This paper considers two French museums that can lay claim to being the first historical museums, and, in a special sense, the first national museums to be created in Europe. The first was set up in the 1790s, during the French Revolution, by Alexandre Lenoir, who was memorably pictured at the time defending the tombs of the French monarchy at the Abbey of St Denis from the assault of iconoclasts. Installed in the former monastery of the Petits-Augustins on the left bank of the Seine in Paris, this remarkable institution survived throughout the Empire, and was only closed after the return of the Bourbon dynasty to France in 1815/16, when many of the monuments that he saved from vandalism returned to their former locations. The second had a very different origin. Alexandre du Sommerard, a wealthy magistrate, began in the 1820s to collect a wide variety of objects of medieval and Renaissance origin, and was pictured as 'L'Antiquaire' by the artist Charles Renoux in 1825. Having rented the entire first floor of the medieval Hotel de Cluny in the Latin quarter of Paris in the early 1830s, he installed his collection and welcomed visitors there from around 1834. After his death, in 1843, the French state officially purchased the collection and the building for the nation, and inaugurated the Musee de Cluny, now known as the Musee National du Moyen Âge.


Hydrophobic surfaces are of interest in many electronic devices and biomedical applications for the control of wettability and adsorption behavior. Most of the artificial hydrophobic surfaces are not biodegradable, renewable, or mechanically flexible and are often expensive, which limits their potential applications. Natural materials are better choices; however, most of them are hydrophilic and water-absorbing and general modification of molecules, expensive equipment and fluorine-containing coating cannot be avoided. In contrast, zein, a major protein of corn and an amphiphilic, biodegradable, renewable, flexible, inexpensive biopolymer, which is abundantly present in nature, satisfies all the above requirements. The objective of this work is to form a hydrophobic surface through a facile and inexpensive method of self-assembly monolayer (SAM) assisted evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) by zein. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were used for the characterization of surface morphology and surface elements. Water contact angle (WCA) was applied to characterize the hydrophobicity of films. Both zein concentration and solvent concentration had effects on the hydrophobicity of the film. A film with high hydrophobicity was formed by size controlled SAM assisted EISA. The WCA of the zein hydrophobic film reached 126°.


Integrated high-resolution maps of carbon stocks and biodiversity that identify areas of potential co-benefits for climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation can help facilitate the implementation of global climate and biodiversity commitments at local levels. However, the multi-dimensional nature of biodiversity presents a major challenge for understanding, mapping and communicating where and how biodiversity benefits coincide with climate benefits. A new integrated approach to biodiversity is therefore needed. Here, we (a) present a new high-resolution map of global above- and below-ground carbon stored in biomass and soil, (b) quantify biodiversity values using two complementary indices (BIp and BIr) representing proactive and reactive approaches to conservation, and (c) examine patterns of carbon–biodiversity overlap by identifying 'hotspots' (20% highest values for both aspects). Our indices integrate local diversity and ecosystem intactness, as well as regional ecosystem intactness across the broader area supporting a similar natural assemblage of species to the location of interest. The western Amazon Basin, Central Africa and Southeast Asia capture the last strongholds of highest local biodiversity and ecosystem intactness worldwide, while the last refuges for unique biological communities whose habitats have been greatly reduced are mostly found in the tropical Andes and central Sundaland. There is 38 and 5% overlap in carbon and biodiversity hotspots, for proactive and reactive conservation, respectively. Alarmingly, only around 12 and 21% of these proactive and reactive hotspot areas, respectively, are formally protected. This highlights that a coupled approach is urgently needed to help achieve both climate and biodiversity global targets. This would involve (1) restoring and conserving unprotected, degraded ecosystems, particularly in the Neotropics and Indomalaya, and (2) retaining the remaining strongholds of intactness. This article is part of the theme issue 'Climate change and ecosystems: threats, opportunities and solutions'.


This paper analyses the cost-effectiveness of combining several policy instruments to address the problem of non-renewable pumping in the Alto Guadalentín aquifer in Southeast Spain, one of the most extreme cases of aquifer depletion in Europe. Their economic impact is assessed using a partial equilibrium non-linear mathematical programming model that maximises the farm net margin resulting from the use of the available water resources for irrigation in the area. Our results show that all the alternatives have significant economic impacts, although the future availability of desalinised resources would notably mitigate them, as farmers can substitute groundwater with desalinised water. Although the outright restriction of non-renewable pumping and an environmental tax on extractions imply the lowest level of public expenditure, they are very unpopular and have a large political cost. The buyback of groundwater rights and the subsidisation of desalinisation in exchange for reducing groundwater pumping have the same impact on the rural economy of the area than the previous measures, but are likely to be much better received by farmers, as their cost would rest on the public budget. A combination of instruments would share the cost of aquifer recovery among farmers and the administration. The choice of the optimal policy mix will therefore depend on the trade-off between farmers' income and public expenditure, the relative importance given by policy makers to each criterion and the opposition that each measure may receive from stakeholders.


Focused investigations regarding mortality rates, risk factors, and cause of death in autistic populations remain scarce. The present study used large linked datasets spanning 2001–2015 to report the rates and risk factors for mortality and cause of death in individuals on the autism spectrum (n = 35,929 age range 5–64) with and without concurrent intellectual disability (ID) in New South Wales, Australia. Mortality rates for those on the autism spectrum were 2.06 times that of the general population. Concurrent ID, epilepsy, mental health conditions, and chronic physical health conditions were associated with a higher risk of death for those on the spectrum, whereas demographic variables such as gender and socioeconomic status were not. A differing profile of top causes of death was found for autistic individuals relative to the general population, with "nervous system and sense disorders" and "injury and poisoning" being the top‐ranked causes for those on the spectrum. The findings alert the need for health promotion and management of concurrent physical and mental health conditions for those on the autism spectrum. There is also a need for better identification, diagnosis, and documentation of older adults on the autism spectrum. Autism Research 2019, 12: 806–815. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


A sinkhole has been identified on side-scan sonar images and from near-bottom echo sounder data in the southern Straits of Florida in 575 m of water. Sinkholes are often thought to form exclusively in subaerial environments and for this reason have been used as indicators of sea level. This sinkhole exists within a Quaternary sediment apron in water depths too great to have been subaerially exposed by Neogene sea-level lowstands, thus indicating that sinkholes can develop within the submarine environment.


This research is related to British banking-halls as a class of real estate investment. Sale-and-leaseback has become an increasingly common approach during the last two decades for the holding of British banking-halls. One measure used in making property investment decisions is the all risks yield (ARY). Investors and their advisors have a need for a predictive framework which they can use for predicting those retail bank premises likely to achieve the highest ARY when assembling investment portfolios of such properties. A predictive framework necessitates the identification of those factors significantly influencing the yields of British banking-halls. This research aims to develop such a framework. Triangulation methodology was adopted to establish and test the predictive framework. A literature review established theory before a qualitative study, based upon semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire, was used to establish the influencing factors. A cross-sectional study of auction data then formed the basis of the quantitative regression study. The qualitative and quantitative studies validated that four factors were significant in influencing yield. These were tenant banking company, lot size, super-region and the macro-economic cycle index. A toolkit comprising a predictive framework for those banking-halls likely to produce the highest ARY was produced. This is capable of being used by professional practitioners and investors in predicting high yield for portfolio building purposes. The predictive framework was developed based upon the quantitative data from those three banks with the most premises sold by sale-and-leaseback. It formed a baseline from which further studies can build to test its significance for other banks. Consequently, a more robust predictive framework can be developed for banking-hall investments. Further research can also be conducted to develop predictive frameworks forecasting yields for investment in other commercial retail sectors, based upon the findings of this research.


[About the book]

There has been a widespread resurgence of rights talk in social and legal discourses pertaining to the regulation of family life, as well as an increase in the use of rights in family law cases, in the UK, the US, Canada and Australia. Rights, Gender and Family Law addresses the implications of these developments – and, in particular, the impact of rights-based approaches upon the idea of welfare and its practical application. There are now many areas of family law in which rights and welfare based approaches have been forced together. But whilst, to many, they are premised upon different ethics – respectively, of justice and of care – for others, they can nevertheless be reconciled. In this respect, a central concern is the 'gender-blind' character of rights-based approaches, and the ontological and practical consequences of their employment in the gendered context of the family. Rights, Gender and Family Law explores the tensions between rights-based and welfare-based approaches: explaining their differences and connections; considering whether, if at all, they are reconcilable; and addressing the extent to which they can advantage or disadvantage the interests of women, children and men. It may be that rights-based discourses will dominate family law, at least in the way that social policy and legislation respond to calls of equality of rights between mothers and fathers. This collection, however, argues that rights cannot be given centre-stage without thinking through the ramifications for gendered power-relations, and the welfare of children.


Operational problems during the start-up of upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors are little reported in the literature. In this study, operational problems during the initial operation of UASB reactors are discussed. Major problems encompass the gas entrapment in the granular sludge bed, formation of scum and crustation, and maintenance of hydraulic retention times (HRTs) at very low flow rates. The experience related to the effect of these problems is addressed in this study together with insight into the remedial measures. Gentle mixing at regular intervals during the initial period is stressed.


In two recent exhibits at Cushing Memorial Library and Archives, Texas A&M University, we made the decision to try to increase the level of access to both the objects and their explanatory texts, for patrons who suffer from dyslexia. One of our then-student workers, herself dyslexic, proposed to library administration that our exhibits would be more welcoming if we had a way to provide for dyslexics and ease their exhibit experience. We agreed that this was an excellent idea and, in fact, kicked ourselves for not having thought of it earlier. We present this small summary of our experience in order that other institutions might see it as a useful case study for adapting their own exhibits or public programming to meet the needs of dyslexic patrons and visitors.


Since the inaugural meeting at Cronulla in 1963, AMSA has grown from 130 foundation members to a vibrant, multi-disciplinary organisation of about 1,000 members spread over several branches around Australia. The 190 issues of the AMSA Bulletin offer a treasure trove of history and have provided the substance for this presentation. National AMSA affairs are run by the Council and there have been nearly 200 Councillors including 24 Presidents, 17 Secretaries, 16 Editors and 11 Treasurers. The AMSA conference is the annual highlight and has grown from an AGM and a few talks by senior scientists to the more recent, weeklong, themed events with >400 scientists and students, keynote speakers, concurrent sessions, posters, phone app and social events; all indicating the vitality of AMSA. From early on, the collective wisdom of AMSA members has been influential about matters affecting marine science, Australia's oceans and marine policy through scores of written submissions to government and representation on many major national committees. Significant efforts have covered marine careers, estuarine management, marine protected areas, scientific diving, taxonomy, marine science policy and national research priorities. Members provide the core strength of AMSA and many have contributed tirelessly to the association. Fittingly, our premier student prizes, the Kenny and Allen Awards recognise remarkable AMSA members while our prestigious Jubilee Award acknowledges excellence in Australian marine research. With a sound history of accomplishments in advancing marine science over the past fifty years, AMSA will surely continue to shape marine science in Australia into the future.


A 26-year-old male shortly after an acute respiratory disease was affected by a thrombophlebitis of the left leg. After a few days he had two syncopal attacks. Later on, a myocardial ischemia was diagnosed. Subsequently the patient began to complain of a bilateral claudication of the calves; after an attack of fever, the ischemia of the lower limbs worsened with recurring pain at rest. At the same time, in absence of any symptom, a myocardial ischemia occurred again and the presence of a thrombus was observed in the right atrium. After surgical removal of it, the ischemic troubles of the lower limbs once again began to worsen with the occurrence of bilateral gangrene of the feet. An amputation of both the legs was promptly performed at the level of the thighs. The histological examination of the arteries of the amputated legs showed segmental arteritis with partially recanalized thrombi of the popliteal, left femoral and tibioperoneal arteries. In the meantime, the titres for Coxsackie virus B2 and B6 were found slightly increased. One month later, the left radial pulse disappeared for a few days. The histopathological findings may relate this arteritis to a form of Buerger's disease even if a systemic thromboangioitis obliterans is not commonly accepted. In case that the acute respiratory infection represented the true onset of the sickness, it seems conceivable that the hypothesis of a viral infection gave raise to arteritis with morphological features recalling those of Buerger's disease.


In this paper, we take a GL-quantale as the truth value table to study a new rough set model—L-valued fuzzy rough sets. The three key components of this model are: an L-fuzzy set A as the universal set, an L-valued relation of A and an L-fuzzy set of A (a fuzzy subset of fuzzy sets). Then L-valued fuzzy rough sets are completely characterized via both constructive and axiomatic approaches.


ABSTRACT We developed a monoclonal antibody-based, antigen capture sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for bovine coronavirus. We compared the ELISA with electron microscopy and the hemagglutination test and found a close correlation between them. The sensitivity of the ELISA was 104 bovine coronavirus particles per ml of 10% fecal suspension. Compared with electron microscopy, bovine coronavirus ELISA had 96% specificity.


This authoritative survey offers a concise description of Middle English, the language of Chaucer, during the period from 1100 to 1500. Middle English is discussed in relation to both earlier and later stages in the history of English and in regard to other languages with which it came into contact. The book covers the principal features of Middle English spelling, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary and also introduces Middle English textual studies.


Extensive research has been conducted for understanding starch structure and composition in relation to grain composition and quality. However, less effort has been dedicated to studying the main role of other non-structural carbohydrates and their interactions with other molecules such as glycolipids and lipopolysaccharides. The formation of complexes between amylose and lipids has also been highlighted, indicating that these complexes can modulate the different biochemical, chemical and physical properties of different cereal grains. Recent studies also suggested that other sugars (e.g., sucrose) can be associated with lipids in the form of lipopolysaccharides, glycol-glycerolipids or sugar esters having an important role in food properties (e.g. gelatinization of starch, formation of emulsions). The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of sugar fatty esters in barley malt using mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy. The results from this study indicated the existence of correlations between the area in the MIR related to esters (1800–1600 cm−1) and malt extract, showing statistically significant (p 83%). The results of this study also indicated that sugar fatty esters or esters might play a role in explaining differences in malt composition between different barley varieties.


Abstract Hydropower development with concomitant changes in water and land regimes often results in livelihood transformation of affected people, entailing changes in intra-household decision-making upon which livelihood strategies are based. Economic factors underlying gender dimensions of household decision-making have been studied rigorously since the 1970s. However, empirical data on gender and decision-making within households, needed for evidence-based action, remain scarce. This is more so in hydropower contexts. This article explores gender and livelihood-related decision-making within rural households in the context of hydropower development in Lao PDR. Based on a social well-being conceptual approach with data from a household survey and qualitative interviews, it focuses on household decisions in an ethnic minority resettlement site soon after displacement, from an interpretive perspective. The article, first, aims to assess the extent to which household decision-making is gendered and secondly, to understand the complex reasoning behind household decisions, especially the relevance of material, relational, and subjective factors. It argues that while most household decisions are ostensibly considered as 'joint' in the study site, the nuanced nature of gendered values, norms, practices, relations, attitudes, and feelings underlying these decisions are important to assessing why households might or might not adopt livelihood interventions proposed by hydropower developers.


Besides the properties typical of body cavities, the oral cavity exhibits many dif-ferentiating features that allow it to occupy position of an autonomous functional and biological unit, a characteristic ecosystem. An appropriate homeostasis of oral biocenosis and balanced conditions for microorganisms concerning proportions of physiological and pathogenic or potentially pathogenic microbiota play an important role with regard to the oral cavity health and eventually the overall health of an individual. The oral cavity is a constantly changing habitat. The current market offers a number of relevant preparations supporting oral health, and alternative approaches serving these purposes are also available. Results of the studies that focused on microbiocenosis of the dental plaque and interactions between individual bacterial species indicate a probiotic potential of some oral bacteria and their prospective use in prevention of oral cavity diseases. This chapter deals with the state of physiological microbiota found in oral biofilms, with the most important infections of the oral cavity and the potential use of probiotics as a prospective alternative approach to prevention and therapy of oral cavity diseases.


The substantial motion of the nature is to balance, to survive, and to reach perfection. The evolution in biological systems is a key signature of this quintessence. Survival cannot be achieved without understanding the surrounding world. How can a fruit fly live without searching for food, and thereby with no form of perception that guides the behavior? The nervous system of fruit fly with hundred thousand of neurons can perform very complicated tasks that are beyond the power of an advanced supercomputer. Recently developed computing machines are made by billions of transistors and they are remarkably fast in precise calculations. But these machines are unable to perform a single task that an insect is able to do by means of thousands of neurons. The complexity of information processing and data compression in a single biological neuron and neural circuits are not comparable with that of developed today in transistors and integrated circuits. On the other hand, the style of information processing in neural systems is also very different from that of employed by microprocessors which is mostly centralized. Almost all cognitive functions are generated by a combined effort of multiple brain areas. In mammals, Cortical regions are organized hierarchically, and they are reciprocally interconnected, exchanging the information from multiple senses. This hierarchy in circuit level, also preserves the sensory world within different levels of complexity and within the scope of multiple modalities. The main behavioral advantage of that is to understand the real-world through multiple sensory systems, and thereby to provide a robust and coherent form of perception. When the quality of a sensory signal drops, the brain can alternatively employ other information pathways to handle cognitive tasks, or even to calibrate the error-prone sensory node. Mammalian brain also takes a good advantage of multimodal processing in learning and development; where one sensory system helps another sensory modality to develop. Multisensory integration is considered as one of the main factors that generates consciousness in human. Although, we still do not know where exactly the information is consolidated into a single percept, and what is the underpinning neural mechanism of this process?

One straightforward hypothesis suggests that the uni-sensory signals are pooled in a ploy-sensory convergence zone, which creates a unified form of perception. But it is hard to believe that there is just one single dedicated region that realizes this functionality. Using a set of realistic neuro-computational principles, I have explored theoretically how multisensory integration can be performed within a distributed hierarchical circuit. I argued that the interaction of cortical populations can be interpreted as a specific form of relation satisfaction in which the information preserved in one neural ensemble must agree with incoming signals from connected populations according to a relation function. This relation function can be seen as a coherency function which is implicitly learnt through synaptic strength.

Apart from the fact that the real world is composed of multisensory attributes, the sensory signals are subject to uncertainty. This requires a cortical mechanism to incorporate the statistical parameters of the sensory world in neural circuits and to deal with the issue of inaccuracy in perception. I argued in this thesis how the intrinsic stochasticity of neural activity enables a systematic mechanism to encode probabilistic quantities within neural circuits, e.g. reliability, prior probability. The systematic benefit of neural stochasticity is well paraphrased by the problem of Duns Scotus paradox: imagine a donkey with a deterministic brain that is exposed to two identical food rewards. This may make the animal suffer and die starving because of indecision. In this thesis, I have introduced an optimal encoding framework that can describe the probability function of a Gaussian-like random variable in a pool of Poisson neurons. Thereafter a distributed neural model is proposed that can optimally combine conditional probabilities over sensory signals, in order to compute Bayesian Multisensory Causal Inference. This process is known as a complex multisensory function in the cortex. Recently it is found that this process is performed within a distributed hierarchy in sensory cortex. Our work is amongst the first successful attempts that put a mechanistic spotlight on understanding the underlying neural mechanism of Multisensory Causal Perception in the brain, and in general the theory of decentralized multisensory integration in sensory cortex.

Engineering information processing concepts in the brain and developing new computing technologies have been recently growing. Neuromorphic Engineering is a new branch that undertakes this mission. In a dedicated part of this thesis, I have proposed a Neuromorphic algorithm for event-based stereoscopic fusion. This algorithm is anchored in the idea of cooperative computing that dictates the defined epipolar and temporal constraints of the stereoscopic setup, to the neural dynamics. The performance of this algorithm is tested using a pair of silicon retinas.


Designing and testing low-power wireless communication protocols often requires experimental deployments on real hardware in realistic settings. Infrastructure testbeds have the advantage that they allow reproducible results using different network configurations. However, most testbeds are either in- or outdoor only and do not span long and short ranges at the same time. In this work, we present an extension to the popular FlockLab testbed on a campus-scale in order to better support testing of long-range communciation, for example using the LoRa modulation. Different to existing LoRa test networks where specific protocol layers are fixed, we support custom modification above the physical hardware (above PHY) which allows the development and testing of alternative full custom MAC layers that are not based on LoRaWAN.


Importance
Female liver transplant candidates experience higher rates of wait list mortality than male candidates. Frailty is a critical determinant of mortality in patients with cirrhosis, but how frailty differs between women and men is unknown.

Objective
To determine whether frailty is associated with the gap between women and men in mortality among patients with cirrhosis awaiting liver transplantation.

Design, Setting, and Participants
This prospective cohort study enrolled 1405 adults with cirrhosis awaiting liver transplant without hepatocellular carcinoma seen during 3436 ambulatory clinic visits at 9 US liver transplant centers. Data were collected from January 1, 2012, to October 1, 2019, and analyzed from August 30, 2019, to October 30, 2020.

Exposures
At outpatient evaluation, the Liver Frailty Index (LFI) score was calculated (grip strength, chair stands, and balance).

Main Outcomes and Measures
The risk of wait list mortality was quantified using Cox proportional hazards regression by frailty. Mediation analysis was used to quantify the contribution of frailty to the gap in wait list mortality between women and men.

Results
Of 1405 participants, 578 (41%) were women and 827 (59%) were men (median age, 58 [interquartile range (IQR), 50-63] years). Women and men had similar median scores on the laboratory-based Model for End-stage Liver Disease incorporating sodium levels (MELDNa) (women, 18 [IQR, 14-23]; men, 18 [IQR, 15-22]), but baseline LFI was higher in women (mean [SD], 4.12 [0.85] vs 4.00 [0.82]; P = .005). Women displayed worse balance of less than 30 seconds (145 [25%] vs 149 [18%]; P = .003), worse sex-adjusted grip (mean [SD], -0.31 [1.08] vs -0.16 [1.08] kg; P = .01), and fewer chair stands per second (median, 0.35 [IQR, 0.23-0.46] vs 0.37 [IQR, 0.25-0.49]; P = .04). In unadjusted mixed-effects models, LFI was 0.15 (95% CI, 0.06-0.23) units higher in women than men (P = .001). After adjustment for other variables associated with frailty, LFI was 0.16 (95% CI, 0.08-0.23) units higher in women than men (P < .001). In unadjusted regression, women experienced a 34% (95% CI, 3%-74%) increased risk of wait list mortality than men (P = .03). Sequential covariable adjustment did not alter the association between sex and wait list mortality; however, adjustment for LFI attenuated the mortality gap between women and men. In mediation analysis, an estimated 13.0% (IQR, 0.5%-132.0%) of the gender gap in wait list mortality was mediated by frailty.

Conclusions and Relevance
These findings demonstrate that women with cirrhosis display worse frailty scores than men despite similar MELDNa scores. The higher risk of wait list mortality that women experienced appeared to be explained in part by frailty.


Background Rapid HIV testing is well established in many countries, yet few studies have evaluated the acceptability of rapid testing among clinical staff over time. We assessed staff acceptability of rapid HIV testing before and after its implementation in Australian sexual health clinics. Methods From September 2011 onwards, men who have sex with men (MSM) attending four Sydney sexual health clinics were offered rapid HIV testing using the Alere Determine HIV Combo assay. Staff were trained in rapid HIV testing using this assay, with staff acceptability assessed via two anonymous questionnaires completed after training and at least six months later. Five-point Likert scales were used, with '1' indicating strong agreement and '5' strong disagreement to a range of acceptability statements. T-tests were used to assess differences in mean Likert scores between rounds, with stratification by staff profession and testing experience. Results Of 68 trained staff, 67 completed the first questionnaire and 53 the second. Mean scores improved for confidence in conducting rapid testing (1.87 vs 1.44; p < 0.01), confidence in delivery of negative results (1.52 vs 1.25; p < 0.01) and in disagreement that rapid testing was disruptive (3.27 vs 3.83; p < 0.01). Comfort with your own role in rapid testing increased between rounds, particularly for nurses (1.71 vs 1.41; p = 0.04). In round two, doctors had a stronger preference for faster rapid tests than nurses (1.75 vs 2.50; p = 0.02) and stronger agreement that rapid testing interferes with consultations (2.63 vs 3.39; p = 0.01). Belief that patients were satisfied with rapid testing was stronger in staff who had performed > 10 tests than ≤ 10 tests (1.58 vs 2.07; p < 0.01). Acceptability did not vary with experience of false results. Conclusions Acceptability to staff of rapid HIV testing for MSM increased with time and experience of rapid testing. Differences between professions may indicate variations in staff training and support needs and capacity to adapt to change.


Part I. Fundamentals. The objectives are: 1. Present MATLAB and SIMULINK. Learn how to use this software in the programme subjects. 2. To get the basic knowledge necessary to work with both packages with complete autonomy.
Part II. Applications. The objectives are: 1. To get more insight into MATLAB and SIMULINK, while presenting and developing more advanced applications such as: spectral analysis, optimal estimation and Kalman filtering, data transmission, digital filters, system identification and real time control, application program interface, neural networks and biomedicine,... Each student will work in a subject of their own interest.


: A cooperative Optometry Residency in Low Vision Rehabilitation has been established by the Optometry Sections at Hines Veterans Administration Hospital, Westside Veterans Administration Medical Center and the Illinois College of Optometry. The objective of this program is to train optometrists to function within, develop and direct clinical low vision programs in multidisciplinary settings. This optometry residency is unique in that it provides experience in delivering clinical low vision services in both inpatient and outpatient settings for patients of all ages during all stages of the clinical course of their disease, treatment and rehabilitation. Clinical rotations include the Optometry Section at the Central Blind Rehabilitation Center, the Chicago VICTORS Program, the Low Vision Clinic and affiliated Low Vision Clinics of the Illinois College of Optometry.


For one-way fixed effects ANOVA, it is well known that the conventional F test of the equality of means is not robust to unequal variances, and numerous methods have been proposed for dealing with heteroscedasticity. On the basis of extensive empirical evidence of Type I error control and power performance, Welch's procedure is frequently recommended as the major alternative to the ANOVA F test under variance heterogeneity. To enhance its practical usefulness, this paper considers an important aspect of Welch's method in determining the sample size necessary to achieve a given power. Simulation studies are conducted to compare two approximate power functions of Welch's test for their accuracy in sample size calculations over a wide variety of model configurations with heteroscedastic structures. The numerical investigations show that Levy's (1978a) approach is clearly more accurate than the formula of Luh and Guo (2011) for the range of model specifications considered here. Accordingly, computer programs are provided to implement the technique recommended by Levy for power calculation and sample size determination within the context of the one-way heteroscedastic ANOVA model.


To increase the success rate of Artificial Insemination (AI) in animals, it is important that the semen sample is of a high quality. The quality is related to both the number and motility of sperm present. Numerous methods of analysing semen samples exist, but these are generally expensive and/or laboratory based. A useful alternative would be an inexpensive simple system that could be used in the field immediately prior to insemination. We present a time of flight (ToF) technique using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). In this system the sperm are introduced at one end of a liquid filled swim channel and self propel to a QCM sensor at the other end. A chemical coating is applied to the QCM to bind the sperm and from the frequency change the number of attached sperm and their ToF can be measured. We report the effect of temperature and the introduction of small quantities of progesterone into the swim channel on the sperm ToF, Results show the QCM can be used to detect the arrival of the sperm and that increasing temperature and the presence of progesterone are both shown to decrease the ToF.


People did recognize that economic development, international trade and military power, in the 17th century, were strictly connected. Every state wanted to grow knowing to get that it was to compete with the rivals. All this did necessitate that public finance was apt to national ambitions, that it to sustain frequent and costly wars. Taxation could not sustain that financial effort. It was unavoidable running into debt. After the peace some measures to balance public budget and to reduce public debt were taken. The question is: was the target of public policy to put the debt at zero, that is was there any tendency by public authority to follow the principle of balance budget even only in the long run? Or instead authority was looking, after the war, for conditions sufficient to sustain a new war, namely to preserve state financial solvency? Historical evidences by France, Great Britain and Venice, though so different from each other, show no intertemporal balance budget policy.


Satellite rainfall estimates (SRE) with high spatial and temporal resolution and large areal coverage provide a potential alternative source to force hydrological models within regions where ground-based measurements are not readily available. The Gambia Basin in West Africa provides a good example of a case where the use of satellite precipitation estimates could be beneficial. This study aims to compare three SRE over a 12-year periods (1998-2010), before and after their integration into the GR4J hydrological model over the Gambia Basin. The inter -compared products are Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS), Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks-Climate Data Record (PERSIANN-CDR) and TRMM 3B42v7 (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission). The calibration and validation of the GR4J model over the Gambia basin using a reference rainfall product (RRP) pointed out a very good performance. The correlation coefficient between simulated and observed daily discharge is higher than 0.8 both for calibration and validation. The inter-comparison of SRE against RRP and using them as forcing data into the calibrated GR4J hydrological model presented some coherence in the product performance. PERSIANN-CDR performs better both when comparing against RRP and when used in GR4J. The low performance of CHIRPS is surprising because it is supposed to be a product that includes ground-base station. This result may also indicate that in areas without ground stations, the CHIRPS is less accurate than other rainfall products that are based only on satellite images. Finally, a bias correction is applied to the SRE using the RRP. The bias correction had significantly improved the product performance. On average, the bias fell from 100 to 1.5% compared to the RRP, but the impact on the error is less significant. When using the corrected SRE in the hydrological model, the impact is very significant both on the bias and error. The overall performance of the different biases that corrected SRE is comparable.

 Key words: Gambia, precipitation, satellite, evaluation, modeling, bias correction, Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS), Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks (PERSIANN), Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM).


Sunshade geoengineering ‐ the installation of reflective mirrors between the Earth and the Sun to reduce incoming solar radiation, has been proposed as a mitigative measure to counteract anthropogenic global warming. Although the popular conception is that geoengineering can re‐establish a 'natural' pre‐industrial climate, such a scheme would itself inevitably lead to climate change, due to the different temporal and spatial forcing of increased CO2 compared to reduced solar radiation. We investigate the magnitude and nature of this climate change for the first time within a fully coupled General Circulation Model. We find significant cooling of the tropics, warming of high latitudes and related sea ice reduction, a reduction in intensity of the hydrological cycle, reduced ENSO variability, and an increase in Atlantic overturning. However, the changes are small relative to those associated with an unmitigated rise in CO2 emissions. Other problems such as ocean acidification remain unsolved by sunshade geoengineering.


An ethnobotanical survey was carried out among the ethnic groups of Gudiyum forests situated in the west part of Jaganathapuram village-Nagari District(AP), East part of Uttukottai- Tiruvallur District (TN), North part of Nagalapuram Village – Nagari District(AP) and South part of Poondi Village – Thiruvallure District(TN). It is located in lat: 13.28790 and Log: 79.80867 with area coverage of 148 Acres of Tiruvallur District in Tamil Nadu. Aged local tribal were questioned and based on their input a total of 60 plant species belonging to 38 families are considered to be of ethnobotanical interest. All the plants were evaluated through phytochemical investigations and their potentiality for drugs is assessed. The present study shows how traditional medicine can be used for revival of our own siddha medicines.


Hydrographic and nutrient structure and the nitrogen and oxygen isotopic compositions (d15N and d18O) of the nitrate pool seaward of the Florida Keys reef tract were measured in Summer 2003. Nitrate and soluble reactive phosphate concentrations were tightly associated with depth and temperature and were close to 0 in surface waters, increased to 2–10 µmol L−1 and 0.1–1.0 µmol L−1, respectively, at intermediate depths associated with the thermocline and 15–25 µmol L−1 and 1.0–1.5 µmol L−1, respectively, in deeper water. Ammonium concentrations were low (0–0.6 µmol L−1) at all depths. Dissolved organic carbon concentrations ranged from 70–120 µmol L−1 near the surface to 40–60 µmol L−1 below the thermocline. Mean nitrate δ15N was 4.78% (±0.05) overall and varied from 4.24%(±0.07) within the chlorophyll maximum layer at 50–70 m depth to 5.26% (±0.05) below the thermocline at 150–242 m depth. Mean δ18O mean was 3.26% (±0.08) and varied from 4.89% (±0.14) within the chlorophyll maximum layer to 3.02% (±0.07) below the thermocline. These observations suggest an oceanic, deep‐water nitrate source below the thermocline, a mix of sources from upwelling and N2 fixation, and the effects of fractionation associated with uptake by primary producers within the thermocline. The water column nitrate isotopic data support the general hypothesis that primary producers on the Florida Keys reef tract directly utilize the transiently available subsurface nitrate pool.


The chemical mechanism of phosphodiester bond hydrolysis catalyzed by a junction-resolving enzyme has been investigated. Endonuclease I of phage T7 is a member of the nuclease superfamily of proteins that include many restriction enzymes, and the structure of the active site is very similar to that of BglI in particular. It contains three acidic amino acids that coordinate two divalent metal ions. Using mass spectrometry we have shown that endonuclease I catalyzes the breakage of the P-O3' bond, in common with restriction enzymes. We have found that the pH dependence of the hydrolysis reaction is log-linear, with a gradient of 0.9. Substitution of the scissile phosphate by an electrically neutral methylphosphonate significantly impairs the rate of bond cleavage. However, the introduction of chirally pure methylphosphonate groups shows that the effect of substitution of the proS oxygen atom is much greater than that for the proR. This is consistent with our current model of the structure of the DNA bound in the active site of endonuclease I, where the proS oxygen atom is coordinated directly to both metal ions as it is in BglI. The activity is also very sensitive to repositioning of the carboxylate groups of Asp 55 and Glu 65 in the active site, although some restoration of activity in endonuclease I E65D was observed in the presence of Mn2+ ions. A mechanism of hydrolysis consistent with all of these data is proposed.


The predominant strategy in restricting permissions in information systems is to limit users on the basis of the 'need-to-know' principle. Although appropriate in highly security-sensitive contexts, this culture of protection will, in other contexts, often reduce users' productivity and is seen as a hassle because the everyday exceptions to the routine tasks can be severely hindered. This paper proposes a more flexible authorization model, policy override, which allows end users to override authorization in a controlled manner. In this article, I describe the authorization model and its implementation in a medium enterprise's business application. I evaluated policy override use over a period of 1year through quantitative and qualitative analysis to identify challenges and offer advice on the implementation of policy override in practice. One important challenge is the setting of adequate bounds for policy override. To overcome this obstacle, I propose and evaluate a qualitative risk-based calculus that offers decision support to balance additional risks of policy override with the benefits of more flexible authorization. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Accelerators provide an increasingly valuable source of performance in modern computing systems. In most cases, accelerators are implemented as stand-alone, offload engines to which the processor can send large computation tasks. For many edge devices, as performance needs increase accelerators become essential, but the tight constraints on these devices limit the extent to which offload engines can be incorporated. An alternative is inline accelerators, which can be integrated as part of the core and provide performance with much smaller start-up times and area overheads. While inline accelerators allow greater flexibility in the interface and acceleration of finer grain code, determining good inline candidate accelerators is non-trivial. In this paper, we present NOVIA, a framework to derive inline accelerators by examining the workload source code and identifying inline accelerator candidates that provide benefits across many different regions of the workload. These NOVIA-derived accelerators are then integrated into an embedded core. For this core, NOVIA produces inline accelerators that improve the performance of various benchmark suites like EEMBC Autobench 2.0 and Mediabench by 1.37x with only a 3% core area increase.


The present experiment studied the relationship between interresponse intervals and behavioral variability. Subjects emitted sequences of 4 keypresses on two keys on a variability schedule that delivered points when the current 4-response sequence differed from the previous 5 sequences. Three experimental conditions were studied; no interresponse interval, 4-s interresponse interval and 8-s interresponse interval. Interresponse intervals followed each of the first three responses in each sequence. Two groups were used to study initial training histories. Group 1 was first exposed to the no-interresponse interval condition. Group 2 was first exposed to the 4-s interresponse interval condition. Subjects were then exposed to the different interresponse interval conditions. There was little change in variability across conditions. However, the variability observed in the subjects first exposed to the 4-s interresponse interval was greater than the variability observed in subjects first exposed to no-interresponse interval. There was higher-order response patterning in both groups, but it was more pronounced in the no-interresponse interval group.


The dichloromethane fraction of Hedranthera barteri (DMHBR), a common medicinal plant, was investigated in animal models of depression and anxiety in mice. Graded doses (25-200mg/kg p.o. bw) of DMHBR reduced the immobility time with significant effects produced by 50mg/kg (43.7%), 100mg/kg (45.6%) and 200mg/kg (31.5%) in the tail suspension test (TST) and by 100mg/kg (66.3%) in forced swimming test (FST), indicating a possible antidepressant-like activity when compared with standard antidepressant drug, imipramine. Furthermore, a diminution in the anxiety response was also observed against elevated plus maze and light dark tests, which signify its anti-anxiety activity when compared with standard anxiolytic drug, diazepam. Moreover, DMHBR has no significant effects on both the motor coordination of the mice in the rota rod test and the sleeping time in the pentobarbitone-induced sleeping time test. These results show that DMHBR has significant neuropharmacological activity as an antidepressant and anxiolytic activity. .


Glutamate carboxypeptidase II (GCPII; EC 184.108.40.206) is a Zn2+-dependent metalloprotease of the M28 peptidase family. It is also known as prostate-specific membrane antigen, N-acetylated-α-linked acidic dipeptidase, or folate hydrolase I. In the brain, the enzyme cleaves the peptide neurotransmitter N-acetyl-l-aspartyl-l-glutamate (NAAG) into N-acetyl-l-aspartate and free glutamate, a potent and potentially neurotoxic neurotransmitter. The folate hydrolase activity of GCPII facilitates the absorption of dietary folates in the small intestine by cleaving γ-linked glutamates from folyl-poly-γ-glutamates. While the physiological function of GCPII in the prostate is not known, its expression levels are elevated in metastatic prostate carcinoma. Furthermore, the enzyme is also expressed in the cancer-associated neovasculature of most solid tumors. In the nervous system, GCPII inhibition leads to an increase in NAAG concentration and has been shown to be neuroprotective in animal models of ischemic or traumatic brain injury, neuropathic pain, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In tumors, GCPII represents a very promising target for specific diagnostics, imaging, and targeted delivery of anticancer drugs. The present chapter reviews the expression of GCPII in various tissues, its splice variants, orthologs, and paralogs, and summarizes available information on the physiological function and proteolytic activity of the enzyme. Furtermore, its 3-D structure, substrate specificity and binding mode of available specific inhibitors are described in more detail. Finally, current and potential applications of inhibitors and ligands of GCPII for the diagnostics, imaging, and experimental therapy of neurodegenerative diseases and prostate cancer are discussed.


The intermolecular radical addition to chiral nitrones 2, 4, 5, and 16 was studied. The isopropyl radical addition to Oppolzer's camphorsultam derivative 2 of glyoxylic nitrone proceeded with excellent diastereoselectivity to give the desired isopropylated product 3a accompanied by the diisopropylated product 3b. A high degree of stereocontrol in the reaction of cyclic nitrone 4 was achieved. The ethyl radical addition to nitrone 4 with triethylborane afforded the desired ethylated product 9a accompanied by the diethylated product 10a and the ethylated nitrone 11a. To evaluate the utility of cyclic nitrone 4, several alkyl radicals were employed in the addition reaction, which afforded the alkylated products 9b-d with excellent diastereoselectivities. In the presence of Mg(ClO(4))(2), the ethyl radical addition to BIGN 16 afforded selectively syn isomers. In contrast, the alkyl radical addition to 16 took place even in the absence of Lewis acid to give anti isomers.


This study was done to investigate changes in image of nursing in first year students of nursing after courses on history & philosophy of nursing. Methods: Participants were 100 first year students at a nursing college located in K city. The students were asked to submit a written answer to an open-ended question. Data were collected in March, 2011, before the students started nursing courses, and again in June, 2011, after they had finished one semester of nursing courses. Data were analyzed using Van Kaam`s phenomenological method. Results: Before the nursing courses, students regarded nursing as caring for patients comfortably with warmth and kindness, helping patients with self-sacrificing spirit and service, and being tough and overwhelming to do. After finishing one semester of nursing courses, they regarded nursing as a profession that requires motherly care, love and devotion, and as meaningful and beautiful to do. Conclusions: After finishing one semester of nursing courses, the images of nursing held by the students changed from a traditional perspective emphasizing the emotional and negative aspects to one focusing more on the professional and positive aspects. It is essential to establish healthy and positive images of nursing among students through the nursing curriculum.


The aim of this work is to assess the impact of past and future climate changes on wheat productivity in the Pampas region of Argentina. The study was based on long-term climatic and crop productivity data, regional climatic scenarios and a crop simulation model. Our results demonstrate that the potential wheat yield has been declining at increasing rates since 1930 mainly due to minimum temperature increases. Further increases in temperature could lead to potential wheat yield reductions of 7.5% for each °C of temperature rise. If the expected effects of CO2 really do occur, the decline of the potential wheat yields due to temperatures that are 2.5°C warmer could be entirely offset by a CO2 concentration of 550 ppm. If the CO2 effects are not considered, rainfed wheat yields could be reduced by 4% by the end of the 21st century (2080), the northern part of the Pampas region being the most affected zone. Inversely, if the CO2 effects are considered, rainfed wheat yield could increase by 14%. Advancing planting dates could be a good strategy to take advantage of new environmental conditions with prolonged frost-free periods.


In the 2001-2002 production season, Fusarium wilt was observed for the first time in six different lettuce fields in the Gila and Dome Valley production areas of Yuma County, Arizona. The disease was found in 11 additional sites during 2002-2003. Fusarium wilt presents a serious threat to the health of the lettuce industry in Arizona. The only effective means of controlling Fusarium wilt of lettuce at this time is to avoid infested fields. On the other hand, Fusarium wilt in other crops, such as tomatoes and melons, is controlled effectively by planting cultivars resistant to the pathogen. The relative resistance of lettuce cultivars grown in the Arizona desert production region is unknown; therefore, a cultivar evaluation trial was established in a field known to contain the wilt pathogen, Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lactucae. Tested cultivars were grouped into three different planting dates: Sep 7, Oct 17 and Dec 6, 2002. A majority of the cultivars within each planting date were those that would be planted in the desert at that time. Fusarium wilt was severe in the early planting of lettuce (Sep 7), moderate in the second planting (Oct 17) and very mild in the third planting (Dec 6). Disease severity was low in some lettuce cultivars in the second planting and most cultivars in the third planting. Among the types of lettuce tested, head lettuce was usually least resistant whereas romaine was most resistant. The data presented in this report are preliminary findings, subject to confirmation in another study planned for the next lettuce production season.


Glioblastoma is the most prevalent form of gliomas with high aggressive nature and high recurrence. Despite aggressive therapy, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, median patient survival is only about 15 months. Hence, developing novel and efficient therapies seem urgent. Many fields have begun their work in preclinical studies but gained limited success in clinical phases. One of the most notable reasons is tumor-induced immunosuppression. In recent decade, efforts to dissect this immunosuppressive network have been done vastly. In a number of malignancies such as glioma, myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) have been shown to infiltrate malignant tissues having critical role in the network. Many studies, most of them on lab models, were conducted to understand how MDSCs take part in immunosuppression. Here, we reviewed MDSC relations with other immunocellular components like T cell and natural killer cell.


Vector-borne diseases still represent a serious problem in public health despite of the efforts of the surveillance and public health systems to mitigate these pathologies. Among these infections, those diseases caused by parasitic protozoa such as Chagas disease, malaria, leishmaniasis and African trypanosomiasis still represent serious issues in public health. These diseases are also named as neglected diseases affecting vulnerable populations around the world. One of the main goals in the basic research of these diseases is the deployment of accurate, reliable and feasible methods for the diagnosis of the etiological agents. Due to the rise of DNA technologies, several researchers have been able to develop rapid methods for the molecular diagnosis of vector-borne parasitic diseases. Herein we conducted a systematic review about the old-fashioned and current methodologies for the diagnosis of Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, sleeping sickness and malaria with special emphasis on molecular diagnosis to update the reader about their availability and feasibility. One of the purposes of this review is to encourage the researchers to deploy new methodologies that can be easily applied in endemic countries with no sophisticated methodology. This is imperative since an early diagnosis will enhance an early, rapid and appropriate treatment for populations that suffer these complex diseases.


Films of tungsten have been prepared, by evaporation from a filament, which bring the reactions pH2=oH2 and H2+D2=2HD to equilibrium in a few minutes at 77° K. Their real surface area could be estimated as about 450 cm.2, from a measurement of the quantity of hydrogen which was rapidly and irreversibly adsorbed at 293° K. A WH film prepared by contacting the evaporated film with gaseous hydrogen showed a rapid interchange with deuterium gas at 193 and 293° K. From the interchange data a calculation of the surface area of the film was made, giving a value in good agreement with that cited above. An approximate treatment suggests that hydrogen and deuterium are equally strongly adsorbed on tungsten at 293° K. At 77° K the exchange equilibrium is displaced in favour of deuterium in the gas phase, so that no interchange could be detected between a WH film and gaseous deuterium . The interchange that was found to occur between gaseous hydrogen and a WD film was less than one would expect from results at 193° K. It was concluded that at 77° K only 20-40 % of the chemisorbed deuterium is sufficiently reactive to interchange with hydrogen gas, in the time of the experiment. A likely explanation for this is a slight variation over the tungsten, surface of the WD adsorption energy.


BACKGROUND
Recent studies showed a crucial role for B cells in acute renal allograft rejection. It remains largely unknown, however, which mechanisms lead to the B-cell recruitment into the allograft. The chemokine CXCL13 and its corresponding receptor CXCR5 play a central role in B-cell trafficking to secondary lymphatic tissue and ectopic B-cell clusters in rheumatoid arthritis. We therefore investigated the potential role of CXCL13 and CXCR5 in formation of B-cell clusters in renal transplant rejection.

METHODS
Serial immunohistochemical staining for CXCL13, CXCR5, and CD20 was carried out in protocol biopsies of 23 patients obtained between day 4 and day 9 after renal transplantation. Intragraft mRNA expression of CXCL13 was assessed by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis.

RESULTS
Of 23 kidney biopsies obtained between days 4 and 9 after renal transplantation, 13 revealed an acute rejection. Four of these patients showed a substantial infiltration of the transplant with cluster-forming B cells. By immunohistochemistry CXCL13 and the corresponding receptor CXCR5 were exclusively detected in areas of B-cell clusters. Intrarenal CXCL13 mRNA expression was 27-fold higher in transplants with B-cell clusters compared to rejecting allografts without B-cell accumulation (P= 0.011).

CONCLUSION
We describe a striking colocalization of CXCL13 expression with CXCR5- and CD20-positive B cells in renal transplants undergoing rejection. This is the first study demonstrating a potential role of CXCL13 and its specific receptor CXCR5 in recruitment of B cells in renal allograft rejection.


The aim of this review was to identify research on children and adolescents who experience double bereavement, i.e. the experience of loss through parental divorce followed by either parental death or critical illness with imminent death. This knowledge may identify evidence to underpin knowledge and practice for nurses and other health professionals, so they can intervene with these children and adolescents more efficaciously. An integrative systematic review was conducted using PubMed, CINAHL and PsycINFO. The results show four major themes: Complexity in their experiences of double bereavement; challenges in both custodial and non-custodial parental death; risk of mental health problems, and the need of support and interventions.


This unit describes how to use the Transcription Element Search System (TESS). This Web site predicts transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) in DNA sequence using two different kinds of models of sites, strings and positional weight matrices. The binding of transcription factors to DNA is a major part of the control of gene expression. Transcription factors exhibit sequence‐specific binding; they form stronger bonds to some DNA sequences than to others. Identification of a good binding site in the promoter for a gene suggests the possibility that the corresponding factor may play a role in the regulation of that gene. However, the sequences transcription factors recognize are typically short and allow for some amount of mismatch. Because of this, binding sites for a factor can typically be found at random every few hundred to a thousand base pairs. TESS has features to help sort through and evaluate the significance of predicted sites. Curr. Protoc. Bioinform. 21:2.6.1‐2.6.15. © 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Purpose: University sport is recognized by many as a key area of university business and one of increasing importance, as seen by universities prioritizing sport within their university strategic plans as well as national funding bodies investing in university sport. Whilst sport is rising on the agenda, engaging all students in sport is a key challenge for universities. This paper examines the factors that enable and inhibit female students' participation in university sport and active recreation using an interpretivist qualitative design. The paper also identified specific behaviour change techniques that could be used within interventions to increase participation rates. Method: Six focus groups were carried out. Data were analysed verbatim using a constant comparative process of analysis. Results: Findings revealed several emergent themes to help inform theory-based interventions to engage more female students in sport. Conclusion: University sport is an important behaviour for students to undertake. The paper identified a number of avenues for universities to pursue in order to achieve this aim.


Background To assess the feasibility, safety and efficacy of a percutaneous doughnut vertebroplasty of circumferential aggressive vertebral hemangiomas (VHs). Methods We retrospectively reviewed our prospectively collected database of patients with VHs treated with vertebroplasty between January 2009 and January 2018. Patient demographics, clinical presentations and procedural details were recorded. All patients underwent preoperative computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). All vertebroplasties were performed under conscious sedation in the prone position, predominantly using biplane fluoroscopic guidance. A clinical and imaging evaluation (early CT scan and MRI) as well as a final follow-up clinical assessment was performed. Results Twenty-two patients with aggressive VHs who underwent circumferential vertebroplasty with cementation of the entire vertebral body and at least one posterior hemi-arch were included (six males, mean age 53 years). At 3 months follow-up, nine patients (41%) had complete, 11 (50%) had partial and two (9%) had no resolution of pain. Nine of 14 patients had a decrease in venous swelling on MRI. No complications were observed. Five patients (23%) underwent adjunctive surgery within 1 year for persistence or worsening of neurological symptoms. Clinical and radiographic improvements were maintained to final follow-up. Conclusions Doughnut vertebroplasty offers a mini-invasive, safe and effective treatment of aggressive circumferential VHs. This technique improves pain in over 90% of patients as well as a reduction in radicular and neurological symptoms associated with a tendency to regression of the compressive epidural venous component of these lesions.


Abstract. The Landsat 8 satellite which was launched in 2013 is a next generation of the Landsat remote sensing satellites series. It is equipped with two new sensors: the Operational Land Imager (OLI) and the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS). What distinguishes this satellite from the previous is four new bands (coastal aerosol, cirrus and two thermal infrared TIRS bands). Similar to its antecedent, Landsat 8 records electromagnetic radiation in a panchromatic band at a range of 0.5d0.9 μm with a spatial resolution equal to 15 m. In the paper, multispectral imagery integration capabilities of Landsat 8 with data from the new high resolution panchromatic EROS B satellite are analyzed. The range of panchromatic band for EROS B is 0.4d0.9 μm and spatial resolution is 0.7 m. Research relied on improving the spatial resolution of natural color band combinations (bands: 4,3,2) and of desired false color band composition of Landsat 8 satellite imagery. For this purpose, six algorithms have been tested: Brovey's, Mulitplicative, PCA, IHS, Ehler's, HPF. On the basis of the visual assessment, it was concluded that the best results of multispectral and panchromatic image integration, regardless land cover, are obtained for the multiplicative method. These conclusions were confirmed by statistical analysis using correlation coefficient, ERGAS and R-RMSE indicators.


The authors studied the improvement of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in NMR images by free induction decay (FID) averaging. They found that as the number of FIDs averaged increases, a region is reached where the image SNR levels off asymptotically. A theoretical explanation for this behaviour is offered. Agreement between experimental results and theoretical prediction is excellent. It is also pointed out that the exact location of the point at which further averaging does not pay-off is dependent on the individual NMR imaging system used.


In this study, we showed that overexpression of ethylene-responsive transcription factor (ERF) 2 activated the expression of endogenous genes that have the GCC box in their promoter region, in tobacco plants. These include not only a defense-related gene, CHN50, encoding class I basic chitinase, but also a transcriptional repressor gene, ERF3. In tobacco plants constitutively expressing ERF2:glucocorticoid receptor fusion protein, treatment with dexamethazone induced a rapid increase of ERF3 mRNA and a slow increase of CHN50 mRNA. These results suggest that an antagonistic interplay of ERF2 and ERF3 is involved in the transcriptional regulation of the class I basic chitinase genes in tobacco.


Severe-early childhood caries (S-ECC) is a specific form of rampant decay of primary teeth in infants, characterized by aggressive tooth destruction. This multifactorial disease in young infants associated with the frequent use of sweetened fluids and fermentable carbohydrates over extended periods, poor oral hygiene as well as high level of mutans streptocooci infection. The disease control and restoration of severely decayed primary teeth in children with S-ECC remains a challenge to general as well as pediatric dentists. This article portrays the oral rehabilitation of a five and half-year old boy presenting with S-ECC.


Abstract:This short paper will sketch the twilight years of Greek rhetorics, roughly from 1500 until just after the Greek War of Independence. This is an area that, like much else in neo-Greek intellectual history, has been sadly ignored in "Western" scholarship. Greek scholars played an important part in the reception of the works of Hermogenes, Longinus, and pseudo-Demetrius in the mid- and late-sixteenth century. But other Greek teachers and scholars at the College of St. Athanasius in Rome, at the University of Padua, at the Flanginian Academy in Venice, and at schools in Bucharest, Jannina, and Constantinople itself continued to add to those traditions with numerous school texts, homiletic handbooks, and some interesting philosophical treatments of rhetoric. Their names (Korydaleus, Skoufos, Mavrokordates, Damodos, and many others) are unknown to most students of the history of rhetoric—a situation this paper will try in its small way to change.


Human action recognition based on the depth information provided by commodity depth sensors is an important yet challenging task. The noisy depth maps, different lengths of action sequences, and free styles in performing actions, may cause large intra-class variations. In this paper, a new framework based on sparse coding and temporal pyramid matching (TPM) is proposed for depth-based human action recognition. Especially, a discriminative class-specific dictionary learning algorithm is proposed for sparse coding. By adding the group sparsity and geometry constraints, features can be well reconstructed by the sub-dictionary belonging to the same class, and the geometry relationships among features are also kept in the calculated coefficients. The proposed approach is evaluated on two benchmark datasets captured by depth cameras. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm repeatedly achieves superior performance to the state of the art algorithms. Moreover, the proposed dictionary learning method also outperforms classic dictionary learning approaches.


Author(s): Frantz, Stephen C.; Durlak, Robert M. | Abstract: The recent outbreak of raccoon rabies in New York State during a period of unprecedented fiscal constraints presents an emerging organizational dilemma− how to handle increasing demands for services in an environment of diminishing resources. As one response to this need, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) is developing an interactive computer system for integrating public education, professional training, and public/professional communication. The basic objective is to enhance consumer access to information regarding rabies, Lyme disease, and other public health issues; thereby, forming the basis for prevention. In essence, this effort can be classified as an "educational intervention," the essential component in any successful program of integrated pest management. The system is comprised of networked computer kiosks distributed statewide in convenient locations to maximize public or professional access. Hardware for each kiosk includes a Macintosh computer, modem, and printer. Each kiosk provides a common database via a series of interactive files regarding biological and disease management information, and with various levels of multimedia development (text, audio, animation, and video). In addition, kiosks provide a directory of government regulations, publications, and services, including geographically defined data. The user can rapidly gather information from a variety of on-board kiosk resources, and can also electronically mail or fax specific queries to appropriate authorities elsewhere. The system is designed to achieve ultimate flexibility, utility and relevancy while being informative and entertaining.


There been much interest in the collaboration between local governments in Thailand and indeed in the international context for decades. In Thailand, since there are a large number of small local governments, i.e. 5,693 units with population in many units is less than 5,000, which seem to lack capacities in delivering efficient services because they have been challenging with limited financial resources and equipment, and unqualified staffs to provide some services in efficient ways (Krueathep, 2004, 2006; College of Local Government Development, 2009; Department of Local Administration, 2008), therefore to respond to these issues, collaboration between local governments has been introduced as a potential mechanism for enhancing the capacities of local governments in delivering efficient services to citizens in Thailand for decades (Krueathep, 2006). In practice, however, there has been little progress in implementing collaboration in Thailand because of key significant reasons. Firstly, since existing studies in this area in Thailand are scarce, local governments tend to lack knowledge to implement this policy in effective ways. Secondly, although there are some local governments which have implemented this mechanism, there are many challenges that they face when implementing collaborative approach.

In this respect, it is considered that the British local governments also have been facing the challenge of providing more complex services within tight financial constraint and therefore collaboration has been recommended as a new way of working for enhancing the capacity of local government in delivering improved services for decades (Sullivan and Skelcher, 2002).Obviously the UK has much long experiences of implementing collaborative approach. Moreover, there are a large number of studies on the experiences of local government collaboration in the UK. Therefore, studying the UK experiences of collaboration between local governments can benefit the implementation of this policy in Thailand. In essence, the findings of this study can help policy-makers to develop effective methods of collaboration for encouraging local government to implement collaboration approach. Moreover, it may benefit policy in practice because the findings of this research may help practitioners to implement collaboration policy in effective ways.

Since the study aims to explore the possible models of local government collaboration for implementation in Thailand by studying the UK's experiences, comparative case studies design, i.e. the comparative study between Thailand and the UK cases, will be used to achieve the objective. In essence, to achieve the objective, the research questions need to be addressed as follows:
1. Why collaboration between local governments has happened in Thailand and the UK?
2. What forms of collaboration have been used in Thailand and the UK?
3. What factors promote and inhibit collaborations between local governments in Thailand and the UK?
4. What are possible models of collaboration which can be used in Thailand? And how can the lessons from the UK can be implemented in Thailand?

Then, to address the first three questions, documentary analysis will be first used since it allows researchers to gain initial key conclusion on Thai and the UK cases in terms of the motivation to collaborate, models of collaboration, and the factors promoting and prohibiting collaborative working. Then, to gain in-depth and richer information on collaboration between local governments that have been implemented in Thailand and the UK, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with policymakers, senior staffs and politicians in local governments which have been implemented collaborative working. Finally, after developing the possible models of collaboration, focus group will be employed in Thailand to gather viewpoints and suggestions about how each models of collaboration which were developed will be efficiently implemented in Thailand.


BACKGROUND: We demonstrated previously that angiotensin IV (Ang IV) and LVV-hemorphin 7 (LVV-H7) act through the blockade of insulin-regulated aminopeptidase to decrease oxytocin degradation, thereby causing antihyperalgesia at the spinal level in rats. We determined that intrathecal oxytocin can induce significant antihyperalgesia in male rats with inflammation but not in female rats. Thus, we speculate that Ang IV, LVV-H7, and oxytocin can induce antiallodynia, which could be of great therapeutic potential. Because the antihyperalgesia by using these peptides was with sex difference, their possible antiallodynia was examined in male and female mice for comparison. We investigated whether Ang IV, LVV-H7, and oxytocin produce antiallodynia at the spinal level in mice and whether this antiallodynia differs between the sexes. METHODS: Partial sciatic nerve ligation surgery was performed on adult male and female C57BL/6 mice from the same litter (25–30 g). The effects of intrathecal injections of Ang IV (25.8 nmol), LVV-H7 (27.2 nmol), and oxytocin (0.125 or 1.25 nmol) were assessed through the von Frey test 3 days after partial sciatic nerve ligation. RESULTS: Intrathecal injection of Ang IV, LVV-H7, and oxytocin all produced a potent antiallodynia in male mice. However, these antiallodynia effects were either extremely weak or absent in female mice at the same dose. CONCLUSIONS: Intrathecal Ang IV, LVV-H7, and oxytocin can all cause significant antiallodynia in male mice. The Ang IV-, LVV-H7-, and oxytocin-induced antiallodynia effects differed between the sexes at the spinal level in mice.


Many software maintenance activities need to find code units (functions, files, etc.) that implement a certain concern (features, bugs, etc.). To facilitate such activities, many approaches have been proposed to automatically link code units with concerns described in natural languages, which are termed as concern localization and often employ Information Retrieval (IR) techniques. There has not been a study that evaluates and compares the effectiveness of latest IR techniques on a large dataset. This study fills this gap by investigating ten IR techniques, some of which are new and have not been used for concern localization, on a Linux kernel dataset. The Linux kernel dataset contains more than 1,500 concerns that are linked to over 85,000 C functions. We have evaluated the effectiveness of the ten techniques on recovering the links between the concerns and the implementing functions and ranked the IR techniques based on their precisions on concern localization. Keywords-concern localization; information retrieval; Linux kernel; mean average precision;


Abstract The guest editors' introduction to ARTMargins Issue 1:2–3 proposes that the dynamic marginal art scenes that developed under Latin American military dictatorships and in Late Socialist Eastern Europe in the 1960s and 1970s were characterized by their commitment to freedom and its furthering through cultural exchange and networking. To the extent that direct exchange was controlled from above, its significance, from below, increased in inverse proportion. From the peripheries of the Cold War, a marginal cultural intelligentsia sought creative ways to inhabit counter-cartographies and to foster an alternative sense of belonging. The introduction gives an overview of the transnational networks developed by artists operating outside a market framework, with a view to highlighting the need for scholars to rethink the complexity of past, present and future fields of international artistic exchange.


Abstract. Significance: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is widely used as a potential diagnostic tool for a variety of diseases including various types of cancer. However, sensitivity and specificity analyses of OCT in different cancers yield results varying from 11% to 100%. Hence, there is a need for more detailed statistical analysis of blinded reader studies. Aim: Extensive statistical analysis is performed on results from a blinded study involving OCT of breast tumor margins to assess the impact of reader variability on sensitivity and specificity. Approach: Five readers with varying levels of experience reading OCT images assessed 50 OCT images of breast tumor margins collected using an intraoperative OCT system. Statistical modeling and analysis was performed using the R language to analyze reader experience and variability. Results: Statistical analysis showed that the readers' prior experience with OCT images was directly related to the probability of the readers' assessment agreeing with histology. Additionally, results from readers with prior experience specific to OCT in breast cancer had a higher probability of agreement with histology compared to readers with experience with OCT in other (noncancer) diseases. Conclusions: The results from this study demonstrate the potential impact of reader training and experience in the assessment of sensitivity and specificity. They also demonstrate even greater potential improvement in diagnostic performance by combining results from multiple readers. These preliminary findings suggest valuable directions for further study.


Mexico in the 1970s was at the peak of what Vargas Llosa called its "perfect dictatorship" under the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI). This perfection, however, did not preclude resistance from student groups, militias, and peasant movements. Decades later, theatre company Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol would stage this rebellion in their documentary play El rumor del incendio (2010) and its accompanying textual and digital publications. Director and actor Luisa Pardo plays both herself and her real-life mother, Margarita, in the play. This study examines the strategies used to convey the family ties between Margarita and Pardo, which include documentary evidence, bodily relationships, and genealogical connections. It shows the way that theatrical self-representation challenges the auto/biographical genre by blurring lines between biography and autobiography, as well as redefining drama, asking spectators to consider the stage as an alternative source of historical fact.


In gas turbines, seals that reduce the leakage between high and low pressure regions are critical for improved performance. Damaging rubs between the rotating and non-rotating parts of turbomachinery shaft seals occur due to thermal and assembly misalignments, and rotordynamic vibration during engine start-up and shut-down transients. These rubs lead to increased seal leakage and hence to reduced overall turbine efficiency and life span. The Film Riding Pressure Actuated Leaf Seal (FRPALS) is a non-contacting compliant seal under development to adapt to varying clearances without rubbing, while maintaining low leakage.
 This paper presents the measurements of the FRPALS in a test rig specifically designed to test novel shaft seals for turbomachinery. The rig features a 254 mm diameter rotor with a maximum surface speed of 200 m/s. Pressure drops of up to 3.5 bar can be achieved. The results of initial testing at zero rotational speed are presented for the FRPALS in a reverse orientation. The opening and closing translations of the leaves have been measured using eddy current displacement probes targeting the movable parts of the seal. The seal clearance has been shown to remain constant for a range of applied pressure drops, which indicates the stable operation of the seal, though resulting in contact with the rotor at 1.5 bar. Mass flow leakage measurements have also demonstrated the sealing performance of the FRPALS. They show the potential of the seal to film ride subject to design modifications to maintain a more uniform film thickness. The steady-state Reynolds equation for lubrication has been used to predict the pressure along the seal clearance. The predictions have been compared with pressure measurements from a transducer located in the clearance fluid thin film.


In this thesis I explore the production of social memory in the subterranean infrastructural landscapes of the London Underground and the Berlin U- and S-Bahn within a period spanning roughly the last eight decades between 1933 and 2013. To do this I apply an approach that is interdisciplinary in scope, comparative in nature and lies at the nexus of transport and cultural history, historical and cultural geography, and memory, landscape and heritage studies. More specifically this approach necessitates an engagement with the theories and literatures related to landscape, social memory and urban infrastructures in order to create new ways to study the cultural geographic and historic characteristics of urban underground railways, whilst simultaneously problematising the biased application of landscape approaches in non-urban contexts and contributing to the re-theorisation of the relationship of landscape and infrastructure. This is achieved by establishing 'the social memories of landscape' as my central focus, and the actors, processes, structures and discourses implicated in the production of a variety of 'buried memories' as my main concerns. Thereafter, and upon establishing the main components of this research's mixed methodological and case-orientated comparative approach, I use a series of empirically grounded comparative excavations to shed light on how social memories are produced in the physical, representational and experiential landscapes of the Underground, U- and S-Bahn as exemplified by their cartographies and toponymies, realised and unrealised memorials, and alternative and creative uses of their ruins and vestiges. These excavations contribute in turn to new understandings of the mnemonic actors, processes, structures and discourses that have particular influence and resonance in these urban underground landscapes, and hence serve to demonstrate how the Underground, U- and S-Bahn's subterranean transport contexts influence the production of social memory.


Microwave energy is applied to cure cement-based materials with microwave power and time of application. First, the dielectric permittivity of them during a 24-hour first-hydration period at a frequency of 2.45 ± 0.05 GHz is measured and analyzed. Second, the characteristics of hardened cement paste as subjected to microwave energy with multi-mode rectangular wave guide, with specific attention to temperature rise, microstructure and development. This article presents a theoretical analysis to relate the compressive strengths of the CBM when subjected to microwave energy at an operating frequency of 2.45 GHz with a multi-mode cavity. The effects of water-to-solid mass ratios, aggregates, pozzolan materials, microwave power levels, application times, sequential processes, delay times, and comparisons with conventional curing (lime saturated-deionized water) were taken into account. The results indicated that for increasing the compressive strength, the main coefficient (a) as the Richards model are up to the highest value, the optimal energy level (microwave power × application time) should be in the range of 2.0 to 3.0 KJ when the specimen size was of  70.0 mm  40.0 mm in order to avoid the position of highest electric field strength within the cavity. Furthermore, the calculated compressive strengths based on the maturity concept overestimated the strength during 28 day first hydration time of the microwave-cured cement-based materials using the formula:


It is commonly held that if getting a contractual remedy was costless and fully compensatory, rescission followed by restitution would not exist as a remedy for breach of contract. This claim, we will demonstrate, is not correct. Rescission and restitution offer more than remedial convenience. Rational parties, we argue, would often desire a right of rescission followed by restitution even if damages were fully compensatory and costless to enforce. The mere presence of a threat to rescind, even if not carried out, exerts an effect on the behavior of parties. Parties can enlist this effect to increase the value of contracting.


The supervisory control of discrete event systems provides a framework for control of event-driven systems. Applications of supervisory control theory include protocol design for communication processes, control logic synthesis in manufacturing systems, and collision avoidance in human-computer interaction systems.
When designing a system at a certain level of abstraction, lower level details of the system and its specification are normally omitted to obtain higher level models that may be (non-deterministic) event-driven systems. Nondeterministic systems exhibit both branching and sequential behaviors and are captured using bisimulation equivalence (the traditional language equivalence only captures sequential behaviors). Simulation equivalence is more expressive than language equivalence but captures only the universal fragment of branching behaviors.
This dissertation presents supervisory control of discrete event systems for enforcing bisimulation equivalence or simulation equivalence with respect to given specifications. We show that in the general setting of nondeterministic systems and specifications, the complexity for bisimilarity enforcing control is doubly exponential and for similarity enforcing control remains polynomial solvable. So the choice of behavioral equivalence used depends on the application at hand and there is a trade-off between the expressivity and the complexity. We further show that the bisimilarity enforcing control problem becomes polynomially solvable when the system model is deterministic and there is complete observability of events. When the complete observability requirement is relaxed, the control existence problem remains polynomially solvable and the control synthesis problem becomes singly exponential. These complexities are similar to the ones for control under partial observation in completely deterministic setting Tsitsiklis (1989).
We introduce various notions of state-controllability (SC), state-recognizability (SR), state-achievability (SA), state-controllable-similar (SCS), state-controllability-bisimilar (SCB), and state-achievability-bisimilar (SAB) for deterministic system model. SC is a property of a controlled system under complete observation. Under partial observation, an additional property of a controlled system due to the partial observation is SR. The combined property of SC and SR is called SA. We show that properties of SC, SR and SA are not preserved under bisimulation equivalence and therefore cannot be served as a necessary condition for the existence of a bisimilarity enforcing supervisor. We introduce the notions of SCB and SAB, which are preserved under bisimulation, as part of the necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a supervisor under complete and partial observation, respectively. We show that SC is not preserved under simulation equivalence and introduce SCS as a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a similarity enforcing supervisor under complete observation.
The aforementioned results use strict synchronous composition (SSC) of the system and supervisor as a mechanism of control. In SSC, it is required that individual systems synchronously execute all events. Prioritized synchronous composition (PSC) relaxed such synchronization requirements and this has been shown to enrich the control capability when the plant is non-deterministic. (The presence of nondeterminism in a plant model may cause the current state to be known with ambiguity, and allowing the flexibility of not synchronizing an event at all the candidate states that plant may have reached provides for additional benefits.) This dissertation introduces a notion of prioritized synchronous composition under mask (PSCM) to account for partial observation. We study the supervisory control when PSCM is adopted as a mechanism of interaction for both language and bisimulation equivalences. We show that the control & observation-compatibility requirements are removed of a supervisor. For control to achieve a language equivalence, the existence condition is given by achievability that is weaker than controllability and observability combined. (The weaker condition is required since we allow supervisors to be nondeterministic.) This suggests that the notion of PSCM is an appropriate generalization of PSC to account for partial observation.


The aim of this study is to test the hypothesis according to which the imbalance between effort and reward, as well as to what degree the interference of professional life upon one's private life, can affect the level of job burnout felt by a group of dairy farmers. The sample group was composed of dairy farmers (N = 104) from Eure who were sent a questionnaire by mail. Each questionnaire was designed to collect results which could be analysed with the help of the Siegrist scale (the effort-reward imbalance scale), the Swing scale and the MBI (General Survey). The data show that effort-reward imbalance does not in itself explain the burnout. On the other hand, negative professional/personal interaction strongly contributed to it. In addition, no difference was observed based on the sex of the worker. The limits and contributions of the study are presented in the discussion.


Ignition and combustion mechanisms in diesel engines were studied using the KIVA code, with modifications to the combustion, heat transfer, crevice flow, and spray models. A laminar-and-turbulent characteristic-time combustion model that has been used successfully for spark-ignited engine studies was extended to allow predictions of ignition and combustion in diesel engines. A more accurate prediction of ignition delay was achieved by using a multistep chemical kinetics model. The Shell knock model was implemented for this purpose and was found to be capable of predicting successfully the autoignition of homogeneous mixtures in a rapid compression machine and diesel spray ignition under engine conditions. The physical significance of the model parameters is discussed and the sensitivity of results to the model constants is assessed. The ignition kinetics model was also applied to simulate the ignition process in a Cummins diesel engine. The post-ignition combustion was simulated using both a single-step Arrhenius kinetics model and also the characteristic-time model to account for the energy release during the mixing-controlled combustion phase. The present model differs from that used in earlier multidimensional computations of diesel ignition in that it also includes state-of-the-art turbulence and spray atomization models. In addition, in this study the model predictionsmore » are compared to engine data. It is found that good levels of agreement with the experimental data are obtained using the multistep chemical kinetics model for diesel ignition modeling. However, further study is needed of the effects of turbulent mixing on post-ignition combustion.« less


An all-digital PLL for wireline applications is designed with a sub-exponent TDC which adaptively scales its resolution according to input time difference. By cascading 2× time amplifiers, the TDC efficiently generates the exponent-only information for fractional time difference. To improve linearity in a wide input range, a replica-based self-calibration scheme is applied to the time amplifier. The TDC, implemented in a 0.18 μm CMOS, shows the minimum resolution of 1.25 ps with a total conversion range of 2.5 ns, the maximum operating frequency of 250 MHz, and power consumption of 1.8 mW at 60 MHz. The measured rms jitter of PLL was 5.03 ps at 960 MHz.


We consider the case of derivative-free algorithms for non-convex optimization, also known as zero order algorithms, that use only function evaluations rather than gradients. For a wide variety of gradient approximators based on finite differences, we establish asymptotic convergence to second order stationary points using a carefully tailored application of the Stable Manifold Theorem. Regarding efficiency, we introduce a noisy zero-order method that converges to second order stationary points, i.e avoids saddle points. Our algorithm uses only $\tilde{\mathcal{O}}(1 / \epsilon^2)$ approximate gradient calculations and, thus, it matches the converge rate guarantees of their exact gradient counterparts up to constants. In contrast to previous work, our convergence rate analysis avoids imposing additional dimension dependent slowdowns in the number of iterations required for non-convex zero order optimization.


Noise Learning is important in the task of text classification which depends on massive labeled data that could be error-prone. However, we find that noise learning in text classification is relatively underdeveloped: 1. many methods that have been proven effective in the image domain are not explored in text classification, 2. it is difficult to conduct a fair comparison between previous studies as they do experiments in different noise settings. In this work, we adapt four state-of-the-art methods of noise learning from the image domain to text classification. Moreover, we conduct comprehensive experiments on our benchmark of noise learning with seven commonly-used methods, four datasets, and five noise modes. Additionally, most previous works are based on an implicit hypothesis that the commonly-used datasets such as TREC, Ag-News and Chnsenticorp contain no errors. However, these datasets indeed contain 0.61% to 15.77% noise labels which we define as intrinsic noise that can cause inaccurate evaluation. Therefore, we build a new dataset Golden-Chnsenticorp (G-Chnsenticorp) without intrinsic noise to more