This article reviews the behavioural effects of Finland's pension reforms in 2005 and 2017. With employment rates in older age groups at relatively low levels, both these reforms aimed to encourage later retirement and introduced a flexible old-age retirement age, initially between ages 63–68 and progressively raised to 65–70 years. However, the two reforms differed notably in terms of the means adopted. The 2005 reform relied heavily on "carrots", i.e. individual choices and financial incentives. In the 2017 reform, "sticks" had a much bigger role, raising the age of eligibility for old-age pension. We consider how the behavioural effects of these two policies differed from each other. The article reviews the existing literature on pre-reform policy evaluations concerning the effects of the pension reforms and explores actual post-reform retirement behaviour based on studies that use register and survey data. It is shown that the 2005 reform failed to induce later retirement, and that employees in higher socio-economic positions benefited more from financial incentives associated with later retirement. In this regard, the 2017 reform, which will automat-ically increase retirement age via a higher age of eligibility, treats different socio-economic groups more equally.


A quick gradient training algorithm for a specific neural network structure called an extra reduced size lattice–ladder multilayer perceptron is introduced. Presented derivation of the algorithm utilizes recently found by author simplest way of exact computation of gradients for rotation parameters of lattice–ladder filter. Developed neural network training algorithm is optimal in terms of minimal number of constants, multiplication and addition operations, while the regularity of the structure is also preserved.


The future and relevance of the history of religions discipline in the Swedish context has been discussed lately. This article is a response to this debate from an Islamic studies perspective. The authors argue that the history of religions discipline may become more relevant if a more self-critical approach is adopted, an interdisciplinary attitude upheld, and if there is an openness to learn from other disciplines studying religion such as Islamic studies. Moreover, a reflection on 'history' in the history of religions is necessary if elitism and a too narrow definition of the discipline are to be avoided. Furthermore, the article addresses the question as to whether or not scholarly engagement in disseminating findings in public should be an intellectual and moral requirement.


We merged data on the extent to which middle schools implemented school-wide positive behavior interventions and supports (SWPBIS) with data on disciplinary exclusions occurring in those schools across a period of 3 years. We conducted descriptive and multivariate analyses of variance to examine if (a) SWPBIS can be implemented with fidelity in middle school settings, (b) SWPBIS implementation is associated with reductions in disciplinary inequity, and (c) changes in disciplinary inequity vary with the proportion of students from low socio-economic and non-White backgrounds. Analysis of intervention fidelity data indicated that schools implemented the core features of SWPBIS based on training and support provided. Based on descriptive outcomes SWPBIS implementation was associated with (a) overall lower rates of ISS, the least severe form of disciplinary exclusion; (b) overall high rates of truancy, especially for AI/AN and Hispanic students; (c) some reductions in disciplinary exclusions for Hispanic and AI/AN students, but few for African-American students; and (4) few increases in the durations of disciplinary exclusions. School-level demographic factors did not appear to impact racial/ethnic inequity in schools implementing SWPBIS. Based on our findings we suggest a number of recommendations, including focused research on integrating behavioral science and critical race theory, training SWPBIS implementers in disaggregating discipline data by student race/ethnicity and interpreting data patterns, increasing meaningful integration of non-White parents into SWPBIS implementation practices, and holding implementers accountable for promoting culturally responsive systems and practices.


In our most recent study of normal aging, we found decreased concentration of multiple chemicals in the brain of middle‐aged subjects, as compared with younger subjects using in vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H‐MRS). We hypothesized that these age‐dependent differences in brain chemistry changes might be a reflection of the multichemical‐networking‐profile (MCNP) changes during aging. Using 1H‐MRS and correlation analysis, we examined the patterns of regional chemical levels and MCNP within and across multiple brain regions for all nine chemicals of 1H‐MR spectra. The brain chemistry changes and MCNP patterns were compared between 21 young (19–31‐year‐old) and 31 middle‐aged (40–52‐year‐old) normal volunteers. Middle‐aged subjects demonstrated a significant decrease of chemical levels in the prefrontal cortex and sensorimotor cortex (SMC), as compared with the young age group. Of these, neurotransmitters GABA and glutamate in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) were altered the most. We also found a significant increase of overall chemical correlation strength in MCNP within and across all studied brain regions with increased age. These changes were caused by alterations in the pattern of negative chemical connectivity across brain regions, which become weaker (less negative) in middle‐aged subjects. The interregional chemical connectivity for the cingulate cortex, SMC and the thalamus was changed the most with increased age. Increased levels of chemical correlation strength across brain regions in aging were found for most chemicals studied (including neurotransmitters GABA and glutamate), and not for N‐acetyl aspartate. These age‐related differences in the connectivity of neurotransmitters were not region dependent. The results suggest that aging is associated with changes of the regional brain chemistry and the brain MCNP. The latter process may reflect an adaptive or compensatory response (possibly related to the elongation of dendrites with aging) to reduced levels of regional brain chemicals. The 1H‐MRS approach proposed here can be used as a valuable tool in the study of the brain chemistry, MCNP and their relationships in normal and abnormal aging.


There has been scant empirical research devoted to footwear. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of how female consumers search, select and evaluate footwear. A mixed-research approach was employed for this study. A questionnaire survey and semi-structured interview were conducted with 21 female students, including the five participants who took part in the eye-tracking study. A total of six different pairs of shoes were selected for the investigation of eye-tracking process. According to the results of this study, fit and comfort are the two most important factors for footwear evaluation. This study also indicated that fit, comfort and style are closely related. Many participants did not feel comfortable purchasing shoes online without trying them on. The results of eye-tracking study indicated that majority of the participants spent more time viewing the top, side and toe of the shoes rather than the back and ankle.


OBJECTIVES
Here we determined antitumour effects of purified compounds such as Valdecoxib, Rofecoxib, L-Methionine and Artocarpin against cancer cell lines.

METHODS
Using purified compounds, assays were performed to determine their effects against cancer cell lines using growth inhibition assays, cytotoxicity assays, and cell survival assays against HeLa, PC3 and MCF7 cells.

RESULTS
The results showed that the selected small molecules L-Methionine, Rofecoxib, and Artocarpin suppressed the growth of more than 90% PC3 cells at 40µM. Similarly, Valdecoxib alone and in combination with other molecules exhibited potent growth inhibition and cytotoxicity against cancer cells tested. Peptide from the serum of M. reticulatus, demonstrated selective cytotoxicity against cancer cells without inhibiting the growth of normal cells.

CONCLUSION
These findings are significant and provide a basis for the rational development of therapeutic anticancer agents, however intensive research is needed to determine in vivo effects of the identified molecules together with their mode of action to realize these expectations. .


Constitutional Democracy in Crisis? (edited by Sandy Levinson, Mark Tushnet and me), which has just been published by Oxford University Press, documents the right-wing populist surge taking place across the globe. Right-wing populists now govern in Turkey, Poland, Hungary, India, South Africa, Israel, and the United States. They are gaining ground in almost every European nation outside of Scandinavia, most notably in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, and Austria. Rightwing populists are weakening the European Union. Even Australia has not been immune to the siren call of a more ethnic and religious nationalism. When empowered, right-wing populists take aim at the inclusive, secular and cosmopolitan commitments of contemporary constitutionalism, and the independent courts designed to foster those commitments.


The majority of stars form in star clusters and many are thought to have planetary companions. We demonstrate that multi-planet systems are prone to instabilities as a result of frequent stellar encounters in these star clusters much more than single-planet systems. The cumulative effect of close and distant encounters on these planetary systems are investigated using Monte Carlo scattering experiments. We consider two types of planetary configurations orbiting Sun-like stars: (i) five Jupiter-mass planets in the semi-major axis range 1-42 AU orbiting a Solar mass star, with orbits that are initially co-planar, circular, and separated by 10 mutual Hill radii, and (ii) the four gas giants of our Solar system. Planets with short orbital periods are not directly affected by encountering stars. However, secular evolution of perturbed systems may result in the ejection of the innermost planets or in physical collisions of the innermost planets with the host star, up to many thousands of years after a stellar encounter. The simulations of the Solar system-like systems indicate that Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are affected by both direct interactions with encountering stars, as well as planet-planet scattering. Jupiter, on the other hand, is almost only affected by direct encounters with neighbouring stars, as its mass is too large to be substantially perturbed by the other three planets. Our results indicate that stellar encounters can account for the apparent scarcity of exoplanets in star clusters, not only for those on wide-orbit that are directly affected by stellar encounters, but also planets close to the star which can disappear long after a stellar encounter has perturbed the planetary system.


Malware is the singly coined word for the words "Malicious Software". Malware is an umbrella term for various types of malicious programs designed by cybercriminals. Today, more and more online users are becoming victims of cyber attacks and organizations invariable of their size are also being targeted.
The malicious programs provide backdoor entry into computing devices for stealing personal information, confidential data, and much more.
As mentioned above, the malware attacks are constantly increasing day by day, so, there is a dire need to conduct malware analysis to understand their types, nature, attacking methodologies, etc
The aim of the diploma thesis is to understand basic security concepts related to applications, which are supported by the android operating system. In addition, static analysis, methods as well as the tools used will help to make these concepts familiar.


Effects of temperature, frequency, and cycles with superimposed hold times are evaluated in Ti-1100 in order to study the complex creep-fatigue-environment interactions in this material. Crack growth rate tests conducted at cyclic loading frequency of 1.0 Hz show that raising the temperature from 593 to 650 C has only a slightly detrimental effect on crack growth rate, although these temperatures produce growth rates significantly higher than at room temperature. From constant {Delta}K tests, the effects of temperature at constant frequency show a minimum crack growth rate at 250 C. From the minimum crack growth rate at 250 C, the crack growth rate increases linearly with temperature. Increases in frequency at constant temperatures of 593 and 650 C produce a continuous decrease in growth rate in going from 0.001 to 1.0 Hz, although the behavior is primarily cycle dependent in this region. Tests at 1.0 Hz with superimposed hold times from 1 to 1,000 s are used to evaluate creep-fatigue-environment interactions. Hold times at maximum load are found to initially decrease and then increase the cyclic crack growth rate with increasing duration. This is attributed to crack-tip blunting during short hold times and environmental degradation at long hold times. Hold timesmore » at minimum load show no change in growth rates, indicating that there is no net environmental degradation to the bulk material beyond that experienced during the baseline 1 Hz cycling.« less


Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome (KTS) is a rare disorder involving a triad of cutaneous capillary malformations (port-wine stain), varicose veins or venous malformations, and bony or soft tissue hyperplasia of an extremity. It is one of many heterogeneous disorders known as overgrowth syndromes that are characterized by either generalized or localized somatic overgrowth. Overgrowth syndromes each have unique clinical, behavioral, and genetic features, but some of these features overlap, causing diagnostic difficulty. Cutaneous manifestations, however, can be key to distinguishing the various syndromes. We present a patient with an unusual variant of KTS consisting of right upper extremity hyperplasia, lymphedema, and cutaneous and visceral lymphangiomas. We review several closely related syndromes and discuss the differential diagnosis of limb hyperplasia.


The signaling molecule auxin is pivotal in coordinating many growth and development processes in plants mainly through the modulation of gene expression. The transcriptional response to auxin is mediated by the family of auxin response factors (ARF). Monomers of this family recognize a DNA motif (TGTC[TC]/[GG]) called the auxin-response element (AuxRE). ARFs can homodimerize through their DNA binding domains (DBD) thereby enabling cooperative binding for a bipartite inverted AuxRE (IR7). In addition to the DBD, most ARFs contain a C-terminal Phox and Bem1p (PB1) domain both capable of homotypic interactions, and mediating interactions with Aux/IAA repressors. Given the dual role of the PB1 domain, and the ability of both DBD and PB1 domain to mediate dimerization, a key question is how each of these domains contributes to conferring DNA-binding specificity and affinity. So far, ARF-ARF and ARF-DNA interactions have mostly been approached using qualitative methods that do not provide a quantitative and dynamic view on the binding equilibria. Here, we utilize a DNA binding assay based on single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer (smFRET) to study the affinity and kinetics of the interaction of several Arabidopsis thaliana ARFs with an IR7 AuxRE. We show that both DBD and PB1 domains of AtARF2 contribute toward DNA binding, and we identify ARF dimer stability as a key parameter in defining affinity and kinetics seen for the DBDs of different AtARFs. Lastly, we derived an analytical solution for a four-state cyclic model that explains both the kinetics and the affinity of the interaction between AtARF2 and IR7. Our work demonstrates that the affinity of ARFs towards composite DNA response elements can be tuned by small changes of their dimerization equilibrium suggesting that this effect has major implications for ARF-mediated transcriptional activity.


ABSTRACT Background: Heart failure (HF) is a major debilitating disease. HF patients with iron deficiency(ID) have poorer outcomes and treatment significantly improves outcomes. We set out to update the national prevalence of ID in the USA and its association with anemia using data from NHANES 2017–2018. Methods: Diagnosis of HF was self-reported. ID was defined as serum ferritin levels <100 ng/mL or a ferritin level between 100 and 299 ng/mL with transferrin saturation <20%. Anemia was defined as a hemoglobin level of <13 g/dl and <12 g/dl for men and women, respectively. Differences in prevalence of ID across various groups were assessed using Chi-squared test for categorical variables and equality of means for continuous variables with p-values <0.05 considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 187 persons ≥20 years, corresponding to a 5.57million had HF. The prevalence of ID was 48.17% (95% CI 36.84–59.69) and the prevalence of anemia was 12.08%(95% CI 8.16–17.53). Diabetics (61.03%) were more likely to have ID compared to nondiabetics (35.38%), p 0.022. The prevalence of ID was similar in persons with anemia (47.45%) and persons without anemia (48.27%), p-value 0.983. The prevalence of ID has been constant for at least the past 20 years, making ID in HF an underdiagnose and/or undertreated condition among patients with HF and should be addressed. Conclusions: One in every two persons with HF has ID. Also, prevalence of ID was similar in patients with anemia and without anemia. Anemia should not be considered a prerequisite for screening for ID in patients with HF.


Spectral techniques, like harmonic balance, are classical numerical tools for designing nonlinear oscillators and microwave circuits. Recently these techniques have been exploited for investigating complex dynamics in nonlinear systems. In this manuscript we firstly show that limit cycle Floquet's multipliers and the related bifurcation phenomena can be estimated through a spectral approach, entirely based on the describing function technique. Then we consider some significant case studies, and we show that our method yields more accurate results than the other describing function-based approaches proposed in the literature


This study talk about teacher communication style. The teacher must have a new variation when teaching begin. There are not only teaching technique but also how to comunicate a lesson. Teacher must have a communication skill belonging to communcation style. That is why teacher used a communication style, meaning that every used communication style when the lesson begin. This research is aim analyze and describe a variation of teacher communication style. The result show a characteristic of teacher communication syle esspecially in surakarta town.


This study aims to determine the stability of total phenolic content, antioxidant activity, α-glucosidase inhibitory activity, physical properties (total dissolved solid, pH, color), and total microorganism of antidiabetic functional beverage at certain storage period. The functional beverage made from red betel leaf, cinnamon, and red ginger by using infuse method. Parameters were analyzed for 28 days on 10°C and 30°C of storage temperature. Antioxidant activity was measured by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay, α-glucosidase inhibitory activity was determined in vitro, and total microorganism was measured by total plate count (TPC) method. The results showed that there were increasement in total dissolved solid of 1.92% (10°C) and 3.85% (30°C), and pH values of 15.30% (10°C) and 13.57% (30°C). In contrary, there were decreasement in total phenolic content of 61.63% (10°C) and 79.73% (30°C), antioxidant activity of 46.80% (10°C) and 53.19% (30°C), and α-glucosidase inhibitory activity of 5.43% (10°C) and 0.39% (30°C). Total microorganism at 10oC was <1.0×100 CFU/mL until day 28, while at 30oC was 2.0×100 CFU/mL on day 28. Based on the results, the functional beverage was good in physical and microbiological quality and still have biological activity as an antidiabetic beverage during storage.


Foreword: Philip Gross Creative Writing and Education: An Introduction: Graeme Harper Chapter 1. Randall Albers and Steve May: Revelation, Transgression, Disclosure, and the Tyranny of Truth Chapter 2. Liz Cashdan and Moy McCrory: Dragging the Corpse: Landscape & Memory Commentary: Marcela Sulak Chapter 3. Dianne Donnelly: Embracing the Learning Paradigm: How Assessment Drives Creative Writing Pedagogy Chapter 4. Toby Emert and Maureen Hall: Greater Satisfaction from the Labor: Creative Writing as a Text Response Strategy in the Teacher Education Classroom Commentary: Paul Munden Chapter 5. Fan Dai: Creative Writing as Education in the Chinese Context Commentary: Asma Mansoor Chapter 6. Craig Batty, Simon Holloway and Gill James (with Graeme Harper): Questions and Answers: Responding to Creative Writing Teaching and Learning Commentary: Katharine Coles Chapter 7. Nigel McLoughlin: Interpretation, Affordance and Realised Intention: the transaction(s) between reader and writer. Chapter 8. Gail Pittaway: Movement, maps, mnemonics and music: teaching fiction and poetry writing using sight and sound Commentary: Sieneke de Rooij Chapter 9. Jeri Kroll: Originality and Research: Knowledge Production in Creative Writing Doctoral Degrees Chapter 10. Kevin Brophy and Elizabeth MacFarlane: Re-designing the lecture in a cyber-world: a creative writing case study Commentary: Maggie Butt Chapter 11. Michael Theune and Bob Broad: The Poetry of Evaluation Chapter 12. Nigel Krauth: The Radical Future of Teaching Creative Writing Commentary - Brooke Biaz


This article argues that within Second Temple Judaism, Jeremiah was well known as the paradigmatic "persecuted prophet" and was likewise closely associated with the consequential fall and destruction of Jerusalem. Thus, when the Gospel of Luke portrays Jesus as the "persecuted prophet" in conflict with the leaders in Jerusalem or recounts Jesus' warnings of judgment on Jerusalem, allusions and parallels to Jeremiah are numerous, implying that the traditions associated with LXX Jeremiah form a critical background for understanding those texts.


Hook selectivity, sex ratio of catches and relative abundance (Catch Per Unit Effort – CPUE) were assessed for the pelagic stingray Pteroplatytrygon violacea (Bonaparte, 1872), caught by longline gear in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean over the continental slope and adjacent oceanic area. The catches were carried out at depths of 200–4000 m by research cruises in 2002 and 2003, from Cabo Frio (22°52′S) to Laguna (28°28′S); and by hook selectivity experiments from 2004 to 2008, from Itajai (26°54′S) to Tramandai (29°59′S). Hook selectivity experiments indicated higher catches of stingrays with 'J' hooks (9/0, 10° offset) commonly used by the pelagic longline fleet than with 'circle' hooks (18/ 0, 10° offset). 'circle' hooks reduce the longline by-catches of this species. Most of the stingrays caught were males (6 : 1). One female aborted mid-term embryos at the time of capture. CPUE was highest between spring and autumn and lowest during winter.


The purpose of this paper is to show that fluctuation noise has a statistical distribution of amplitude versus time which follows the normal-error law. This fact is also correlated with the measurements of crest factor made on the noise output of band-pass amplifiers by various investigators. It is shown that the distribution of noise amplitude continues to follow the normal-error law, even after the noise has been passed through frequency-selective circuits. It is shown why the measurements of crest factor, made by various experimenters, group around the value 4, but it is pointed out that this is not a true crest factor because the voltage occasionally goes considerably higher. The ratio of the average to the effective voltage is shown to be 0.798. A discussion is given of the kinds of noise which do not follow this normal-error law.


Under the complex and fluctuant operational condition, the fault feature extraction and fault warning index quantization become the critical technology for the fault warning of wind turbine gearbox. The randomness of wind speed and load always makes the operating staff difficult to estimate the healthy running state, causing the mistakes and delays of fault warning. The paper proposes a novel method based on turbine vibration data analysis to realize the fault warning of wind turbine gearbox and even increase the fault warning accuracy. The paper firstly utilizes the order resampling method to transfer the non-stationary time-domain vibration signal into stationary angle-domain vibration signal, and then extracts dimensionless index of angle domain series to reflect the running trend of wind turbine gearbox qualitatively. Different index-correlation models should be established to recognize different wind turbine gearbox faults. Finally, based on the multivariate outlier detection of angle domain series index, the paper realizes the fault warning of wind turbine gearbox quantitatively. The paper also utilizes the gearbox fault simulation test-rig to verify the method. The result indicates the fault warning method owns validity, avoiding the serious accidents of wind turbine gearbox.


Abstract The animal unit has been a multiple-use concept in the natural resource sciences. This paper examines the animal unit as an example of a general process of concept design, a process involving multiple options for defining the concept, and multiple objectives and multiple applications for the concept in range management science. Based on this analysis, the animal unit is abstracted as a unit of energy demand independent of interactive considerations of forage or environment. The proposed definition optimizes the utility and universality of the concept by minimizing confounding in the concept's most important applications. The result is a simplified concept that can be used to explicitly express animal equivalences, and can be used in a web of more complex, interactive concepts and models involving human objectives, natural resources, and livestock. The animal unit and animal-unit equivalent are relatively simple examples of synthetic concepts involving communication that are central to the identity of range management science.


Aggregate computing is an emerging approach to the engineering of complex coordination for distributed systems, based on viewing system interactions in terms of information propagating through collectives of devices, rather than in terms of individual devices and their interaction with their peers and environment. The foundation of this approach is the distillation of a number of prior approaches, both formal and pragmatic, proposed under the umbrella of field-based coordination, and culminating into the field calculus, a functional programming model for the specification and composition of collective behaviours with equivalent local and aggregate semantics. This foundation has been elaborated into a layered approach to engineering coordination of complex distributed systems, building up to pragmatic applications through intermediate layers encompassing reusable libraries of provably resilient program components. In this survey, we trace the development and antecedents of field calculus, review the current state of aggregate computing theory and practice, and discuss a roadmap of current research directions that we believe can significantly impact the agenda of coordination models and


Thermoelectric (TE) materials are attracting renewed attention for clean energy conversion. Reducing the dimension of materials to 2D/1D (e.g. thin film and nanowire) is one major approach to achieve high figure of merit (ZT) in the existing TE materials system. Electrodeposition has been widely used in fabricating various low dimensional TE materials. However, electrodeposition behavior of CoSb3 skutterudites is rarely reported. In this work, we report the co-deposition behavior of cobalt and antimony in citric based solutions by electrodeposition. The effects of deposition potential and concentration of cobalt and antimony containing precursors were studied. The focus of the study will be on the crystalline properties and chemical composition of the deposited films.


Intelligent transportation management requires not only statistical information on users' mobility patterns, but also knowledge of their selected transportation modes. The latter can be inferred from users' GPS records, as captured by smartphone or vehicle sensors. The recently demonstrated prevalence of deep neural networks in learning from data makes them a promising candidate for transportation mode identification. However, the massive geospatial data produced by GPS sensors are typically unlabeled. To address this problem, we propose an unsupervised learning approach for transportation mode identification. Specifically, we first pretrain a deep Convolutional AutoEncoder (CAE) using unlabeled fixed-size trajectory segments. Then, we attach a clustering layer to the CAE's embedding layer, the former maintaining cluster centroids as trainable weights. Finally, we retrain the composite clustering model, encouraging the encoder's learned representation of the input data to be clustering-friendly by striking a balance between the model's reconstruction and clustering losses. By further incorporating features computed over each segment, we achieve a clustering accuracy of 80.5% on the Geolife dataset without using any labels. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to leverage unsupervised deep learning for clustering of GPS trajectory data by transportation mode.


The normal female life cycle is associated with a number of hormonal milestones: menarche, pregnancy, contraceptive use, menopause, and the use of replacement sex hormones. Menarche marks the onset of menses and cyclic changes in hormone levels. Pregnancy is associated with rising noncyclic levels of sex hormones, and menopause with declining noncyclic levels. Hormonal contraceptive use during the reproductive years and hormone replacement in menopause are therapeutic hormonal interventions that alter the levels and cycling of sex hormones. These events and interventions may cause a change in the prevalence or intensity of headache. The menstrual cycle is the result of a carefully orchestrated sequence of interactions between the hypothalamus, pituitary, ovary, and endometrium, with the sex hormones acting as modulators and effectors at each level. Estrogen and progestins have potent effects on central serotonergic and opioid neurons, modulating both neuronal activity and receptor density. The primary trigger of Menstrually-related migraine (MM) appears to be the withdrawal of estrogen rather than the maintenance of sustained high or low estrogen levels. However, changes in the sustained estrogen levels with pregnancy (increased) and menopause (decreased) appear to affect headaches. Headaches associated with OC use or menopausal hormonal replacement therapy may be related, in part, to periodic discontinuation of oral sex hormone preparations. The treatment of migraine associated with changes in sex hormone levels is frequently difficult and the patients are often refractory to therapy. Based on what is known of the pathophysiology of migraine, we have attempted to provide a logical approach to the treatment of headaches that are associated with menses, menopause, and OCs using abortive and preventive medications and hormonal manipulations. Considerable evidence suggests a link between estrogen and progesterone, the female sex hormones, and migraine. (Silberstein and Merriam, 1997; Lipton and Stewart, 1993; Epstein et al., 1975; Goldstein and Chen, 1982; Selby and Lance, 1960) Although no gender difference is apparent in prepubertal children, with migraine occurring equally in 4p. 100 of boys and girls, (Goldstein and Chen, 1982, Waters and O'Connor, 1971) migraine occurs more frequently in adult women (18p. 100) than in men (6p. 100). (Lipton and Stewart, 1993) Migraine develops most frequently in the second decade, with the peak incidence occurring with adolescence. (Selby and Lance, 1960; Epstein et al., 1975) Menstrually-related migraine (MM) begins at menarche in 33p. 100 of affected women (Epstein et al. , 1975). MM occurs mainly at the time of menses in many migrainous women, and exclusively with menses (true menstrual migraine [TMM]) in some (Epstein et al., 1975). Menstrual migraine can be associated with other somatic complaints arising before and often persisting into menses, such as nausea, backache, breast tenderness, and cramps and like them appears to be the result of falling sex hormone levels (Silberstein and Merriam, 1997; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). In addition, premenstrual migraine can be associated with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PDD), also called "premenstrual syndrome" (PMS), which is distinct from the physical symptoms of the perimenstrual period and is probably not directly driven by declining progesterone levels (Mortola, 1998). Migraine occurring during (rather than prior to) menstruation is usually not associated with PMS (Silberstein and Merriam, 1997). Migraine may worsen during the first trimester of pregnancy and, although many women become headache-free during the last two trimesters, 25p. 100 have no change in their migraine (Silberstein, 1997). MM typically improves with pregnancy, perhaps due to sustained high estrogen levels (Silberstein, 1997). Hormonal replacement with estrogens can exacerbate migraine and oral contraceptives (OCs) can change its character and frequency


The natural remanent magnetization (NRM) of the Longmyndian sediments is carried by hematite and was imposed post-tectonically in a palaeomagnetic field D = 54°, I = +80° (α95 = 6°). Crosscutting dykes and their baked contacts have stable NRM D = 316°, I = -16° (α95 = 10°). The corresponding palaeomagnetic poles are 60°N, 29°E and 19°N, 223°E respectively. These results are consistent with (but do not prove) the notion that deformation of the sediments and dyke intrusion both occurred during a period of rapid "apparent polar wander" during the late Proterozoic. After rotating the European and American plates into their pre-Wegenerian drift positions the pole from the dykes is consistent with late Proterozoic data from the whole region but the (older) pole from the Longmyndian sediments is not—a change which may reflect contemporary closure of the pre-Caledonide ocean. Uriconian and Malvernian rocks carry magnetizations which are probably post-tectonic; their in situ directions are not significantly different from either the Longmyndian NRM or the present geomagnetic field. Because at least some of these NRMs reside in multidomain magnetite of doubtful palaeomagnetic stability, and in the absence of further controls, the age and geological significance of these remanences is unknown. Some Monian metasediments from Lleyn are only partially stable palaeomagnetically, and even the more stable component is probably secondary and of Caledonian age. Arvonian metavolcanies from North Wales could carry a primary remanence, but the preliminary studies reported here are inadequate to define it with acceptable precision.


The use of corticosteroids and nebulised bronchodilators in bronchial asthma (BA) is a major concern during the COVID-19 pandemic. Inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) is the recommended treatment for all levels of BA severity, while oral corticosteroid (OCS) is used in severe asthma and acute exacerbation of BA (AEBA).1 Because corticosteroid is an immunosuppressant, BA patients on corticosteroid treatment are theoretically at a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 and may suffer more severe disease. Nebulisation of bronchodilators is a frequent treatment modality for patients attending an emergency department for AEBA because of a common perception that it is more effective and faster in symptom relief. However, nebulisation may cause dispersion of SARS-CoV-2 into the surrounding environment, putting other patients and
1
healthcare workers at risk. There are several issues that need to be addressed. First, AEBA precipitated by COVID-19 is difficult to distinguish from other respiratory tract infections. Second, patients may have asymptomatic COVID-19 and their AEBA may be precipitated by other causes. Third, AEBA may be the only complaint of the COVID-19 patients, who lack symptoms such as fever, headache etc. In this Letter, we address some common concerns in managing BA during the COVID-19 pandemic.
First, are patients with BA more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection? The prevalence of BA in COVID-19 patients in China is remarkably low (see Table). A recent study by Li et al. reported that only 0.9% of COVID-19 patients admitted to a hospital in Wuhan, China, had BA.2 Two other studies specifically looked for BA among COVID-19 patients but did not report any cases.3,4 BA was not included as a significant comorbidity reported by other studies conducted in China. In contrast, studies in the United States reported the prevalence of BA to be 17% among hospitalised COVID-19 patients and 9.1% among COVID-19 patients admitted to intensive care units, which is higher than the national average of 7.7%.5,6 Based on these data, there is no consistent evidence to suggest patients with BA are more susceptible to COVID-19.
The second concern is whether BA patients suffer from severe COVID-19 if infected by SARS-CoV-2. Li et al. reported that BA is not associated with more severe disease or higher mortality in COVID-19.2 To date, no other study has reported BA patients are at higher risk of poor outcomes or have more severe exacerbation if infected by SARS-CoV-2. Since SARS-CoV-2 utilises angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) as a cellular entry receptor to infect the human host, one possible explanation for the reduced susceptibility of BA patients to SARS-CoV-2 infection and to severe COVID-19 is the reduced ACE-2 gene expression in nasal and bronchial epithelial cells in patients with allergic rhinitis and atopic asthma.7
Next, should regular ICS or OCS be withheld during the COVID-19 pandemic? The Global Initiative for Asthma and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has recommended continuation of ICS and OCS as clinically indicated during the COVID-19 pandemic.1 Withdrawal of corticosteroids may lead to worsening of asthma control and severe AEBA. Seeking treatment at healthcare facilities for uncontrolled BA during the pandemic may predispose these patients to SARS-CoV-2 infection and further overwhelm the healthcare facility. Therefore, corticosteroids should be maintained during the pandemic to keep BA under control. There is also some evidence suggesting ICS may be beneficial in treating COVID-19. First, the combination of ICS with bronchodilator has been shown to supress coronavirus replication and cytokine production in vitro.8 Second, inhaled ciclesonide, a corticosteroid
1
commonly used to treat allergic rhinitis and BA has been shown to successfully treat three cases of COVID-19 pneumonia.9
A fourth concern is the administration of bronchodilators by nebulisers to patients with moderate-to-severe AEBA during the pandemic. Current evidence indicates that COVID-19 is transmitted by droplets, direct contact and fomites. Airborne transmission of COVID-19 from person-to-person has not been reported. However, nebulisation may promote airborne transmission of respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. Viable SARS-CoV-2 is reported in aerosols generated by jet nebuliser for up to 3 hours.10 The use of a jet nebuliser to deliver bronchodilators to a severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) patient was the cause of a major nosocomial SARS outbreak.11 SARS-CoV-2 has a higher binding affinity to the ACE-2 receptor than the SARS coronavirus. Therefore, it is very likely nebulisation of bronchodilators can cause aerosol transmission of COVID-19. If possible, nebulisation should be avoided. Airborne precautions should be strictly adhered to if nebulisation is unavoidable, such as in patients with life-threatening AEBA.
The fifth concern is how to administer bronchodilators for moderate-to-severe AEBA during the COVID-19 pandemic. Randomised control trials (RCTs) have reported that delivery of bronchodilators using pressurised meter-dose inhalers (pMDIs) with a spacer is equally effective and safe as nebulisation in adults with non-life-threatening AEBA.12 The 2005 joint report by the American College of Chest Physician and the American College of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology concluded that there is no significant difference in terms of efficacy and adverse outcomes among patients receiving pMDIs, dry powder inhalers (DPIs), or nebulisation for AEBA.13 Therefore, either pMDI with spacer or DPI can be used to administer bronchodilators in AEBA. The former does not depend on the patient's inspiratory effort which is frequently reduced during AEBA, making it a better option than DPI. A meta-analysis of several RCTs concludes that patients with AEBA receiving a combination of inhaled short-acting s2-agonist (SABA) and short-acting muscarinic antagonist (SAMA) are more likely to have lung function improvement and less likely to be hospitalised compared to inhaled SABA alone.14 Based on this evidence, pMDI of SABA and SAMA with a spacer is the most appropriate treatment for adults with moderate-to-severe AEBA.
Finally, the use of systemic corticosteroids to treat AEBA may raise safety concerns during the COVID-19 outbreak. Systemic corticosteroids significantly reduce hospitalisations and exacerbation relapse in adults with AEBA. To our knowledge, an adverse effect of systemic corticosteroids has only been reported in patients with severe SARS and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), but not in patients with COVID-19. Guidelines by the WHO
1
do not recommend against the use of systemic corticosteroids in COVID-19 patients if the use is clinically indicated, such as for AEBA.15 Therefore, short courses of systemic corticosteroids can be given to patients with AEBA during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In conclusion, other than avoiding nebuliser use, the management of BA during the COVID-19 pandemic is not different from the usual practice. However, more studies are needed to determine whether BA patients are more susceptible to COVID-19 or have more severe COVID-19.


A thermal haptic device (THD) is used to implement temperature information in many virtual environments. The THD enables a user to feel the temperature as well as the thermal conductivity. Moreover, as temperature influences human emotion and preference, the THD enriches senses and experiences in a virtual environment. In this paper, we propose laser-assisted dual-function copper nanowire (CuNW) polyurethane acrylate (PUA) patterns for use as feedback controllable stretchable heaters as a 12-pixels THD, with highly enhanced mechanical and chemical durability. The CuNW–PUA pattern retains the stretchability from its serpentine mesh form, and the CuNW embedded in the PUA structure provides mechanical and chemical stability, facilitating a stable resistance. The CuNW–PUA pattern serves as a simultaneous heater and thermometer with accurate temperature control. Furthermore, the CuNW–PUA pattern is fabricated using a simple, fast, and elaborate laser process under ambient conditions. Finally, the CuNW–PUA pattern was used to realize heat transfer in various virtual environments in the form of 12-pixels on a nylon glove, showing potential for stretchable applications in next generation devices.


Of all current methods for measuring spacecraft attitude, the use of star sensors produces the most accurate measurements. Conventional star sensors repeat these processes with Lost-In-Space case. To advance the methods available to solve these problems, this paper presents an autonomous predictive centroiding algorithm for the star sensor. The star sensor works in the star predictive centroiding case while few recognized stars within the FOV (Field of View). The ideal locations of unrecognized stars and recognized stars in star image are predicted at first. Then the corresponding real locations of recognized stars and unrecognized stars are obtained in the threshold scan window of predictive centroiding. It enables only several hundred pixels to be scanned. The speed and the accuracy of this algorithm are successfully demonstrated in comparison with the ordinary centroiding algorithms which don't use the previous image data. Finally the autonomous predictive centroiding algorithm was successfully demonstrated with real sky experiment in 2008 and on-orbit in 2010.


Budd Chiari syndrome (BCS) can present with ascites and with the so-called hepatic mosaic enhancement pattern (MEP) on CT and MR imaging, as well as other different diseases. However, no previously cases of transient MEP and BCS were reported. Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) is an established interventional treatment of BCS, whose timing is a debated issue. We report a case of BCS presenting with ascites and transient MEP and treated with early TIPS. We report the case of a 73-year-old man who presented with ascites and MEP on CT imaging. Anticoagulant therapy resulted in disappearance of MEP, despite persistence of ascites. However, liver biopsy was performed confirming a picture of BCS. Despite clinical albeit suboptimal response to medical therapy, TIPS was performed. Subsequently, ascites disappeared and the clinical outcome was favourable after 30 months. Transient hepatic MEP on CT imaging may be indicative of BCS. Furthermore, early interventional treatment for of BCS could challenge the step-wise strategy.


The incidence of cholelithiasis in paediatric age is increasing. However, the guidelines concerning the diagnostic approach and treatment are not well established and are controversial. The authors report a rare diagnosis of calculous cholecystitis and choledocholithiasis in a premature infant that attended the emergency room for persistent vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal swelling. At this age, the clinical presentation is unspecific, the diagnosis is not obvious and the treatment is not well documented. A detailed anamnesis and the combination of several predisposing risk factors must alert the physician to the diagnosis. After an unsuccessful attempt with conservative treatment, the decision was made to try a complex surgical procedure, with diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. So far, this procedure, at this age group, has not yet been reported in the literature. Accordingly, this makes this case unique and strengthens its use as an innovative approach that achieved therapeutic success.


The patterns of shifting of population from the stage of being single to being married by age and sex are of great demographic importance because of their significant role in determining the population composition and growth through family formation and fertility. The proportions of population getting married at different ages are of importance for the population planning programme since only married persons can be the potential producers of children in a society like Pakistan where illegitimate fertility is almost non-existant. Such proportions have also important bearings on social and economic characteristics like school attendance and labour force participation particularly of females. The trend in the number of marriages has important implications for housing programmes, community planning and for the enterprises like insurance companies who are concerned with providing life and health insurance of the married couples.


Amphirionin-2 is a linear polyketide metabolite that exhibits potent and selective cytotoxic activity against certain human cancer cell lines. We disclose herein the first total synthesis of amphirionin-2 and determination of its absolute configuration. Our synthesis featured an extensive use of cobalt-catalyzed Mukaiyama-type cyclization of γ-hydroxy olefins for stereoselective formation of all the tetrahydrofuran rings found in the natural product, and a late-stage Stille-type coupling for convergent assembly of the entire carbon backbone. Four candidate diastereomers of amphirionin-2 were synthesized in a unified, convergent manner, and their spectroscopic/chromatographic properties were compared with those of the authentic material. The present study culminated in the reassignment of the C5/C7 relative configuration, assignment of the C12/C18 relative configuration, and determination of the absolute configuration of amphirionin-2.


Purpose:  To investigate 100 most cited manuscripts according to a bibliometric perspective via the Visualization of Similarities (VOS) viewer to learn about the trends of CSC in the past 20 years.
Study Design:  Bibliometric analysis.
Place and Duration of Study:  Sakarya University Training and Research Hospital, Turkey.
Methods:  The bibliometric database of the Web of Knowledge was used and keywords 'central serous chorioretinopathy' and 'serous choroidopathy' and 'CSCR' were entered into the search area. The retrieved manuscripts were arranged according to the number of total citations since publication to identify the 100 most-cited manuscripts. They were investigated for the total number of citations, type and name of the journal, year of publication, names of the first authors, country of origin, type of study, and main topic. The Visualization of Similarities (VOS) viewer was used to establish and visualize the bibliometric networks in this study.
Results:  The search retrieved 2069. Majority of the 100 most-cited manuscripts were published in the leading ophthalmology journals (96%). They were written by 477 authors. Spaide RF, Yannuzzi LA, and Eandi CM were the top three authors. The most frequently publishing country was USA (27%) and the most productive institutions were identified in USA and Holland. The most common topics were imaging (41%), such as optical coherence tomography (21%) and optical coherence tomography angiography (2%). Eleven of the 100 most-cited manuscripts were published in 2015.
Conclusion:  Bibliometric analysis showed that CSC is an important topic and the most cited manuscripts are published in leading ophthalmology journals.


Though forced displacement is prominent within academic research, as well as within public, political, and media debates, all too often the image of forcibly displaced persons is that of voiceless victims and the structural causes behind their trauma are overlooked. The article works to disrupt this problematic visualization through an original study of walking tours offered by refugees and internally displaced persons in Berlin and Jaffa. It utilizes walking as the method and theme of research, mapping the potential of walking as a collaborative pedagogy and a subaltern design tactic to claim political participation and belonging in the city. Through this, the article offers a new analytical perspective concerning the agency of discalced persons to navigate the politics of their (im)mobility and (in)visibility. The main argument is that these guided tours or 'autotopographies' of forced displacement hold the political capacity to alter the public visibility of displaced people, but also to illuminate aspects that are overlooked or erased within the city's official display of memory. The article therefore advances debates about the politics of urban space and heritage sites and contributes to research which seeks to theorize the multiple geo-temporal colonial entanglement of forced displacement regimes.


Abstract The present paper analyses the unsteady 2‐dimensional flow of a viscous MHD fluid between two parallel infinite plates. The two infinite plates are considered to be approaching each other symmetrically, causing the squeezing flow. A similarity transformation is used to reduce the partial differential equations modeling the flow, to a single fourth‐order non‐linear differential equation containing the Reynolds number and the magnetic field strength as parameters. The velocity functions are obtained for a range of values of both parameters by using the homotopy perturbation method. The total resistance to the upper plate is presented.


Many bryozoans, exemplified by species of Membranipora, are obligate epiphytes. We used laboratory and field experiments to ascertain whether colonies of Mernbranipora isabelleana benefit from contact with the fronds and exudates of Lessonia trabeculata, their natural substratum in central Chile. Type of substratum, presence or absence of microalgal food and of L. trabeculata fronds were the experimental factors, while colonial growth and percentage of non-degenerated zooids were the measured response variables. Colonies on L. trabeculata fronds did not grow faster than those attached to glass slides, either in the laboratory or in the field Colonies grown for l moon fronds, however, retained a significantly higher proportion of non-degenerated zooids than colonies grown on slldes (88 and 73 % respectively in the laboratory; 100 and 84 % respectively in the field). When grown on slides, without microalgal food, colonies retained 79% of non-degenerated zooids in the presence of fronds but only 28% in their absence. These results suggest that colonies absorbed algal exudates when fronds were present, thus preventing the early degeneration of zooids. Even when fronds were separated from colonies by borosilicate membranes, allowing only the diffusion of molecules smaller than 1200 daltons, the above effect was still pronounced. In the field, colonies on fronds had a higher survival rate than those on slides. Association with an algal host therefore enhances at least 2 important life-history parameters in M isabelleana: the percentage of non-degenerated zooids and colonial survivorship. Our results suggest that the trophic association with seaweeds is likely to be particularly important to epiphytic bryozoans under conditions of reduced particulate-food concentration.


Background Myositis is a systemic autoimmune condition causing skeletal muscle inflammation and fibrosis as well as extra skeletal involvement. Cardiac involvement is well described and has morbidity and mortality. It can be diffuse or focal which can make assessment using conventional imaging techniques more difficult. To date the incidence is poorly defined using conventional cardiac investigations. Purpose To investigate the reproducibility of a 12 segment ventricular myocardial model of T1 and T2 mapping in healthy volunteers and then to use this methodology in patients with myositis, comparing it to the current non invasive gold standard of troponin I level for cardiac involvement and then monitor how it changes with time and treatment. Methods 19 Healthy volunteers were scanned at 1.5T. T1 (using a MOLLI sequence) and T2 mapping were performed in basal and mid short axis. The images were analysed by blinded readers to assess the reproducibility of the 12 segment myocardial segmentation approach. Patients were recruited from the Rheumatology department which is a regional centre for myositis. Patients with cardiac symptoms or elevated troponin I were recruited. Recruits underwent CMR with tissue mapping and late gadolinium enhancement at the first visit with 2 subsequent non-contrast mapping studies followed by a final gadolinium enhanced CMR at 12 months. All patient scans were performed on the same 1.5T scanner and analysed by the same reader. In order to mitigate for bias a second reader, blinded to the clinical details including the troponin, repeated the analysis on 50% of studies. The T1 and T2 were calculated for 12 segments in each scan. Results Reproducibility of a 12 segment model for analysing tissue mapping sequences is excellent with a coefficient of variability of 1.4% for T1% and 2.6% for T2. Myositis patients with elevated troponin I had a significantly higher mean T1 and T2 than healthy volunteers (p<0.0001 both). Myositis patients with elevated troponin i have a significantly higher T1 and T2 than myositis patients with normal troponin I (p<0.01 both). Patients with myositis and a negative troponin I have a significantly higher T1 and T2 than healthy volunteers (T1 p<0.01, T2 p<0.05). There is a significant reduction in T1 and T2 values in patients with treatment over 8 months (p<0.05 both). Conclusions A twelve segment model for myocardial T1 and T2 assessment is highly reproducible which is important in this disease process as there can be either focal or diffuse myocardial involvement. T1 and T2 are strongly associated with troponin I positivity with both likely to be a reflection of active inflammation in this disease process and improve with immunesuppression therapy fairly quickly.


Ever since the United States divided the Korean peninsula in 1945, North Korea has had to cope with the existential challenge of U.S. hostility. Korea marks the western boundary of the empire, a border area where the sea power of the United States adjoins the land power of Russia and China. North Korea has been able to utilize this liminality to create a sovereign state—the Democratic People's Republic of Korea—whose independence is not welcomed by either Moscow or Beijing but tolerated because the alternatives, a client of the other or absorption into the U.S. empire, are considered worse. Washington, as global hegemon, has been less willing to tolerate this independence but has faced constraints. The result has been a policy of hostility, of unrelenting diplomatic and economic war of varying intensity, stopping short of actual kinetic war, though never far from it.


The purpose of this work is to study and analyze mobile robot behavior. In performing this, a framework is adopted and developed for mobile and bipedal robot. The robots are design, build, and run as proceed from the development of mechanical structure, electronics and control integration, and control software application. The behavior of those robots are difficult to be observed and analyzed qualitatively. To evaluate the design and behavior quality, modeling and simulation of robot structure and its task capability is performed. The stepwise procedure to robot behavior study is explained. Behavior cases study are experimented to bipedal robots, transporter robot and Autonomous Guided Vehicle (AGV) developed at our institution. The experimentation are conducted on those robots by adjusting their dynamic properties and/or surrounding environment. Validation is performed by comparing the simulation result and the real robot execution. The simulation gives a more idealistic behavior execution rather than realistic one. Adjustments are performed to fine tuning simulation's parameters to provide a more realistic performance.


Domestic energy use in the UK is rising. Because of
the low rates of demolition, and the difference in
efficiency between new and old houses, to reduce
domestic energy use, the existing stock of homes must
use and emit less. To achieve a substantial and rapid
reduction in energy use we need to engage with
occupants in meaningful and effective ways to prompt
more efficient behaviour. Carbon, Control and Comfort
is a three-year collaborative research project aiming to
engage users in the design of control systems that they
like, that allow them to create the comfort conditions
they want and which, through using the technology and
fabric of their homes more effectively, reduces their
energy use. Drawing on the findings of a crossdisciplinary
literature review, the paper explores how
occupants' comfort practices impact upon energy use. It
goes on to discuss the design constraints and sociotechnical
factors which could inform the development of
devices or systems that enhance and promote energy
reducing comfort practices.


Demand-withdraw is an ineffective communication pattern frequently experienced by distressed couples. Therapists often attempt to address this pattern by helping partners understand and regulate the emotions that underlie these behaviors. To date, there is a lack of research focusing on the emotional experiences underlying the demand-withdraw pattern of interaction in couples. Related lines of research focus on emotional arousal and the expression of hard and soft emotions, but this research does not specifically investigate demand-withdraw interactions. The purpose of this study is to identify what emotions underlie demanding behavior in both men and women during marital demand-withdraw conflict interactions. Six couples were chosen from a five-year longitudinal randomized clinical trial that compared Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT) and Traditional Behavioral Couple Therapy (TBCT). Researchers viewed 10minute pre-treatment problem-solving interactions to observe the demand-withdraw pattern in vivo among couples seeking therapy. The Behavioral Affective Rating Scale (BARS) was used to code the emotions observed during the interactions. The results indicated that the types of emotions varied not only depending on who initiated the problem-solving interaction (e.g., wife topic-husband topic) but also between the different couples, and when comparing gender. Anxiety (#2) and aggression (#4) were in the top four most commonly observed emotions for husbands, while they were two of the least observed emotions for wives. Moreover, frustration and hurt were the two most observed emotions for wives, while they were the least observed emotions for husbands.


This type of research is a causal research, useful for analyzing how a variable affects other variables, and also useful in experimental research in which the independent variables are treated in a controlled manner by the researchers to see the effects on the dependent variable directly. The result of simple regression analysis is Y = 4.764 + 0,198X1 + 0,096X2 + 0,425X3 + 0,268X4 + 0,602X5 + e which variable of physical evidence, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy positive and significant influence to customer satisfaction at Bengawan Solo swimming pool . The test results (t) or partial test indicate that all the independent variables of physical evidence, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy have a positive and significant effect on customer satisfaction. The result of determination test (R2) is 0804 (80,4%). So it can be said that 80.4% variation of bound variable that is physical evidence, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy in the model can explain the satisfaction of visitors while the rest of 19.6% influenced by other variables outside the model.


We tackle the task of Azimuth (angular dimension) super-resolution for Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar. FMCW MIMO radar is widely used in autonomous driving alongside Lidar and RGB cameras. However, compared to Lidar, MIMO radar is usually of low resolution due to hardware size restrictions. For example, achieving 1° azimuth resolution requires at least 100 receivers, but a single MIMO device usually supports at most 12 receivers. Having limitations on the number of receivers is problematic since a high-resolution measurement of azimuth angle is essential for estimating the location and velocity of objects. To improve the azimuth resolution of MIMO radar, we propose a light, yet efficient, Analog-to-Digital super-resolution model (ADC-SR) that predicts or hallucinates additional radar signals using signals from only a few receivers. Compared with the baseline models that are applied to processed radar Range-Azimuth-Doppler (RAD) maps, we show that our ADC-SR method that processes raw ADC signals achieves comparable performance with 98% (50 times) fewer parameters. We also propose a hybrid super-resolution model (Hybrid-SR) combining our ADC-SR with a standard RAD super-resolution model, and show that performance can be improved by a large margin. Experiments on our Pitt-Radar dataset and the RADIal dataset validate the importance of leveraging raw radar ADC signals. To assess the value of our super-resolution model for autonomous driving, we also perform object detection on the results of our super-resolution model and find that our super-resolution model improves detection performance by around 4% in mAP. The Pitt-Radar and the code will be released at the link.


Data redundancy elimination (DRE), also known as data de-duplication, reduces the amount of data to be transferred or stored by identifying and eliminating both intra-object and inter-object duplicated data elements with a reference or pointer to the unique data copy. Large scale trace-driven studies have showed that packet-level DRE techniques can achieve 15-60% bandwidth savings when deployed at access links of the service providers, up to almost 50% bandwidth savings in Wi-Fi networks and as much as 60% mobile data volume reduction in cellular networks. In this paper, we survey the state-of-the-art protocol-independent redundancy elimination techniques. We overview the system architecture and main processing of protocol-independent DRE techniques, followed by discussion on major mechanisms activated in protocol-independent DRE, including the fingerprinting mechanism, cache management mechanism, chunk matching mechanism, and decoding error recovery mechanism. We also present several redundancy elimination systems deployed in wireline, wireless and cellular networks, respectively. Several other techniques to enhance the DRE performance are further discussed, such as DRE bypass techniques, non-uniform sampling, and chunk overlap.


Design, sampling and data interpretation constitute an important challenge for wildlife surveillance of avian influenza viruses (AIV). The aim of this study was to construct a model to improve and enhance identification in both different periods and locations of avian species likely at high risk of contact with AIV in a specific wetland. This study presents an individual-based stochastic model for the Ebre Delta as an example of this appliance. Based on the Monte-Carlo method, the model simulates the dynamics of the spread of AIV among wild birds in a natural park following introduction of an infected bird. Data on wild bird species population, apparent AIV prevalence recorded in wild birds during the period of study, and ecological information on factors such as behaviour, contact rates or patterns of movements of waterfowl were incorporated as inputs of the model. From these inputs, the model predicted those species that would introduce most of AIV in different periods and those species and areas that would be at high risk as a consequence of the spread of these AIV incursions. This method can serve as a complementary tool to previous studies to optimize the allocation of the limited AI surveillance resources in a local complex ecosystem. However, this study indicates that in order to predict the evolution of the spread of AIV at the local scale, there is a need for further research on the identification of host factors involved in the interspecies transmission of AIV.


Electroreduction systems to convert CO2 into CO via Ag electrodes have been intensely studied as a means of producing carbon-neutral fuels or chemical products. However, despite many efforts to maximize the performance of CO-producing systems, the performance of electrochemical cells that produce CO has not yet reached the level of economic viability. Moreover, compared with electrode development attempts, studies on the optimization of large-scale CO-producing systems are lacking, thus impeding the commercialization of electrochemical CO2 reduction systems. In this study, we present optimization results of a pilot-scale CO production system. Operating conditions such as pressure, temperature, and cell voltage were considered as the optimization variables to improve the CO partial current density. To facilitate experiment-based optimization of the pilot-scale operation, we adopted an efficient design of the experiment, for which data points were decided by input–output relations. As a result, the maximum CO partial current reached 2.56 A using a 50 cm2 electrode within 25 experiments. In addition, regression analysis results were provided for future studies on the systematic optimization of electrochemical systems. The operating temperature and CO2 solubility were more highly correlated with the current density and selectivity than was the applied cell voltage, and the CO current density could be predicted with high accuracy.


Cloud computing is an emerging paradigm, which promises to make the utility computing model comprehensively implemented by using virtualization technologies. An increasing number of enterprises have started providing and using Cloud-enabled infrastructures and services. However, the advancement of cloud computing poses several new challenges to existing methods and approaches to develop and evolve software intensive systems. This paper reports our experiences and observations gained from migrating an Open Source Software (OSS), Hackystat, to cloud computing. We expect that our description of Hackystat's architecture prior and after migration and design decisions can provide some guidance about modifying architecture of a service-based system for cloud computing. Moreover, we also hope that our experiences reported in this paper can contribute to the identification of some research questions for improving software engineering support for developing and evolving cloud-enabled systems.


The essay traces the evolution of planning practices in Milan back to the late '60s and connects planning theoretical, political and technical bottlenecks experienced while implementing plans and policies to recent developments in planning practices at local level.
Milan's development plan, developed forty years ago, failed to acknowledge the decline of industrial activity within the urban boundaries and forced planning procedures into a very time-consuming and overcomplicated framework. This fact produced as a result an opposing attitude towards planning, seen as an activity hindering development rather than contributing to create the conditions for it. The essay introduces and explains the nature as well as the contents of each of a series of 'exceptional' tools created there since in order to open up areas for regeneration, rather than changing the way planning is administered. Specific attention is given to the latest of these tools, inaugurated in 2001. This introduces controversial changes to the way planning is acknowledged in Italy and juxtaposes at local level an innovative 'planning system' which looks to the British tradition to the one traditionally in place.
The essay estimates pros and cons of both approaches as embedded in the Milan local context and argues on how there is a double connection to be seen between place, culture and local planning milieus and innovation in planning theory and practice.


Trap centres in gallium sulfide single crystals have been investigated by thermoluminescence measurements in the temperature range of 10–230 K. A curve-fitting method was utilized to evaluate the activation energies (52, 200 and 304 meV) of the revealed three trap centres. The heating rate dependence and trap distribution of the peaks have been studied using experimental techniques based on various heating rates and various illumination temperatures, respectively. An anomalous heating rate dependence of the high-temperature peak was found by carrying out TL measurements with various heating rates between 0.2 and 1.0 K/s. This behaviour was explained on the basis of a semi-localized transition model. Whereas normal heating rate dependence was established for low-temperature peak, that is, the TL intensity of the glow curve decreases and the peak maximum temperature shifts to higher values with increasing the heating rate. Moreover, a quasi-continuous trap distribution with the increase of activation energies from 52 to 90 meV, from 200 to 268 meV and from 304 to 469 meV for the observed three different traps was established employing the various illumination temperatures method.


The defeat of Apartheid in 1994 liberated not only South Africa's internal political processes but also its economic relations with neighbouring countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). A key outcome was the surge of South African capital northward after years of dampened large scale investment because of legal sanction and more informal regulation. By the early 2000s, South African mining and industrial corporations, financial institutions and even some medium-sized enterprises have once again asserted their role as a dominant force in the SADC region. South Africa's economic expansion is sometimes portrayed as a one-way process, where local environments and communities are passive recipients of SouthAfrican-led interventions. But evidence increasingly suggests that penetration of the region is highly contested by host countries, and sometimes actively and effectively resisted at local level. In other words, elements of both 'sub-imperialism' and local subversion are at play.


An effective system of rules, practices and processes by which Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) are directed and controlled is important to ensure their business operations are Shariah compliant, which has implications on their reputation, Shariah Governance and the future growth of the Islamic finance industry. Seventeen Chairman of the Shariah Committee of Islamic Banks in Malaysia were interviewed on the challenges faced in carrying out their responsibilities and their views on the effectiveness of Shariah Committees in Islamic Banks. This paper summarizes the various challenges faced by Shariah committees in general and in Islamic Banks in Malaysia in particular. Different from their conventional counterparts that focus only on maximizing wealth of shareholders, IFIs protect the interests of all stakeholders (including shareholders) and initiatives to maximize wealth are permitted by guides that ensure no form of any injustice to all stakeholders. Specifically, issues related to effectiveness of Shariah Committees such as independence, confidentiality, competence, consistency and information disclosure are discussed.


To enhance the blood compatibility of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) film, the film was modified by SO2/O2 gas plasma treatment. The effect of surface sulfonation of PVC treated by various SO2/O2 gas plasma depended on the volume ratio O2/(SO2 + O2). When the volume ratio was 0.5, the effect of sulfonation was the best. Sulfonic acid groups were specifically and efficiently introduced onto the PVC surface, which was proved by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transfer Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. The surface microstructure of modified PVC film was studied with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The antithrombogenicity of the samples was determined by the activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), prothrombin time (PT), thrombin time (TT) and plasma recalcification time (PRT) tests and platelet adhesion experiment. The results indicated that the antithrombogenicity of modified PVC was improved remarkably.


This article revisits one of the more contentious debates in current studies of narrative: the claim that identities are, in some sense,fabricatedby and in narratives, and the counter-claim that individuals have inherent capacities, such as a dynamic unconscious, that precede or are in excess of any identity-building work that narrative might do. The article approaches this debate via competing theories drawn from sociology and cultural studies, contrasting post-structuralist and Foucauldian theories with a Kleinian cultural analysis of narrative. The theoretical discussion is illustrated via a story told by a young man who apparently had strong investments in heterosexual romance.


A split review of the environmental impact of Norwegian consumption and production over the last decade illustrates that rising consumption is eliminating the bonus of eco-efficiency in production. Two key drivers behind this situation are the large increase in person and goods transportation and an increase in wealth that has allowed Norwegians to spend more on purchasing products and services. To achieve a sustainable development in rich countries, two major adjustments to the prevailing environmental policy are suggested: (1) The environmental impact of consumption should also be monitored as part of the official sustainability indicator monitoring system, e.g., by calculating the ecological footprint. (2) A specific consumption focus in environmental policy should be developed, beginning with the consumption categories with the largest footprint (volume) and the most negative development (change).


Extracted from text ... Moneyweb's TAX BREAKS July 2006 3
FRINGE BENEFITS
Is the salary-sacrifice
subsistence allowance dead?
By ALISON FUTTER
MY ARTICLE in last month's Tax
Breaks regarding subsistence
allowances indicated that in terms
of proposed new legislation, "if a
subsistence allowance is paid to
any employee during any month
and the employee does not travel
for business purposes by the end of
the following month, that the
allowance will become subject to
employees' tax in that following
month".
This change in the legislation
marks the end of the use of a
monthly subsistence allowance
paid to an employee as part of ..


Objective: Effective motivational support is needed in chronic disease management. This study was undertaken to improve a novel type 2 diabetes motivational intervention, (functional imagery training, FIT) based on participant feedback and results from a self-management randomised controlled trial. Design: Qualitative inductive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews. Main outcome measures: Open-ended questions on participant experiences of the FIT intervention content, process, most/least helpful features, suggestions for improvement and general feedback. Results: Eight themes emerged. Participants thought FIT promoted autonomy and self-awareness. They found the intervention interesting and helpful in keeping their health on track through accountability provided by regular phone calls. However, boredom with repetitive use of imagery, feeling inadequately equipped to manage unhealthy cravings, and difficulty with the time commitment was reported by some. Supplementary written material was recommended. Conclusion: Several well-received features of FIT overlapped with those from traditional motivational interviewing. FIT sessions should ensure content is regularly adapted to new health-enhancing goals. After self-management behaviour becomes habitual, imagery practice could be restricted to challenging contexts. Provision of a written rationale and use of mindfulness for cravings is recommended. With these improvements, the impact of FIT on diabetic control may be substantially enhanced.


Through a synthesis of research and literature, this paper explores factors that motivate human learning and development, specifically in the higher education environment. After discussing andragogy (the science of adult learning), the paper highlights four differences between andragogy and pedagogy: (1) self-concept and the student-teacher relationship: andragogy implies a more equal and reciprocal relationship; (2) experience: andragogy is more multi-directional than pedagogical methods; (3) readiness to learn: in andragogy, adult learners are more capable than children of identifying their interests and needs; and (4) time perspective and orientation learning: pedagogy in elementary and secondary schools has become increasingly more andragogical with the deliberate introduction of experiential, collaborative, and interactive learning. The paper then presents sections on the seven steps in the andragogical process; the new adult learner, who is quite different from the typical post-World War II college student in age as well as educational objective; and four different learning styles and the types of students who adopt them, according to the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. Being aware of these styles assists faculty in accommodating students' various temperaments and educational needs. Finally, the paper reflects on teachers themselves as learners, and makes suggestions for strengthening community college faculty scholarship. Contains 16 references. (AS) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ********************************************************************************


We report a method for real-time three-dimensional monitoring of thermal therapy through the use of noncontact microwave imaging. This method is predicated on using microwaves to image changes in the dielectric properties of tissue with changing temperature. Instead of the precomputed linear Born approximation that was used in prior work to speed up the frame-to-frame inversions, here we use the nonlinear distorted Born iterative method (DBIM) to solve the electric volume integral equation (VIE) to image the temperature change. This is made possible by using a recently developed graphic processing unit accelerated conformal finite difference time domain method to solve the forward problem and update the electric field in the monitored region in each DBIM iteration. Compared to our previous work, this approach provides a far superior approximation of the electric field within the VIE, and thus yields a more accurate reconstruction of tissue temperature change. The proposed method is validated using a realistic numerical model of interstitial thermal therapy for a deep-seated brain lesion. With the new DBIM, we reduced the average estimation error of the mean temperature within the region of interest from 2.5 to 1.0 for the noise-free case, and from 2.9 to 1.7 for the 2% background noise case.


The historical built environment (HBE) is constantly prone to many risks causing sudden (e.g., earthquakes and terrorist attacks) or slow (e.g., climate change-related and environmental pollution) onset of emergency conditions. Morphological, physical, and constructive characteristics are critically linked to system vulnerability and users' exposure. In particular, open spaces (OSs) in the HBE represent typical attractors for the community in urban areas for leisure and touristic purposes and critical scenarios in case of a disaster. In fact, besides daily and hourly temporalities in everyday use, OSs also play a pivotal role in the immediate disaster response phases, considering sudden-onset events. Understanding which scenarios characterize OSs is critical to evaluate them from a multi-risk perspective and to propose effective mitigation strategies in multiple critical situations. To this end, this work offers a survey form template of the OS within the HBE according to a holistic but quick-to-apply approach. Placed in the context of the Project of Relevant National Interest (PRIN) BE S2ECURe, the survey form assesses the relationships between frontier elements and those contained in the OSs, focusing on literature-based identification of vulnerability, exposure, and hazard factors affecting risk. These factors are organized into five sections as the basis for classification criteria of OSs: (1) morpho-typological, (2) geometrical-spatial, (3) constructive, (4) use, and (5) context. The application to eight case studies contributes to the validation of the survey, showing its ability to trace both the level of complexity and the main characteristics of the analyzed scenario. Furthermore, the survey form can be properly and quickly applied by non-specialized technicians, such as local authorities, thus representing the first step to support planners in data collection and risk assessment of historical OSs.


ABSTRACT
 A new genus and species of selenosteid arthrodire is described from the Late Devonian of Morocco. Driscollaspis pankowskiorum, gen. nov. sp. nov., is defined as a selenosteid with a shallow preorbital plate embayment of the central plate, a paranuchal plate embayment of the central plate as a deep embayment determined by the lateral and posterior lobe, a central plate expanded at the contact with the pineal plate as transverse anterior border, and a suborbital plate overlapping the postorbital plate. The dermal ornamentation is tubercular, forming patches of reticular ridges clustered around sensory-line canal junctions in plate centers. The sensory-line canals are distinctly raised just above the level of the dermal ornamentation, a unique character not previously recognized in any arthrodire but seen in some ptyctodontids. A new phylogenetic hypothesis supports the monophyly of the Selenosteidae within which this new taxon is resolved, but emphasizes also unresolved relationships among aspinothoracid arthrodires. The paleogeographic distribution of the Frasnian vertebrates from Morocco and especially the seleonsteids on the western margin of Gondwana and Laurussia are discussed, and the indication for a contact of both continents during the late Frasnian is emphasized. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:D0287127-C713-4BB1-9A27-242679041C22


In order to determine the effect of two standard general anesthetic techniques on the postoperative analgesic requirement, 53 adults undergoing elective intra-abdominal surgery were randomly assigned to one of two anesthetic treatment groups according to an open parallel protocol design. One of the groups received an opioid-based anesthetic; the other group was administered an inhaled anesthetic. The postoperative analgesic requirement was quantified using a Baxter PCA device. The group receiving the opioid-based anesthetic required significantly less morphine in the recovery room (5.7 +/- 5.5 mg; mean +/- SD) compared with those receiving the conventional inhaled anesthetic (16.6 +/- 7.1 mg). During the first 8 hours after discharge from the recovery room there was a trend toward higher PCA morphine usage in the inhaled anesthetic group (25.6 +/- 15 mg vs. 18.6 +/- 13 mg); however, this difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.08). From 8 to 40 hours after surgery, the morphine usage was nonsignificantly higher in the opioid group (64 +/- 30 mg vs. 56 +/- 38 mg, p = 0.43). In conclusion, the general anesthetic technique used during an elective operation appeared to have little if any effect on the postoperative analgesic requirement after discharge from the recovery room.


Bioethanol is ethanol or ethyl alcohol (C2H5OH) or sometimes called grain alcohol. Bioethanol is ethanol made from biomass containing sugar components, starch, or cellulose. Obtained from the fermentation of sugars from carbohydrate sources using the help of microorganisms. Bioethanol is usually used as an ingredient for making liquor, for medical purposes, as a solvent, and that are popular today is the use of bioethanol as an alternative fuel. The use of bioethanol as a fuel mixed with gasoline is called gasohol.
Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) including families Convolvulaceae as dikotil plants. Is a plant tubers belonging to annual crops (short-lived). The use of sweet potato as raw material for bioethanol because sweet potato is not a staple food crop in Indonesia. Due to the high carbohydrate content, so it can be used as a raw material for making bioethanol.
Making bioethanol with the basic ingredients of this sweet potato through a three stage process ie the process of hydrolysis, fermentation and distillation. Hydrolysis process carried out to decompose starch into reducing sugars to be fermented into bioethanol. The process of fermentation convert glucose into ethanol with the aid of bacteria contained in cereviceae Saccharomyces yeast bread. The process of distillation is a purification process to increase the levels of ethanol produced in fermentation processes. The reactor consists of a series of bioethanol fermentation tanks and distillation equipment that includes a series of tanks or tank distilator heating and condenser.
For bioethanol the experiment results, it can be concluded that the more the amount of yeast used, the higher levels of alcohol obtained. From the results of experiments on the manufacture of bioethanol from sweet potato with variable addition of yeast 1%, 2%, 3%, 4% and 5% bioethanol obtained with the highest alcohol content of 53% ie at the four variables with the addition of yeast 5%.


The Kuroshio western boundary current originates from the subtropics in the Western Pacific, and carries a vast thermal energy and oceanic water mass towards the north, including the south coasts and offshore islands of Japan. In spite of the oligotrophy of the origin water, the Kuroshio water is known for spawning and feeding grounds of commercial/non-commercial fish larvae, explaining a higher fisheries production in the region. Thus, it puzzles a link(s) among nutrient fields, standing stock and productivity of lower trophic organisms (e.g. plankton) and of higher trophic organisms (e.g. fish), in terms of a trophic energy transfer within the Kuroshio ecosystems. In order to understand the complex Kuroshio ecosystems, a bottom-up process in the Kuroshio ecosystems, namely phytoplankton dynamics, is investigated for different temporal scales (diurnal, daily, weekly and seasonal variability), using remote sensing. The new meteorological satellite instrument, Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) onboard Himawari-8, which provides the consecutive ocean colour observation every 2.5/10 minutes around the Kuroshio, exhibits a fine temporal variability of phytoplankton pigment, chlorophyll-a, with 1 km spatial resolution. In this presentation, an analysis of short scale variabilities (< 1 month) of chlorophyll-a concentration of the Kuroshio water is presented to show that a dominant mode of the variability (i.e. the largest variability) within the temporal scales considered results from not only advective waters, but also local oceanographical events.


The Late Maastrichtian–Danian phosphatic succession prevails as a deposit to the west of Rutbah region, Western Iraq. This is manifested through the lithostratigraphic sections of boreholes (K.H5\6 and K.H 5\8) drilled previously in the area. The succession is mainly composed of phosphate, shale, porcelanite, oyster and foraminiferal carbonate lithofacies belonging to Digma and Akashat formations. Three facies associations are distinguished during the study: the phosclast planktonic (FA1) that dominates the outer ramp, the phosclast foraminiferal (FA2) that dominates the mid ramp, and the quartz dolomitic phosclast (FA3) present in the inner ramp. These facies' associations are differentiated into seventeen microfacies types. Microfacies analysis and fauna contents have shown gradual facies variation grading from a high energy inner ramp environment in the east to a low energy deep water ramp environment in the west.


Hepcidin evolves as a potent hepatocyte‐derived regulator of the body's iron distribution piloting the flow of iron via, and directly binding, to the cellular iron exporter ferroportin. The hepcidin‐ferroportin axis dominates the iron egress from all cellular compartments that are critical to iron homeostasis, namely placental syncytiotrophoblasts, duodenal enterocytes, hepatocytes and macrophages of the reticuloendothelial system. The gene that encodes hepcidin expression (HAMP) is subject to regulation by proinflammatory cytokines, such as IL‐6 and IL‐1; excessive hepcidin production explains the relative deficiency of iron during inflammatory states, eventually resulting in the anaemia of inflammation. The haemochromatosis genes HFE (the human leukocyte antigen‐related gene), TfR2 (the transferrin receptor‐2 gene) and HJV (the haemojuvelin gene) potentially facilitate the transcription of HAMP. Disruption of each of the four genes leads to a diminished hepatic release of hepcidin consistent with both a dominant role of hepcidin in hereditary haemochromatosis and an upstream regulatory role of HFE, TfR2 and HJV on HAMP expression. The engineered generation of hepcidin agonists, mimetics or antagonists could largely broaden current therapeutic strategies to redirect the flow of iron.


There are approximately 45,000 Intermediate Level Nuclear Waste (ILW) containers currently stored in the UK at Sellafield and elsewhere. These stainless steels containers should last up to 150 years of surface storage. In this study the general structural integrity of 500L ILW containers were investigated. The associated degradation issue under ambient conditions known as atmospheric-induced stress corrosion cracking (AISCC) has been studied. Preliminary investigation included profiling of residual stress distribution in parent and weld specimens, atmospheric exposure testing under various salts. So far residual stress profile shows high degree of complexity. No cracks have been observed until this moment in time.


The 'Concerning Bodies' stream is a collaboration with Eric Daffron (USA) and Becky McLaughlin (USA) that is part of the London Conference of Critical Thought, Royal Holloway University of London, 6-7 June 2013. The stream has two parallel strands detailed below:

Stream Title: Concerning Bodies

This stream has two points of focus: firstly, the representation, and ethical implications, of bodies (both human and animal) in visual cultures and, secondly, the account of the body (and body parts) in Lacan and Foucault. Papers are invited that address any of the concerns detailed under these two headings:

The Body and Ethics – Dead or Alive (Angela Bartram and Mary O'Neill):

The body is an important site for analysis of the physical and the social condition. Whether human or animal, the body provides information and experience that communicates what it is to be alive – even in death. This has made the body a source material to be analyzed, scrutinized, dissected, and surveyed in the pursuit of knowledge. The human and animal body has historically been used in medical studies, art education, as a donor material, for reference, and creative practice. The appropriateness of the use of bodies in medical enquiry has historically been sanctioned because it has educational benefit. Could the same level of permission be applied to artistic enquiry? What legislates the appropriate use of the dead body in anatomy and biomedical classes and procedures? What informs the decision that the life room is a place for studies of the live human body only? What ethics govern artistic studies of the socio-physical body in art education and creative practice? We seek papers that discuss the role of critical theory in our understanding of the use of the body in visual culture both historical and contemporary, including, but not limited to:
• somataphobia,
• scopophilia,
• scopophobia,
• dissection,
• necrophobia,
• taxidermy

Body Parts and Partial Bodies; Body Cuts and Cut Up Bodies: Lacanian and Foucaultian Approaches (Becky McLaughlin and Eric Daffron):

Both Jacques Lacan and Michel Foucault took the body as an object of critical inquiry but explored it in divergent ways. This panel will bring together scholars working from Lacanian and/or Foucaultian perspectives to interrogate not simply the body but, more specifically, parts of the body. Collectively, the papers selected for this panel will aspire to answer, among other questions: How do Lacan and Foucault cut up the body, what new forms of subjectivity emerge when we pay attention to particular body parts, and how can we bring Lacanian and Foucaultian theory to bear on ethical concerns about the body? Topics for paper proposals include but are not limited to:
• fragmented bodies and bodily decomposition
• mirror stage and self reflection
• self-abuse and body cutting
• disciplined and "docile" bodies
• torture and punishment
• "subindividuals"
• sexuality, sexuation, and oversexed bodies
• "technologies of the self"
• the voice, the gaze, and the fetish
• spanking and other sex games
• amputation and disability
• addiction and obsession, medicine and therapy


Diabetes and malnutrition result in decreased somatomedin production and cartilage growth in rats. The growth and metabolism of the Swarm rat chondrosarcoma are dramatically affected by somatomedins. Data presented here show that streptozotocin diabetes and diet restriction inhibit in vivo chondrosarcoma growth. Tumors grown in diabetic rats were significantly smaller than tumors grown in diet-restricted rats showing the same changes in body weight. Insulin treatment increased the rate of tumor growth in diabetic rats. Tumors grown in rigidly controlled diabetic rats were as large as tumors grown in nondiabetic controls. Diet restriction and diabetes reduced the capacity of the serum of the rat to stimulate alpha-amino[14C]isobutyrate uptake and [3H]uridine incorporation into RNA in chondrosarcoma pieces grown in nondiabetic rats. This somatomedin activity of the serum was restored by treating diabetic rats with insulin. There was a significant correlation between the in vitro stimulatory effect of a particular serum pool on chondrosarcoma metabolism and in vivo chondrosarcoma growth in the animals from whom the serum was obtained. These studies demonstrate that the in vivo growth of malignant chondrocytes is similar to that of normal chondrocytes with respect to the role of nutrition and insulin.


Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is one of the promising technology in the future. A recent study claims that by 2026, the commercial UAVs, for both corporate and customer applications, will have an annual impact of 31 billion to 46 billion on the country's GDP. Shortly, many UAVs will be flying everywhere. For this reason, there is a need to suggest efficient mechanisms for preventing the collisions among the UAVs. Traditionally, the collisions are prevented using dedicated sensors, however, those would generate uncertainty in their reading due to their external conditions sensitivity. From another side, the use of those sensors could create an extra overhead on the UAVs in terms of cost and energy consumption. To deal with these challenges, in this paper, we have suggested a solution that leverages the chance-constrained optimization technique for avoiding the collision in an energy-efficient manner. Building on the expressions for the non-central Chi-square CDF and expected value, and through the convexification of the resulting expressions, the chance-constrained optimization program is transformed into a convex Mixed Binary Nonlinear one. The resulting program allows us to find the optimal safety distance that extends UAVs life-time and allows every UAV to move with a guaranteed probability of collision between any pair of UAVs.