Background: Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) cause significant morbidity and mortality following arthroplasty. A seasonal variation in the rate of PE in arthroplasty patients in the northern hemisphere has been reported. We hypothesized that there would be a similar seasonal variation in arthroplasty patients in Australia. Methods: We performed a retrospective review of all patients who received primary and/or revision arthroplasty of the hip or knee over a 15-year period (2000–2015) across Western Australia. We identified all patients who were diagnosed with DVT and/or PE according to International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision, Australian Modification codes. The incidence of venous thromboembolic (VTE) disease was calculated as the proportion of operations that led to this complication per 3-month seasonal period. Results: A total of 12,507 total hip arthroplasties (THAs) and 8899 total knee arthroplasties (TKAs) were recorded during the study period. There was a total of 274 DVT and/or PE among the combined total of 21,406 hip and knee arthroplasties performed between 2000 and 2015. There was a significantly higher rate of VTE for females than males (odds ratio (OR): 1.33, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03–1.71, p = 0.0293), for TKA than THA (OR: 1.60, 95% CI:1.26–2.03, p < 0.0001) and in winter than other seasons (OR: 1.51, 95% CI: 1.14–2.01, p = 0.0047). Conclusion: There is a statistically significant increase in the incidence of VTE in arthroplasty patients during the winter months in Western Australia. This finding is the first of its kind for patients in the southern hemisphere and corroborates previous studies in the northern hemisphere.


The effect of dynamic fatigue loading on the carpet samples subjected to long-time UV radiation exposure has beenstudied. The carpet samples are first subjected to different UV exposure time and then dynamic loading is imposed to thesamples. In each case, the thickness loss of the carpets is measured. The results show that the UV exposure time has a slighteffect on the thickness loss of the carpets. The number of dynamic impacts, on the other hand, shows a significant effect onthe thickness loss with an exponential correlation. Using best curve fitting method based on least square method,a predicting equation is derived for the multiple effect of UV exposure time and number of dynamic loading on the thicknessloss. The experimental verification reveals that the proposed predicting equation can be used with an acceptable accuracy.


The Western honeybee, Apis mellifera, is an economically important insect, responsible for a large portion of global pollination services. They live in densely populated colonies, which give the optimum chance for opportunistic pathogens and parasites to spread. Honeybees, like all organisms, are subject to a wide range of threats, from viruses to parasites. The immune response of A. mellifera to these threats relies on a fast acting non-adaptive immunity, with effectors such as cellular defences and the release of antimicrobial peptides. The defence against invading pathogens and parasites is important not only for the individual bee, but for the colony as a whole. Many bee diseases have been shown as capable of causing collapse of honeybee colonies.
The first section of this thesis examines the occurrence and prevalence of four honeybee viruses (Deformed wing virus, Chronic bee paralysis virus, Acute bee paralysis virus, Israeli acute paralysis virus), the microsporidian parasite Nosema, and the parasitic tracheal mite, Acarapis woodi. The results from all seasons indicated a very low prevalence of the tracheal mite, with only 2% of the colonies testing postive in the Spring sampling, with none positive in the Summer or Autumn samples. Deformed wing virus was detected at very high levels throughout the year, with Israeli acute paralysis virus detected in the Autumn round of sampling in 3% of the tested colonies. The other two viruses were not detected. Levels of Nosema were also high throughout the year, at 18%, 6% and 12% of the colonies testing positive in the Spring, Summer and Autumn respectively. The results indicated no obvious disease variations present in the colonies tested from apiaries that lost more than 20% of their hives during the Winter post sampling than those that had lost less than 20%.
The next section was to examine the mechanisms by which one of the most serious threats to the honeybee, the parasitic mite V. destructor, has developed resistance to pyrethroid chemicals. Varroa are thought to have a negative impact in the overall health and vitality of the bee, transmitting viruses through haemolymph feeding and possibly weakening the immune response of the bee. Proteomic analysis was used to compare the proteomic profile of sensitive and resistant mites, in order to observe any variations that may be conferring the resistant phenotype. The comparison showed that a number of proteins were detected at higher levels of abundance in the resistant mites, such as heat shock proteins and detoxifying enzymes such as aldehyde dehydrogenase.
A number of proteins present at lower levels include cuticle proteins involved in cuticle structure. The altered levels of these proteins in the resistant Varroa could be conferring resistance through decreased penetration and increased metabolism of the pyrethroid.
In the final section, the full effect that parasitization by Varroa has on the bee was examined. Parasitized Winter bees were compared to unparasitized and the proteomic profiles were analysed for changes. Hexmerin was present at lower levels in the bees that were parasitized, as was enolase-like protein. The decreased level of these proteins indicates Varroa parasitisation could lead to insufficient energy metabolism. Drone pupae that were parasitized by Varroa were compared to unparasitized drones using proteomic analysis. Cuticle proteins decreased in abundance which could indicate a compromised healing response following parasitization. A number of proteins involved in energy and nutrition such as hexamerin were also present at lower levels of abundance in the parasitized drone pupae. Similar proteins decreased in abundance in parasitized workers. Cuticle structure proteins were present at lower levels of abundance, with proteins involved in the stress response present at higher levels in the parasitized workers. Quantitative PCR analysis of parasitized drone and worker pupae indicated a reduced level of two immune genes – Abaecin and Defensin, with two other immune related genes increased in expression: Phenoloxidase and Hymenoptaecin. Changes in the expression of immune related genes following parasitization indicates that Varroa are affecting how the immune reposnse functions. To idenitify whether or not this change in the immune reponse was caused by salivary effectors secreted by the mite during feeding, the haemolymph from parasitized pupae was compared using label free proteomics to haemolymph from unparasitized pupae. A number of proteins were found exclusive to the parasitized haemolymph, including a mettalloendopeptidase which is found in other blood feeding insects and could be functioning in the digestion of haemolymph. Sox 14, a regulator of transcription, was also exclusively present in the parasitized haemolymph.
The work presented throughout this thesis offers a comprehensive analysis of the diseases found in honeybee colonies, the effect that parasitization by Varroa has on adult and developing pupae, and analysis of the pyrethoid resistant phenotype. The results offer an explanation as to why Varroa are considered one of the most serious
honeybee threats, and highlights the importance of controlling infestation levels in colonies.


The paper discusses the terminology behind batik crafting and showed the aspects of self-similarity in its ornaments. Even though a product of batik cannot be reduced merely into its decorative properties, it is shown that computation can capture some interesting aspects in the batik-making ornamentation. There are three methods that can be exploited to the generative batik, i.e.: using fractal as the main source of decorative patterns, the hybrid batik that is emerged from the acquisition of L-System Thue-Morse algorithm for the harmonization within the grand designs by using both fractal images and traditional batik patterns, and using the random image tessellation as well as previous tiling algorithms for generating batik designs. The latest can be delivered by using a broad sources of motifs and traditionally recognized graphics. The paper concludes with certain aspects that shows how the harmony of traditional crafting and modern computation could bring us a more creative aspects of the beautiful harmony inherited in the aesthetic aspects of batik crafting.


Since initially steaming from von Thunen`s work (1826), bid-rent approach has been rigorously applied to analyze land use configuration. Alonso (1964), Muth (1969), Beckman (1973), Solow (1973), and Fujita (1989) are among the scientists who greatly contributed to forward von Thunen`s theory into complexities in urban context. Particularly Fujita (1989) has showed solution of a utility optimizing problem to define the bid-rent function which gives the maximum ability of households to pay land under a fixed utility and at distance from the Central Business District (CBD). The bid rent concept provides richer analysis of the locational choice of households in the city. Our study considered a small-medium city in a developing country located in tropics where a massive deforestation and river flood significantly jeopardize some areas in the city. It is Palangkaraya city in Central Kalimantan province, Indonesia. There are two types of land classified in the city. One is called normal land where the river flood is not able to inundate while another one is namely flood prone areas. The flood prone areas are occupied by settlements which are mostly illegal. Here illegal settlement refers to those kinds of settlements which were built on parcels with no legal clearance on land ownership including those which were constructed without building permission (Kapoor &Blanc, 2008). This paper aims to analyze a configuration of the residential land use pattern in Palangkaraya city in Indonesia applying bid-rent approach which incorporated the expected flood damage rate (EFDR) on household assets. The EFDR is employed to predict the damage by the river flood since flood occurrences are stochastic and such appropriate data on flood occurrences is not available. Previously Permana and Miyata (2009) showed a partial equilib-rium urban economic model, introducing the EFDR. However we realize that the partial equilibrium model slightly lack of reality since income is assumed to be exogenously given. Hence we develop a general equilibrium model taking into account firms in the Central Business District (CBD), and by incorporating the expected damage rate on household`s asset, the new bid rent function and bid max lot size function are obtained. Applying the general equilibrium modeling approach, one can derive the conclusion that the bid rents by low income households get higher than those by high income households in flood prone areas. This is the contrary conclusion being highlighted as compared with that in the traditional urban economics.


Super-Earths and mini-Neptunes are the most abundant types of planets among the ∼3500 confirmed exoplanets, and are expected to exhibit a wide variety of atmospheric compositions. Recent transmission spectra of super-Earths and mini-Neptunes have demonstrated the possibility that exoplanets have haze/cloud layers at high altitudes in their atmospheres. However, the compositions, size distributions, and optical properties of these particles in exoplanet atmospheres are poorly understood. Here, we present the results of experimental laboratory investigations of photochemical haze formation within a range of planetary atmospheric conditions, as well as observations of the color and size of produced haze particles. We find that atmospheric temperature and metallicity strongly affect particle color and size, thus altering the particles' optical properties (e.g., absorptivity, scattering, etc.); on a larger scale, this affects the atmospheric and surface temperature of the exoplanets, and their potential habitability. Our results provide constraints on haze formation and particle properties that can serve as critical inputs for exoplanet atmosphere modeling, and guide future observations of super-Earths and mini-Neptunes with the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope.


Our previous study indicates that global ischemia facilitates the assembly of the GluR6.PSD-95.MLK3 signaling module, which in turn activated MLK3, leading to exacerbated ischemic neuron death. In addition, JIP1, functioning as a scaffold protein, could couple MLK3-MKK7-JNK to form a specific signaling module and facilitate the activation of the JNK signal pathway. However, the organization, regulation, and function between the two signaling modules and the effects they have on MLK3 activation remain incompletely understood. Here, we show that JIP1 maintains MLK3 in an inactive and monomeric state; once activated, MLK3 binds to PSD-95 and then dimerizes and autophosphorylates. In addition, a GluR6 C-terminus-containing peptide (Tat-GluR6-9c) and antisense oligonucleotides (AS-ODNs) against PSD-95 inhibit the integration of PSD-95 and MLK3 and the dimerization of MLK3, facilitate the interaction of JIP1 and MLK3, and, consequently, perform neuroprotection on neuron death. However, AS-ODNs against JIP1 play a negative role compared to that mentioned above. The findings show that the crosstalk occurs between PSD-95 and the JIP1-mediated signaling module, which may be involved in brain ischemic injury and contribute to the regulation of MLK3 activation. Thus, specific blockade of PSD-95-MLK3 coupling may reduce the extent of ischemia-reperfusion-induced neuronal cell death.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the cross-sectional associations of monitor-derived measures of sedentary time and physical activity with performance-based physical function in healthy Australian adults. Data from 602 participants (mean age 58.1±10.0 years; 58% female) from the 2011/12 wave of the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle (AusDiab3) study were analyzed. The thigh-worn activPAL3™ monitor (7-days continuous wear) was used to derive time during waking hours spent: sitting/reclining; standing; and, stepping (overall, and separately as light [<3 METs] and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity [MVPA; ≥3 METs]), and number of sit-stand transitions. Associations of these (in hours/day, or 15 transitions/day) with physical function measures (8ft Timed Up and Go [TUG-8; log-transformed seconds] and Knee Extensor Strength [KES; kg]) were tested via linear regression, adjusting for confounders. Interactions by sex and age-category (<45; 45–54; 55–64; ≥65 years) were tested. In all participants, KES was significantly (p<0.05) associated with stepping and MVPA stepping only; none of the activity measures were associated with TUG-8. However, subgroup analysis revealed that in older adults (≥65 years), TUG-8 was associated with stepping and MVPA stepping (both p<0.05). All associations with sitting time, standing, sit-stand transition and sex interactions were not statistically significant. In summary, sitting time was not significantly associated with impaired muscle strength or gait/mobility in Australian adults aged 36–80 years, but light- to moderate activity (stepping) was positively associated with muscle strength, and gait/mobility in older adults aged ≥65 years. The direction of causation is not known and remains important to investigate considering the high prevalence of both poor function and limited activity in older age.


A minimal model of a tidewater glacier based solely on mass conservation is compared with two one-dimensional numerical flowline models, one with the calving rate proportional to water depth, and the other with the flotation criterion as a boundary condition at the glacier terminus. The models were run with two simplified bed geometries and two mass-balance formulations. The models simulate the full cycle of length variations and the equilibrium states for a tidewater glacier. This study shows that the branching of the equilibrium states depends significantly on the bed geometry. The similarity between the results of the three models indicates that if there is a submarine undulation at the terminus of a tidewater glacier, any model in which the frontal ice loss is related to the water depth yields qualitatively the same non-linear behaviour. For large glaciers extending into deep water, the flotation model causes unrealistic behaviour.


The transitional increase of the elderly population is is an issue and pose a challenge to the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) in ensuring their well-being. One of the approaches undertaken by the DSW is the establishment of the 'Pusat Aktiviti Warga Emas' (PAWE) which is in accordance with the The National Policy For Older Persons and Plan of Action For Older Persons. However, there is no empirical studies conducted on the role and effectiveness of PAWE since its inception in 2001.
Therefore, this study aims to; a) assess the level of well-being of the elderly who attend events conducted in PAWE; b) examine the differences of well-being of the elderly based on the demographic factors; c) study the relationship between the
effectiveness of PAWE and the well-being of the elderly; and d) to examine the roles and responsibilities of PAWE management in order to ensure the elderly's well-being. The study was conducted at three locations and used both quantitative as well qualitative approaches. A total of 78 respondents were selected based on
convenience sampling techniques to answer the Older Persons Quality Of Life (OPQOL) questionnaire and six of the centers' managers were interviewed. The
results of the quantitative analysis found that the majority of the respondents have a high level of well-being while the rest said to have a moderate level. There is a significant difference of well-being which is based on the marital status. There is a positive relationship between the effectiveness of the program and the well-being of
the respondents. The results also found that the roles and responsibilities of management practices are in line with the PAWE guidelines provided by the DSWM. The results of this study showed that the activities at PAWE were correlated to the
well-being of the elderly in Malaysia. Accordingly, specific policies and improvement of PAWE program are needed to consolidate services for the elderly


Referring expression comprehension (REC) and segmentation (RES) are two highly-related tasks, which both aim at identifying the referent according to a natural language expression. In this paper, we propose a novel Multi-task Collaborative Network (MCN) to achieve a joint learning of REC and RES for the first time. In MCN, RES can help REC to achieve better language-vision alignment, while REC can help RES to better locate the referent. In addition, we address a key challenge in this multi-task setup, i.e., the prediction conflict, with two innovative designs namely, Consistency Energy Maximization (CEM) and Adaptive Soft Non-Located Suppression (ASNLS). Specifically, CEM enables REC and RES to focus on similar visual regions by maximizing the consistency energy between two tasks. ASNLS supresses the response of unrelated regions in RES based on the prediction of REC. To validate our model, we conduct extensive experiments on three benchmark datasets of REC and RES, i.e., RefCOCO, RefCOCO+ and RefCOCOg. The experimental results report the significant performance gains of MCN over all existing methods, i.e., up to +7.13% for REC and +11.50% for RES over SOTA, which well confirm the validity of our model for joint REC and RES learning.


Failure to adapt in a military setting is seen as a multidimensional problem. In what has become a highly structured technologic environment, adolescents from disadvantaged backgrounds find themselves unable to compete successfully for status. The result is often frustration, increasing alienation, and lowered self-esteem, followed by ineffective performance and antisocial behavior. The noncareer, military psychiatrist is frequently asked to evaluate such servicemen, but, like his adolescent patient, he too may be struggling to adjust to the military milieu. A preventive approach is suggested for the problems of both. "First-termers" at risk of failure within the military system, must be encouraged to develop their potential and advance out of jobs that sap their self-esteem. For the first-term psychiatrist, maintenance of professional self-esteem may entail helping this come about.


Regional traffic models used for transportation planning in Sweden, such as the national modelling system Sampers, use different multinomial logit models to forecast travel demand and modal split for different trip purposes. However they do no account for the fact that the value of time varies within a population of travellers making a trip with the same purpose or the fact that the price can differ between different transit lines (bus, regional trains, etc). The cost for transit trips in these models does, as a rule, only depend on the origin and destination of the trip. This makes analyses of the impact of changes in headway, price structure and alignment of route not entirely reliable. This paper develops a new mode choice and transit route choice model for work trips. Two mode choice models, one binomial logit (BNL) and one mixed binomial logit (MXL) model with a lognormally distributed cost parameter, have been estimated using revealed preference data for work trips in Stockholm County during 2005. The mode choice models include the car and transit modes. While the BNL model implies a single value of time, the MXL specification makes it possible to capture some of the variation in the value of time. The transit route choice model rests on the assumption that transit commuters purchase travel passes that are valid for a certain time period, e.g. a month. The travel pass then allows the traveller to use a certain set of transit lines, while others may not be available. The traveller will chose the travel pass that maximizes the traveller's utility given his/hers value of time. For the mode choice, the traveller compares travel cost and time with the chosen pass with the travel cost and time by car. Using the newly developed models, three different methods for calculating the number of car and transit work trips and the distribution of the transit trips on different transit routes have been tested using the EMME software for network assignment. The first method (BASE- BNL) implements the BNL model for mode choice and uses the same algorithm for transit assignment as in the conventional regional traffic models in Sweden where all transit lines are available and have the same cost given origin and destination. The second method (PASS-BNL) includes a deterministic choice of travel pass based on the estimated common value of time in the population and on the cost and travel time with each pass. For the transit assignment only the lines associated with the selected transit pass are available. The third method (PASS-MXL) builds on PASS-BNL, but uses a continuous distribution for the value of time instead of the average value in the population. For the testing of the three methods an area consisting of the central parts of Stockholm County and the neighbouring city of Uppsala was chosen. In the tests, changes were made regarding alignment, headway and price for one of the major transit lines. The results show that all three methods give similar changes of the transit mode share. However, the changes in the number of boardings on the transit line undergoing changes differed substantially between the methods, especially BASE-MNL gave different results that the other two methods. Also calculated changes in ticket income for the public transport operator and the economic benefits of the changes differed substantially between the three methods. Therefore, the results indicate that if the interest is in overall mode share and overall travel flows the conventional method in Swedish transport modelling will suffice but if the interest is more detailed, for example concerning boardings and ticket income from a certain transit line, or the total benefit of price change, the PASS-MXL (and sometimes the PASS-BNL) method will give more reliable results.


This paper examines pre-service teachers' reflection on teaching after participating in an online course using videos of micro-skills coupled with self reflection and group blogs. Data sources included 137 online blog entries collected from 26 participants as well as semi-structured interviews with the participants at the end of the course. Larrivee's (2008) four levels of reflection (pre, surface, pedagogical and critical) were used to code the online reflections and content analysis of the participants' views of teaching was carried out with the interview transcripts. Analysis of online reflections showed that 67% of the reflection by pre-service teachers' falls in the pedagogical category and 2% in the critical category. These findings show that these pre-service teachers are capable of engaging in reflection beyond a surface level even with limited classroom experience. The resources that these pre-service teachers used to make sense of teaching are (1) their knowledge of learning theories; (2) their ideas of teachers' roles and responsibilities; and (3) their existing ideas of what makes good teaching. The pre-service teachers' reflection upon their learning showed evidence of willingness to incorporate the learnt ideas of good teaching in their future classrooms teaching. The use of micro-skills videos and reflection allowed them to restructure their pedagogical knowledge through identification, comparison, modification and synthesising.


Background:The demand for critical care services in the United States is likely to increase as a result of the aging of the population and standards from the Leapfrog Group for intensivist physician staffing. However, the demand for critical care physicians, nurses, and other health professionals will significantly outpace supply because of severe shortages. Participants:This article summarizes recommendations from the Framing Options for Critical Care in the United States (FOCCUS) Task Force, a group comprised of representatives from the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, the College of Chest Physicians, and the American Thoracic Society, to prevent a crisis in American critical care services. Data Sources and Process:Relevant literature was systematically searched by the representatives of each of the professional societies and synthesized with other sources, including official policy statements and guidelines from each of the professional societies, published review articles, expert opinion, nonrandomized historical cohort investigations, and other pertinent studies and sources. Consensus to identify the likely causes of the impending shortfall in critical care personnel, approaches to redesign of critical care practice, and the promotion of critical care excellence was reached via collaboration in direct meetings, telephone conferences, and electronic communications. Four major recommendations were subsequently agreed on to address the projected shortfall in critical care professionals and to improve the quality of critical care delivery. Conclusions:The future demand for critical care services will likely exceed the capacities of the current delivery system. The professional societies and policy makers need to expeditiously intervene and act on these recommendations to ensure that the delivery of critical care services and care to the critically ill does not suffer.


Both "Pautrier microabscesses" and "Woringer-Kolopp disease" terms make reference to two professors of dermatology of the Faculty of Medicine in Strasbourg. These eponyms, and especially that of Pautrier, are universally used by pathologists throughout the world. Their origin is amazing. Louis Marie Pautrier (1876-1958) is indeed not the father of the microabscesses which are designed by his name. This pathognomonic image of mycosisfungoides was in fact described by Jean Darier in 1889. It is probably due to the close bonds between Pautrier and his colleagues in New York if his name has been attached erroneously for two reasons to this histological sign, since abscesses contain by definition polymorphonuclear leucocytes and not lymphocytes. Pautrier was between 1919 and 1958 one of the major French dermatologists having a passion for granulomatoses and mycosis fungoides. His student Frédéric Woringer (1903-1964) published in 1939 the clinical case of a mysterious affection, which he had interpreted as a case of Paget disease. It is only after his death that this characteristic entity has been called Woringer-Kolopp disease. Kolopp was a dermatologist with private practice in Metz and addressed the biopsy of the princeps case to Strasbourg. This rare affection is considered today as an entity within the spectrum of epidermotropic T lymphomas, among which mycosis fungoides is the major entity.


High strength materials have been used for critical components in order to ensure the reliability of aircraft gas turbine engine. But it usually costs high to maintain their premium quality. Therefore, the optimum quality level of materials should be defined under operating condition by material property estimation technique in order to meet the requirement of reliability and economical efficiency. Most cast rotating parts of gas turbine engine have casting defects caused during the casting process. The casting defects less than certain acceptable limit can be permissible for usage. So, it is very important to understand material defect shape and distribution, and its effect on mechanical properties exactly. In this study, 17-4PH stainless steel specimens with variable internal casting defects were prepared to investigate the fatigue property characteristics. The defect fraction and condition were estimated in microstructure by statistical analysis. The correlation between estimated defect condition and fatigue property was discussed.


The search for the answer to one of the most fundamental scientific questions, "How was the universe formed?", requires us to study very weak radio signals from the early universe. In the last eighty years, radio astronomers have been able to use radio frequency observations for significant discoveries such as quasars, super massive Black Holes and the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation. Radio astronomers use a radio telescope to study the cosmos. A radio telescope usually consists of an array of radio receivers (antennas) and supporting hardware/software to produce synthesized images of the sky. While the earlier generation of the radio telescopes such as the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT), the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Giant Meter–wave Radio Telescope (GMRT) consisted of 14-45 receivers separated a few kilometers (3-25 km basedlines), the next generation of radio telescopes such as LOFAR and SKA have thousands of receivers which cover distances of over 1000 km. This massive increase in the number of receivers and the geometric dimensions is a consequence of the required (high) resolution and sensitivity for modern scientific studies and while it is necessary, it does not guarantee the desired results without the appropriate data and signal processing. The main challenges in radio astronomy can be divided in three closely related problems: mitigation of man–made radio frequency interference, calibration and image formation. The main goal of this thesis is to investigate how the signal processing formalism can be used to systematically model and analyze these three problems and what signal processing tools are needed for addressing them. The number of RFI free bands is diminishing rapidly as a consequence of the increased number of wireless services and applications. The shift towards wideband digital systems has created new problems which are not sufficiently addressed by currently implemented RFI detection and mitigation systems. For this class of continuously present wide–band RFI, the use of array processing techniques such as spatial filtering could provide access to frequency bands otherwise unusable by astronomers. Such a spatial filtering can be achieved by estimating and removing the subspace that the interfering signal is occupying. Many signal processing algorithms use the eigenvalue decomposition (EVD) for estimating the signal subspace. However the use of EVD is limited to systems where the noise is white or known from calibration. This requirement is a limiting factor for applying these techniques to uncalibrated arrays with unknown noise models. In these situations a more generic approaches which allows for combined RFI filtering and noise power calibration is preferred. In this thesis factor analysis (FA) is proposed as suitable substitution for EVD. FA is a technique that allows for the decomposition of the signal into a low–rank part corresponding to the signal and a diagonal part which represents the covariance of the noise on the receivers. Because the diagonal elements can be different this technique can be used when the noise is not white and forms a generalization of the EVD. In RFI mitigation applications the signal part of the data is dominated by RFI and changes more rapidly than the noise. Estimating the noise covariance which is shared by several measurements jointly allows for a more accurate estimation. As a result extensions to the classical FA are proposed to improve the estimates for the diagonal part of the decomposition in a joint fashion. Even a diagonal noise structure can be limiting in some applications. For example the contribution of the Milky Way affects the short baselines which can be modeled by using a non–diagonal covariance matrix. The FA model can be extended for this type of signals. An extension to FA called Extended FA (EFA) is used to allow for capturing such structures into the model. Similar to JFA we can also estimate the parameters in EFA jointly, and the resulting method is denoted by Joint EFA (JEFA). Using nonlinear optimization techniques combined with Krylov subspace based solvers an scalable algorithm is developed. The statistical efficiency of this algorithm is shown by comparing its results to the Cramer–Rao bound and its application in RFI mitigation has been demonstrated on measurements from the WSRT and LOFAR. Antenna gain calibration is an essential step in producing accurate images. Using common array processing datamodels, gain calibration is formulated as a nonlinear covariance matching problem. In this thesis we show that the matrices involved in this estimation problem are highly structured and that the system of equations involving these matrices can be efficiently solved using Krylov subspace based solvers (similar to JEFA). The resulting calibration algorithm is scalable and requires a low number of iterations in order to converge which makes it an attractive alternative to currently available techniques. Both classical and parametric based image formations consist of two steps. First a "dirty" image is constructed from the measurements and then an improved estimate is found by performing a deconvolution step. When the number of pixels on the image becomes large, the deconvolution step becomes an ill–posed problem. In this thesis we show that image values are bounded from below by a nonnegativity constraint and above by the dirty image. Using beamforming techniques, we show that tighter upper bounds can be constructed using the MVDR beamformer. These bounds allow us to regularize the deconvolution problem by a set of inequality constraints. Following a signal processing model, the image formation is then formulated as a parameter estimation problem with inequality constraints. This optimization problem can be solved using an active set algorithm. We show that, with the right initialization, the active set steps are very similar to sequential source removing techniques such as CLEAN. This connection between classical approaches and parametric imaging techniques provides the necessary theoretical basis for further analysis and allows for improving both methods. Based on the results presented in this thesis we can conclude that signal processing methodologies can provide new solutions to the radio astronomical problems and also shed light on the inner working of the classical techniques. Hence, a signal processing approach is extremely beneficial in tackling the problems that the next generation of radio telescopes will face.


About the Children's Health Policy Centre As an interdisciplinary research group in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, we aim to connect research and policy to improve children's social and emotional well-being, or children's mental health. We advocate the following public health strategy for children's mental health: addressing the determinants of health; preventing disorders in children at risk; promoting effective treatments for children with disorders; and monitoring outcomes for all children. To learn more about our work, please see www.childhealthpolicy.sfu.ca Overview Alcohol and pregnancy: Avoiding the mix


One of the emerging critical issues for flash-memory storage systems, especially on the implementations of many embedded systems, is on its programmed I/O nature for data transfers. Programmed-I/O-based data transfers might not only result in the wasting of valuable CPU cycles of microprocessors but also unnecessarily consume much more energy from batteries. This paper presents an interrupt-emulation mechanism for flash-memory storage systems with an energy-efficient management strategy. We propose to revise the waiting function in the Memory-Technology-Device (MTD) layer to relieve the microprocessor from busy waiting and to reduce the energy consumption of the system. We show that energy consumption could be significantly reduced with good saving on CPU cycles and minor delay on the average response time in the experiments.


Background: Most of the primary pulmonary tumors in dogs are malignant and from epithelial origin, being bronchioalveolar tumors more prevalent. Adenocarcinoma of clear cells, however, is a very rare pulmonary tumor and its origin is still unknown. It is related to several clinical abnormalities, including hypertrophic osteopathy, an unusual paraneoplastic syndrome characterized by a periosteal reaction along the shaft of long bones. Because of the unusual presentation of the pulmonary adenocarcinoma, the aim of this study was to describe the radiographic, histopathological, and immunohistochemical fi ndings of a dog affl icted with hypertrophic osteopathy secondary to an undifferentiated pulmonary adenocarcinoma of clear cells. Case: A 12-year-old, 45 kg, not castrated male Great Dane dog was presented with painful swelling of all four limbs and moderate respiratory distress. Radiographic examination and computed tomography of the limbs showed palisade-like periosteal bone proliferation involving radius, ulna, femur, patella, tibia, fi bula, tarsus, metacarpal, metatarsal and digits, suggesting hypertrophic osteopathy. Radiographic examination and computed tomography of the lungs also showed a round mass well delimited localized in the right diaphragmatic lobe. A lobectomy of the right diaphragmatic lobe and partial lobectomy of accessory lobe were performed. A poorly differentiated clear squamous cell carcinoma was diagnosed by histological examination. An immune-panel of CK5/CK6, CK7, p63 and TTF-1 was used for immunophenotyping. Immunostaining was weakly positive for CK5/CK6 and negative to all others. Therefore, the diagnosis was poorly differentiated clear cell adenocarcinoma. The dog showed improvement in clinical signs seven days after surgery. One month postoperatively, radiographic examination of the limbs showed less intense periosteal reaction and initiation of bone remodeling. Discussion: Primary pulmonary tumors are considered very infrequent in small animals, but its true incidence rate is diffi cult to establish in animal populations. The histological origin of the tumor in the present case, as verifi ed in the literature, is not well established by histological analysis. In these situations, the immunohistochemistry panel may be useful. The modifi cation of the diagnosis between histological analysis and by immunohistochemistry, among other factors, might be due to transdifferentiation from one phenotype to another at various stages in the neoplastic process. The clear cell appearance observed in this case may be verifi ed in all types of carcinoma due to intracellular accumulation of glycogen, most of which is dissolved during the preparation of paraffi n sections. This uncommon neoplasm apparently did not infl uence the radiographic or tomographic fi ndings of the hypertrophic osteopathy in the present case. The frequency of metastases depends on the histological type of the tumor, being common in the pulmonary adenocarcinoma and usually to tracheobronchial lymph nodes and pulmonary parenchyma. Although in this case the imaging studies did not show metastases to other pulmonary lobes, the histological exams showed metastatic lesions that may be associated to the dog's death after the surgery.


In wireless sensor networks, the number of cluster heads and nodes has direct relation to its cost and its performance, such as robust, fault-tolerance, etc. Further more, it is considered at first as wireless sensor networks are designed. The paper simplifies complex connectivity and coverage problem step by step. By means of theoretical analysis, math modeling and geometry proving and making use of geometric theories and the method of mathematics induction, the method of grid plot of sensor field is proposed from the viewpoints of topology. In the end, the analysis formulae of minimum number of cluster heads and nodes are respectively educed in theory under circumstances of full and seamless connectivity and coverage problem in wireless sensor networks. That is, the problems of full and seamless connectivity and coverage are solved that how many clusters total sensor field is plotted and how many nodes are deployed over the field at the fewest, or MCDS (minimum connected dominating set) and MSDS (minimum sensing dominating set).


INTRODUCTION
Lower back pain due to degenerative disc disease is a common problem that requires surgical treatment, such as posterolateral fusion and posterior instrumentation (PLF), posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) and transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF). This retrospective study aimed to compare the clinical and radiological outcomes of these techniques.

METHODS
81 patients were treated between 2003 and 2006. The patients were divided into three groups: Group I (PLF n = 17 [43 levels]); Group II (PLIF n = 27 [52 levels]); and Group III (TLIF n = 37 [70 levels]). All patients underwent the same pre- and postoperative clinical and radiological evaluations (using Oswestry Disability Index [ODI], Stanford score and local criteria). Follow-ups were performed at three months and yearly for three years.

RESULTS
There was no significant difference in the rates of intra-operative complications (Group I: 17.6%; Group II: 11.1%; Group III: 18.9%; p = 0.688) and postoperative complications (Group I: 11.8%; Group II: 25.9%; Group III: 13.5%; p = 0.343) among the groups. There was a significant decrease in the ODI scores over time (p < 0.005) but no significant difference among the groups at different follow-up times. Radiographic fusion rates for Groups I, II and III were 88%, 88.9% and 91.9%, respectively.

CONCLUSION
Surgical techniques such as PLF, PLIF and TLIF are equally suitable for treating degenerative disc disease, with no differences observed in complications and clinical outcomes. However, in our study, the best radiological outcome was found in patients treated with TLIF.


Running distributed applications in the cloud involves deployment. That is, distribution and configuration of application services and middleware infrastructure. The considerable complexity of these tasks resulted in the emergence of declarative JSON-based domain-specific deployment languages to develop deployment programs. However, existing deployment programs unsafely compose artifacts written in different languages, leading to bugs that are hard to detect before run time. Furthermore, deployment languages do not provide extension points for custom implementations of existing cloud services such as application-specific load balancing policies.
To address these shortcomings, we propose CPL (Cloud Platform Language), a statically-typed core language for programming both distributed applications as well as their deployment on a cloud platform. In CPL, application services and deployment programs interact through statically typed, extensible interfaces, and an application can trigger further deployment at run time. We provide a formal semantics of CPL and demonstrate that it enables type-safe, composable and extensible libraries of service combinators, such as load balancing and fault tolerance.


Environmental design has a long history of concern for ecosystems but has often lacked explicit assessments of, or goals associated with, site performance. Ecosystem services provide an organizing concept around which to make a wide array of environmental and, to some extent, social design goals explicit. Additionally, they allow assessment and evaluation of site-design decisions through both pre-construction modeling and / or post-occupancy evaluation. The U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system and the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) are used as examples of how performance-based site design can be incorporated into the design process. We suggest that the maintenance of ecosystem services become a standard and increasingly monitored goal for the practice of environmental design. This move toward performance goals linked to ecosystem services for which success or failure can be determined is essential if environmental design is to offer a substantive contribution to the achievement of a more sustainable culture.


This article sets out think about some of the challenges to U.S. antiracism heralded by Barack Obama's presidency. It begins by examining the relationship Obama negotiates with notions of blackness in his autobiographical writings, and it considers how this exemplifies what has been described as a "post-black" politics. It proceeds to discuss the insufficiency of critiques of "post-black" as having sold out a black political tradition, but it notes that these critiques reveal something of the changing significance of blackness as a form of antiracist practice. Considering how Obama represents a move in black politics from the margins to the mainstream, I argue that the President's symbolic centrality undermines a conception of critical oppositionality hitherto implicit to the antiracist imaginary. Exploring how this challenges longstanding ideas about who "owns" or controls the antiracist struggle, I suggest that antiracism will need to move beyond accusations of betrayal if it is to account for and understand the profound ways in which Obama has transformed the entire field of U.S. race discourse.


While many effective interventions have been developed with the potential to significantly reduce morbidity and mortality from cancer, they are of no benefit to the health of populations if they cannot be delivered. In response to this challenge, Advancing the Science of Implementation across the Cancer Continuum provides an overview of research that can improve the delivery of evidence-based interventions in cancer prevention, early detection, treatment, and survivorship. Chapters explore the field of implementation science and its application to practice, a broad synthesis of relevant research and case studies illustrating each cancer-focused topic area, and emerging issues at the intersection of research and practice in cancer. Both comprehensive and accessible, this book is an ideal resource for researchers, clinical and public health practitioners, medical and public health students, and health policymakers.


We have compared frequency and severity of epileptic seizures during pregnancy with the 9 months prior to pregnancy in 66 patients with a total of 78 pregnancies. Data on total number of seizures and major seizures are analysed separately. No statistically significant differences between frequency before and during pregnancy were found. Cases with seizures before pregnancy tended to have seizures during pregnancy, but there was no association between occurrence of seizures prior to pregnancy and increased frequency during pregnancy. There was no evidence that seizures became more severe during pregnancy. No relationship was found between type of epilepsy and change in seizure frequency during pregnancy. The data suggest that our therapeutic interventions may have influenced seizure frequency in at most a minority of cases. Serum concentrations of the anti-epileptic drugs were monitored regularly during pregnancy. Only data on patients on constant drug dosages and, therefore, presumedly with the mildest seizure disorders were analysed. In the majority of cases there was a decrease in drug levels during pregnancy. Most cases tolerated this decrease without an increase in seizure frequency. On the other hand, most cases with increased frequency also had decreased drug levels.


When the distance between an obstacle and a power line is less than the discharge distance, a discharge arc can be generated, resulting in the interruption of power supplies. Therefore, regular safety inspections are necessary to ensure the safe operation of power grids. Tall vegetation and buildings are the key factors threatening the safe operation of extra high voltage transmission lines within a power line corridor. Manual or laser intensity direction and ranging (LiDAR) based inspections are time consuming and expensive. To make safety inspections more efficient and flexible, a low-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote-sensing platform, equipped with an optical digital camera, was used to inspect power line corridors. We propose a semi-patch matching algorithm based on epipolar constraints, using both the correlation coefficient (CC) and the shape of its curve to extract three dimensional (3D) point clouds for a power line corridor. We use a stereo image pair from inter-strip to improve power line measurement accuracy by transforming the power line direction to an approximately perpendicular to epipolar line. The distance between the power lines and the 3D point cloud is taken as a criterion for locating obstacles within the power line corridor automatically. Experimental results show that our proposed method is a reliable, cost effective, and applicable way for practical power line inspection and can locate obstacles within the power line corridor with accuracy better than ±0.5 m.


With this issue of the JCI, we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Journal. While 80 years is not a century, we still feel it is important to honor what the JCI has meant to the biomedical research community for 8 decades. To illustrate why the JCI is the leading general-interest translational research journal edited by and for biomedical researchers, we have asked former JCI editors-in-chief to reflect on some of the major scientific advances reported in the pages of the Journal during their tenures.


Recently, scholars have called for research that systematically examines the role of race and culture in shaping communication during racially discordant practitioner–patient interactions (i.e., patient and physician from different racial ethnic groups). In this review, we focus on two conceptual frameworks that influence the way people think about race, and subsequently, how they interact with others of a different race: color blindness and multiculturalism. We integrate basic social psychological research on interracial laboratory interactions with research on the markers of successful practitioner–patient communication to discuss how these two strategies shape interactions between Black patients and non-Black practitioners. Given that racial discrimination is often addressed within medical education and training contexts, we also discuss how these two strategies influence how practitioners are trained to talk about race. We conclude by offering practical suggestions as to how medical interactions can be improved by taking into consideration how color-blind and multicultural strategies shape behaviors within medical settings.


Restoring human grasp functions by prosthesis is a long-standing challenge in robotics research. Aiming at prosthetic applications, this paper presents a novel anthropomorphic multigrasp hand design. The hand is driven by only one motor and several mechanisms were designed for enhanced functionality. First, a continuum differential mechanism (CDM) was used to generate differential finger motions and to simplify the transmission of the hand. Second, a Load Adaptive Variable Transmission (LAVT) was designed to magnify the grasp forces. Moreover, a prismatic clutch is embedded in the hand, to lower the motor's energy consumption. Myoelectric control was implemented using affordable control hardware and sensors. All the above components are integrated in the proposed prosthetic hand, which is an average adult male size and weighs 470g (including batteries). Experiments, including a preliminary clinical evaluation, were conducted to assess the effectiveness of the hand for prosthetic use. The results show that the hand can perform various grasp poses with adequate grasp forces.


With the development of social media, more and more marketers use social media to engage with customers. This is due to that both development of social media is rapid and the significance of customer engagement is apparent which brings about business value. Although it could be found by prior researches that large companies tend to use social media to expand the scale of customers and attract customer to engage in social media, it is limited to investigate social media activities and have a better understanding of factors of customer engagement from the perspective of managers in the context of SMEs. In order to better understand the role of social media in SMEs' customer engagement, this study will mainly address two research questions. This study will figure out about how SMEs use social media to engage with customers and develop customer relationship. Also, this study will try to find out the factors of customer engagement in relation to social media activities from the perspective of managers in SMEs. The research approach of case study including direct observation and interview will be conducted to collect the data and will use coding approach to analyse the data. This study will firstly observes the social media activity and then interview with 12 managers. Finally, this study suggests that SMEs use different types of strategies to attract customer engagement, including message strategy, promotion strategy and community building. It also found that there are serval drivers that encourage customer engagement from the perspective of customer-based driver and functional drivers. However, it could be notable that although social media plays an important role on the SMEs' customer engagement, comparing with large companies, the effectiveness of social media usage is limited due to inadequate resources and few followers. Therefore, future research could investigate the difference and similarity of strategy to customer engagement in social media platform between large companies.


Background The methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene (MTHFR) is one of the most investigated genes associated with breast cancer for its role in epigenetic pathways. Objectives The objectives of this metaprediction study were to examine the polymorphism-mutation risk subtypes of MTHFR and air pollution as contributing factors for breast cancer. Methods For triangulation purposes in metapredictive analyses, we used a recursive partition tree, nonlinear association curve fit, and heat maps for data visualization, in addition to the conventional comparison procedure and pooled analyses. Results We included 36,683 breast cancer cases and 40,689 controls across 82 studies for MTHFR 677 and 23,252 cases and 27,094 controls across 50 studies for MTHFR 1298. MTHFR 677 TT was a risk genotype for breast cancer (p = .0004) and in the East Asian subgroup (p = .005). On global maps, the most polymorphism-mutations on MTHFR 677 TT were found in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and the Americas, whereas the most mutations on MTHFR 1298 CC were located in Europe and the Middle East for the control group. The geographic information system maps further revealed that MTHFR 677 TT mutations yielded a higher risk of breast cancer for Australia, East Asia, the Middle East, South Europe, Morocco, and the Americas and that MTHFR 1298 CC mutations yielded a higher risk in Asia, the Middle East, South Europe, and South America. Metapredictive analysis revealed that air pollution level was significantly associated with MTHFR 677 TT polymorphism-mutation genotype. Discussion We present the most comprehensive analyses to date of MTHFR polymorphism-mutations and breast cancer risk. Future nursing studies are needed to investigate the health impact on breast cancer of epigenetics and air pollution across populations.


Understanding the growth paths of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on branding is extremely pertinent of technology-driven marketing. This explorative research covers a complete bibliometric analysis of the impact of AI on branding. The sample for this research included all 117 articles from the period of 1982-2019 in the Scopus database. A bibliometric study was conducted using co-occurrence, citation analysis and co-citation analysis. The empirical analysis investigates the value propositions of AI on branding. The study revealed the nine clusters of co-occurrence: Social Media Analytics and Brand Equity; Neural Networks and Brand Choice; Chat Bots-Brand Intimacy; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram-Luxury Brands; Interactive Agent-Brand Love and User Choice; Algorithm Recommendations and E-Brand Experience; User-Generated Content-Brand Sustainability; Brand Intelligence Analytics; and Digital Innovations and Brand Excellence. The findings also identify four clusters of citation analysis—Social Media Analysis and Brand Photos, Network Analysis and E-Commerce, Hybrid Simulating Modelling, and Real-time Knowledge-Based Systems—and four clusters of co-citation analysis: B2B Technology Brands, AI Fostered E-Brands, Information Cascades and Online Brand Ratings, and Voice Assistants-Brand Eureka Moments. Overall, the study presents the patterns of convergence and divergence of themes, narrowing to the specific topic, and multidisciplinary engagement in research, thus offering the recent insights in the field of AI on branding.


The data herein presented describe, identify, and quantitate interrelationships among blood glucose and serum insulin, growth hormone, cortisol, and glucagon levels of hospitalized insulin-treated diabetic patients. The findings indicate that conventional diet and insulin therapy of diabetes mellitus is almost always accompanied by inappropriate counter-regulation by growth hormone, cortisol, and glucagon. The data are consonant with the hypothesis that a shortage of insulin is only one of the multihormonal defects of diabetes.


PURPOSE
To examine the protective effect of a number of survival factors on degenerating photoreceptors in mutant mice with naturally occurring inherited retinal degenerations, including retinal degeneration (rd/rd), retinal degeneration slow (rds/rds), nervous (nr/nr), and Purkinje cell degeneration (pcd/pcd), in three different forms of mutant rhodopsin transgenic mice and in light damage in albino mice.

METHODS
Various survival factors were injected intravitreally into one eye of mice at or soon after the beginning of photoreceptor degeneration, with the opposite eye serving as the control, and the eyes were examined histologically at later ages. The survival factors included brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), neurotrophin-3, neurotrophin-4, ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), Axokine (a mutein of CNTF), leukemia inhibitory factor, basic fibroblast growth factor, and nerve growth factor and insulin-like growth factor II, either alone or in various combinations.

RESULTS
Photoreceptor degeneration was slowed in rd/rd and nr/nr mutant mice and in Q344ter mutant rhodopsin mice by certain forms of CNTF; the degeneration in Q344ter mice was slowed by Axokine and by leukemia inhibitory factor; and the degeneration in a few nr/nr mice was slowed by BDNF. The other agents were ineffective in these mice, and none of the agents were effective in the other mutants and other mutant rhodopsin transgenic mice. However, light damage experiments that compared agent effectiveness in albino mice versus rats suggested a significant delivery problem with the very small mouse eye, thereby making the interpretation of negative findings equivocal in mutant mice. Basic fibroblast growth factor failed to protect the mouse retina from the damaging effects of constant light, whereas it showed a strong protective effect in the rat, indicating an important species difference.

CONCLUSIONS
The slowing of degeneration in the rd/rd and Q344ter mutant mice demonstrated that intraocularly injected survival factors can protect photoreceptors from degenerating in animal models with the same or similar genetic defects as those in human inherited retinal degenerations.


Deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) used in practice employ potentially hundreds of layers and 10,000s of nodes. Such network sizes entail significant computational complexity due to the large number of convolutions that need to be carried out; in addition, a large number of parameters needs to be learned and stored. Very deep and wide CNNs may therefore not be well suited to applications operating under severe resource constraints as is the case, e.g., in low-power embedded and mobile platforms. This paper aims at understanding the impact of CNN topology, specifically depth and width, on the network's feature extraction capabilities. We address this question for the class of scattering networks that employ either Weyl-Heisenberg filters or wavelets, the modulus non-linearity, and no pooling. The exponential feature map energy decay results in Wiatowski et al., 2017, are generalized to O(a−N), where an arbitrary decay factor a > 1 can be realized through suitable choice of the Weyl-Heisenberg prototype function or the mother wavelet. We then show how networks of fixed (possibly small) depth N can be designed to guarantee that ((1 — ε) · 100)% of the input signal's energy are contained in the feature vector. Based on the notion of operationally significant nodes, we characterize, partly rigorously and partly heuristically, the topology-reducing effects of (effectively) band-limited input signals, band-limited filters, and feature map symmetries. Finally, for networks based on Weyl-Heisenberg filters, we determine the prototype function bandwidth that minimizes — for fixed network depth N — the average number of operationally significant nodes per layer.


Based on Anshan Iron and Steel Company 180t top-bottom converter prototype, the operating parameters and the structural parameters for best stirring effect of bottom-blowing converter and top-bottom converter was given by the hydraulic model test in this article. Coherent jet oxygen lance converter smelting effect was simulated under the condition of keeping the best top blowing gas flow rate. The experiment result shows that coherent jet oxygen lance may achieve the result of top-bottom converter stirring effect. If coherent jet oxygen lance could be applied in the converter, bottom blowing system of converter could be canceled. In that case, not only the converter equipment can be simplified, but also the converter lining life can be improved, bring steel-making technology transformation.


Marginal sediments can be used to combat point-pollution by heavy metals in industrial zones. Such practice requires information on metal-concentration in the workshop discharge water. Knowledge about the reaction of the heavy metal with the sediment available in the landscape is of utmost importance. Modeling of batch experiments and breakthrough curves, BTC, supplies relevant information in this regard. We present the static batch results of Freundlich isotherms testing CdCl2 aqueous solutions equilibria with sandy loam sediments, along with column-data processed by the dynamic codes CfitM and CfitIM under saturated water flow conditions. Three Cd-concentrations (5, 20, and 40 ppm) were employed to investigate the conjunction of using two procedures for obtaining the pertinent parameters for the transport of such a heavy metal and the design of the adequate Cd-trap. The results showed the deviations of the two techniques due to differences in their theoretical concepts, mathematical formulation, and performance. The batch method showed utility in supplying first guesses for the retardation factor, R, to insert into the 4-parameter analytical code, CfitIM, applied for column BTC modeling. The iteratively-obtained-parameters of the Freundlich equation were then employed to generate the distribution coefficient, k d. The generated value was, in turn, used to get more fair guess for the retardation factor, R, to use as a fixed-value in the CfitIM code to get an in-depth insight into the BTC dynamics and to obtain the other pertinent model parameters. The BTC runs indicated that the concentration controls the distinctive adsorption and transport rate and behavior of the heavy metal in the sediment column. The most dilute solution offered the highest Cd impediment, as shown by the most significant values for the distribution coefficient, k d, and retardation factor, R. The malfunction of the sediment as a trap appeared at Cd-concentrations four to eight folds higher than the most dilute solution. However, the loamy sand trap is successful when fed with a dilute aqueous solution. A set of successive traps is to arrange in tandem lines when moderate to high concentration is to discharge from an industrial workshop. The results emphasize the utility of the mutual use of these two lab procedures for the design of adequate traps and landfills and the simulation of more complex situations in the field. The point-pollution control needs to continue running batch and BTC experiments and to carry out their corresponding modeling.


This paper outlines the history of lightning protection in The Republic of Kenya. It addresses itself to the proneness in terms of Mean Thunder Days (MTDs) and the Flash Density (Flashes per km/sup 2/ per year), losses incurred in the period 1960-1980, protection of schools and residential buildings, protection of storage and transport facilities for petroleum products and of electrical and electronic equipment. Subtle aspects in the Kenyan Standard are referred to whenever necessary.


A scattered structure of small pastures has negative effects on profitability in beef enterprises because small enclosures result in high labor costs per livestock unit. Moreover, larger enterprises distribute the costs across more livestock units and hence achieve lower operating costs. Creating larger coherent pastures makes it easier to increase herd size and yields positive effects due to economies of scale. This study on five Swedish organic cow-calf enterprises examined how profitability is affected by creating larger pastures from small scattered pastures and adjacent forest land. Additional income, additional costs, reduced income and reduced costs were taken into account using a partial budgeting technique. A change to larger coherent pastures was found to be profitable for all enterprises examined. Agri-environmental payments and supports were the most important benefit from creating larger pastures, followed by income increases and cost reductions resulting from economies of scale and improved consolidation. Income reductions due to premature final felling (clearcutting of forest land) and the opportunity cost of forest land did not have a major influence. To conclude, creating large coherent pasture-forest mosaics by merging small scattered enclosures is profitable for Swedish organic cow-calf enterprises.


Though dissimilar, these two subjects have been united because they have some points in common. The computation of the movement of an airplane can only be correctly established if we are in a position to know exactly the thrust and resisting torque of the propeller for the various values of slip, which may vary greatly according to circumstance. The first part of the work concerns propellers and introduces as a fundamental variable, the true slip (delta) with respect to the effective pitch, which is the advance per revolution of the propeller corresponding to no thrust. The second part deals with characteristic curves of an airplane.


textabstractIn recent years, a live-in migrant care (LIMC) market has emerged in European countries with specific care, migration, and employment regime features. In countries with relatively low levels of formal long-term care (LTC) provision, people in need of care and their families have started purchasing LTC directly from individual - mostly migrant - workers who live-in with the person in need of care. Previous research has shown that this arrangement is facilitated by the availability of cash-for-care benefits that can be freely used by the beneficiaries, and/or by low levels of regulation of employment and migration. The Netherlands traditionally features strong, universal and generous LTC policies. However, recently, the phenomenon of LIMC has also appeared there. Based on exploratory qualitative research, this article examines the features of Dutch LIMC and the factors that foster or hinder its development. Our findings show that the ongoing restructuring of the Dutch LTC system - particularly the emphasis on informal care and decreasing accessibility of institutional care - are important factors pushing an LIMC market. At the same time, various institutional factors limit its growth, particularly the high levels of regulation of the Dutch care, migration and employment regimes. Further cutbacks in the care sector might push more families to this market in the near future, and change the character of the Dutch LTC sector. The Dutch case is relevant for other countries with longstanding traditions of generous LTC services which currently undergo retrenchment, and sheds light on routes to institutional change.


Anti-replacement reaction between Au nanoparticles and Cu2+ ions is studied under the irradiation of nanosecond laser pulses at a wavelength of 532 nm. It is revealed that high-purity naked Cu nanoclusters, which have an average diameter of 2 nm, can be extracted from CuCl2 solution. The Au nanoparticles are also completely converted to Au3+ and Au+ ions by "hot holes". This is because of the plasmon generated "hot electrons" which overcome the limitation of thermodynamic reaction between the Au nanoparticles and Cu2+ ions. Furthermore, we find that the naked Cu nanoclusters exhibit enhanced electrocatalytic performance 1500 times higher than that of the ligand-protected Cu nanoclusters with similar size to achieve the oxygen reduction reaction.


The ubiquitin-specific protease 7 (Usp7), also known as herpesvirus-associated ubiquitin-specific protease (HAUSP) is a critical component of the p53-Mdm2 stress response pathway and acts as a specific de-ubiquitinase for both p53 and Mdm2 and thus is important for p53 regulation. In addition, Usp7 was shown to interact with immediate-early proteins from Herpes simplex virus type 1 (Icp0) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBNA1), indicating that Usp7 may play an important role in the life cycle of several DNA viruses.

In the present study, Usp7 was identified as a novel interaction partner of the adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) E1B-55K protein. Similar to Icp0 and EBNA1, E1B-55K is a key regulator of Ad5 replication, and is required for maximal virus production. In vitro and in vivo binding assays demonstrated that E1B-55K binds to Usp7 with high affinity. The binding region mapped to a highly conserved motif located in the amino-terminal region of the Ad5 protein. Phenotypic analyses and functional studies using an Usp7-binding deficient E1B mutant virus and stable Usp7 knockdown cell lines, showed that Usp7 regulates E1B-55K lytic functions and contributes to efficient virus replication by increasing the stability of the viral protein. Surprisingly, these studies also demonstrated that Usp7 additionally contributes to Ad5 replication by an E1B-55K-independent mechanism. This activity of Usp7 involves the binding to and stabilization of the Ad5 DNA-binding protein (DBP). It appeared that binding to DBP occurs in the context of Usp7-positive PML-containing nuclear bodies (PML bodies), which form the origin of viral microenvironments of viral DNA replication and transcription. Finally, one-step growth curve experiments demonstrated that efficient virus growth is directly proportional to the Usp7 steady-state concentrations of the host cell. Thus, Usp7 is a key factor that is required for maximal virus production in permissive host cells, by promoting the formation of viral transcription and replication centers through its interaction with E1B-55K and DBP in the context of PML bodies.

In addition, to its role in promoting virus replication, E1B-55K provides functions necessary for oncogenic transformation of primary mammalian cells in culture. It is generally considered that E1B-55K contributes to complete cell transformation by antagonizing apoptosis and growth arrest, which primarily result from the induction and metabolic stabilization of the tumor suppressor protein p53 by adenovirus E1A. These growth-promoting activities correlate with its ability to act as a transcriptional repressor that is targeted to p53-responsive promoters by binding to p53. Nonetheless, it has been hypothesized that the mode of action of E1B-55K during transformation may involve additional functions and other protein interactions. To test this model the role of Usp7 and p53 on E1A- plus E1B-mediated cell transformation was investigated by using an RNA interference approach. Similar to virus infected cells, the results of these experiments showed that Usp7 is required for efficient cell transformation of primary rat cells by affecting both p53 and E1B-55K steady-state concentrations indicating that Usp7 is an essential factor for Ad5 E1A and E1B-55K-mediated oncogenesis.


Abstract: The under-representation of African-Americans in college baseball is evident. African-American athletes make up only 4.5% of all National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) baseball players. They are a shrinking percentage of Major League Baseball players. A focus group was established to identify specific sociological issues which were perceived to influence the under-representation of African-Americans in collegiate baseball. Additionally, information from the observation of SEC baseball games during the 2006 season was used to quantify the social pattern. Data from the "traditionally black" Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) were also collected during the 2006 season. For the Southeastern Conference (SEC), fan attendance was less than 1% African-American and the player participation rate was 1.91 per team during the 2006 season. Additionally, none of the SEC head or assistant baseball coaches were African-American. The focus group determined that the reasons for the decline in numbers were related to (1) lifestyle factors, (2) competition from other sports and social opportunities, and (3) the absence of African-American role models in baseball. The authors propose that Title IX legislation and the influence of sports media were primary factors in the change. African-Americans in College Baseball The under-representation of African-Americans in college baseball is an obvious yet perplexing picture in athletics today. African-American athletes are more than equitably represented among many of the most popular collegiate spectator sports; however, their near absence in college baseball appears to be more than coincidental. Questions arise as to whether the educational system, the social system of athletics, and/or federal legislation have been responsible for the reduction in the number of African-American baseball players in America. Only 4.5% of all National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) baseball players were African-American during the 2004 season. This includes all divisions, in addition to the historically African-American colleges and universities. On the contrary, 42.0% and 32.3% of NCAA basketball and football players, respectively, were African-American in the 2003-2004 academic year (Bray, 2005). When specifically examining one of the perennial collegiate conference baseball powers, the Southeastern Conference (SEC), only 4.2% of 2006 roster players were African-American, as noted in Table 1. The twelve universities that make up the SEC represent states with an average African-American population of 20.8%. Ironically, when examining the historically black Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and the Southwest Athletic Conference (SWAC), findings surface which again support the difficulty of finding African-Americans in collegiate baseball. African-Americans are the minority on many of the rosters of these teams, as seen in Table 1. With approximately 12.8% of the United States population reported to be African-American (United States Census Bureau, 2006), it would appear that African-American collegiate baseball players are under-represented. This is the case in both college and professional baseball. Ken Williams of the Chicago White Sox, Major League Baseball's (MLB) only African-American general manager, blamed the small number of collegiate scholarships designated for baseball on the small number of African-American players (Nightengale, 2006). Logan White, the Los Angeles Dodger's amateur scouting director, noted that in his trips to colleges across the United States, he rarely encounters an African-American baseball player. Not only is the absence of the African-American player obvious at the collegiate level, the population has gone from 27% of Major League Baseball (MLB) players in 1975 to 8% today (Nightengale, 2006). Sociologists have recognized this trend and have proposed several theories to explain it. …


A model is developed to represent the activity of a farm using the method of linear programming. Two are the main components of the model, the balance of soil fertility and the livestock nutrition. According to the first, the farm is supposed to have a total requirement of nitrogen, which is to be accomplished either through internal sources (manure) or through external sources (fertilisers). The second component describes the animal husbandry as having a nutritional requirement which must be satisfied through the internal production of arable crops or the acquisition of feed from the market. The farmer is supposed to maximise total net income from the agricultural and the zoo-technical activities by choosing one rotation among those available for climate and acclivity. The perspective of the analysis is one of a short period: the structure of the farm is supposed to be fixed without possibility to change the allocation of permanent crops and the amount of animal husbandry.
The model is integrated with an environmental module that describes the role of the farm within the carbon-nitrogen cycle. On the one hand the farm allows storing carbon through the photosynthesis of the plants and the accumulation of carbon in the soil; on the other some activities of the farm emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
The model is tested for some representative farms of the Emilia-Romagna region, showing to be capable to give different results for conventional and organic farming and providing first results concerning the different atmospheric impact. Relevant data about the representative farms and the feasible rotations are extracted from the FADN database, with an integration of the coefficients from the literature.


Introduction: Limited real-world studies exist on the management of relapsed/refractory (R/R) classical Hodgkin's lymphoma (cHL) patients (pts) who failed autologous stem transplant (auto-SCT) and their subsequent healthcare resource utilization (HRU) and cost. Current treatment options include chemotherapy, a second auto-SCT, allogenic (allo-) SCT, palliative care, or newer therapies like brentuximab vedotin (BV) or programmed death-1 (PD-1) blocking antibodies. Pts eligible for treatment post auto-SCT failure may consume significant resources and using real-world data may inform the place of therapy of newly approved agents. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to compare HRU and cost among R/R cHL pts who received auto-SCT by transplant success and failure.
 Methods: This retrospective cohort study used electronic medical record (EMR) data of US pts from a network of oncology practices, including practices affiliated with CancerLinQ, maintained in the Definitive Oncology Dataset. Eligible adult (≥18 years) pts who had a confirmed diagnosis of cHL and ≥1 R/R event that occurred between 2000 to 2019 were included. Treatment patterns included any systemic anti-cancer therapy received post auto-SCT failure. Descriptive analyses examined differences by auto-SCT success vs failure. Auto-SCT failure was defined as having a R/R event or disease progression after receipt of auto-SCT. HRU included hospitalization rates, emergency department (ED) visits, and infused supportive care drugs. Costs (inflated for 2020$) were based on matched Health Care Utilization Project coded events. HRU and costs were reported per patient per month (PPPM) from initial cHL diagnosis (first-line [1L] therapy) through the second R/R event (third-line [3L] therapy) and for 3L among a subset of pts who failed auto-SCT in second line (2L). PPPM was calculated by dividing the total HRU or cost during the observation period by the number of months of the observation period and then averaged across all pts (regardless of being flagged for a specific service).
 Results: A total of 157 pts (54.9%) received auto-SCT among the R/R cHL cohort (n=286). Most pts were Caucasian (77.7%) with a median age of 31 years (range: 19-73) at the first R/R event. Median length of follow-up was 11 months from the first R/R event. Nearly all pts (91.7%) received auto-SCT after the start of 2L (68.2%, n=107) and 3L (23.6%, n=37). Approximately 9.6% (n=15) also received allo-SCT in later lines. Among auto-SCT pts, 62.4% (n=98) had a transplant success vs 37.6% (n=59) with a transplant failure. Across these 59 pts, 46 (78.0%) received treatment post auto-SCT failure. Treatment post auto-SCT failure consisted of 21 different anti-cancer regimens (monotherapy or in combination) and included BV (alone or in combination) (37.3%, n=22), chemotherapy (30.5%, n=18), PD-1 therapy (alone or in combination) (6.8%, n=4), other (5.1%, n=3), and allo-SCT (1.7%, n=1). The 59 pts with auto-SCT failure primarily failed in 2L (66.1%, n=39) and 3L (27.1%, n=16). HRU and costs for the 39 pts who failed auto-SCT in 2L were substantial in 3L. Approximately 92.3% of pts had a hospitalization, 30.8% had an ED visit, and 51.3% received infused supportive care treatment in 3L. Monthly costs in 3L were high: hospitalization $3,903, ED visit $130, infused supportive care $279, anti-cancer therapy $64,572, and $69,186 total.
 From the start of 1L through the end of 3L, the proportion of pts with a hospitalization was significantly higher for pts who failed auto-SCT (Table). Subsequently, costs were also higher and average length of stay longer. While HRU did not differ, infused supportive care costs were higher for auto-SCT pts. No significant differences in HRU and cost were observed across the two groups for ED visits and oncology setting outpatient visits. Anti-cancer therapy costs were significantly higher for pts who failed auto-SCT. Total monthly costs were higher for pts who failed auto-SCT.
 Conclusion: In the real-world setting, almost 40% of R/R cHL pts failed auto-SCT. There appears to be no clear standard of care post auto-SCT failure and using real-world data may inform the place in therapy of newer therapies. The HRU and cost of managing post auto-SCT failure was substantial and highlights the significant unmet need in this population. These findings add to the scarce real-world data on treatment patterns, utilization, and cost among R/R cHL pts who receive auto-SCT.

 Yang: Merck & Co, Inc.: Current Employment. Desai:Merck & Co., Inc: Current Employment, Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Gilligan:ConcertAI: Current Employment; Merck & Co., Inc.: Research Funding. Raut:Merck & Co., Inc.: Current Employment. Nahar:Merck Sharp & Dohme, Corp., a subsididary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenlworth, NJ, USA: Current Employment.


Secondary caries is one of the most important factors leading to replacement of dental restorations. This investigation assessed the capacity of fluoride-releasing restorative materials to resist caries in vitro when used in roots. Class 5 cavities were prepared in the buccal and lingual surfaces of 30 extracted premolars. The six materials used were: glass-ionomer cement (Fuji), glass-ionomer cement with silver particles added (Ketac-silver), fluoride-containing composite resin (Tetric), composite resin (Silux plus), fluoride-containing amalgam (Fluor-Alloy) and high-copper amalgam (Dispersalloy). After 5 weeks in an acid gel for caries-like lesion formation, the teeth were sectioned longitudinally and examined with polarized light. The results showed that repair with glass-ionomer materials of a carious lesion may be of great importance in the prevention of secondary caries around the restorations in roots.


Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) networks allow utility companies to collect fine-grained power consumption data of electricity consumers for load monitoring and energy management. This brings serious privacy concerns since the fine-grained power consumption data can expose consumers' activities. Privacy-preserving data aggregation techniques have been used to preserve consumers' privacy while allowing the utility to obtain only the consumers total consumption. However, most of the existing schemes do not consider the multidimensional nature of power consumption in which electricity consumption can be categorized based on the consumption type. They also do not consider multisubset data collection in which the utility should be able to obtain the number of consumers whose consumption lies within a specific consumption range, and the overall consumption of each set of consumers. In this article, we propose an efficient and privacy-preserving multidimensional and multisubset data collection scheme, named "MDMS. " In MDMS, the utility can obtain the total power consumption as well as the number of consumers of each subset in each dimension. In addition, for better scalability, MDMS allows the utility to delegate bill computation to the AMI networks' gateways using the encrypted readings and following the dynamic prices in which electricity prices are different based on both the time and the consumption type. Moreover, MDMS uses lightweight operations in encryption, aggregation, and decryption resulting in low computation and communication overheads as given in our experimental results. Our security analysis demonstrates that MDMS is secure and can resist collusion attacks that aim to reveal the consumers' readings.


The temporal pattern with which phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), an activator of protein kinase C (PKC), modulates parathyroid hormone (PTH)-responsive adenylyl cyclase (AC) was evaluated in a clonal osteoblast-like cell line (UMR-106). Brief (< or = 1 h) exposure of UMR-106 cells to PMA enhanced PTH stimulation of AC, whereas more prolonged PMA treatment decreased the PTH response, with maximum inhibition occurring at < or = 6 h. PMA treatment also resulted in initial activation followed by downregulation of PKC. Exposure of cells to 1,2-dioctanoyl-sn-glycerol, which activated but did not downregulate PKC, resulted in bidirectional modulation of PTH-responsive AC identical to that produced by PMA. Prolonged PMA exposure decreased PTH receptor number, as determined by radioligand binding studies, and reduced PTH receptor mRNA levels, assessed by Northern blot analysis. Forskolin activation of the catalytic subunit of AC was also decreased after prolonged PMA treatment. The results suggest that activation of PKC sequentially stimulates and then inhibits PTH responsiveness. Inhibition of the PTH response occurs by PKC actions exerted on the PTH receptor and the AC catalytic subunit.


The current study was implemented to evaluate the backfilled gravel subgrade slope stability of a highway, China. Typical crossing section in Jiling Province was evaluated by using the finite element based strength reduction method. The calculation code was developed based on BCF, which was programmed for 2D finite element analysis on soil stress-strain analysis. The Duncan-Chang nonlinear constitutive model was employed to describe the stress and strain relationship of the soils. The safety factor calculated by the strength reduction method was compared with traditional limit equilibrium slice Bishop Method.


Background Patients with diabetic cutaneous ulcers experience financial burden and a lower quality of life and life expectancy. Endothelial progenitor cell (EPC)-derived exosomes facilitate skin wound healing by positively modulating vascular endothelial cell function. Exosomes play their important regulatory role through microRNA (miRNA). We explored the potential role and molecular mechanisms of miRNA in EPC-derived exosome healing of diabetic skin wounds. Methods Exosomes were isolated from the media of EPCs derived from mice bone marrow. High-throughput sequencing was used to detect the expression of exosome miRNA, and miRNA target genes were predicted using online databases. A diabetic mouse skin wound model was established, and wounds were treated with exosomes, miRNA-221-3p, or phosphate-buffered saline. Results Exosomes from EPCs accelerated skin wound healing in both control and diabetic mice. High-throughput sequencing showed that miRNA-221-3p was highly expressed in EPC-derived exosomes. Skin wound healing in control and diabetic mice was significantly enhanced by EPC-derived exosomes and miRNA-221-3p administration. Immunohistochemical analyses showed that EPC-derived exosomes and miRNA-221-3p increased protein expression levels of the angiogenesis-related factors VEGF, CD31 and cell proliferation marker Ki67. Bioinformatics analyses indicated that miRNA-221-3p may be involved in the AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, cell cycle, and the p53 signaling pathway. Conclusion We concluded that miRNA-221-3p is one of the high-expressed miRNAs in EPC-derived exosomes and promoted skin wound healing in diabetic mice. The finding uncovers the molecular mechanism of EPC-derived exosomes and provides a potential novel approach to the clinical treatment of diabetic skin wounds.


The consideration is based on a finite urn model (drawn balls are not returned). One important conclusion is that increasing effects of selection on the surviving population are to be assumed only by selection of death. Inaccuracy of official death rates results from insufficiency in registration of the confidential part of death certificates. 57% (in females) and 58% (in males) of all malignant tumors (based on examinations in the presented autopsy material) are found beyond the age of 60. More rare than expected are multiple tumors: formal arguments for this are discussed, the phenomenon being explained by a considerably increased death rate. The spectrum of target organs for metastases in the age groups (over 60 years) is tabulated for the oesophagus, stomach, colon-rectum, lung, mamma and prostata as primary tumor localization. As it matastasizes each primary tumor localization shows a specific time course and a specific organ selection. The correlation between malignant tumors and concomitant non tumorous diseases is given special attention. The latter are regarded as indicator for the pathogenesis of tumor diseases. The conclusions are that the remaining population in the urn model is highly selected. This becomes more pronounced in the older and most advanced age groups.


In this paper, we present a methodology, which enables designing optimal macro data flow graphs that represent computation and communication patterns for the FDTD problem in irregular computational areas. The macro data flow graphs are executed in a MIMD system. Communication is implemented with a Remote Direct Memory Access facility. To obtain minimal communication overheads, the rotating buffers mechanism has been introduced. It is used to control (and synchronize) data flow during execution of fine grain applications with irregular communication. Several methods for data flow graph partitioning and merging are presented. In these methods we take into consideration both computational load balance and minimal communication overhead. Experimental results obtained by simulations are discussed.


The principles of LASER surgery are examined and the gynaecological experience with the technique in various centres in different countries is reviewed. An appraisal of the Sharplan Co2 laser in gynaecology indicated that LASER techniques can be employed advantageously in the treatment of premalignant and microinvasive lesions of the vulva, vagina and cervix when maintenance of functional anatomy is important. In most other areas of gynaecological surgery the disadvantages and hazards of the technique outweighed the advantages.


Recently developed 3D global seismic velocity models have demon- strated location improvements through independent regional and teleseismic travel- time calibration. Concurrently, a large set of high-quality ground-truth (GT) events with location accuracies 10 km or better (GT0-GT10) has been collected for Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East, and western Eurasia. In this study we demonstrate event location improvements using this new data set by applying the regional and teleseismic model-based travel-time calibrations (independently and jointly). Besides relocating events using all arrivals, a subset of the GT events was also relocated using controlled station geometries generated from a constrained boot- strapping technique. This approach simulates sparse networks and reduces the effect of correlated errors to ensure valid 90% error ellipse coverage statistics. With respect to the GT events, we compared event relocations, with and without travel-time cal- ibrations, considering statistics of mislocation, error ellipse area, 90% coverage, or- igin time bias, origin time errors, and misfit. Relocations of over 1200 GT events show that Pn and/or P calibration reduced mislocation for 60%-70% of the events. Joint regional Pn and teleseismic P travel-time calibration provided the largest lo- cation improvements and achieved approximately GT5 accuracy levels. Due to cor- related errors, event locations using large numbers of stations have deficient 90% error ellipse coverage. However, the coverages derived from the model errors are appropriate for the simulated sparse regional and teleseismic networks. Our valida- tion effort demonstrates that the global model-based calibrations of Pn and teleseis- mic P travel times reduce both location bias and uncertainty over wide areas.


A small, stored-program, parallel-mode digital computer is used to process data from four tensile testing machines. Each tester is equipped with a stress encoder, strain detection system, keyboard, and teletype printer. The necessary parameters are entered on the keyboard and the specimen is positioned in the tester. A key is then depressed to start the tester and to activate the computer. The translation and transmission of the data are performed by the stress encoder and strain detection system. At the completion of the test, the data is printed in an easy-to-read tabulated format. There are ten on-line computerized tests performed on the tensile testers. Five of the tests have alternate program routines by which the data may be processed. In addition to the on-line program routines, there are eighteen off-line routines that are used. These off-line routines are primarily performed on remote stations consisting of a keyboard and teletype printer. The computer has decreased the chemist's data analysis time, increased the accuracy of the data, and decreased the amount of subjective data interpretation, thus resulting in greater efficiency.


Siliciclastic shallow-marine deposits record the interface between land and sea, and its response to a variety of forcing mechanisms: physical process regime, the internal dynamics of coastal and shelfal depositional systems, relative sea level, sediment flux, tectonic setting, and climate. These deposits have long been the subject of conceptual stratigraphic models that seek to explain the interplay between these various forcing mechanisms, and their preservation in the stratigraphic record. This volume arose from an SEPM research conference on shoreline–shelf stratigraphy that was held in Grand Junction, Colorado, on August 24–28, 2004. The aim of the resulting volume is to highlight the development over the last 15 years of the stratigraphic concepts and models that are used to interpret siliciclastic marginal-marine, shallow-marine, and shelf deposits.