The influence of ice hydrometeor shape on the dual-wavelength ratio (DWR) of radar reflectivities at millimeter-wavelength frequencies is studied theoretically and on the basis of observations. Data from dual-frequency (Ka–W bands) radar show that, for vertically pointing measurements, DWR increasing trends with reflectivity Ze are very pronounced when Ka-band Ze is greater than about 0 dBZ and that DWR and Ze values are usually well correlated. This correlation is explained by strong relations between hydrometeor characteristic size and both of these radar variables. The observed DWR variability for a given level of reflectivity is as large as 8 dB, which is in part due to changes in mean hydrometeor shape as expressed in terms of the particle aspect ratio. Hydrometeors with a higher degree of nonsphericity exhibit lower DWR values when compared with quasi-spherical particles because of near-zenith reflectivity enhancements for particles outside the Rayleigh-scattering regime. When particle mass–size relations do not change significantly (e.g., for low-rime conditions), DWR can be used to differentiate between quasi-spherical and highly nonspherical hydrometeors because (for a given reflectivity value) DWR tends to increase as particles become more spherical. Another approach for differentiating among different degrees of nonsphericity for larger scatterers is based on analyzing DWR changes as a function of radar elevation angle. These changes are more pronounced for highly nonspherical particles and can exceed 10 dB. Measurements of snowfall spatiotemporally collocated with spaceborne CloudSat W-band radar and ground-based S-band operational weather radars also indicate that DWR values are generally smaller for ice hydrometeors with higher degrees of nonsphericity, which, for the same level of S-band reflectivity, exhibit greater differential reflectivity values.


The Indian currency has depreciated by more than 20 per cent since April 2008 and breached its crucial 50-level against the greenback on sustained dollar purchases by foreign banks and stronger dollar overseas. The fall in the value of Indian rupee has several consequences which could have mixed effects on Indian economy. But, mainly, there are four expected implications of falling rupee. First, it should boost exports; second, it will lead to higher cost of imported goods and make some of the capital intensive projects more expensive to execute; third, it will increase the cost of dollar loans taken by companies and increase the foreign debt and fourth, it will slow-down the overall economic growth by increasing the interest rate and dissuade flow of FIIs. This paper studies the real implications of the depreciation of the rupee on the Indian economy and shows that in the long run, the Indian economy has more to lose and less to gain with weaker rupee.


SIR,-I agree with Major Peter Lynch (11 November, p 1340) that the fact that a superficial peripheral nerve is palpable does not justify a diagnosis of leprosy. In my survey1 of 4500 serving officers and soldiers of the Gurkha Brigade peripheral nerves (great auricular, ulnar, radial, and lateral popliteal) were palpable in more than 60() of the population studied. I cannot, however, agree with his statement that leprosy is rare in the Gurkha Brigade, my figures showing a prevalence of 11 3 per 1000, nor can I accept that no new cases have occurred since 1970, having in 1971/72 notified the 25 cases discovered in the survey. The observation that the hypopigmented patches in four subjects were not hypoaesthetic does not exclude a diagnosis of indeterminate leprosy but calls for surveillance.2 Pityriasis versicolor, while usually obvious clinically, is easily diagnosed by the demonstration of Malasezzia furfur on direct examination of a skin scraping. The Fifth Report of the WHO Expert Committee on Leprosy (1977) suggests that current estimates of a total number of cases in excess of 12 million is now greater than the estirnated total in 1970 and 1965. Service medical officers, like civilian medical practitioners, must therefore retain a high index of suspicion at all times. A G JARRAMS


Climate change and increasing energy prices threaten the planet and the economy. The European Union has promised to take the lead, through a reduction in greenhouse gases by 20 to 30% and a 20% energy savings by 2020. In this context, the EU is about to ban some of the most inefficient lightbulbs for everyday. Lighting would set the limit at the level of CFLs/LEDs (most energy efficient existing lamps). The energy savings would be maximized, the target is 86 TWh of electricity saved per year in the EU by 2020. To discover how to use different materials in this technology is a high-priority as it shows the advance; maybe this is the future of lighting.


Introduction: A gummy smile is usually seen when gingival exposure more than 3 mm is visible. Esthetic crown lengthening may include a variety of surgical techniques for the gummy smile treatment, all of which aim to improve the esthetic appearance of teeth and gingiva. Crown lengthening is a surgical procedure aimed at removal of periodontal tissue to increase the clinical crown height. Case: A 21-year-old woman was referred to the Prof. Soedomo Dental Hospital. The patient presented good general health and anterior maxillary teeth with short clinical crowns. There was no periapical radiolucency at radiographic. Gingival exposure was 6 mm. Preoperative intraoral examination showed healthy gingiva, and the clinical crown ratio was about 1:1. At clinical examination, periodontal pocket depth was 3 mm or less, and bone sounding was 3.5 mm or less. After determining the problem, esthetic crown lengthening surgery was performed under local anesthesia. Chu's aesthetic gauge ratio used to measure ideal clinical crown ratio allowed gingivectomy. Mucoperiosteal flap raised after incision followed by ostectomy to maintain biological width. The flap was repositioned and sutured with various suture technique. Frenototomy was performed to release flap tension, and periodontal dressing was applied after frenotomy. Intraoral examination in 3 months follow up showed reduced gingival exposure to 3 mm and ideal clinical crown ratio. Conclusion: The esthetic crown lengthening with ostectomy and frenotomy for treatment of gummy smile was successful to reduced gummy smile and reach ideal clinical crown ratio.


An effective, legitimate model of global governance must strike a delicate balance between national sovereignty and international cooperation. As such, governance on an international level is a constantly evolving discourse among multiple actors whose respective roles and influence vary across time and policy realms. The participation of multiple actors in global governance is widely recognized, but there is considerable disagreement as to the appropriate distribution of power among these participants and the optimal pattern for their interaction. We may never be able to construct an ideal global governance model. But the attempt to create such a model by examining the current needs of individual nations and the international community in key areas, such as global antitrust regulation, plays a critical role in promoting sound public policy.


In face of the strong conflict between market norms and social norms, peaceful co-existence is impossible. In traditional societies, markets were subordinated to society. Modern society emerged via a number of revolutions which made society subordinate to markets. This led to a reversal of traditional values of social cooperation and harmony with nature. Instead, men, nature, society became objects to be exploited for creating profits. A market society generates profits by exploiting men and nature, and requires increasing profits to sustain itself. This process has run into its limits as planetary resources are being destroyed on a scale large enough to threaten the planet. Saving the planet requires reversing the transition to modernity by subordinating markets to society. This is a difficult task.


Satellite radar interferometry reveals that the speed of the Ryder Glacier increased roughly threefold and then returned to normal (100 to 500 meters/year) over a 7-week period near the end of the 1995 melt season. The accelerated flow represents a substantial, though short-lived, change in ice discharge. During the period of rapid motion, meltwater-filled supraglacial lakes may have drained, which could have increased basal water pressure and caused the mini-surge. There are too few velocity measurements on other large outlet glaciers to determine whether this type of event is a widespread phenomenon in Greenland, but because most other outlet glaciers are at lower latitudes, they should experience more extensive melting, making them more susceptible to meltwater-induced surges.


Background: Abnormalities in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) are thought to play an important role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Given regional variations in ACC structure, the present study aimed to examine ACC structural subdivisions and their relationships to treatment resistance and glutamatergic levels in schizophrenia. Methods: This study included 100 patients with schizophrenia and 52 healthy controls from 2 cohorts. We applied non-negative matrix factorization to identify accurate and stable spatial components of ACC structure. Between groups, we compared ACC structural indices in each spatial component based on treatment resistance or response and tested relationships with ACC glutamate + glutamine levels. Results: We detected reductions in cortical thickness and increases in mean diffusivity in the spatial components on the surface of the cingulate sulcus, especially in patients with treatment-resistant and clozapine-resistant schizophrenia. Notably, mean diffusivity in these components was higher in patients who did not respond to clozapine compared to those who did. Furthermore, these ACC structural alterations were related to elevated ACC glutamate + glutamine levels but not related to symptomatology or antipsychotic dose. Limitations: Sample sizes, cross-sectional findings and mixed antipsychotic status were limitations of this study. Conclusion: This study identified reproducible abnormalities in ACC structures in patients with treatment-resistant and clozapine-resistant schizophrenia. Given that these spatial components play a role in inhibitory control, the present study strengthens the notion that glutamate-related disinhibition is a common biological feature of treatment resistance in schizophrenia.


Before I respond to Frank Episale's essay on English-language writing about the onnagata, I must by way of full disclosure mention that Frank (whom I will refer to by his first name, if I may) was a student of mine at the CUNY Graduate Center in a class that covered traditional Japanese theatre. My memory is uncertain, but I believe this essay was submitted in an earlier form during the course. Frank's essay ventures to do something tricky, that is, to survey the English-language literature about kabuki, a theatre form whose principal research is published in Japanese. This means he must not only be very familiar with kabuki, but with the principal scholarship about it in English, at least since World War II. That body of writing, while substantial, is not overwhelmingly so, and serious treatment of the onnagata in particular is not abundant, so examining what is available should not be excessively demanding. Regardless of the comment by Julie Iezzi that Frank quotes, however, to the effect that one no longer needs to know Japanese to do research on kabuki because so much is now available in English, I would argue that the project of doing such research without Japanese requires extreme caution. Writing about kabuki in English is not the same as writing about it in Japanese because the readership is different and scholars often adjust what they write to make room for differences in cultural assumptions. Moreover, a critique of the English literature on a narrow subject like this should be supported by some knowledge of how the subject is dealt with in the language of the culture concerned. Before I get to the crux of my response, which concerns comments Frank makes about my own writing on the onnagata, I would like to address some technical issues. First, Frank notes that Iezzi's comment ignores non-English-language prewar literature on kabuki and then he proceeds to vaguely sketch in the nature of that literature, but he offers few specifics and no documentation of sources, so his references are unclear. I also question the reason for his mentioning in this context of Pound, Fenellosa, and Yeats, who had nothing to do with kabuki. I should add, though, that Yeats knew a little more about no than just its masks. The first performance of his At the Hawk's Well in 1915 had the services of the gifted Japanese dancer and choreographer Michio Ito. Helen Caldwell (1977: 44-45) points out that, despite Ito's minimal knowledge of no (he hadn't seen a performance since he was seven), his newly discovered appreciation of no chanting (utai), which he heard performed by two Japanese artists in Pound's flat, and his background in kabuki dance, were of considerable assistance. Again, regarding early Western exposure to kabuki, Frank's brief overview never specifically mentions the extremely influential visits to America and Europe, beginning in 1899, of Kawakami Otojiro and Kawakami Sadayakko. They have been the subject of a great deal of English-language writing scholarship, most recently Joseph L. Anderson's remarkably detailed Enter a Samurai: Kawakami Otojiro and Japanese Theatre in the West (2011), although that tome probably appeared after his paper was already written. But Leslie Downer's Madame Sadayakko: The Geisha Who Bewitched the West (2003) is certainly significant. Most importantly, in the context of discussion about not only Sadayakko, to whom it devotes half its space, but of actresses challenging the ingrained tradition of men playing female roles, Ayako Kano's brilliant Acting like a Woman in Modern Japan: Theater, Gender, and Nationalism (2001) is crucial, because it employs the feminist discourse about which Frank is so concerned. I bring these omissions up because the Kawakamis' performances, while not pure kabuki, were deeply imbued with kabuki conventions, including the onnagata, who performed in the same plays with Sadayakko and who many early foreign critics took for real women (advertisements even preceded their names with "Miss"). …


AIM To investigated the dose enhancement due to the incorporation of nanoparticles in skin therapy using the kilovoltage (kV) photon and megavoltage (MV) electron beams. Monte Carlo simulations were used to predict the dose enhancement when different types and concentrations of nanoparticles were added to skin target layers of varying thickness. METHODS Clinical kV photon beams (105 and 220 kVp) and MV electron beams (4 and 6 MeV), produced by a Gulmay D3225 orthovoltage unit and a Varian 21 EX linear accelerator, were simulated using the EGSnrc Monte Carlo code. Doses at skin target layers with thicknesses ranging from 0.5 to 5 mm for the photon beams and 0.5 to 10 mm for the electron beams were determined. The skin target layer was added with the Au, Pt, I, Ag and Fe2O3 nanoparticles with concentrations ranging from 3 to 40 mg/mL. The dose enhancement ratio (DER), defined as the dose at the target layer with nanoparticle addition divided by the dose at the layer without nanoparticle addition, was calculated for each nanoparticle type, nanoparticle concentration and target layer thickness. RESULTS It was found that among all nanoparticles, Au had the highest DER (5.2-6.3) when irradiated with kV photon beams. Dependence of the DER on the target layer thickness was not significant for the 220 kVp photon beam but it was for 105 kVp beam for Au nanoparticle concentrations higher than 18 mg/mL. For other nanoparticles, the DER was dependent on the atomic number of the nanoparticle and energy spectrum of the photon beams. All nanoparticles showed an increase of DER with nanoparticle concentration during the photon beam irradiations regardless of thickness. For electron beams, the Au nanoparticles were found to have the highest DER (1.01-1.08) when the beam energy was equal to 4 MeV, but this was drastically lower than the DER values found using photon beams. The DER was also found affected by the depth of maximum dose of the electron beam and target thickness. For other nanoparticles with lower atomic number, DERs in the range of 0.99-1.02 were found using the 4 and 6 MeV electron beams. CONCLUSION In nanoparticle-enhanced skin therapy, Au nanoparticle addition can achieve the highest dose enhancement with 105 kVp photon beams. Electron beams, while popular for skin therapy, did not produce as high dose enhancements as kV photon beams. Additionally, the DER is dependent on nanoparticle type, nanoparticle concentration, skin target thickness and energies of the photon and electron beams.


This case chronicles events in the State of Illinois over the period 1970 through 2017 that led to an increase in the State's unfunded pension liability from under $1.5 billion to over $137 billion - and growing. It recounts efforts to resolve the impending crisis that yielded unexpected consequences both large and adverse and highlights the role of accountants in educating policy makers on the financial impact of pension funding decisions. With these striking events as a backdrop, students use the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) to analyze Illinois' financial condition, assess its revenues and expenditures, interpret disclosures regarding its pension plans, and evaluate plans for their funding. The analyses will provide students with a deeper understanding of the structure and content of the CAFR and of governmental pension accounting, a complex topic on which accounting rules have undergone significant changes.


—A number of safety- and security-critical appli- cations such as asset tracking, smart ecosystems, autonomous vehicles and driver assistance functions, etc., are expected to benefit from the position information available through 5G. Driven by the aim to support such a wide-array of location- aware services and applications, the current release of 5G seeks to explore ranging and positioning [1] as an integral part of 5G technology. In recent years, many attacks on positioning and ranging systems have been demonstrated, and hence it is important to build 5G systems that are resilient to distance and location manipulation attacks. No existing proposal either by 3GPP or the research community addresses the challenges of secure position estimation in 5G. In this paper, we develop V- Range, the first secure ranging system that is fully compatible with 5G standards and can be implemented directly on top of existing 5G-NR transceivers. We design V-Range, a system capable of executing secure ranging operations resilient to both distance enlargement and reduction attacks. We experimentally verify that V-Range achieves high precision, low-latency, and can operate in both the sub-6GHz and mm-wave bands intended for 5G. Our results show that an attacker cannot reduce or increase the distance by more than the imprecision of the system, without being detected with high probability.


Retinal dystrophies are a large and extremely variegate group of diseases causing visual impairments and eventually blindness. As of today, no cures are available for such conditions, and the most advanced clinical approaches are based on classical gene transfer techniques. The recent development of genetic tools designed to manipulate splicing offers a unique opportunity to target several of these diseases, potentially reaching a highly specific and controlled effect in contrast to the more investigated gene supplementation therapies. These molecular tools are mainly part of two classes: antisense oligonucleotides (AONs) and chimeric or adapted small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs). They function by altering how the splicing machinery recognize a target sequence, usually an exon, allowing to increase its presence (exon inclusion) or decrease it (exon skipping) in mature mRNA. The first aim of this work has been the identification of genes causing retinal dystrophies having mutations potentially targetable by splicing-correction approaches. Following screening of mutation databases we identified three genes, each of them having mutations with characteristic interesting for a possible application of such approaches: CACNA2D4, RPGR, and USH2A. The CACNA2D4 gene encodes for an accessory subunit of high-voltage-activated (HVA) calcium channels and, when mutated, causes retinal cone dystrophy 4 (RCD4). It was selected because of the presence of a mouse model of retinal dystrophy (Wycisk et al., 2006a), allowing an in vivo test of the designed strategy. Since the approach consisted in inducing skipping of the exon hosting the mutation, we analysed the splicing pattern of the target exon in vivo and in vitro; the functionality of the rescued protein resulting from therapeutic exon skipping. The analysis revealed on one side that the rescued protein was not functional, therefore showing how the approach was not feasible for CACNA2D4. Interestingly, we found evidence of two newly identified splicing isoforms of the gene, one of which mimics the effect of the mutation. A mutation in RPGR intron 9 has been shown to cause retinitis pigmentosa by increasing the inclusion in mature mRNA of an alternatively spliced exon (E9a) (Neidhardt et al., 2007). Using splicing reporter minigene assays, we were able to design efficient chimeric U1snRNAs able to mediate E9a skipping thus correcting the genetic defect. In the USH2A gene we instead identified an interesting region hosting 5% of known mutation which could be approachable with exon skipping. The implementation of assays able to assess functionality of USH2A and RPGR will be fundamental for the development of new splicing-correction approaches for these genes.


The sky-view factor is a commonly used parameter in urban climatology; but to date, no completely satisfactory technique has yet been developed for its calculation. This letter investigates the potential of a prototype thermal fisheye camera, originally developed for use in the CLOUDMAP2 project, to produce fisheye imagery suitable for sky-view factor analysis. The camera distinguishes between the fraction of cold-space background and warm obstructions (e.g., buildings, trees, and cloud) from which the sky-view factor can be calculated. Early results are promising with excellent segmentation results obtained under clear skies, although the techniques are currently less reliable when clouds are visible in the field of view. However, this is demonstrated to be an advantage as the camera can also be used to simultaneously measure other parameters such as solar-tracks and "local" cloud fractions. The preliminary results indicate potential for the use of the camera for modeling studies in urban environments


In eukaryotes, the formation of a 5′-cap and 3′-poly(A) dependent protein–protein bridge is required for translation of its mRNAs. In contrast, several plant virus RNA genomes lack both of these mRNA features, but instead have a 3′-CITE (for cap-independent translation enhancer), a RNA element present in their 3′-untranslated region that recruits translation initiation factors and is able to control its cap-independent translation. For several 3′-CITEs, direct RNA-RNA long-distance interactions based on sequence complementarity between the 5′- and 3′-ends are required for efficient translation, as they bring the translation initiation factors bound to the 3′-CITE to the 5′-end. For the carmovirus melon necrotic spot virus (MNSV), a 3′-CITE has been identified, and the presence of its 5′-end in cis has been shown to be required for its activity. Here, we analyze the secondary structure of the 5′-end of the MNSV RNA genome and identify two highly conserved nucleotide sequence stretches that are complementary to the apical loop of its 3′-CITE. In in vivo cap-independent translation assays with mutant constructs, by disrupting and restoring sequence complementarity, we show that the interaction between the 3′-CITE and at least one complementary sequence in the 5′-end is essential for virus RNA translation, although efficient virus translation and multiplication requires both connections. The complementary sequence stretches are invariant in all MNSV isolates, suggesting that the dual 5′–3′ RNA:RNA interactions are required for optimal MNSV cap-independent translation and multiplication.


It is crucial to understand the current pattern of urban park visitation to achieve environmental justice. Current discussions of environmental equity of parks mainly focus on the inequality provision measured by park accessibility, park area, park quality, and park congestion, ignoring the inequity of social benefits through interactions among mixed-income groups. Based on fine-grained mobile phone location data at the census block group level in 2018 and 2019, we explored visitation patterns and the mixed-income levels of visitors in urban parks in New York City. The visitors were divided into five income groups, with the "income entropy" used as a measure of the mixed level of the visitors in terms of income groups. We answered an important question: what factors affect the visitation intensity and the mixed level of income groups in urban park visitors? Our results revealed that the time of year and season, the parks' characteristics, the built environment, and the socioeconomic characteristics of the park's surrounding neighborhoods have strong associations with park use patterns. We also offered implications for urban planning and urban design to promote park visitation and income-diverse park use and improve social inclusion and environmental equity.


This essay focuses on the interplay between the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and Italian art of the early sixteenth century. While the Hypnerotomachia exerted some influence on artists of the subsequent generation, the nature of that influence will be reevaluated in light of the functions that poetic favole accrued around the turn of the sixteenth century. Opening with an examination of two paintings by Antonio Allegri da Correggio that are often seen as illustrative of the impact that the Hypnerotomachia had on Italian art, this essay will subsequently open up distance between the pictures and their purported source text. Focusing attention on Correggio's complex engagement with the Hypnerotomachia affords new insights into the intricacy of the text itself, its relationship with antiquity, and how the tension between these two elements helped shape the anomalous status the Hypnerotomachia occupies today. The peculiar antiquarian approach that the Hypnerotomachia takes toward the study of language, architecture, and artifacts was quite common throughout the fifteenth century, but it quickly fell out of favor in the sixteenth century. The article concludes by suggesting that art historians begin thinking of the Hypnerotomachia as the extended manifesto of a model of engaged beholdership that held currency in Northern Italy around 1500 rather than as a source for iconography and new subjects. Viewed in this light, Colonna's text yields important insights into the alluring qualities of artists like Mantegna and Antico, who shared with the Hypnerotomachia an abiding interest in interrogating antiquity as one of the animating forces underwriting their artistic project.


The activation of human neutrophils by a variety of receptor-dependent and receptor-independent agonists induces the phosphorylation of a large number of proteins. Since we have previously shown that human neutrophils have at least two distinct tyrosine kinase activities, we examined protein tyrosine phosphorylation in human neutrophils stimulated with a variety of agonists. Using a monoclonal antibody specific for phosphotyrosine, the present study shows that the chemotactic peptides FMLP and leukotriene B4, the phorbol ester phorbol myristate acetate (PMA), and the calcium ionophore A23187 induce an increase in tyrosine phosphorylation of a number of neutrophil proteins. This increased protein tyrosine phosphorylation was dependent on the concentration of the agonist, as well as on the time of exposure to the agonist. Fractionation experiments showed that both a 150,000 g cytosolic and a particulate preparation showed increases in protein tyrosine phosphorylation with stimulation by FMLP or PMA, and showed that the pattern of protein tyrosine phosphorylation was slightly different in the FMLP- and PMA-stimulated cells. These data indicate that protein tyrosine phosphorylation is an early event in the activation of human neutrophils by a variety of receptor-dependent and receptor-independent agonists.


Machine learning was used to predict three combustion metrics based on the flow field data at spark angle (SA), obtained from large eddy simulations (LES). These metrics were peak cylinder pressure (PCP), crank angle of PCP (CA of PCP), and indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP). The ML model was evaluated for use as a surrogate for detailed combustion model in studies of cycle-to-cycle variation (CCV). The computational time for combustion predictions (from SA to exhaust valve opening (EVO)) was 15 hours on 24 cores while the trained ML model was able to make predictions in 3 seconds (a speed up factor of 7200). The ML model was trained on a single core in 45 minutes using 88 LES simulation cycles. As the LES simulation data at SA has high fidelity (in this case approximately 260,000 computational cells) a workflow to filter the data to a reasonably sized feature set for use in ML was developed. Subvolumes were defined and the Pearson Correlation Coefficient (PCC) was used to evaluate the features. An ensemble ML approach was employed, which combines the predictions of multiple base learners to improve the final prediction. The ML model predictions for the three combustion metrics showed good correlation with the CFD simulations.


Objective: This study was undertaken to investigate the antioxidant activity of methanolic extract of Schisandra (magnolia vine) (MEMV), Muntingia calabura (MEMC), and Alangium salviifolium (MEAS) fruits. Materials and Methods: Rindless fruits were subjected to treatment with pure methanol in a sufficient quantity at room temperature for a period of one week with intermittent shaking. The resultant extract then underwent double filtration, first through a cotton plug and then through Whatman filters paper No. 1. Evaporation under reduced pressure was carried out on the filtrate to get a dark green viscous mass which was stored till use at 4°C. Hydroxyl radical (OH) scavenging activity determination of reducing power, lipid peroxidation induced by carbon tetrachloride, and inhibitory test on protein oxidative modification were carried out for evaluation of the antioxidant activity of MEMV, MEMC, and MEAS fruits generated methanolic extract. Results: The inhibitory ratio of MEMV, MEMC, and MEAS on albumin oxidative modification was as high as 78.94 at a concentration of 1000μg/ml that showed an increasing proportionality trend with concentration. The reducing power of MEMV, MEMC, and MEAS increased with increasing concentration of MEMV, MEMC, and MEAS. Conclusion: All the tested concentrations of MEMV, MEMC, and MEAS showed significant (P < 0.001) activity than control, the MEMV, MEMC, and MEAS (at all tested doses 100 μg, 200 μg, and 300 μg) significantly (P < 0.001) showed scavenging activity on OHs, which were generated by the ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid/H2O2 system, in comparison to control. A similar increase in percent scavenging of OH radicals by MEMV, MEMC, and MEAS was observed with an increase in dose.


ABSTRACT FitzGerald, D.M., Georgiou, I., and Kulp, M., 2016. Restortation of the Chandeleur Barrier arc. Louisiana. In: Vila-Concejo, A.; Bruce, E.; Kennedy, D.M., and McCarroll, R.J. (eds.), Proceedings of the 14th International Coastal Symposium (Sydney, Australia). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No. 75, pp. 1282 - 1286. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The north-south trending barrier arc of the Chandeleur Islands protects valuable wetlands and reduces hurricane impacts in southeastern Louisiana. Avulsion of the lower Mississippi River ~ 1500 ka led to reworking of the St. Bernard deltaic headland concentrating sand and producing the proto-Chandeleur Islands. During the same period, landward interior delta plain erosion and subsidence formed Chandeleur Sound. Since the 1980's, isolation from new sand sources, high rates of relative sea-level rise (5 mm/yr), and hurricane impacts have produced a low transgressive barrier, periodically breached by numerous hurricane passes. Much of the sand eroded during storms is transported laterally to the ends of the barrier arc and lost from the system. A sustainable restoration plan for the barrier chain involves massive sand nourishment (from Hewes Point and St Bernard shoals ~ 285 × 106 m3) while accommodating its natural landward migration. Sand would be placed along existing barrier segments to build beaches and foredune ridges. Additional sand would widen and elevate recurved spits at hurricane passes. Sand would also be pumped behind the barriers to create a broad intertidal and subtidal sand sheet would provide a platform for barrier migration during transgression. Foredune ridges, recurved spits, and intertidal rear platforms would be vegetated to help stabilize these sand deposits and provide integrity. Finally, 15 large subtidal troughs would be excavated perpendicular and landward of the barrier arc, each filled with a 106 m3 of sand. This plan emphasizes landward sand transport during storms and gradual reintroduction of sand during transgression.


Asking questions from natural language text has attracted increasing attention recently, and several schemes have been proposed with promising results by asking the right question words and copy relevant words from the input to the question. However, most state-of-the-art methods focus on asking simple questions involving single-hop relations. In this paper, we propose a new task called multihop question generation that asks complex and semantically relevant questions by additionally discovering and modeling the multiple entities and their semantic relations given a collection of documents and the corresponding answer 1. To solve the problem, we propose multi-hop answer-focused reasoning on the grounded answer-centric entity graph to include different granularity levels of semantic information including the word-level and document-level semantics of the entities and their semantic relations. Through extensive experiments on the HOTPOTQA dataset, we demonstrate the superiority and effectiveness of our proposed model that serves as a baseline to motivate future work.


Europe is in crisis. Millions of its citizens are living in poverty and subject to sustained programmes of austerity that are widening the gap between rich and poor. Communicative possibilities are squeezed by the realities of media market behaviour: public service broadcasters are facing challenges of legitimacy and funding while established news outlets are increasingly distrusted by audiences. Despite the scale of the crisis, however, there appears to be little appetite amongst media researchers to develop a professional or policy response that rises to the challenge and attempts to offer necessary solutions. This article reflects on existing policy norms and suggests that we need fresh ones that better articulate how best to respond to neoliberalisation and both communicative and economic crisis. Rhetorical commitments to democracy, free speech, privacy and transparency are being squeezed by a more pragmatic emphasis on efficiency and competition, leaving little room for more expansive ambitions of social justice and equality. By focusing on several case studies, the article argues that we need more radical policy frames to confront the serious attacks we are facing on the public media and the public interest more generally.


Optical excitations of magnetoexcitons in T-shaped wires are calculated and compared with experiment. We find the single-particle states for electrons and holes confined to a wire in a magnetic field and use these states as a basis for calculations of magnetoexciton states. We accurately reproduce the field dependence of the exciton states and explain the small, field-induced, energy shifts that are observed for these states. The shifts are small because the T-junction provides weak confinement, rather than strong quantum confinement. Diamagnetic shifts calculated from perturbation theory fail to describe the experimental results. We determine when perturbation theory is valid for these nanostructures and which gauge should be used to give the diamagnetic shift that best reproduces the field dependence at low fields.


It has been found in Australia and in the United States that composting does not always result in the complete removal of salmonellae from biosolids. It is therefore likely that monitoring of composted Biosolids for salmonellae will be required in Australia to ensure the safety of biosolids products. At present rapid methods of detection such as PCR and ELISA are not sufficiently developed to monitor environmental samples. The relative efficiency of various culture methods for detecting salmonellae in composted biosolids was therefore investigated. On the basis of the results a presence/absence method is recommended for the detection of salmonellae in biosolids products. The recommended technique involves pre-enrichment of samples, followed by enrichment in Rappaport-Vassiliadis and mannitol selenite enrichment broths, and isolation on lysine mannitol glycerol agar.


Acute reperfusion despite persistent arterial occlusion may occur in up to 30% of ischemic stroke patients. Recruitment of leptomeningeal collaterals may explain this phenomenon. Using dynamic susceptibility-contrast perfusion imaging (DSC-PI), we assessed acute changes in collateral flow among patients without recanalization. From a multicenter prospective database (I-KNOW), 46 patients with magnetic resonance angiography visible occlusion in whom both reperfusion and recanalization were assessed within 6 h of onset were identified. Maps of collateral flow at arterial, capillary and late venous phases were generated from DSC-PI through inter-frame registration, baseline signal subtraction and temporal summation, and graded blind to all other relevant clinical and radiological data using the Higashida scale. Flow direction and the acute evolution of collaterals were evaluated against the reperfusion status. Among patients without recanalization (n = 33), flow direction remained retrograde. Collateral grades significantly improved between admission and acute follow-up in patients who reperfused (OR: 4.57; 95% CI: 1.1–22.7; p = 0.048), but not in those without reperfusion (OR: 1.34; 95% CI: 0.4–4.5; p = 0.623). Our study confirmed that acute reperfusion without recanalization is associated with a significant improvement of retrograde collateral flow. DSC-PI can detect acute changes in collateral flow, and may help evaluate novel treatments targeting leptomeningeal collaterals.


Research regarding
pre-service teachers' attitudes towards teaching mathematics has revealed that
many pre-service teachers experience high levels of mathematics anxiety about
both the learning of mathematics and the teaching of the mathematics
curriculum. Little is known about the particular characteristics of pre-service
teachers that make them more likely to experience anxiety about mathematics in
the early years. Addressing anxiety towards mathematics and the teaching of
mathematics could effectively eliminate later problems in teaching. Teaching
mathematics confidently is associated with teachers' beliefs about their
mathematical ability, which is their mathematical self-efficacy. This paper
reports on an investigation into the anxiety of first- year pre-service teachers towards their future teaching
of mathematics. 223 students enrolled in a first-year mathematics unit for birth to eight years, in
the Bachelor of Education of Early Childhood and Primary Education Courses
attributed their beliefs about mathematics to external—their past teachers—or internal factors: that one
is either good at mathematics or not. The findings highlight the need for
pre-service teacher's anxiety about
mathematics to be addressed within the university education classroom context
so that pre-service teachers become capable and competent teachers of
mathematics.


This paper describes a two-dimensional discrete vortex model for simulating low Reynolds number flows behind a backward-facing step. The numerical model employs a novel operator-splitting technique to solve the vorticity-transport equation governing the evolution of vorticity. During the advective stage of the computation, a semi-Lagrangian scheme is used to update the vortex positions, whilst an analytical diffusion algorithm employing Oseen vortices is implemented during the diffusive time step. Redistributing the vorticity analytically instead of using the more traditional random-walk diffusion method enables the model to simulate steady flows directly, and avoids the need to filter the numerical results to remove the effects of the random walks. Predictions from the model are compared against experimental data of laminar flow past a backward-facing step at Reynolds numbers between 73 and 229. The results indicate the feasibility of the proposed discrete vortex scheme.


The aim of this study was to determine temperature differences on the dorsal surface of 32 clinically healthy show jumping horses. Temperature was measured using a Thermovision 550 (FLIR) camera, determining maximum temperature (T_{max}). The horse?s body was divided into the following regions: neck, withers, cranial back, caudal back, loins, and hindquarters. Those regions were subdivided into middle, left, and right parts. Statistical methods used for calculations consisted of Wilcoxon?s signed rank test and Dunn?s post hoc comparison test. Temperatures on the dorsal surface ranged from 19.5 to 31.5 °C, with the lowest indicated in the withers area and the highest in the caudal back and hindquarters area. Temperatures on the sides tended to be symmetrical except for the caudal back region, where the temperature of the right side was higher than of the left side. The data can be used for determination of unfavorable stimulation of the back and loin region by the rider and saddle, as well as for diagnosing conditions that result in increased temperature in the dorsal area.


The article presents the essence and operational potential of the information and analysis system supporting the decision making process within the framework of security-related policing operations. This system is being developed by a scientific consortium led by the Police Academy, Szczytno. The project finance is provided by the National Centre for Research and Development. The main element to ensure the effectiveness of the system in question will be an application with a planning and decision mechanism and prediction algorithms. The above mentioned algorithms are designed to provide information on the probability of success of police operations and on the necessary costs which must be incurred in a given crisis situation in order to implement their individual, expected variants. Using historical data and algorithms developed on its basis, the system is supposed to indicate the relevant forces and resources required, the methods and tactics for operations and characteristics of the security infrastructure. Moreover, the publication presents the fundamental mechanisms of the police command and control process during emergency situations and general remarks regarding the professional development of those who manage these types of policing operations. In the author's opinion, of particular importance in this respect is the course addressed to commissioned police officers trained to be commanders or deputy commanders of security-related policing operations, where classes are conducted using a simulator for police operations in emergency situations. It is a form of advanced command staff training with the use of a virtual computer simulation system. The simulator makes it possible to develop algorithms for dealing with crisis incidents and to improve the command process during emergencies. One of the practical goals of developing the information and analysis system is its integration with the simulator for police operations in emergency situations. In this respect, it is supposed to be a tool used in multimedia decision-making training. The author comes to the conclusion that the expected functionalities of the information and analysis system will have a positive effect both on the educational process of improving professional qualifications of commanders of security-related policing operations and on the real planning, implementation and assessment of the operations themselves.


Open learning is a relatively new form of training / learning which is being utilised by organisations. One such organisation is Digital Equipment International (Galway), who (in conjunction with Dublin City University) commissioned some research to evaluate open learning within the organisation, and to provide recommendations for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the open learning system.

The research strategy chosen was that of action resea rch , since the research needed to be both relevant to the needs of the organisations and contribute to the field of open learning research. The research undertaken was iterative in nature and involved: (i) an ongoing literature review; (ii) a review of organisational practice (including a telephone survey of twenty-four Irish organisations); (iii) extensive internal research in Digital.

Five critical success factors for the implementation and running of an open learning system were identified from literature and organisational practice. These factors were then examined and tested in the light of open learning practice in Digital. This provided the basis for a list of recommendations for improving the effectiveness of open learning, which were sent to Digital in the form of a consultancy report. It also provided the basis for examining (from an organisational perspective); the extent to which open learning is an appropriate form of training / learning, and the factors which impinge on the usage and adoption of open learning.


Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate anticholinergic, antihistaminic, and antiserotonergic activity of the n-hexane extract of the seeds of Zanthoxylum alatum (ZAHE) on isolated ileum of rat and guinea pig and fundus of rat. Materials and Methods: ZAHE was prepared using soxhlet extraction and cumulative concentration response curves were constructed using various doses on the tissues for acetylcholine (ACh), 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), and histamine with or without n-hexane extract. Atropine, ketanserin, and pheniramine maleate were used as antagonists for ACh, serotonin, and histamine, respectively. Results: ZAHE-induced concentration-dependent inhibition of isolated ileum and fundus in rat and ileum of guinea pig. The half maximal effective concentration (EC50) of ACh in the presence of atropine (10−6 M; P < 0.05) and ZAHE (1000 μg/ml; P < 0.01) was significantly higher than EC50of ACh alone. The EC50of 5-HT in the presence of ketanserin (10−5 M; P < 0.01) and ZAHE (1000 μg/ml; P < 0.05) was higher than EC50of 5-HT alone. Similarly, the EC50of histamine in the presence of pheniramine maleate (10−6 M; P < 0.01) and ZAHE (300 μg/ml; P < 0.01 and 1000 μg/ml; P < 0.05) was also significantly higher than EC50of histamine alone. Conclusion: From the study, it was observed that ZAHE shows significant anticholinergic, antiserotonergic, and antihistaminic activity. The study provides sufficient evidence that the seeds can be used in gastric disorders, cough, chest infection, etc., as per folklore claims.


Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that affect farmer's decision to allocate credit for livestock production. The results are expected to contribute to the understanding of what motivates smallholders to allocate credit to agricultural production in general and livestock production in particular. A better understanding of the farmers' behavior in allocating credit for livestock would provide useful information for project implementers and financial institutions that work with small-scale livestock producers. Design/methodology/approach - A cross-section data set collected in 2014 from 5,000 households and 497 rural communities in the major highland regions of Ethiopia is examined. The authors developed a conceptual framework for credit allocation decision. Percentiles, means, and standard deviation as well as Findings - After controlling for potential selection biases, sex and literacy status of household head, land size, wealth and access to livestock centered extension service are found to have a statistically significant effect on farmers' decision to allocate credit to livestock production. The results showed female-headed households, wealthy farmers, farmers with small plot of land and farmers that have access to livestock centered extension services are more likely to allocate the credit for livestock production. The results suggest that policies aimed at improving access to credit together with access to livestock focused extension service are more effective in increasing livestock production. Research limitations/implications - The study's findings should be viewed with perspective and caution, as only households with excess demand for credit were the subject of the research. Originality/value - The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it is one of a very few empirical studies that try to identify factors that affect households credit allocation to livestock in systematic way that removed confounding effects using three-stage probit models. Given the emphasis on financial constraints in livestock development, new empirical insights on household credit allocation are essential to better inform development interventions. Second, the analysis relies on a comprehensive data set that represents the major agricultural system of the country.


We present high-resolution (R ∼ 100,000) L-band spectroscopy of 11 Herbig AeBe stars with circumstellar disks. The observations were obtained with the VLT/CRIRES to detect hot water and hydroxyl radical emission lines previously detected in disks around T Tauri stars. OH emission lines are detected toward four disks. The OH 2Π3/2 P4.5 (1+,1−) doublet is spectrally resolved as well as the velocity profile of each component of the doublet. Its characteristic double-peak profile demonstrates that the gas is in Keplerian rotation and points to an emitting region extending out to ∼15–30 AU. The OH emission correlates with disk geometry as it is mostly detected toward flaring disks. None of the Herbig stars analyzed here show evidence of hot water vapor at a sensitivity similar to that of the OH lines. The non-detection of hot water vapor emission indicates that the atmospheres of disks around Herbig AeBe stars are depleted of water molecules. Assuming LTE and optically thin emission we derive a lower limit to the OH/H2O column density ratio >1–25 in contrast to T Tauri disks for which the column density ratio is 0.3–0.4.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the mechanism by which long non-coding RNA TUG1 affects bladder cancer cell migration and invasion.

METHODS
The expressions of TUG1 and miR-29c-3p were examined by quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) in 10 bladder cancer tissues and 5 bladder cancer cell lines. Trans-well assay was used to detect the changes in migration and invasion abilities of bladder cancer T24 cells after TUG1 knockdown using RNA interference technique, and the alteration in the expression of CAPN7 was also detected. The expression of CAPN7 was examined in T24 cells overexpressing mir-29c-3p by Western blotting, and luciferase reporter assay was performed to confirm the targeting of miR-29c-3p to TUG1 and CAPN7. The effects of CAPN7 overexpression and sh-TUG1 on the migration and invasion of T24 cells were investigated.

RESULTS
The expression of TUG1 was up-regulated and mir-29c-3p was down-regulated significantly in bladder cancer tissue with a negative correlation between their expressions. TUG1 knockdown significantly inhibited the migration and invasion of T24 cells (P < 0.01). Overexpression of mir-29c-3p in T24 cells obviously down-regulated the expression of CAPN7 protein, whose expression was positively correlated with TUG1 expression (r=0.4081, P=0.0139). The results of luciferase reporter assay confirmed both TUG1 and CAPN7 as the targets of mir-29c-3p. CAPN7 overexpression could partially reverse the tumor suppressing effect of sh-TUG1 in T24 cells.

CONCLUSIONS
Mir-29c-3p targeting TUG1 affects the migration and invasion of bladder cancer cells by regulating the expression of CAPN7.


Who controls education and whose interests does education represent? Using two national samples of two-year and four-year college and university administrators, the authors identify the social origins of higher education administrators as a beginning point for answering these questions. They conclude that the leadership of American colleges and universities has become more diverse over time—but not as much as we might expect. The proportion of administrators from working-class backgrounds has not increased; and the hundreds of administrative positions newly created during the 1970s have not, apparently, welcomed individuals from working class backgrounds, women, or minorities. The social origins of two-year and four-year administrators are also more similar than previously reported.


Clinicians, unlike their peers in the legal academy, are embedded in their clients' experiences of the legal system. Because of their location in the academy, "they have the potential to transform the study of law into the study of a culture that deploys law for various purposes," in the words of Phyllis Goldfarb. In this short essay, we highlight a thread of clinical scholarship which we identify as growing from clinicians' unique and embedded stance. We seek to convince, using a few examples of clinical scholarship, that our collective critical stance has yielded, over the last several decades, a growing body of work that (1) is grounded in observation of lived reality and awareness of the operation of interlocking systems, (2) incorporates an innate criticality borne of the activism and advocacy of clinicians, and (3) meaningfully and productively generates and deploys theoretical insights in the wider world. Ultimately, we aim to identify a space for critical theory generation, alongside clinical scholarship that focuses on doctrinal interpretation and pedagogy and to forge room for this work in the clinic, alongside legal services provision and lawyer development.

When clinicians engage in the kind of scholarship we are describing it is often subject to a few standard criticisms. The work can be seen as not rigorous. It is assumed that our duty of loyalty to clients means that we cannot write credibly and critically about cases in which we are involved. But in our embrace of the embedded nature of clinical stance, we are claiming and celebrating our proximity to clients and communities as a standpoint from which to observe and describe. We continue to think critically about degrees of bias with the understanding that all scholarly work is bent by both bias and detachment. Nevertheless, the theory that we invoke and revise from our standpoint beside clients enables us to make credible demands for social structural change. We should make those demands by all means necessary, including by seeking to alter and reform the discourse that is created by others about the communities with which we work.


Increased numbers of tumor-infiltrating neutrophils are linked to poorer outcome in patients with adenocarcinoma of the bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC) subtype. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a pleiotropic cytokine operating through activation of the proto-oncogene c-met and is a factor of poor prognosis in various cancers. Reports that neutrophils produce HGF led us to investigate their participation in the aerogenous spread of tumor cells and the prognosis of BAC, through the effect of HGF on c-met-expressing tumor cells. Immunoreactive HGF was detected in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) supernatants from 34 of 36 patients, whereas it was undetectable in BALF from healthy controls. The HGF thus detected was locally produced, because HGF mRNA was expressed by the patients' fresh alveolar cells, and HGF protein was detected in 24-h culture supernatants. In immunocytochemical studies of BALF cytospin preparations and tumor specimens from the patients, neutrophils were always HGF-positive, whereas alveolar macrophages and tumor cells gave inconsistent results. Alveolar neutrophil-derived HGFs induced significant, concentration-dependent migration of BAC-derived tumor cells in vitro, and this effect was inhibited by anti-HGF neutralizing antibodies. Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and tumor necrosis factor alpha (present in the lung tumor microenvironment) provoked HGF release from neutrophil intracellular stocks, and the capacity of blood neutrophils from BAC patients to produce HGF was unaltered. Immunochemical studies of c-met expression in BALF cytospin preparations and tumor sections showed that most HGF receptor-bearing cells were tumor cells. High HGF levels in BALF supernatants were significantly associated with poorer outcome in patients with BAC and were an independent predictor of clinical outcome in multivariate analysis. Altogether, our results support the notion that BAC generates a local environment that attracts functionally normal neutrophils from peripheral blood and leads to neutrophil release of biologically active HGF on contact with HGF receptor-expressing tumor cells, thereby contributing to poorer patient outcome.


Summary Fibrinogen is a plasma glycoprotein mainly synthesised by hepatocytes and circulating as a 340-kDa hexamer consisting of two sets of three different polypeptide chains (Aα, Bβ, and γ, encoded by the FGA, FGB, and FGG gene, respectively). Congenital afibrinogenaemia and hypofibrinogenaemia are rare bleeding disorders characterised by abnormally low levels of functional and immunoreactive fibrinogen in plasma, associated with haemorrhagic manifestations of variable severity. While afibrinogenaemia is caused by mutations in the homozygous or compound heterozygous state in one of the three fibrinogen genes, hypofibrinogenaemia is generally due to heterozygous mutations, and is usually characterised by a milder phenotype. The mutational spectrum of these quantitative fibrinogen disorders includes large deletions, point mutations causing premature termination codons, and missense mutations often affecting fibrinogen assembly and/or secretion. Here we report the clinical and molecular characterisation of 13 unrelated afibrinogenaemic and eight hypofibrino - genaemic patients, leading to the identification of 17 different mutations (10 hitherto unknown). All the newly-identified missense and splicing mutations were in vitro expressed to verify their pathogenic role. Our data increase the number of mutations causing quantitative fibrinogen deficiencies by about 7 %. The high number of private mutations identified in the analysed probands indicates that the full mutational screening of the three fibrinogen genes is still required for molecular diagnosis.


Purpose: To evaluate the direct versus composed registration in inter‐fraction deformable image registration of 4D CT scans of thoracic cancer patients. Methods: Lungcancer patients treated under an institutional IRB protocol were selected for this study. Each patient had a planning and subsequent weekly 4D CTimages that were acquired at ten discrete respiratory phases during their treatment course. GTV, lungs,heart, cord, and esophagus were manually delineated for all ten phases on each image set. A Small Deformation Inverse Consistent Linear Elastic (SICLE) non‐rigid‐registration algorithm was utilized for the generation of displacement vector fields (DVFs). The end of inhalation phase images from the weekly on‐treatment 4DCTs were deformably‐registered to the end of inhalation phase image from the planning 4DCT using two different registration permutations. In the 'Composed' method, each end of inhalation phase image was registered to the subsequent weekly image, and the resulting DVFs were composed or 'chained' to create the mapping from any weekly image to the planning image. For evaluation, contours on different image sets were mapped back to the planning 4D CT. Deformation maps generated by "Direct" versus "Composed" registration methods were evaluated using "volume histograms of the vector difference length for each structure", "Jacobian", "Dice similarity coefficient (DSC)" and Center of Mass (COM). Results: The average spatial discrepancy for all structures was less then 1mm using "direct" vs. "composed" registration. The differences in the average Jacobian for all structures obtained with "direct" vs. "composed" DVFs were also negligible. Differences between deformably‐mapped GTV, lung and esophagus contours obtained with "direct" and "composed" registration DVFs were <0.5mm. Conclusions: The evaluation of the "direct" versus "composed" registration of weekly 4D CT scans showed that there are very small differences in "Direct" vs. "Composed" registration DVFs although there are numerically noticeable differences. Supported by NIHgrant‐P01CA11602


ABSTRACT An increasing number of high-stakes mathematics standardised tests around the world place an emphasis on using mathematical word problems to assess students' mathematical understanding. Not only do these assessments require children to think mathematically, but making sense of these tests' mathematical word problems also brings children's language ability, reading comprehension and working memory into play. The nature of these test items places a great deal of cognitive demand on all mathematics learners, but particularly on children completing the assessments in a second language that is still developing. This paper reports findings from an exploratory study on the contribution of language to mathematics achievement among 35 children with English as an Additional Language (EAL) and 31 children with English as their first language (FLE). The findings confirm the prominent role of general language ability in the development and assessment of mathematical ability. This variable explained more variance than working memory in word-based mathematics scores for all learners. Significant differences were found between the performance of FLE learners and EAL learners on solving mathematical word-based problems, but not on wordless problems. We conclude that EAL learners need to receive more targeted language support, including help with specific language knowledge needed to understand and solve mathematical word problems.


We introduce an integrated framework for modeling and simulation of ecosystems based on cellular models. The framework integrates cellular modeling, web-based simulation, and geographic information systems (GISs) for data collection and visualization. In this framework, data extraction from GISs is automated; we use the Cell-DEVS formalism for modeling the ecosystem and the CD++ cellular modeling tool within the RISE (RESTful Interoperability Simulation Environment) middleware for web-based simulation. The simulation results are easily integrated with Google Earth data for visualization. We discuss the design, implementation, and benefits of the integrated approach for modeling and simulation in spatial analysis of ecosystem services. We show different case studies in the area of ecological systems, demonstrating how to apply the framework, its usability, and flexibility. We focus on the use of models available in remote servers, their integration with GIS data for inputs, and georeferenced visualization of the results. We show how the modeling methods based on DEVS and their modular interfaces make it easy to build such an architecture and we discuss its application to the field of environmental systems.


Brazil is one of the world's leading beef producers. The goal of this chapter is to give an overview of how Brazilian beef production is important to Brazil and worldwide. We also give an overview of some aspects of red meat consumption in this country and the main tendencies regarding sustainability production. The economic importance of beef production is Brazil is based on secondary data and the main content about beef consumption is based on researchs conducted by the authors that interviews Brazilian consumers. The chapter focus in some concepts, concerns and factors that affects consumption as symbolic aspects, ethical, health and environmental concerns, brand, herd tracking, guarantees of origin, legal employment, safety and hygiene, animal wellbeing, sustainability and the Carbon Neutral Beef initiative (CNB). Marketing, certification, treaceability and brand strategies conducted by some industries, the red meat premium boutiques in the retailing sector, and the role of brazilian government in meat safety, monitoring and regulation are also covered.


The industrialization of U.S. beef, dairy, hog, and poultry sectors has received considerable attention. There have been regional shifts in the geographical location of livestock inventories and livestock farms. This paper examines the trends in geographical concentrations of livestock sectors in the U.S., and determines whether the environmental regulations have impacted the geographical concentrations. It uses an entropy-based geographical concentration measure to determine the extent of concentrations of beef, dairy, hog, and poultry inventories and farms. The results show that livestock productions on a national level and within states are becoming more geographically concentrated. The geographical concentration of livestock sectors is negatively related to the stringency of state environmental regulations.


Polyaniline (PANI)/inorganic-nanomaterial based nanocomposites are attractive for gas sensing applications due to the synergistic behavior arising at their interfaces. In this work, HCl doped-PANI-nanofibers/WS2 nanosheet based nanocomposites were prepared by the template-free in situ polymerization of aniline on WS2 nanosheets, which were previously obtained by direct liquid exfoliation. The optimal performance was shown by the PANI/WS2 (w/w 10%) sample and it was characterized extensively using electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), several spectroscopic techniques (UV-Vis, Raman and FTIR), and X-ray diffraction. The nanomaterial was deposited on gold interdigitated electrodes which were then used as chemiresistive transducers for ammonia sensing at room temperature. The device was tested for ammonia concentrations of 50–200 ppm. The resistance of the device was found to increase with the concentration of ammonia vapours and a maximum response of up to 81% was recorded for 200 ppm of ammonia. The long-term stability, selectivity, sensitivity, and repeatability of the device were investigated. Apart from these, the device was also found to perform well under humid conditions. A mechanism based on the synergistic behavior due to the p–n heterogeneous characteristics at the interface of PANI and WS2 is proposed.


In this paper, the dynamics of roll motions of ships are studied by means of modern nonlinear techniques to exemplify the behaviour of nonlinear systems with multiple equilibria. The main objective is to analyze and control this system. A nonlinear recursive backstepping controller is proposed and the transient performance is investigated. Systematic following of a reference model is introduced. Robustness problems as well as ways to tune the controller parameters are examined. Simulation results are submitted for the uncontrolled and controlled cases, verifying the effectiveness of the proposed controller. Finally a discussion and conclusions are given with possible future extensions.


The dispersion relations for TE polarized waves guided by thin dielectric (planar integrated optics) films, surrounded on one or both sides by media with intensity-dependent refractive indexes, are solved numerically and interpreted. Comparisons are made between these nonlinear guided waves and the usual integrated optics modes associated with linear media. For media characterized by self-defocusing nonlinearities, increasing guided wave power leads to a decrease in the guided wave effective index and to mode cutoffs characterized either by finite or diverging total guided wave powers. For self-focusing media, the effective index increases with increasing power. New wave solutions are obtained with power thresholds and anomalous power-dependent field distributions. These characteristics are illustrated by numerical calculations for a specific material system and possible applications to optical devices are discussed.


Aim: To analyze the visual outcomes and the intra and postoperative complications of manual small incision cataract surgery (MSICS) in patients with Pseudo exfoliation (PXF). Materials and Methods: The study included 76 eyes of 76 patients of the rural population in India with cataract and PXF who underwent MSICS surgery. The effect of the parameters like the dilatation of pupil during surgery, nuclear grading at baseline was studied with respect to the final visual outcomes and intra operative and postoperative complications of cataract surgery. The best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) at 4 weeks and 6 weeks after surgery were reported. Results: The mean age of the patients was 64.9 years and there were 44 males and 32 females. The BCVA ranging from 6/6 to 6/9 was seen in 44 (58.1%) eyes at 4 weeks and 46 (60.6%) eyes at 6 weeks. The visual outcomes were lower in patients with higher nuclear sclerosis (NS) of grade IV-V, poor pupil size (≤6 mm) compared to patients with NS I-III and good pupil size (>6 mm). Iris prolapsed 8 (10.9%) and posterior capsular rent 7 (9.2%) intra operatively and corneal edema 34 (44.7%) postoperatively that subsided within 1-2 days were the most commonly reported complications. Conclusion: MSICS technique in cataract patients with PXF is cost effective and is associated with good visual outcomes. Early diagnosis, proper preoperative and postoperative planning, knowledge and surgical skills of handling the possible complications can increase the success rate of cataract surgery in patients with PXF.


Early on in his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle argues that there must be a single end or good desired for its own sake, for the sake of which all of our other ends are desired. The argument includes the following conditional: "If we chose everything for the sake of something else so that the process went on forever, then our desire would be empty and futile." This paper addresses that conditional. First, I explain why the conditional appears to be false. Second, I resolve some ambiguity in it. Third, I argue that the conditional enjoys a plausible and charitable reading when understood as a claim about ordinary human lives and psychology, and when read in the context of Aristotle's conception of ethics.


Telecommunication technologies and networks are constantly changing; with the introduction of the GSM system the shift from wired to wireless telephony experienced a unique boom. Since then, behaviour and communication needs of users (i.e. subscribers) have undergone rapid changes from initially the need for pure wireless voice transmission to now data and multimedia content traffic. Introduction of the 3rd Generation (UMTS/IMT 2000) promised the delivery of these services and the integration with the Internet. However, legacy technologies and networks are not likely to be replaced soon, the different wireless and wired communication and information infrastructures will co-exist and will have to work, seemingly seamless, together. The here documented research work delivers basic mechanisms supporting this integration, therefore a variety of technologies from different areas, ranging from Software Radio technology to Object-Oriented computing, have been brought together to introduce reconfigurability to mobile communication networks. Distributed object computing technologies are evaluated and their application as signalling and support platforms for reconfigureable systems is shown in different examples. Other novelties are the introduction of a protocol for download of reconfiguration software, from various software sources, these sources include Smart Cards, wired outlets and Over-The-Air. Furthermore, an object-oriented framework for flexible, 'on-the-fly' protocol exchange has been developed; the mechanisms and architecture of this framework are described within this thesis. Combining protocol reconfiguration, software download and distributed platforms and focusing on control and management of reconfiguration have led to the design and definition of a reconfiguration management architecture. Functionality and structure of this architecture are documented, and its single modules are described. Providing means and mechanisms enabling management and control of reconfiguration within reconfigureable mobile communication networks is the purpose of this thesis. KM, Guildford, July 2001 Key words: reconfiguration, reconfiguration management. Software Radio, object-orientation, middleware, CORBA, Universal Control CHannel.


Swamp buffalo is the most high-value animal in North Toraja Regency culture, in addition to being a work animal and transaction tools are also used as offerings in the ceremony signs solo' and signs tuka' North Toraja society. The purpose of this study was to describe the variation of the District Rantepao buffalo genotypes and North Toraja Regency Tikala using microsatellite developed as a multimedia course Analysis Techniques for Molecular Biology at the State University of Malang.Stages in this study include descriptive exploratory research phase and the development phase of multimedia for learning media. Observations of genetic variation patterns do start stage followed by DNA isolation using agarose gel electrophoresis was performed after PCR using HEL 09 and INRA 032 was followed by gel electrophoresis polyacrilamid. Electrophoresis obtained from the gel bands were then analyzed using the results of research genepop.Analysis of interactive multimedia development using media expert validation of a questionnaire shows the effectiveness of 91.67%, 87.50% the attractiveness, interactivity efficiency 100% and 91.67% with qualifying very well. For validation of learning materials experts show presentation purposes 95%, 89.29% material, the effectiveness of 83.33 and 93.75% interactivity with excellent qualifications. Analysis of a small group test with a sample of 12 people was 80.60% with good qualifications. Interactive media that had been developed can be used by lecturers and students biology education courses to better understand the basic principles and appropriate procedures in the course of TABM. Keywords : buffalo, interactive multimedia, genetic variation


Magnetic cobalt spinel ferrite nanoparticles coated with biocompatible polygalacturonic acid were functionalized with ligands specific for targeting expressed EphA2 receptors on ovarian cancer cells. By using such magnetic nanoparticle-peptide conjugates, targeting and extraction of malignant cells were achieved with a magnetic field. Targeting ovarian cancer cells with receptor specific peptide-modified magnetic nanoparticles resulted in cell capture from a flow stream in vitro and from the peritoneal cavity of mice in vivo. Successful removal of metastatic cancer cells from the abdominal cavity and circulation using magnetic nanoparticle conjugates indicate the feasibility of a dialysis-like treatment and may improve long-term survival rates of ovarian cancer patients. This approach can be applied for fighting other cancers, such as leukemia, once the receptors on malignant cells are identified and the efficacy of targeting ligands is established.


Purpose of review To highlight the potential importance of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) and advanced-lipoxidation endproducts (ALEs) in obesity and obesity-related complications, and the contribution of the receptor for advanced glycation endproducts (RAGE) and the glyoxylase defense system therein. Recent findings Formation of AGEs/ALEs and its precursors, including methylglyoxal (MGO), are increased in conditions characterized by hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia and enhanced oxidative stress. This metabolic profile is generally considered typical for obesity. Increased plasma and/or tissue levels of MGO and of specific AGEs/ALEs, such as N&egr;-(carboxymethyl)lysine (CML), in obesity have recently been described. In addition to increased formation, the suppressed defense system in obesity against AGEs/ALEs formation, that is, the glyoxylase system, will further contribute to AGEs/ALEs formation in obesity. AGEs/ALEs are not inert. In-vitro studies showed that AGEs induced the production of inflammatory mediators in adipocytes and macrophages via RAGE activation, which may subsequently contribute to the development of obesity-related complications. Summary The recognition of an enhanced AGEs/ALEs formation in adipose tissue and the biological consequences thereof may lead to a further understanding of underlying mechanisms in dysregulated production of adipokines in obesity.


Phytophthora sojae is a pathogenic oomycete that infects soybean seedlings as well as stems and roots of established plants, costing growers $1–2 billion per year. Due to its economic importance, P. sojae has become a model for the study of oomycete genetics, physiology and pathology. Despite the availability of several genome sequences, the lack of efficient techniques for targeted mutagenesis and gene replacement have long hampered genetic studies of pathogenicity in Phytophthora species. Here, we describe a CRISPR/Cas9 system enabling rapid and efficient genome editing in P. sojae. Using the RXLR effector gene Avr4/6 as target, we observed that in the absence of a homologous template, the repair of Cas9-induced double-strand breaks (DSBs) in P. sojae was mediated by non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), primarily resulting in short indels. Most mutants were homozygous, presumably due to gene conversion triggered by Cas9-mediated cleavage of non-mutant alleles. When donor DNA was present, homology directed repair (HDR) was observed, which resulted in the replacement of the target gene with the donor DNA. By testing the specific virulence of several NHEJ mutants and HDR -mediated gene replacements on soybeans, we have validated the contribution of Avr4/6 to recognition by soybean R gene loci, Rps4 and Rps6, but also uncovered additional contributions to resistance by these two loci. Our results establish a powerful tool for studying functional genomics in Phytophthora, which provides new avenues for better control of this pathogen.


Within Australia there are 19 endemic species of Anseriformes. Six of these belong to monotypic genera, some of which remain controversial with respect to phylogenetic relationships. Sequence variation in a 307-base pair fragment of the cytochrome-b gene was compared from 23 species of waterfowl (the Cairina sequence was obtained from the literature) to elucidate further the relationships of these monotypic Australian genera. Anseranas and Dendrocygna were identified as the earliest diverged genera among the taxa examined. The remaining genera fell into two groups: (1) Tadorna, Alopochen, Chenonetta, Anas, Aythya, Cairina and Air and (2) Cygnus, Branta, Cereopsis, Biziura, Oxyura, Malacorhynchus, Stictonetta and Nettapus. The controversial nature of the last group is discussed.


Economic growth is an explicit economic, social and certainly political goal in almost every nation. However, comprehensive and independent research and scientific findings provide compelling evidence that the growth of the global economy is not sustainable because it consumes many of the environmental services that underpin the production of goods and services (Tietenberg,1998)). There is a growing realization that economic growth does not necessarily go hand-in-hand with growth in the well-being of people. Standard measures of economic output such as Gross National Product (GNP), in most cases, do not reflect the growing disparity between rich and poor in most nations (UNDP, 1996) or the environmental degradation which diminishes the health of the people, communities, ecosystems and the economy (Daly, 1998).


The recent financial regulations on leveraged financing have focused on the area of risk management, specifically, underwriting standards, timely reporting of work-in-progress transactions, valuation methods, and reporting and analysis. Therefore, now is an opportune time to analyze the structure and the attributes of leveraged lease financing. This article analyzes domestic leveraged leases, or DLLs, using the displaced equity method. Specifically, the article examines the financial and related issues that a lessor needs to evaluate when financing an asset utilizing the DLL. Finally, it illustrates the evaluation of a DLL utilizing a spreadsheet model with an example that derives cash flows, identifies the critical variables, and evaluates their impact on the rate of return to the lessor.


Antigen arrays are becoming widely used tools for the characterization of the complexity of humoral immune responses. Current antibody profiling techniques provide modest and indirect information about the effector functions of the antibodies that bind to particular antigens. Here we introduce an antigen array‐based approach for obtaining immune profiles reflecting antibody functionality. This technology relies on the parallel measurement of antibody binding and complement activation by features of the array. By comparing sera from animals immunized against the same antigen under different conditions, we show that identifying the position of an antigen in a 2‐D space, derived from antibody binding and complement deposition, permits distinction between immune profiles characterized by diverse antibody isotype distributions. Additionally, the technology provides a biologically interpretable graphical representation of the relationship between antigen and host. Our data suggest that 2‐D immune profiling could enrich the data obtained from proteomic scale serum profiling studies.


Where a reader's eyes fixate within a word influences how accurately and quickly a word is recognized. Mapping performance against fixation within a word gives the "viewing position (VP) curve," which has an inverted-U shape with better recognition at word beginning than end and best recognition at a fixation slightly left-of-center (optimal viewing position, OVP). There are data supporting each of the major, non-mutually exclusive accounts of these VP asymmetries: informativeness, cerebral laterality, and perceptual learning. However, none of them can explain why reverse VP asymmetries have not been observed. It is my thesis that these issues are in large part because stimulus and reader characteristics both are critical in visual word recognition. We addressed the issues by using a target discrimination task in a VP paradigm for a variety of more-or-less word-like strings. Behavioral results show (1) all strings yield an U-shaped VP curve; (2) all but strings with no letter-like features show a beginning-vs-end VP asymmetry, ruling out an account based wholly on either informativeness or left cerebral specialization for word processing; (3) only words exhibit a left-to-center OVP, suggesting cerebral laterality and/or informativeness may play a role; (4) perceptual learning also falls short of explaining the deleterious effect on performance of the number of characters in the target's VF (i.e., visual crowding). Using event-related potentials, our investigation on the neural mechanisms of the VP effects find (1) the continuity of fovea to parafoveal processing assumption, required for the cerebral laterality account, however, interacts with VF, and (2) an electrophysiological index of the OVP effect in the early sensory P1 component. Compared to prior research, we use a broader range of stimulus types, at more locations in visual space, in a target discrimination task, thereby affording a not only finer-grained analysis of the VP curve but also filling significant empirical gaps. For the first time, we dissociate the beginning-vs-end and OVP asymmetries, and further uncover an important role for an unexamined factor: visual crowding. Moreover, by filling these empirical gaps, we provide additional constraints on any empirically adequate account and conclude that no current alternative is wholly satisfactory.


The exploration of differences between women and men is an important aspect of time-use research. Although some of this work raises sophisticated methodological issues around the measurement and identification of different activities, most researchers seem to accept 'common sense' assumptions about the nature of reality, treating sex/gender as a self-evident and straightforward category and assuming that there are objectively correct answers to the question of how people spend their time.
This paper draws on recent developments in feminist theory to question such assumptions. It problematises attempts to identify what an individual is doing in any time-period, and explores ideas around the instability, construction and performance of gender roles to consider how these affect both the performance and reporting of particular activities. It concludes that such theoretical issues have practical implications for both empirical researchers and policy makers.


Experimental results from microbeam analyses on divertor tiles, through 2011-2012 and 2013-2014 operations in JET-ILW, showed that the deuterium retention and beryllium impurity deposition were non-uniform on the rough surface in micro meter scale. Frequently, Be and D were accumulated within pits, cracks and valleys in the range of ∼10 μm to ∼100 μm and selectively at side slopes within larger pits. In the deposited layers, it was also observed that cylindrical structures grow in a specific direction with respect to the magnetic field. In this work, a sample from the divertor in JET-ILW following 2013-2014 operation was analysed. The surface topography was measured with the focus stacking technique on photos from optical microscope and elemental distribution maps were obtained by micro-ion-beam analysis. In order to figure out the effect of ion gyro motion on Be and D deposition on the real divertor topography, a modelling of ion trajectories in plasma boundary was performed. Ion beam analysis data suggested that D accumulated on higher areas on the sample, while Be stayed on lower positions. The gyration of ions in edge plasma and corresponding impact positions on the sample surface could explain some IBA results qualitatively.


In this current marketplace, where consumers are becoming increasingly health conscious, natural products are increasingly promoting environmental and health related issues to the customers with a promise to enhance their quality of life. For luxury natural products, this effort is growing ever more robust due to the assurance of product quality and consumer awareness of environmental issues. Despite the significant grow thin the market for luxury natural products in Thailand, at present, little is known as to whether varying degrees of environmental and health consciousness will impact purchasing behavior. Data was collected from325 Thai consumers in a capital city in Thailand using a purposive judgment sample. The results show that environmental and health consciousness does have positive and significant impacts on consumers' repurchase intention of luxury natural products. The empirical results and findings from this study will be valuable for business practitioners in the luxury natural products industry, to help formulate marketing strategies and facilitate industry development.


Abstract Nocturnal cooling and daytime heating in a basin were studied on clear and calm days by means of heat budget observations. In the nighttime, drainage flow occurs along the basin sideslope and advects cold air to the boundary layer over the basin bottom (BBL), intensifying the cooling rate of the layer. A nocturnal cold air lake develops in the basin, attaining a depth nearly equal to the topographical depth of the basin. Heat budget analysis of the whole basin surface shows that net radiative flux closely balances with sensible heat flux and ground heat conduction. In the daytime, the BBL is warmed not only by sensible heat flux from the surface of the basin bottom, but also by local subsidence heating. This local subsidence above the basin bottom depresses development of the convective boundary layer until the nocturnal cold air lake vanishes completely. The subsidence velocity increases with time after sunrise. Over the whole basin surface, net radiative flux closely balances with sensible and ...


In this paper, we study the model selection and structure specification for the generalised semi-varying coefficient models (GSVCMs), where the number of potential covariates is allowed to be larger than the sample size.We first propose a penalised likelihood method with the LASSO penalty function to obtain the preliminary estimates of the functional coefficients. Then, using the quadratic approximation for the local log-likelihood function and the adaptive group LASSO penalty (or the local linear approximation of the group SCAD penalty) with the help of the preliminary estimation of the functional coefficients, we introduce a novel penalised weighted least squares procedure to select the significant covariates and identify the constant coefficients among the coefficients of the selected covariates, which could thus specify the semiparametric modelling structure. The developed model selection and structure specification approach not only inherits many nice statistical properties from the local maximum likelihood estimation and nonconcave penalised likelihood method, but also computationally attractive thanks to the computational algorithm that is proposed to implement our method. Under some mild conditions, we establish the asymptotic properties for the proposed model selection and estimation procedure such as the sparsity and oracle property.We also conduct simulation studies to examine the finite sample performance of the proposed method, and finally apply the method to analyse a real data set, which leads to some interesting findings.


Public policy has been a prisoner of the word "state." Yet, the state is reconfigured by globalization. Through "global public–private partnerships" and "transnational executive networks," new forms of authority are emerging through global and regional policy processes that coexist alongside nation-state policy processes. Accordingly, this article asks what is "global public policy"? The first part of the article identifies new public spaces where global policies occur. These spaces are multiple in character and variety and will be collectively referred to as the "global agora." The second section adapts the conventional policy cycle heuristic by conceptually stretching it to the global and regional levels to reveal the higher degree of pluralization of actors and multiple-authority structures than is the case at national levels. The third section asks: who is involved in the delivery of global public policy? The focus is on transnational policy communities. The global agora is a public space of policymaking and administration, although it is one where authority is more diffuse, decision making is dispersed and sovereignty muddled. Trapped by methodological nationalism and an intellectual agoraphobia of globalization, public policy scholars have yet to examine fully global policy processes and new managerial modes of transnational public administration.


Much of the narial anatomy of the enigmatic antelope Saiga tatarica has been described by previous workers. However, the anatomy of the nasal cavity and the causally associated osteological correlates of proboscis structure require closer attention, because these data are integral for both a more comprehensive understanding of saiga functional morphology and more robust reconstructions of proboscis structure in fossil taxa. Saiga and outgroup specimens were subjected to X-ray computed tomographic (CT) imaging, gross dissection and skeletonization. The nasal cavity of saiga is characterized by an enlarged nasal vestibule and basal conchal fold. Many structures (e.g. turbinates, lateral cartilages, mucosal folds, nasolacrimal duct) are retracted caudally to a small area in the caudodorsal part of the nasal cavity proper. The enlarged vestibule is associated laterally and ventrally with paired sacs. The nasal septum is largely membranous and contains a large patch of cavernous tissue that serves as a dynamic baffle modifying the flow of inspired air. Bones comprising the narial margin have modified attachment sites for buccinator group muscles and the reduced lateral cartilages. The premaxilla is greatly modified by the enlarged musculature associated with nasolabial fusion. Maintenance of the topological relationships of narial structures compared to bovid outgroups has resulted in a nasal cavity with much larger area for seromucous glands of the vestibule as well as narial musculature capable of controlling the aperture of the nasal cavity. Maxillolabial muscles and the lateralis nasi act together both to compress the nasal cavity and to control the dilation of the nostrils such that air flow through the cavity is highly modified relative to bovid outgroups. The lateral vestibular recess is an outpocketing of the nasal vestibule that produces supplementary seromucous secretions and seems to have no homologue among outgroups. The enlarged nasal vestibule, lateral vestibular recess, repositioned basal fold, and septal cavernous mass are regarded as a coordinated adaptation to dusty habitats, such that nasal air flow can be dynamically regulated allowing for collection of inspired particulates in the vestibule and thus cleansing of air destined for the lungs.


Herein, the design of linear dispersion codes for block based multiple-input multiple-output communication systems is investigated. The receiver as well as the transmitter are assumed to have perfect knowledge of the channel, and the receiver is assumed to employ maximum likelihood detection. We propose to use linear precoding and lattice invariant operations to transform the channel matrix into a lattice with large coding gain. With appropriate approximations, it is shown that this corresponds to selecting lattices with good sphere packing properties. Lattice invariant transformations are then used to minimize the power consumption. An algorithm for this power minimization is presented along with a lower bound on the optimization. Numerical results indicate that there is a potential gain of several dB by using the method compared to channel inversion with adaptive bit loading.


MODUM (Models for Optimising Dynamic Urban Mobility) is a European Commission 7th Framework (FP7) project that aims to develop a new optimisation approach to traffic management, capable of dynamically adapting the overall flows of traffic to unexpected disturbances to minimise carbon emissions within an urban complex environment. In particular, MODUM employs the multi-agent system paradigm, which is used in a novel setting, i.e., for distributed coordination and forecasting (of, e.g., travel times) by means of self-organising virtual ants. In addition, multi-modal solutions are provided through a noticeboard and bidding approach using real-time data and declared destinations. The system syntheses both approaches into a single integrated model, incorporating the many telecommunication challenges of a realistic demonstrator. As there are many components in the system, we also provide an evaluation and validation framework that asserts that the software is of high quality, the traffic models are verified to reproduce realistic phenomena, and the definition of parameters and indicators for setting up and carrying out field trials. These take place in the cities of Nottingham (United Kingdom) and Sofia (Bulgary). There, a series of simulation experiments of realistic complexity are constructed using historical and real-time data feeds available from available transport sensing infrastructure.


This letter presents a reflectarray antenna composed of a combination of concentric open rings and an I-shaped dipole on a conductor-backed substrate. Two classes of elements with different variable dimensional parameters are introduced to realize linear phase-frequency characteristic in a wide frequency band and a phase range of over 360° . It is worth noting that the wideband performance is figured by the proposed reflectarray with a low profile of 0.065λ0 ( λ0 is the free-space wavelength at the center frequency), rather than thick substrate employed in common wideband designs. A prototype is fabricated and measured to verify the availability of the elements, and the measured results show good agreement with simulations.


The role of endothelium and its biologically active derivatives in the central and local control of circulation is under consideration. Molecular and cellular mechanisms of the activation of the endothelium-dependent responses of different functional significance are being discussed, as well as the state of endothelial responses in the development and compensation of pathological processes in the cardiovascular system.