad range of international exchanges and dialogues. This groundbreaking study analyzes the context and implications of this support, both for understanding the past and for improving the way in which we address post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation in the future. Contributors include Kimberly Gould Ashizawa, James Gannon, Katsumata Hideko, Menju Toshihiro, and Wada Jun (Japan Center for International Exchange, Inc.), and Kimura Masato (Shibusawa Ei'ichi Memorial Foundation, Japan).


Obstruction to blood flow is accompanied by a pressure gradient across the obstructed site. In certain clinical settings, magnitude of pressure gradient has been used to judge severity of obstruction, and gradient reduction to judge success of an interventional procedure. In percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) the relationships between transstenotic pressure gradient, diameter stenosis, and lesion length are imprecisely known. We therefore examined 4263 sets of measurements in patients who underwent PTCA on single, discrete coronary arterial lesions. Multivariate regression analysis demonstrated that pressure gradient was artifactually elevated by about 12 mm Hg at low values of diameter stenosis but increased by the 4th power of stenosis as expected from fluid dynamics models. Pressure gradient was dampened and relatively constant at values of diameter stenosis of 60% or higher, probably because of total or near-total occlusion of the artery. Lesion length was not found to influence pressure gradient. Reductions in diameter stenosis (delta D) and pressure gradient (delta G) were related nonlinearly, with delta D proportional to the square root of delta G, suggesting that a reduction in gradient is directly proportional to an increase in cross-sectional area of the stenosis. The predictive value of final post-PTCA pressure gradients was found: a final gradient of 15 mm Hg or less predicted a final post-PTCA diameter stenosis of 30% or less, with 75% sensitivity and 29% specificity (p less than .01). The results of this study suggest that (1) pressure gradient as currently measured during PTCA is related to diameter stenosis but not to lesion length (2) reductions in pressure gradient and diameter stenosis are nonlinearly related.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


The design of gesture-based interactive systems, where an emotional response may be potentially evoked, is a substantial and enduring challenge for designers of interactive systems. The discussion to follow looks at the use of semiotics to analyse expressive gesture generation in theatre, yoga, and multimodal human-computer interaction to establish design foundations, these being interpretable, ephemeral, and programmable elements. A description of an interactive gestural film game To be or not to be is included as an appendix showing the application of the elements.


Foreign body infections continue to present a challenge to modern medicine. New aspects for the prevention of such infections are presented on the basis of modifying medical devices or implant materials (synthetic polymers). Physicochemical treatment of polymer surfaces is a possible tool to create anti-adhesive and thus anti-infective surfaces. Coupling or incorporation of antimicrobial substances to or into polymers is another way to prevent bacterial colonization and subsequently the development of polymer-associated infections.


Case Presentation A 69-year-old white male presented to a local hospital with a two week history of hip pain, diarrhea, subjective fevers, and a fifteen pound weight loss. Additional symptoms of nausea, vomiting, and chest pain were present for one day. Physical examination was within normal limits. Lab results showed a WBC count of 40,000, a platelets 71,000, and a hematocrit of 39; other labs were normal except for an alkaline phosphatase of 217 and LDH of 556. His peripheral smear demonstrated no malignant cells. Two bone marrows only yielded necrotic tissue. Empiric antimicrobial therapy was initiated for persistent fever. He rapidly developed pancytopenia and was subsequently transferred for further evaluation and treatment. Diagnostic Evaluation/Hospital Course Serologic studies for hepatitis, HIV, syphilis, histoplasmosis, blastomycosis, coccidioides, Aspergillus, Leptospira, Brucella, Cryptococcus, R. rickettsii, R. typhi, Q fever, and Bartonella were negative, as were blood cultures, stool studies, and sputum for AFB. A metastatic bone survey was negative, as were CT scans of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis. The patient subsequently developed herpetic lesions of upper lip and tongue that were confirmed by direct immunofluorescent staining, and acyclovir was started. He remained bedridden due to severe hip and back pain. Transfusions were administered as needed. After four weeks his counts gradually improved and were near normal within six weeks. MRI of the spine and hips demonstrated areas consistent with persistent necrosis in addition to diffuse areas of enhancement consistent with marrow replacement. Viable marrow was obtained and significant for areas of 100% cellularity adjacent to necrotic tissue. There was normal trilineage maturation with no evidence of malignancy. Flow cytometry, chromosomal analysis, and FISH for the BCR-ABL translocation of the marrow were all within normal limits. He was subsequently transferred to a rehabilitation facility without a clear the etiology of his bone marrow necrosis. Discussion Necrosis of the bone marrow is characterized by destruction of the medullary stroma and gelatinous transformation. A malignancy is present in approximately 90% of cases, most often being hematological. Other associations include sickle cell disease, infections, and medications. The most commonly reported symptoms are fever and pain that may be severe and debilitating. Anemia and thrombocytopenia are typically present at presentation, while the WBC count may be elevated or decreased.


This work presents the technique of constrained independent component analysis (cICA) and demonstrates two applications, less-complete ICA, and ICA with reference (ICA-R). The cICA is proposed as a general framework to incorporate additional requirements and prior information in the form of constraints into the ICA contrast function. The adaptive solutions using the Newton-like learning are proposed to solve the constrained optimization problem. The applications illustrate the versatility of the cICA by separating subspaces of independent components according to density types and extracting a set of desired sources when rough templates are available. The experiments using face images and functional MR images demonstrate the usage and efficacy of the cICA.


Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has received great recognition through the various research conducted on determining users' acceptance of relevant technology innovation. Past researches have focused on technology innovation in education such as e-learning, Learning Management Systems and online applications. The 21st century teaching and learning framework has identified the relevance of the Internet of Things (IoT) and online applications as part of the teaching and learning process. Besides elearning, MOOCs, Virtual and Augmented Reality have also found their place in the emerging teaching and learning platforms. As Virtual Reality only became popularized in classrooms in the recent years, not much is known about users' acceptance of this technology innovation in the classroom. This paper, which is based on the TAM, attempted to identify the factors that could affect the respondents' acceptance of Virtual Reality (VR) in classrooms. Factors on the perceived ease of use (PEoU) and perceived usefulness (PU) affecting the respondents' attitude and intention to use VR in their classrooms were studied. Employing a quantitative research design, a set of questionnaire based on constructs adapted by Davis (1989) and adapted from past researches (Ngai et al, 2005; Weng et al, 2018, Muhamad Sufi, 2019) was distributed to a group of in-service teachers who were pursuing their postgraduate studies in one of the faculties in Universiti Teknologi MARA. The data was analyzed using SPSS in determining the relationships between the independent variables and the dependent variables. The analysis has further confirmed past research findings. However, in the context of VR, some suggestions to improve current practice are suggested. Policymakers and decision-makers could be enlightened by the present study's findings. Likewise, teachers may find VR a more convincing platform to be integrated in their classrooms.


Trade‐offs between life‐history variables can be manifested at either the phenotypic or genetic level, with vastly different evolutionary consequences. Here, we examined whether male decorated crickets (Gryllodes sigillatus) from eight inbred lines and the outbred founder population from which they were derived, trade‐off immune effort [lytic activity, phenoloxidase (PO) activity or encapsulation] to produce spermatophylaxes: costly nuptial food gifts essential for successful sperm transfer. Canonical correlation analysis of the outbred population revealed a trade‐off between spermatophylax mass and lytic activity. Analysis of our inbred lines, however, revealed that although PO activity, encapsulation, body mass, spermatophylax mass and ampulla (sperm capsule) mass were all highly heritable, lytic activity was not, and there was, therefore, no negative genetic correlation between lytic activity and spermatophylax mass. Thus, males showed a phenotypic but not a genetic trade‐off between spermatophylax mass and lytic activity, suggesting that this trade‐off is mediated largely by environmental factors.


Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by the appearance of benign tumors in multiple organs, including the heart. Disease progression is accompanied by homozygous mutation at 1 of 2 loci (designated TSC1 or TSC2), leading to the suggestion that these genes function as tumor suppressors. In this study, we generated a series of TSC2 cDNAs in which one or more structural motifs were deleted, with the hope that expression of the modified gene product would override the growth-inhibitory activity of the endogenous TSC2 gene product. Several of the modified cDNAs enhanced growth rate, increased endocytosis, and promoted aberrant protein trafficking when expressed in NIH-3T3 cells, thereby mimicking phenotypes typical of TSC2-deficient cells. Surprisingly, targeted expression of the most potent TSC2 cDNA to the heart did not perturb cardiac development. However, the level of cardiomyocyte DNA synthesis in adult transgenic mice was elevated .35-fold during isoproterenol-induced hypertrophy compared with their nontransgenic siblings. These results suggest that alteration of TSC2 gene activity in combination withb-adrenergic stimulation can reactivate the cell cycle in a limited number of terminally differentiated adult cardiomyocytes. (Circ Res. 2000;86:1069-1077.)


Though Chaos Engineering is a popular method to test reliability and performance assurance, available tools can only inject random or manually curated faults into a target system. Given the vast array of faults that can be injected, it is crucial to a.) intelligently pick the faults that can have tangible effects, b.) increase the test coverage, and c.) reduce the overall time needed to assess the reliability of a system under adverse conditions. To the effect, we are proposing to learn from past major outages and use genetic algorithm-based meta-heuristics to evolve complex fault injections.


The strong interdependence between banking and sovereign crisis has emerged as a salient feature of euro area crisis. This interdependence, for sure, is not a specific feature of the euro area. But as pointed out by several authors the vicious cycle seems to be extremely strong in the euro area. The reason why euro area banks and sovereigns seem to be indissolubly tied together is twofold. On one hand, in the absence of a supranational banking resolution framework, member states keep individual responsibility for the rescue of their national banking system. Given the size of the banking systems across the euro area, this implies that the fiscal consequences of rescuing banks are potentially very large and explains how stress in the banking system can spill over to sovereigns. On the other hand, domestic banks hold on their balance sheets a considerable share of the debt issued by their domestic government. Any doubt about sovereign solvency immediately therefore affects domestic banks. This two-way bank-sovereign interdependence constitutes one of the specific features of the euro area that renders it especially fragile. In spite of this demonstrated weakness there has been surprisingly little policy action to remedy this state of affairs. Proposals for giving the European Union or the euro area responsibility for rescuing banks, or at least backstopping national authorities, have been consistently rejected.


Neutral host SCPs represent a key element of the 5G vision of ultra-dense mobile networks. However, current business models mostly focus on multi-year agreements for large venues, such as stadiums and hotel chains. These business agreements are regulated through binding SLAs, which tend to be too cumbersome and costly for smaller-scale SCPs. As a result, the neutral host model does not scale up to its full potential. In this article, we propose a framework to enable the participation of small- to medium-sized players in the cellular market as providers offering network resources to MNOs. To this purpose, we review the current and emerging spectrum and technology opportunities that SCPs can use for neutral host deployments. We also propose the use of blockchain-enabled smart contracts as a simple and cost-efficient alternative to traditional SLAs for small-scale SCPs. To demonstrate this, we describe a proof of concept implementation of an Ethereum-based smart contract platform for best effort service between an SCP and an MNO. Our simulations on potential smart contract-based deployments in city center Dublin show that the received signal strength in the considered area will increase by an average of 10 percent.


John William Trevan was born on 23 July 1887. His father was John William Stoneman Trevan of Plymouth and his grandfather was another John William Trevan. His father was originally a carpenter, but he was a very intelligent man and in these days he would perhaps have won a state scholarship. As it was he became clerk of works to a large building project and eventually went into business on his own account as a contractor in Plymouth. His wife Bessie Babbage was a simple country woman, but her son always treasured the theory, unsubstantiated by any proof, that he was descended from Charles Babbage, F.R.S., the inventor of calculating machines and one of the founders of the British Association. The subject of this memoir was born in Bodmin, Cornwall, where his father was helping to construct the railway from Bodmin to Bodmin Road. He was the eldest of three children and had a brother, Jim, now in Canada, and a sister Winifred who has been dead many years. His parents belonged to the Plymouth Brethren and he was brought up in the rigid practice of their faith. He was not allowed to read anything but religious books on Sundays or to play card games, and he was expected to believe that every word in the Bible was literally true. He was always religious, but in later life he was also broadminded and tolerant.


Physical-layer based key generation schemes exploit the channel reciprocity for secret key extraction, which can achieve information-theoretic secrecy against eavesdroppers. Such methods, although practical, have been shown to be vulnerable against man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks, where an active adversary, Mallory, can influence and infer part of the secret key generated between Alice and Bob by injecting her own packet upon observing highly correlated channel/RSS measurements from Alice and Bob. As all the channels remain stable within the channel coherence time, Mallory's injected packets cause Alice and Bob to measure similar RSS, which allows Mallory to successfully predict the derived key bits. To defend against such a MitM attack, we propose to utilize a reconfigurable antenna at one of the legitimate transceivers to proactively randomize the channel state across different channel probing rounds. The randomization of the antenna mode at every probing round breaks the temporal correlation of the channels from the adversary to the legitimate devices, while preserving the reciprocity of the channel between the latter. This prevents key injection from the adversary without affecting Alice and Bob's ability to measure common randomness. We theoretically analyze the security of the protocol and conduct extensive simulations and real-world experiments to evaluate its performance. Our results show that our approach eliminates the advantage of an active MitM attack by driving down the probability of successfully guessing bits of the secret key to a random guess.


This study was carried out to determine the effects of heat and sodiummetabisulfite treated soybeans in broiler rations on live weight, feed consumption, feed efficiency, and the weights of the liver, pancreas, kidney, spleen and heart and the severity of lesions in these organs. A total of 160 one- day - old Hysex Brown broiler chicks were used in the experiment. There were eight groups each containing 20 chicks. The experiment lasted seven weeks. In the group which was fed the ration containing raw soybean, live weight decreased 49.08% compared to the control group. While the raw soybean caused considerable pancreatic hypertrophy and hyperplasia, fatty liver and passive hyperemia, and tubulonephritis in the kidney were detected in all the groups excluding the control group. There were no pathological alterations in the heart or spleen. Soybean treated with heat and sodiummetabisulfite decreased live weight when compared to raw soybean. On the other hand, heat and sodiummetabisulfite treated soybeans reduced the severity of pancreatic hypertrophy and hyperplasia. Therefore, it was concluded that the heat treatment of 121°C for 40 minutes was not effective. But the heat treatment of 121°C for 40 minutes with 2% sodium metabisulfite yielded favorable results.


The dominant neural machine translation (NMT) models apply unified attentional encoder-decoder neural networks for translation. Traditionally, the NMT decoders adopt recurrent neural networks (RNNs) to perform translation in a left-to-right manner, leaving the target-side contexts generated from right to left unexploited during translation. In this paper, we equip the conventional attentional encoder-decoder NMT framework with a backward decoder, in order to explore bidirectional decoding for NMT. Attending to the hidden state sequence produced by the encoder, our backward decoder first learns to generate the target-side hidden state sequence from right to left. Then, the forward decoder performs translation in the forward direction, while in each translation prediction timestep, it simultaneously applies two attention models to consider the source-side and reverse target-side hidden states, respectively. With this new architecture, our model is able to fully exploit source- and target-side contexts to improve translation quality altogether. Experimental results on NIST Chinese-English and WMT English-German translation tasks demonstrate that our model achieves substantial improvements over the conventional NMT by 3.14 and 1.38 BLEU points, respectively. The source code of this work can be obtained from https://github.com/DeepLearnXMU/ABDNMT.


Dihydrolipoamide acetyltransferase, the E2 component of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC-E2), is the autoantigen most commonly recognized by autoantibodies in primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). We identified a peptide mimotope(s) of PDC-E2 by screening a phage-epitope library expressing random dodecapeptides in the pIII coat protein of fd phage using C355.1, a murine monoclonal antibody (mAb) that recognizes a conformation-dependent epitope in the inner lipoyl domain of PDC-E2 and uniquely stains the apical region of bile duct epithelium (BDE) only in patients with PBC. Eight different sequences were identified in 36 phage clones. WMSYPDRTLRTS was present in 29 clones; WESYPFRVGTSL, APKTYVSVSGMV, LTYVSLQGRQGH, LDYVPLKHRHRH, AALWGVKVRHVS, KVLNRIMAGVRH and GNVALVSSRVNA were singly represented. Three common amino acid motifs (W-SYP, TYVS, and VRH) were shared among all peptide sequences. Competitive inhibition of the immunohistochemical staining of PBC BDE was performed by incubating the peptides WMSYPDRTLRTS, WESYPDRTLRTS, APKTYVSVSGMV, and AALWGVKVRHVS with either C355.1 or a second PDC-E2-specific mAb, C150.1. Both mAbs were originally generated to PDC-E2 but map to distinct regions of PDC-E2. Two of the peptides, although selected by reaction with C355.1, strongly inhibited the staining of BDE by C150.1, whereas the peptide APKTYVSVSGMV consistently inhibited the staining of C355.1 on biliary duct epithelium more strongly than the typical mitochondrial staining of hepatocytes. Rabbit sera raised against the peptide WMSYPDRTLRTS stained BDE of livers and isolated bile duct epithelial cells of PBC patients more intensively than controls. The rabbit sera stained all size ducts in normals, but only small/medium-sized ductules in PBC livers. These studies provide evidence that the antigen present in BDE is a molecular mimic of PDC-E2, and not PDC-E2 itself.


We introduce a shell-model theory that combines traditional spherical states, which yield a diagonal representation of the usual single-particle interaction, with collective configurations that track deformations, and test the validity of this mixed-mode, oblique basis shell-model scheme on $^{24}$Mg. The correct binding energy (within 2% of the full-space result) as well as low-energy configurations that have greater than 90% overlap with full-space results are obtained in a space that spans less than 10% of the full space. The results suggest that a mixed-mode shell-model theory may be useful in situations where competing degrees of freedom dominate the dynamics and full-space calculations are not feasible.


This focus issue presents a collection of papers on recent results in statistical physics modeling in economics and finance, commonly known as econophysics. We touch briefly on the history of this relatively new multi-disciplinary field, summarize the motivations behind its emergence and try to characterize its specific features. We point out some research aspects that must be improved and briefly discuss the topics the research field is moving toward. Finally, we give a short account of the papers collected in this issue.


This study investigated the effects of different storage conditions (refrigerator, cupboard and sunlight) on the quality of drinking water collected from the distribution system. The study was carried out in the period June–July 2017 and focussed on selected suburbs of Harare. Sampling sites on the distribution system were grouped into three zones (1, 2 and 3) depending on the proximity to the treatment plant, whether there was further chlorination or not and the water flow path. Three water samples were collected in opaque 5 L containers from one site (tap) in each zone and stored under the three storage conditions and periodically analysed for pH, free residual chlorine, temperature and chlorophyll-a. The pH of stored water increased with storage time for all storage conditions and in all zones. The residual chlorine decreased with time in all zones and under all storage conditions. The chlorophyll-a levels also decreased with time under all storage conditions. Refrigerator samples showed the slowest deterioration of water quality and sunlight the highest. Although the pH of stored water increased with time, it remained within both SAZ and WHO guideline values. Household disinfection of stored water is recommended generally after 1 week of storage.


Metabolic syndrome is a multifaceted condition associated with a greater risk of various disorders (e.g., diabetes and heart disease). In a rat model of metabolic syndrome, an acute in vitro application of rosuvastatin causes relaxation of aortic rings. Since the outcome of a subchronic rosuvastatin treatment is unknown, the present study explored its effect on acetylcholine-induced vasorelaxation of aortic rings from rats with metabolic syndrome. Animals were submitted to a 16-week treatment, including a standard diet, a cafeteria-style diet (CAF-diet), or a CAF-diet with daily rosuvastatin treatment (10 mg/kg). After confirming the development of metabolic syndrome in rats, aortic segments were extracted from these animals (those treated with rosuvastatin and untreated) and the acetylcholine-induced relaxant effect on the corresponding rings was evaluated. Concentration-response curves were constructed for this effect in the presence/absence of L-NAME, ODQ, KT 5823, 4-aminopyridine (4-AP), tetraethylammonium (TEA), apamin plus charybdotoxin, glibenclamide, indomethacin, clotrimazole, and cycloheximide pretreatment. Compared to rings from control rats, acetylcholine-induced vasorelaxation decreased in rings from animals with metabolic syndrome, and was maintained at a normal level in animals with metabolic syndrome plus rosuvastatin treatment. The effect of rosuvastatin was inhibited by L-NAME, ODQ, KT 5823, TEA, apamin plus charybdotoxin, but unaffected by 4-AP, glibenclamide, indomethacin, clotrimazole, or cycloheximide. In conclusion, the subchronic administration of rosuvastatin to rats with metabolic syndrome improved the acetylcholine-induced relaxant response, involving stimulation of the NO/cGMP/PKG/Ca2+-activated K+ channel pathway.


The web services discovery process in mobile adhoc networks is considered as a very difficult challenge due to the continuous change in the topology of the network and also the lack of a fixed central directory for publishing web services. Several approaches have been proposed which are based on either keywords or identifiers representing the service to be searched or by using a specific scenario of discovery. All of those proposed solutions try to respect the constraints of ad hoc networks such as energy, bandwidth, throughput ... etc. In this paper we present our new proposed model for measuring the cost of the overall energy consumption in ad hoc networks depending on the web services discovery protocols. We also present a new optimized web services discovery protocol in MANET based on cross_layer routing techniques with the dissemination in the routing process at the same time the semantic web services information and a Discovery_Diameter parameter that we have proposed to limit the area of discovery in the network. Finally, we present simulation results of our defined approach showing a significant optimization of the energy consumption level and the average throughput.


In this chapter, we will study algorithms for both two-stage as well as multi-stage stochastic mixed-integer programs. We present stagewise (resourcedirective) decomposition methods for two-stage models, and scenario (pricedirective) decomposition methods for multi-stage models. The manner in which these models are decomposed relies not only on the specific data elements that are random, but also on the manner in which the integer (decision) variables interact with these data elements. Accordingly, we study a variety of structures ranging from models that allow randomness in all data elements, to those that allow only specific elements (e.g. right-hand-side) to be influenced by randomness. Since the decomposition algorithms presented here are based on certain results from integer programming, the relevant background is also provided in this chapter.


Abstract Electron beam physical vapour deposition (EB-PVD) is used mainly in a variety of coating and surface engineering applications. The present research focuses on coating process optimisation using EB-PVD for turbine blades, which are widely used in industrial, marine and aircraft applications. More specifically, the present research identifies the five most important objectives for the EB-PVD coating process and then proposes metrics to quantify such objectives. In addition, a heuristic for EFB-PVD process optimisation is developed to control workpiece motion systematically to reduce coating thickness variance, providing a uniform coating for turbine blades. The heuristic developed is an iterative algorithm which uses a finite element model of the rotating workpiece to determine the translation motion. The finite element model can be readily generated using standard computer aided design (CAD) of the workpiece, which makes the method applicable to workpieces with complex three-dimensional geometry. These computational developments are illustrated using a simulation of a turbine blade coating in which the coating thickness variance is reduced significantly. The proposed method could eliminate dedicated tooling/fixtures used in the traditional coating process and improve the cost effectiveness of the process, especially for low volume production.


Quantitative trait loci (QTL) with small effects on phenotypic variation can be difficult to detect and analyze. Because of this a large fraction of the genetic architecture of many complex traits is not well understood. Here we use sporulation efficiency in Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model complex trait to identify and study small-effect QTL. In crosses where the large-effect quantitative trait nucleotides (QTN) have been genetically fixed we identify small-effect QTL that explain approximately half of the remaining variation not explained by the major effects. We find that small-effect QTL are often physically linked to large-effect QTL and that there are extensive genetic interactions between small- and large-effect QTL. A more complete understanding of quantitative traits will require a better understanding of the numbers, effect sizes, and genetic interactions of small-effect QTL.


Background Vector-borne pathogens are a significant public health concern worldwide. Infections with these pathogens, some of which are emerging, are likely under-recognized due to the lack of widely-available laboratory tests. There is an urgent need for further advancement in diagnostic modalities to detect new and known vector-borne pathogens. We evaluated the utility of metagenomic shotgun sequencing (MGS) as a pathogen agnostic approach for detecting vector-borne pathogens from human blood samples. Methods Residual whole blood samples from patients with known infection with Babesia microti, Borrelia hermsii, Plasmodium falciparum, Mansonella perstans, Anaplasma phagocytophilum or Ehrlichia chaffeensis were studied. Samples underwent DNA extraction, removal of human DNA, whole genome amplification, and paired-end library preparation, followed by sequencing on Illumina HiSeq 2500. Bioinformatic analysis was performed using the Livermore Metagenomics Analysis Toolkit (LMAT), Metagenomic Phylogenetic Analysis (MetaPhlAn2), Genomic Origin Through Taxonomic CHAllenge (GOTTCHA) and Kraken 2. Results Eight samples were included in the study (2 samples each for P. falciparum and A. phagocytophilum). An average of 27.5 million read pairs was generated per sample (range, 18.3–38.8 million) prior to removal of human reads. At least one of the analytic tools was able to detect four of six organisms at the genus level, and the organism present in five of eight specimens at the species level. Mansonella and Ehrlichia species were not detected by any of the tools; however, mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I amino acid sequence analysis suggested the presence of M. perstans genetic material. Conclusions MGS is a promising tool with the potential to evolve as a non-hypothesis driven diagnostic test to detect vector-borne pathogens, including protozoa and helminths.


Felony disenfranchisement is best understood as a means of vote suppression. Quite apart from its significance as a form of criminal stigma, disenfranchisement is most properly characterized as one of the ways in which the American voting system reserves political participation for a privileged social and intellectual class. Thus understood, felony disenfranchisement reveals the theoretical underpinnings of an exclusionary version of American democracy in which more or less widespread disenfranchisement is an acceptable or necessary political tactic. Felony disenfranchisement should not be characterized as a sanction for criminal conduct: It fits none of the usual justifications for punishment. Most commentators agree that felony disenfranchisement as a collateral sanction for criminal conduct stigmatizes alike a disparate collection of individuals convicted of crimes carrying a penalty of one year or more - everything from drug possession to murder - and extends, in many instances, long after former felons have completed their sentences. Justifications for refusing the vote to felons, and to former felons who are no longer incarcerated, are surprisingly weak and clearly related to larger issues of democratic participation. Accordingly, it is under the framework of democratic participation that the most persuasive justifications of disenfranchisement might be found. Under the framework of democratic participation, the disenfranchisement debate implicates competing theories of democracy, each of which has profound consequences for the constitution of the American polity. I contend that there are currently three models for the right to vote in American society: (1) a membership model premised upon popular participation in the democratic process as an expression of citizenship; (2) a deliberative model in which popular participation is conditioned upon the duty to be an informed and reflective citizen; and (3) an elite model entrenching political office in a political class that competes for votes among the electoral masses. The continuing vitality of these three models at the level of political debate and constitutional doctrine unsettles the dominant history of the franchise as one of progress from an exclusionary to an inclusionary extension of the mandate, and requires us to acknowledge felony disenfranchisement as part of a larger process of voter exclusion and suppression.


Dynamic analysis of a pile embedded in a half-space soil covered by a water layer is crucial for the designs of the pile foundations for bridges, docks and offshore platforms etc. In this paper, a coupled boundary element method (BEM) model is developed to evaluate the dynamic response of the pile. In the proposed model, the pile and half-space soil are treated as elastic media, while the water layer is considered as an acoustic medium. Three BEM formulations are established for the pile, half-space soil and water layer by means of the boundary element method (BEM), respectively. Using the three BEM formulations as well as the continuity conditions at the interfaces between three regions, a coupled BEM model for the pile-soil-water system is established. To validate the proposed model, results due to our model are compared with existing results. With the coupled BEM model for the pile-soil-water system, dynamic response of the pile is investigated. Presented numerical results show that when the pile is subjected to an axial load and torque, resonance phenomena is not obvious. However, when the pile is subjected to a horizontal load and moment, resonance phenomena is pronounced and the pile-soil modulus and density ratios have a considerable influences on resonant frequencies.


The human IGF-I gene has six exons, four of which are alternatively spliced. Variations in splicing involving exon 5 may occur, depending on the tissue type and hormonal environment. To study the regulation of splicing to IGF-I exon 5, we established an in vitro splicing assay, using a model pre-mRNA containing IGF-I exons 4 and 5 and part of the intervening intron. Using a series of deletion mutants, we identified an 18-nucleotide purine-rich splicing enhancer in exon 5 that increases the splicing efficiency of the upstream intron from 6 to 35%. We show that the serine-arginine protein splicing factor-2/alternative splicing factor specifically promotes splicing in cultured cells and in vitro and is recruited to the spliceosome in an enhancer-specific manner. Our findings are consistent with a role for splicing factor-2/alternative splicing factor in the regulation of splicing of IGF-I alternative exon 5 via a purine-rich exonic splicing enhancer.


This paper aims to reflect the current status of firm-level technological innovation in Vietnam, in particular the factors that affect technological innovation decision. The main research method employed is qualitative analysis, specifically descriptive statistics. The results show that about 31% of firms carry out product innovation and 46% of firms conduct process innovation. In addition, only about 25% of firms have trained staff and about 10% of firms have cooperated with agencies in technological innovation. The innovation environment and policies are still limited. Based on that, the authors propose policy suggestions: 1) Focus on increasing funding for firm technological innovation; 2) Strengthen the link between firms and partners; 3) Continue to promote programs and policies to support firm technological innovation.


The following report is that of a case of hereditary ectodermal dysplasia in a boy, 3½ years of age. He presented multiple defects involving tissues that have their origin in the embryonic ectoderm, namely, the hair, the teeth and the nails of the fingers and toes, as well as evidences of mental retardation. We shall not enter into a discussion of the etiology of the disorder or attempt a review of the literature. These aspects are discussed in an excellent paper by Weech, 1 who collected nine cases of hereditary ectodermal dysplasia from the literature and described two others observed by himself. We wish to call attention, however, to two more recent publications on the subject, one by Clouston 2 and another by Smith. 3 In the paper by Smith, a review of the entire subject is given with a summary of the characteristics of fifteen cases, to which number


A close analysis and interpretation of the last will and testament of a grain merchant written in 1616 Kazimierz Dolny, Poland, sheds light on the process by which possessions were bequeathed and assigned meaning. Material goods were deeply embedded in human relationships and heavily invested with religious importance, especially concerning the attainment of salvation. Testaments disclose ideas about ownership, the built environment as a site of exchange, and the power that goods could accumulate over time. In revealing the significance of material culture during the early modern era, they yield crucial insights about the interconnection between society, culture, and economy.


This letter deals with the analysis of moving and nonstationary objects in already focused synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. A method based on the matching pursuit (MP) algorithm is proposed to decompose the SAR signal into a set of atoms. A model of a moving object response with frequency- and angle-dependent reflectivity is introduced to design the MP atoms. Each selected atom is associated to a scatterer of the scene and is parameterized by relevant physical descriptors, leading to a multidimensional model of the object. The efficiency of this technique is demonstrated in terms of SAR response refocusing and physical parameter map derivation, using a polarimetric SAR image of a moving object lying in a natural background.


The study of the temperature - baryon chemical potential $T-\mu_B$
phase diagram of strongly interacting matter is being performed both
experimentally and by theoretical means. The comparison between the
experimental chemical freeze-out line and the crossover line,
corresponding to chiral symmetry restoration, is one of the main
issues. At present it is not possible to perform lattice
simulations at real $\mu_B$ because of the sign problem. In order to
circumvent this issue, we make use of analytic continuation from an
imaginary chemical potential: this approach makes it possible to
obtain reliable predictions for small real $\mu_B$. By using a
state-of-the-art discretization, we study the phase diagram of
strongly interacting matter at the physical point for purely imaginary
baryon chemical potential and zero strange quark chemical potential
$\mu_s$. We locate the pseudocritical line by computing two observables
related to chiral symmetry, namely the chiral condensate and the
chiral susceptibility. We then perform a continuum limit extrapolation
with $N_t=$6,8,10 and 12 lattices, obtaining our final estimate for
the curvature of the pseudocritical line $\kappa = 0.0135(20)$. Our
study includes a thorough analysis of the systematics involved in the
definition of $T_c(\mu_B)$, and of the effect of a nonzero $\mu_s$.


This letter reports an experimental investigation of an atmospheric glow discharge in both the high-frequency (HF) band of 3–30 MHz and the very high frequency band of 30–300 MHz. At constant input power, increased frequency is found to change little the electron density and to reduce slightly the electron excitation temperature. Significantly, an eightfold frequency increase from 20 to 80 MHz leads to a 20-fold increase in the maximum plasma power without plasma constriction. The maximum power density of 355 W/cm3 achieved at 80 MHz is far greater than those reported in the HF band.


BACKGROUND: The Cortecs Diagnostics Helisal Assay test is a quantitative immunoassay for salivary IgG antibodies against Helicobacter pylori. Saliva can be obtained simply with the kit in the general practitioners surgery. AIMS: To compare the new saliva serological test for H pylori with 'gold standard' evidence of H pylori infection (antral biopsy specimens for histology, culture, and urease test) and a new serum serological test. PATIENTS: Eighty six unselected dyspeptic patients undergoing endoscopy. METHODS: Each patient provided saliva and serum before endoscopy for H pylori serology, which was compared against 'gold standard' evidence of infection. RESULTS: Thirty two patients were H pylori positive by the 'gold standard' tests. At a cut off value of 0.15 EU/ml the saliva test had a sensitivity of 88% and a specificity of 71%, with a negative predictive value of 90%. If patients who were taking omeprazole or had recent antibiotics are excluded, the sensitivity is unchanged but the specificity increases to 79%. The serum test had a similar sensitivity of 85% but better specificity of 78%. CONCLUSION: Serum testing remains the best serological test for H pylori in the hospital setting. Saliva testing may have a role in epidemiological studies and in screening dyspeptic patients in general practice, especially in children in whom venesection is more difficult.


Although much work has been done on the disposal of monastic property, and of chantry property insofar as it affected education, and poor relief, this is the first regional attempt to probe the motives and means of those who bought chantry property. The area chosen for the study is rich in material for every aspect of the Dissolution: Chantry Certificates, and Ministers' and Receivers' Accounts; Particulars for Sale and Lease, and corresponding Letters Patent; records of the Courts of Augmentations, Exchequer and Duchy of Lancaster. Through these and isolated provincial material, it has been possible to compile a reasonably complete picture of the Dissolution, over a wide area of northern England. The thesis surveys the process of sale and lease, central and local administration of the Dissolution, buyers and agents, lands concealed from the crown, and many cases arising in the courts. Its principal conclusion is that by no means all the property was sold, even by the end of the sixteenth century. Much was leased or farmed, especially in the Duchy of Lancaster and in the former collegiate holdings. Although there were some major agents, notably Augmentations officials, everything suggests that few major buyers were interested and that, at this distance from London, purchases were often confined to marginal extension of existing holdings, particularly in the towns, where the decay of much property becomes starkly apparent. Practically nothing was given to favourites. All the worth-while work of the chantries was continued by the crown under stricter control. Contemporary protest was negligible. Moreover, the feasibility of this study is itself testimony to the efficiency of the state under a much maligned government. Tentative explorations among the Ministers' Accounts for other regions suggest that the crown often continued to draw a steady income from the chantries even after 1553.


OBJECTIVE Maternal phenylketonuria (MPKU) is characterized by intrauterine growth retardation, microcephaly, congenital malformations (mainly cardiac defects), dysmorphic facial features and mental retardation. There are women of child-bearing age that do not know that they are affected by phenylketonuria (PKU) and their pregnancies could result in damage to the fetus expressed as different neurological and congenital abnormalities. PATIENTS AND METHODS We report 8 patients from 4 families. The first family had two offspring with intrauterine growth retardation, microcephaly and psychomotor retardation. The second family consisted of a daughter with mental retardation (without further data), a second baby which died during the first day of life, and a third child which died at 7 months of age with cardiac defects, microcephaly and dysmorphic features. Another child had intrauterine growth retardation, microcephaly psychomotor retardation, dysmorphic features and cardiac defects (coarctation of the aorta and subaortic stenosis). The third family had a son with microcephaly and mental retardation. The fourth family had a boy that died at 3 weeks of age with microcephaly, dysmorphic facial features, congenital heart disease (mitral atresia and septal defects) and Meckel diverticulum and a girl 5 years of age with intrauterine growth retardation, microcephaly and mental retardation. In all cases the mothers were unaware that they were affected by PKU and had mild intellectual defects. Two of them had PKU phenotypes. CONCLUSIONS The offspring of PKU mothers untreated during pregnancy are affected by characteristic embriopathies related to the level of phenylalanine during pregnancy. In Spain, massive routine newborn screening was introduced around 1980-1985 and at present there are women of child-bearing age and are unaware that they are affected by the disease and that their pregnancies may result in fetal damage, as we demonstrate in these 8 patients. When faced with women with mental handicap or with antecedents of offspring with mental retardation, cardiac defects, microcephaly or intrauterine growth retardation, the determination of maternal phenylalanine concentrations is recommended. These teratogenic pathologies tend to disappear, but for the moment it is necessary to prevent this teratogenicity. The diagnosis is easy, avoids complementary exams, may help family studies and allows the implementation of dietary restriction during the subsequent pregnancy that would prevent fetal damage.


OBJECTIVE
We test the proposition that both social orientation and cognitive style are constructs consisting of loosely related attributes. Thus, measures of each construct should weakly correlate among themselves, forming intra-individually stable profiles across measures over time.

METHOD
Study 1 tested diverse samples of Americans (N = 233) and Japanese (N = 433) with a wide range of measures of social orientation and cognitive style to explore correlations among these measures in a cross-cultural context, using demographically heterogeneous samples. Study 2 recruited a new sample of 485 Americans and Canadians and examined their profiles on measures of social orientation and cognitive style twice, one month apart, to assess the stability of individual profiles using these variables.

RESULTS
Despite finding typical cross-cultural differences, Study 1 demonstrated negligible correlations both among measures of social orientation and among measures of cognitive style. Study 2 demonstrated stable intra-individual behavioral profiles across measures capturing idiosyncratic patters of social orientation and cognitive style, despite negligible correlations among the same measures.

CONCLUSION
The results provide support for the behavioral profile approach to conceptualizing social orientation and cognitive style, highlighting the need to assess intra-individual stability of psychological constructs in cross-cultural research.


BACKGROUND
The concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] in serum has been designated the functional indicator of vitamin D (VitD) nutritional status. Unfortunately, variability among 25(OH)D assays limits clinician ability to monitor VitD status, supplementation, and toxicity.

METHODS
We developed an HPLC method that selectively measures 25-hydroxyvitamin D2 [25(OH)D2] and D3 [25(OH)D3] and compared this assay with a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method, a competitive protein-binding assay (CPBA) on the Nichols Advantage platform, and an RIA from Diasorin.

RESULTS
For the new HPLC assay, between-run CVs were 2.6%-4.9% for 25(OH)D3 and 3.2%-13% for 25(OH)D2; recoveries were 95%-102%; and the assay was linear from 5 microg/L to at least 200 microg/L. Comparison data were as follows: for HPLC vs LC-MS/MS, y = 1.01x - 4.82 microg/L (Sy/x = 4.93 microg/L; r = 0.996) for 25(OH)D3, and y = 0.902x - 0.566 microg/L (Sy/x = 2.56 microg/L; r = 0.9965 for 25(OH)D2; for HPLC vs Diasorin RIA, y = 0.709x - 5.86 microg/L (Sy/x = 7.35 microg/L; r = 0.7509); and for HPLC vs Nichols Advantage CPBA, y = 1.00x - 3.60 microg/L (Sy/x = 32.7 microg/L; r = 0.6823).

CONCLUSIONS
The new HPLC method is reliable, robust, and has advantages compared with the Nichols Advantage CPBA and the Diasorin RIA. The Nichols Advantage CPBA overestimated or underestimated 25(OH)D concentrations predicated on the prevailing metabolite present in patients' sera.


Adenosine clearly regulates coronary blood flow (CBF); however, contributions of specific adenosine receptor (AR) subtypes (A1, A2A, A2B, A3) to CBF in swine have not been determined. ARs generally decrease (A1, A3) or increase (A2A, A2B) cyclic adenosine monophosphate, a major mediator of vasodilation. We hypothesized that A1 antagonism potentiates coronary vasodilation and coronary stent deployment in dyslipidemic Ossabaw swine elicits impaired vasodilation to adenosine that is associated with increased A1/A2A expression. The left main coronary artery was accessed with a guiding catheter allowing intracoronary infusions. After placement of a flow wire into the left circumflex coronary artery the responses to bolus infusions of adenosine were obtained. Steady-state infusion of AR-specific agents was achieved by using a small catheter fed over the flow wire in control pigs. CBF was increased by the A2-nonselective agonist 2-phenylaminoadenosine (CV1808) in a dose-dependent manner. Baseline CBF was increased by the highly A1-selective antagonist 8-cyclopentyl-1,3-dipropylxanthine (DPCPX), but not changed by other AR-specific agents. The nonselective A2 antagonist 3,7-dimethyl-1-propargylxanthine and A2A-selective antagonist 4-(2-[7-amino-2-(2-furyl)[1,2,4]triazolo[2,3-a][1,3,5]triazin-5-ylamino]ethyl)phenol (ZM241385) abolished adenosine-induced CBF, whereas A2B and A3 antagonism had no effect. Dyslipidemia and stenting decreased adenosine-induced CBF ∼70%, whereas A1, A2A, and A2B mRNA were up-regulated in dyslipidemic versus control >5-fold and there was no change in the ratio of A1/A2A protein in microvessels distal to the stent. In control Ossabaw swine A1 antagonism by DPCPX positively regulated basal CBF. Impaired adenosine-induced CBF after stenting in dyslipidemia is most likely caused by the altered balance between A1 and A2A signaling, not receptor expression.


Design of measuring device formalin with "Digital Formaldehyde Meter" that implementation of the Electronic Nose is an alternative technology to produce quick and accurate detector. "Digital Formaldehyde Meter" is designed with a digital system, the input signal detected the sensor array TGS (TGS 2600, and 2611), and processed with the help of microcontroller and digitized by a digital LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) to digital convertor. System instrumentation is based on "Digital Formaldehyde Meter" using solid and liquid samples. Process calibration tool "Digital Formaldehyde Meter" is performed by comparison tool uv spectrometer and the test produced an average error of 2.93%.


The literature on Behcet's Synditme has been reviewed by Curth in America (1946), Katzenellenbogen (1946), and Ephraim (1944) in Palestine, and in this country by Prosser Thomas (1947). Though cases of this kind were described by several authors before Behcet, he was, nevertheless, the first to recognize the clinical unity in one patient of the three cardinal symptoms, and he called it the triple-symptom complex (Behcet, 1937). The reported instances of the fully developed syndrome are not many, but since the diversity of the presenting symptoms must have led many patients to various medical specialists, it is likely that many cases have been reported under the symptoms and signs pertaining to the system in which the specialist in question was most interested. The fully developed disease presents oral and genital ulcers with various, sometimes grave, eye lesions. These signs may appear simultaneously or successively in any order, e.g. with lag periods of up to twenty-one years between the ulcers and the eye lesions (Whitwell's case, 1934), and may be of any degree of severity. Recurrences are frequent, but without predictable regularity. Single attacks have occurred, although the possibility of late recurrences must be remembered in prognosis. None of the lesions by themselves are sufficiently diagnostic-but the combination of two or three symptoms in the course of one attack or as recurrences may give a fairly sure indication of " Behcet's syndrome."


Abstract The Grounded Theory was developed in the 1960s by sociologists Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss as methodological or research style. New investigative paths have emerged from Grounded Theory application. The aim of the present study is to highlight the antagonism between Glaser and Strauss from a conceptual complementary perspective that opened room for a highly structured and inherently flexible methodology based on the integrative approach. The goal of the Grounded Theory is to develop theories based on systematically collected and analyzed empirical data. The classical approach proved to be excessively subjective to meet empirical research demands in management, overtime. Accordingly, several authors advocate for Strauss and Corbin's (1990) ideas. The current essay-style study focuses on proposing and assessing an integrative approach framework for the Grounded Theory. Emphasis is given to the complementary qualities suggested by these authors, which are treated as non-exclusionary, despite being influenced by both Strauss and Corbin's (1998) positivist style and Glaser and Strauss' (1967) interpretive style. Furthermore, this theory adheres to the fundamental principle of the classical approach, although it emerged from the research process. This methodology's application can be a promising option for scientific development, since it can disclose potentialities that give researchers flexibility and freedom to create. Thus, ontological and methodological assumptions are choices made by researchers, themselves, since they can gather research methods (mixed-methodology) and follow the combined and sequential use of quantitative and qualitative techniques to create well-founded theories.


Previous studies suggest that spin-outs will locate in close proximity to the firm from which the), spawn. As a result of this process, clusters of entrepreneurial activity tend to develop around a few strong parent firms. But do all spin-outs really stay close to home? We demonstrate that spin-out firms choose heterogeneous technological and market strategies, and we hypothesize that firms with more aggressive strategies have a greater need to maintain local relationships. We find supporting evidence of our theory by analyzing the location, technology, and market decisions of intraindustry spin-outs in their first year in the disk drive industry Copyright (C) 2011 Strategic Management Society.


Subclinical ketosis (SCK) and periparturient diseases considerably account for economic and welfare losses in dairy cows. The majority of scientific reports investigating the prevalence of SCK and production diseases are based on empirical studies conducted in Western Europe and North America. The present study surveyed the prevalence of SCK and production-related clinical diseases in early lactating cows in various countries across the world other than those in North America and Western Europe. Twelve countries of South and Central America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico), Africa (South Africa), Asia (Thailand, China), Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine), Australia and New Zealand were assessed, and data from a total of 8,902 cows kept at 541 commercial dairy farms were obtained. A minimum of 5 cows per farm were blood sampled and examined once after parturition up to day 21 of lactation. Blood concentration of β-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA) was measured (threshold for SCK: 1.2 mmol/l) and the presence of production-related diseases such as milk fever, retained placenta, mastitis, metritis, displaced abomasum, claw disease and clinical ketosis was recorded. More than 95% of all cows were examined in their second week of lactation. Across all investigated countries, the SCK prevalence was 24.1%, ranging from 8.3% up to 40.1%. The prevalence of production-related diseases detected during the first 21 days of lactation was relatively low (< 5%). Calculated odds ratios did not indicate an elevated risk for production diseases in cows with SCK. Despite differences in production systems across countries and variation between individual farms within a region, the present study data on SCK prevalence align with observations in Western European and North American dairy herds. At the very early stage of sampling and clinical examination for detection of SCK, it cannot be excluded that certain production diseases such as DA, lameness and mastitis have developed later.


For the interpretation of a visual scene, it is important for a robotic system to pay attention to the objects in the scene and segment them from their background. We focus on the segmentation of previously unseen objects in unknown scenes. The attention model therefore needs to be bottom-up and context-free. In this paper, we propose the use of symmetry, one of the Gestalt principles for figure-ground segregation, to guide the robot's attention. We show that our symmetry-saliency model outperforms the contrast-saliency model, proposed in (Itti et al 1998). The symmetry model performs better in finding the objects of interest and selects a fixation point closer to the center of the object. Moreover, the objects are better segmented from the background when the initial points are selected on the basis of symmetry.


This thesis investigates methods by which the prior knowledge that is encoded in groups or ensembles of trained artificial neural networks can be used to assist in the learning of new tasks. Standard methods for training neural networks use only the observed (a-posteriori) data, ignoring any other prior (a-priori) knowledge which may be available for a particular task. One form of this prior knowledge is the representations that have been learnt by other networks trained on similar problems. The use of such knowledge can improve both training times and generalisation by appropriately biasing the representational ability of the neural network for the new learning task. Previous research on the transfer of knowledge between neural networks has concentrated largely on its direct or literal transfer from a single source network to a single target network. It is shown in this thesis that the knowledge encoded by multiple neural networks trained within the same problem "environment" can be used in preference to single source transfer to improve the biasing of the search space. This is known as ensemble transfer. This neural network prior knowledge can be likened to points on a map of the representation space. Each trained neural network in the prior knowledge defines the location of a neural network solution that is appropriate for the learner's environment. The goal of an ensemble transfer algorithm is to efficiently use the prior knowledge from this map to bias the learning of the internal representation for any new tasks. A n appropriate form for the storage of the prior knowledge that allows reliable optimisation is thus essential. This aspect is considered in detail with reference to transformation invariance in the network representations and symmetric regions in the representation space. A n ensemble optimised transfer algorithm is developed based on a compact version of the solution space without network symmetries. It is then tested in three different problem domains: character recognition; spoken digit identification; and image approximation. Advantages both in training speed and stability are demonstrated in all of these situations over an algorithm which uses literal transfer from the lowest error network in the prior knowledge {ensemble literal transfer).


Soa Basin is a valley-shaped plain, which was formed by the eruption of an ancient volcano during the Pliocene period that created a caldera. 1n lhe next period, the Pleistocene, it turned into a big lake with lush environment, so that it tempted various living creatures (both humans and animals) to come and inhabited the area arround the lake. Based on the artifacts and ecofacts found at the site, life at this area has been going on since the Lower Pleistocene-Early Middle Pleistocene. In reality the Soa Basin area is a complex of ancient sites rich in artifacts and fossils of fauna (among others Stegodon, crocodiles, komodo lizards, land tortoises, and a species of big rats) at various sites within the Soa Basin area -which are supported by absolute dating -have enabled us to know their exact age. We have found 15 locations/sites that bear Palaeolithic tools in association with fossils of vertebrates bones. The 35 x 22 km Soa Basin is located 15 km northeast of Bajawa (the capital ofNgada Regency, Central Flores). It has a unique open landscape that reminds us of the typical environment of Homo erectus. By using the spatial archaeology study, this article of the title 'the Ancient Lifes at the Soa Basin, Central Flores, East Indonesia: Study of Spatial Archaeology' is hoped to be able to reveal the life at Soa Basin in particular, especially in relation to the aspect of human, culture, and environment.


For decades, farmers have been increasingly reliant on herbicides for effective weed management. Repetitive longterm application of herbicides with the same mode of action has resulted in the evolution of herbicide resistance woldwide. The crops most affected by weed resistance in Europe are winter cereals, and one of the worst weeds is silky bent grass (Apera spica-venti (L.) P. Beauv.). Seeds of A. spica-venti were collected from across Lithuania from the farmer's fields, where this weed was not controlled despite herbicide application. A total of 159 populations of A. spica-venti were tested in greenhause studies over the period of 2016–2018. In the experiments, the resistance of A. spica-venti to the following herbicides was assessed: methyliodosulphuron natrium, sulphosulphuron and pyroxsulam (aceto-lactate synthase (ALS) inhibitors), fenoxaprop-P-ethyl and pinoxaden (acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase (ACCase) inhibitors) and isoproturon (photosystem II (PSII) inhibitor). It was found that of the 159 seed samples tested, 43% showed little response to ALS inhibitors, sulphosulphuron, methyliodosulphuron and pyroxulam. Most of the tested populations were resistant to sulphosulphuron, while the fewest populations were resistant to pyroxulam, but all populations resistant to pyroxulam were resistant to both other ALS inhibitors, methyliodosulphuron natrium and sulphosulphuron. Growing resistance of A. spica-venti to ALS inhibitors will greatly restrict the choice of herbicides currently available for weed control in spring; therefore, autumn herbicide application in winter cereals in the future can become very important, especially in the fields, where A. spica-venti is highly distributed.


Five cases of gunshot wounds of the thoracic and abdominal aorta successfully treated at Detroit General Hospital over the past 2½ years have been presented and the factors influencing their survival discussed. Four patients are alive 3 to 30 months later, and one died from an aorto-esophageal fistula six weeks after discharge from the hospital. The first cases of successful replacement of the injured aorta by a prosthetic aorto-iliac graft are also reported. No infection of the synthetic graft occurred in spite of massive intestinal contamination of the peritoneal cavity during surgery.


During a survey of'artichoke fields in Greece, undertaken to investigate the occurrence of nematode vector of a strain of raspberry ringpost virus (RRV) (Rana et ai., 1985), a bisexual population of Longidorus proximus Sturhan et Argo, 1983, was found. As the original description refers to the characters of a German population, in which males were not found (Sturhan and Argo, 1983), the morphometries and description of the Greek population are here given. Nematodes were extracted from soil samples by the Cobb wet sieve technique, killed and fixed in 5% hot formalin and mounted in glycerin on f1' ••. ~ology slides by the slow method. Specimens were measured with the aid of a camera lucida.


Idiopathic pneumonia syndrome (IPS) is a major cause of mortality following allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT). Clinical and experimental data support a role for conditioning-induced inflammation and alloreactive T-cell responses in IPS pathophysiology, but the mechanisms by which donor leukocytes are ultimately recruited to the lung are not fully understood. RANTES is a chemokine ligand that is up-regulated during inflammation and promotes the recruitment of T cells and macrophages to sites of tissue damage. Using a lethally irradiated murine SCT model (B6 --> B6D2F1), we evaluated the role of donor leukocyte-derived RANTES in the development of IPS. Pulmonary mRNA and protein levels of RANTES were significantly elevated in allo-SCT recipients compared to syngeneic controls and were associated with enhanced mRNA expression of CCR5 and CCR1 and with inflammatory cell infiltration into the lung. Allo-SCT with RANTES-/- donor cells significantly decreased IPS and improved survival. Combinations of allogeneic wild-type or RANTES-/- bone marrow with wild-type or RANTES-/- T cells demonstrated that the expression of RANTES by donor T cells was critical to the development of lung injury after SCT. These data reveal that donor T cells can help regulate leukocyte recruitment to the lung after allo-SCT and provide a possible mechanism through which inflammation engendered by SCT conditioning regimens is linked to allo-specific T-cell responses during the development of IPS.


Two-dimensional and pulsed Doppler ultrasound techniques were used to examine 87 fetuses between 17 and 41 weeks' gestation in order to compare pulmonary artery and aortic outflow diameters, mean and maximal flow velocities, and transvalve flows. For purposes of analysis, fetuses were divided into two groups: those less than 31 weeks, and those of 31 weeks or more. Diameters of the pulmonary artery and aortic outflow region increased with advancing gestational age (P < .001), while mean and maximal Doppler flow velocities did not change. Transvalve volume flow increased across both regions (pulmonary artery from 381 ± 12 mL/minute to 530 ± 13 mL/minute and aortic outflow from 286 ± 10 mL/minute to 410 ± 13 mllminute, P < .001) with advancing gestation. Pulmonary artery diameters were larger than aortic outflow diameters in both groups (P < .01), while mean Doppler flow velocities were not significantly different. Maximal Doppler flow velocities were greater in the aorta than in the pulmonary artery (P < .001), and transvalve flow was greater across the pulmonary artery than the aorta in both groups (P < .05, ratio 1.3:l). This work demonstrates differences in fetal pulmonary artery and aortic outflow anatomy and physiology that must be considered in evaluating studies of fetal cardiac physiology. (Obstet Gynecol69:175, 1987)


UNLABELLED
Patients with liver cirrhosis may develop upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage from a variety of lesions, which include those that arise by virtue of portal hypertension, namely gastroesophageal varices and portal hypertensive gastropathy and other lesions seen in the general population. Do patients with liver cirrhosis, hemorrhage from varices and other lesions equally, or are they more likely to bleed from varices? The aim of this study is to determine predominant causes of bleeding in patients with liver cirrhosis and upper gastrointestinal bleeding.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
A retrospective review of 40 patients with liver cirrhosis based on the clinical and biochemical parameters of the Child-Pugh score, and upper gastrointestinal bleeding was carried out at an inner city hospital. Endoscopy diagnoses were documented.

RESULTS
Of 40 patients, 38 patients had cirrhosis associated with alcohol consumption. Twelve of the above 38 patients who consumed alcohol also had hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Eleven patients had only varices on endoscopic examination, 17 had varices plus coexisting lesions. From these 17 patients, nine were found to have bled from varices, and eight were found to have bled from coexisting lesions. Twelve patients who had no varices bled from other lesions. Of 40 patients, 28 had varices, and 20 actually bled from varices. In this study there was no correlation between severity of liver cirrhosis as determined by the Child-Pugh score and the absence or presence of varices.

CONCLUSION
Patients with liver cirrhosis and upper gastrointestinal bleeding hemorrhage from a variety of lesions. In this study of 40 patients, (70%) had gastroesophageal varices diagnosed at upper endoscopy, while 50% actually bled from varices.


The objective of the paper is to evaluate the potential of tank-based rainwater harvesting systems in free standing houses as the source control method to mitigate peak roof runoff due to rainfall in urban areas. To this aim, the water balance simulation of the rainwater tank was carried out using both high resolution rainfall series and toilet water demand data extracted from the database of results built in a previous field campaign involving six experimental households in southern Italy. Simulations show that significant potential for runoff peak reduction exists, basically depending on the rainwater tank size and on the characteristics of the water demand in the house.


Software for the measurement of genetic diversity (SMOGD) is a web‐based application for the calculation of the recently proposed genetic diversity indices G′ST and Dest. SMOGD includes bootstrapping functionality for estimating the variance, standard error and confidence intervals of estimated parameters, and SMOGD also generates genetic distance matrices from pairwise comparisons between populations. SMOGD accepts standard, multilocus Genepop and Arlequin formatted input files and produces HTML and tab‐delimited output. This allows easy data submission, quick visualization, and rapid import of results into spreadsheet or database programs.


Recent study in humans and animals has been focused on inflammatory biomarkers that infectious diseases, such as serum amyloid A (SAA), procalcitonin (PCT), that may more accurately and efficiently diagnose inflammation. The aim of this study was to evaluate SAA and PCT levels in the diagnosis of cattle with inflammatory disease. Ten healthy control cattle and 64 patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) were included in cattle. Inflammatory disease in cattle was diagnosed based on clinical signs and the laboratory examination in clinically suspected cases. SAA and PCT concentrations were measured with a commercial ELISA assay for cattle. SAA and PCT concentrations in cattle with inflammatory disease were significantly higher than in the healthy controls (respectively, P<0.001, P<0.008). Concentrations of SAA and PCT at admission were significantly (r = 0.376, P<0.01) correlated with outcome in cattle with inflammatory conditions. The cut-off value of SAA and PCT for healthy and inflammatory cattle was determined 28.52 μg/mL and 149.55 pg/mL. In conclusion, PCT levels may be used as an alternative to serum SAA measurement as an indicator of acute inflammation in cattle. Serum PCT concentrations were ~9 times higher in the cattle with peritonitis than in the healthy cattle, suggesting that PCT could be a useful marker of peritonitis in cattle.


This article analyses the determinants of worker satisfaction in Central and Eastern European countries, focusing on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, the latest European Social Survey data were utilised in a multilevel framework, covering 5681 workers from eight countries. The results suggest that both the general stringency of policies aimed at containing the spread of the COVID-19 contagion and the resulting disruptions to individuals' working lives significantly affected the well-being of workers. Workers' satisfaction with their jobs was negatively affected mainly through decreases in work income, but the impact on their overall life satisfaction was more complex. While income reductions and workplace relocation negatively impacted life satisfaction, the opportunity and possible necessity to stay home more positively affected the life satisfaction of workers. Nevertheless, the overall stringency of governmental policies related to COVID-19 significantly reduced workers' life satisfaction.


Metallization contacts on emitter of silicon solar cells cause shunting of p-n junction and induce carrier recombination, resulting in a loss in open-circuit voltage Voc of the cells, which must severely limit cell efficiency. But, the mechanism of the shunting and the recombination has not been understood enough yet, especially on the contacts with conductive paste, because the shunting and the recombination caused by the paste come of multiple effects of each constituent in the paste such as silver metal, glass frit, and some additives. Thus, the effects of the each constituent in the paste should be clarified to elucidate the mechanism and to achieve an advanced paste for high-efficiency silicon solar cells. In our previous study, effects of aluminum in silver/aluminum paste and effects of glass frit itself on the shunting and the recombination in n-type solar cells were clearly shown by using "floating contact method", and its effectiveness on the paste evaluation were demonstrated in the solar cells. In this study, the floating contact method was applied to conventional p-type solar cells with silver paste to clarify effects of tellurium oxide on the silver paste, because the detailed effects of the tellurium oxide on the shunting and the recombination have not been clear yet even though the oxide is widely used for commercial paste. Our study clearly shows that the tellurium oxide reduces the shunting and the recombination caused by the silver paste in the solar cells, and also demonstrates the effectiveness of the floating contact method on the paste evaluation.


Influenced by critiques of legal education, law schools are scrambling to offer more and better opportunities for experiential education. To fulfill the new demands for experiential education, one obvious place to turn is clinic pedagogy, which has developed methodologies for teaching students in the real-practice settings of in-house clinics and externships. As the interest in experiential education broadens, a wider spectrum of teaching methodologies comes under the experiential tent, creating opportunities to tap new sources of guidance for reshaping legal education. This article turns the spotlight on one of these other, less obvious resources within legal education: the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) movement. Like the lawyering skills movement in clinical legal education, the ADR movement has drawn from the wisdom of other disciplines to explain and theorize the practice of specific dispute resolution processes like mediation and negotiation. Perhaps more importantly, the ADR movement has provided important justification and elaboration of the underlying commitment to client-centered problem solving, which also animates much of the lawyering skills literature that has arisen from clinical pedagogy. This article traces the problem-solving focus through its development in the ADR movement and demonstrates the similarities between some of the key components of the ADR movement and clinical pedagogy. Finally, it explains how a law school can build on the synergies between these two fields to craft an experiential education program that uses client problem solving as its unifying theme, using the ongoing curricular reforms at Hamline University School of Law as an example.


Detailed knowledge of the uppermost water table representing the shallow groundwater system is critical in order to address societal challenges that relate to the mitigation and adaptation to climate change and enhancing climate resilience in general. Machine learning (ML) allows for high resolution modeling of the water table depth beyond the capabilities of conventional numerical physically-based hydrological models with respect to spatial resolution and overall accuracy. For this, in-situ well and proxy observations are used as training data in combination with high resolution covariates. The objective of this study is to model the depth of the uppermost water table for a typical summer and winter condition at 10 m spatial resolution over entire Denmark (43,000 km2). CatBoost, a state of the art implementation of gradient boosting decision trees, is employed in this study to model the water table depth and the associated uncertainties. The groundwater domain has not been the most prominent field of applications of recent hydrological ML advances due to the lack of big data. This study brings forward a novel knowledge-guided ML framework to overcome this limitation by integrating simulation results from a physically-based groundwater flow model. The simulation data are utilized to (1) identify wells that represent the uppermost water table, (2) augment missing training data by accounting for simulated water level seasonality, and (3) expand the list of covariates. The curated training dataset contains around 13,000 wells, 19,000 groundwater proxy observations at lakes, streams and coastline as well as 15 covariates. Cross validation attests that the ML model generalizes well with a mean absolute error of around 115 cm considering solely well observations and a MAE of <50 cm taking also the proxy observations into consideration. Quantile regression is applied to estimate confidence intervals and the estimated uncertainty is largest for moraine clay soils that are characterized with a distinct geological heterogeneity. This study highlights a novel research avenue of knowledge-guided ML for the groundwater domain by efficiently supporting a ML model with a physically-based hydrological model to predict the depth of the water table at unprecedented spatial detail and accuracy.


Accelerated corrosion tests are necessary and an invaluable aid to research and quality control engineers; provided that the test has adequate discriminatory ability and the test results relate to serviceability of the metal. An inherent problem associated with accelerated exfoliation tests is the definition of different degrees of susceptibility and the interpretation of borderline performances. The concern in the present instance is that truly insignificant exfoliation tendencies may be magnified out of proportion by the very rapid exfoliation tests now being used in materials specifications for exfoliation resistant 7XXX-T7 alloy products. Correlation of accelerated tests with service environments or the equivalent is necessary, and it'is highly desirable that the range of performances observed in the accelerated test be related to a similar range of performances under service conditions. This paper contains the results of relatively long exposures of test panels to the salt atmosphere at a location about 100 yd from a stony beach at Point Judith, Rhode Island, where the corrosive conditions are representative of other very corrosive environments. These extended exposures are of particular interest because they furnish a basis of evaluating indications of borderline susceptibility to exfoliation revealed in the accelerated corrosion tests. Four- to eight-year exposures to this aggressive seacoast atmosphere have demonstrated the excellent resistance to exfoliation of 7075-T73 and T76 and 7178-T76 products, whereas exfoliation susceptible T6 temper materials displayed considerable exfoliation after short exposures, sometimes after only three to six months. Both the EXCO immersion test (ASTM G 34-72) and the salt spray test (modified ASTM acetic acid salt intermittent spray) developed the same basic type of corrosion that occurred in the seacoast atmosphere. It was shown, however, that the accelerated tests, especially the spray test, tend to magnify slight indications of susceptibility to exfoliation that are of doubtful practical consequence. Suggestions are made for determining more realistic visual acceptance criteria in 7XXX-T7X materials specifications.


: Linaclotide is a secretagogue that provides a combined effect on visceral pain. The European Medicines Agency has authorized its indication for the symptomatic treatment of moderate to severe irritable bowel syndrome with constipation in adults. The purpose of this review is to discuss the clinical framework for linaclotide use in our setting, the drug´s characteristics and pre-clinical development, and the clinical studies supporting its use in order to establish relevant views regarding its validity and clinical applicability. The results suggest that the only -non-severe- adverse effect associated with this drug is diarrhea. As regards effectiveness, linaclotide consistently shows favorable, significant differences in absolute risk versus placebo for all objective outcome variables described by regulatory agencies, with a combined pain and constipation response between 12.6% and 22.8% according to the variable and trial under consideration. This response is sustained and drug-related, as it goes away upon discontinuation. To conclude, linaclotide has a safety and efficacy profile that, from a clinical perspective, warrants its use for patients meeting irritable bowel syndrome and constipation criteria, with significant symptoms that cannot be relieved with other less specific measures. In the absence of predictive rules for response, it is recommended that, should the patient fail to respond, he or she should be considered not eligible for linaclotide therapy, and both indication and treatment continuity should be reserved for objective responders alone.