In Ottoman studies, it is only in the last decade that colonialism has been considered a useful analytical category. This may be partly due to the fact that, in the 1970s and 80s, especially in approaches which drew on the dependency theory and the integration of the Ottoman Empire into the world economy, the latter was studied as one of those regions which was never effectively colonised.  However, recently postcolonial studies have attracted the interest of nineteenth-century historians who have reversed the argument and tend to include the Ottoman Empire not among the states that were subject to colonisation but among the colonisers. However, the focus remains on power relations among Muslims. This article offers a critical overview of this literature. It also suggests possible ways for a similar analytical category to be used for Muslim-Christian relations as well.


In this article results of an experimental study of cylindrical cavity resonator with a thin layer of humidity on the lower end wall are presented. Analysis of the known methods was carried out using simulation by finite element method in the system ANSYS. Practical application of research results can be a detection of precipitated water in aviation kerosene


Kinesin superfamily protein UNC-104, a member of the kinesin-3 family, transports synaptic vesicle precursors (SVPs). In this study, the number of active UNC-104 molecules hauling a single SVP in axons in the worm Caenorhabditis elegans was counted by applying a newly developed non-invasive force measurement technique. The distribution of the force acting on a SVP transported by UNC-104 was spread out over several clusters, implying the presence of several force-producing units (FPUs). We then compared the number of FPUs in the wild-type worms with that in arl-8 gene-deletion mutant worms. ARL-8 is a SVP-bound arf-like small guanosine triphosphatase, and is known to promote unlocking of the autoinhibition of the motor, which is critical for avoiding unnecessary consumption of adenosine triphosphate when the motor does not bind to a SVP. There were fewer FPUs in the arl-8 mutant worms. This finding indicates that a lack of ARL-8 decreased the number of active UNC-104 motors, which then led to a decrease in the number of motors responsible for SVP transport.


Rice is the most important food security crop in Asia. Information on its seasonal extent forms part of the national accounting of many Asian countries. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery is highly suitable for detecting lowland rice, especially in tropical and subtropical regions, where pervasive cloud cover in the rainy seasons precludes the use of optical imagery. Here, we present a simple, robust, rule-based classification for mapping rice area with regularly acquired, multi-temporal, X-band, HH-polarized SAR imagery and site-specific parameters for classification. The rules for rice detection are based on the well-studied temporal signature of rice from SAR backscatter and its relationship with crop stages. We also present a procedure for estimating the parameters based on "temporal feature descriptors" that concisely characterize the key information in the rice signatures in monitored field locations within each site. We demonstrate the robustness of the approach on a very large dataset. A total of 127 images across 13 footprints in six countries in Asia were obtained between October 2012, and April 2014, covering 4.78 m ha. More than 1900 in-season site visits were conducted across 228 monitoring locations in the footprints for classification purposes, and more than 1300 field observations were made for accuracy assessment. Some 1.6 m ha of rice were mapped with classification accuracies from 85% to 95% based on the parameters that were closely related to the observed temporal feature descriptors derived for each site. The 13 sites capture much of the diversity in water management, crop establishment and maturity in South and Southeast Asia. The study demonstrates the feasibility of rice detection at the national scale using multi-temporal SAR imagery with robust classification methods and parameters that are based on the knowledge of the temporal dynamics of the rice crop. We highlight the need for the development of an open-access library of temporal signatures, further investigation into temporal feature descriptors and better ancillary data to reduce the risk of misclassification with surfaces that have temporal backscatter dynamics similar to those of rice. We conclude with observations on the need to define appropriate SAR acquisition plans to support policies and decisions related to food security.


Interactive image segmentation is the way to extract an object of interest with the guidance of the user. The guidance from the user is an iterative process until the required object of interest had been segmented. Therefore, the input from the user as well as the understanding of the algorithms based on the user input has an essential role in the success of interactive segmentation. The most common user input type in interactive segmentation is using strokes. The different number of strokes are utilized in each different interactive segmentation algorithms. There was no evaluation of the effects on the number of strokes on this interactive segmentation. Therefore, this paper intends to fill this shortcoming. In this study, the input strokes had been categorized into single, double, and multiple strokes. The use of the same number of strokes on the object of interest and background on three interactive segmentation algorithms: i) Nonparametric Higher-order Learning (NHL), ii) Maximal Similarity-based Region Merging (MSRM) and iii) Graph-Based Manifold Ranking (GBMR) are evaluated, focusing on the complex images from Berkeley image dataset. This dataset contains a total of 12,000 test color images and ground truth images. Two types of complex images had been selected for the experiment: image with a background color like the object of interest, and image with the object of interest overlapped with other similar objects.   This can be concluded that, generally, more strokes used as input could improve image segmentation accuracy.


Mechanism of time effect on vertical ultimate bearing capacity (VUBC) of preformed concrete pile is analyzed. The effect strongly depends on seven parameters of pile engineering. Pile length, area of pile section, soil friction angle, soil consolidation coefficient, soil elastic module and time after pile installation and pile type are them. Considering time effect and soil consolidation, artificial neural network model to predict this time-dependent VUBC is established. Input layer includes seven parameters discussed above. Conjugate gradient method is adopted to train the net. Based on calculation of practical piles, results of the model are found to be in good agreement with field tests, and the efficiency of the present model is signalized.


Primordial non-Gaussianity of local type is predicted to lead to enhanced halo clustering on very large scales. Photometric quasars, which can be seen from cosmological redshifts z > 2 even in wide-shallow optical surveys, are promising tracers for constraining non-Gaussianity using this effect. However, large-scale systematics can also mimic this signature of non-Gaussianity. In order to assess the contribution of systematic effects, we cross-correlate overdensity maps of photometric quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 6 (DR6) in different redshift ranges. We find that the maps are significantly correlated on large scales, even though we expect the angular distributions of quasars at different redshifts to be uncorrelated. This implies that the quasar maps are contaminated with systematic errors. We investigate the use of external templates that provide information on the spatial dependence of potential systematic errors to reduce the level of spurious clustering in the quasar data. We find that templates associated with stellar density, the stellar color locus, airmass, and seeing are major contaminants of the quasar maps, with seeing having the largest effect. Using template projection, we are able to decrease the significance of the cross-correlation measurement on the largest scales from 9.2σ to 5.4σ. Although this is an improvement, the remaining cross-correlation suggests the contamination in this quasar sample is too great to allow a competitive constraint on fNL by correlations internal to this sample. The SDSS quasar catalog exhibits spurious number density fluctuations of approximately 2% rms, and we need a contamination level less than 1% (0.6%) in order to measure values of fNL less than 100 (10). Properly dealing with these systematics will be paramount for future large scale structure surveys that seek to constrain non-Gaussianity.


The push for early identification and diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has led to new developments in this area of research. Eye tracking is a promising behavioral screening measure that has been heavily investigated for over a decade. Differences in eye gaze between typically developing (TD) children and children with ASD when viewing social and nonsocial videos have been observed, but only within videos of children playing as social stimuli and with geometric shapes as nonsocial stimuli (Pierce et al., 2016; Shaffer et al., 2017). In addition to social stimuli and geometric shapes, the current study expanded on previous research by including nonsocial inverted and blurred videos as stimuli. Participants were 15 TD children, ages 8 months to 5 years, and two children with ASD, ages 3 months and 3 years old. Each child was observed through a Tobii eye tracking system as they watched eight consecutive 10 second videos with video clips alternating between social and nonsocial conditions (geometric, inverted, or blurred). The two children with ASD looked for a similar amount of time and with a similar number of saccades for each video type; the same was also true within the TD children condition. The absence of a difference in looking time and saccade number calls into question what really accounted for the difference in gaze patterns found in the previous research. Further examination into the use of eye tracking as a screening measure must be conducted before a fully implementable measure is established.


President-elect Donald Trump has made no secret of his intention to dramatically reshape U.S. climate and energy policy. He has named staunch allies of the fossil fuel industry to lead the Environmental Protection Agency and the state and energy departments, and promised to walk away from international climate agreements. And last week a provocative leaked memo hinted at another likely element of the incoming administration's plan for weakening climate regulations: tweaking an obscure, but increasingly utilized, economic measure that tallies the costs and benefits of controlling carbon pollution. The leaked memo, which included 74 questions from Trump's Department of Energy (DOE) transition team to agency officials, caused a stir because it asked for the names of agency employees involved in developing climate policy. The transition team was silent on why it asked for the names, and DOE ultimately refused to provide them, but the move spurred fears that the new administration would seek to fire or punish those employees, and it drew condemnation from science advocacy groups and some lawmakers in Congress. Many of the other questions have a technical flavor, asking about DOE's role in developing the nitty-gritty statistical and economic data that often underpins regulatory efforts. One set of inquiries, for example, focuses on an economic measure called the social cost of carbon (SCC), which attempts to quantify the economic damage associated with carbon emissions and the climate change they drive. The measure has played a role in developing more than 100 regulations, and as economist Michael Greenstone of the University of Chicago in Illinois, who served as a senior economic official in the Obama administration, puts it, "If you want to be hostile to climate regulations, the SCC is kind of a pivot joint."


The international prominence of Young British art (YBa) in the 1990s gave London a contemporary art movement to match its role as one of the world's key centres of art exchange. Examining the rise of YBa in retrospect, this paper is concerned with the difference place makes in helping to shape the (hi)story of art. It is argued that London's established role as an international art centre was crucial in providing the density of networks, associations and facilities necessary to sustain an international art movement. At the same time, YBa's success can be linked to London's changing status as a cultural capital, as well as profound changes in the business of contemporary art. Attention is drawn to the ways in which the international art world is dominated by networks formed within and across a limited number of world art cities.


Data regarding three psychosocial factors of 438 construction workers in eight Bangkok subdivision housing projects, which had a selling price between 2.50 and 5.00 million Baht, were collected in October 2018. The subjects were divided into two groups. The first group consisted of 71 workers who worked under high strain isolated (HSI) psychosocial working condition (workers felt that their work entailed high demand, they possessed a low controllability over their job and low work–related social support). The second group consisted of 367 workers who worked under other conditions. The result from the chi-square test between workers' demographic characteristics and their psychosocial working conditions revealed that the probability of working under HSI condition for workers with different Gender, Age, Education Level, Work Experience, Work Position, and Average Monthly Income are different. It insisted the heterogeneity of working under HSI condition among construction workers. A logistic regression model for forecasting the probability of working under HSI condition, using the workers' demographic characteristics, has then been developed in this study. The model consists of five demographic characteristic variables, namely Work Position, Education Level, Average Monthly Income, Work Experience, and Age. The adjusted odds ratio value, which was obtained from the analysis of the model constants, indicates that Work Position, Average Monthly Income, Age, Education Level, and Work Experience have influence on workers' probability of working under HSI condition in descending order. Finally, an example of applying the model to identify specific demographic characteristics of workers who need special attention is presented at the end of this paper.


Oxygen consumption (OC) is one of important factors in aquaculture activities, as the oxygen is a vital condition for all the organisms living in the water and having an aerobic type of respiration. OC is the preferred method for measuring and reporting the metabolic rate in fish. The aims of this study were to evaluate the effects of salinity on OC and blood properties of grey mullets. Five experimental groups were conducted to measure OC and blood properties of grey mullets Mugil cephalus (BW: 187.9 ± 45.8 g) according to salinity (30→0 psu, 0→30 psu) changes; SDS: fish reared in seawater (SW, 30 psu) directly shifted to SW, SGF: SW fish gradually shifted to freshwater (FW, 0 psu), SDF: SW fish directly shifted to FW, FDF: FW fish directly shifted to FW, and FDS: FW fish directly shifted to SW. The result showed that OC tended to decrease in the groups of SW fish shifted to FW showing 194.5 mg O2/kg/h at 25°C in SDS to 82.4 mg O2/kg/h at 15°C in SGF. On the contrary, OC increased in the groups of FW fish shifted to SW showing 80.5 mg O2/kg/h at 15°C in FDF to 184.0 mg O2/kg/h at 25°C in FDS. Cortisol levels at the end of experiments were rapidly increased with the lowering salinities in SW fish shifted to FW showing 20.6 ng/mL in SDS to 316.2 ng/mL in SDF, while those were decreased with the increasing salinities in FW fish shifted to SW showing 40.2 ng/mL in FDF to 10.3 ng/mL in FDS. However, glucose levels showed no significant differences among all experimental groups. Based on the information from this study, aquaculture of grey mullet might be applied or developed in freshwater due to its osmotic adaptation ability.


Colchycine considerably decreased sensitivity of the Rana temporaria tongue's chemoreceptors to adequate stimulation. The effect is reversible and can be abolished by administration of drugs initiating setting of the cells' microtubular apparatus: 3',5'-cAMP, theophylline, adrenaline as well as by activation of the sympathetic system. The restoring effect of these agents is specific since 2',3'-cAMP, 5'-AMP, serotonin, inosine, acetylcholine and 3,'5'-cGMP prove ineffective in restoring the reactions after colchycine administration although they do alter the activity of the receptors in normal conditions. The revealed colchycine-sensitive, 3',5'-cAMP-dependent process seems to be associated with the microtubular apparatus of the receptor cell. Its role in the receptor structures is discussed.


An analysis is made of the impact of various design decisions on the error detection capability of the fiber distributed data interface (FDDI), a 100-Mb/s fiber-optic LAN standard being developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). In particular, the frame error rate, token loss rate, and undetected error rate are quantified. Several characteristics of the 32-b frame check sequence (FCS) polynomial, which is also used in IEEE 802 LAN protocols, are discussed. The standard uses a nonreturn to zero invert on ones (NRZI) signal encoding and a 4-b to 5-b (4b/5b) symbol encoding in the physical layer. Due to the combination of NRZI and 4b/5b encoding, many noise events are detected by code (or symbol) violations. A large percentage of errors are detected by FCS violations. The errors that escape these three violations remain undetected. The probability of undetected errors due to creation of false starting delimiters, false ending delimiters, or merging of two frames is analyzed. It is shown that every noise event results in two code bit errors, which in turn may result in up to four data bit errors. The FCS can detect up to two noise events. Creation of a false starting delimiter or ending delimiter on a symbol boundary also requires two noise events. This assumes enhanced frame validity criteria. The author justifies the enhancements by quantifying their effect. >


Correlations between international equity markets are often claimed to increase during periods of high volatility, therefore the benefits of international diversification are reduced when they are most needed, i.e. during crises. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between international correlation and stock-market turbulence. We estimate a multivariate Markov-switching model, in which the correlation matrix is allowed to vary across regimes. Subsequently, we test the null hypothesis that correlations are regime independent. Using weekly stock returns for the S&P, the DAX and the FTSE over the period 1988-1999, we find that international correlations significantly increased during turbulent periods.


This was a prospective observational study to evaluate the effect of controlled ovarian hyperstimulation on follicular vascularity. A subjective grading system was applied to assess vascularity using transvaginal power Doppler ultrasonography on the day of insemination (32-36 hours post-HCG administration) in donor treatment cycles undergoing either controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH group) with gonadotrophin and intrauterine insemination or intracervical insemination with/without clomiphene stimulation (non-COH group). The incidence of follicles (81% vs. 53%; P < 0.05) as well as cycles (63% vs. 49%; P < 0.05) with uniformly high grade vascularity was significantly higher in treatments that had controlled ovarian hyperstimulation compared with unstimulated or clomiphene induced donor cycles. Pregnancy rates were higher and early pregnancy loss rates lower, in cycles with uniformly high grade follicular vascularity in both treatment groups compared with other vascularity grades. Using multiple logistic regression analysis, the only independent variable that was significantly related to pregnancy rates in this treatment programme was follicular vascularity. Controlled ovarian hyperstimulation appears to have an effect on follicular vascularity and this may contribute to improved outcome in donor insemination treatment programmes.


Across the US, many school districts are finding increasing difficulties to fill the ranks of their science and mathematics teaching staff with highly qualified teachers. To alleviate the problem, several national policies, such as the No Child Left Behind Act and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, have been enacted to improve the quality of education while reducing teacher shortages.  Consequently, many agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Dept. of Education, and the U.S. Dept. of Energy, to name a few, have awarded large grants to universities and other organizations to implement math and science teacher recruitment programs and prepare them to deliver high quality instruction.  These programs vary in terms of their target populations (high school students, undergraduates, graduates, or career changers), the type and frequency of the early teaching experience provided, the academic and financial support systems, and the public relations campaigns regarding the rewarding aspects of becoming a science or mathematics teacher. Given the urgency of the national math and science teacher shortage and the high cost of these programs, examining their impact is critical. In this paper, we present findings from three years efforts of a science and mathematics teachers recruitment program to start mapping the landscape of teacher recruitment. Our discussion and implications suggest that… program's focus was on recruiting students at all career levels (direct from high school, transfer from community college, change of major, and career changers).


The expert contributors discuss entrepreneurship and innovation from a number of different perspectives, including the entrepreneurial professional team, the entrepreneurial firm and the institutional environment. The first part of the book looks at the challenges of entrepreneurship specific to the professional service firm while the second explores the creation and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities in the professional service team. Part III turns to the organization and Part IV to the management and growth of the entrepreneurial professional service firm. The final part discusses the interplay between professions, firms and the institutional environment.


Given the important role of science teacher educators in developing sci- ence teachers' understandings of nature of science (NOS), this study explores 15 Turkish "prospective" science teacher educators' beliefs about NOS in the context of teacher ed- ucation reform in Turkey. A reflection-oriented qualitative approach was adopted in the investigation. Data were collected through two sets of interviews with the participants and analyzed by means of cognitive maps. The analysis of data revealed that most of the par- ticipants of the study had inadequate conceptions regarding NOS. The majority of these inadequate conceptions were concentrated under two aspects of NOS: scientific method and the tentative NOS. The participants' inadequate conceptions appeared to be linked to a lack of prior reflection about NOS. The study has implications for the preservice preparation of science teacher educators, teacher education reform, and teacher thinking at both the practical and the policy levels. C


Receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) are key regulators of a multitude of cell processes, including survival, proliferation, migration, invasion and angiogenesis. Aberrant activity of certain of these receptor tyrosine kinases has been associated with tumor progression in a wide variety of human malignancies, making them promising drug targets for cancer therapy. Although, in some instances, specific inhibition of just one of these RTKs suffices for inhibition of tumor progression, in the majority of cases, targeting more than one RTK could be required for therapeutic efficacy. These RTKs include MET, the receptor for hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), the fibroblast growth factor receptor, FGFR, and AXL. Dysregulation of MET activity, due to its overexpression or mutation, or overexpression of its ligand, has been consistently associated with aggressive phenotype, resistance to certain anti-cancer therapies and poor outcome. The FGFRs have a well-documented role in tumor angiogenesis, and, more recently, have been implicated directly in tumor cell survival, proliferation and metastasis in a wide range of tumor types. AXL is one of a family of three tyrosine kinase receptors (TAM family) involved in the pathogenesis of several human cancers and has also recently incited interest as a cancer therapeutic target. S 49076 is a novel, potent, ATP-competitive tyrosine kinase inhibitor of MET, FGFR1/2/3 and AXL. S 49076 blocks autophosphorylation of these RTKs and their downstream signaling in cells with IC 50 values of between 1 and 200 nM depending on the target and cell line. Furthermore, in kinase binding assays, S 49076 also binds to clinically-relevant MET mutated isoforms and a number of other kinases implicated in cancer pathology at concentrations of less than 100 nM. S 49076 is not, however, a potent inhibitor of VEGFR2. Although VEGFR2 is implicated in tumor angiogenesis, it also plays a major physiological role in the maintenance of vascular tone, and its inhibition by other RTK inhibitors has limited dosing of these molecules in the clinic. The unique inhibition profile of S 49076 may allow inhibition of oncogenic RTKs potentially without toxic effects encountered by VEGFR2 inhibitors. In vitro, S 49076 inhibits the proliferation of MET- and FGFR2-dependent gastric cancer cells, blocks MET-driven migration of lung carcinoma cells and inhibits colony formation of AXL-overexpressing hepatocarcinoma cells. In vivo, oral administration of S 49076 inhibits > 80% MET autophosphorylation in subcutaneous GTL-16 human gastric carcinoma tumors at 3 mg/kg. In both this GTL-16 model and in the MET-dependent U87-MG human glioblastoma model, S 49076 inhibits > 80% tumor growth at 6 mg/kg/day. S 49076 also inhibits FGFR2 autophosphorylation, downstream signaling and tumor growth in FGFR2-dependent SNU-16 gastric tumors, and tumor growth in LS-174T colon carcinoma. Based on these preclinical studies showing a favorable and novel pharmacological profile and the potential of S 49076 as innovative anticancer agent, a phase I study is planned soon to evaluate an oral formulation of S 49076 in patients with advanced solid tumors. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2011 Nov 12-16; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2011;10(11 Suppl):Abstract nr A238.


Volcanic rocks named as Kulu-Karacada volcanites cover large areas in the Kulu (Konya)-Haymana (Ankara) area. This volcanites are composed of large volumes of andesitic-dacitic lavas and pyroclastics with small volumes of alkali basalt to trachydacite lavas. In this study, 40Ar/39Ar age data of nine samples obtained from the Kulu-Karacada volcanites were presented. Obtained informations reveal the plato age of the volcanites. Results conforming to field observations point that the Kulu-Karacada volcanites are Early Miocene (18-21 Ma) in age


Traditionally, intelligence was thought to be associated with thinking, reasoning, planning etcetera. More recently there has been an increasing interest in 'lowlevel' behavioral responses. It is likely that people make use of a combination of a fast, 'lower', automatic system, and an adaptive, 'higher', deliberative system. How these systems are combined to produce behavior is uncertain however. One theory suggests the existence of a minimalistic control system that enables complex behavior by biasing the automatic system. Here this theory about how automatic and deliberative structures can be integrated is investigated. This is done by simulating the evolution of simple neural networks in an environment with two different states, during which the appropriateness of an action may also be different. It is expected that purely reactive agents are not able to perform optimally in such an environment. The theory predicts that a control structure/deliberative system will evolve that is inhibitory/modulatory in relation to the automatic system. The control system does not need to be active all the time, only in situations for which the automatic system alone is not adequate. In contrast to expectations, many evolved networks did not evolve hidden units, indicating that the task may not be difficult enough. However, the contextual input units evolved to regulate behavior in a manner similar to the hypothesized control structure, supporting the theory that natural control systems are minimalistic in nature. Further research to clarify the results is


Summary This paper investigates the amplitude variation with offset (AVO) behavior at the Ben Nevis reservoir zone in an attempt to predict API oil gravity variations. Intercept, gradient, fluid factor, and density reflectivity attribute volumes were extracted to observe the AVO effects at the reservoir zone. These attributes isolated the oil zones associated with the Ben Nevis reservoir and showed differences between the adjacent fault block reservoir zones. Detailed crossplotting at the oil bearing well locations isolated anomalous zones associated with the response at the top of the reservoir. Simultaneous inversion methods were applied to the dataset, which provided useful information on the nature of the lithology and pore fluids. The AVO and inversion attributes were then used as inputs in a neural network analysis for porosity and fluid density. The porosity volume correlated closely with the well data across the asset and the fluid density volume showed variations in oil density across the asset.


Background: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding prevention and screening of breast cancer among reproductive-age women. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in 110 women aged 15 – 45 years old. 5- point Likert scale and interview schedule was performed with the help of structured and semi-structured questionnaire to collect data. Finally, collected data are analyzed by using the descriptive statistical method. Findings: Majority of the respondents i.e. 71.8% had heard about breast cancer. 42.7% responded that fitness could be the best preventive measure with a mean value of 2.21. A large number of participant's i.e. 76.36% strongly agreed about development from breast cells and 49.1% reacts surgery is only the treatment option for breast cancer. 46.4% of them agreed that breast self-examination (BSE) is a necessary tool for early detection of breast cancer. Conclusion: The knowledge regarding breast cancer screening and prevention is lacking in many participants and it should be spread worldwide which helps to decrease the incidence and could save the lives of many women. Keywords: Attitude; Breast cancer; Knowledge; Practice; Prevention & Screening, reproductive age women


Objective: to evaluate the accuracy of the version of the Brighton Pediatric Early Warning Score translated and adapted for the Brazilian context, in the recognition of clinical deterioration. Method: a diagnostic test study to measure the accuracy of the Brighton Pediatric Early Warning Score for the Brazilian context, in relation to a reference standard. The sample consisted of 271 children, aged 0 to 10 years, blindly evaluated by a nurse and a physician, specialists in pediatrics, with interval of 5 to 10 minutes between the evaluations, for the application of the Brighton Pediatric Early Warning Score for the Brazilian context and of the reference standard. The data were processed and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and VassarStats.net programs. The performance of the Brighton Pediatric Early Warning Score for the Brazilian context was evaluated through the indicators of sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, area under the ROC curve, likelihood ratios and post-test probability. Results: the Brighton Pediatric Early Warning Score for the Brazilian context showed sensitivity of 73.9%, specificity of 95.5%, positive predictive value of 73.3%, negative predictive value of 94.7%, area under Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve of 91.9% and the positive post-test probability was 80%. Conclusion: the Brighton Pediatric Early Warning Score for the Brazilian context, presented good performance, considered valid for the recognition of clinical deterioration warning signs of the children studied.


This study is one of the first large-scale analyses on child psychological well-being in the context of parental migration when children remain in an African country. As such, it contributes to the literature by investigating some of the insights gained from in-depth transnational family studies, and it also provides evidence from Africa where normative contexts around family life differ from Latin America, Southeast Asia, and East Asia where most studies have been conducted to date. A survey was conducted in 2010/2011 with 2,760 secondary school children and youths in high out-migration areas of Ghana. Using multiple regression analysis, we find that being in a transnational family is associated with lower levels of psychological well-being, yet only in families where parents are divorced or separated. Furthermore, when parents are in a relationship, specific characteristics of transnational family arrangements are associated with lower levels of child psychological well-being, while others are not. In particular, whether a parent migrates internally or internationally, who the caregiver is, and having a good relationship with the migrant parent are not associated with poorer well-being outcomes. Instead, if a father migrates, if the child changes caregivers more than once, and if the child has a bad relationship with his or her migrant father are associated with lower levels of well-being. This study adds nuance to a field of research that has emphasised negative outcomes and helps identify policy areas to improve the well-being of children in transnational families. Copyright (C) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


To encourage growth in the flagging information, communications, and technology sector, the FCC recently laid out a new broadband policy. This Essay argues that the current FCC plan is unlikely to create adequate scale and scope for broadband to offer stability to the industry. Instead of duplicating infrastructure by encouraging both telephony and cable firms to build broadband networks in the same communities, the FCC should favor shared use of access networks by competing service providers. Competition based on customer service and innovation will allow the industry to grow rapidly again; but the large capital investments required for redundant access networks might destroy value for many firms. A new national universal service plan for broadband that linked all homes to a big broadband network would ensure that customer demand grows. With such a network, all Americans could join the online community, and the increased number of users and consequent growth in potential demand for services would further encourage technological innovation.


Equipping artificial agents with useful exploration mechanisms remains a challenge to this day. Humans, on the other hand, seem to manage the trade-off between exploration and exploitation effortlessly. In the present article, we put forward the hypothesis that they accomplish this by making optimal use of limited computational resources. We study this hypothesis by meta-learning reinforcement learning algorithms that sacrifice performance for a shorter description length (defined as the number of bits required to implement the given algorithm). The emerging class of models captures human exploration behavior better than previously considered approaches, such as Boltzmann exploration, upper confidence bound algorithms, and Thompson sampling. We additionally demonstrate that changing the description length in our class of models produces the intended effects: reducing description length captures the behavior of brain-lesioned patients while increasing it mirrors cognitive development during adolescence.


Distant supernovae probe the history of cosmic expansion and star formation, and provide important information on their progenitor models. Investigation of supernovae type Ia for are needed to reveal any evolution in their intrinsic properties, and thus their utility as existing distance indicators. One approach to extend the redshift range beyond the reach of our telescopes is to use galaxy clusters as gravitational telescopes. Conversely, lensed supernovae can be used as probes for testing cluster lens model predictions. In this licentiate thesis, I present a 5-year ground based near-infrared search for gravitationally magnified supernovae behind the galaxy cluster A1689. Abell 1689, at z=0.187, is a one of the best-studied clusters with an extended Einstein radius, making it particularly suited as a gravitational telescope. Our search resulted in the discovery of one highly magnified supernova type II at z=1.703 and two transient objects (probably type IIP and Ia, in host galaxies at redshifts and ), which is in agreement with the survey expectations.


There has been significant research in recent years to analyze and improve the impact behavior and puncture resistance of railroad tank cars. Much of this research has been performed using detailed nonlinear finite element analyses supported by full scale impact testing. This use of detailed simulation methodologies has significantly improved our understanding of the tank impact behaviors and puncture safety. However, the performance of the detailed analyses or full scale testing can require significant computer or financial resources to evaluate a wide range of impact scenarios.This paper describes the development of analytical models that can predict the impact and puncture behavior of a pressurized railroad tank car. The methodology applied is to first develop a model that can predict the force-deflection behavior obtained from a general impact at any point on the tank. Separately, a characteristic puncture force is determined as a function of the tank geometry, impactor geometry, and impact conditions. Combined, these models can be applied to predict the impact and puncture behavior of the tank.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


Toxicology is a broad topic that aims to assess the risk of chemicals on living organisms. It has been acknowledged that everything is toxic to a living organism. What distinguishes a toxin from a remedy depends on the dose 1. Presently, there are toxicity assays that are implemented for human risk assessment studies such as, 3-(4, 5-Dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2, 5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay; however, it has been shown that some toxins interfere with these assays. Carbon nanodots, an unknown toxicant has shown to interfere with the LDH assay. Therefore proper methods and techniques must be devised for the analysis of these unknown toxicants to enable the reliable risk assessment for humans. In this study a new method was devised using, hydrogen peroxide and aflatoxin b1 as the known toxicants. The Cytotoxicity Screening Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry (cs-MALDI-TOF-MS) technique was implemented as a viable approach to studying nanoparticle toxicity. Previously, Human liver (HepG2) cells were dosed with varying concentrations of these known toxicants and analyzed using cs-MALDI. In this study, Human monocyte (THP-1) cells were dosed with the same concentrations of these known toxicants as the HepG2 and analyzed. This study demonstrates that the two toxicants can be distinguished through the presence and absence of certain peaks using the cs-MALDI method. This method has been developed as a high throughput screening method that can lead to the future identification of biomarkers associated to each toxicant independently.


Neonates born with less-than-protective levels of transplacentally derived specific antibody are at risk for the development of disease due to type III, group B Streptococcus (III-GBS). The effect of immune serum globulin modified for intravenous use (MISG) on in vitro opsonophagocytosis of III-GBS was evaluated. Cord blood was obtained from 13 healthy, full-term neonates, and bactericidal activity for III-GBS was measured. Before the addition of MISG, one of three serum specimens with moderate levels of antibody to III-GBS, and eight of 10 specimens with low antibody levels demonstrated no bactericidal activity. The mean bactericidal index increased from 27.1% before the addition of MISG to 96.5% with MISG added in a volume equal to that of serum. The effect of MISG on opsonophagocytosis decreased with its dilution in buffer, and no effect was shown at dilutions greater than or equal to 1:4. Thus, MISG can substantially increase in vitro opsonophagocytosis of III-GBS in sera from newborns.


We used a standardized in vitro simulation of the intestinal environment of three human donors to investigate the effect of six oat ingredients, which were produced by the application of different processing techniques, on the gut microbial community. Fructooligosaccharide was used as the positive control. Consistent changes in pH and gas production, on average −0.4 pH units and +32 kPa, indicated the high fermentability of the oat ingredients, and the resulting increased production of metabolites that are considered as beneficial for human health. These metabolites included acetate and lactate, but mostly propionate (+13.6 mM on average). All oat ingredients resulted in increased bifidobacteria levels with an average increase of 0.73 log. Moreover, a decreased production of proteolytic markers was observed, including branched short-chain fatty acids and ammonium. The results were donor-specific and product-specific. The results suggested an association between the total amounts of dietary fiber and the prebiotic potentials of different ingredients. Furthermore, as mechanical processing of oat products has previously been linked to increased extractability of dietary fibers, the obtained results suggest that different processing techniques might have impacted the potential functional properties of the final ingredients.


Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access is an emerging wireless access networks offering high data rates and good range. These features, in addition to moderate installation and maintenance costs, make it an appealing last-mile delivery network for IPTV and video applications, especially, in rural regions. However, TV/video delivery must be designed with respect to network characteristics in different environmental conditions. This paper studies the possibility of providing TV and video over the downlink and uplink of this fixed broadband wireless access network without compromising the video quality. The downlink scenario typically corresponds to offering high and standard definition IPTV to customer set-top box, whereas the uplink scenario can be for video surveillance or camera live broadcast. Measurements were taken using professional IPTV and video streaming equipments on commercial IEEE 802.16d system. Analysis was done for different video settings and network configurations in order to characterize network performance and identify video quality in different attenuation and interference conditions. A key outcome of this analysis was the feasibility of TV/video delivery over broadband wireless access networks with good quality of experience provided that system limitations are respected.


Synthetic antioxidants could be replaced by the valid bio-based alternatives. These renewable and low cost resources are available and offers a market opportunity for a green supply of raw materials for different industrial and health products.
The aim of the present PhD project was to analyse the antioxidant activity of extracts obtained from different natural sources or microorganisms, in order to study their beneficial effects against oxidative stress injury and to characterize their chemical composition to obtain molecules to be used in food or cosmetic industry.
Therefore, fruits and vegetables were considered a good starting point, as it is widely known that they are rich in molecules with antioxidant activity.
As a first goal, the methanol extracts from two tomato varieties and from acai berries were analysed. These products are among the most consumed in Mediterranean and Brazilian diet, respectively. The beneficial effects of the extracts were demonstrated on a cell-based model in which oxidative stress was induced and the molecules responsible for the antioxidant activity were determined.
Thereafter, to avoid the toxicity and high costs of solvent extractions, the attention was focused on extracts obtained without the need of solvents. In particular, the antioxidant activity of a water extract from the cladodes of Opuntia ficus-indica was analysed. The whole extract, as well as its active molecules, showed a good ability to protect human keratinocytes from UVA induced oxidative stress.
Plants and their fruits are not the only source of antioxidants, as these are metabolites produced by microbes. From a biotechnological and economical point of view, the production of antioxidants by microorganisms is very convenient and provides an alternative to chemical synthesis. For this reason, two bacterial strains were used in different ways. In the first case, a lipophilic extract from Novosphingobium sp. PP1Y was obtained and tested, as the characterization of this recently isolated microorganism showed the presence of a great abundance of genes encoding for carotenoids. PP1Y extract was able to counteract oxidative stress in an in vitro system on cells as well as in an in vivo system on C. elegans. In the second case, the whole spore from the bacterium Bacillus subtilis was used as antioxidant. The results showed that incubation with spores induced the activation in the treated cells of Nrf-2 pathway, which induced the transcription of anti-stress response genes.
Finally, a waste fraction from microalgae Chlorella sorokiniana Shihiraet Krauss was tested for its antioxidant activity. This fraction was discarded after starch purification (PhD project of Dr. Imma Gifuni). Therefore, in order to minimize the generation of waste, the recovery of high-value products was attempted. It was demonstrated that the cascade approach was a good strategy to produce starch and active antioxidants.
In conclusion, in the present PhD thesis, different antioxidants from natural sources have been isolated and tested, and extracts from these sources showed an antioxidant power similar or higher than the isolated molecules. This opens the way to the use of the whole extract in food or cosmetic industries, avoiding the high costs for the purification of single compounds, in accordance with the increasing demand of natural products endowed with pro-healthy effects.


The Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE), is a space–borne detector designed for precise galactic Cosmic Ray (CR) studies in a wide energy range (up to 100 TeV), along with detailed measurements of high–energy gamma–rays and indirect searches of Dark Matter (DM) annihilation/decay to detectable particles. The satellite was launched into a sun–synchronous orbit at 500 km, on December 17th 2015 and has been successfully acquiring data ever since. The instrument consists of four sub-detectors, namely: a Plastic Scintillator Detector (PSD), a Silicon TracKerconverter (STK), a deep Bismuth Germanate (BGO) calorimeter 32 X0, 1.6 λI ) and a NeUtron Detector (NUD). DAMPE provided valuable insight on the cosmic-ray electron+positron (CRE) spectrum, unveiling a clear spectral break at 0.9 TeV with unprecedented energy resolution. Moreover, recent results regarding CR protons reveal a spectral hardening (at few hundred GeV) followed by a softening feature at 10 TeV. These features are well described by a smoothly-broken power law (SBPL), which differs from the paradigm of a unique power law (PL) spectrum extending up to PeV energies, hence necessitating a careful reconsideration of prevailing CR models. Additional insights concerning spectral measurements of helium, medium (i.e, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen) and heavier mass nuclei (iron), will be presented in this work. Preliminary results on secondary-over-primary ratios (i.e., B/C and B/O) crucial in deciphering the nature of CR propagation in the Galaxy, will also be discussed, including a general synopsis of the mission status.


This study aimed at analyzing the dynamics of confrontation between popular mobilization and state in Jordan from the sociological perspective of an analytical social conflict. It also concentrated on the factors that led to the emergence of popular mobilization and its Legitimacy and the variables that guided the peaceful confrontation between mobilization and state. The study results showed that economic deprivation was the main factor behid the emergence of the popular mobilization, and the political demands were emerged when the state didn't achieve the economical Reforms , and the mobilization derives its legitimacy From its objective economical demands, the Arab revolutions and the concessions of the state which mean recognition of the Mobilization and its demands. Then the results showed that the mobilization was Fall back because of its lack of organization leadership and Ideology and the cleavages in the structure of national identity , but the conscious of the mobilization and its legitimacy may intense it again. Besides, The results indicated that the confrontation was included dialectical Relationship between the peaceful oriention of the state toward the mobilizations and the peaceful orientation of the mobilization from the other hand. This dialectical relationship constituted moral treaty between the two partisans stand out as safty valve against violence and polarization. After that, the study showed some Factors which, sometimes , provoked violence such as : the partisans, usage of violent power, and arrestation of mobilization's activists . Then, the study showed that the confrontation was realistic , but didn't occur substantial change in the social structure, However, it escalated the level of freedom, Raised the power of the street, and obtained the state and the society more flexibility and democracy. With regard to the theoretical approach, This study showed that the perspectives of analytical conflict are of complementarily nature, and it could be syenthesized to produce a new theoretical perspective.


Stochastic multicolor transgenic labeling systems, such as the Brainbow reporters, have emerged as powerful tools in lineage tracing experiments. Originally designed for large-scale mapping of neuronal projections in densely populated tissues, they have been repurposed for diverse uses. The Brainbow 2.1-derived Confetti reporter was used, for example, to define stem cell clonality and dynamics in crypts of the intestinal mucosa, T-cell clonality, microglial heterogeneity, and B-cell clonal evolution in germinal centers. Traditionally, read-outs have relied on imaging in situ, providing information about cellular localization within tissue stroma. However, recent applications of the technique have moved into hematopoietically derived motile cell types, for example, T and B lymphocytes and their progeny, creating an unmet need to survey larger populations of cells ex vivo to determine labeling densities or skews in color representation over time to read-out clonal expansion and selection effects. Originally designed for imaging methods, these reporters encode information in the spectral properties of fluorophores and their subcellular localization, making them poorly suited to traditional flow cytometry analyses. The advent of high-content imaging and imaging flow cytometry have recently closed the gap between flow cytometry and imaging. We analyzed a 10-color biallelic Confetti reporter using flow and imaging flow cytometry. Beyond its use as a high-throughput method for measuring reporter labeling densities and color distributions over time, it also opens the door to new avenues of research relying on similar read-outs, for example, tumor heterogeneity and clonal dynamics. © 2020 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry.


Nanoelectronics presents the opportunity of incorporating billions of devices into a single system. Its opportunity is also its challenge: the economic design, verification, manufacturing, and testing of billion component systems. In this presentation I will explore how the abstractions used in computer systems change as we approach nanoscale dimensions.


In this note an erratum is provided to the article "On the DJL conjecture for order 6" by Naomi Shaked-Monderer, published in Operators and Matrices 11(1), 2017, 71–88. We will demonstrate and correct two errors in this article. The first error is in the statement of a proposition, which omits a certain category of extreme matrices. The second error is in the proof of a lemma. Fortunately the lemma itself is correct, and in this note we will in fact show that a stronger result holds.


Generally, domestic refrigerators and freezers are running in non-continuous operation mode most of the time, which is a necessity to match cooling capacity to thermal loads. In currently available domestic appliances it can be observed, that this matching is mainly realized in two different ways: On the one hand, a simple on/off control of the hermetic compressor is installed in lower priced appliances with limited energy efficiency for the mass market. On the other hand, modern top efficiency class appliances have a variable frequency controlled compressor installed. Both control strategies have a repetitive and transient change of thermodynamic states of the refrigerant in common. For better understanding of these cyclic patterns in terms of internal temperature distribution, a state of the art domestic refrigeration compressor with a displacement of approximately 6 cubic centimeters is integrated in a commercial freezer. The compressor which has an on/off control is equipped with extensive measurement instrumentation. Several temperature probes are inserted and temperatures on surfaces inside and outside the compressor as well as refrigerant temperatures are logged for both cyclic and steady-state behavior. Finally, a comparison between transient experimental data and steady-state data from a standardized calorimeter test bench is done.


OBJECTIVE
To study the antigenicity of SARS associated coronavirus (CoV) spike S1 (12-672Aa) domain.

METHODS
BALB/c mice were immunized with a plasmid bearing codon-optimized SARS-CoV (Tor2 strain) S1 domain and then boosted with purified S1 protein; the SARS-CoV specific IgG antibody was tested by ELISA and neutralization antibody was determined by in vitro microneutralization assay.

RESULTS
S1 domain of SARS-CoV spike, which has been demonstrated harboring the receptor binding domain, successfully elicited SARS-CoV specific IgG antibody in mouse after combined immunization with DNA and purified S1 protein; the antibody elicited solely by S1 could potently neutralize SARS-CoV (HKU-39849) in vitro, 50% of 1 000 TCID50 SARS-CoV challenged cells were protected from viral infection by a 1:1499.68 dilution of mice sera immunized with S1 protein, but negative control sera showed no protection.

CONCLUSION
S1 domain of SARS-CoV spike protein, which is responsible for receptor binding, can efficiently and sufficiently induce highly potent neutralizing antibody in mice. This result suggested that S1 domain could be an effective subunit vaccines against SARS-CoV.


A definition of engineering design that stresses the importance of representation as the key element in design is presented. Recent developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) provide new ways to represent design knowledge about designed artifacts and the design process. Illustrations are provided from the fields of mechanical and architectural design of how the power and flexibility of AI-based, computer-aided design tools offer opportunities to better understand what designers do and for conveying this increased awareness in engineering education. It is concluded that symbolic representation offers another language for engineering design that strengthens engineering modeling capabilities. >


Dc-dc converters have been reported as exhibiting a wide range of bifurcations and chaos under certain conditions. In this study, the analysis of bifurcation in a peak current-controlled single-ended primary inductance converter (SEPIC) topology operating in the continuous conduction mode is performed and is compared with the hysteretic current mode control. The stability of the system is analysed by varying the reference current. The locii of the complex eigenvalues and the characteristic multipliers indicate that the one-periodic orbit loses its stability via period-doubling bifurcation. A hysteretic current-controlled SEPIC converter that uses the sum of the two inductor currents as a control variable is discussed. The operation states of the converter are studied based on the theory of sliding mode control. A computer simulation using MATLAB/SIMULINK confirms the predicted bifurcations and the experimental results show that stable periodic operation is obtained for a wide variation in parameter.


We compute equations for Coughlan's family of Godeaux surfaces with torsion $\mathbb Z/2$, which we call $\mathbb Z/2$-Godeaux surfaces, and we show that it is (at most) 7 dimensional. We classify non-rational KSBA degenerations $W$ of $\mathbb Z/2$-Godeaux surfaces with one Wahl singularity, showing that $W$ is birational to particular either Enriques surfaces, or $D_{2,n}$ elliptic surfaces, with $n=3,4$ or $6$. We present examples for all possibilities in the first case, and for $n=3,4$ in the second.


Field experiments were conducted at Kitale, Kenya to investigate the effects of early soil warming on growth and yield of Zea mays. In the first of these experiments (1976) a polythene mulch was applied to warm the soil of late planted maize. In the second experiment (1971) maize with a mulch was planted at three intervals after the start of the rainy season.
These two experiments showed that warming soils by 5 - 6°C caused a small increase (1 - 2) in number of leaves initiated, but early leaves were smaller and thus total leaf area produced was unaffected. Spikelet initiation began 2 - 3 weeks after the apical meristem emerged above ground level, and as the embryonic cobs were in the aerial environment; soil warming did not affect the number of spikelets initiated. The grain number at harvest, which was the major variable of the yield components, was found to be determined by the survival rate of initiated spikelets. A subsidiary trial, involving the use of different plant populations, showed similar numbers of spikelets initiated by plants of different size and growth rate.
The field experiments also showed that plant size at any stage is not a discriminant of yield, but a good relationship was found between growth rate during the 'linear' phase of growth and final grain number. A decrease of 30 % crop growth in late planted maize (1977) was associated with a decrease in mean early soil temperature of 0.7°C.
Controlled environment studies at Sutton Bonington, England, showed that an increase of early soil temperature (ca 6° C at the meristem depth) increased the photosynthesis rate of subsequent leaves by about 20 % but this increase is not consistent with changes in growth rate observed in field experiments at Kitale. These findings do not support the hypothesis that poor yields of late planted maize are a result of decreases in soil temperature. Previously discarded hypotheses based on the leaching of nutrients should be re-examined.


Intentional weight loss is an important treatment option for overweight persons with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), but the effects on long‐term fracture risk are not known. The purpose of this Look AHEAD analysis was to evaluate whether long‐term intentional weight loss would increase fracture risk in overweight or obese persons with DM. Look AHEAD is a multicenter, randomized clinical trial. Recruitment began in August 2001 and follow‐up continued for a median of 11.3 years at 16 academic centers. A total of 5145 persons aged 45 to 76 years with DM were randomized to either an intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) with reduced calorie consumption and increased physical activity designed to achieve and maintain ≥7% weight loss or to diabetes support and education intervention (DSE). Incident fractures were ascertained every 6 months by self‐report and confirmed with central adjudication of medical records. The baseline mean age of participants was 59 years, 60% were women, 63% were white, and the mean BMI was 36 kg/m2. Weight loss over the intervention period (median 9.6 years) was 6.0% in ILI and 3.5% in DSE. A total of 731 participants had a confirmed incident fracture (358 in DSE versus 373 in ILI). There were no statistically significant differences in incident total or hip fracture rates between the ILI and DSE groups. However, compared to the DSE group, the ILI group had a statistically significant 39% increased risk of a frailty fracture (HR 1.39; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.89). An intensive lifestyle intervention resulting in long‐term weight loss in overweight/obese adults with DM was not associated with an overall increased risk of incident fracture but may be associated with an increased risk of frailty fracture. When intentional weight loss is planned, consideration of bone preservation and fracture prevention is warranted. © 2017 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.


In this paper, a thorough comparison of the heat removal capability of different types of through silicon vias (TSVs) for three-dimensional ICs is presented. It is shown that power TSVs with the associated power delivery network (PDN) has significantly better heat removal capability than the other types of TSVs. An accurate and efficient thermal simulation methodology is then proposed by incorporating an accurate heat removal model of the PTSVs and PDN. Experimental results show that the accuracy of the proposed methodology is close to that of detailed 3-D finite volume based heat solver, while the computational effort is much lower.


At the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, since November, 1978, the Senning operation has become the operation of first choice, in place of the Mustard procedure, for transposition of the great arteries. In total of 22 patients, there have been three hospital deaths, two of which were attributable to severe pulmonary vascular disease. There have been no deaths. Because the Senning procedure is based on the use of living tissue, it may provide better long-term results, by permitting growth and thus avoiding late systemic or pulmonary venous obstruction, than the Mustard procedure which employs extensive use of prosthetic material or graft.


We document facts about medical spending of the US population using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey dataset. We find that for the entire population, around 44% of the total medical spending is paid by private insurance but there is a substantial difference in terms of financing medical care by age: for working age adults (25 to 65 years old) private insurance covers around 57% of the total medical spending, whereas for the elderly (older than 65 years old) the largest payor is the government which covers 65% of the total. Inpatient hospital care accounts for a third of the aggregate medical expenditures. Medical spending is highly concentrated: the top 5% of spenders account for more than half of the total expenditure. Even higher concentration is observed among hospital spending where the top 5% of spenders contribute around 80% to the total expenditure. The concentration in medical spending decreases with age: the Gini coefficient of the total medical spending is 0.75 for people aged between 25 and 64 years old and 0.63 for people older than 65 years old. We find that average medical spending of people in the bottom income quintile is higher than that of people in the top income quintile for all age groups. In terms of persistence of medical spending, we find that the correlation of medical expenditure in two consecutive years is 0.36. When persistence is measured by quintile of medical spending distribution, medical spending of people in the bottom and top quintiles has higher persistence relative to other groups.


This article explores the charging profiles and preferences of electric vehicle (EV) drivers. It identifies three main strands: The charging profiles, preferences, and the recharging facilities through various clustering analyses. This, in turn, investigates the unique nature of the electric mobility (e-mobility) system. It is an empirical data-driven analyses of an existing EV system in the North East of England. The first analysis is charging-network oriented. It labels the main design and behavioural variables that affect the use of the Recharging Facilities (RFs) and investigates the correlation between the network design features and the users' charging patterns. The second analysis is end-user oriented and it aims at exploring the non-linear charging profiles and patterns of the EV drivers. This is followed by a matrix that links and puts together the carried out analyses. The study should be of interest to planning authorities and policy makers; it gives insights on the charging patterns and recommendations to understand the nature of the EV system and plan for new RFs.


Plants as well as other aerobic organisms constantly produce reactive oxygen species (ROS). At regulated low concentrations ROS may serve as signal molecules, while in excessive amounts these may cause oxidative damage to biomolecules. Actual cellular concentrations are controlled by a network of various antioxidants, and acclimation to stress conditions is achieved by a dynamic balance of ROS production and neutralization. Accordingly, plant stress physiology studies generally include an array of methods testing the occurrence of ROS as well as evaluating antioxidant capacities. The aim of the present work is to provide an overview of these methods, with special emphasis on avoiding errors that can possibly lead to either inaccurate data or misinterpretations of otherwise correct measurements.


The aim of this research was to find out the phytochemical constituents and to evaluate the antibacterial, antioxidant, antidiarrheal and antipyretic activities of different extracts of Duabanga grandiflora. Antibacterial study was carried out by the disk diffusion method where the n-hexane extract showed the inhibitory activity against Staphylococcus aureus (12.3 mm) and Bacillus cereus (11.3 mm) as compared to standard drug ciprofloxacin. A quantitative antioxidant assay was done by DPPH free radical scavenging activity, where at the dose of 100 μg/ml the different extracts of D. grandiflora leaves revealed the highest inhibition of 81.07, 82.48, and 80.33%, respectively in comparison to standard ascorbic acid (86.9%). The ethanol extract showed IC50 value 1.91 μg/ml, which was found to be as potent as standard ascorbic acid (1.90 μg/ml). In antidiarrheal activity test by using castor oil induced diarrheal mice, the result showed different extracts (500 μg/ml) of plant possessed moderate antidiarrheal activity. It significantly increased the latency period and reduced the number fecal count in comparison to standard drug loperamide 3mg/kg body weight. In antipyretic activity test by using Brewer's yeast induced pyrexia in Swiss albino mice the different extracts of D. grandiflora demonstrated mild to moderate antipyretic activity as compared to standard paracetamol
Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 22(1): 68-72, 2019


Background SARS-CoV-2 is a highly contagious virus, significantly impacting Germany among other countries since its emergence. Because of heterogeneous symptoms and a subset of patients even being asymptomatic at presentation, fast identification of infected patients remains challenging. Objective The goal of this study is the evaluation of different patient groups with a focus on symptoms and pre-existing illness at admission, as this is important for initial assessment and adequate emergency care. Methods COVID-19 positive patients at the University Hospital Heidelberg were retrospectively analyzed for disease history and symptoms at the initial presentation as well as mortality. The authors obtained institutional review board (IRB) approval by the Ethics Committee (Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University) prior to commencing the study. Results Dyspnea was more common in patients admitted to intermediate care/intensive care units (48 vs 13%, P<0.001) and showed a significantly higher percentage in the deceased (91 vs 48%, P=0.004). The symptoms of all presenting patients were highly variable, and many manifestations commonly associated with COVID-19 like cough, fever, and sore throat were only detected in a subset of patients, 60%, 43%, and 33%, respectively. Conclusion Dyspnea was present significantly more often in patients dying of COVID-19 compared to all patients admitted to the IMC/ICU, necessitating adequate observation and monitoring. In all presenting patients, initial symptoms showed large variation; therefore, COVID should be considered as a main differential diagnosis at every patient presentation, and patients with high pre-test probability should, if possible, be isolated until testing results are known.


1. Whether intertidal areas are used to capacity by shorebirds can best be answered by large-scale manipulation of foraging areas. The recent overexploitation of benthic resources in the western Dutch Wadden Sea offers such an 'experimental' setting. 2. We review the effects of declining food abundances on red knot Calidris canutus islandica numbers, based on a yearly large-scale benthic mapping effort, long-term colour-ringing and regular bird-counts from 1996 to 2005. We focus on the three-way relationships between suitable foraging area, the spatial predictability of food and red knot survival. 3. For each benthic sampling position, red knot intake rate (mg AFDM s(-1)) was predicted by a multiple prey species functional response model, based on digestive rate maximization (this model explained diet and intake rate in earlier studies on red knots). This enabled us to derive the spatial distribution of the suitable foraging area, which in each of the 10 years was analysed with a measure of autocorrelation, i.e. Moran's I. 4. Over the 10 years, when accounting for a threshold value to meet energetic demands, red knots lost 55% of their suitable foraging area. This ran parallel to a decrease in red knot numbers by 42%. Although there was also a decrease in patchiness (i.e. less information about the location of the suitable feeding sites), this did not yet lead to additional loss of birds. 5. To cope with these landscape-scale declines in food stocks, an increase in the capacity for instantaneous food processing would be required. Although we show that red knots indeed enlarged their muscular gizzards, the increase in gizzard size was not enough to compensate for the decreased feeding area. 6. Survival of islandica knots in the western Dutch Wadden Sea, based on colour-ring resightings, declined from 89% in the first half of our study period to 82% in the second half of our study period and could account for almost half of the decline in red knot numbers; the rest must have moved elsewhere in winter. 7. Densities of red knots per unit suitable foraging area remained constant at 10 knots ha(-1) between 1996 and 2005, which suggests that red knots have been using the Dutch Wadden Sea to full capacity.


In this paper, we experimentally study cooperative human balancing tasks performed by a pair of a human subject and an artificial controller, based on the coupled inverted pendula (CIP) model. In order to examine what kind of influence does the feedback gain of the controller on dynamic stabilities of the cooperative balancing tasks, we experimentally estimate Lyapunov exponents of balancing errors of the system of human subject and artificial controller, in which the human subject is in cooperation with the artificial controller having several different feedback gains. The result implies that the human subject seems to try to make the artificial controller minimally or neutrally stable.


In this paper, we describe the first hardware design of a combined binary and decimal floating-point multiplier, based on specifications in the IEEE 754-2008 Floating-point Standard. The multiplier design operates on either (1) 64-bit binary encoded decimal floating-point (DFP) numbers or (2) 64-bit binary floating-point (BFP) numbers. It returns properly rounded results for the rounding modes specified in IEEE 754-2008. The design shares the following hardware resources between the two floating-point datatypes: a 54-bit by 54-bit binary multiplier, portions of the operand encoding/decoding, a 54-bit right shifter, exponent calculation logic, and rounding logic. Our synthesis results show that hardware sharing is feasible and has a reasonable impact on area, latency, and delay. The combined BFP and DFP multiplier occupies only 58% of the total area that would be required by separate BFP and DFP units. Furthermore, the critical path delay of a combined multiplier has a negligible increase over a standalone DFP multiplier, without increasing the number of cycles to perform either BFP or DFP multiplication.


Proximity of query keyword occurrences is one important evidence which is useful for effective querybiased document scoring. If a query keyword occurs close to another in a document, it suggests high relevance of the document to the query. The simplest way to measure proximity between keyword occurrences is to use distance between them, i.e., difference of their positions. However, most web pages contain hierarchical structure composed of nested logical blocks with their headings, and it affects logical proximity. For example, if a keyword occurs in a block and another occurs in the heading of the block, we should not simply measure their proximity by their distance. This is because a heading describes the topic of the entire corresponding block, and term occurrences in a heading are strongly connected with any term occurrences in its associated block with less regard for the distance between them. Based on these observations, we developed a heading-aware proximity measure and applied it to three existing proximity-aware document scoring methods: MinDist, P6, and Span. We evaluated these existing methods and our modified methods on the data sets from TREC web tracks. The results indicate that our heading-aware proximity measure is better than the simple distance in all cases, and the method combining it with the Span method achieved the best performance.


There is a higher incidence of mental health problems amongst people with intellectual disabilities. Family members and support staff who provide support to people with intellectual disabilities with mental health difficulties are more likely to experience increased stress. In the mainstream mental health literature it has been demonstrated that psycho-educational family interventions have a positive impact on the person with mental health difficulties and on the family members who support them. This article uses a case study to illustrate the implementation of a family intervention with the support system around someone with intellectual disabilities, autism and chronic mental health difficulties. Following intervention the family member reported a marked decrease in levels of strain. Both the family and team members reported improvement in functioning within the support system.


During floods, sediments are transported from watersheds into reservoirs, slowly decreasing water volumes and this leading to economic losses. Thus, in the long term, sedimentation endangers reservoirs' sustainability. Sediments can also block low-level hydraulic structures such as bottom outlets and powerhouse intakes and cause abrasion of gates and turbines. Additionally, the trapped sediments induce downstream starvation and thus the impoverishment of the river's morphology and ecosystem. Many measures are taken to deal with the sedimentation of reservoirs. Among the most common methods is venting turbidity currents approaching the dam. In fact, these sediment-laden currents carry the major part of sediments found near the dam and thus their evacuation before they settle can be a very effective method to reduce sedimentation. However, dam operators lack information and guidelines to perform efficient venting operations. The present research experimentally and numerically investigates the venting of turbidity currents applied with different timings of outlet opening: (1) before the current reaches the outlet, (2) after the current has reached the outlet and climbed up to the top of the dam, and (3) after the upstream reflection of the muddy lake has begun. The high data acquisition frequency offers the possibility to examine temporal variations of inflow and outflow concentrations and discharges and thus variations of the efficiency of venting in time during the tests. In addition, the experimental results are extended numerically for a better understanding of the effect of opening timing on venting. Results show that opening the outlet before the current reaches the wall can be more efficient than opening after the current has reached the wall. Outputs of this study lead to crucial information for dam operators dealing with reservoirs facing high sedimentation rates due to the formation of turbidity currents.


To address the issue of facet pain, a potential limiting factor with use of the anterior disc alone, 360 dynamic systems are being considered. The advent of facet replacement technology provides an opportunity to asses the combination of anterior disc with artificial facets to address facet pain. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact such a combination has on the tissues and function of the lumbar spine and each other. To this end a validated finite element (FE) model of the lumbar spine was used to evaluate the biomechanics of an anterior disc arthroplasty with a facet arthroplasty system.© 2008 ASME


In this study, we evaluate the usability of an eye-tracking system as a diagnosis and assessment tool for visual avoidance behaviors in the context of social anxiety disorders. We conducted this study over five social phobic patients and five non phobic people who formed the control group. We recorded their eye movements with an eye-tracking system during two public speaking exercises in front of virtual scenes. We then analyzed a selection of important gaze parameters, namely, salient facial feature avoidance and hyperscanning, as well as eye blink rates and durations. The results we obtained show that eye-tracking proves to be a very promising tool.


We have determined the mass density radial profiles of the first five strong gravitational lens systems discovered by the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey. We present an enhancement of the semilinear lens inversion method of Warren & Dye which allows simultaneous reconstruction of several different wavebands and apply this to dual-band imaging of the lenses acquired with the Hubble Space Telescope. The five systems analysed here have lens redshifts which span a range 0.22 ≤ z ≤ 0.94. Our findings are consistent with other studies by concluding that: (1) the logarithmic slope of the total mass density profile steepens with decreasing redshift; (2) the slope is positively correlated with the average total projected mass density of the lens contained within half the effective radius and negatively correlated with the effective radius; (3) the fraction of dark matter contained within half the effective radius increases with increasing effective radius and increases with redshift.


Source code is bimodal: it combines a formal, algorithmic channel and a natural language channel of identifiers and comments. In this work, we model the bimodality of code with name flows, an assignment flow graph augmented to track identifier names. Conceptual types are logically distinct types that do not always coincide with program types. Passwords and URLs are example conceptual types that can share the program type string. Our tool, RefiNym, is an unsupervised method that mines a lattice of conceptual types from name flows and reifies them into distinct nominal types. For string, RefiNym finds and splits conceptual types originally merged into a single type, reducing the number of same-type variables per scope from 8.7 to 2.2 while eliminating 21.9% of scopes that have more than one same-type variable in scope. This makes the code more self-documenting and frees the type system to prevent a developer from inadvertently assigning data across conceptual types.


The Mucrus Mine was worked for about five years (from 1749 to 1754) to great advantage; the depth was then thirty-six fathoms, but the part of the vein within reach of the first shaft having become too narrow to pay for the expense of a second, it was determined to sink some distance to the east in the direction of the vein, which was thus recovered at the depth of from seventeen to twenty fathoms. It yielded yellow copper ore, and was five feet wide; the ore however being too sulphureous it was abandoned, though the original shaft had brought in £30,000, and was so easily drained that a common windlass kept it dry. The cobalt being totally unknown, except to a single adventurer (who on one occasion took away about twenty tons) was neglected, and landed only as rubbish, till a more experienced miner, since dead, at last pointed out its nature and value. From that time people visiting the mine have carried off specimen after specimen, so that the original profusion would now be doubtful, were not these circumstances recollected by most persons then resident in the neighbourhood. The ore has a granulated and metallic appearance; it has the hardness of stone; its colour is dark blue, tending to a beautiful pink. A mass of about a quarter of a hundred weight had the appearance of being found within the copper of vein; but this was only conjecture, for in whatever quantity it might then have been encountered


The purpose of this paper is to develop a strategic map and set priorities based on the relationship of performance measures dependency and feedback of intra and inter cluster strategic goals. This is intended to develop an integrated solution for beef cattle agro-industry performance in Kupang, NTT, Indonesia. The study was conducted in Kupang City as one of the locations for agro-industry development of beef cattle, in the province of NTT in 2013. This study used a critical review of published relevant reports as well as the observation of a reference field research through expert meeting in the selection of system elements are believed to be appropriate for the development of agro-industry performance in the area of?? Kupang, NTT. The results showed that the model approach in an integrated ISM and ANP are able to explore insights and opinions with regard to the decision makers in the organization's strategic objectives agro-industry development of  the area of  beef cattle in Kupang, NTT, and has a strong relevance to create a systematically coherent strategic map. Through this strategic map that is designed using the results of the integration of logical facts ISM models and models of ANP, it is possible to make  a visual and comprehensive  evaluation  of the strategic objectives and modifications made to map out strategies to increase the effectiveness of  the system in  the future. Organizations can deliver the biggest priority on learning and growth perspective, followed in succession by the perspective of investment and market share growth, internal business process improvement, and customer growth in order to generate the development of agro-industry management effectively and efficiently. Keywords: Development of performance measures, integrated approach of  ISM-ANP, beef cattle agro industry in East Nusa Tenggara.


Today, different parts of a value chain operate in different places, different firms may hold ranges of brands with different national heritages, and leaders, shareholders and customers are widely spread across the world. Policy makers are facing new challenges as national borders define less and less of corporate thinking. In this paper, we argue that there is a need to find a new way of how to understand the relationship between business and nation-states.The theoretical framework was constructed by breaking down the concept of national identity of companies. We found four different aspects that we argue can connect business to nations, and in the empirical study, our ambition is to test this framework. By conducting the study using qualitative content analysis, we aim to answer the research question of if it possible to understand the national identity of companies through different aspects of business, and if so, how this is reflected in the national trade policies of four countries.Our results showed that by looking beyond the traditional view of national identity of companies, policy makers have three important factors to take into regards when considering their relations to business; location, culture and contribution.


Here, we develop new heuristic algorithm for solving TSP (Travelling Salesman Problem). In our proposed algorithm, the agent cannot estimate tour lengths but detect only a few neighbor sites. Under the circumstances, the agent occasionally ignores the NN method (choosing the nearest site from current site) and chooses the other site far from current site. It is dependent on relative distances between the nearest site and the other site. Our algorithm performs well in symmetric TSP and asymmetric TSP (time-dependent TSP) conditions compared with the NN algorithm using some TSP benchmark datasets from the TSPLIB. Here, symmetric TSP means common TSP, where costs between sites are symmetric and time-homogeneous. On the other hand, asymmetric TSP means TSP where costs between sites are time-inhomogeneous. Furthermore, the agent exhibits critical properties in some benchmark data. These results suggest that the agent performs adaptive travel using limited information. Our results might be applicable to nonclairvoyant optimization problems.


Long‐term alcohol use affects cognitive and neurophysiological functioning as well as structural brain development. Combining simultaneous electroencephalogram (EEG) recording with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) enables direct, in vivo exploration of cortical excitability and assessment of effective and functional connectivity. In the central nervous system, the effects of alcohol are particularly mediated by alterations in gamma‐aminobutyric acid (GABA)ergic neurotransmission, and TMS‐evoked potentials (TEPs) N45 and N100 in EEG are known to reflect GABAergic function. However, no previous studies have examined the effects of long‐term alcohol use in adolescence on TEPs. In this study, a total of 27 young adults with heavy alcohol use in adolescence and 25 age‐matched, gender‐matched and education‐matched controls with little or no alcohol use participated in TMS–EEG measurements. The motor cortex (M1) was stimulated with an intensity of 90 percent of the resting motor threshold of the abductor pollicis brevis muscle. No significant differences were found in the resting motor threshold, TEP latencies or neuropsychological functioning between the groups. We observed an increase in the global mean field power in the time window of 54‐ to 75‐millisecond post‐TMS, as well as significant topographical differences in the P60 and N100 in those with a history of heavy drinking. Furthermore, there was a marked increase in the GABAergic N45 amplitude in alcohol users. These findings suggest that long‐term alcohol use in adolescence, even when not meeting the diagnostic criteria for a disorder, is associated with changes in connectivity and cortical excitability.


Paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis (PLE) is a disorder characterized by severe cognitive dysfunction and seizures. It is usually associated with small cell lung carcinoma. Diagnosis is difficult because clinical markers are often lacking, and symptoms usually precede the diagnosis of cancer. Serological detection of antineuronal antibodies can be useful. We describe a patient with symptoms of limbic encephalitis, negative for paraneoplastic antibodies, in whom lung cancer was detected.


The growing demand to automate everyday tasks combined with the rapid development of software technologies that can furnish service robots with a large repertoire of skills, are driving the need for design and implementation of human-friendly service robots, i.e., safe and dependable machines operating in the close vicinity of humans or directly interacting with them in social domains. The technological shift from classical industrial robots utilized in structured factory oors to service robots that are used in close collaboration with humans introduces many demanding challenges to ensure safety and autonomy of operation of such robots. In this thesis, we present mechanical design, modeling and software integration for motion/navigation planning, and human-collaborative control of a human-friendly service robot CoCoA: Cognitive Collaborative Assistant. CoCoA is designed to be bimanual with dual 7 degrees-of-freedom (DoF) anthropomorphic arms, featuring spherical wrists. Each arm weighs less than 1.6 kg and possesses a payload capacity of 1 kg. Bowden-cable based transmissions are used for the arms to enable grounding of motors and this arrangement results in lightweight arms with passive back-driveability. Thanks to passive back-driveability and low inertia of its arms, the operation of CoCoA is guaranteed to be safe not only during physical interactions, but also under collisions with the robot arms. The holonomic base of Co- CoA possesses four driven and steered wheel modules and is compatible with wheelchair accessible environments. CoCoA also features a single DoF torso, and dual one DoF grippers, resulting in a service robot with a total of 25 active DoF. The dynamic/kinematic/geometric models of CoCoA are derived in open source software. Inverse kinematics, stable grasp, kinematic reachability and inverse reachability databases are generated for the robot to enable computation of kinematically-feasible collision-free motion/grasp plans for its arms/grippers and navigation plans for its holonomic base, at interactive rates. For the real-time control of the robot, motion/navigation plans characterizing feasible joint trajectories are passed to feedback controllers dedicated to each joint. The joint space control of each joint is implemented in hardware, while communication/synchronization among di erent DoF is ensured through EtherCAT/RS-485 eldbuses running at high sampling rates. To comply with human movements under physical interactions and to enable human collaborative contour tracking tasks, CoCoA also implements passive velocity eld control that guarantees user safety by ensuring passivity of interaction with respect to externally applied forces. The feasibility of the design and the applicability of the overall planning and control framework are demonstrated through dynamic simulations and physical implementations of several service robotics scenarios.


A novel type of acoustic resonance different from the well-known Bragg resonance is predicted theoretically in an acoustic cylindrical waveguide with sinusoidally perturbed hard walls. The resonance is caused by the interaction between the standing acoustic waves, i.e. transverse modes in the waveguide. It results in the frequency spectrum splitting and the appearance of forbidden bands. For small-perturbed wall corrugation, it is found that the shifts of resonant frequencies and the width of the forbidden gap can be as small as the wall amplitude. The appearance of the non-Bragg resonance depends highly on the wall period. When the period is greater than 2.319 times the average cylinder radius, all the non-Bragg resonances cut off. The smaller the wall period, the greater the transverse mode involvement.


In 2012 Arctic sea ice declined to a record minimum. As a consequence of the melting, large sub-ice filaments of the diatom Melosira arctica were released and sank to the seafloor, resulting in a widespread deposition of fresh ice-algal material at 4400 m water depth. Elevated rates of oxygen consumption in sediments with algal deposits indicated remineralization by bacteria and evidenced a response of the entire ecosystem down to the deep sea to elevated carbon flux rates (Boetius et al. 2013, Science 339: 1430-1432). Bacteria play essential roles in carbon and nutrient cycling not only at the seafloor but also in the sea ice and in the water column, contributing significantly to Arctic ecosystem functioning. We sampled a wide range of Arctic environments from the surface to the deep sea, in order to compare bacterial communities from sea ice, melt ponds, surface seawater, deep-sea sediment with and without algal aggregates. Structure and composition of bacterial communities showed strong environmental specificity, with distinct differences between surface and deep-sea environments. Yet, some taxa were shared between algae aggregates from the surface and the seafloor, suggesting a transport of surface-derived bacteria to the deep ocean, as a consequence of rapid sea-ice melt.


Abstract. Databases gathering atmospheric data have great potential not only as data storages but also in serving as platforms for coherent quality assurance (QA). We report on the flagging system and QA tools designed for and implemented in the European UV DataBase (EUVDB; http://uv.fmi.fi/uvdb/ ) for measured data on solar spectral UV irradiance. We confine the study on the data measured by Brewer #037 MkII spectroradiometer in Sodankyla (67.37° N, 26.63° E) in 1990–2014. The quality indicators associated with the UV irradiance spectra uploaded into the database are retrieved from the database and subjected to a statistical analysis. The study demonstrates the performance of the QA tools of the EUVDB. In addition, it yields an overall view of the availability and quality of the solar UV spectra recorded in Sodankyla over a quarter of a century. Over 90 % of the four main quality indicators are flagged as GREEN, indicating the highest achievable quality. For the BLACK flags, denoting data not meeting the pre-defined requirements, the percentages for all the indicators remain below 0.12 %.


This paper discusses the relationship between interest rate and inflation rate on one part and the house price relative to chonsei price (up-front lump-sum deposit from the tenant to the owner for the use of the property with no additional requirement for periodic rent payments) on the other. The key point of the paper is that the relative price of sales to chonsei depends on the ratio of inflation to real interest rate, and thus even when the monetary authority maintains a pre-announced target level of inflation rate, the relative price of sales to chonsei rises if the real interest rate is lowered. This finding seems to help understand the recent hikes of the house prices despite the stabilizing chonsei prices. Recognizing this relationship, it may be sensible to lower the target inflation rate in an economy where real interest rates permanently decline, if the society wishes to reduce its adverse effect on the wealth distribution between house owners and chonsei tenants.


ESL (Execution Support Language) is a language for encoding execution knowledge in embedded autonomous agents. It is similar in spirit to RAPs (1989), RS (1983), and RPL Reactive Plan Language, and its design owes much to these systems. Unlike its predecessors, ESL aims for a more utilitarian point in the design space. ESL was designed primarily to be a powerful and easy-to-use tool, not to serve as a representation for automated reasoning or formal analysis (although nothing precludes its use for these purposes). ESL consists of several sets of loosely coupled features that can be composed in arbitrary ways. It is currently implemented as a set of extensions to Common Lisp, and is being used to build the executive component of a control architecture for an autonomous spacecraft.


The application of moderate cooling rates to metal alloys of certain composition can generate metals that exhibit an amorphous microstructure on a bulk scale. This phenomenon is related to the avoidance of the nucleation of the competing crystalline phases associated with the alloy during solidification. This work describes the devitrification behaviour of the bulk glass forming Mg60Cu29Gd11 system through the use of a number of analytical techniques including DSC, laser confocal microscopy, SEM and XRD. Attention is drawn to the correlation between the more common analytical techniques and the observation of phase transformations on the surface of the metal, evident using a laser scanning confocal microscope fitted with a heating stage.