A sequence-based methodology identifies the boundaries of structural domains in proteins. The method doesn't depend on knowledge of a protein's structure or on sequence homologs. We developed a Bayesian approach based on the statistical analysis of word content used in other fields. Our method first catalogs "pattern" frequencies - occurrences of groups of amino acids - in a nonredundant database of known protein domains and then uses the distributions of these patterns to identify regions of protein sequence that appear to signal the beginnings and ends of domains. The domain-delineating signals we've produced using amino acid patterns show great promise in providing further insight into both the biochemistry and structural biology of proteins.


Purpose

This paper aims to empirically investigate the differences and similarities on the implementation constraints in public–private partnership (PPP) in developing and developed economies/countries, represented by Ghana and Hong Kong, respectively.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire survey was conducted with relevant experienced PPP practitioners in Ghana and Hong Kong. One hundred and three completed questionnaires were received for analysis. Kendall's coefficient of concordance analysis, mean score ranking, Mann–Whitney U test and quartile grouping were used for data analysis.

Findings

The results show six implementation constraints with significant differences. Constraints related to the general investment climate of PPP projects (i.e. ecological conditions of PPP) are ranked higher in Ghana than in Hong Kong, whereas constraints related to the organisation and negotiations of PPP projects are higher in Hong Kong than in Ghana. Further, two constraints, lengthy delay in finalising negotiations and lengthy delay due to political debate, are very critical in both jurisdictions, whereas "negative public perceptions on PPP transactions" and "high use of unsolicited proposals" are of less challenge in the implementation of PPP in both jurisdictions.

Originality/value

The findings of this study contribute to knowledge on the international best practices of PPP. In addition, international private bidders would be informed of the mitigation measures to adopt when engaging in PPP arrangements in any part of the world, whether in a developing or developed economy country.


At present, the diagnosis of many cancers relies on thesubjective interpretation of morphological changesin biopsy samples. This usually provides only latediagnosis. Early detection, which can provide more
successful therapy, is expected to be possible by identification
of tumour markers in physiological samples.
Immunoassay used at present for this purpose hasseveral drawbacks. It is applicable only for knownmarkers, can usually detect only one marker at atime, and may also fail to detect a marker when there
exist conditions, which may mask or prevent the interactionbetween antigen and the antibody. We havedeveloped a high performance liquid chromatography-laser induced fluorescence (HPLC-LIF) technique
to detect and record simultaneously spectra andchromatograms of physiological samples, which willenable the detection of multiple 'markers' in a singlephysiological sample in a short time. Samples of salivaand serum from normal and oral cancer subjects have
been studied with the set up. The present studies showthat body fluids like saliva and serum of normal, premalignantand malignant subjects have substantiallydifferent protein profiles. By simultaneous recording
of the chromatographic peaks and correspondingfluorescence spectra, it is possible to carry outunambiguous discrimination between normal, premalignantand malignant cases even when markersare present in femto/subfemtomole quantities, whichshould assist in early diagnosis of neoplasia.


The pathogen transmission dynamics in bat reservoirs underpin efforts to reduce risks to human health and enhance bat conservation, but are notoriously challenging to resolve. For vampire bat rabies, the geographical scale of enzootic cycles, whether environmental factors modulate baseline risk, and how within-host processes affect population-level dynamics remain unresolved. We studied patterns of rabies exposure using an 11-year, spatially replicated sero-survey of 3709 Peruvian vampire bats and co-occurring outbreaks in livestock. Seroprevalence was correlated among nearby sites but fluctuated asynchronously at larger distances. A generalized additive mixed model confirmed spatially compartmentalized transmission cycles, but no effects of bat demography or environmental context on seroprevalence. Among 427 recaptured bats, we observed long-term survival following rabies exposure and antibody waning, supporting hypotheses that immunological mechanisms influence viral maintenance. Finally, seroprevalence in bats was only weakly correlated with outbreaks in livestock, reinforcing the challenge of spillover prediction even with extensive data. Together our results suggest that rabies maintenance requires transmission among multiple, nearby bat colonies which may be facilitated by waning of protective immunity. However, the likelihood of incursions and dynamics of transmission within bat colonies appear largely independent of bat ecology. The implications of these results for spillover anticipation and controlling transmission at the source are discussed.


This thesis investigates the effects of trade on the labour market in Malaysia. Specifically, we study the impact of a tariff cut in the motor vehicle industry on the different occupational wages and employment. Tariffs played an important role in Malaysia's economic development; from an import-competing economy to an export-oriented economy. The literature on trade, wages and employment for Malaysia is limited because of inadequate occupational data to carry out econometric analysis. To fill this gap, we use a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model for the Malaysian labour market, MyAGE_LM to analyze the effects of a reduction in motor vehicle tariffs. CGE models have theoretical rigour and extensive analytical capabilities for carrying out policy analysis. This thesis contributes to the literature by (i) Introducing labour supply with nine different occupational groups into the dynamic CGE model for Malaysia and (ii) Analyzing a reduction in the motor vehicle tariff rate in Malaysia. The policy simulation is a 5 per cent cut in the motor vehicle tariff rate. To facilitate the analysis of the tariff cut, the MyAGE_LM model incorporates the labour market mechanism similar to that of Dixon and Rimmer (2003; 2008). The simulation results for the impact of the tariff cut on macroeconomic indicators, sectoral outputs and nine categories of occupational wages and employment are presented. The results are analyzed in terms of major model mechanisms. The macroeconomic results of the tariff cut indicate that in the short run, with the government aiming for revenue neutrality through increased labour taxes, there would be a small welfare gain. We also found that in the short run, exports fell despite real devaluation. So, the export sectors do not benefit in the short run. In the long run, aggregate real wages increase, and there is an economy-wide gain in GDP and aggregate consumption. The sectoral results revealed that most export-oriented industries would experience an increase in output. There are some evident effects on occupational wages and employment. The occupational group that stands out is the semi-skilled occupational group, SklAgriFish. This occupational group experienced the biggest decrease in vacancies. SklAgriFish occupations do well because no workers in this occupation are employed in the motor vehicle industry. Also, a significant proportion of SklAgriFish workers are hired in the export-oriented Agriculture industry, and the Agriculture industry sells to FoodBevTob (which does well in the long run because of real devaluation). The PlantMachOpr occupation does relatively well because a high proportion of these workers is employed in OthMachEquip industry (export-oriented and a winner from tariff cut in the long run). In general, from the MyAGE_LM policy simulation, we find that the tariff cut did not have a significant impact on the labour market. There are only small changes in average real wages and employment. We find damped labour supply effects in both the short and the long run. Semi-skilled occupations gain relative to skilled and unskilled workers. Skilled workers do not do well. They are mainly hired in non-traded industries that scarcely use imported motor vehicles


Visual search is an important part of human-computer interaction (HCI). The visual search processes that people use have a substantial effect on the time expended and likelihood of finding the information they seek. This dissertation investigates visual search through experiments and computational cognitive modeling. Computational cognitive modeling is a powerful methodology that uses computer simulation to capture, assert, record, and replay plausible sets of interactions among the many human processes at work during visual search. This dissertation aims to provide a cognitive model of visual search that can be utilized by predictive interface analysis tools and to do so in a manner consistent with a comprehensive theory of human visual processing, namely active vision. The model accounts for the four questions of active vision, the answers to which are important to both practitioners and researchers in HCI: What can be perceived in a fixation? When do the eyes move? Where do the eyes move? What information is integrated between eye movements?
This dissertation presents a principled progression of the development of a computational model of active vision. Three experiments were conducted that investigate the effects of visual layout properties: density, color, and word meaning. The experimental results provide a better understanding of how these factors affect human-computer visual interaction. Three sets of data, two from the experiments reported here, were accurately modeled in the EPIC (Executive Process-Interactive Control) cognitive architecture. This work extends the practice of computational cognitive modeling by (a) informing the process of developing computational models through the use of eye movement data and (b) providing the first detailed instantiation of the theory of active vision in a computational framework. This instantiation allows us to better understand (a) the effects and interactions of visual search processes and (b) how these visual search processes can be used computationally to predict people's visual search behavior. This research ultimately benefits HCI by giving researchers and practitioners a better understanding of how users visually interact with computers and provides a foundation for tools to predict that interaction.
This dissertation includes-both previously published and co-authored material.


Abstract—This paper presents an intelligent fault diagnostic approach for a steer-by-wire (SBW) system. A rough set model is utilized to reduce the redundant information. On the base of the reduction, the classifying rules can be extracted. A radical basis function (RBF) neural network optimized by particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is designed to learn the fault rules that are extracted from the reduction of the redundant information. The proposed approach is simulated in MATLAB. Simulation results show that the proposed intelligent fault diagnostic algorithm provides a higher level of diagnostic accuracy than the approach without any optimization.


Background: Gastroesophageal reflux Disease(GERD) is frequently encountered in obese patients. Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is a valid operation to overcome obesity, unfortunately associated with significant percent of GERD and De novo GERD. Objectives: The aim of this descriptive study isto assess the incidence of GERD in obese patients in relation to Laparoscopic Sleeve gastrectomy. Aid to identify the suitable antireflux procedure. Methods: This is a descriptive study, tracing (2210) obese patients from 2008-2018 in high volume single government and 4 private hospitals scheduled for LSG in relation to GERD. Records and investigationsfor GERD symptoms analyzed. GERD patients preoperatively are subjected to 3 varieties of antireflux procedures combined with LSG. De novoGERD patients are subjected to RYGB usually and different other options discussed from literature review. Results: The number of obese patientssubjected to LSG was(2210), and followed up 3monthsto 10 years, the mean period is 46.5 months. GERD patients were 520 (23.5%), De novo GERD 118(5.33%). Cruroplasty with LSG was the standard procedure for GERD and/or hiatal hernia, 4 (7.6%) casessubjected toNissen and Rossetti fundoplication with LSG. RYGB is offered for 9 (20%) patients with De novo GERD with excellent outcome. Conclusion: Gastroesophageal reflux disease GERD is inevitable in Obese patients and encountered often post sleeve gastrectomy. The best procedure to avoid GERD is RYGB. If LSG is mandatory it's preferable to be done for patients without reflux symptoms, and if symptoms present combined LSG with Nissen or Rossetti fundoplication is preferable.


A regular texture is formed from a regular congruent tiling of perceptually meaningful texture elements, also known as textons. If the tiling statistically deviates from regularity, either by texton structure, colour, or size, the texture is called near-regular. If we continue to perturb the tiling, the texture becomes stochastic. The set of possible textures that lie between regular and stochastic make up the texture spectrum: regular, near-regular, irregular, near-stochastic, and stochastic. In this thesis we provide a solution to the problem of creating, from a near-regular texture, a lattice which defines the placement of textons. We divide the problem into two distinct subareas: finding textons within an image, and lattice creation using both an ad-hoc method and a graph-theoretic method. The problem of finding textons within an image is addressed using correlation. A texton selected by the user is correlated with the image and points of high correlation are extracted using nonmaximal suppression. To extend this framework to irregular textures, we present early results on the use of feature space during correlation. We also present a method of correcting for a specific type of error in the texton finding result using frequency-space analysis. Given texton locations, we provide two methods of creating a lattice. The ad-hoc method is able to create a lattice in spite of inconsistencies in the texton locating data. However, as texture becomes irregular the ad-hoc lattice construction method fails to correctly connect textons. To overcome this failure we adapt methods of creating proximity graphs, which join two textons whose neighbourhoods satisfy certain criteria, to our problem. The proximity graphs are parameterized for selection of the most appropriate graph choice for a given texture, solving the general lattice construction problem given correct texton locations. In the output of the algorithm, centres of textons will be connected by edges in the lattice following the structure of texton placement within the input image. More precisely, for a texture T , we create a graph G = (V, E) dependent on T , where V is a set of texton centres, and E = (vi, vj) is a set of edges, where vi, vj ∈ V . Each edge e ∈ E connects texton centre v ∈ V to its most perceptually sensible neighbours.


In this brief paper, the authors identify a few principles that guide their work as therapeutic recreation practitioners, educators, and researchers that seem appropriate to share here. The authors describe how they believe that respect and self-determination are the foundation of therapeutic recreation practice and leisure education delivery. An overview of these concepts is provided and information is presented about the complexity of the construct of self-determination. In addition, research examining the value of promoting self-determination is highlighted. When providing leisure education and analyzing therapeutic recreation services, professionals are encouraged to access various methods and perspectives to address any issue. Next, the authors draw the reader's attention to the difference between conducting research and providing comprehensive leisure education services. Further, they suggest that engaging in a dialogue on a topic is helpful and that there is a variety of ways to engage in scholarly discourse. Finally, the authors admit their position of privilege and communicate their dedication to conscientiously pursuing truth in a respectful manner.


Due to the increased competition in the service sector, and the increase of customers' ability to spread their thoughts and experiences about different services, the pressure on the companies operating in the service sector has increased rapidly. We have conducted an investigation of a specific case of Revenues, a service company operating in Umeå, with both private and public customers. The thesis focuses on the dynamics of customer satisfaction; how a possible difference between buyers' and users' perceptions and beliefs look like and how Revenues can work in order to reduce an eventual gap. Additionally we have three sub-purposes: If there are differences in satisfaction between buyers and users, to clarify why possible differences in satisfaction between buyers and users exist. To clarify a possible gap between expected and perceived service quality and in case of a possible gap, suggest how Revenues can work to reduce this gap. Find out whether the free purchasing affects the perception of service quality. These are the questions that come our minds and led us into an interesting and unexplored field of study; a division of customers into buyers and users in the context of customer satisfaction. We chose to focus on a specific service provided by Revenues which is a service package consisting of a lecture and workshop. The research is a conducted with a quantitative method and a deductive approach. The epistemological and ontological positions are towards positivism and objectivism. The empirical data were collected through a web-based survey distributed to Revenues' customers of educational services. The construction of the questionnaire and the discussion, conclusion and suggestions are based on the empirical findings and the theories presented in the theoretical framework. We reached a conclusion that there does exist a difference in perception of satisfaction between the buyer and the user of Revenues' educational services; that the buyers' satisfaction is higher than the users' satisfaction. This due to: Communication gap between service provider and customers Different level of fulfillment of expectations between buyers and users Differences in what buyers and users demand We did not find any difference between expected and perceived service quality which is reflected in the overall level satisfaction among the customers. The users would be more critical and demand more if they had to pay for the lecture themselves, thus the free purchasing does affect the perception of service quality. We provided Revenues with a recommendation; in order to decrease the gap that exist in perception of service satisfaction between buyer and user of the same service, we recommend Revenues to increase the level of interactive marketing, provide the users with higher level of information, the same level as the buyer gets, in order to increase the feeling of providing the service accordingly to agreement. We also suggest Revenues to listen to the respondents' recommendations for improvements. Acknowledgements We want to thank the owner of Revenues, Fredrik Leek, who made this research possible to conduct. Additionally, we want to thank the customers of Revenues for their positive manner and willingness to participate in our survey. We also want to give special thanks to our supervisor Niklas Brinkfeldt for his constructive comments and supporting manner which facilitated our process of conducting this research.


Recent advances in the development of Josephson scanning tunneling spectroscopy (JSTS) have opened a path to explore unconventional superconductivity. Since experimental efforts have demonstrated the capability to perform atomically resolved measurements of the Josephson critical current, we theoretically show that this critical current is able to image the spatial superconducting order parameter (SCOP) across a wide range of conventional and unconventional superconductors. Because the SCOP is often a fingerprint of superconducting states and phases, including the triplet superconductivity associated with topological Majorana modes, its characterization with JSTS offers a unique way to identify novel superconducting phenomena that might otherwise be inaccessible. In the case of topological superconductivity, experimental identification of non-triviality is problematic because its spectroscopic evidence can be mixed with trivial in-gap states. As I demonstrate, however, an equilibrium transport measurement offers a qualitatively distinct route to identify topological currents.


Global climate change affects the temperature and precipitation. These changes have serious impacts on the availability of water resources on regional basis. Turkey, being located in the Mediterranean Basin, is predicted to be severely affected by the adverse effects of global climate change, particularly in terms of water resources. It is important to figure out the situation of the country in terms of water scarcity induced by anthropogenic climate change in order to provide rational measures for adaptation to climate change. The paper investigates the impact of climate change on water resources in Turkey at national level by collaborating the related literature, considering both the past observations and future predictions. Legal status of Turkey in terms of climate change, greenhouse gas emissions from Turkey, effects of climate change on temperature and precipitation in Turkey, effects of climate change on water resources potential, sea level rise and floods in Turkey, examples from different regions of the country and measures of adaptation to climate change impacts were investigated extensively.


Most of existing correlation filter-based tracking approaches only estimate simple axis-aligned bounding boxes, and very few of them is capable of recovering the underlying similarity transformation. To tackle this challenging problem, in this paper, we propose a new correlation filter-based tracker with a novel robust estimation of similarity transformation on the large displacements. In order to efficiently search in such a large 4-DoF space in real-time, we formulate the problem into two 2-DoF sub-problems and apply an efficient Block Coordinates Descent solver to optimize the estimation result. Specifically, we employ an efficient phase correlation scheme to deal with both scale and rotation changes simultaneously in log-polar coordinates. Moreover, a variant of correlation filter is used to predict the translational motion individually. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed tracker achieves very promising prediction performance compared with the state-of-the-art visual object tracking methods while still retaining the advantages of high efficiency and simplicity in conventional correlation filter-based tracking methods.


Three dimensional flow regimes are encountered in many types of industrial flow processes such as filtration, mixing, reaction engineering, polymerization and polymer forming as well as environmental systems. Thus, the analyses of phenomena involved fluid flow are of great importance and have been subject of numerous ongoing research projects. The analysis of these important phenomena can be conducted in laboratory through experiments or simply by using the emerging computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. But when dealing with three dimensional fluid flow problems, the complexities encountered make the analysis via the traditional experimental techniques a daunting task. For this reason, researchers often prefer to use the CFD techniques which with some care taken, often produce accurate and stable results while maintaining cost as low as possible.
Many CFD codes have been developed and tested in the past decades and the results have been successful and thus encouraging researchers to develop new codes and/or improve existing codes for the solutions of real world problems.
In this present project, CFD techniques are used to simulate the fluid flow phenomena of interest by solving the flow governing equations numerically through the use of a personal computer. The aim of this present research is to develop a robust and reliable technique which includes a novel aspect for the solution of three dimensional generalized Newtonian fluids in domains including obstructions, and this must be done bearing in mind that both accuracy and cost efficiency have to be achieved. To this end, the finite element method (FEM) is chosen as the CFD computational method. There are many existing FEM techniques namely the streamline upwind Petrov-Galerkin methods, the streamline diffusion methods, the Taylor-Galerkin methods, among others. But after a thorough analysis of the physical conditions (geometries, governing equations, boundary conditions, assumptions …) of the fluid flow problems to be solve in this project, the appropriate scheme chosen is the UVWP family of the mixed finite element methods. It is scheme originally developed to solve two dimensional fluid flow problems but since the scheme produced accurate and stable results for two dimensional problems, then attempt is made in this present study to develop a new version of the UVWP scheme for the numerical analysis of three dimensional fluid flow problems. But, after some initial results obtained using the developed three dimensional scheme, investigations were made during the course of this study on how to speed up solutions' convergence without affecting the cost efficiency of the scheme. The outcomes of these investigations yield to the development of a novel scheme named the modified three dimensional UVWP scheme. Thus a computer model based on these two numerical schemes (UVWP and the Modified UVWP) is developed, tested, and validated through some benchmark problems, and then the model is used to solve some complicated tests problems in this study. Results obtained are accurate, and stable, moreover, the cost efficiency of the computer model must be mentioned because all the simulations carried out are done using a simple personal computer.


It is common to address the curse of dimensionality in Markov decision processes (MDPs) by exploiting low-rank representations. This motivates much of the recent theoretical study on linear MDPs. However, most approaches require a given representation under unrealistic assumptions about the normalization of the decomposition or introduce unresolved computational challenges in practice. Instead, we consider an alternative definition of linear MDPs that automatically ensures normalization while allowing efficient representation learning via contrastive estimation. The framework also admits confidence-adjusted index algorithms, enabling an efficient and principled approach to incorporating optimism or pessimism in the face of uncertainty. To the best of our knowledge, this provides the first practical representation learning method for linear MDPs that achieves both strong theoretical guarantees and empirical performance. Theoretically, we prove that the proposed algorithm is sample efficient in both the online and offline settings. Empirically, we demonstrate superior performance over existing state-of-the-art model-based and model-free algorithms on several benchmarks.


Th ere is an increasing amount of research focusing on the origin of the human fear of animals. However, other dimensions of human views of frightening animals have been largely neglected. Th is study investigated attitudes toward snakes. Th e Snake Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ), which consisted of 58 Likert-type items (Cronbach's α = 0.91), was administered in a sample of students from two countries (Turkey and Slovakia). Students showed negative attitudes toward snakes, especially within the Negativistic and Naturalistic dimensions. Turkish students showed more positive Scientistic and Naturalistic attitudes than Slovakian students, and females showed more negative attitudes toward snakes than males. Although biology majors had more positive attitudes, compared with nonbiology majors, knowledge of snakes and beliefs about untrue myths were similar between these two subgroups. Our research indicates that fear of snakes negatively infl uences other attitudinal dimensions (especially naturalistic and scientifi c attitudes) although no students had been injured by a snake. Keeping various pets at home was associated with less fear of snakes. Nature protection actions should combine direct contact with these controversial animals with interventions against belief in untrue myths about snakes.


We investigated the effects of a probiotic fermented milk and inulin on gastrointestinal function and microecology. The study was double-blinded and comprised 66 healthy adults (22 male, 44 female), mean age 40 years (range, 22–60 years). After a 12-d baseline period the subjects were randomized to consume, for 3 weeks, 3×200 ml daily of either (1) a fermented milk with probiotics (Bifidobacterium longum BB536, Bifidobacterium spp. 420 and Lactobacillus acidophilus 145), (2) a fermented milk with the same probiotics plus 4 g inulin, or (3) a control fermented milk. During the last 7 d of the baseline and the intervention periods, the subjects kept a record of their defaecation frequency and gastrointestinal symptoms, and collected all their faeces. Intestinal transit time, stool weight and faecal enzyme activities were measured. Thirty-nine subjects were randomized to give faecal samples for analysis of pH and microbes, including lactobacilli, bifidobacteria, coliforms, Escherichia coli, Bacteroides and Clostridium perfringens. Consumption of fermented milk with probiotics or with probiotics and inulin increased the faecal number of lactobacilli (P=0·009, P=0·003) and bifidobacteria (P=0·046, P=0·038) compared with the baseline. Compared with the control fermented milk, both active products increased lactobacilli (P=0·005, ANCOVA). Subjects consuming fermented milk with probiotics and inulin suffered from gastrointestinal symptoms, especially flatulence, more than the others (P<0·001). In conclusion, the probiotic fermented milk product had a positive effect by increasing the number of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria in the colon. Inulin did not alter this effect but it increased gastrointestinal symptoms.


Rapid and accurate diagnostic tests are very important for the global control of infectious diseases. The point of care diagnosis has become a promising strategy in recent years. Different kind of point of care testing devices has been introduced into the market in the last decade. These devices must provide a low-cost, robust, sensitive, specific, and practical analysis in order to replace the conventional clinical laboratory diagnostic test algorithms when needed. The successful implementation of point of care diagnostics has a potential to increase the strength of infectious diseases surveillance programs. Finally, the rapid progress in point of care diagnosis can stimulate a shift from a centralized diagnostic model to a decentralized patient-centered approach.


This paper presents the experiences of ordinary Leytenos during the Japanese Occupation. The main source-materials for this study were oral testimonies from key informants born before 1940, which were placed in their proper context through the use of documentary sources. The study aims to show that the Japanese Occupation disrupted Leyteno social interactions between occupied town centers and their peripheries by creating an atmosphere of suspicion in which ostensibly siding with either the Japanese troops or the guerrillas often had deadly consequences, a condition described by some informants as "baga hin bibingka (like bibingka)," referring to the method of cooking the popular Filipino rice cake delicacy inside a clay or can oven with fire from above and below. The study also argues that this center-periphery conflict was rooted in Leyte's precolonial past as well during over three centuries of Spanish rule and the almost half-century of American rule which preceded the brief Japanese Occupation.


Transition between pediatric and adult diabetes care is often associated with new responsibilities in diabetes care and increased risk of acute complications. This study examines post-transition rates of acute complications and independence in diabetes self-care as a function of student and employment status based on time since transfer. The study included young adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) between 18-26 years of age who completed a SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study visit between 2016-2019. Subgroup analysis compared those that transitioned care to an adult provider in the past 2 years to those who had transitioned ≥2 years prior. Chi-squared tests and linear and logistic regression models were applied. The models for diabetes complications and care included an interaction term between student and employment status and adjusted for gender, race/ethnicity, age, education level, insurance type, diabetes duration, and site. 1,043 participants were included in the analysis (56.6% female, mean age 22.2±2.5 years, mean T1D duration 11.7±3.0 years). Overall, 65.9% of participants had transferred to an adult diabetes care provider prior to their study visit. Among those who transitioned within the past two years (N=254), unemployed non-students were significantly more likely to experience diabetic ketoacidosis or severe hypoglycemia than unemployed students (p=0.01). Non-students who transferred within the past two years were less likely to be performing all diabetes self-care independently (p=0.03). In conclusion, recent transition from pediatric to adult diabetes care represents a high-risk period for acute complications, specifically for non-students who are unemployed. For those who had transitioned in the past 2 years, students were more likely to be independent in their diabetes self-care. Additional support may be needed in this group to improve independent diabetes care and reduce the risk for acute complications. Disclosure S. Majidi: Advisory Panel; Self; Companion Medical. R. Wadwa: Consultant; Self; Tandem Diabetes Care, Research Support; Self; Dexcom, Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, Tandem Diabetes Care. C. Pihoker: None. A. J. Roberts: None. C. Suerken: None. B. A. Reboussin: None. F. Malik: None. S. M. Marcovina: None. S. Corathers: None. K. Reynolds: Research Support; Self; Merck & Co., Inc. G. Imperatore: None. Funding National Institutes of Health (1UC4DK108173, 1U18DP006131, U18DP006133, U18DP006134, U18DP006136, U18DP006138, U18DP006139); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention


We present an efficient growth process of rhenium disulfide (ReS2) nanosheets with a few layers at relatively low temperature under ambient pressure. Highly single-crystalline two-dimensional ReS2 nanostructures are obtained from a direct chemical reaction between rhenium atoms (Re) originating from the decomposition of ReCl3 and sulfur atoms (S) on a SiO2 substrate under helium (He) gas flow at 450 °C. The synthetic approach for the ReS2 nanosheets exhibits several favorable features: it is simple, cost-effective, and versatile for the development of new functional platforms toward highly single-crystalline 2D layered materials.


Abstract This paper presents an original approach to the changes required for the transformation of universities in sustainable universities. The focus is on the innovative approach of all activities and relationships of the university: teaching, scientific research and other services offered by the university, the relations of the university with the communities where it operates, inter-university relations, relations with business environment, etc. Based on the experience and information gathered by the authors in the strategic project "Improving University Management", it is proposed a better, more efficient and more effective way of using the resources of universities, thus sharing the resources within the university and with others partners. Shared resources can belong not only to universities but also to their other collaborating organizations interested in the general progress of the society. This can become reality only if the universities will realize that by working together they can achieve higher performance rather than by simply competing with each other, approach which is not excluded but otherwise addressed.


Abstract Non-literal language most often permeates interesting and informative narratives. These are the non-perceptible, inferential aspects of a story, such as the explanation of events, the attribution of internal, particularly mental, states to the characters of the story, or the evaluation of events by the participants and/or the narrator. The main aim of this paper is to examine whether non-literal uses can be promoted in 7-year-old French-speaking children's narratives through the use of a short conversational intervention (SCI) which focuses the children's attention on the causes of events. The results show that, after the SCI, the expression of non-literal aspects, even higher-order ones, may make their appearance or significantly increase in children's stories. The reasons for the effectiveness of the SCI in the promotion of non-literal uses of language and narrative skills in general, as well as the importance of using the SCI as an evaluative instrument, are discussed.


The modern-day urban energy sector possesses the integrated operation of various microgrids located in a vicinity, named cluster microgrids, which helps to reduce the utility grid burden. However, these cluster microgrids require a precise electric load projection to manage the operations, as the integrated operation of multiple microgrids leads to dynamic load demand. Thus, load forecasting is a complicated operation that requires more than statistical methods. There are different machine learning methods available in the literature that are applied to single microgrid cases. In this line, the cluster microgrids concept is a new application, which is very limitedly discussed in the literature. Thus, to identify the best load forecasting method in cluster microgrids, this article implements a variety of machine learning algorithms, including linear regression (quadratic), support vector machines, long short-term memory, and artificial neural networks (ANN) to forecast the load demand in the short term. The effectiveness of these methods is analyzed by computing various factors such as root mean square error, R-square, mean square error, mean absolute error, mean absolute percentage error, and time of computation. From this, it is observed that the ANN provides effective forecasting results. In addition, three distinct optimization techniques are used to find the optimum ANN training algorithm: Levenberg–Marquardt, Bayesian Regularization, and Scaled Conjugate Gradient. The effectiveness of these optimization algorithms is verified in terms of training, test, validation, and error analysis. The proposed system simulation is carried out using the MATLAB/Simulink-2021a® software. From the results, it is found that the Levenberg–Marquardt optimization algorithm-based ANN model gives the best electrical load forecasting results.


This paper considers the implications for education of a reworked ancient Greek ethics and politics of flourishing (particularly as found in Plato), where 'flourishing' comprises the objective actualisation of our intellectual, imaginative and affective potential. A brief outline of the main features of an ethics of flourishing and its potential attractions as an ethical framework is followed by a consideration of the ethical, aesthetic and political requirements of such a framework for the theory and practice of education, indicating the ways in which my approach differs from other recent work in the field. I argue that the teaching of philosophy in schools and philosophical approaches to the teaching of other subjects are ideally suited to meet the pedagogic requirements of individual and communal flourishing so understood, contributing greatly both to the understanding of what a well-lived life might be, and to the actual living of it. I further argue that these requirements are not only derived from ancient Greek philosophy but are in turn especially well-served by the teaching and deployment of Greek philosophy itself. My claim is not that Greek philosophy has all the answers, or that other philosophers and philosophical approaches should be excluded; it is simply that Greek philosophy offers rich resources for those seeking to introduce children and young people to philosophy and to foster thereby their flourishing in both childhood and as adults.


Abstract: Objective To assess the association between meniscal volume, its change over time and the development of knee OA after 30 months in overweight/obese women. Methods Data from the PRevention of knee Osteoarthritis in Overweight Females study were used. This cohort included 407 women with a BMI ≥ 27 kg/m2, free of OA-related symptoms. The primary outcome measure was incident OA after 30 months, defined by one out of the following criteria: medial or lateral joint space narrowing (JSN)  ≥ 1.0 mm, incident radiographic OA [Kellgren and Lawrence (K&L)  ≥ 2], or incident clinical OA. The secondary outcomes were either of these items separately. Menisci at both baseline and follow-up were automatically segmented to obtain meniscal volume and delta-volumes. Generalized estimating equations were used to evaluate associations between the volume measures and the outcomes. Results Medial and lateral baseline and delta-volumes were not significantly associated to the primary outcome. Lateral meniscal baseline volume was significantly associated to lateral JSN [odds ratio (OR) = 0.87; 95% CI: 0.75, 0.99], while other measures were not. Medial and lateral baseline volume were positively associated to K&L incidence (OR = 1.32 and 1.22; 95% CI: 1.15, 1.50 and 1.03, 1.45, respectively), while medial and lateral delta-volume were negatively associated to K&L incidence (OR = 0.998 and 0.997; 95% CI: 0.997, 1.000 and 0.996, 0.999, respectively). None of the meniscal measures were significantly associated to incident clinical OA. Conclusion Larger baseline meniscal volume and the decrease of meniscal volume over time were associated to the development of structural OA after 30 months in overweight and obese women.


Abstract. This paper describes the surveying process performed on the Church of San Ildefonso in Zamora (Spain) using Orthoware©, an innovative photogrammetric software tool specially designed for the digital reconstruction of cultural heritage. This software is the result of intense R&D at Metria Digital after several years producing heritage true orthoimages, plans and full color 3D models in a commercial environment. Orthoware allows true measurements and produces high quality true orthoimages and full color 3D models starting out from conventional digital photographs. This is a progressive tool designed for non-specialist users, providing intuitive and quick methods to visually diagnose the quality of the results. The Church of San Ildefonso in Zamora was built over a previously existing temple whose Romanesque construction dates back to the 11th century, although it is nowadays hidden among extensions and remodelings carried out up until 18th century. With a length of more than 30 meters, the original floor plan of the Church consists on three naves and three apses, although only one nave is visible now, covered by groin vault, and one semicircular apse partially hidden by the current building. The south front maintains the greater part of its Romanesque origins, in spite of being hidden and higher than the present ground level. At the feet of the temple a tower rises, whose first stage is Romanesque but which has been altered by numerous Baroque elements. The objective of the photogrammetric reconstruction was the integral survey of the monument, including its four facades, interior faces and roofs for the production of some true-orthoimages, cross-sections, longitudinal-sections and ground plans at scale 1/50 with an accuracy of 10 mm for the drawings and a pixel size below 10 mm for the synthetic imagery. The usual photogrammetric workflow for producing true-orthoimages and digital 3D models in cultural heritage depends to a great extent on finding and matching homologous features amongst various images. This is a time-consuming, repetitive and blind recognition process requiring some spatial intuition and experience from the user. Orthoware makes use of automatic image analysis and computer vision techniques to improve this processing. Its innovative graphic user interface allows full interactivity and corrections or refinements to be performed at any time providing intuitive diagnostics from partial results. This flow involves very intensive calculations achieved through a software development specific for GPU (Graphic Processing Unit), using OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) and DirectX. Therefore, a combination of manual and automatic techniques makes up the ideal tool for a production environment. The workflow presented herein allow users to reduce orthoimage production time from months to just a few weeks.


The first quarto of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, printed in 1594, exists in a unique copy owned by The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D. C. The volume was discovered in Sweden in November 1904, and purchased by Henry Folger in January 1905. This essay traces the Swedish reactions to the discovery and sale through letters, postcards, telegrams, newspaper articles, photographs, and court documents. In the surviving documents, we can see that at stake was the volume's monetary value. Nevertheless the negotiations to establish this value soon came to involve other issues such as artistic quality, academic and professional prestige, philanthropic importance, and the peace of mind, as well as health, of individuals involved. The essay pays special attention to the activities of Lund University librarian Evald Ljunggren in furthering the sale but also in contributing information to the academic community.


Almost seventy percent of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients produce autoantibodies specific for U1 RNA, the RNA component of the U1snRNP complex involved in pre-mRNA splicing. Human anti-U1 RNA antibodies from SLE patients provide an ideal model for studying protein-RNA interactions. In addition, a more in depth look at the mechanism by which an antibody interacts with U1 RNA will lend insight into immune disregulation and may have therapeutic potential in the treatment of autoimmune disease. The possibility of cloning an anti-U1 RNA antibody has been investigated using "phage Fab display," a method involving the display of Fab fragments on the outer surface of filamentous phage. Human Fab cDNA libraries were constructed using total RNA collected from leukophoresed anti-U1 RNA antibody-positive SLE patient sera. The resulting Fab genes were subcloned into a phagemid expression vector which produced phage displaying Fab fragments in E.coli1. Libraries were enriched for U1 RNA-binding clones after several rounds of affinity selection against purified, in vitro transcribed U1 RNA. Putative U1 RNA-binding clones were identified by colony lift and the corresponding Fab genes were expressed and purified from E.coli for binding studies. Results demonstrate that RNA-binding Fab can be isolated from combinatorial phage display libraries.


A simulation of the release of fatty acid from intestinal fatty acid-binding protein was attempted, starting with the crystallographic model and using molecular-dynamic processes at different temperatures. The release of the ligand was observed only at high temperature, which perhaps makes the process unreliable in detail. Nevertheless, the overall behaviour of the protein, also confirmed by the simulation performed at room temperature, strongly supports the idea that the fatty acid leaves the protein through an opening formed by alpha-helix II and turns beta C-beta D and beta E-beta F. Additionally, it suggests a role for the lack of hydrogen bonds between the main chains of beta-strands D and E: this feature, observed in all the protein structures of this family which have currently been determined, seems to provide the structure with great flexibility, allowing the barrel to open and close without disruption of the hydrogen-bond network.


Background: The authors present a novel case of a hemangioblastoma of the optic nerve producing bilateral optic tract edema in a patient with von Hippel–Lindau disease (VHL). This is the only case in the literature documenting optic tract edema secondary to a hemangioblastoma of the optic nerve. Case Description: The patient was a 34-year-old female in whom this lesion was causing retro-orbital pain and proptosis. She had previously lost vision in the symptomatic eye secondary to a retinal hemangioblastoma. The optic nerve lesion was excised by sectioning the optic nerve both proximally and distally to the lesion. There were no complications and patient's symptoms resolved postoperatively. A follow-up magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan revealed complete excision of the mass and resolution of the optic tract edema. Conclusion: Optic nerve hemangioblastomas in patients with VHL are rare, but are manageable with meticulous microneurosurgery and with appropriate patient expectations. This is the first known case of an optic nerve hemangioblastoma producing bilateral optic tract edema, which resolved after resection of the prechiasmal tumor. Hemangioblastoma should remain in the differential diagnosis of optic nerve tumors, especially in the setting of VHL.


The main aim of this study is to investigate the existence of long run relationship among poverty, inflation, and unemployment. For the sake of empirical analysis this study employs ARDL approach to find out long run relationships by using data from 1975-2013 from WDI. The reverse of Human development index (HDI) has been used as a proxy of multidimensional poverty. The index has been constructed on the same lines as the HDI is developed by UNDP with the help of four indicators i.e. life expectancy, infant mortality, per capita income, and mean year schooling. Independent variables are unemployment, inflation, and dependency ratio, and population growth, government expenditures on education, trade openness, and remittances. The empirical results suggested the validation of employing ARDL holds, and the existence of long run relationship between poverty, inflation, and unemployment has been found. The results are suggestive that unemployment and inflation both bring about increase in poverty. Further findings of the study indicate that dependency ratio, remittances, and population growth are also having significant impacts on poverty in the long run. Finally these results are not only valid for the long run but they even held in the short run as well.


High energy electron storage rings generate energetic bremsstrahlung photons through radiative interaction of the electrons (or positrons) with the residual gas molecules inside the storage ring. The resulting radiation exits at an average emittance angle of (m{sub 0}c{sub 2}/E) radian with respect to the electron beam path, where m{sub 0}c{sup 2} is the rest mass of E the electron and E its kinetic energy. Thus, at straight sections of the storage rings, moving electrons will produce a narrow and intense monodirectional photon beam. At synchrotron radiation facilities, where beamlines are channeled out of the storage ring, a continuous gas bremsstrahlung spectrum, with a maximum energy of the electron beam, will be present. There are a number of compelling reasons that a measurement of the bremsstrahlung characteristics be conducted at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) storage ring. Although the number of residual gas molecules present in the storage ring at typical nTorr vacuum is low, because of the long straight paths of the electrons in the storage ring at APS, significant production of bremsstrahlung will be produced. This may pose a radiation hazard. It is then imperative that personnel be shielded from dose rates due to this radiation. There are not many measurements available for gas bremsstrahlung, especially for higher electron beam energies. The quantitative estimates of gas bremsstrahlung from storage rings as evaluated by Monte Carlo codes also have several uncertainties. They are in general calculated for air at atmospheric pressure, the results of which are then extrapolated to typical storage ring vacuum values (of the order of 10{sup -9} Torr). Realistically, the actual pressure profile can vary inside the narrow vacuum chamber. Also, the actual chemical composition of the residual gas inside the storage ring is generally different from that of air.


One in five people sustaining a hip fracture die within 4 months.1 A palliative care approach is appropriate for people with advanced non-malignant as well as malignant disease.2 Thus a hip fracture in a frail older person could reasonably trigger a palliative care approach: anticipating and planning for physical, social, psychological and spiritual needs and end of life care. This might result in better care planning, help avoid futile treatment, and decrease healthcare costs in the last year of life.

Annually there are around 75 000 hip fractures in the UK and 300 000 in USA.3 4 This is projected to rise to 101 000 in the UK annually by 2020, with associated health and social costs of £2.2 billion.3 Although the operative treatment of hip fractures is increasingly technically successful, this injury is a major precipitant of disability and loss of independence, and carries a five- to eightfold increased risk in all-cause mortality at 3 …


Palestinians have experienced exceptional challenges following the 1948 Palestinian Nakba and the simultaneous establishment of the state of Israel. Many families and communities were divided in 1948; most of the Palestinians became refugees, while others stayed in Palestine and subsequently obtained Israeli citizenship. The latter, the Palestinian citizens of Israel (PCI), became citizens of a state established on the ruins of their motherland and subjects of a new system which further detached them from their Arab roots. This research examines opinion leaders' and journalists' understanding of the role of the media in PCI's subsequent experiences; specifically, the turning point represented by the development of Arab transnational satellite media in the mid-1990s, and the changing place of the Palestinian minority in Israel in the Arab media over the years. The research explores questions such as: What role did the nascent Arab satellite channels play in reuniting the PCI with the Arab sphere following their long-term detachment? How did PCI return into the Arab media's discourse? How did greater exposure influence PCI's national identity and its sub-components (feelings of belonging to the Arab world and the use of the Arabic language and terminology), how did it influence communication with the Arab world? What is the role of the hegemonic Israeli media in this media and political development? For this qualitative research, I conducted 35 semi-structured open-ended elite interviews with opinion leaders and decision-makers in the fields of media, politics and academia. The research concludes that the development of Arab satellite channels contributed to integrating the PCI into the Arab space; which went far beyond their Israeli citizenship and enhanced their feelings of belonging to the Arab nation. iv However, satellite channels did not help to establish a direct relationship between the Palestinian minority and the rest of the Arab world; despite the evolution of transnational media, the state of Israel remains present as a strong sovereign entity in the PCI's reality. Theoretically, this research highlights a literature gap regarding the relationship between national/ indigenous minorities and transnational media in a context of political conflict between a state's minority and majority populations. The research contributes to filling this gap by shedding light on three main axes: (1) the contribution of transnational media to enhancing national identity during a protracted conflict; (2) the media's role in mediating the communication established between the minority and the nation it belongs to; and (3) the state's relative power within this context.


Automatic machine analysis of facial expressions has attracted increasing attentions and has been widely applied to various domains such as animation, multimedia and security. Sensing and understanding facial behaviours are the fundamental requirement of human-machine interaction systems. As computing has become more powerful and ubiquitous, there is an ungent demand for the facial expression recognition system which is designed under real-world conditions and enables generalization across population. The proposed work in this thesis addresses four main challenges of facial expression recognition in the wild: 1) identity bias which refers to the fact that facial features are always discriminative in terms of identity but difficult to distinguish in terms of expressions, 2) head pose variations, 3) occlusions, and 4) irregularity of spontaneous expressions and presents approaches to tackle these challenges. Inspired by the success of existing research and benchmarks of facial expression recognition under controlled conditions where identity bias is the only challenge and there are very small or even no variations in terms of the other three problems, we propose to normalize the facial images under unconstrained situations into lab conditions by presenting spatial face normalization and texture recontruction based on face frontalization. The goal is to design a powerful and flexible system which can improve the facial expression recognition performance under unconstrained real-world conditions. We introduce a novel Facial Expression-Aware face Frontalization (FEAF) method based on spatial normalization strategy. Compared with most existing methods that only addressed one or several challenges, a joint consideration of all the four challenges is taken into account. To effectively solve the problem of identity bias and irregularity of expressions, we present a multi-template model to normalize shape variations deliberately designing multiple frontal shape templates that contain meaningful expressions to fit in with various shapes of facial expressions. Hence, every face is aligned to one of a group of shared template no matter how ambiguous or who the input face is. Subsequently, shape normalization that map the facial shape to a normalized frontal emotional template in order to solve head-pose variations. Finally, we have employed face frontalization techniques to reconstruct facial appearances, where occlusions are removed by maintaining an additional error matrix to restore sparse errors caused by occlusions. The reconstructed faces will be strictly in frontal view. Given the reconstructed faces, some commonly used feature extraction methods and machine learning techniques can be employed for facial emotional states recognition. The state-of-the-art performance is achieved in the task of static facial expression recognition in the wild. We also have demonstrated the superior performance of our proposed models on the task of interpersonal relation prediction. To capture more subtle facial expression cues and further improve recognition rate, we propose an extended FEAF approach for dynamic facial expression analysis based on accurate shape processing. Contrary to the majority of existing dynamic methods that focus on time alignment, the consideration of head pose variations and occlusions are addressed in this method by using regression-based spatial alignment that estimates an accurate frontal view of facial shape given the a non-frontal face. We develop a cascade regression model to learn the pair-wise relationship between non-frontal facial shape and its frontal counterpart. Different from static FEAF, this method can capture subtle facial muscle changes in an image sequence and, therefore, it can be used for dynamic facial expression recognition. Superior performance has been achieved on several public datasets under both lab and unconstrained conditions.


The practitioner interested in reducing software verification effort may found herself lost in the many alternative definitions of Graphical User Interface (GUI) testing that exist and their relation to the notion of system testing. One result of these many definitions is that one may end up testing twice the same parts of the Software Under Test (SUT), specifically the application logic code. To clarify two important testing activities for the avoidance of duplicate testing effort, this paper studies possible differences between GUI testing and system testing experimentally. Specifically, we selected a SUT equipped with system tests that directly exercise the application code; We used GUITAR, a well-known GUI testing software to GUI test this SUT. Experimental results show important differences between system testing and GUI testing in terms of structural coverage and test cost. Keywords—System testing; GUI testing; Entity-ControlBoundary design principle


We propose a novel method by which to accurately estimate the failure rate of each process layer on a wafer-by-wafer basis. In this method, we use the failing bit data and the results of critical area analysis (CAA) of each failing bit signature (FBS). We formulate the estimation as a linear programming model and convert the failure rate of each FBS to the failure rate of each process layer. A comparison of the failure rate estimated using this method and that obtained by test structure analysis reveals good agreement and the total estimation error of all process layers are within several percent. We also improved a legacy yield management system by implementing this estimation method. This system is used for failure analysis during semiconductor manufacturing. We show two case studies for 65 nm and 45 nm technology node products.


This study was designed to investigate the effects of supplementation and deficiency of dietary chromium (Cr), zinc (Zn) and combination of zinc and chromium on lipid peroxidation and antioxidant enzymes. A total of 84 male Wistar albino rats were fed rat chow containing different levels of Zn and Cr throughout the 84 days. Blood samples were collected for analysis of Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), Superoxide dismutase (SOD), Catalase (CAT) and Glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px). TBARS concentrations in rats fed high-Cr diet, high-Zn and Cr diet and low-Zn diet were significantly higher than those determined in the control group (p < or = 0.05). CAT activities in rats fed high-Cr diet were significantly higher than those observed in the control group. Cu-Zn SOD and GSH-Px activities were significantly higher in rats fed high-Cr diet, high-Zn and Cr diet, low-Zn diet, and low-Zn and Cr diet when compared to the activities found in the controls. These results suggest that trivalent chromium supplementation increase antioxidant enzymes by enhancement of lipid peroxidation, but Zn supplementation does not have any effect on lipid peroxidation. Also Zn deficiency resulted in increased lipid peroxidation, SOD and GSH-Px activities because of the oxidative stress caused by zinc deficiency.


The use of futures exchange contracts instead of forwards completes the maturity spectrum of the correlation between the spot yield and the premium. We find that the forward premium puzzle (FFP) depends significantly on the maturity horizon of the futures contract and the choice of sampling period. The FFP appears to be a pre-crisis phenomenon and is only observed for maturities longer than about one month. When examining whether the observed excess returns of futures contracts represent a fair compensation for currency risk, we find that non-durable consumption risk and market risk can explain excess currency returns. But only in the pre-crisis period and when the maturity of the assets is longer than about three months.


A demonstration-quality graphics-assisted debugger is developed for intertask communication in Ada. Based on the static task-specification diagrams of G. Booch (Software Engineering with Ada, Benjamin/Cummings, 1983), the debugger animates the activity of a collection of communicating tasks, and it runs on a DEC GIGI terminal connected to a VAX 11-780 under TeleSoft's partial Ada compiler. The model has been subjected to empirical validation, using undergraduate students as experimental subjects. Subjects were required to debug erroneous tasking programs using both the graphical debugger and a textual one. It is concluded that although the problems to be addressed in the development and evaluation of a graphical debugging tool for Ada tasks are nontrivial, the benefits could be worth the effort. >


ZnS quantum dots were synthetized at room temperature using a simple photochemical process involving ketyl radicals. Through the simple adjustment of reagent concentration, the method allows the control of nanoparticle size. Transmission electron microscopy confirmed that the nanomaterial adopts the hexagonal structure.


In Arabidopsis thaliana, 17 plant specific transcription factors are known to be members of the SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN LIKE (SPL) gene family. This family of Arabidopsis SBP-box genes can be divided into subfamilies based on their genomic organization and sequence similarities. SPL1, SPL7, SPL12, SPL14 and SPL16 form one subfamily representing the largest and most complex members. The second subfamily is formed by the mid-sized genes SPL2, SPL6, SPL8, SPL9, SPL10, SPL11, SPL13a, SPL13b and SPL15. Finally, the small genes SPL3, SPL4 and SPL5 represent the third subfamily within the Arabidopsis SPL gene family. SBP-box genes have been exclusively found in plants and hence their functions were proposed to be plant specific. However, when the work of this thesis started, SPL8 was the only SPL gene with a known mutant phenotype. Spl8 plants show defects in anther development. Thus global expression analysis was conducted in order to gain more detailed insight in the role of SPL8 within the developing anthers. The micro-array experiment revealed 28 putative SPL8 target genes. Analysis of the target gene promoter regions showed a significant overrepresentation of the known SBP-box DNA binding motif GTAC, giving additional support that the identified genes are indeed target genes of SPL8. Reverse genetics was used in order to find out more about the role of the other SPL genes in Arabidopsis development. The results of this work led to the assumption that the two paralogous genes SPL1 and SPL12 have redundant functions in controlling flowering time in long days, rosette leaf size and fertility. Furthermore it could be shown that the two evolutionary probably very closely related genes SPL9 and SPL15 have redundant function in controlling apical dominance and the initiation rate of lateral organs at the shoot apex. Based on the results gained in this study the SPL genes are very likely to be separated into functional sub-classes in which the group of large genes has a distinct function from the miRNA regulated mid-sized and small genes.


Past research shows that training opportunities are unequally distributed across workers, with workers who are already in a better position in the labour market having more opportunities to acquire new skills. We decompose the downstream training market in order to trace the extent to which differences in the provision of employer-sponsored training across groups of workers are due to demand (by employees) or supply (by employers). The empirical results suggest that employers tend to exclude women, immigrants, young employees, involuntary part-time and temporary workers, workers in low-skilled occupations and workers with low literacy, when selecting which employees to train. By contrast, lower demand appears to account for lower training participation of older and less educated workers. In the case of older workers, labour market imperfections affecting the distribution of training benefits and the length of employers' and employees' pay-back periods are likely to be behind this pattern. In the case of less educated workers, credit constraints and/or training market imperfections – due to lack of training information and contractibility between employers and employees – may partially explain this finding. However, noneconomic factors, such as lesser motivation or bad pedagogical experiences, must also be taken into account. Finally, demand does not appear to vary with firm size or sector. However, supply rises with firm size, perhaps due to lower unit costs of training, larger benefits, and greater access to credit and information for large firms.


The southern European peninsulas (Iberian, Italian and Balkan) are traditionally recognized as glacial refugia from where many species colonized central and northern Europe after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). However, evidence that some species had more northerly refugia is accumulating from phylogeographic, palaeontological and palynological studies, and more recently from species distribution modelling (SDM), but further studies are needed to test the idea of northern refugia in Europe. Here, we take a rarely implemented multidisciplinary approach to assess if the pygmy shrew Sorex minutus, a widespread Eurasian mammal species, had northern refugia during the LGM, and if these influenced its postglacial geographic distribution. First, we evaluated the phylogeographic and population expansion patterns using mtDNA sequence data from 123 pygmy shrews. Then, we used SDM to predict present and past (LGM) potential distributions using two different training data sets, two different algorithms (Maxent and GARP) and climate reconstructions for the LGM with two different general circulation models. An LGM distribution in the southern peninsulas was predicted by the SDM approaches, in line with the occurrence of lineages of S. minutus in these areas. The phylogeographic analyses also indicated a widespread and strictly northern-central European lineage, not derived from southern peninsulas, and with a postglacial population expansion signature. This was consistent with the SDM predictions of suitable LGM conditions for S. minutus occurring across central and eastern Europe, from unglaciated parts of the British Isles to much of the eastern European Plain. Hence, S. minutus likely persisted in parts of central and eastern Europe during the LGM, from where it colonized other northern areas during the late-glacial and postglacial periods. Our results provide new insights into the glacial and postglacial colonization history of the European mammal fauna, notably supporting glacial refugia further north than traditionally recognized.


We describe how the out-of-plane dielectric polarizability of monolayer graphene influences the electrostatics of bilayer graphene—both Bernal (BLG) and twisted (tBLG). We compare the polarizability value computed using density functional theory with the output from previously published experimental data on the electrostatically controlled interlayer asymmetry potential in BLG and data on the on-layer density distribution in tBLG. We show that monolayers in tBLG are described well by polarizability αexp = 10.8 Å3 and effective out-of-plane dielectric susceptibility ϵz = 2.5, including their on-layer electron density distribution at zero magnetic field and the interlayer Landau level pinning at quantizing magnetic fields.


Winner 2014 Crowell Second Prize. We assess the effect of aggregate stock market illiquidity on U.S. Treasury bond risk premia. We find that the stock market illiquidity variable adds to the well established Cochrane-Piazzesi and Ludvigson-Ng factors. It explains 10%, 9%, 7%, and 7% of the one-year-ahead variation in the excess return for two-, three-, four-, and five-year bonds respectively and increases the adjusted R 2 by 3-6% across all maturities over Cochrane and Piazzesi (2005) and Ludvigson and Ng (2009) factors. The effects are highly statistically and economically significant both in and out of sample. We find that our result is robust to and is not driven by information from open interest in the futures market, long-run inflation expectations, dispersion in beliefs, and funding liquidity. We argue that stock market illiquidity is a timely variable that is related to "right-to-quality" episodes and might contain information about expected future business conditions through funding liquidity and investment channels.


Background Social media networks provide an abundance of diverse information that can be leveraged for data-driven applications across various social and physical sciences. One opportunity to utilize such data exists in the public health domain, where data collection is often constrained by organizational funding and limited user adoption. Furthermore, the efficacy of health interventions is often based on self-reported data, which are not always reliable. Health-promotion strategies for communities facing multiple vulnerabilities, such as men who have sex with men, can benefit from an automated system that not only determines health behavior risk but also suggests appropriate intervention targets. Objective This study aims to determine the value of leveraging social media messages to identify health risk behavior for men who have sex with men. Methods The Gay Social Networking Analysis Program was created as a preliminary framework for intelligent web-based health-promotion intervention. The program consisted of a data collection system that automatically gathered social media data, health questionnaires, and clinical results for sexually transmitted diseases and drug tests across 51 participants over 3 months. Machine learning techniques were utilized to assess the relationship between social media messages and participants' offline sexual health and substance use biological outcomes. The F1 score, a weighted average of precision and recall, was used to evaluate each algorithm. Natural language processing techniques were employed to create health behavior risk scores from participant messages. Results Offline HIV, amphetamine, and methamphetamine use were correctly identified using only social media data, with machine learning models obtaining F1 scores of 82.6%, 85.9%, and 85.3%, respectively. Additionally, constructed risk scores were found to be reasonably comparable to risk scores adapted from the Center for Disease Control. Conclusions To our knowledge, our study is the first empirical evaluation of a social media–based public health intervention framework for men who have sex with men. We found that social media data were correlated with offline sexual health and substance use, verified through biological testing. The proof of concept and initial results validate that public health interventions can indeed use social media–based systems to successfully determine offline health risk behaviors. The findings demonstrate the promise of deploying a social media–based just-in-time adaptive intervention to target substance use and HIV risk behavior.


A key trailblazer in the development of thin-film solid-state electrolytes has been lithium phosphorous oxynitride (LiPON), the success of which has led to recent progress in thin-film ion conductors. Here we compare the structural, electrochemical, and processing parameters between previously published LiPON and NaPON ALD processes with a novel ALD process for the K analogue potassium phosphorous oxynitride (KPON). In each ALD process, alkali tert-butoxides and diethylphosphoramidate are used as precursors. To understand the ALD surface reactions, this work proposes a reaction mechanism determined by in-operando mass spectrometry for the LiPON process as key to understanding the characteristics of the APON (A = Li, Na, K) family. As expected, NaPON and LiPON share similar reaction mechanisms as their structures are strikingly similar. KPON, however, exhibits similar ALD process parameters but the resulting film composition is quite different, showing little nitrogen incorporation and more closely resembling a phosphate glass. Due to the profound difference in structure, KPON likely undergoes an entirely different reaction mechanism. This paper presents a comprehensive summary of ALD ion conducting APON films as well as a perspective that highlights the versatility of ALD chemistries as a tool for the development of novel thin film ion-conductors.


My dissertation is composed of three chapters. In the first, I study the incentive role of information – how the strategic release of information can induce an agent to exert more effort on a project. More specifically, I focus on how feedback can be provided to a worker who is uninformed about the progress they make on a long term project. I show that delaying feedback about their performance can induce the worker to continue working on the project longer than they would were they to learn about their performance without delay. Negative feedback, due to the absence of good news, received in the early stages of the project can cause them to quit prematurely. In the second chapter, I study a model of matching between individuals and institutions. Matching models allow researchers to identify optimal allocations of individuals to school seats, medical residency programs and other positions over which individuals have preferences and for which they may differ in suitability. While we know that in models in which individuals only care about the institution they match with, stable matchings always exist, I show that when individuals also care about the the number of matches made by the institution they join, stable matchings no longer exist in general. I show that stable matchings can only be found under a set of conditions I identify. Relaxing any of these conditions leads to examples of markets with no stable matchings. In the third chapter, I set out to understand why elected politicians choose to toe the party line instead of voting on issues according to their own preferences. I find that despite the short term benefits of voting for their preferred policies, there are long-term benefits from coordinating their voting behavior among like-minded legislators. These findings provide a rationale for why political parties form among politicians with similar policy positions.


In United States v. Sanchez-Gomez, the Supreme Court will decide whether the Ninth Circuit had jurisdiction to strike down a district court rule requiring that all criminal defendants be shackled in full restraints for most non-jury proceedings. As the Court and the parties have approached Sanchez-Gomez, it's a hard case. It presents difficult and unresolved issues about the meaning and application of two major aspects of federal appellate jurisdiction: the collateral-order doctrine and appellate mandamus. But Sanchez-Gomez should be easy. It's what I call a "one-shot" interlocutory appeal—it presents a relatively abstract issue of law that, once resolved, will resolve the issue for all litigants and will not require any future appeals on case-specific applications of the law. The lower risk of increasing appellate caseloads, coupled with the chance that the shackling rule might otherwise evade appellate review, merits an immediate appeal. The Supreme Court might make its task easier by recognizing the one-shot nature of Sanchez-Gomez. In the future, a rule of procedure allowing discretionary appeals from any district court decision might avoid turning easy cases like Sanchez-Gomez into hard ones.


In this letter, we report the effects of gate notching on the performance characteristics of short-channel NMOS transistor with the gate oxide thickness of 32 /spl Aring/. The significant gate-notching defect into channel region brings about the serious degradation of such transistor performances as transconductance (G/sub m/) characteristic and subthreshold swing (S/sub t/), resulting in increases of threshold voltage (V/sub TH/) and leakage current (I/sub OFF/) and the considerable reduction of drive current (I/sub ON/). We will suggest the local thickening of gate oxide as a main mechanism of its effects and show that lack of gate-to-source/drain extension (SDE) overlap may be an additional reason for the degradation of I/sub ON/ with increasing the notch depth.


In this paper, the fabrication and characterization of triple‐shape polymeric composites (TSPCs) that, unlike traditional shape memory polymers (SMPs), are capable of fixing two temporary shapes and recovering sequentially from the first temporary shape (shape 1) to the second temporary shape (shape 2), and eventually to the permanent shape (shape 3) upon heating, are reported. This is technically achieved by incorporating non‐woven thermoplastic fibers (average diameter ∼760 nm) of a low‐Tm semicrystalline polymer into a Tg‐based SMP matrix. The resulting composites display two well‐separated transitions, one from the glass transition of the matrix and the other from the melting of the fibers, which are subsequently used for the fixing/recovery of two temporary shapes. Three thermomechanical programming processes with different shape fixing protocols are proposed and explored. The intrinsic versatility of this composite approach enables an unprecedented large degree of design flexibility for functional triple‐shape polymers and systems.


New opportunities for fabricating massive nanocrystalline materials in bulk quantities are required for facilitating the transition of nanocrystalline solids from laboratory samples to technologically relevant materials. Advanced options might be based on combining different nonequilibrium processing routes sequentially, such that an initially metastable state is continuously energized and successively driven farer away from thermodynamic equilibrium. The current paper presents recent results on the evolution of nanoscaled microstructures resulting from combinations of different plastic deformation treatments or of vitrification and severe plastic deformation.


Immunostimulatory oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN) containing the CpG motif are being tested as immune adjuvants in many disease settings. Of the human PBMC examined, plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDC) are a major source of type I IFN upon stimulation with CpG ODN. IFNs have numerous immunostimulatory effects, including the induction of TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL)/Apo-2L on monocytes, NK cells, and T cells. Importantly, IFN has also been linked to antitumor responses. Thus, we tested whether CpG ODN stimulation of PBMC led to TRAIL/Apo-2L-induced tumor cell death. When PBMC were stimulated with CpG ODN, TRAIL/Apo-2L-dependent tumor cell death was observed. Further examination of CpG ODN-stimulated PBMC revealed that TRAIL/Apo-2L expression was limited to CD14+ cells, which, when depleted, led to a loss of the TRAIL/Apo-2L-mediated tumor cell killing. Moreover, pDC depletion also abolished the TRAIL/Apo-2L-mediated killing of tumor cell targets. Analysis of the pDC showed IFN-α production after CpG ODN stimulation. Finally, inclusion of neutralizing IFN-α antiserum with the PBMC during CpG ODN stimulation abrogated TRAIL/Apo-2L-mediated tumor cell killing. These results define a mechanism by which CpG ODN induces TRAIL/Apo-2L-dependent killing of tumor cells by CD14+ PBMC, in which CpG ODN-activated pDC produce IFN-α that stimulates CD14+ PBMC to express functional TRAIL/Apo-2L.


In this work a framework to measure the influence of training image resolution on classification performance for appearance-based object detection algorithms is presented. It is shown that based on sampling theory a reasonable image resolution for feature extraction can be chosen in advance, that is prior to the time consuming feature extraction and testing of the classifier. This is possible due to measuring the signal energy that is preserved in a low resolution image with respect to the optimal case of a high resolution image. The approach is justified using an AdaBoost algorithm with Haar-like features for vehicle detection. Tests of classifiers, trained with different resolutions, are performed and the results are presented. These results reveal that there is a good tradeoff between classification performance and computational load. The presented framework helps choosing a resolution for a good description of the training data.


Abstract The impressive advances in the several disciplines including neurophysiology, molecular biology, neuroimmunology, neurogenetics, neuroimaging, and neuropharmacology of epilepsies have been stimulating a mutual interaction among basic scientists, clinicians, and professionals from other disciplines, leading to the identification of clinical questions and then the design of basic science paradigms to test enigmatic clinical issues. Based on a clinical observation that the coexistence of genetic (idiopathic) generalized typical absence and mesial temporal lobe epilepsy in the same patient is extremely rare and debatable, we addressed the rare coexistence in the same individual, designed an experimental approach to test the validity of this clinical concept and to study the underlying mechanisms involved. Here we presented evidence of a mutual cross-interaction in the circuits involved in typical absence and temporal lobe epilepsy. This article delineates a phenomenological picture and comprehends a theoretical understanding of a mutual cross-interaction in typical absence as a representative of genetic generalized epilepsies and limbic epilepsy in which seizures often start from the mesial temporal lobe.


The Learning by Design lab has been developing software and curriculum to support learning in the context of design challenges. We have used software to guide learners through design and investigation practices as well as help them describe their scientific observations. In this paper, we present easy-touse software tools that support learners in their construction of robust science conceptions. We investigate how multiple representations such as diagrams, graphs, and animations can provide support for knowledge construction. In addition, we investigate how explanation templates scaffold learners' interpretations of science. We have combined these tools into one software environment, Jacket's Garage.


An enlarged EU requires a reformulation of the basic structure that has so far characterized the EU's institutions, finances and common policies. This analysis focuses on the proposal that the EU Commission was made to reform the cohesion policy. There are significant economic implications for Spain and the economic agents must properly understand the key issues and terms of the Commission's proposal and also of the process that enlargement has set in motion in terms of community cohesion - a process that occurs simultaneously as average income increases in Spain as a whole and in each of the country's regions in relation to the average income in the Union, both before and after enlargement.


A long-lasting radioisotope micropower generator for self-powered sensor microsystems promises to make pervasive computing systems more reliable. Its higher energy conversion efficiency enables microsystems with small amounts of radioactivity to realize sensor and basic computation operations. The goal is to achieve power sources that operate over a wide temperature range and for extended time periods with high reliability. To reach this goal, researchers have investigated technologies for miniature micropower applications and developed radioisotope power generators. We've created a power source employing radioactive thin films and piezoelectric unimorphs, using a nonthermal energy conversion cycle that enables much higher energy conversion efficiency.


Gait analysis provides a feasible approach for identification in intelligent video surveillance. However, the effectiveness of the dominant silhouette-based approaches is overly dependent upon background subtraction. In this paper, we propose a novel incremental framework based on optical flow, including dynamics learning, pattern retrieval, and recognition. It can greatly improve the usability of gait traits in video surveillance applications. Local binary pattern (LBP) is employed to describe the texture information of optical flow. This representation is called LBP flow, which performs well as a static representation of gait movement. Dynamics within and among gait stances becomes the key consideration for multiframe detection and tracking, which is quite different from existing approaches. To simulate the natural way of knowledge acquisition, an individual hidden Markov model (HMM) representing the gait dynamics of a single subject incrementally evolves from a population model that reflects the average motion process of human gait. It is beneficial for both tracking and recognition and makes the training process of the HMM more robust to noise. Extensive experiments on widely adopted databases have been carried out to show that our proposed approach achieves excellent performance.


This study examines the roles of tourism activities on poverty alleviation in rural areas in Arumeru District. The objectives of this study was to identify contributions of tourism activities towards poverty alleviation in Arumeru District, to examine challenges facing tourism activities towards poverty alleviation, to identify and assess measures used to address challenges facing tourism activities in poverty alleviation. A researcher used case study design because it involves a careful and complete observation of social unit of a person, family, institutions and cultural groups.The target sample involved 19 respondents from local authority and 55 respondents from heads of household representatives in Arumeru District as a sample size. Four data collection methods were employed by a researcher during the study, interviews, observation, questionnaires and documentary reviews. A researcher analyzed the results by using statistical packed for social scientist (SPSS) vision 16.0 and Microsoft excel as well as content analysis. Both Qualitative and quantitative data analyzed by frequencies, tables, charts and percentages in order to simplifying interpretations of the findings.The findings of this research suggest that, at the moment tourism is not really contributing in poverty alleviation in the community investigated in this study although most of respondents perceived tourism as a positive initiative which can help to improve the living standard of the poor. But numbers of barriers were identified to hinder their participation in tourism activities including, Education about tourism and its products, awareness and capacity building about tourism resources utilization. This study has therefore, recommended that, the issue of transparency to be at the heart of all tourism ventures that seek to improve the livelihood of the poor by turning tourism activities from theory to practical.


The working class population in Indian society has been largely centred on the male members of the group. Being dominantly patriarchal in nature, Indian social systems promote the ascendancy of the male over the female in all spheres of personal and professional life and the working class environment has traditionally been no exception to this rule. Women, both married and unmarried, have been confined to homes while men have gone to factories and institutions to earn a means of sustenance for the entire family. As a result, the structures in the workplace have also remained constant with men dealing with men in most factories. This paper examines the manner in which a certain alteration in the gender ratio of an organisation can bring about positive change in terms of productivity, behaviours, attitudes and efficiency on the shop floor. This paper studies one manufacturing organisation in the Malwa region in the state of Madhya Pradesh in India to highlight these changes through the manner in which the organisation implements this change.


Objective The efficacy of surgery as the primary treatment modality for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is yet to be clarified. Therefore, we aimed to explore the short- and long-term efficacy of surgery for early-stage NPC. Methods We retrospectively evaluated 341 patients diagnosed with early-stage NPC between September 2010 and December 2015. Among them, 58 patients underwent endoscopic nasopharyngectomy combined with chemoradiotherapy, whereas 283 patients underwent conventional chemoradiotherapy. The patients who underwent concurrent chemoradiotherapy or radiotherapy alone were matched to patients who underwent surgery in a 1:2 ratio using propensity score matching to analyze the clinical efficacy of each therapeutic modality. The primary endpoint was survival, and the secondary endpoints were tumor regression rate and reduction in Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)-DNA levels. Results After matching, 156 patients were enrolled (58 patients in the surgery group; 98 patients in the non-surgery group). The baseline data of the matched patients had good inter-group comparability (All P>0.05). The surgery group had significantly higher 5-year overall survival (98.30% vs. 91.70%), disease-free survival (98.30% vs. 81.40%), and recurrence-free survival (100.00% vs. 90.10%) rates than did the non-surgery group (All P<0.05). In total, 0 and 14 patients in the surgery and non-surgery groups, respectively, had residual cancer at the end of treatment (P=0.001). All patients in the surgery group tested negative for EBV-DNA, whereas two patients in the non-surgery group tested positive. The incidence of hematologic toxicity during treatment was similar between the two groups (All P>0.05). Still, the incidence of severe oral mucositis was lower in the surgery group than in the non-surgery group (37.9% vs. 54.08%, P=0.051). Conclusion Surgery can improve the clearance rate of EB virus and reduce tumor residue. Surgery may be a safe and effective treatment for early NPC.


On a few occasions thrust bearings composed of two opposing flat parallel surfaces, have shown some indications of fluid film lubrication. This behaviour is in contradiction to the classical lubrication theory, which requires some geometrical restriction or 'taper wedge' effect in the bearing clearance in order to produce a load-carrying oil film. A tentative explanation by Fogg suggested a 'thermal wedge' effect in which the restriction to oil flow in the bearing is caused by thermal expansion of the fluid as it passes through a space of constant area. Theoretical analyses of the problem have confirmed the thermal wedge as a possible contributing factor in developing a load-bearing fluid film, but no direct correlation of theory with practice has previously been made. Towards this end, the theoretical analysis of the thermal wedge effect in a parallel surface bearing has been extended in this thesis to include the important effect of side leakage. General equations for temperature distribution, and for bearing pressure and load-carrying capacity for a sector pad have been developed, and from these were obtained characteristic equations which can be applied directly to an actual bearing, and which can be used to produce theoretical performance curves. A high-speed experimental apparatus was designed and built and tests were conducted on a parallel-surface thrust bearing, over a wide range of operating conditions. Readings of bearing friction, load, film thickness, oil flow and temperatures around the bearing were taken for a large number of tests. The maximum bearing pressure which could be carried without excessive friction and temperature rise was about 60 to 70 psi, which is in accordance with values for the old-fashioned horseshoe marine bearings. The experimental results were plotted and compared with the theoretical performance curves. Although a certain amount of scatter is evident in the experimental points, sufficient correlation is shown to confirm the thermal wedge behaviour, within the range of test conditions. It is concluded that the thermal wedge effect does exist and is of importance in a parallel surface bearing at high speeds and low loads. However, in order to produce a high load-carrying capacity, a parallel surface bearing of a type similar to the test bearing would be required to operate with a film thickness of about 0.0002 Inches and a temperature rise around the bearing pad of some 300