Today, an increasing number of vehicles use IoT devices to communicate with a control center to obtain such traffic information as road congestion conditions and the current shortest route. We analyze the enormous amount of data obtained from these vehicles and detect jam tails even if the percentage of vehicles with IoT devices is small. For effective performance and improved accuracy when analyzing an enormous amount of data for a wide road area, we use a multi-agent system to collect and analyze the IoT data, which is stored in memory with a hierarchical structure organized by vehicle agents and road agents. This structure enables time series data to be analyzed from the viewpoint of each vehicle and to be aggregated for jam analysis from the viewpoint of each road. Furthermore, we use a large-scale traffic simulator to evaluate the behavior of this IoT agent system.


It has been suggested that the peculiar double-peaked Balmer lines of certain broad-line radio galaxies come from individual broad-line regions associated with the black holes of a supermassive binary. We continue to search for evidence of the radial velocity variations characteristics of a double-lined spectroscopic binary that are required in such a model. After spectroscopic monitoring of three suitable candidates (Arp 102B, 3C 390.3, and 3C 332) spanning two decades, we find no such long-term systematic changes in radial velocity. A trend noticed by Gaskell in one of the Balmer-line peaks of 3C 390.3 before 1988 did not continue after that year, invalidating his inferred orbital period and mass. Instead, we find lower limits on the plausible orbital periods that would require the assumed supermassive binaries in all three objects to have total masses in excess of 1010 M☉. In the case of 3C 390.3, the total binary mass must exceed 1011 M☉ to satisfy additional observational constraints on the inclination angle. We argue that such large binary black hole masses are difficult to reconcile with other observations and with theory. In addition, there are peculiar properties of the line profiles and flux ratios in these objects that are not explained by ordinary broad-line region cloud models. We therefore doubt that the double-peaked line profiles of Arp 102B, 3C 390.3, and 3C 332 arise in pairs of broad-line regions. Rather, they are much more likely to be intimately associated with single black holes. The recent discoveries of transient but otherwise similar double-peaked emission lines in nearby active galactic nuclei bolster the view that double-peaked emission lines are commonly produced by a single compact source.


Gratings formed by photorefractive and photoisomerization processes in an azo-dye-doped polymer, poly(vinyl carbazole):trinitrofluorenone/Disperse Red I, are investigated by polarization- and field-dependent four-wave mixing experiments. High diffraction efficiencies and long storage times are observed for the photorefractive gratings. Both types of grating are erasable, and we can select them by choosing the polarization of the reading beam. The effect of photoisomerization on photorefractivity is discussed. Our results indicate that azo-dye-doped polymers are promising candidates for reversible optical storage applications.


ABSTRACT Many EU countries have been carrying out substantial state pension reforms since the mid-1990s. This article studies whether the reforms that were carried out in ten EU countries before and after the 2008 financial crisis are different. This is done through an analysis of the different elements of these reforms and also by comparing pension entitlements after each set of reforms. The main conclusion is that the pre-crisis reforms were much stronger and had a more negative impact on women than the post-crisis reforms. It is harder to determine whether this represents a temporary break in the reform process or a permanent change in the orientation of pension reforms in these ten countries.


In this paper, we define and study generic Riemannian submersions from almost product Riemannian manifolds onto Riemannian manifolds. We give an example, investigate the geometry of foliations which are arisen from the definition of a Riemannian submersion. We also find necessary and sufficient conditions for a generic Riemannian submersion to be totally geodesic.


ß‐catenin acts as a critical regulator of gastrointestinal homeostasis through its control of the Wnt signaling pathway, and genetic or epigenetic lesions which activate Wnt signaling are the primary feature of colon cancer. ß‐catenin is also a key element of mechanotranscription pathways, leading to upregulation of master developmental gene expression during Drosophila gastrulation, or regulating mammalian bone development and maintenance. Here we investigate the impact of mechanical stimulation on the initiation of colon cancer. Myc and Twist1, two oncogenes regulated through ß‐catenin, are expressed in response to transient compression in APC deficient (APC1638N/+) colon tissue explants, but not in wild‐type colon explants. Mechanical stimulation of APC1638N/+ tissue leads to the phosphorylation of ß‐catenin at tyrosine 654, the site of interaction with E‐cadherin, as well as to increased nuclear localization of ß‐catenin. The mechanical activation of Myc and Twist1 expression in APC1638N/+ colon can be prevented by blocking ß‐catenin phosphorylation using Src kinase inhibitors. Microenvironmental signals are known to cooperate with genetic lesions to promote the nuclear ß‐catenin accumulation which drives colon cancer. Here we demonstrate that when APC is limiting, mechanical strain, such as that associated with intestinal transit or tumor growth, can be interpreted by cells of preneoplastic colon tissue as a signal to initiate a ß‐catenin dependent transcriptional program characteristic of cancer.


Hybrid fiber-coax CATV networks are considered a promising infrastructure for the implementation of future interactive services. Efficient utilization of the available CATV spectrum requires a communication system which is dedicated to the specific properties of these networks. This paper presents the physical layer of a bidirectional communication system for HFC CATV networks which is based on CDMA, a technique that has a certain robustness to the ingress noise found in the CATV bandwidth. Because the application of asynchronous CDMA results in a poor spectral efficiency, a transmission scheme based on synchronous CDMA is adopted. Using synchronous CDMA and QPSK modulation, a capacity of 64 channels of 64 kbit/s each can be achieved in a bandwidth of 6 MHz. It is found that small synchronization errors can be tolerated without significant performance degradation. Next, a description is given of the cable modems responsible for the communication between subscribers and a CATV headend. The design exploits the typical CATV network configuration to enable a cost-effective hardware realization. Sensitivity of system performance to linear distortion is investigated by computer simulation. Especially linearly varying group delay and uneven amplitude response are shown to be potential causes of performance degradation.


The process of talent development in sports requires an environment that encourages early identification of inherent sporting potentials in youngsters and provides the necessary support to grow such potentials into refined talents. Across cultures, athletic development is achieved through a synergy between athletes, their coaches, family, school, the community as well as other significant persons and social institutions. Judging by Nigeria's rankings in global competitive sports, the country is yet to evolve an effective template for successful athletic development process. This study adopted a qualitative approach to examine the process of athletes' development in Nigeria. Seven elite Nigerian coaches were interviewed. Inductive analysis of the data indicated certain contextual impediments to athletes' development in Nigeria including organizational and culture specific barriers to talent development, and two drivers of successful development were equally revealed. It was suggested that stakeholders in sport development should collaborate to evolve a template for successful athletes' development where the entire development environment provides the necessary support for athletic development.


Understanding customers and acting on that understanding is critical to success – so say 62.7% of senior executives. Yet only 24% adopt a customer-led approach to running their business. Our data collected from 454 executives suggests they are either customer-led or efficiency-led and that only the customer-led approach contributes to competitive success. Given the gap between what is said and what is done, we urge executives to challenge themselves and colleagues to be more honest about what they believe really drives competitive performance, so that words and actions are aligned. In addition, we encourage them to recognize that their company's interests are best served by putting customers first. And we encourage action and learning around initiatives that could demonstrate this clearly. This is what grows shared belief that these less common ways of working lead to success.


Understanding how a ligand affects the steric and electronic properties of a metal is the cornerstone of the inorganic chemistry enterprise. What happens when the ligand is an extended surface? This question is central to the design and implementation of state-of-the-art functional materials containing transition metals. This perspective will describe how these two very different sets of extended surfaces can form well-defined coordination complexes with metals. In the Green formalism, functionalities on oxide surfaces react with inorganics to form species that contain X-type or LX-type interactions between the metal and the oxide. Carbon surfaces are neutral L-type ligands; this perspective focuses on carbons that donate six electrons to a metal. The nature of this interaction depends on the curvature, and thereby orbital overlap, between the metal and the extended π-system from the nanocarbon.


Abstract : Interval-censored (IC) data are encountered in three areas of breast cancer research. The most common application is in clinical relapse follow-up studies in which the study endpoint is disease-free survival. When a patient relapses, it is usually known that the relapse takes place between two follow-up visits, and the exact time to relapse is unknown. In statistics, we say relapse time is interval censored. Interval censoring is also encountered in breast cancer registry studies in which information on family history of cancer is updated periodically. The Strang Breast Surveillance Program for women at increased risk for breast cancer, for instance, has enlisted over 800 women with complete pedigree information which is verified and updated continuously. Family history data such as age at diagnosis of a specific cancer, or a benign but risk-conferring condition, are obtained from each registrant at each update. Time to a cancer event, and definitely time to first detection of a benign condition, are at best known to fall in the time interval between the last update and age at diagnosis. A third but increasingly important area of application of interval censoring is in breast cancer chemoprevention experiments or prevention trials, which involve the observation of one or more surrogate endpoint biomarkers (SEB) over time. The scientific question of interest here is the estimation of time for the SEB to reach a target value, and time from cessation of intake of a chemopreventive agent to the loss of its protective effect. Unfortunately, the exact values of both these time variables are known only to lie in between two successive assay inspection times. In a breast cancer follow-up study, we will often encounter covariates (for instance, tumor size and nodal status in a relapse study, and baseline SEB value in a chemoprevention trial).


Elastofibroma dorsi is a benign soft-tissue tumor. Its sub- and pre-scapular location and its appearance on CT and MRI generally lead to the diagnosis. We have analyzed with sonography 6 elastofibromas in 4 patients; the diagnosis was confirmed with CT scan or MRI. Some sonography imaging features supported the diagnosis of elastofibroma dorsi. In all the cases, (1) the tumor occurred typically in a sub- and pre-scapular location, and (2) showed a streaky echostructure (3). A similar symptomatic or asymptomatic mass in the opposite subscapular location is highly suggestive.


Victor Ray argues organizations are racial structures that legitimate the unequal distribution of resources and stratify the agency of racial groups through organizational processes that treat White identity as a credential and decouple formal rules meant to reduce disparities from practice. This study demonstrates the utility of this theory in an empirical case study of disparities in earnings, job quality, and advancement among clergy in the United Methodist Church. Despite the preferences articulated by Black clergy, the formal organizational policies that ban race as a consideration in appointment making were decoupled from managerial practices; thus, clergy and congregations were matched on race. Because of local control over salaries and major resource disparities between congregations, race matching led to Black-White disparities in pay, advancement, working conditions, and professional support. The most promising remedy is a common salary scale with a more comprehensive redistribution process to address resources inequalities across congregations.


AIM
to assess the effect of systemic hypoxia on gastric mucosa and the activation of stress-responsive transcription factors induced by hypoxia.

METHODS
in this experimental study, rats were allocated to control and experimental groups. The experimental group was divided into subgroups and subjected to hypoxia conditions for 1, 7, 14 or 21 days. Afterwards, histopathological evaluation and study of the protein expression of the gastric mucosa were performed.

RESULTS
the results showed that longer exposure to hypoxic conditions leads to more severe gastric ulceration. Twenty-four hours after induction, 60% of rats had developed gastric ulcers. Seven days after induction, 80% of rats developed gastric ulcers. In the 14-day and 21-day hypoxia conditions, epithelialization (a sign of gastric ulcer healing) was observed. Evaluation of the average ulcer depth on the day of treatment showed that the greatest depth was on day 7, and the shallowest was on day 21 of treatment. Western blot analyses demonstrated that systemic hypoxia resulted in the expression of heat shock factor (HSF) and heat shock protein 70 (HSP-70), which were highest on day 7 and then regressed gradually. In control, HSF-1 and HSP-70 were not detected by Western blot analysis in the control group (normoxia).

CONCLUSION
in this study, systemic hypoxia caused gastric ulcers, and during the time of exposure to hypoxia, an adaptation process in the form of gastric epithelialization occurred in the rats. This development of gastric lesions was in line with the expression pattern of HSF-1 HIF-1 and HSP-70.


This paper advances a theory of anxiety as social practice. Distinguishing between individual anxieties and anxiety as a social condition, the paper suggests that anxiety has not been subject to the same level of theoretical scrutiny as related concepts such as risk, trust, or fear. Drawing on the existential philosophy of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Heidegger, the paper shows how contemporary anxieties involve the recognition of our own mortality and the destabilisation of established systems of meaning. The paper then turns to practice theory to show how social anxieties can be understood as events that rupture the fabric of everyday life, creating specific subjects and objects, 'framed' by different communities of practice, and becoming institutionalised to varying degrees. Focusing on a range of food-related anxieties, the paper explores the geographical and historical constitution of social anxiety, examining the process of anxiety formation and the factors that inhibit or enhance its social and spatial diffusion.


This paper presents the variable parameter resized zero attracting least mean fourth (VP-RZA-LMF) control algorithm for grid-tied photovoltaic (PV) system. The proposed control algorithm is superior over the conventional control algorithms in terms of swift response and handling the irregular nature of solar irradiations. The DC bus voltage control is incorporated in voltage source converter (VSC) control. The boost converter utilizes the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm for producing its gating sequence to keep PV array voltage constant


The sinusoidal frequency estimation from short data records based on Toeplitz autocorrelation (AC) matrix estimates suffer from phase noise. This effect becomes prominent especially when additive noise vanishes becoming a nuisance, that is at high signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). Based on both analytic derivation of the AC lag terms and simulation experiments, we show that data windowing can mitigate the limitations caused by the phase noise. Thus with proper windowing, the variance of the frequency estimate is no more limited by phase noise, but it continues to decrease linearly with the SNR. The cases of the Pisarenko frequency estimator and of MUSIC, both for the single sinusoid case, are analyzed in detail.


Diffuse (non-point) water pollution from agricultural land continues to challenge water quality management, requiring the adoption of new land management practices. The use of constructed agricultural wetlands is one such practice, designed to trap multiple pollutants mobilised by rainfall prior to them reaching receiving water. Through capturing and storing pollutants in bottom sediments, it could be hypothesised that the abundance of nutrients stored in the anoxic conditions commonly found in these zones may lead to pollutant swapping. Under these circumstances, trapped material may undergo biogeochemical cycling to change chemical or physical form and thereby become more problematic or mobile within the environment. Thus, constructed agricultural wetlands designed to mitigate against one form of pollution may in fact offset the created benefits by 'swapping' this pollution into other forms and pathways, such as through release to the atmosphere. Pollutant swapping to the atmosphere has been noted in analogous wetland systems designed to treat municipal and industrial wastewaters, with significant fluxes of CO2, CH4 and N2O being recorded in some cases. However the small size, low level of engineering and variable nutrient/sediment inputs which are features of constructed agricultural wetlands, means that this knowledge is not directly transferable. Therefore, more information is required when assessing whether a wetland's potential to act as hotspot for pollution swapping outweighs its potential to act as a mitigation tool for surface water pollution. Here we present results from an on-going monitoring study at a trial agricultural wetland located in small a mixed-use catchment in Cumbria, UK. Estimates were made of CH4, CO2 and N2O flux from the wetland surface using adapted floating static chambers, which were then directly compared with fluxes from an undisturbed riparian zone. Results indicate that while greenhouse gas flux from the wetland may be significant, the impacts of this may be greatly diminished when considering wetland size in relation to catchment area. As such, this increased understanding will be valuable when considering the implications of rural land use management for water quality improvement. This knowledge could also be applied to further enhancing our knowledge of gas regional/global gas emissions from freshwater systems, which at the moment are poorly constrained.


ABSTRACT When faced with excessive detail in an online environment, typical users have difficulty processing all the elements of representation. This in turn creates cognitive overload, which narrows the user's focus to a few select items. In the context of e-learning, we translated this aspect as the learner's demand for a system that facilitates the retrieval of learning content – one in which the representation is easy to read and understand. We hypothesized that the representation of content in an e-learning system's design is an important antecedent for learner preferences. The aspects of isolation and distinctiveness were incorporated into the design of e-learning representation as an attempt to promote student cognition. Following its development, the model was empirically validated by conducting a survey of 300 university students. We found that isolation and distinctiveness in the design elements appeared to facilitate the ability of students to read and remember online learning content. This in turn was found to drive user preferences for using e-learning systems. The findings provide designers with managerial insights for enticing learners to continue using e-learning systems.


The effects of rosehip seed flour (RSF) on the rheological properties of bread dough were investigated. RSF was substituted with bread wheat flour at the proportions of 5, 7.5 and 10%. RSF was found to have 7.4 % protein, 4.6% lipid, 79.4% dietary fiber, 97.60 g/kg GAE total phenolic, and 759.48 IC50=μg/ml antiradical activity. Among farinograph parameters: water absorption, development time and softening value of RSF added doughs were found lower than the control dough while stability was showed slightly increase as the RSF level increases from 5% to %7.5. However it began to decrease after this level. Textural measurements by using Kieffer dough and gluten extensibility rig studies showed that inclusion of RSP did not cause any significant change at the maximum resistance to extension and extensibility of doughs when 5% of RSP was added. As the level of RSF increased from 5 to 7.5 and 10% respectively, a decrease in extensibility of doughs was observed. The addition of RSF resulted in significant effects on pressure, extensibility and energy of doughs measured with Dobraszczyk/Roberts dough inflation system of the texture analyser. A significant increase was observed in pressure and energy of doughs who were positively correlated with increased level of RSF. On the other hand a weakening was noted at higher levels (from 5% to 10%) when compared with control dough. As a result; substitution at 5 % of RSF gives rheological parameter values at least as good as the control sample and it can be used as valuable ingredient to enhance the functional properties of bakery products.


Rodent incisors are continuously growing teeth and enamel deposition is restricted to the labial side. In the present study, the expression of laminin-5 subunits (alpha3, beta3 and gamma2) has been analyzed by in situ hybridization in developing mouse lower incisors and compared to that reported in the molar. At the bud stage (E12), mRNAs for all subunits were detected in the whole epithelial thickening. At E14, when histogenesis had started, transcripts for alpha3 and gamma2 subunits were restricted to the outer dental epithelium (ODE), whereas the beta3 subunit was intensely expressed in the inner dental epithelium (IDE). A transient expression for alpha3 subunit was seen in the enamel knot area and disappeared at E15. Subsequently, all laminin-5 subunit genes were re-expressed in differentiating ameloblasts on the labial side. Similar patterns of transcription were observed in incisor and molar, suggesting that the differential expression of laminin-5 subunits in the IDE might be involved in the histogenesis of the IDE and ameloblast differentiation. At E16.5, cells of the IDE at the anterior extremity of the incisor and in the anterior part of the lingual IDE expressed transcripts for alpha3 and beta3 but not for gamma2 subunit. Similar expression patterns were observed in the enamel-free areas of the E18 molar. This specific expression might thus be related to cells that do not differentiate as functional ameloblasts. Throughout incisor development, intense expression for all laminin-5 subunits was restricted to the labial side of the cervical loop. The asymmetrical expression of laminin-5 might be related to incisor morphogenesis and to the differences in histogenesis and cytodifferentiation of the IDE that exist in the labial versus lingual aspect of the cervical loop.


Tropical fruit juice production shows an annual increase in volume of 15 to 20% in Brazil. Growing demand for processed fruit pulp arouses juice industry interest to search for novel technologies. High Hydrostatic Pressure (HHP) is an innovative technology which allows juice production with improved sensory characteristics compared to pasteurization, meeting consumer demands for fresh-like foods. Despite recognized advantages of pressurized products described in the literature, a positive consumer attitude towards them is required to guarantee their success in today's competitive global market. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of packaging attributes on consumer expected liking and purchase intention of passion fruit juice. One hundred and twenty consumers evaluated twelve prototypes for expected liking and purchase intention. Data were analyzed using ANOVA, Conjoint and Cluster Analyses. Results showed that information about benefits of used technology (HHP) presented on the package played an important role on consumer attitude, suggesting a positive contribution to his/her satisfaction, a key point for the food industry.


BACKGROUND
 Occupational exercise training programs can improve overall health and fitness in firefighters, but evidence beyond clinical and performance outcomes is needed before fire departments invest in and successfully adopt health promotion programs.

 OBJECTIVE
 This mixed methods pilot study sought to pair clinical and performance outcomes with participants' qualitative feedback (eg, participants' enjoyment, lifestyle behavior changes, and team structure) with the goal of informing recommendations for future programs.

 METHODS
 Professional firefighters participated in a 14-week occupational exercise training program with assessments conducted pre- and posttraining. Clinical outcomes included weight, BMI, body fat percentage, resting heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure. Performance outcomes included the sharpened Romberg balance test, 1-repetition maximum leg press and bench press, graded exercise test (estimated VO2max), knee range of motion, shoulder flexibility, and hamstring flexibility. Self-administered surveys (Short Form-36, International Physical Activity Questionnaire, Barriers Self-Efficacy Scale, and Barriers to Being Active Quiz) were completed. In 3 private focus groups of 3 to 4 participants, firefighters' experiences in the training program and their health behaviors were explored.

 RESULTS
 Male firefighters (n=14; age: mean 36.4, SD 2.6 years) completed 20 training sessions. There were no significant changes to weight (P=.20), BMI (P=.15), body fat percentage (P=.16), systolic blood pressure (P=.12), estimated VO2max (P=.34), balance (P=.24), knee range of motion (left: P=.35; right: P=.31), or hamstring flexibility (P=.14). There was a significant decrease in diastolic blood pressure (P=.04) and significant increases in shoulder flexibility (P<.001) and leg press 1-repetition maximum volume (P=.04). Participants reported improvements in overall health, endurance, flexibility, and mood as well as improvements to team environment and health behaviors around the station; however, there was a decline in overcoming barriers to physical activity.

 CONCLUSIONS
 A 14-week program of exercise training in firefighters elicited improvements in clinical, performance, and self-reported physical activity outcomes. This occupational exercise training program for firefighters increased time spent exercising, improved team building, and led to physical and mental health benefits. Results from this pilot study set a broad, informed, and meaningful foundation for future efforts to increase firefighter participation in occupational fitness programs.


What are the appropriate sources from which to draw evidence about Knowledge Management (KM) and its added value to organisations? This paper attempts to answer this question, first examining the literature for approaches to measuring KM from the perspective of Intellectual Capital (IC) theory. However, findings indicated that many measurement methods or frameworks have limitations. Following the literature review, the researchers then approached KM practitioners, within the UK car manufacturing industry, and undertook in-depth interviews in an attempt to understand how these organisations value their KM practices. The UK car manufacturing industry was selected because little previous research has been undertaken in this context, most previous studies having concentrated mainly on service industries. It was discovered that, in most of the organisations studied, the link between KM, business benefits and bottom line is almost axiomatic, especially amongst those who are enthusiastic advocates of KM. Drawing on the evidence from the in-depth interviews, the paper concludes that there is an absence of linking mechanisms between value and measurement. This is due to the differences between the concept of a value and measurement approach and the importance of these two concepts to justify the outcome of KM practices. Recommendations are made through the development of a theoretical framework that includes both objective and subjective dimensions of KM measurement strategy.


The purpose of the performance evaluation is to measure the degree in which an employee of an organization adjusts or complies with the desired profile. The results of this measurement allow generating recommendations to improve the performance of the functions by the employee. Moreover, the results favor the human talent management, related to professional growth, bonuses, compensations, and candidate selection.
In this paper, an analysis, comparing, and characterization process of the performance evaluation methods are presented. This process was realized to take advantage of the benefices of performance evaluation and identify which methods of performance evaluation are most used in software development teams. This analysis allows us to characterize these methods and identify the factors that determine their usage, as well as the criteria that allow them to specify and differentiate their application in the software industry. A methodology is integrated into three phases to carry out the purpose of this work. Through this methodology, it was possible to conduct the characterization of performance evaluation methods for software development teams.
We identified 11 conventional performance evaluation methods and 10 approaches to performance evaluation for software development teams. We included conventional methods because the particular proposals for software development teams use some of them. From this set of studies, the analysis of characterization and comparison factors was established.
This characterization shows that the evaluation of technical competences takes precedence, over generic, psychological, or experience competences.


We derive expressions for the correlation of fading between a pair of antenna elements in a wireless communication system. Some prior researchers have assumed uniformly distributed signal angles of arrival with a specified beamwidth. Here, we derive a closed form expression for the angle of arrival density at a cellular base station where local scatterers are uniformly distributed in a circle about the mobile. We show that the density can be parameterized in terms of the ratio of the base-to-mobile distance to the scattering circle radius, D/R. We use this density to derive the correlation of fading between a pair of antenna elements. We then derive a closed form approximation for the correlation of fading and show that the approximation improves with increasing D/R. We show that if the signal arrives broadside to the antenna elements, then the approximation is exact.


Copyright resides with the authors in terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 South African Licence. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/za Condition of use: The user may copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the work, but must recognise the authors and the South African Journal of Animal Science. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract This research aimed to determine effects of phytase in cottonseed meal (CM) and rice husk (RH) based diets on true phosphorus digestibility (TPD) by broiler chickens. Two studies were conducted with 576 one-day-old broiler chickens using regression analysis to determine the TPD in these diets and the response to phytase supplementation. Six semi-purified diets were formulated to contain 150 g, 300 g, and 450 g each of CM/kg (experiment 1) and RH/kg (experiment 2) with phytase supplied at 0 and 1000 units/kg. Titanium dioxide was added to the diets at the rate of 5 g/kg as an indigestible maker. A total of 288 broiler chickens in each study were weighed and allotted to the six diets with six replicates of eight birds in a randomized complete block design. The birds were fed the experimental diets until day 26 post hatch. The coefficients of true phosphorus retention (TPR) were 0.8 for CM and 0.78 for RH without phytase; 0.93 for CM and 0.92 for RH with phytase. True phosphorus digestibility was 0.82 for CM and 0.75 for RH without phytase; and 0.95 for CM and 0.92 for RH with phytase. Phytase supplementation resulted in 13.27 and 17.94 % increases in TPD; and 12.29 and 13.61 % increases in TPR by birds fed the CM and RH diets, respectively. Phytase supplementation of CM and RH based diets increased TPD and improved total TPR and true ileal phosphorus digestibility in broiler chickens. ______________________________________________________________________________________


This practice/theory PhD focuses on four projects that evolved from a wider field recording practice. Rather than treating individual recordings as isolated objects, each of the projects was concerned with the ways in which 'straight' field recordings become implicated with both other instances and genres of recording and real-world environments. The dissertation and projects attempt to reconcile, what has been depicted within the acoustic ecology movement as, the detrimental effects of 'millions' of recording productions and playbacks on individuals and global environments, by exploring alternative conceptions of environmental recorded sound.

This is partly achieved through developing a distinctive account of field recordings that links these to haptic expressions of spatiality and perception, from a range of sources. Amongst these, concepts of 'acoustic' (Marshall Mcluhan) and 'smooth' spaces (Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari), are compared to depictions of environmental recorded sound, from key figures in acoustic ecology (including R. Murray Schafer; Hildegard Westerkamp). Haptic spaces are introduced through discourses that relate the playback of recordings to the figure of modulation; that also connect private listeners to public environmental musics. Multiple and repeated instances of recording are then linked to resonant, liminal and simulacral depictions of recorded sound. These are significantly drawn from discourses of influential 'ambient' musics; and accounts of field recording that focus on their content, rather than original production.

These concerns are practically explored through environmental and mimetic strategies of recording. The projects mainly focus on ambient background recordings and appropriated or much repeated subjects of field recording. The critical effect of these is largely produced during playback: using software applications that change this in some way, or by diffusing multiple recordings simultaneously in a sound installation. The projects attempt to realise 'smooth' productions of field recordings; that are able to relate different sonorous and non-sonorous forces together.

Please note that parts of the electronic thesis - including some audio tracks on DVD I and all of DVD II - are redacted or otherwise not available online.


This PhD research project developed and evaluated innovative approaches to computer system user authentication, using biometric characteristics. It involved experiments with a significant number of participants and development of new approaches to biometric data representation and analysis.

The initial authentication procedure, that we all perform when we log onto a computer system, is considered to be the first line of protection for computer systems. The password is the most common verification token used in initial authentication procedures. Unfortunately, passwords are subject to numerous attack vectors (loss, theft, guessing or cracking), and as a result unauthorised persons may gain access to the verification token and be incorrectly authenticated. This has led to password-based authentication procedures being responsible for a large proportion of computer network security breaches.

In recent years, the use of biometrics has been increasingly researched as an alternative to passwords in the initial authentication procedure. Biometrics concerns the physical traits and behavioural characteristics that make each individual unique. Biometric authentication involves the use of biometric technologies in authentication systems, with the aim to provide accurate verification (based on biometric characteristics).

Research has demonstrated that uni-modal biometric authentication (that is, authentication based on a single biometric characteristic) makes it difficult for an impostor to impersonate a legitimate user. More recent research is finding that multi-modal biometric authentication (that is, authentication based on the combination of multiple biometric characteristics) can make it even more difficult for an impostor to impersonate a legitimate user. Thus multi-modal biometrics claims improved accuracy and robustness.

Multi-modal biometrics requires consideration of various aspects of data integration, known to the field of data fusion. Multi-modal biometric research has, until recently, focused on the fusion of data (from multiple sources) at the decision level or the confidence score level. It has been proposed that fusion of data at the feature level will produce more accurate and reliable verification.

However, fusion of data at the feature level is a more difficult task than fusion at the other two levels. For decision level fusion, 'accept' or 'reject' results from the different data sources are fused. For confidence score level fusion, confidence scores (typically in the continuous interval [0, 1]) from the different data sources are fused. That is, for the aforementioned levels, the data from the multiple sources are of the same nature. Feature level fusion combines feature vectors, where the data from the different sources are most likely to consist of different units of measurement.

Data fusion literature formally specifies that data may be combined according to three paradigms: competitive, complementary, and cooperative. Competitive data fusion assesses data from all available sources, and bases classification upon the 'best' source. Complementary data fusion combines all available data from all sources, and bases classification upon this combined data. Cooperative data fusion involves the selection of the best features of each individual data source, and then combines the selected features prior to classification.

The objectives of the current study were to investigate the use of two individual biometric characteristics (keystroke dynamics and fingerprint recognition). For keystroke dynamics, feature selection was employed to reduce the variability associated with data from this characteristic. For fingerprint recognition, a new method was developed to represent fingerprint features. This was done to assist classification by Artificial Neural Networks, and to meet the requirement to facilitate fusion with the keystroke dynamics data at the feature level.

Whilst feature level data fusion was the primary objective, investigation of the two individual characteristics was conducted to enable comparison of results with the data fusion results. For the data fusion investigation, the complementary and cooperative paradigms were adopted, with the cooperative approach involving four stages.

The feature selection method chosen to filter keystroke dynamics data was based on normality statistics, and returned results comparable to many other research efforts. The fingerprint feature representation method developed for this experiment demonstrated an innovative and effective technique, which could be applicable in a uni-modal or a multi-modal context.

As the new fingerprint representation method resulted in a standard length feature vector for each fingerprint, data alignment and subsequent feature level data fusion was efficiently and practicably facilitated.

The experiment recruited 90 participants to provide typing and fingerprint samples. Of these, 140 keystroke dynamics samples and 140 fingerprint samples (from each participant) were utilised for the first two phases of the experiment. Phase three of the experiment involved the fusion of the samples from the first two phases, and thus there were 140 combined samples. These quantities provided 100 samples for false negative testing and 10,500 samples for false positive testing (for each participant for each phase of the experiment). These figures are similar or better than virtually all previous research studies in this field.

The results of the three phases of the experiment were calculated as the two performance variables, the false rejection rate (FRR)-measuring the false negatives-and the false acceptance rate (FAR)-measuring the false positives.

The keystroke dynamics investigation returned an average FAR of 0.02766095 and an average FRR of 0.0862, which were• at least comparable with other research in the field.
The fingerprint recognition investigation returned an average FAR of 0.0 and an average FRR of 0.0022, which were as good as (or better than) other research in the field.

The feature level data fusion adopting the complementary approach returned an average FAR of 0.0 and an average FRR of 0.0004. Feature level data fusion adopting the cooperative approach returned respective average FAR and FRR results of 0.00000381 and 0.0004 for stage 1, 0.0 and 0.0006 for stage 2, 0.0 and 0.001 for stage 3, and 0.0 and 0.001 for stage 4.

The research demonstrated that uni-modal biometric authentication systems provide an accurate alternative to traditional password-based authentication methods. Additionally, the keystroke dynamics investigation demonstrated that filtering 'noisy' data from raw data improved accuracy for this biometric characteristic (though other filtering methods than that used in this research may improve accuracy further). Also, the newly developed fingerprint representation method demonstrated excellent results, and indicated that its use for future research (in representing two dimensional data for classification by Artificial Neural Networks) could be advantageous.

The data fusion investigation demonstrated that multi-modal biometric authentication systems provide additional accuracy improvement (as well as a perceived robustness) compared to uni-modal biometric authentication systems. Feature level data fusion demonstrated improved accuracy compared with confidence score level and decision level data fusion methods. The new fingerprint representation method (which provided an innovative technique for representing data from any two dimensional data source) facilitated feature level data fusion with keystroke dynamic data, and the results validate the importance of using feature rich data.


A study was undertaken to detect and monitor the degradation of hexadecane by three potential degrading bacteria ( Pseudomonas putida, Rhodococcus erythroplolis and Bacillus thermoleovorans ) isolated from contaminated soils in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The extraction of the bacterial populations from these polluted soils were 5.25 x 10 5 , 1.76 x 10 6 and 5.11 x 10 5 cells/ml, respectively with three different colony types of bacterial strains. Microbial population diversity studies were carried out by microbial enumeration identification and determination of growth responses of bacterial isolates in different concentrations of hexadecane. Phenotypic examination of the heterotrophic bacteria belonged mainly to the genus Pseudomonas, Rhodococcus and Bacillus . The mixed populations were capable of degrading hexadecane up to 120 ppm. The biodegradation of hexadecane by P. putida , R. erythroplolis and B. thermoleovorans together, was fast when compared to the biodegradation of hexadecane by each strain separately. This study reported on how to change contaminated soils to a non contaminated state. Healthy soils are essential not only to sustain production of food and fibber for citizens of the world, but also to provide a good quality life. Key words: Hexadecane, biodegradation, Pseudomonas putida, Rhodococcus erythroplolis, Bacillus thermoleovorans.


Background . Making informed decisions about cancer screening involves understanding the benefits and harms in conjunction with personal values. There is little research examining factors associated with informed decision making or participation in screening in the context of a decision aid trial. Objectives . To identify factors associated with informed choice and participation in fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) among lower education populations. Design . Randomized controlled trial of an FOBT decision aid conducted between July and November 2008. Setting . Socioeconomically disadvantaged areas in New South Wales, Australia. Participants . Included 572 adults aged 55 to 64 years with lower education. Measurements . Sociodemographic variables, perceived health literacy, and involvement preferences in decision making were examined to identify predictors of informed choice (knowledge, attitudes, and behavior). Results . Multivariate analysis identified independent predictors of making an informed choice as having higher education (relative risk [RR], 1.49; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.13–1.95; P = 0.001), receiving the decision aid (RR, 2.88; 95% CI, 1.87–4.44; P < 0.001), and being male (RR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.11–1.97; P = 0.009). Participants with no confidence in completing forms and poorer self-reported health were less likely to make an informed choice (RR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.53–1.03; P = 0.05 and RR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.36–0.89; P = 0.007, respectively). Independent predictors of completing the FOBT were positive screening attitudes, receiving the standard information, preference for making the decision alone, and knowing that screening may lead to false-positive/negative results. Limitations . We did not objectively measure health literacy. Conclusions . Participants with the lowest levels of education had greater difficulties making an informed choice about participation in bowel screening. Alternative methods are needed to support informed decision making among lower education populations.


Passage of Georgia's Distance Learning and Telemedicine Act of 1992 resulted in a windfall of $50 million from telephone company over-earnings. Rather than refund the money to consumers, legislators created a fund to finance telecommunications projects in medicine and education. When Governor Zell Miller signed the Act into law more than a year ago, he said, "[It] will immediately catapult Georgia to the forefront of this nation in the use of advanced telecommunications to improve the quality of life of its people." The law also set the state's cable television and telephone companies at odds. Nancy Horne, executive director of the Cable Television Association of Georgia, said that her industry's broadband fiber and coaxial infrastructure is in place to provide the state with telemedicine capabilities, and that transmission of full motion video or high resolution diagnostic images could take hours over standard telephone lines. Representatives of telephone companies argue that new high-speed cell relay switching technology provides instantaneous communications. An appointed Board of Governors holds tightly to the strings that secure a purse containing the $50 million. No grants have yet been awarded. In the middle of the debate stands Georgia's Department of Administrative Services, which moderates the competition between the two industries. And, the Medical College of Georgia created a demonstration project based on telephone technology. Representatives of both institutions gave Healthcare Informatics their views on developments of telemedicine in Georgia.


The results of karyotyping for Down's syndrome in neonates were surveyed. From local data 36%, and from a national questionnaire, 32% of such samples were negative for Down's syndrome. To examine this, a subset of notes was reviewed for documentation of clinical signs of Down's syndrome. Some characteristics were often recorded, but other common discriminatory characteristics were noted less often or not at all.


We analyze economic elites' perceptions and beliefs about meritocracy from a moral economy perspective. A moral economy perspective considers how norms and beliefs structure socioeconomic practices through the constitution and expression of what is considered acceptable, proper, and legitimate. Our study explores how economic elites make sense of the roles of talent and effort in the distribution of resources and how they reconcile the idea of meritocracy within a rigid social order. The site of our study is Chile, a country with fluid mobility between low and middle classes, but with high and persistent disparities and strong barriers to elite positions. We conducted 44 semistructured interviews with shareholders, board members, and high-level executives of large or high-turnover companies in three major Chilean cities. We find that the economic elite strongly support meritocracy but explain access to top positions based on talent rather than effort. The economic elite define talent in terms of business and leadership skills. They attribute upward mobility in the private sector to meritocratic practice. At the same time, they view the public sector as the epitome of nonmeritocratic practices, incompetence, and inefficiency. They profess empathy with the poor, but they reject redistributive policies. The economic elite believe in the primacy of competition in economic life and the necessity of continual economic growth, and thus, they understand meritocracy as both the means to survive in a market economy and a responsible approach to lead national development.


INTRODUCTION  Academic libraries have the privilege of serving many roles in the lives of their institutions. One role that is largely untapped is their ability to actively leverage their collections to support faculty teaching and to reduce student out-of-pocket costs by eliminating systemic double payment for course materials. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM/SERVICE  This paper details a project by the Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office (SCCO) at the University of Toronto that aimed to reduce this systemic double payment by leveraging collections and electronic reserves to provide a new service, the Zero-to-Low Cost Courses. Building on existing relationships with faculty, SCCO staff reached out to potential candidates, identified library licensed materials in their printed course packs, and created digital course packs which students could use at no cost. NEXT STEPS This article shares the results of the project and explores next steps in using existing library resources to actively reduce student course costs.


Graph convolutional networks (GCN) have been applied in knowledge base question answering (KBQA) task. However, the pairwise connection between nodes of GCN limits the representation capability of high-order data correlation. Furthermore, most previous work does not fully utilize the semantic relation information, which is vital to reasoning. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-hop KBQA model based on hypergraph convolutional network. By constructing a hypergraph, the form of pairwise connection between nodes and nodes is converted to the high-level connection between nodes and edges, which effectively encodes complex related data. To better exploit the semantic information of relations, we apply co-attention method to learn similarity between relation and query, and assign weights to different relations. Experimental results demonstrate the effectivity of the model.


The effect of N-tallow-1,3-diaminopropane (TDP) on friction, rolling wear and micropitting has been investigated with the ultimate objective of developing lubricants with no or minimal environmental impact. A mini traction machine (MTM-SLIM) has been utilised in order to generate tribofilms and observe the effect of TDP on anti-wear tribofilm formation and friction. Micropitting was induced on the surface of specimens using a micropitting rig (MPR). The x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) surface analytical technique has been employed to investigate the effect of TDP on the chemical composition of the tribofilm while atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to generate high resolution topographical images of the tribofilms formed on the MTM discs. Experimental and analytical results showed that TDP delays the zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP) anti-wear tribofilm formation. TDP in combination with ZDDP induces a thinner and smoother anti-wear tribofilm with a modified chemical structure composed of mixed Fe/Zn (poly)phosphates. The sulphide contribution to the tribofilm and oxygen-to-phosphorous atomic concentration ratio are greater in the bulk of the tribofilm derived from a combination of TDP and ZDDP compared to a tribofilm derived from ZDDP alone. Surface analyses showed that utilising TDP effectively mitigates micropitting wear in the test conditions used in this study. Reduction of micropitting, relevant to rolling bearing applications, can be attributed to the improved running-in procedure, reduced friction, formation of a smoother tribofilm and modification of the tribofilm composition induced by TDP.


Thanks to recent advances in wireless technology, a broad range of standards are currently emerging. Interoperability and coexistence between these heterogeneous networks are becoming key issues, which require new adaptation strategies to avoid harmful interference. In this paper, we focus on the coexistence of 802.11 Wireless LAN and 802.15.4 sensor networks in the ISM band. Those networks have very different transmission characteristics that result in asymmetric interference patterns. We propose distributed adaptation strategies for 802.15.4 nodes, to minimize the impact of the 802.11 interference. This interference varies in time, frequency and space and the sensor nodes adapt by changing their frequency channel selection over time. Different distributed techniques are proposed, based on scanning (with increasing power cost) on the one hand, and based on increased cognition through learning on the other hand. These techniques are evaluated both for performance and energy cost. We show that it is possible to achieve distributed frequency allocation approaches that result only in an increase of 20% of the delay performance compared to ideal frequency allocation. Moreover, it is shown that a factor of two in energy consumption can be saved by adding learning to the system


In this study, we propose a fuzzy logic-based autonomous car control system and its deployment into the JavaScript Racer game. The main design goal of the self-driving car control system is to end up with an intelligent vehicle control system that is capable to keep the car finish race in the shortest time as possible while keeping the car on the road course regardless the road conditions. To accomplish such a design goal, the proposed intelligent driving system takes up and merges the frameworks of control theory, fuzzy logic and image processing. The proposed structure is composed of vision-based lane detection system, fuzzy logic-based position reference (FPR) generator, fuzzy logic-based velocity reference (FVR) generator, low level position and velocity controllers. The vision-based lane detection system solves the road curve estimation problem in real time and provides this estimation feedback for the FPR and FVR to generate appropriate position and velocity reference signals. The design of the intelligent FPR and FVR generators is accomplished by converting expert knowledge into fuzzy rules. The generated reference signals from the FPR and FVR are then tracked by low level position and velocity controllers. The proposed structure is capable to percept the environment (i.e. road tracking), make decisions (reference signal generation) and control car dynamics (i.e. speed and position) as expected from an autonomous system. The paper presents the structure and design of the intelligent driving system by providing all the design steps in detail. The efficiency of the fuzzy logic-based car control system is shown with results collected from the game environment. It is revealed that the developed intelligent system can successfully operate in various racetracks and different operating points.


A total of 71 cases of dirofilariasis due to Dirofilaria repens and two cases of pulmonary dirofilariasis due to Dirofilaria have been reported in France. As a result France ranks second after Italy in the incidence of this emerging zoonoses that has been given little attention (48 p. 100 of cases in the last ten years). Most human infections (80 p. 100) have occurred in Mediterranean areas but in the last ten years a few cases have been reported in Southwestern France and at least one case was documented in a northern area (Alsace). The epidemiological profile of human dirofilariasis in France is consistent with usual data showing highest incidence in adults and no gender preference. More than 50 p. 100 of superficial nodules are located on the head with the most common site being the conjuctiva and orbit (29.4 p. 100). Nodules on the breast and male genitals as well as pulmonary nodules require differential diagnosis to rule out neoplasm. Intra-abdominal forms are usually discovered incidentally. Identification is rarely based on detection of a whole adult worm but rather on observation of a nematode segment on histological sections. In most cases it is an unexpected finding. Data concerning canine heartworm in France is available but the extent of infestation is probably underestimated and will require further study. In addition, data on other animal reservoirs should be updated.


Two field experiments were conducted at the Teaching and Research Farms of Joseph Ayo Babalola University (JABU) and the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) in 2015 in south west Nigeria, to determine the effect of Azotobacter, Azospirillum and Mycohrriza (biofertilizers) on agronomic parameters of selected cultivars of maize. A 4 x 3 factorial experiment consisted of four cultivars of maize and three biofertilizers was used. The treatments were laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design and replicated three times. Compared to uninoculated maize plots, Azotobacter, Azospirillium and Mycorrhiza significantly (P<0.05) increased plant height, number of leaves, leaf area, grain yield, chlorophyll content, cob diameter, nutrient composition and yield of maize at the two locations. The performance the biofertilizers on plant height, number of leaves and grain yield were in the order of Azotobacter>Azospirillium>Mycorrhiza>-control. Azotobacter and Azospirillium showed significant increase in nutrient uptake and nutritional quality of maize. Azotobacter was the most productive biofertilizer among the treatments.


OBJECTIVES
To determine whether intravenous bisphosphonate treatment is helpful for children with osteoporosis pseudoglioma syndrome who have severe osteoporosis.

METHODS
Three children (ages 9 to 11 years) with osteoporosis pseudoglioma syndrome who had multiple vertebral collapse were treated over a 2-year period with intermittent intravenous bisphosphonate infusions (pamidronate in 2, clodronate in 1). The responses to therapy were assessed with clinical and radiographic evaluation and bone densitometry of the spine.

RESULTS
All 3 subjects reported early reductions in bone pain and improved mobility. Radiographs showed dense new bone in the vertebral end plates and remodeling of the vertebral bodies. Areal bone mineral density at the lumbar spine (age-appropriate SD score) improved from a mean of -4.5 before treatment to -2.8 after 2 years (P <.05). No new fractures occurred, and side effects were minimal. Growth and pubertal development proceeded normally.

CONCLUSIONS
Intravenous bisphosphonate therapy appears safe and beneficial in patients with this condition and may prevent progressive vertebral deformity.


Car traffic volumes continue to increase rapidly worldwide, leading to steadily rising levels of congestion and harmful emissions in many urbanised areas. Transport researchers have long been convinced of the power of pricing solutions to mitigate these problems. However, pricing initiatives have generally been confronted with low levels of public support, hampering implementation. The concept of Tradable Driving Credits (TDC) presents a promising and innovative pricing alternative, which can powerfully deliver a more efficient use of scarce road space while addressing some of the major objections usually raised in the case of conventional road pricing. This thesis explores the effects of a TDC instrument on car use from an individual perspective. First, a literature review presents an overview of empirical studies on personal travel-related tradable credit schemes carried out to date by discussing results as well as methodologies used. Further, three elements of TDC that make the instrument radically different from conventional road pricing are identified. Based on insights from the fields of behavioural economics and cognitive psychology, the review discusses how these elements might activate certain behavioural decision-making mechanisms. Second, a stated adaptation experiment was developed, using the activity-based approach, to anticipate the effects of a distance-based TDC scheme, with fixed prices, among frequent car commuters in the Netherlands. Results suggest a substantial car use reduction under the measure. Reduction levels in total number of kilometres collectively driven by the sample were 20.2% and 24.1% when the amount of free credits available for the sample represented a 17.5% and 32.2% reduction goal in kilometres travelled in two successive scenarios, respectively. Reductions were larger for those who experienced losses compared to those who experienced a gain in the base situation. Participants who worked more hours and who lived in non-urban areas showed lower car use reduction levels, whereas participants with middle incomes and who were 18-25 years old showed higher reduction levels. In cases of change, a travel mode change was the most preferred adaptation strategy, with the bike accounting for more than 40% of the changes. A mixed logit modelling framework was used to test the effects of a variety of activity/trip attributes, scenario attributes and individual characteristics on the preference for adaptation alternatives. Third, in a less elaborate stated adaptation experiment, the preferences of car owners in general, in both the Netherlands and China (Beijing), were surveyed. Willingness to change was considerably higher in Beijing than in the Netherlands and a substantial share of Beijing car owners indicated an increase in car use. Fourth, public support and it determinants were investigated in both the Netherlands and Beijing. The level of TDC acceptance was much higher in Beijing than in the Netherlands (67% and 22%, respectively). Having a higher income was positively related with acceptability in both contexts, as were expected effectiveness and fairness. The effect of perceived fairness was particularly strong in Beijing, showing that concerns about the fairness of the measure in the Beijing context of fierce competition for scarce road space is an important issue.


Microspectrometers fabricated in silicon using microelectromechanical systems technologies are versatile microinstruments: small, lightweight, and featuring a demonstrated capability for spectral analysis. When realized using silicon process compatible technologies, low-cost batch fabrication of an intelligent optoelectronic system-on-a-chip is feasible by cointegration of optics with microelectronic circuits. However, the spectral resolution of devices presented so far has been limited to about R=15, which does restrict application. This paper provides an overview of microspectrometers operating in the visible and infrared spectral range. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the resolution is primarily limited due to the short optical path that is inherent to a microsystem, optical properties of silicon IC-process compatible materials, and lack of adequate optical signal conditioning.


The body-centered tetragonal (BCT) structure in quenched Fe-C steels is usually illustrated to show a linear change in the c and a axes with an increase in carbon content from 0 to 1.4%C. The work of Campbell and Fink, however, shows that this continuous linear relationship is not correct. Rather, it was shown that the body-centered-cubic (BCC) structure is the stable structure from 0 to 0.6 wt%C with the c/a ratio equal to unity. An abrupt change in the c/a ratio to 1.02 occurs at 0.6 wt%C. The BCT structure forms, and the c/a ratio increases with further increase in carbon content. An identical observation is noted in quenched Fe-N steels. This discontinuity is explained by a change in the transformation process. It is proposed that a two-step transformation process occurs in the low carbon region, with the FCC first transforming to HCP and then from HCP to BCC. In the high carbon region, the FCC structure transforms to the BCT structure. The results are explained with the Engel-Brewer theory of valence and crystal structure of the elements. An understanding of the strength of quenched iron-carbon steels plays a key role in the proposed explanation of the c/a anomaly based on interstitial solutes and precipitates.


Combined comparative study of anatomo-histological features, proliferative activity, content of X-chromatin, and ploidy of the nuclei of epithelial structures of 7 adenoacanthomas, 8 glandular-squamous cell carcinomas, and 7 adenocarcinomas (control group) of the endometrium was carried out. Microspectrophotometry of DNA revealed heterogeneity in DNA content and polyploidy typical of malignant growth in all cell populations, including squamous cell component of adenoacanthomas. The correlation between reduced degree of histological differentiation, depth of invasion, and decreased number of nuclei containing X-chromatin bodies as well as the occurrence of histological transitions suggest that adenoacanthomas and glandular-squamous cell carcinomas should be regarded as one group of two-component endometrial tumors and the terms used for their designations as synonyms. Within this group, highly and poorly differentiated variants may be distinguished which is of prognostic importance.


The use of surface coils in magnetic resonance is widespread. Examples include MRI, detection of subsurface aquifers by NMR, and, more recently, landmine detection by nuclear quadrupole resonance. In many of these cases a finite-sized sample to be examined is contained within a larger medium that is a poor electrical conductor, and eddy currents induced by the RF fields provide a loss mechanism that reduces the effective quality factor Q of the transmitter and receiver coils. Here the losses induced in a circular surface coil (a horizontal loop antenna) separated a distance from a dissipative medium are calculated and compared to measurements. It is shown that often the overall efficiency of the coil for magnetic resonance can be improved by displacing the coil away from the conducting medium a prescribed "lift-off" distance. The use of a gradiometer as a surface coil is also examined, and it is shown by theory and experiment that in certain circumstances such a gradiometer can be more efficient than a conventional surface coil for inspection of conducting media.


Toremifene exerts multiple and varied effects on the gene expression of human peripheral mononuclear cells. After short-term, in vitro exposure to therapeutical levels, distinct changes in P-glycoprotein, steroid receptors, p53 and Bcl-2 expression take place. In view of the increasing use of antiestrogens in cancer therapy and prevention, there is obvious merit in long-term in vivo studies to be conducted.


Summary: Research carried out since the implementation of the Children Act 1989 based on a sample of 848 children looked after by local authorities indicates that previous estimates of the numbers who have no contact with parents may have underestimated the extent of the problem, and that despite the emphasis placed on contact by the Children Act there is still much work to be done to improve practice. The research not only confirms earlier findings about the instability of placements in care but also shows differences in face to face contact which depend on the length of time in care or accommodation and the reason for entry, as well as differences between children placed in residential and foster care. Finally it was found that where children have spent long periods in care they tend to have little contact with fieldworkers, and it is suggested that there is a need to redefine the social work agenda for this vulnerable group of children.


Abstract Cladding systems have significant effect on the performance and durability of building façades, contributing to the building watertightness, property valuation, aesthetic finishing, and decoration. Non-adherent cladding, also named rainscreen cladding or ventilated cladding, is currently used in residential and commercial buildings, new constructions, or retrofit operations, and it is considered an efficient measure to improve the moisture safety of building envelopes. Therefore, the absence of Brazilian normalization to ventilated cladding systems is one of the difficulties limiting its increased local application. In Brazil, a technical standard, NBR 15575, parts 1-6, (2013), establish the general performance requirements and test methods to evaluate residential building systems including structure, wall, floor, coverage, and hydraulic installation. However, this standard cannot be integrally applied to the cladding systems because it was developed considering the vertical wall system as a whole. In this study, we propose the criteria and test methods for assessing ventilated cladding systems while taking into account the structural safety (wind loads resistance, hard and soft impact resistance) and drainability requirements. The following activities are performed: literature review, practical case study, and tests on prototypes for validation of the proposal. The tests allow verification of the feasibility of the criteria and tests methods proposed. In addition, the proposal makes it possible to guide design, construction, and maintenance needs, thereby inducing the growth of this technology in Brazil.


Using the principle of self-assembly, a fluorescence-based photonic network is constructed with one input and two spatially and spectrally distinct outputs. A hexagonal DNA nanoassembly is used as a scaffold to host both the input and output dyes. The use of DNA to host functional groups enables spatial resolution on the level of single base pairs, well below the wavelength of light. Communication between the input and output dyes is achieved through excitation energy transfer. Output selection is achieved by the addition of a mediator dye intercalating between the DNA base pairs transferring the excitation energy from input to output through energy hopping. This creates a tool for selective excitation energy transfer on the nanometer scale with spectral and spatial control. The ability to direct excitation energy in a controlled way on the nanometer scale is important for the incorporation of photochemical processes in nanotechnology.


6-O-Monoacyl ascorbates were synthesized by the condensation of L-ascorbic acid with caprylic, capric, lauric, myristic or palmitic acid using immobilized lipase in acetone. The decomposition processes of the acyl ascorbates in air were measured, and the decomposition kinetics were analyzed based on the Weibull equation. The rate constant, k, increased with increasing relative humidity and temperature for all acyl ascorbates; k also depended on acyl chain length, as the decomposition rates of ascorbates increased as acyl chains decreased. The enthalpy-entropy compensation held during the decomposition, suggesting that the decomposition of all acyl ascorbates proceeded by essentially the same mechanism. Furthermore, it was suggested that the oxidative degradation of the ascorbyl moiety of acyl ascorbate primarily proceeded during the decomposition, and was followed by the hydrolysis of the ester bond between the acyl and ascorbyl moieties.


Consider the gravity-driven flow of a thin liquid film down a vertical fibre. A model of two coupled evolution equations for the local film thickness h and the local flow rate q is formulated within the framework of the long-wave and boundary-layer approximations. The model accounts for inertia and streamwise viscous diffusion. Evolution equations obtained by previous authors are recovered in the appropriate limit. Comparisons to experimental results show good agreement in both linear and nonlinear regimes. Viscous diffusion effects are found to have a stabilizing dispersive effect on the linear waves. Time-dependent computations of the spatial evolution of the film reveal a strong influence of streamwise viscous diffusion on the dynamics of the flow and the wave selection process.


: In insects gas exchange may be: 1) entirely passive, when metabolic rate is low; 2) enhanced automatically by muscle contractions that produce movements, e.g., wing movements in flight; or 3) produced by ventilatory movements, particularly of the abdomen. In terrestrial insects such as locusts and cockroaches ventilatory movements are governed by a dominant oscillator in the metathoracic or anterior abdominal ganglion. The dominant oscillator overrides local oscillators in the abdominal ganglia and thus sets the rhythm for the entire abdomen, and it also controls spiracle opening and closing in several thoracic and abdominal segments. This ventilatory control mechanism appears to be different from that generating metachronal rhythms such as occur in the ventilatory and locomotory movements of aquatic arthropods. There are now several examples of rhythms, both ventilatory and locomotory, that can be generated by the central nervous system in the absence of phasic sensory feedback, but the mechanism of rhythm production is not known. Studies of ganglionic output suggest that neuronal oscillators can produce a range of frequencies and that some oscillators may be employed in more than one function or behavior. The mechanisms by which central oscillators are coupled to the output motorneurons are also not known; large phase changes suggest that in some cases different coupling interneurons are active. Intracellular recordings from identified neurons have begun to clarify the important roles of interneurons in the production of motor patterns.


In this paper, the learning models of cable-driven robots are developed applying the artificial neural network (ANN). For known input and output data and known relationships (regression problem), the deflection maps of cable-driven parallel robots are predicted utilizing a multi-layer ANN. Two cable robots, a planar robot and a translational spatial robot, are examined to evaluate their models. The deflection maps of these cable robots are generated using the ANN and a non-linear optimization method. The predicted deflections of the ANN models, using much less number of poses for training, are highly satisfactory and comparable to the results obtained by a nonlinear optimization method throughout the pertinent discretized workspaces. In addition, ANN models could predict the deflections for poses that the nonlinear optimization methods may not. Moreover, with variations in robot/task parameters, such as payload, ANN models may predict accurate deflections.


Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, more than four million people have died of this disease. Given its ability to provide a precise response, mass spectrometry-based proteomics could represent a useful tool to study this pathology. To this end, an untargeted nLC-ESI-MS/MS-based method to characterise SARS-CoV-2 proteins, including possible variants, and investigate human saliva and plasma proteome in a single analysis was developed for further application in patients. Four SARS-CoV-2 recombinant proteins, three (S1–S2–RBD) belonging to the spike glycoprotein (S) and one corresponding to the nucleoprotein (N), were prepared and analysed with nLC-UHRTOF by injecting decreasing amounts to establish the limit of detection (LOD) of the method. This was determined as 10 pg for all the components of the S protein and for N (71 amol and 213 amol, respectively). Various viral inactivation strategies plus deglycosylation and digestion approaches were then tested in saliva and plasma spiked with different quantities of SARS-CoV-2 recombinant proteins. The limit of characterisation (LOC) in saliva for the N and S proteins was observed at 100 pg (coverage of 20% and 3%, respectively); instead, in plasma, it was 33 pg for N and 330 pg for the S protein, with a coverage of 4% for both. About 300 and 800 human proteins were identified in plasma and saliva, respectively, including several key effectors and pathways that are known to be altered in COVID-19 patients. In conclusion, this approach allows SARS-CoV-2 proteins and the human proteome to be simultaneously explored, both for plasma and saliva, showing a high relevant potential for retrospective studies aimed at investigating possible virus variants and for patient stratification.


ABSTRACT Increasing urbanization of human society is a universal trend and one that is likely to affect global levels of health and well-being. Rapid expansion of urban living opens new opportunities for people, but also creates significant challenges. We do not always understand how people interact with and connect to their environment, how they experience it and what meaning they attach to certain aspects of it. However, this knowledge can be essential for better understanding of the impact these aspects of the environment can have on their mental health and well-being. In this photo essay, we explore older people's perceptions of their urban living environment in a highly densely populated urban area; the city of Amsterdam. Participants took photos of salient aspects of their living environment that as they believed influenced their mental health and well-being. Participants searched their living environment for tranquility, peace, beauty, memories and meaning. Listening to the experiences and stories of older adults makes us more aware of their emotional world in this time of global urbanization.


Research on Arabic Natural Language Processing is facing a lot of problems due to language complexity, lack of machine readable resources, and lack of interest among Arab researchers. One of the fields that research has started to appear in is the field of Question Answering. Although some research has been done in this area, few have proved to be effective in producing exact relevant answers. One of the issues that affected the accuracy of producing correct answers is proper tagging of entities and proper analysis of a user's question. In this research, a set of 60+ tagging rules, 15+ Question Analysis rules, and 20+ Question Patterns were built to enhance the answer generation of Natural Language Questions posed over some corpora collected from different sources. A QA system was built and experimental results showed good results with an accuracy of 78%, a recall of 97%, and an F-Measure of 87%.


The results of examinations of stump-tailed monkeys (M. arctoides) held in captivity are presented. The presence and levels of anti-HAV and anti-HAV class M in the blood sera of monkeys were determined by the enzyme-immunoassay (EIA), and alanine aminotransferase (AIAT) activity was measured. HAV in stool specimens collected from the monkeys was detected by immune electron microscopy and EIA. In the first examination, 2 out of 10 monkeys were found to have anti-HAV and one of them to have anti-HAV class M. In repeat examination of 4 monkeys 32 days later, two of them showed an increase in AIAT and 3 had HAV in stools. In the 3rd examination in 91 days, all the four animals had anti-HAV and anti-HAV class M. Besides, three seronegative monkeys out of the ten examined initially, showed only total anti-HAV in 91 days. At the time of the 3rd blood specimen collection, 16 more monkeys were examined and all of these had anti-HAV but not anti-HAV class M. It is assumed that natural infection of stumptailed monkeys in captivity with a virus antigenically identical to HAV is possible.


ABSTRACT We extend the reduction method of Juzvinskiĭ to non compact dynamics. We show that the method could be used to prove results on entropies of transformations on non compact metric or Polish spaces. This is illustrated in three situations. First we extend the results of P. Walters on transformations with complete positive entropy. Then we extend the Abramov-Rohlin addition formula of R. K. Thomas. Finally we use the addition formula to extend the results of Walters on the uniqueness of invariant measures with maximal entropy.


Mesopontine cholinergic neurons have long been thought to play a key role in behavioral state control. In particular, they have been implicated in the process of EEG desynchrony and in the generation of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. However, the behavioral profile of identified mesopontine cholinergic neurons has not been unequivocally demonstrated. In an attempt to address this issue, in vivo microdialysis was used to monitor acetylcholine (ACh) release across behavioral state in the rat thalamus, a major projection site of mesopontine cholinergic neurons. Because REM periods in rats are of short duration, a method was developed to collect and accumulate sufficiently large samples from each of the individual states of wake, slow-wave sleep, and REM sleep to permit off-line analysis via (HPLC- ECD). Probe placement and the source of cholinergic innervation to the vicinity of the microdialysis probe were verified using retrograde tracing combined with ChAT immunohistochemistry. Finally, the sodium and calcium dependence of ACh measured in the thalamus were tested using TTX and calcium-free dialysates. The results showed that (1) extracellular ACh concentrations in the thalamus are high during both wake and REM sleep and significantly lower during slow-wave sleep, (2) the majority of cholinergic projections to the vicinity of the dialysis probes originate in the mesopontine tegmentum, and (3) ACh release in the thalamus is due to sodium- and calcium-dependent mechanisms. In contrast to predictions of some previous hypotheses, these results demonstrate that mesopontine cholinergic neurons are active during both wake and REM sleep.


Current theoretical arguments highlight the negative implications of cohesion in a network neighborhood for relationships with outsiders. We present argument and evidence illustrating the importance of knowledge overlap inside a neighborhood in moderating the negative internal cohesion effect. We analyzed the tendency for individuals to initiate and sustain knowledge transfer relationships in an online technical forum. Empirical results indicated that as cohesion in a neighborhood increased each member was less likely to initiate and sustain external knowledge transfer relationships. However, the magnitude of negative effect that cohesion had on external knowledge transfer relationships declined as knowledge overlap in the neighborhood increased. Our research findings clarify one condition under which increasing cohesion in a network neighborhood can be expected to undermine external knowledge transfer relationships, and therefore the extent to which the benefits created by cohesion in a neighborhood will come at the expense of relationships that provide access to resources outside the neighborhood.


An analysis of the effect of multiple tone interferers on the bit error rate in a Frequency-Hopped Multiple Frequency Shift Keying (FH-MFSK) spread spectrum communication is given. A constant insertion rate de tection strategy has been considered and a matched tuned filtering used in the receiver. We have obtained results in the 20 MHz (one-way) bandwidth with a data rate of 32 Kb/s and a Rayleigh fading channel. The results show that adequate performance can be achieved even when 40 tone interferers are present with a signal to interference ratio of -10 dB and a signal to noise ratio of 25 dB.


Analysis of everyday human gaze behaviour has significant potential for ubiquitous computing, as evidenced by a large body of work in gaze-based human-computer interaction, attentive user interfaces, and eye-based user modelling. However, current mobile eye trackers are still obtrusive, which not only makes them uncomfortable to wear and socially unacceptable in daily life, but also prevents them from being widely adopted in the social and behavioural sciences. To address these challenges we present InvisibleEye, a novel approach for mobile eye tracking that uses millimetre-size RGB cameras that can be fully embedded into normal glasses frames. To compensate for the cameras' low image resolution of only a few pixels, our approach uses multiple cameras to capture different views of the eye, as well as learning-based gaze estimation to directly regress from eye images to gaze directions. We prototypically implement our system and characterise its performance on three large-scale, increasingly realistic, and thus challenging datasets: 1) eye images synthesised using a recent computer graphics eye region model, 2) real eye images recorded of 17 participants under controlled lighting, and 3) eye images recorded of four participants over the course of four recording sessions in a mobile setting. We show that InvisibleEye achieves a top person-specific gaze estimation accuracy of 1.79° using four cameras with a resolution of only 5 × 5 pixels. Our evaluations not only demonstrate the feasibility of this novel approach but, more importantly, underline its significant potential for finally realising the vision of invisible mobile eye tracking and pervasive attentive user interfaces.


A patient who developed intravitreal ciliary body neovascularization following cyclocryotherapy for neovascular glaucoma is presented. Presenting vitreous hemorrhage limited her visual acuity to 20/200. After panretinal photocoagulation, the intravitreal ciliary body neovascularization regressed, the vitreous hemorrhage cleared, and the patient's visual acuity was 20/30. The possible pathogenesis of intravitreal ciliary body neovascularization is reviewed, and the reason for regression of the neovascular tissue is hypothesized.


Kathleen Gough epitomized the best anthropology has to offer: important and impeccable scholarship combined with courageous commitment to social justice. Her India research accompanied her admiration for India's freedom fighters; her Vietnam work grew from empathy for the Vietnamese people in their struggle for independence and her informed outrage at the United States' war upon them. Always Gough's actions spoke as loudly as her words. Her scholarship was unquestioned but for her conscience she paid the price of recurrent harassment and lost employment while earning the respect of colleagues, of students, of those about whom she wrote and among whom she struggled. Before we had met, I knew about and admired Kathleen as a result of our shared research interest in India. I became acquainted with her personally through our shared commitment to social responsibility in anthropology, and especially through our participation in the anti - Vietnam War movement. We each organized (she with husband David Aberle) anti - war teach - ins on our respective campuses in Berkeley and Eugene -- as did colleagues nationwide -- on March 23, 1965, simultaneously with the prototype teach - in organized by Marshall Sahlins in Ann Arbor.(f.1) Two years later, on March 24, 1967, we both delivered papers on the issue of social responsibility at the joint meetings in San Francisco of the Southwestern Anthropological Association and the American Ethnological Society.(f.2) We met frequently during the years that she, David Aberle and their son Stephen Aberle lived in Eugene directly across the street from my parents' home. There is no scholar whose intellect, courage and social conscience I have admired more, whose friendship I valued more. In identifying ethics and responsibility as themes in her life and work I want to focus on the positive, assertive responsibility she shouldered to act on the understandings and insights she obtained as a research anthropologist and on the values she embraced as an empathetic, humane being. The Principles of Professional Responsibility, to which our professional association was committed during the last 20 years of her lifetime (i.e., from their adoption in May 1971 until their revision and dilution in 1991 [Newsletter 1970; 1989; cf. Berreman 1991]), included this paragraph under itssecond principle, "Responsibility to the Public": As people who devote their professional lives to understanding people, anthropologists bear a positive responsibility to speak out publicly, both individually and collectively, on what they know and what they believe as a result of their professional expertise gained in the study of human beings. That is, they bear a professional responsibility to contribute to an "adequate definition of reality" upon which public opinion and public policy may be based. (Newsletter 1970; American Anthropological Association 1983: 1 - 2) This principle, and the responsibility to act upon it, are what I mean by the "positive responsibility" which Kathleen Gough advocated and lived by. She was political in the truest sense, even as she was scholarly in the truest sense. Her values remind me most closely of those of my other hero, the great sociologist C. Wright Mills, whose commitment to the "politics of truth" she shared. As he put it: The very enterprise of social science, as it determines fact, takes on political meaning. In a world of widely communicated nonsense, any statement of fact is of political and moral significance. All social scientists by the fact of their existence, are involved in the struggle between enlightenment and obscurantism. In such a world as ours, to practice social science is, first of all, to practice the politics of truth. (Mills 1959: 178) And again: The intellectual does not have any one political direction, but the work of any [person] of knowledge ... does have a distinct kind of political relevance: his [sic] polities, in the first instance, are the polities of truth, for his job is the maintenance of an adequate definition of reality. …


The immunogenicity of 2 leptospiral cell structural components, the outer envelope (OE) and protoplasmic cylinder (PC), as well as the leptospire whole cell (WC), was compared in hamsters and dogs. The 50% protective dose for hamsters against death (PD50D) and kidney infection (PD50k) was evaluated for Leptospira interrogans serovars canicola, icterohaemorrhagiae, pomona, and grippotyphosa. All 3 immunogens had similar PD50D values. However, the PD50K values for OE and WC vaccines ranged from 0.05 to 0.80 micrograms (dry weight), whereas the PC vaccines ranged from 7.0 to 14.0 micrograms. Cellular and humoral responses of dogs to serovar canicola WC, OE, and PC vaccines were monitored for 21 weeks. Little difference was observed among the canine humoral responses to the different preparations. Protoplasmic cylinder vaccines sensitized the greater population of lymphoid cells followed by OE and WC. Cross-reactivity was greater in the blastogenic response of lymphoid cell populations than in the humoral response.


Without public support, the deployment of Automated Vehicles (AVs) is doomed to failure. Therefore, their acceptability has been widely studied. On the basis of a systematic literature review of 113 empirical studies, the present paper studies the influence of the modes of contact with the AV (no explanation provided, written or pictorial description only, simulator, real experience) on sociodemographic variables, acceptability, behavioural intention and their determinants. The analysis of the dependent variables shows a lack of clarification of what is actually measured and a heterogeneity of measurements that makes comparisons difficult. The determinants were separated in two groups: preferences, which refer to projections in use, and perceptions, which refer to beliefs. The determinants in the preferences group, and some determinants in the perceptions group (perceived ease of use and usefulness and attitudes), are not influenced by the mode of contact with the AV. Indeed, a more concrete mode of contact does not change the participants' responses for these variables. For the other determinants of the perceptions group, the mode of contact with AVs impacts participants' responses. Trust and perceived safety are influenced by the mode of contact. More significantly, we observed that the relationship between acceptability and the level of knowledge or control was moderated by the mode of contact with AVs. These results lead us to encourage research favouring direct experience with the AV to study its acceptability. A discussion of these recurring results but also the significant methodological and theoretical shortcomings highlighted by the review is presented such as the research gaps in terms of sampling or statistical robustness. In conclusion, a few methodological approaches are proposed for the study of technological devices that are little or not known to future users, as well as a reflection on the usefulness of studying the acceptability of these little-known devices.


Background England, UK has experienced a large outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 infection. As in USA and elsewhere, disadvantaged communities have been disproportionately affected. Methods National REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-2 (REACT-2) seroprevalence study using self-administered lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) test for IgG among a random population sample of 100,000 adults over 18 years in England, 20 June to 13 July 2020. Results Completed questionnaires were available for 109,076 participants, yielding 5,544 IgG positive results and adjusted (for test performance), re-weighted (for sampling) prevalence of 6.0% (95% CI: 5.8, 6.1). Highest prevalence was in London (13.0% [12.3, 13.6]), among people of Black or Asian (mainly South Asian) ethnicity (17.3% [15.8, 19.1] and 11.9% [11.0, 12.8] respectively) and those aged 18-24 years (7.9% [7.3, 8.5]). Care home workers with client-facing roles had adjusted odds ratio of 3.1 (2.5, 3.8) compared with non-essential workers. One third (32.2%, [31.0-33.4]) of antibody positive individuals reported no symptoms. Among symptomatic cases, the majority (78.8%) reported symptoms during the peak of the epidemic in England in March (31.3%) and April (47.5%) 2020. We estimate that 3.36 million (3.21, 3.51) people have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 in England to end June 2020, with an overall infection fatality ratio of 0.90% (0.86, 0.94). Conclusion The pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 infection in England disproportionately affected ethnic minority groups and health and care home workers. The higher risk of infection in these groups may explain, at least in part, their increased risk of hospitalisation and mortality from COVID-19.


The principle behind VSLAM applications like 3D object reconstruction or indoor mapping is to estimate the spatial transformation between two large clouds of points, which represent two poses of the same scene. They can further be processed to obtain detailed surfaces. Since its introduction in 1992, the standard algorithm for finding the alignment between two point clouds is ICP (Iterative Closest Point) and its variants, combined with RANSAC (RANdom SAmple Consensus). This paper presents a new approach using interval analysis. The idea is to define large intervals for the transformation parameters between the poses then to successively contract those intervals using the equations of the transformation of corresponding points between the poses. To contract those intervals faster, we added an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) to our system so the initial intervals of the parameters are already small before applying the contractions. We implemented our algorithm using the middleware ROS (Robot Operating System) and stated our performances.


This paper investigates the macroeconomic determinants of stock market prices in Namibia. The investigation was conducted using a VECM econometric methodology and revealed that Namibian stock market prices are chiefly determined by economic activity, interest rates, inflation,money supply and exchange rates. An increase in economic activity and the money supply increases stock market prices, while increases in inflation and interest rates decrease stock prices. The results suggest that equities are not a hedge against inflation in Namibia, and contractionary monetary policy generally depresses stock prices. Increasing economic activity promotes stock market price development