In recent years, museums have have increasingly explored a style of display that emphasises the visitors' multisensory experience of exhibits, as much as their cognitive understanding. At the same time, there has been growing acknowledgement of the significance of the intangible aspects of heritage as dimensions to be understood and nurtured. Against this background, the display of exhibits related to performing arts and the presentations of their ephemeral and intangible aspects in museums become particularly intrigu- ing. This paper seeks to explore the different ways in which performing arts collections are displayed, and how they are affected by, and affect, the spatial and architectural properties of the museum settings. Using the space syntax analysis of space types in association with the framework from the Francophone museological literature of the exhibition as a medium, and of the exhibition space as a 'synthetic space' (espace synthetique), we will analyse six museum settings that have clear spatial and architectural intentions with respect to performing arts collections. Their comparative analysis will bring to the surface intriguing common tendencies which relate both to the organisation of the display and to the nature of the spaces in which it is realised. These commonalities, it is suggested, can be thought of as outlining a generic spatial culture through which it is possible to create, in the museum, dimensions of the circumstances in which performances are realised, transmitting some of the living richness of their experience.


The article presents the engraver Conradt Gotke – the most famous artist-graver who worked in Vilnius in the first half of the 17th century. The study aimed to replenish the list of his works – illustrated books. The list of the new bibliographical data is published in the appendix of the article. On the ground of these data, the peculiarities and significance of C. Gotke's works in the history of Lithuanian art of the 17th century are discussed. According to the signed engravings and on the basis of formal similarity of the samples it was established that the artist worked in Vilnius in 1636–1653. C. Gotke enriched books and Lithuanian book art with the following features: 1) illustrations of a high artistic quality gave an extra visual information on the text: C. Gotke used to add to the text particular artworks with an explicite meaning of the text subject; 2) C. Gotke was the first to popularise the copper engraving technique in Vilnius prints; he was the first to amplify several composition patterns typical of his hand; the precise line-drawing and accurate line-engraving allowed him to create an individual artistic language; 3) C. Gotke popularised the Baroque style language in Vilnius book illustrations; he used to engage largely popular hieroglyphic, emblematic as well as heraldic symbols in combination with inscriptions; 4) C. Gotke intensely collaborated with various clients – high and middle rank nobles of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, clerks in holy orders, members of the royal family; 5) Gotke's illustrations developed the subject of genealogical and heraldic relations of particular noble families of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Some of his art-works are valuable and authentic portrayals of important 17th century personalities; such images are often supplied with inscriptions indicating names and official positions. Gotke's oeuvre is an exceptional phenomenon in the field of book illustration of the 17th century in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland. Gotke's works prompted the development of book illustration and the formation of a peculiar artistic language of Baroque; the artist sought for a greater variety of motifs and subjects of his compositions. C. Gotke is a good example of the social position of an artist in the 17th century: he was a freelance artist-townsman who actively portrayed customers, had a wide circle of clients and created invaluable documents of the 17th century nobility life.


In contemporary architecture the use of steel arches has seen a significant increase. They are applied in buildings and large span bridges, combining structural design with architectural merits. For arches lacking lateral support (or freestanding arches) the out-of-plane structural stability behavior is the decisive design criterion. However, suitable methods or design rules to assess the out-of-plane structural stability resistance of arches are lacking and the collapse behavior is often unknown. Nowadays engineers have to perform laborious calculations which can lead either to conservative or nonconservative arch designs. This Ph.D. project is aimed at studying the out-of-plane structural stability behavior of steel arches, and developing design rules for these arches. The out-of-plane structural stability behavior was studied by means of geometrical and material non-linear finite element analyses including structural imperfections with ANSYS v. 11.0. The investigation was confined to wide flange circular freestanding arches which are subjected to in-plane vertical loads and manufactured by the roller bending process. The roller bending process is a manufacturing technique by which steel members are bent at ambient temperature into circular arches. It was expected that the residual stresses and mechanical properties (e.g. yield stress, ultimate tensile stress) are altered due to roller bending. Since the alteration of residual stresses and mechanical properties (imperfections) can affect the out-of-plane structural stability of freestanding steel arches, the influence of the roller bending process was studied first. Residual stress measurements and tensile tests were conducted on both straight and roller bent members to assess the influence of roller bending. In addition to the experiments, finite element simulations of the roller bending process were performed in the ANSYS v. 11.0 environment to estimate the residual stress distribution in the arches. Good agreement between the experimentally and numerically obtained residual stresses in roller bent arches was observed. Based on the experimental and numerical studies of the imperfections in roller bent arches a residual stress model and distribution of mechanical properties across the steel bent section were proposed which serve as the initial state of a roller bent arch when assessing its structural performance by means of non-linear finite element simulations. Numerical analyses showed that the residual stresses in roller bent arches have a minor influence on the load carrying capacity. However, the alterations of the mechanical properties can result in a significant reduction of the arch strength The existing column curve formulations as given in EC3 were adapted to include out-of-plane buckling of arches by altering the form of the imperfection parameter. The column curves can give an accurate prediction of the out-of-plane buckling load provided an appropriate imperfection parameter is selected and the non-dimensional slenderness is known. Based on numerous finite element calculations an imperfection parameter curve was derived which was substituted into the column curve formulation rendering a column curve for roller bent arches failing by out-of-plane buckling. Finite element results showed that multiple column curves were necessary to capture the out-of-plane buckling response of arches for various load cases and steel grades. The column curves require the determination of the non-dimensional slenderness represented by the in-plane plastic capacity and out-of-plane elastic buckling load. Since any closed form equations are lacking to approximate these buckling parameters finite element techniques were adopted. For future research it is recommended that closed-form solutions or design graphs should be derived with mechanical models to obtain the elastic-plastic buckling load of freestanding roller bent arches without using finite element analyses.


This guide contains information on banned and challenged books, censorship and intellectual freedom, and First Amendment resources, as well as provides support for Professor Young's Literature in the Law class.


Abstract In this paper, the basic principles of and some recent advances in rapid solidification are briefly considered, with main emphasis on the formation of single-phase metastable states during meltquenching in Ni-rich Zr –Ni and Hf–Ni alloys. Factors controlling nanocrystalline-forming ability are discussed in detail, with particular view on the preparation of single-phase nanocrystalline alloys by the melt-quenching process.


Glycaemic responses to foods reflect the balance between glucose loading into, and its clearance from, the blood. Current in vitro methods for glycaemic analysis do not take into account the key role of glucose disposal. The present study aimed to develop a food intake-sensitive method for measuring the glycaemic impact of food quantities usually consumed, as the difference between release of glucose equivalents (GGE) from food during in vitro digestion and a corresponding estimate of clearance of them from the blood. Five foods - white bread, fruit bread, muesli bar, mashed potato and chickpeas - were consumed on three occasions by twenty volunteers to provide blood glucose response (BGR) curves. GGE release during in vitro digestion of the foods was also plotted. Glucose disposal rates estimated from downward slopes of the BGR curves allowed GGE dose-dependent cumulative glucose disposal to be calculated. By subtracting cumulative glucose disposal from cumulative in vitro GGE release, accuracy in predicting the in vivo glycaemic effect from in vitro GGE values was greatly improved. GGE(in vivo) = 0.99GGE(in vitro)+0.75 (R(2) 0.88). Furthermore, the difference between the curves of cumulative GGE release and disposal closely mimicked in vivo incremental BGR curves. We conclude that valid measurement of the glycaemic impact of foods may be obtained in vitro, and expressed as grams of glucose equivalents per food quantity, by taking account not only of GGE release from food during in vitro digestion, but also of blood glucose clearance in response to the food quantity.


Abstract The orientations of European prehistoric structures have been studied independently by landscape archaeologists and archaeoastronomers. Despite their similar interests, the two fields have failed to converge primarily because of their differing epistemologies. This paper argues that archaeology has much to gain by integrating the two fields to provide a fuller and more balanced exploration and understanding of the location and orientation of the European megaliths. It is suggested that prehistoric archaeoastronomy needs to become more grounded on the archaeological record and context of the prehistoric structures it studies. If it is to generate knowledge of value to archaeology it needs to become a "skyscape archaeology." This paper looks at current archaeoastronomical approaches through the lens of archaeological practice. It identifies some limitations and discusses how landscape archaeology can inform archaeoastronomy on overcoming them. A methodology that attempts this necessary cross-fertilization, by shedding unfounded assumptions and developing a more phenomenological approach to pattern-recognition, is proposed. This methodology is applied to a case study in central Portugal. The emergent narrative, linking a cluster of dolmens to a local mountain range and the star Aldebaran, not only fits the archaeological record, but is mirrored by local folklore, lending further support to the validity of this methodology.


BALB/c mice infected with P. chabaudi AS develop immunity to erythrocytic-stage infection with early Th1 responses followed by a switch towards Th2 responses later to mediate protection during chronic disease. In order to determine the importance of the Th2 cytokines, IL-4/IL-13, in inducing protective immunity, the course of P. chabaudi infection was monitored in IL-4Rα-deficient mice. Interestingly, an early delay in the onset of peak parasitaemia in IL-4Rα-/- compared with WT control BALB/c mice was evident. Consequently, we demonstrated that IL-4Rα deficiency resulted in mice becoming more susceptible to chronic P. chabaudi infection with increased recrudescence, mortality and an impaired Th2 immune response compared with WT control mice. Similar results in the overall disease and immunological profiles between IL-4Rα-/- and wild-type mice were obtained whether male or female mice or the AJ or AS strains of P. chabaudi were used to infect mice. Thus, the protective role of IL-4Rα signalling during chronic disease was not parasite strain-specific or host gender dependent. However, males were significantly more susceptible than female mice and consequently further studies involving cell-type IL-4Rα-/- mice, utilized female mice to identify functional targets of IL-4/IL-13 protection. Abrogated IL-4Rα expression on macrophages/neutrophils (LysMcreIL-4Rα-/lox) mice had minimal effect on the outcome of P. chabaudi AS chronic infection and was comparable to WT mice implicating no major role for alternatively activated macrophages during chronic infection. In contrast, CD4+ T-cell-specific IL-4Rα-/- (LckcreIL-4Rα-/lox) mice infected with P. chabaudi AS developed increased recrudescence, increased mortality and impairment of Th2 immunity during the chronic infection similar to that of the global IL-4Rα-/- mice. This highlights the importance of signalling via CD4+ T-cells signalling via IL-4Rα for protective immunity during chronic infection. Paradoxically, CD4+CD8+ T-cell-specific IL-4Rα-/- (iLckcre IL-4Rα-/lox) mice displayed a similar disease profile to WT control mice but manifested a delayed Th2 phenotype during the latter stage of the disease with enhanced splenomegaly in comparison to the WT and IL-4Rα-/- mice. Thus while protection during chronic infection with P. chabaudi AS appears dependent on CD4+ T-cells responsive to IL-4, CD8+ T cells responsive to IL-4 have a more complex and more difficult role to interpret.


Producers of consumer packaged-goods often offer several package sizes of the same product, and charge a lower unit price for a larger size. In this paper, we investigate the quantity-discount effect, or the phenomenon that consumers derive transaction utility from the unit price difference between a small and a large package sizes of the same product. We propose a modeling framework composed of a demand-side model and a supply-side model. On the demand side, we develop a choice model to account for such quantity-discount effects while controlling for structural heterogeneity (i.e. consumers may perceive quantity discounts as gains or losses) and preference heterogeneity (i.e. consumers may have different preferences on brand, size, price, etc.). On the supply side, we model profit-maximizing decisions of both manufacturers and retailers. We infer channel members' interaction relationships and their pricing strategies by estimating and comparing a menu of supply-side specifications. We apply the proposed model to a scanner panel data on consumer light beer purchases. Our empirical results suggest that quantity-discount induced gains/losses have significant impact on consumer buying behavior. We also find a substantial amount of structural heterogeneity, that is, some consumers perceive quantity discounts as gains in making choice decisions, whereas others perceive quantity discounts as losses. On the other hand, the supply-side analysis suggests that manufacturers in our empirical application do not consider quantity-discount effects when setting prices. Through a series of policy experiments, we show that by accounting for quantity-discount dependent consumer preferences, manufacturers can design more effective non-pricing schemes and obtain greater profits.


We investigate the impact of time-resolved 'gradual' stellar feedback processes in high redshift dwarf spheroidal galaxies. Here 'gradual' feedback refers to individual stellar feedback events which deposit energy over a period of time. We conduct high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies with halo masses of 107–108 M⊙, based on z = 6 progenitors of the Milky Way's dwarf spheroidal galaxies. We also include a novel feedback prescription for individual massive stars, which includes stellar winds and an HMXB (high mass X-ray binary) phase, on top of supernovae. We find the mass of gas unbound across a 1 Gyr starburst is uniformly lowered if gradual feedback mechanisms are included across the range of metallicities, halo concentration parameters, and galaxy masses studied here. Furthermore, we find including gradual feedback in the smallest galaxies delays the unbinding of the majority of the gas and facilitates the production of 'chimneys' in the dense shell surrounding the feedback generated hot, pressurized 'superbubble'. These 'chimneys' vent hot gas from the galaxy interior, lowering the temperature of the central 10 kpc of the gaseous halo. Additionally, we find radiative cooling has little effect on the energetics of simulations that include a short, violent starburst compared with those that have a longer, less concentrated starburst. Finally, we investigate the relative impact of HMXB feedback and stellar winds on our results, finding the ubiquity of stellar winds throughout each starburst makes them a defining factor in the final state of the interstellar medium.


—We present a novel adversarial distortion learning (ADL) for denoising two- and three-dimensional (2D/3D) biomedical image data. The proposed ADL consists of two auto-encoders: a denoiser and a discriminator. The denoiser removes noise from input data and the discrimi- nator compares the denoised result to its noise-free counterpart. This process is repeated until the discriminator cannot differentiate the denoised data from the reference. Both the denoiser and the discriminator are built upon a proposed auto-encoder called Efficient-Unet. Efficient-Unet has a light architecture that uses the residual blocks and a novel pyramidal approach in the backbone to efficiently extract and re-use feature maps. During training, the tex- tural information and contrast are controlled by two novel loss functions. The architecture of Efficient-Unet allows generalizing the proposed method to any sort of biomedical data. The 2D version of our network was trained on ImageNet and tested on biomedical datasets whose distribution is completely different from ImageNet; so, there is no need for re-training. Experimental results carried out on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), dermatoscopy, electron microscopy and X-ray datasets show that the proposed method achieved the best on each benchmark. Our imple- mentation and pre-trained models are available at https: //github.com/mogvision/ADL .


Abstract This article empirically examines the "Big Sort hypothesis"—the notion that, in recent years, liberal and conservative Americans have become increasingly spatially isolated from one another. Using block group-, tract-, and county-level party registration data and presidential election returns, I construct two formal indices of segregation for 1992–2010 in California and evaluate those indices for evidence of growth in the segregation of Californians along ideological lines. Evidence of rising geographic segregation between Democrats and Republicans for measures generated from both party registration and presidential vote data is found. This growth is statistically significant for 10 of the 12 segregation measures analyzed. In addition, many of the increases are practically significant, with estimates of growth in segregation during the observation period ranging from 2% to 23%.


This research used in-depth interviews with international journalists to examine the newsgathering practices they employed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Building upon interview data, this study introduces the concept of "slippers" journalism, which accompanies working-from-home practices, suggesting that reporters primarily collected information for their stories online through social media, video apps, and other online sources. These circumstances prompted them to reevaluate the concept of traditional "shoe-leather" practices in newsgathering, emphasizing their relevance in times of crisis. Data suggest that although reporters embraced digital alternatives in acquiring news, they stressed the importance of being on the ground, as it allows them to witness events, verify information, talk with sources, obtain unexpected facts, provide comprehensive coverage of diverse issues, and understand the context of events.


Concentrated cell suspensions of Lactobacillus bulgaricus prepared from cells grown in semisynthetic media were frozen in liquid nitrogen. After storage for 24 hr, the cell suspensions were found to have decreased colony counts and acid-producing capacity in milk. The amount of loss varied among the different strains tested. The addition of known cryoprotective agents to cell suspensions of the most labile strain before freezing provided little or no protection to the cells. However, storage stability of all strains investigated was improved by supplementing the growth medium with Tween 80 (polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate). The concentration of Tween 80 necessary for maximal storage stability varied among strains.


The fundamental problem that led to the development of the theory of error correcting codes was that of having a reliable communication over unreliable channels. A commu nication channel can be as simple as the air between the voicebox of one adressing an audience and the ears of the listeners. Copper wires connecting telephones or modems can also be considered as channels. In the case of data storage, say in a magnetic tape or disc, the magnetized field in the magnetic tape or disc is the channel. One property of these channels is their capacity to distort the information. For instance, the copper wires connecting telephones may get heated resulting in background interrup tions. Magnetisation on the tape may re-align over time, or the head of the drive reading the tape or disc may be ill positioned and the right magnetisation be misread! Such distotortions to our good information will be referred to as noise. There are two main ways of handling noise; physical means and system means. Under physical means, one "targets" the cause of noise and seeks to eliminate it,. For instance if the drive head misreads the magnetisation, then a better drive is used as a replacement for the "now faulty drive". As for system means, one "sandwiches" the channel between two devices; an encoder and a decoder (see figure 0.1) so that any form of noise can be detected and possibly corrected. The theory of error correcting codes is involved in this. For our purpose we will consider an abstract communication channel called the Binary Symmetric Channel (BSC). In BSC, information to be transmitted is encoded as a string of 0's and Ts. An error is then considered as an interchange between the binary digits in the sent and received information symbols. ... Encoder Channel Decoder .fig-0.1 A simple Communication Channel.


The type collection of Recent mammals in the Division of Mammals, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, contains 612 specimens bearing names of 604 species-group taxa of Carnivora, Perissodactyla, Artiodactyla, and Cetacea as of May 2016. This catalog presents an annotated list of these holdings comprising 582 holotypes; 16 lectotypes, two of which are newly designated herein; 7 syntypes (15 specimens); and 1 neotype. Included are several specimens that should be in the collection but cannot be found or are now known to be in other collections and therefore are not in the database. Thirty-seven of the names are new since the last type catalog covering these orders, Arthur J. Poole and Viola S. Schantz's 1942 "Catalog of the Type Specimens of Mammals in the United States National Museum, Including the Biological Surveys Collection" (Bulletin of the United States National Museum, 178). One of these, Lutra iowa Goldman, 1941, was transferred to the National Museum's Paleobiology Department collection and is mentioned only briefly in this work. Orders and families are arranged systematically following D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder's 2005 Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, third edition, volume 1; within families, currently recognized genera are arranged alphabetically, and within each currently recognized genus, species and subspecies accounts are arranged alphabetically by original published name. Information in each account includes original name and abbreviated citation thereto, current name if other than original, citation for first use of current name combination for the taxon, type designation, U.S. National Museum catalog number(s), preparation, age and sex, date of collection and collector, original collector number, type locality, and remarks as appropriate. Digital photographs of each specimen will serve as a condition report and will be attached to each electronic specimen record. An addendum contains two accounts for holotypes added to the collection subsequent to the publication of the catalog for their taxa. Appendices tabulate summary data for all four of our recent type catalogs (Fisher and Ludwig, 2012, 2014, 2015, and this volume) and include authors of names, collectors of type specimens, countries, islands, and provinces or states in which type specimens were collected, numbers of new names per decade, and summary numbers for holotypes, lectotypes, syntypes, neotypes, and new taxa since the last type catalog (Poole and Schantz, 1942) covering the entire type collection.


Optimizing energy consumption for robot navigation in fields requires energy-cost maps. However, obtaining such a map is still challenging, especially for large, uneven terrains. Physics-based energy models work for uniform, flat surfaces but do not generalize well to these terrains. Furthermore, slopes make the energy consumption at every location directional and add to the complexity of data collection and energy prediction. In this letter, we address these challenges in a data-driven manner. We consider a function which takes terrain geometry and robot motion direction as input and outputs expected energy consumption. The function is represented as a ResNet-based neural network whose parameters are learned from field-collected data. The prediction accuracy of our method is within 12% of the ground truth in our test environments that are unseen during training. We compare our method to a baseline method in the literature: a method using a basic physics-based model. We demonstrate that our method significantly outperforms it by more than 10% measured by the prediction error. More importantly, our method generalizes better when applied to test data from new environments with various slope angles and navigation directions.


BACKGROUND
Women with a significant family history of breast cancer are often offered more intensive and earlier surveillance than is offered to the general population in the National Breast Screening Programme. Up to now, this strategy has not been fully evaluated.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the benefit of mammographic surveillance for women aged 40-49 years at moderate risk of breast cancer due to family history. The study is referred to as FH01.

DESIGN
This was a single-arm cohort study with recruitment taking place between January 2003 and February 2007. Recruits were women aged < 50 years with a family history of breast or ovarian cancer conferring at least a 3% risk of breast cancer between ages 40 and 49 years. The women were offered annual mammography for at least 5 years and observed for the occurrence of breast cancer during the surveillance period. The age group 40-44 years was targeted so that they would still be aged < 50 years after 5 years of surveillance.

SETTING
Seventy-four surveillance centres in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

PARTICIPANTS
A total of 6710 women, 94% of whom were aged < 45 years at recruitment, with a family history of breast cancer estimated to imply at least a 3% risk of the disease between the ages of 40 and 50 years.

INTERVENTIONS
Annual mammography for at least 5 years.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The primary study end point was the predicted risk of death from breast cancer as estimated from the size, lymph node status and grade of the tumours diagnosed. This was compared with the control group from the UK Breast Screening Age Trial (Age Trial), adjusting for the different underlying incidence in the two populations.

RESULTS
As of December 2010, there were 165 breast cancers diagnosed in 37,025 person-years of observation and 30,556 mammographic screening episodes. Of these, 122 (74%) were diagnosed at screening. The cancers included 44 (27%) cases of ductal carcinoma in situ. There were 19 predicted deaths in 37,025 person-years in FH01, with an estimated incidence of 6.3 per 1000 per year. The corresponding figures for the Age Trial control group were 204 predicted deaths in 622,127 person-years and an incidence of 2.4 per 1000 per year. This gave an estimated 40% reduction in breast cancer mortality (relative risk = 0.60; 95% confidence interval 0.37 to 0.98; p = 0.04).

CONCLUSIONS
Annual mammography in women aged 40-49 years with a significant family history of breast or ovarian cancer is both clinically effective in reducing breast cancer mortality and cost-effective. There is a need to further standardise familial risk assessment, to research the impact of digital mammography and to clarify the role of breast density in this population.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
National Research Register N0484114809.

FUNDING
This project was funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 17, No. 11. See the HTA programme website for further project information.


Abstract: The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission develops instrumentation and analysis methods for non-destructive assay of nuclear materials and for detection of contraband materials. In relation to this, a new experimental device was designed and constructed in the laboratory of the Institute for the Protection and the Security of the Citizen (IPSC), Nuclear Safeguards Unit. The device, called the Pulsed Neutron Interrogation Test Assembly (PUNITA), incorporates a pulsed (D-T) neutron generator. In the PUNITA facility we study the methods applying the detection of characteristic gamma rays subsequent to neutron irradiation. This includes the detection of prompt gamma rays from neutron inelastic scattering and neutron capture. The gamma energy from these reactions is characteristic for the target elements present in the sample. The elements of our interest include oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, fluorine and chlorine emitting characteristic gamma ray energies in the range of 1 MeV to 11 MeV. For this purpose we are testing a scintillation detector based on the LaBr3:Ce crystal. This detector offers a substantial advantage over the standard NaI(Tl) detector: in comparison the energy resolution (about 3 % at 662 keV) is better and the efficiency for high-energy gamma rays is higher. The work presented demonstrated the behavior (efficiency, linearity, energy resolution) of the 1.5¿ x 1.5¿ LaBr3:Ce crystal for gamma ray energies up to 9 MeV. URI: Authors: FAVALLI Andrea MEHNER Hans-Christoph PEDERSEN Bent HOLZWARTH Uwe Publication Year: 2008 Type: Contributions to Conferences


The peculiarity of the digestive system of the ostrich (Struthio Camelus L.), which is characterized by the continuous production of bile, led us to undertake macroscopical and histological studies of the liver and its biliary system, since very little bibliographic data exist on the subject. For this purpose we observed the organs of male and female ostriches 16-18 months of age, in situ, in order to describe their location, relationships and morphology. Samples of the liver were processed for observation by light microscopy; samples of the hepatoenteric duct were processed for observation by light and electron microscopy. Our findings regarding the liver revealed the presence of two lobes: a left lobe, subdivided into three lobes, and a right undivided lobe. There was no gall-bladder. The histological picture showed unlimited hepatic lobules, with hepatocytes arranged in cord-like fashion two cells thick. A large hepatoenteric duct arose from the porta hepatis, and opened into a papilla in the descending limb of the duodenum. The mucosa of the duct was lined by simple columnar epithelium consisting of cells having the same morphological cytoplasmatic features but distinguished by either a light or a dark nucleus.


The wide diversity of consumer devices has led to new methodologies and techniques to make digital content available over a broad range of devices with minimal effort. In particular the design of the interactive parts of a system has been the subject of a lot of research efforts because these parts are the most visible and are critical for the usability (and thus use) of a system. One thing that is missing in many current approaches is the ability to combine these new methodologies and techniques with a user-centric approach to ensure preferences from and requirements for a specific user are taken into account besides the device adaptations. In this paper we analysed the applicability of MPEG-21, part 7: Digital Item Adaptation, for the adaptation of a user interface to user characteristics. We show how the high-level XML-based user interface description language UIML in combination with an MPEG-21-based user profile enables designers to create accessible and personalised multi-device user interfaces. Using this combination results in user interfaces that can be deployed on a broad range of devices while taking into account user preferences with minimal effort.

This approach enhances accessibility to digital items on various platforms, since all interactions with digital items should be supported by an appropriate user interface.


During naval operations, sonar performance estimates often need to be computed in-situ with limited environmental information. This calls for the use of fast acoustic propagation models. Many naval operations are carried out in challenging and dynamic environments. This makes acoustic propagation and sonar performance behavior particularly complex and variable, and complicates prediction. Using data from a field experiment, we have investigated the accuracy with which acoustic propagation loss (PL) can be predicted, using only limited modeling capabilities. Environmental input parameters came from various sources that may be available in a typical naval operation. The outer continental shelf shallow-water experimental area featured internal tides, packets of nonlinear internal waves, and a meandering water mass front. For a moored source/receiver pair separated by 19.6 km, the acoustic propagation loss for 800 Hz pulses was computed using the peak amplitude. The variations in sound speed translated into considerable PL variability of order 15 dB. Acoustic loss modeling was carried out using a data-driven regional ocean model as well as measured sound speed profile data for comparison. The acoustic model used a two-dimensional parabolic approximation (vertical and radial outward wavenumbers only). The variance of modeled propagation loss was less than that measured. The effect of the internal tides and sub-tidal features was reasonably well modeled; these made use of measured sound speed data. The effects of nonlinear waves were not well modeled, consistent with their known three-dimensional effects but also with the lack of measurements to initialize and constrain them.


Treating the information retrieval (IR) task as one of classification has been shown to be the most effective way to achieve high performance. In real-world Systems, a human is the ultimate determinant of relevance and must be integrated symbiotically into the control structures. We report on a hybrid, Human-Assisted Computer Classification system that opportunistically pairs processes of Active Learning and User Modeling to produce a high-Q computational engine. Top-down human goals are impedance-matched with bottom-up corpus analysis utilizing critical control loops. The System contributions of humans and machines as 'Proxy,' 'Assessor,' and 'Classifier' elements are blended through inter-related 'Model,' 'Match,' and 'Measure' processes (M3) to achieve consistently high precision IR with high recall. We report results for over a dozen topics, with confirmation of internal measures from topic 103 of the 2008 TREC legal track's interactive task.


Telemedicine applications provide many opportunities for improving health care in a variety of conditions, in particular for people living in remote or geographically isolated areas without fast access to doctors ("medical deserts"), such as some parts of Finland. In many applications, the technologies used are actually off-the shelf solutions for videoconferencing, in some cases even used in an Over The Top (OTT) fashion over best-effort networks. In these contexts, the quality (both Quality of Experience and Quality of Service) of the whole system can have a greater significance than in other contexts such as entertainment, yet there are no quality monitoring and assessment systems specifically conceived for this purpose. In this paper we present an on-going effort to develop an extensible quality monitoring and benchmarking platform designed with video-based telemedicine applications, and the particular issues associated with them, in mind.


Objective. The aim of this study was to evaluate the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II, III and Simplified Acute Physiology Score II (SAPS II) as predictors of severity of organophosphate poisoning (OPP). Methods. This is a retrospective study of 48 patients with OPP who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) for at least 24 h between 1997 and 2004. Demographic, laboratory, survival data and on day one APACHE II, III, SAPS II and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) were recorded, and correlations between these scores and severity of poisoning were performed. Results. Forty-eight patients were evaluated. Mechanical ventilation was required by 58% of patients. The mean APACHE II, III and SAPS II values were 11.5 ± 7.21, 42.1 ± 24.49 and 25.1 ± 15.76, respectively. Total dose and duration of atropine and of pralidoxime therapy, length of ICU stay and mortality all correlated with these clinical scoring tools. Conclusions. The APACHE II, III and SAPS II clinical scoring tools seem to predict the severity of organophosphate poisoning, and may have prognostic value.


Background The cut-off of ≥5 polymorphs/high power field (p/hpf) in a Gram stained male urethral smear (GSUS) for diagnosing non-gonococcal urethritis derives from evaluations using Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) culture as gold standard. There is also significant observer variation in performing microscopy. Objective To compare automated flow cytometry of first void urine white cell count (FVU-UWC) to GSUS for prediction of CT infection in men. Methods First void urines from 227 symptomatic male patients, all undergoing GSUS, were collected and patients stratified into: those treated for urethritis, diagnosed by GSUS result, history and examination (n=114) and; those not thought to have urethritis (n=113). First void urines were analysed by automated flow cytometry using the bench-top Sysmex UF-100 Analyser. Results CT was found in 11.6% and 6.2% urethritis and non-urethritis patients respectively and gonorrhoea (GC) in 3.6% and 1.1% respectively. There was no difference in UWC between urethritis and non-urethritis (p=0.690) nor association between GSUS grade and UWC (p=0.933). Median GSUS was higher for CT positive compared to negative patients (≥5/hpf vs 0). UWC were higher in CT (p=0.001) and GC (p≤0.001) positives. ROC area under the curve (AUC) for predicting CT was 0.844 (p≤0.001) with an optimal cut-off of >29 UWC/μl giving sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 76%. For predicting CT in urethritis and non-urethritis: the positive predictive values using the >29 UWC/μl cut-off were 20% (95%CI 9.1% to 37.5%) and 34.4% (19.2% to 53.2%) and the negative predictive values NPVs 100% (94.2% to 100%) and 97.5% (90.4% to 99.6%) respectively; for GSUS, using ≥5/hpf, positive predictive values were 10.5% (5.4% to 18.9%) and 0% (0% to 60.4%) and negative predictive values were 82.4% (55.8% to 95.3%) and 93.6% (86.8% to 97.2%) respectively. Conclusion UWC is (1) higher in CT and GC infection; (2) is a better predictor of urethral CT than GSUS and; (3) possibly more useful for determining non-gonococcal urethritis. Automated rapid flow cytometry may offer significantly improved utility over microscopy in the clinic.


COVID-19 is unique in that it is the first global pandemic occurring amidst a crowded information environment that has facilitated the proliferation of misinformation on social media. Dangerous misleading narratives have the potential to disrupt 'official' information sharing at major government announcements. Using an interrupted time-series design, we test the impact of the announcement of the first UK lockdown (8–8.30 p.m. 23 March 2020) on short-term trends of misinformation on Twitter. We utilise a novel dataset of all COVID-19-related social media posts on Twitter from the UK 48 hours before and 48 hours after the announcement (n = 2,531,888). We find that while the number of tweets increased immediately post announcement, there was no evidence of an increase in misinformation-related tweets. We found an increase in COVID-19-related bot activity post-announcement. Topic modelling of misinformation tweets revealed four distinct clusters: 'government and policy', 'symptoms', 'pushing back against misinformation' and 'cures and treatments'.


Part of a 14-volume work covering writings in American religious history with specific attention to trends in American Protestantism; church and state; theological issues; social Christianity; women in religion; native American religion; regional and black religion; fundamentalism and creationism.


When trying to calculate the approximate constitution of as-cast tin containing aluminium alloys one has to cope with a combination of intricacies: (i) Scheil solidification simulation may reflect strong enrichment of alloying components, especially in multicomponent alloys, thus leaving the safe ground of the underlying thermodynamic database. (ii) Liquid demixing often intensifies by addition of many components to Al-Sn alloys, thus forming monotectic reactions, boosting the segregation and aggravating the first effect. (iii) Scheil simulation in multicomponent Al-x-y-z-Sn alloys not only combines the first two problems, moreover, the current versions of major thermodynamic software packages are not able to perform the Scheil simulation if liquid demixing and monotectic reactions occur. These intricacies are worked out and the development of a dedicated Al-Si-Cu-Mg-Sn thermodynamic database for large composition ranges is presented. Calculations are compared to experimental data of an Al-7.5Si-3.5Cu-0.3Mg-0.1Sn alloy and the need for specific follow-up work is identified.


A method for numerical simulation of 2D incompressible high Reynolds number flows with laminar separation and big recirculation zones – regions of vortex formation and wake building – is presented. The paper is concerned with the case of separation from the surface, not from sharp edges. The calculation method draws on viscous splitting of the vorticity transport equation. At. each time step, this equation is solved in three separate substeps – convection (of point vortices and vortex sheet elements with their local velocities), diffusion (by means of the random walk technique) and generation (by means of Martensen's concept of vortex sheet extended by Lewis). The method does not assume any separation criterion. Locations of the separation points can be roughly estimated by means of computer flow visualisation as the stations at which the calculation elements – particles of fluid – leave the vicinity of the profile and the fluid begins to recirculate. This method of modelling has been called the cloud vorticity method. The aerodynamic force and its moment are calculated from the balance of momentum and moment of momentum equations in the flow domain. The flow patterns for a circular cylinder and NACA profile operating under separating conditions are presented to illustrate the calculation method. The occurrence of secondary phenomena in separated flows is also considered in the paper.


Nanocrystalline diamond films were deposited on Co-cemented carbide substrates using CH4/H2/Ar gas mixture by hot filament chemical vapor deposition (HFCVD) technique. The evidence of nanocrystallinity, smoothness and purity was obtained by characterizing the sample with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and selected-area electron diffraction (SAED). A new process was used to deposit composite diamond films by a two-step chemical vapor deposition procedure including first the deposition of the rough polycrystalline diamond and then the smooth fine-grained nanocrystalline diamond. The results show that the film consists of nanocrystalline diamond grains with sizes range from 20 to 80 nm. The Raman spectroscopy, XRD pattern, HR-TEM image and SAED pattern of the films indicate the presence of nanocrystalline diamond. Surface roughness is measured as Ra<100nm by AFM. Smooth nanocrystalline diamond layers can be deposited on conventional microcrystalline diamond layers using a two-step chemical vapor deposition by regulating the deposition parameters. These composite diamond films with the multiplayer (nanocrystalline/microcrystalline) structure have low surface roughness and high adhesive strength on WC-Co substrates. The diamond-coated tools and drawing dies with these composite coatings display excellent performances in the practical application.


This paper concerns the problem of collision avoidance in a dynamical multi-obstacle environment. The design problem is commonly stated in the literature in terms of a receding-horizon constrained optimization problem over a non-convex domain. Preliminary results based on hyper- plane arrangements lead to a mixed-integer formulation of the problem. This formalism is adequate for a static multi- obstacle environment, but may be impractical in a dynamical context. Nevertheless, this shortcoming can be alleviated by considering an additional analysis step and by an appropriate proper choice of the representation of the environment in a time-varying framework. The present paper tackles this issue by using zonotopes and discussing their parametrization in a collision avoidance type of application.


50 dissections of the human inferior V. cava have been performed in order to measure its right renal vein - diaphragm, retrohepatic, and suprahepatic segments. We conclude that some individual parameters as skin type, age, height, weight did not influence the magnitude of the studied segments. The average measurements of the different parameters proposed for the inferior V. cava are: 1. The distances between the right renal vein and the diaphragm and between the right renal vein and the right atrium are 113.94 mm and 135.16 mm, respectively; 2. the length of the retrohepatic portion of the inferior V. cava and the suprahepatic one were 78.34 mm and 19.34 mm respectively; 3. the valve of the inferior V. cava is present in 46% of the observations; its length and width averages are 31 mm and 10.22 mm, respectively.


Objective: The purpose of this research was to assess to current status of zoonotic disease biosurveillance in the United States. Methods: A questionnaire was administered to 53 state zoonotic disease program representatives in the United States and Puerto Rico. The questionnaire assessed the structure of zoonotic disease biosurveillance in the respective states, current biosurveillance activities such as testing arthropods for pathogens, information provided to local public health on zoonotic disease, and opinions of the current state of zoonotic disease surveillance. A website assessment was conducted to identify fact sheets that are provided by states on vectors of diseases of public health significance. A Model Zoonotic Disease program was developed to help guide local public health on developing local biosurveillance programs. Results: One or more representatives from total of 36/53 (68%) states and Puerto Rico responded to the survey. Eighty-five percent of the responding states have programs designed to track zoonotic diseases. Of the responding states, 52% test arthropods for pathogens of public health concern. Responding states stated that they disagree that their states are currently doing enough to prevent known or emerging zoonotic diseases. Conclusions: The current landscape of zoonotic disease surveillance does not proportionally reflect the distribution of zoonotic diseases. All states would be expected to have a designated program to respond to zoonotic diseases and conduct surveillance. In order to align with current expectations of biosurveillance, states should develop better state programs or provide locals with the means to develop their own programs.


Civil growth level in Jogjakarta regency appearently brings a positive impact on the economic growth level. Economic growth level in a certain area also always give negative impact, like a public stagnation and air polution. To recovering that problem, it needs a city rearrangement planning that can maximize the economic potential in each distric in Jogjakarta and also to minimize the negative impact. This study tries to make a new concept to replanning the city arrangement design that has an ecological and economic value. Literature review shows transportation design through the integrated public transportation will connect every economic sector in every Regency in Jogjakarta. The public transportation to study include trolley bus, commuter line, and aerobuswhich has a specific row that separated from the private transportation. The transportation design inside the main city will provide the row for the bicycle or the unmottorized vehicle and the pedestrian. It can reduce the air polution from the motorized vehicle. The regency design with a social housing principle can be build from the money raised by the goverment. To maximize the system, it may also try to integrate the solar energy to fulfill the necessary of the public. The regency planning "shared place" with the circuit breaker of the vehicle and the road design will also provide a "shared place", jogging and sport track, and also the community amusement for public. Keywords: economic potential, social housing, transportation design.


Tourism destinations are difficult to manage because of the complex relationships of their diverse public and private stakeholders. At the same time, strategic marketing efforts are important for destinations to foster positive consequences of tourism, particularly given the range of opportunities and challenges created by the emergence of social media that destinations can use advantageously. This article aims to explore future eDestination marketing from Australian tourism stakeholder network perspectives. Workshops were convened in July 2012 in Melbourne, Australia, for select stakeholders invited to contribute to the futures national tourism technology strategy. They presented a stakeholder network approach to futures strategy development that aims to contribute to that used in recent national tourism plans and strategies for Australia developed by the government. Building on theories of stakeholder networks and futures, the article demonstrates the value of a futures stakeholder network method compared to traditional government approaches by critically analyzing outcomes of both.


ABSTRACT Mercury has a long history as an antimicrobial agent effective against eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms. Despite its prolonged use, the basis for mercury toxicity in prokaryotes is not well understood. Archaea, like bacteria, are prokaryotes but they use a simplified version of the eukaryotic transcription apparatus. This study examined the mechanism of mercury toxicity to the archaeal prokaryote Sulfolobus solfataricus. In vivo challenge with mercuric chloride instantaneously blocked cell division, eliciting a cytostatic response at submicromolar concentrations and a cytocidal response at micromolar concentrations. The cytostatic response was accompanied by a 70% reduction in bulk RNA synthesis and elevated rates of degradation of several transcripts, including tfb-1, tfb-2, and lacS. Whole-cell extracts prepared from mercuric chloride-treated cells or from cell extracts treated in vitro failed to support in vitro transcription of 16S rRNAp and lacSp promoters. Extract-mixing experiments with treated and untreated extracts excluded the occurrence of negative-acting factors in the mercury-treated cell extracts. Addition of transcription factor B (TFB), a general transcription factor homolog of eukaryotic TFIIB, to mercury-treated cell extracts restored >50% of in vitro transcription activity. Consistent with this finding, mercuric ion treatment of TFB in vitro inactivated its ability to restore the in vitro transcription activity of TFB-immunodepleted cell extracts. These findings indicate that the toxicity of mercuric ion in S. solfataricus is in part the consequence of transcription inhibition due to TFB-1 inactivation.


Does the number of social media platforms that an adolescent uses have an effect on the quality of their social relationships? As social media continues to grow and evolve, sociologists have begun to explore its effect on an individual's everyday life. I propose that the more social media platforms that an adolescent uses, the more they will experience negative effects on their social relationships. Using survey data from 786 respondents living in the United States, ages 13 to 17 and collected by the Pew Research Center in 2014 and 2015, regression analyses were conducted to determine the relationship between social media usage and its effect on quality of adolescent social relationships, controlling for sex and age. The bivariate results show a statistically significant, positive but weak association between number of social media platforms used and the social relationship experience scale. In the multivariate results, this association was still statistically significant. Additionally, the multivariate results show that the control variables, sex and age, have no significant effect on one's social relationship experience. Therefore, these results show that the more social media platforms used, the more negative a social relationship experience an adolescent will have. The results support the hypothesis and indicate that adolescents who interact with a higher number of social media platforms will experience an increased negative effect on their social relationships. In future studies, researchers should investigate how specific social media platforms influence social relationships. Additionally, this type of research should not only continue, but should refine its methods as social media continues to quickly grow and evolve.


Currently, obtaining sustainable fuels, such as biodiesel and bioethanol, from cheap and renewable materials is a challenge. In recent years, a new approach being developed consists of producing, sugars from algae by photosynthesis. Sugar accumulation can be increased under osmotic stress (osmoregulation). The aim of this study is to show the pro-duction of sugars from algae, isolated from natural sources, and the effect of osmotic stress on fermentable sugars ac-cumulation. Strain isolation, production of sugars from each alga and the effect of osmotic stress on growth and sugar production are described. Twelve algal strains were isolated, showing growths between 0.6 and 1.8 g of biomass dry weight /L, all with production of intracellular and extracellular sugars. The strain identified as Chlorella sp. showed an increase in sugar production from 23.64 to 421 mg of sugars/g of biomass dry weight after 24 h of osmotic stress with 0.4 M NaCl. Sucrose and trehalose, both fermentable sugars, were the compatible osmolytes accumulated in response to the osmotic stress. The isolated strains are potential producers of fermentable sugars, using the photosynthetic pathway and osmotic stress.


In this paper, we introduce a 2-D microelectromechanical systems scanner for 3.2-mm-diameter dual-axis confocal microendoscopes, fabricated exclusively by front-side processing. Compared to conventional bulk micromachining that incorporates back-side etching, the front-side process is simple and thus enables high device yield. By eliminating the back-side etch window, the process yields compact and robust structures that facilitate handling and packaging. An important component of our front- side fabrication is a low-power deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) process that avoids the heating problems associated with standard DRIE. Reducing the RF etch coil power from 2400 to 1500 W leads to elimination of the spring disconnection problem caused by heat-induced aggressive local etching. In our scanner, the outer frame of the gimbal is split and noncontinuous to allow the scanner to be diced along the very edge of the scanning mirror in order to minimize the chip size (1.8 mm × 1.8 mm). The maximum optical deflection angles in static mode are ±5.5° and ±3.8° for the outer and inner axes, respectively. In dynamic operation, the optical deflection angles are ±11.8° at 1.18 kHz for the outer axis and ±8.8° at 2.76 kHz for the inner axis.


Experiments have been performed to investigate the radiation effects on mixed convection heat transfer for thermally developing airflow in vertical ducts with two differentially heated isothermal walls and two adiabatic walls. The investigation covers the Reynolds number Re = 800 to Re = 2900, heat flux varied from 256 W/m to 863 W/m, hot wall temperature ranges from 27C to 100 C, aspect ratios 1 & 0.5 and the emissivity of internal walls are 0.05 and 0.85. In the present study, combined flow visualization was conducted to observe the flow patterns. The effect of surface temperature along the walls was studied to investigate the local Nusselt number variation within the duct. The result shows that flow condition and radiation significantly affect the total Nusselt number and tends to reduce the buoyancy condition. Keywords—Mixed convection, Vertical duct, Thermally developing and Radiation effects


As a promising thermoelectric material, tin selenide (SnSe) is of relatively low thermal conductivity. However, the phonon transport mechanisms in SnSe are not fully understood due to the complex phase transition, dynamical instability, and strong anharmonicity. In this work, we perform molecular dynamics simulations with a machine-learning interatomic potential to explore the thermal transport properties of SnSe at different temperatures. The developed interatomic potential is parameterized using the framework of moment tensor potential, exhibiting satisfactory predictions on temperature-dependent lattice constants and phonon dispersion, as well as phase transition temperature. From equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, we obtained the thermal conductivity tensor from 200 K to 900 K. The origins of temperature-dependent thermal conductivity anisotropy and the roles of four-phonon scatterings are identified. The obtained interatomic potential can be utilized to study the mechanical and thermal properties of SnSe and related nanostructures in a wide range of temperatures.


Background: Fluid homeostasis, including electrolyte balance, is dependent on an interaction between the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) and the release of arginine vasopressin from the pituitary. An imbalance can lead to both hypo- and hypernatremia. We investigated the frequency, dynamics and severity of electrolyte imbalance in critically ill patients with COVID-19. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study 223 patients with confirmed COVID-19, treated at the intensive care unit (ICU), were included. Levels of electrolytes, base excess, pH and serum osmolality were collected from the laboratory database. Clinical data was retrieved from patients' medical records.Results: Hyponatremia was present in 63% of the patients, at admission. Within two weeks of hospitalization, 65% of the patients developed hypernatremia often combined with a rise of base excess. The mortality rate was twice as high in the group with hypernatremia compared to the patients not developing hypernatremia. Treatment of hypertension before the onset of COVID-19 was more common in patients without hypernatremia.Conclusion: Our study shows that hypernatremia is very common in severe COVID-19. Patients that developed hypernatremia needed longer time in ICU and had a higher risk of dying, suggesting that the level of sodium is an important indicator of severity in COVID-19.


The current study focuses and emphasis on the potential of heat stress to negatively affect crop physiology. Here, we have screened 19 wheat ( Triticum aestivum L . ) genotypes for their tolerance of heat stress. Significant differences were observed among the genotypes for all the traits under consideration. Exploitable extent of genetic variability amongst the entries was present as revealed by considerably higher estimates of mean percentage. On the basis of heat susceptibility index genotypes, Halna, Mon's Ald's, Cuo/79/Prulla and K 307 were identified as heat-tolerant whereas SAWSN 3041, SAWSN 3101 and K 0583 were identified as heat-susceptible. Seventeen wheat microsatellite markers were capable of detecting 89 alleles with an average of 4.6 alleles per locus. Polymorphism information content (PIC) value ranged from 0.16 for the primer XGWM 516 to 0.83 for DUPW 117 with an average of 0.60. A perusal of similarity coefficients clearly reflected that a very high degree of similarity exists between wheat variety Mon's Ald's and SAWSN 3101 (0.70). On the other hand, the two most distantly related cultivars were found to be AKAW 4008 and PBW 343 (0.034). Marker BARC 4, BARC 170, BARC 311, PSP 3058, WHE014 . H04 and GWM 458 were strongly associated with the heat tolerance for traits TGW and BARC 311 were strongly associated with terminal heat tolerance for number of grains/plant, respectively. Considering all the parameters it is adjudged that relatively stable genotypes may be evaluated at various agro-climatic regions for grain yield and heat tolerance along with other contributing characters and ideal plant type.


Research on cluster analysis for categorical data continues to develop, with new clustering algorithms being proposed. However, in this context, the determination of the number of clusters is rarely addressed. In this paper, we propose a new approach in which clustering of categorical data and the estimation of the number of clusters is carried out simultaneously. Assuming that the data originate from a finite mixture of multinomial distributions, we develop a method to select the number of mixture components based on a minimum message length (MML) criterion and implement a new expectationmaximization (EM) algorithm to estimate all the model parameters. The proposed EM-MML approach, rather than selecting one among a set of pre-estimated candidate models (which requires running EM several times), seamlessly integrates estimation and model selection in a single algorithm. The performance of the proposed approach is compared with other well-known criteria (such as the Bayesian information criterion–BIC), resorting to synthetic data and to two real applications from the European Social Survey. The EM-MML computation time is a clear advantage of the proposed method. Also, the real data solutions are much more parsimonious than the solutions provided by competing methods, which reduces the risk of model order overestimation and increases interpretability.


A new Pb(II) imprinted mercapto functionalized Montmorillonite was synthesize by an easy one step reaction by combining a surface imprinting technique for selective phase extraction of Pb(II) prior to its determinations by flame atomic absorption spectroscopy. The modified sorbent was characterized by FTIR and studied for preconcentration and determination of Pb(II) in natural water samples. The optimum pH value for sorption of lead (II) was 5.5. A recovery of 100% was obtained for lead (II), with 0.5 M nitric acid as eluting agent. The kinetic study reveals good accessibility of the chelating sites in the imprinted sorbent for uptake of selected ion. The sorption capacity was obtained at 27 mg·g−1 at optimum condition and 20o C.


A rabbit tumor collagenase was purified more than 5000-fold. In this form it degrades native collagen in helical conformation at 37�C, pH 7.6, into two fragments, but it had little capacity to cleave gelatin, an indication of the importance of higher-order structure of substrate for this enzyme in pure form. It is likely that, in vivo, enzymes other than collagenase degrade gelatin polypeptides produced by primary collagenolysis.


Margaret Tyler's translation of the Spanish Romance by Diego Ortunez de Calahorra, The Mirror of Princely Deeds and Knighthood, published in 1578, coincided with, and helped fuel, the contemporary boom in romance fiction, such as John Lyly's Euphues (1579) and Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia (1580), and was her sole venture into print. Tyler's prefatory address to the reader, which follows her dedication to her patron Thomas Howard, is the first published defence by a woman in English of the ability and equality of women writers in the world of masculine patronage, judgement, and power. It is a spirited and witty defence of intellectual equality and liberty of action, along with refutations of many key contemporary arguments used against women writing, publishing, or translating.


Thermal stability of  grains and tensile ductilities at room and elevated temperatures were investigated and compared for Mg-3%Zn-0.4%Zr and Mg-3%Zn-0.4%Zr-1%Bi alloys in hot-rolled state. The Bi-added alloy showed slightly finer-grained microstructure with enhanced thermal stability, which is closely associated with fine Mg-Bi compounds acting as obstacles for the migration of grain boundaries. The Mg-3%Zn-0.4%Zr-1%Bi alloy exhibited better tensile strength at room temperature and tensile ductilities at elevated temperature. Finer and more homogeneous grain structure with higher thermal stability would be responsible for the enhanced tensile properties in the Bi-added alloy.


Testing has been used in practice to check the conformation of an implementation to a specification. Recently, there has been much research in automatic generation of tests from specifications based on counterexample and witness generation techniques of model checking. One important issue in test generation is the notion of coverage, which limits the type and number of tests generated. Many coverage criteria have been proposed to reflect different test requirements, such as control-flow and data-flow based coverages. However, these general criteria are not for generating tests that are tailored to checking if an implementation satisfies specific properties. This paper proposes a framework in which tests are generated from user specified properties. In our framework, temporal logic LTL is used to express both desirable and undesirable properties. One difficulty in employing LTL for test generation is that, for a given LTL formula, it may be necessary to generate a test suite in which a test is arbitrarily long and the number of tests is infinite. The paper shows that it is possible to test a given LTL property on a black-box implementation with a finite test suite, assuming that an upper bound on the number of states in the implementation is known.


Contemporary Muslim criticisms of the commodification of religion are similar in some ways to the sociology of culture formulated by members of the Frankfurt School of the mid-twentieth century, particularly Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, as inspired in part by Walter Benjamin. Following Marx, these theorists reflected on the effects the mass production and distribution of commodities might have on the world of culture, particularly the fine arts. They argued that the commoditization of art destroys the "aura" of a work, its uniqueness and authenticity as a singular creation tied to a specific place and time. The mechanically reproduced work of art loses its use value–its ability to draw the viewer out of himself in contemplating it–and becomes mere exchange value, something that can be acquired and displayed, like an item of clothing or other commodity that might mark the buyer's interest or taste or wealth.


Since the beginning of the 20 th century, the Israeli-Palestinian unsettled issue began to escalate into a conflict. The small piece of land couth the eye of political interests and became a very big problem not only for the surrounding neighbors but for the whole Middle East and the world. Jewish population claims that the land is theirs and they have the right to be there due to historical and biblical argumentation. Palestinians consisted the majority of the population on this territory and resided on this lands since they can remember. In the 19 th century the Palestine region was part of Ottoman rule and in that period this territory did not represent an important political unit. After World War I Britain entered the region and it decreed over the area that now comprises Israel, West Bank, and Gaza Strip. Britain's presence brought many instabilities due to its own political interests. Later on, as a result of the atrocities afflicted upon Jews in Europe, Jews moved from Europe and settled in Israel and also due to the Zionism which is a political movement. As the political interest over the region escalated the visible solution for the problem was weakened. The Oslo Peace Accord for the first time gave the sparkle of hope to both sides. Even though the Accord was not successful it still presented an idea for peace and a chance for a solution of the conflict. The situation up till today does not give even the slightest hope for resolution. The conflict still flames with many deaths on both sides. The influence of the European Union, United Nations and mostly from the United States is visible but without inflicting drastic changes towards a solution. The newest decision of President Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel triggered, even more, an escalation of the fire, and brought more anger and despair in the Middle East. The conflict is clearly a political one and the question is whether there is an objective solution possible. The possible scenarios of a two state and one state will most probably never occur because the solution lies in the hands of both parties settling on a joint and mutual understanding of the problem and settling on common grounds.


A colleague tells this story: one day after a contracts class, several students came up to speak with her. One student said, "We've been having an argument among the students all year over whether you are a Democrat or a Republican. The Republicans in the class think you're a Republican, and the Democrats think you're a Democrat. Who's right?" My colleague was delighted, because she felt it indicated that she had achieved a neutrality of professorial viewpoint in the classroom, thereby allowing students to feel comfortable expressing their own divergent views. When she later told another law colleague this story, however, the other professor replied, "That's terrible. You should at least tell them where you're coming from and where you stand."Should health law teachers tell their students "where they're coming from?" Should they disclose their own personal or professional perspectives on the controversial topics they teach? If a professor has come to a considered conclusion on a particular issue, should she tell the students what it is and how she reached it, or should she try to keep her views in check while she engages the students in reaching their own conclusions? And philosophical or political leanings aside, should professors inform students of personal background or experiences that may shape their perspectives on the issues they raise in the classroom, such as their religious convictions, sexual orientation, or health status or encounters with the health care system? This essay reflects on these questions.


Cerebral malaria (CM) is one of the most severe manifestations of Plasmodium falciparum, characterised by seizures, coma and death within a short time period. The aetiology of the disease remains poorly understood and is limited by ethical constraints in dealing with human patients. A large body of research dedicated to CM has therefore focussed on delineating the mechanisms involved using the rodent model of malaria. Infection of mice with sporozoites or infected red blood cells (iRBCs) of PbANKA parasites recapitulates several features of CM including haemorrhaging, oedema and blood-brain barrier breakdown and is termed experimental CM (ECM).

The development of ECM relies on a complex series of interactions between the parasite and host. Although regarded as an immune-mediated pathology, sequestration of iRBCs is considered a central event for ECM to ensue, thus supporting the notion that ECM is purely the outcome of host-parasite interactions at the pathological blood stage. However, previous studies have shown that both surface antigens of iRBCs and the host's immune response differ between naturally transmitted (sporozoites) and blood-passaged parasites. This thesis is therefore aimed at describing the role of a novel Plasmodium antigen in the development of ECM and outlining differences in ECM progression between naturally transmitted and blood-passaged parasites.

The antigen, PbmaLS_05 is expressed in both liver-stage- and blood-stage schizonts and localises to the apicoplast of individual merozoites. Deletion of the endogenous PbmaLS_05 had no effect on parasite viability, but abrogated the development of ECM in mice, after both sporozoite and iRBC infections. PbmaLS_05 (-) parasites displayed retarded growth rates in the blood and enhanced clearance by the spleen, both of which were more pronounced on the days when PbANKA wild type infected mice showed signs of ECM. The absence of ECM in PbmaLS_05 (-) infected mice was accompanied by reduced infiltration of activated CD8+ T cells within the brain and reduced cross-presentation of a known parasite antigen (GAP50) by the brain endothelium, after iRBC but not sporozoite infection. Further investigations into sporozoite infections revealed an important role for PbmaLS_05 in the priming of CD8+ T cells responsible for causing ECM. These data thus highlight the existence of multiple mechanisms leading up to the development of ECM relevant to sporozoite or iRBC infections, with potential implications for vaccines or therapeutics designed to alleviate CM.


A program for predicting the sound power level from earth‐moving equipment is under development in SHI. Fan noise is one of the major sources, whose contribution is greater than 40% of the total radiated noise power. The experiments show that both the blade passing frequency (BPF) component and the broadband component are important, and the directivity pattern is not symmetric with respect to the plane between the upstream and downstream flow. A noise source model of the fan radiator combination for predicting both the directivity and the frequency spectrum is developed from the experimental measurements. In this paper, a physical interpretation is made for modeling the types, shapes, and locations of the simple sources depending on the fan noise generating mechanisms. The minimum number of measurements for the cross‐spectral approach are also considered based on the tolerable accuracy and the physically interpretable simplicity.


Primary cardiac tumors are rare, with an estimated incidence of 0.27% among pediatric autopsies. The most common cardiac tumor in fetus and infancy is rhabdomyoma, which tends to occur at a frequency of 0.08% among live-born infants. Rhabdomyomas are associated with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) in 50–86% of cases, manifested by seizures, learning/behavorial dificulties, skin lesions and renal abnormalities. The tumor tends to appear between 20 and 30 weeks' gestation as a well-circumscribed hyperechoic and homogeneous masses of variable size and usually at multiple loci. Fetal cerebral MRI is a sensitive imaging tool for evaluation of the fetal brain. Cardiac rhabdomyomas and subependymal nodules demonstrated by MRI, are the two major criteria for the diagnosis of TSC. We report the case of a 38-year-old gravida 2 para 1 aborta 1, who came for a sonographic examination at 21 weeks. The sonographic examination revealed an isolated hyperechoic mass of 6.5 mm located at (anillo de inserción de la válvula tricúspide). The size of the cardiac mass have remain unchanged until 37 weeks (the patient is still pregnant). A MRI examination was performed at 27 and 35 weeks, with no evidence of fetal brain lesions. There is no familiar history of TSC. However, normal findings on prenatal MRI of the fetal brain do not completely exclude postnatal tuberous sclerosis.


In this paper, a new hybrid parallel robot (HPR) manipulator is introduced. First three kinematic limbs of six-legged general Stewart platform (6DOF GSP) manipulator are disconnected. Afterward, each passive universal joint of remaining three-legged parallel manipulator (three-UPS) is mounted at the center of each second passive revolute joint of RPR planar parallel manipulator (3DOF PPM) where underlined letters present active joints. Active actuators of PPM mounted between base platform of GSP and ground perform translations along x and y-axes, and rotation about z-axis. Remaining three limbs of GSP mechanism provide translation z-axis, and rotation about x- and y-axes only. Thus HPR can perform motion with full dimensions (translation and rotation about x-, y-, and z-axes). Optimizations are performed by using particle swarm optimization algorithm. Optimization results demonstrated that HPR provides better dexterity and singularity-free workspace characteristics than GSP.


Carbonation-induced corrosion of steel rebar embedded in concrete is one of the major issues influencing durability of reinforced concrete structures. It has been acknowledged that structural cracks in concrete influences the carbon dioxide (CO2) diffusivity and accelerates the carbonation-induced reinforcement corrosion, however most of the previous studies on the carbonation induced corrosion have concentrated on the un-cracked / unloaded concrete. This study investigates the impact of cracks caused by loading on the depth of carbonation into concrete. Concrete prisms (100x100x500 mm) were subjected to four different crack widths (0, 0.05-0.15 mm, 0.15-0.25 mm and 0.25-0.35 mm) and the carbonation depth was determined using an accelerated environment test programme based on the CEN/TS 12390-10:2007 and XRD analysis. The impact of replacing OPC cement by pulverized fuel ash (PFA) and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) on the carbonation depth in cracked concrete was also investigated. The results show a considerable influence of crack width on the depth of carbonation and the X-ray powder diffraction analysis (XRD) confirms these results. The penetration of carbon dioxide and accumulation of carbonation compound (CaCO3) were found to be concentrated at crack locations, whereas the carbonation depths at other locations were found to be less than the carbonation depth in un-cracked concrete. The results also demonstrate a significant increase in the penetration of carbonation due to the addition of supplementary materials in the samples when compared to the reference mixes.


In many Solvency and Basel loss data, there are thresholds or deductibles that affect the analysis capability. On the other hand, the Birnbaum-Saunders model has received great attention during the last two decades and it can be used as a loss distribution. In this paper, we propose a solution to the problem of deductibles using a truncated version of the Birnbaum-Saunders distribution. The probability density function, cumulative distribution function, and moments of this distribution are obtained. In addition, properties regularly used in insurance industry, such as multiplication by a constant (inflation effect) and reciprocal transformation, are discussed. Furthermore, a study of the behavior of the risk rate and of risk measures is carried out. Moreover, estimation aspects are also considered in this work. Finally, an application based on real loss data from a commercial bank is conducted.


Background The common cold is typically managed with decongestants, antihistamines, antitussives and antipyretics. In addition to these established medications, herbal ingredients have been used over centuries to help treat common cold symptoms. The Ayurveda and Jamu systems of medicine, originating from India and Indonesia, respectively, have leveraged herbal therapies to treat many illnesses. Method An expert roundtable discussion comprising specialists in Ayurveda, Jamu, pharmacology and surgery along with a literature review was conducted to evaluate the use of four herbs – ginger, liquorice, turmeric and peppermint – for common cold symptom management in Ayurvedic texts, Jamu publications and monographs from the World Health Organization, Health Canada and various European guidelines. Discussion Due to a lack of antivirals, common cold management revolves around maintaining personal hygiene and symptom management. Herbal medicines have been an integral part of many cultures worldwide. Despite its growing acceptance, there is a perception that healthcare providers lack interest and may prevent patients from discussing the use of herbal medicines. Limited education and training may also widen the communication gap between patients and healthcare providers, hindering effective management. Conclusion Evaluation of scientific evidence and the standing in international monographs can offer perspectives on the use of herbal medicines for common cold management.


Virtual environments offer an ideal setting to develop intelligent training applications. Yet, their ability to support complex procedures depends on the appropriate integration of knowledge-based techniques and natural interaction. In this article, we describe the implementation of an intelligent rehearsal system for biohazard laboratory procedures, based on the real-time instantiation of task models from the trainee's actions. A virtual biohazard laboratory has been recreated using the Unity3D engine, in which users interact with laboratory objects using keyboard/mouse input or hand gestures through a Kinect device. Realistic behavior for objects is supported by the implementation of a relevant subset of common sense and physics knowledge. User interaction with objects leads to the recognition of specific actions, which are used to progressively instantiate a task-based representation of biohazard procedures. The dynamics of this instantiation process supports trainee evaluation as well as real-time assistance. This system is designed primarily as a rehearsal system providing real-time advice and supporting user performance evaluation. We provide detailed examples illustrating error detection and recovery, and results from on-site testing with students from the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Kyushu University. In the study, we investigate the usability aspect by comparing interaction with mouse and Kinect devices and the effect of real-time task recognition on recovery time after user mistakes.


Abstract : Back blast overpressure measurements from firings of seventy 105mm RR inert rounds have been examined and compared to predictions by point source blast correlations and by time-dependent gas dynamic codes. The effect of porous shroud and parallel plate deflectors is shown for some full-scale tests. That of a sixty-staged, capacitative multinozzle, 1/7 subscale cluster, is shown to significantly reduce back blast. Some detonative properties of the incident blast wave are considered, and a thermochemical analysis is given for a dense (M-8) gas, performed under contract to obtain charged species and OH concentrations. It is concluded that capacitative-dissipative devices may be superior to the purely dissipative type of fluid mechanical blast attenuator, but that propellant and loading considerations play an important role in blast reduction. (Author)


ABSTRACT. Three to five measurements of fetal cardiac output and its distribution were made using radiolabeled microspheres in each of 12 sheep fetuses in whom fetal plasma insulin concentration was varied by exogenous infusion of insulin to the fetus. Blood concentrations of oxygen and glucose as well as blood gases, pH, hematocrit, and plasma insulin concentrations were also measured. Both fetal arterial oxygen content and whole blood glucose concentration fell as fetal insulin concentration rose. Fetal cardiac output rose as insulin concentration increased and was accompanied by an increase in fetal heart rate. Increased insulin concentration was associated with increased flow to the heart, stomach, placenta, and carcass while blood flow to the fetal brain, lungs, liver, kidneys, spleen, and intestines was not affected. As plasma insulin concentration rose, the percentage of the cardiac output distributed to the fetal heart and upper carcass increased; that distributed to the fetal brain, lungs, liver, stomach, intestines, and lower carcass remained unchanged; while that distributed to the kidneys, spleen, and placenta decreased. When expressed as a fraction of cardiac output, an additional 7% (from 39 to 46%) of the cardiac output was distributed to carcass over the range of insulin concentrations studied. Most of the increased portion of the fetal cardiac output distributed to the fetal carcass during hyperinsulinemia was accounted for by a decrease in the percentage of fetal cardiac output perfusing the placenta.


Understanding how organisms adapt to new environments is a key problem in evolution, yet it remains unclear whether phenotypic plasticity generally facilitates or hinders this process. Here we studied the evolved and plastic responses to water stress in lab-born descendants of wild house mice (Mus musculus domesticus) collected from desert and non-desert environments. Using a full sib design, we measured organismal phenotypes and gene expression under normal (hydrated) and water stressed (dehydrated) conditions. After many generations in the lab, mice from the desert consumed significantly less water than mice from other localities, indicating that this difference has a genetic basis. Under water stress, desert mice lost less weight than non-desert mice, and desert mice exhibited differences in blood chemistry related to osmoregulatory function. Gene expression in the kidney revealed evolved differences between mice from different environments as well as plastic responses between hydrated and dehydrated mice. Desert mice showed reduced gene expression plasticity under water stress compared to non-desert mice. Importantly, the non-desert mice generally showed shifts towards desert-like expression under water stress, consistent with adaptive plasticity. Finally, patterns of gene expression identified several candidate genes for adaptation to the desert, including Aqp1 and Apoe. These findings provide evidence for local adaptation in a recently introduced species and suggest that adaptive plasticity may have facilitated the colonization of the desert environment.


The problem of Optimal Stopping is of fundamental importance for sequential analysis, for the detection of signals in a background of noise, and also for pricing American-type options in the modern theory of finance. We shall review in this talk two relatively recent approaches to this problem: the deterministic or "pathwise" approach of Davis & Karatzas (1994), and the "integral representation" approach of Bank & El Karoui (2003). Each of these approaches has its own mathematical and methodological interest, and is almost tailor-made for particular applications. We shall discuss in some detail various aspects of the two approaches. Whether one of them can be obtained directly from the other, remains a tantalizing open question. The University of Michigan Department of Statistics Presents


mobile phone is a basic need for everyone. Mobile Cloud Computing is a very convenient & on- demand network access of the shared resources like services, network, applications, Servers & cloud data storages. DDoS attack can be possible on mobile cloud as well as data integrity can also be possible on data stored on mobile cloud. DDoS is one of the largest threads for the internet users & cloud service providers. Data integrity is necessary for any cloud data centre to avoid data corruption or data crash. Security is major dilemma in cloud environment. In Proposed mechanism DDoS is detected & pre-empted by log monitoring of each & every request of services provided. Once attacker has been detected by log monitoring Attacker will be blocked permanently or tentatively depending on the log details. Mobile cloud user needs their data to be safe & private to maintain confidentiality. Data integrity can be achieved by implementing M-AES algorithm to the data stored in mobile cloud. M-AES algorithm preserves the data integrity in mobile cloud computing. Question arises why combining DDoS & Data Integrity? After preventing DDoS attack providing upload & download data services to protect data stored on cloud servers from spoofing, data integrity is provided to data. If a user uploads data & malicious user or hacker tries to modify the data by spoofing in such cases, providing encryption to data before uploading data on cloud as well as by sending verification code to registered email-id as a security purpose. Keep log of file details like file size, date of upload, number of words, type of file by using these parameters spoofing can be detected.


AIM
To investigate the oxidative-stress-related changes in rats with portal hypertension with particular emphasis on nitric oxide (NO) and trace metals.

METHODS
Cirrhosis was induced by partial portal vein ligation (PVL) in Wistar rats. The lipid peroxidation marker (malondialdehyde, MDA), antioxidant defense enzymes including superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione (GSH), and agents known to have antioxidant features including nitric oxide (NO), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu) were determined both in serum and in liver tissue at 4 wk after surgery in PVL and sham-operated rats. Portal pressure of all experimental animals was measured. MDA was detected by thiobarbituric acid reactivity assay. SOD activity was determined by inhibition of nitroblue tetrazolium reduction with xanthine/xanthine oxidase used as a superoxide generator. CAT activity was determined by the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide. GSH concentrations were measured by using metaphosphoric acid for protein precipitation and 5'-5'-dithio-bis-2-nitrobenzoic acid for color development. NO was detected by the Griess method after reduction of nitrate to nitrite with nitrate reductase, and the concentrations of Zn and Cu were measured by a Shimadzu 680 AA atomic absorption spectrometer. Histopathological confirmation was done under light microscope. Statistical analyses were done by Student's t-test, and significance of the difference was tested by the unpaired Mann-Whitney test. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS
Histopathological studies confirmed PVL-induced cirrhotic changes. There was a statistically significant difference in portal pressure between PVL and control groups (P<0.001). The results showed significant increases in the levels of MDA and NO in both tissue and serum (P<0.05 and P<0.001, respectively in tissue; P<0.001 for each in serum), and Zn only in tissue (P<0.001) in rats with PVL compared with sham-operated rats. Besides, PVL rats exhibited reduced plasma and tissue GSH, CAT, SOD (P<0.001 for each). Serum and tissue Cu concentration did not change.

CONCLUSION
Our findings suggest that PVL in rats induces important biochemical and molecular changes related to oxidative stress in the liver.


The hypothesis that multiaxonal neurons of the myenteric plexus of the small intestine are sensory neurons, was tested. The rising principle of the issue to sensory information in the metasympathetic ganglions of the small intestine was discovered by microapplication of the salt acid solution. Serotonin (5-hydroxytriptamine) and acetylcholine can participate in forming primary sensory signals in the multiaxonal neurons. Pulsed activity in primary sensory neurons by mucous perfusion of the small intestine by physiological solution with pH 3.5-3.8 was revealed. The enterochromaffin cells of the mucosa and multiaxonal neurons of the submucous and myenteric plexuses take part in reception of the salt acid.


Indium-thallium alloys in the composition range l6 to 31 at.% T1 undergo a martensitic phase transition from the higher temperature fee form to the lower temperature fct one. Certain lattice properties of these alloys have been investigated in the region of the phase boundary. The alloys studied were in single crystal form and comprised of two (11.5 and 15 at.% T1) which always had a tetragonal structure, and two (25 and 27 at.% T1) which on cooling transformed from fee to fet at 195 and 125K, respectively. Ultrasonic wave velocities and attenuation have been measured by pulse methods in the temperature range 4 to 423K (melting point 427K). In addition, thermal expansion data for the alloys have been obtained. The temperature variation of the elastic constants, determined from the sound velocity results, is discussed with reference to effects associated with the martensitic transition. One elastic constant combination - 1/2(c(_11)-C(_12)) has been shown to approach zero at the transition; theoretical calculations of elastic constants from phonon dispersion curves computed from the optimised model potential theory show a similar result, and the mechanism of the transition is interpreted as the collapse of the slow transverse acoustic phonon mode propagating in the [110] direction. Crystal stability conditions have enabled the limiting values of Poisson's ratio to be derived, and the variation of that ratio and its limits has been investigated as the phase boundary is approached. The order of the phase transition is discussed; a second order process is suggested by the results obtained.


Chilling stress increases the amount of polyphenols, especially lignin, which protects tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. k326) from chilling stress. To clarify the molecular biosynthesis mechanism of the key representative compounds, specifically lignin, RNA sequencing and ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry technologies were used to construct transcriptomic and metabolomic libraries from the leaves of tobacco plants subjected to normal (25°C) and chilling (4°C) temperature treatments. Transcriptomic libraries from the different samples were sequenced, generating more than 40million raw reads. Among nine samples, metabolomic analysis identified a total of 97 encoding enzymes that function in the key steps of pathways related to polyphenol biosynthesis, where 42 metabolites were also located. An integrated analysis of metabolic and transcriptomic data revealed that most of the intermediate metabolites and enzymes related to lignin biosynthesis were synthesised in the leaves under chilling stress, which suggests that the biosynthesis of lignin plays an important role in the response of tobacco leaves to cold temperatures. In addition, the cold insensitivity of chalcone synthase genes might be considered to be an important rate-limiting factor in the process of precursor substance flow to flavonoid biosynthesis under chilling stress. Furthermore, the upregulated expression of phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), hydroxycinnamoyl transferase (HCT) and cinnamyl-alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD) under chilling stress is the key to an increase in lignin synthesis. This study provides a hypothetical basis for the screening of new active metabolites and the metabolic engineering of polyphenols in tobacco.


Specifying reward signals that allow agents to learn complex behaviors is a long-standing challenge in reinforcement learning. A promising approach is to extract preferences for behaviors from unlabeled videos, which are widely available on the internet. We present Video Prediction Rewards (VIPER), an algorithm that leverages pretrained video prediction models as action-free reward signals for reinforcement learning. Specifically, we first train an autoregressive transformer on expert videos and then use the video prediction likelihoods as reward signals for a reinforcement learning agent. VIPER enables expert-level control without programmatic task rewards across a wide range of DMC, Atari, and RLBench tasks. Moreover, generalization of the video prediction model allows us to derive rewards for an out-of-distribution environment where no expert data is available, enabling cross-embodiment generalization for tabletop manipulation. We see our work as starting point for scalable reward specification from unlabeled videos that will benefit from the rapid advances in generative modeling. Source code and datasets are available on the project website: https://escontrela.me/viper