This article investigates what ontological commitments are carried by certain sentences in the progressive. I focus specifically on telic sentences in the progressive with verbs of creation. First, I argue against prominent extensionalist analyses given by Parsons and Szabó. Next, I develop and defend a competing intensional analysis. This analysis captures apparent intensional phenomena with certain sentences in the progressive while maintaining an extensionalist analysis of the progressive itself. I distinguish three features of the meanings of sentences like 'Alice was baking a cake': first, the perspective taken on the event contributed by the progressive aspect; second, the intensionality in the interpretation of the verb's internal argument; and third, the telicity and modality manifest at the level of the verb phrase and sentence. The proposed account of the progressive and verbs of creation raises interesting broader questions concerning our conceptualizations of change and how, and to what extent, they are represented in the grammars of natural languages. Some sentences, like (1), carry their ontological commitments on their sleeves.


The thesis examines and explains the development of occupational exposure limits (OELs) as a means of preventing work related disease and ill health. The research focuses on the USA and UK and sets the work within a certain historical and social context. A subsidiary aim of the thesis is to identify any short comings in OELs and the methods by which they are set and suggest alternatives. The research framework uses Thomas Kuhn's idea of science progressing by means of paradigms which he describes at one point, `lq ... universally recognised scientific achievements that for a time provide model problems and solutions to a community of practitioners. KUHN (1970). Once learned individuals in the community, `lq ... are committed to the same rules and standards for scientific practice. Ibid. Kuhn's ideas are adapted by combining them with a view of industrial hygiene as an applied science-based profession having many of the qualities of non-scientific professions. The great advantage of this approach to OELs is that it keeps the analysis grounded in the behaviour and priorities of the groups which have forged, propounded, used, benefited from, and defended, them. The development and use of OELs on a larger scale is shown to be connected to the growth of a new profession in the USA; industrial hygiene, with the assistance of another new profession; industrial toxicology. The origins of these professions, particularly industrial hygiene, are traced. By examining the growth of the professions and the writings of key individuals it is possible to show how technical, economic and social factors became embedded in the OEL paradigm which industrial hygienists and toxicologists forged. The origin, mission and needs of these professions and their clients made such influences almost inevitable. The use of the OEL paradigm in practice is examined by an analysis of the process of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, Threshold Limit Value (ACGIH, TLV) Committee via the Minutes from 1962-1984. A similar approach is taken with the development of OELs in the UK. Although the form and definition of TLVs has encouraged the belief that they are health-based OELs the conclusion is that they, and most other OELs, are, and always have been, reasonably practicable limits: the degree of risk posed by a substance is weighed against the feasibility and cost of controlling exposure to that substance. The confusion over the status of TLVs and other OELs is seen to be a confusion at the heart of the OEL paradigm and the historical perspective explains why this should be. The paradigm has prevented the creation of truly health-based and, conversely, truly reasonably practicable OELs. In the final part of the thesis the analysis of the development of OELs is set in a contemporary context and a proposal for a two-stage, two-committee procedure for producing sets of OELs is put forward. This approach is set within an alternative OEL paradigm. The advantages, benefits and likely obstacles to these proposals are discussed.


The just noticeable distortion (JND) map is a useful tool for perceptual video coding. However, direct calculation of the JND map incurs high complexity, and the problem is aggravated in multiview video coding. In this paper, the motion and disparity vectors obtained during the video coding are employed to predict the JND maps in order to reduce the complexity. The error propagation of the prediction is studied and a JND block refreshing approach is proposed, when the prediction is not satisfactory, to alleviate the influence of the error propagation. The performance of the proposed JND prediction method is evaluated in a perceptual MVC framework, where the prediction residuals are tuned according to the JND thresholds to save the bits without affecting the perceptual quality. Experimental results show that the JND prediction method has better accuracy and lower complexity than an existing JND synthesis method. In addition, the proposed method leads to negligible degradation of the coding performance, compared to the direct JND method.


New democracies pose a particular challenge for journalists. They are vulnerable and sometimes shaky. One wants them to work and, therefore, one is seeking to define not just what constitutes high-quality and interesting journalism but also how one can best contribute to helping democracy take root. In South Africa, journalists by and large emerged from many years of fighting against state, corporate, and political pressures under apartheid in the 1990s with a fierce commitment to independence. This sentiment was often strongest, predictably, in those institutions that had suffered the most political interference, such as the state broadcaster and the Afrikaans press, both of which had served largely as mouthpieces for the apartheid government.


Six whole-rock specimens of basalt from the Cardenas Lavas of the younger Precambrian Unkar Group yield a Rb-Sr isochron of 1.09 ± 0.07 b.y. This age is believed to approximate the time of extrusion of the lava. Potassium-argon age determinations of the lava are considerably younger and may reflect either diffusive loss of 40Ar or a period of heating about 800 m.y. ago.


Abstract There is scant research examining both the psychological (individual) and leadership (environmental) influences on older workers. We firstly examine the influence of older workers' mindfulness on their job engagement, job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Secondly, we address effective leadership approaches for older workers, comparing two positive relational leadership styles, leader member exchange and leader autonomy support (LAS). We survey 1,237 participants from 28 organisations in New Zealand and employ structural equation modelling to test our hypotheses using AMOS 24.0. We find that mindful older workers enjoy greater wellbeing and are discerning of the leadership styles that most benefit their engagement, satisfaction and intentions to stay within the organisation. We find that mindfulness has direct importance and LAS has indirect importance on advancing the wellbeing of older workers. Mindful older workers exhibit greater work wellbeing than non-mindful workers, but they also demonstrate greater expectations and discernment of the leadership styles they encounter.


Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) is associated with self-reported problematic smartphone use (PSU) severity, but there is little investigation that includes objectively measured smartphone use. The aim of the current study was to provide insights into this domain. We combined the partially published data from two previous U.S.-based studies with college student samples that tracked smartphone use data with a different focus from the current study. Both data sets included socio-demographic measures, FoMO and PSU scale scores, and data for objectively measured screentime and frequency of screen unlocks over a week, amounting up to more than a thousand observations. FoMO had a strong correlation with self-reported PSU severity; however, FoMO was not associated with objectively measured smartphone use variables. FoMO did not predict behavioral smarthpone use over a week in multilevel modeling for repeated measures. Even though FoMO is a strong predictor of self-reported PSU severity, it does not predict objectively measured smartphone use.


Drug distribution companies that manage data manually, get many trouble when company use the information because a lot of data are managed, so the process of searching data takes a long time. Another problem encountered is the incompatibility of information about inventory with order fulfillment process. Based on the problems occurred, this research developed an inventory management application to assist in drug distribution company. Making an application is expected to assist in managing data and information primarily relating to the information about inventory. Application made by using C # programming language. Based on the analysis and design created for this application, the application of the drug distribution enterprise applications help the company to manage the data for the procurement process, order fulfillment and maintain the availability of goods by applying inventory management. Keywords : manage data manually, inventory management, order fulfillment process, drug distribution company, procurement process.


Many chronobiologic and cyclic environmental factors are implicated in the pathophysiology of nocturnal asthma. A better understanding of these interrelating processes is essential for an optimization of medications for asthma. A reasonable therapeutic approach for the management of nocturnal asthma is the use of inhaled beta-agonists routinely, on a daily basis, and if symptoms persist, the use of an appropriate SR theophylline scheduled once-daily in the evening. Inhaled cromolyn sodium and corticosteroid therapy, properly timed to rhythms, may be warranted to control inflammation and stabilize the airways.


This paper mainly used two different grey models to predict the numbers of candidates of applying for the college entrance examination. We firstly introduced the conception of GM (1,1,D) and GM (1,1,C), briefly explained the difference between them from the aspect of theory, and then put them into the application of predicting the situation of variance of candidates for college entrance examination. Finally, we analyzed the reasons for this change and countermeasures. Compared to the application of numbers of candidates for college entrance examination by using two grey prediction models, this paper gives an effective method of data analysis, and provides technical information for the relevant decision-making departments. This paper set a good example for the application of selecting the correct grey model to address specific problems.朗读 显示对应的拉丁字符的拼音 字典


Preeclampsia is a hypertensive disorder that occurs during pregnancy, and it is a multi-factorial disease. The antiangiogenic factor soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFlt-1) has been reported to be important in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia, but the mechanism of its involvement remains unknown. To test the effects of sFlt-1 on pregnancy, we injected pregnant mice with exogenous mouse sFlt-1. After 18 days of gestation, higher blood pressure, proteinuria, and histological differences were observed compared with the controls. Mitochondrial swelling inside the trophoblast cells in the placenta of sFlt-1-treated pregnant mice was observed by electron microscopy, which suggested a role of sFlt-1 in oxidative stress in trophoblasts in PE. Furthermore, apoptosis markers were upregulated in sFlt-1-treated mice. In conclusion, sFlt-1 appears to play a role in oxidative stress, which promotes apoptosis of trophoblasts. This may be an important mechanism in the development of preeclampsia.


Abstract. This study aims at creating a holistic conceptual approach systematizing the interrelation of (natural) hazards, vulnerability and risk. A general hierarchical risk meta-framework presents potentially affected components of a given system, such as its physical, demographic, social, economic, political or ecological spheres, depending on the particular hazard. Based on this general meta-framework, measurable indicators are specified for the system "urban area" as an example. This framework is used as an outline to identify the capabilities of remote sensing to contribute to the assessment of risk. Various indicators contributing to the outline utilizing diverse remote sensing data and methods are presented. Examples such as built-up density, main infrastructure or population distribution identify the capabilities of remote sensing within the holistic perspective of the framework. It is shown how indexing enables a multilayer analysis of the complex and small-scale urban landscape to take different types of spatial indicators into account to simulate concurrence. The result is an assessment of the spatial distribution of risks within an urban area in the case of an earthquake and its secondary threats, using an inductive method. The results show the principal capabilities of remote sensing to contribute to the identification of physical and demographic aspects of vulnerability, as well as provide indicators for the spatial distribution of natural hazards. Aspects of social, economic or political indicators represent limitations of remote sensing for an assessment complying with the holistic risk framework.


software, a program able to identify 256 shades of gray in a specific area of interest. For each patient the bowel [B] and the iliac bone [IB] were analysed, and the Average [A] of the gray-scale was obtained as indicator of the echogenicity. As absolute echogenicity is known to vary with gain and ultrasound intensity, the ratio of the two adjacent structures [B/IB] was used to overcome gain/setting variation and inter-patient variability. Results: Our study population included 70 cases: 31 cases reported by visual judgement as mild EB, 26 as moderate EB and 13 cases as severe FEB. The average B/IB ratio for each group was 0.79 (±0.19 SD), 0.81 (±0.19 SD) and 0.90 (±0.20 SD), respectively. The difference between each of the 3 groups was not significant, but this may be due to the small sample size. Conclusions: The Histogram evaluation of subjectively judged severity of bowel echogenicity confirms the poor reproducibility of the qualitative assessment and stresses the necessity of an objective grading system for increased fetal bowel echogenicity.


The amblyceran and ischnoceran lice removed from the Indian Peafowl (Pavo cristatus L.) collected at the Riyadh bird market, and other specimens available in the King Saud University Museum of Arthropods, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, were identified. Amyrsidea minuta Emerson, a new country record, and Goniodes dissimilis Denny were found infesting the Indian Peafowl in Saudi Arabia. Goniodes dissimilis is recorded for the first time from this bird species, along with Menacanthus stramineus (Nitzsch), the well-known chicken body louse. All previous records of the 12 species of chewing louse reported from the Indian Peafowl are reviewed. An identification key for the 13 species is given with taxonomic notes. Additionally, a new photo-editing technique for chewing louse images is noted.


Educational robotics has gained a lot of attention in the past few years in K-12 education. Prior studies have shown enough shreds of evidence and highlight the benefits of educational robotics as being effective in providing impactful learning experiences. At the same time, today, the scientific subject of computer vision seems to dominate the field of robotics, leading to new and innovative ideas, solutions, and products. Several articles from the recent literature demonstrate how computer vision has also improved the general educational process. However, still, the number of articles that connect computer vision with educational robotics remains limited. This article aims to present a systematic mapping review, with three research questions, investigating the current status of educational robotics, focusing on the synergies and interdependencies with the field of computer vision. The systematic review outlines the research questions, presents the literature synthesis, and discusses findings across themes. More precisely, this study attempts to answer key questions related to the role, effectiveness and applicability of computer vision in educational robotics. After a detailed analysis, this paper focuses on a set of key articles. It analyzes the research methodology, the effectiveness and applicability of computer vision, the robot platform used, the related cost, the education level, and the educational area explored. Finally, the results observed are referred to as educational process benefits. The reviewed articles suggest that computer vision contributes to educational robotics learning outcomes enhancing the learning procedure. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic approach that revises the educational robotics domain by considering computer vision as a key element.


Celiac disease is a systemic autoimmune process and appears in genetically predisposed individuals, with a well-known cause, consisting in a permanent intolerance to gluten, a protein contained in the flour of wheat, rye, barley and oats. Worldwide celiac disease affects to 1% of the Caucasian and there is recent evidence that the disease is increasing in USA and Finland among other regions in the world. It is considered to be the most prevalent disease with a genetic predisposition. The clinical forms of presentation are varied. The classical form consisting of diarrhea, anemia and failure to thrive is still common in children, but in the adult patients the symptoms resemble the irritable bowel syndrome. Mono-symptomatic forms with extra-intestinal manifestations are frequent. Hematological, cutaneous, articular, hepatic, bone and neurological manifestations are often described. This protean presentation and the lack of awareness explain the delay in diagnosis and suggest that screening in high-risk groups is indicated. The publication of this book written mainly by Spanish and Latin-American clinicians, researchers, and teachers, demonstrates the wide interest and the involvement of different disciplines that are necessary to understand celiac disease and gluten-related pathologies, such as non-celiac gluten-sensitivity. This has a great impact in the general public and in the industry. However, the knowledge of   non-celiac gluten-related pathologies remains scarce but presently in the process of being properly defined. This book also highlights the importance of recognizing non-celiac gluten-sensitivity and briefly discusses a new definition. It also provides some perspectives to take into account when studying celiac disease in China and Central America. It describes new observations in Mexico, El Salvador and Costa Rica. The psychosocial impact as studied and reported by Argentinean investigators also adds to the value of this book. Written with a multidisciplinary team, we think that this book could be of interest to a great variety of medical specialists. Due to the systemic nature and variable presentation of celiac disease it certainly is of interest to pediatricians, gastroenterologists, hepatologists, specialists in internal medicine, general practitioners as well as hematologists, immunologists, geneticists, pathologists, rheumatologists, dermatologists, neurologists, gynecologists, neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, orthopedic surgeons, specialists in rehabilitation medicine, endocrinologists. Being gluten the cause of these disorders, the food industry, dietitians and nutritionists will benefit from the valuable information presented in this book.


In human communication, nonverbal information such as gestures and facial expressions often plays a greater role than language, and an increasing number of devices are designed to be intuitively controlled by gestures. However, there are some disadvantages of this intuitive interaction. One of the chief problems is that these devices have difficulty in distinguishing between unconscious and intentional gestures; they tend to respond erroneously to unconscious movements. In this chapter, authors propose a new gesture analysis method based on the dynamic model. They focused on the "exaggerated gestures" that are effectively used in, such as Japanese Kabuki, effectively used in Disney's animation, and tried to identify their common features and effects. They noted the "preparation" or "follow-through" motions just before and after the emphasized actions and each behavior can be quantified by the undershoot and overshoot value of changes in torque. These methods can provide important knowledge for analyzing features and distinguishing intentions when interacting with gestures.


This report describes a new fast projection technique for adaptive beanforming. It is based on a technique proposed by Yeh where Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization is applied to N rows of the covariance matrix to obtain the signal subspace. In Yeh's technique, N is equal to L the number of jammers. This technique, applied to bearing estimation, requires a priori knowledge of the number of sources. Even though it gives good results when the number of sources is much smaller than the number of array elements, the performance of Yeh's technique degrades severely as the number of jammers increases. We improve the technique by taking a larger number of rows in the orthogonalization: we add a thresholding procedure to the technique in order to optimize N. We compared this new technique, called Subspace E-. -ation without Eigenvcctors (SEWE), with other fast projection techniques. SEWE was shown to give superior performance in terms of the Signal-to-Noise-plus-Jammer Ratio achievable with a given computational load, except when a very high SNJR is required.


ERNST PHILIPP EDUARD BISCHOFF, Microscopic analysis of the anastomoses between the cranial nerves, translated and edited by Ernest Sachs, jr., and Eva W. Valtin, Hanover, New Hampshire, University Press of New England, 1977, 8vo, pp. ix, 138, illus., [no price stated]. The clinician today encounters a number of obscure syndromes of pain involving the head, face, and neck. The anatomical background to them has mostly been overlooked, and yet in 1865, E. P. E. Bischoff published a liberally illustrated prizewinning essay on Mikroskopische Analyse der Anastomosen der Kopfnerven, which was characterized by meticulous dissections of the inter-connections between the cranial nerves. In addition to the present-day importance of this knowledge, the monograph is now quite rare and the German opaque, and this tanslation is therefore trebly welcome. It is the product of a distinguished neurosurgeon and an experienced translator, and has an introduction and a list of publications referred to by Bischoff. The editors have, therefore, produced an excellent book, and it is to be hoped that they will employ their symbiotic talents on other outstanding German works on neuroanatomy.


Weeds are a limitation to cocoa production, and herbicide use in cocoa cultivation is known to lower the cost of weed management and support better plant growth. As a result, glyphosate was recommended for use in cocoa cultivation following a two-year field trial at the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana. Recent informal debates among scientists and farmers, however, point towards a disagreement regarding the effect of glyphosate on young cocoa. Consequently, an experiment was conducted from 2011 to 2013 at the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana to re-evaluate the suitability of glyphosate (Isopropylamine) for weed management and its effects on growth and yield of young cocoa. Five rates of glyphosate viz: (i) 1,920 g active ingredient a.i. ha-1 using polyjet nozzle; (ii) 1,920 g a.i. ha-1 using very low volume (vlv) nozzle; (iii) 960 g a.i. ha-1 vlv; (iv) 720 g a.i. ha-1 vlv; (v) 480 g a.i. ha-1 vlv; and (vi) manual weeding were tested in a randomized complete block design with four replicates in the field. Effects of treatments on weeds, cocoa growth and yield were recorded for three years. In a gauze house study, cowpea and maize were used to determine residual effects of glyphosate. Emergence, survival and dry matter accumulation by these plants were recorded. Results from the gauze house study showed that glyphosate did not exhibit residual soil activity at these rates. Glyphosate at 960 g ha-1 significantly increased yield of three year old cocoa compared to the other rates and manual weeding. The 1,920 g ha-1 rates significantly reduced the initial yield of 3 year old cocoa compared to the other glyphosate rates. Cost analysis showed that glyphosate at 960 g a.i. ha-1 was Ghȼ 136.00 (11%) and Ghȼ 1,784.00 (61%) cheaper than the 1,920 g a.i. ha-1 rates and manual weeding respectively. It was therefore concluded that glyphosate can be applied at 960 g a.i. ha-1 (equivalent to 2.0 l ha-1 in 120 l of water) for effective weed management without significant adverse effects on growth and yield of young cocoa.

 Key words: Weeds, glyphosate, cocoa, growth, bean yield and cost.


Abstract Objective Corner stores, also known as bodegas, are prevalent in low-income urban areas and primarily stock high-energy foods and beverages. Little is known about individual-level purchases in these locations. The purpose of the present study was to assess corner store purchases (items, nutritional characteristics and amount spent) made by children, adolescents and adults in a low-income urban environment. Design Evaluation staff used 9238 intercept surveys to directly examine food and beverage purchases. Setting Intercepts were collected at 192 corner stores in Philadelphia, PA, USA. Subjects Participants were adult, adolescent and child corner store shoppers. Results Among the 9238 intercept surveys, there were 20 244 items. On average, at each corner store visit, consumers purchased 2·2 (sd 2·1) items (1·3 (sd 2·0) foods and 0·9 (sd 0·9) beverages) that cost $US 2·74 (sd $US 3·52) and contained 2786·5 (sd 4454·2) kJ (666·0 (sd 1064·6) kcal). Whether the data were examined as a percentage of total items purchased or as a percentage of intercepts, the most common corner store purchases were beverages, chips, prepared food items, pastries and candy. Beverage purchases occurred during 65·9 % of intercepts and accounted for 39·2 % of all items. Regular soda was the most popular beverage purchase. Corner store purchases averaged 66·2 g of sugar, 921·1 mg of sodium and 2·5 g of fibre per intercept. Compared with children and adolescents, adults spent the most money and purchased the most energy. Conclusions Urban corner store shoppers spent almost $US 3·00 for over 2700 kJ (650 kcal) per store visit. Obesity prevention efforts may benefit from including interventions aimed at changing corner store food environments in low-income, urban areas.


Delivering prosperity to all requires efficient and equitable access to infrastructure. This is certainly true for digital infrastructure which is now essential for both societal and economic development, as the internet provides a range of new opportunities for (monetary and non-monetary) value creation. Surprisingly, our understanding of how to connect people to the internet is largely based on local or national case studies, as opposed to any systematic unifying assessment. Indeed, the existing tools and data available to decision makers is scant with most approaches treating countries as homogeneous units without providing the sub-national comparative economic assessment of different digital infrastructure strategies. Reflecting spatial heterogeneity in engineering-economic models is essential and can help prioritise limited financial resources to different locations based on the cost of delivering connectivity. Hence, the aim of this paper is to develop a globally-scalable assessment framework which can be applied to any country to support national and international policy making on narrowing the digital divide for 4G connectivity. Such an approach is applied here to Uganda, where the strategies tested include both passive and active infrastructure sharing ('neutral hosting') in rural locations to reduce costs, as well as quantifying the efficiency of fixed fibre versus microwave backhaul technologies. The globally-scalable software developed contributes the necessary tools for undertaking continental, or even global, digital infrastructure assessment.


The effect of closed mitral valvotomy on the spirometric pulmonary functions was studied in 25 patients with mitral stenosis. The tests were performed before and after operation, the latter at varying intervals (4 to 6 weeks and 8 to 12 months). The preoperative values were considerably low. After 4 to 6 weeks following surgery, further significant reduction in Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) and Forced Expiratory Volume in one second (FEV1) was observed. This was ascribed to the residual healing process and thoracotomy pain. However, Forced expiratory flow rate during mid segment of FVC (FEF25-75%), which reflects obstruction in small airways, did not show any variation. There was improvement in all the above parameters, 8-12 months after surgery. This suggests definite reversibility in the pulmonary functions following valvotomy.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
The immunologic events taking place in secondary lymphoid tissue from children with early stage human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection are poorly understood. The aim of this study was to investigate cytokine gene expression and proliferative responses in lymph node (LN) biopsies from five children with early stage HIV infection, in the context of LN morphology and viral load.

DESIGN AND METHODS
The design of the study was approved by the local Ethical Committee. Cytokine gene expression was studied in LN biopsies and in paired peripheral blood (PB) samples from HIV-infected children by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. T-cell proliferation was assessed by 3H-thymidine incorporation. Viral burden in germinal centers was assessed by video densitometric analysis following immunohistochemical staining for HIV p24.

RESULTS
Interleukin (IL)-2, IL-4 and IL-5 mRNA were not detected in any LN or PB sample from HIV-infected children. Interferon (IFN)-gamma mRNA was found only in CD8+ cells. IL-12 p35, IL-10, transforming growth factor-(TGF)-beta1, regulated on activation normal T-cell expressed and secreted (RANTES), macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1alpha, MIP-1beta and IL-16 transcripts were detected in all samples. Proliferation of LN and PB mononuclear cells to polyclonal mitogens and soluble (recall and HIV-related) antigens was impaired as compared with the responses in a group of age-matched healthy controls.

INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS
Changes in cytokine gene expression and T-cell proliferative responses are already detectable in lymph nodes from HIV-infected children at an early stage of disease.


In this paper, a novel architecture for a low data-rate, low power consumption Impulse Radio (IR) Ultra-Wideband (UWB) receiver is presented in which the received UWB signal is downconverted to a given intermediate frequency (IF) rather than at baseband. This way, the requirement to implement two separate paths for the in-phase and the quadrature components is removed and the power consumption can be reduced. From the IF, the signal is converted to the digital domain by a set of 24 Redundant Signed Digit (RSD) Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs) working at the pulse repetition rate. The digitized signal is then correlated with a predefined template prior to be fed to the bit detector. The trade-offs for the selection of the IF are highlighted and the BER performance of the proposed receiver is evaluated using simulations in 802.15.3a multipath channels. The expected power consumption for the implementation of the receiver using a CMOS process is also provided.


The Health and Human Services' regulatory requirement that all but a narrow set of "religious" employers provide contraceptives to employees is an example of what Robert Post and Nancy Rosenblum refer to as a growing "congruence" between civil society's values and the state's legally enacted policy. Catholics and many others have resisted the HHS requirement on the ground that it violates "religious freedom." They ask (in the words of Cardinal Dolan) to be "left alone" by the state. But the argument to be "left alone" overlooks or suppresses the fact that the Catholic Church understands that it is its role to correct and transform society, not merely to be left alone in a gilded cage. This paper uses the HHS mandate as a vehicle by which to clarify the Catholic understanding of the ideal -- but currently mostly unachievable -- relationship between Church and state: the state should receive its principles from the Church, not the Church from the state. Social justice and subsidiarity disallow a state that reduces the Church to the status of a bomb shelter. Leviathan is happy to have the Church out of sight and out of mind.


In this paper, we present a new sequence-to-sequence learning framework for visual tracking, dubbed SeqTrack. It casts visual tracking as a sequence generation problem, which predicts object bounding boxes in an autoregressive fashion. This is different from prior Siamese trackers and transformer trackers, which rely on designing complicated head networks, such as classification and regression heads. SeqTrack only adopts a simple encoder-decoder transformer architecture. The encoder extracts visual features with a bidirectional transformer, while the decoder generates a sequence of bounding box values autoregressively with a causal transformer. The loss function is a plain cross-entropy. Such a sequence learning paradigm not only simplifies tracking framework, but also achieves competitive performance on benchmarks. For instance, SeqTrack gets 72.5% AUC on LaSOT, establishing a new state-of-the-art performance. Code and models are available at https://github.com/microsoft/VideoX.


In this paper the authors report the results of the estimation of a rich dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model of the U.S. economy with both stochastic volatility and parameter drifting in the Taylor rule. They use the results of this estimation to examine the recent monetary history of the United States and to interpret, through this lens, the sources of the rise and fall of the Great Inflation from the late 1960s to the early 1980s and of the Great Moderation of business cycle fluctuations between 1984 and 2007. Their main findings are that, while there is strong evidence of changes in monetary policy during Chairman Paul Volcker's tenure at the Federal Reserve, those changes contributed little to the Great Moderation. Instead, changes in the volatility of structural shocks account for most of it. Also, although the authors find that monetary policy was different under Volcker, they do not find much evidence of a big difference in monetary policy among the tenures of Chairmen Arthur Burns, G. William Miller, and Alan Greenspan. The difference in aggregate outcomes across these periods is attributed to the time-varying volatility of shocks. The history for inflation is more nuanced, as a more vigorous stand against it would have reduced inflation in the 1970s, but not completely eliminated it. In addition, they find that volatile shocks (especially those related to aggregate demand) were important contributors to the Great Inflation.


The paper presents the results of comprehensive examination of 7 patients with intracranial cysts of various etiology and 1 with cholesteatoma. In addition to magnetic resonance imaging with an ultralow magnetic field intensity of 0.4 T, a biochemical assessment of the content of cysts was made. The cystic contrast range on T1 and T2 tomograms was evaluated. The levels of protein, total iron, and percentage of total solids of the cystic content were measured in the biochemical study. On T2 tomographs, the intensity of a signal from cysts on T2 tomographs was significant and differed in each case to a lesser extent. On T1 tomographs, the intensity of a signal was different in each case and increased virtually linearly as the concentration of protein increased up to 10%. The presence of paramagnetic active iron ions (reduced hemoglobin) in the cysts resulted in a much greater elevation of a signal on T1 tomograms. The findings are given as plots that associate the relative intensity of a signal with the concentration of protein. The total solids in the cysts examined predominantly showed protein.


The human visual cortex, especially its ganglionic lamina, was found to contain many neurons with perineuronal sulfated proteoglycans which were stained with cationic iron colloid and aldehyde fuchsin. It also contained many neurons with surface glycoproteins labeled with lectin Vicia villosa agglutinin (VVA) or Glycine max agglutinin (SBA). Double staining frequently showed that the neurons stained with cationic iron colloid were not labeled with lectin VVA or SBA. Hyaluronidase and chondroitinase ABC/heparitinase/keratanase digestions eliminated the perineuronal cationic iron colloid reaction, but never interfered with the cell surface lectin labeling. These findings indicate that the cell surface glycoproteins reactive to lectin VVA or SBA are neither structural elements nor adhesive molecules of the proteoglycans. Double staining further demonstrated that in some neurons with perineuronal sulfated proteoglycans, the cytoplasm was labeled with lectin Arachis hypogaea agglutinin (PNA). It was further noticed that the lectin VVA-labeled neurons were not always identical with the neurons labeled with lectin SBA or with lectin PNA.


The meteorites are the most important extraterrestrial samples for understanding the formation and the evolution history of the solar system, although ~382 kg lunar samples and ~1500 asteroid mineral grains have been returned by human space exploration activities. The Northwest region of China, especially the Xinjiang, has a vast area of sandy deserts and Gobi Deserts. The lower annual rainfall and the dry climate of this region provide a good condition for meteorite preservation. In recent years, the number of recovered meteorites from the Gobi Deserts in Xinjiang increased significantly. The Sanfengshan area, located about 65 km east of Lop Nor, is one of the research regions. We first collected three ordinary chondrites in Sanfengshan area on October 9, 2013. Then, we carried out 11 meteorite search campaigns in this area. More than 130 meteorite fragments with a total mass over 160 kg have been recovered. The map of all collected Sanfengshan meteorites depicts a clearly 3 km×11 km elliptic strewn field. The sizes are sorted in the SE-NW-oriented ellipsoid of the strewn field, therefore indicating that the meteor entered the atmosphere from SE at a low angle relative to the ground. In this study, six meteorites (Tuya 002–007) from the Sanfengshan field have been measured using a Scios-FIB field emission scanning electron microscope (SEM), a JXA 8230 electron microprobe analysis (EMA), and a self-made noble gas mass spectrometer. Among all of the collected meteorites, Tuya 002 is the only one unusual sample, which doesn't show any fusion crust on its surface. We inferred that Tuya 002 is not paired with the other collected meteorites. The well-defined chondrule boundaries and heavy weathering grade, i.e. W3 (the occurrence of large amounts of calcium sulfate in Tuya 002 indicates that it suffered a heavy terrestrial weathering) also support the conclusion that Tuya 002 is obviously different from the other meteorites collected in the Sanfengshan area. In addition to Tuya 002, all the meteorites collected in this region most likely originate from one single meteoric shower. These meteorites all belong to the L5 ordinary chondrite group, with a moderate shock stage of S2 and a heavy weathering grade of W3. The cosmic ray exposure age of Tuya 003 (the representative meteorite of the Sanfenghshan meteoric shower) is 45.6±4.4 Ma. This indicates that the meteoroid that produced the Sanfengshan meteoric shower could be produced in the 45 Ma break-up event on L chondrite parent body. On the other hand, petrographic observations and noble gas measurements shown that Tuya 002 belongs to the L4 ordinary chondrite group. A rather lower CRE age relative to the Sanfengshan L5 chondrites of 17.0±4.1 Ma has been calculated. This also indicates that Tuya 002 is not paired with other L5 meteorites collected in the same strewn field. Our studies shown that the meteorites collected in Sanfengshan area consist of more than one meteorite fall. It includes the main L5 meteorite fall (produced the Sanfengshan L5 strewn field) and the L4 meteorite fall (represented by Tuya 002). This indicates that the Sanfengshan area is not a meteorite dense area. In recent years, several meteorite dense areas (e.g., Loulan Yizhi, Lop Nur, Argan, and Xingdi) have been gradually reported. The limited meteorite types found in such reported meteorite dense areas indicates that these regions are maybe not the real meteorite dense areas, but probably represents the meteorites strewn field. Therefore, it is necessary, in the future, to carry out detailed petrology, mineralogy, cosmic ray exposure age as well as terrestrial age measurements to identify the meteorite dense area in/around the Xinjiang.


1818, the year of Frankenstein's first publication, is a frequently overlooked context for Mary Shelley's novel, overshadowed as it is both by Frankenstein's afterlives and by the moment of its first conception in Switzerland, 1816, the 'Year Without a Summer'. What might it mean for a novel that has transcended literary history and achieved mythic status to be re-situated as one of the novels of 1818? The article considers recent topics of critical interest, including ecocritical readings of the novel in the shadow of Mount Tambora and the topicality of the frame narrative in relation to histories of arctic exploration, before focusing on the politics of Frankenstein. Many critics have read the novel as a belated allegory of the French Revolution, which leads inexorably towards an interpretation of Frankenstein as an anti-revolutionary fiction. For the readers of 1818, however, it is the unfolding events of post-Waterloo Britain, not the French Revolution, that constitutes the primary political context, producing a more open-ended and radical text. The final section of the article reads the novel in dialogue with William Hazlitt's essay, 'What Is the People?', showing how both texts engage with questions agitated by the popular reform movement, including responses to tyranny and the sovereignty of the people.


An Unfortunate Woman, An Unforgettable Journey was the final book written by Richard Brautigan before his death in 1984 and lay unpublished for sixteen years. Originally written in the 160 pages of a loose-leaf notebook, the narrator of the book is trying to come to terms with the death of a friend by going on a personal odyssey which zigzags through time and landscapes, from Oakland to Hawaii, and the wilds of Montana. An Unfortunate Woman, An Unforgettable Journey walks a fine line between fiction and memoir, between dark introspection and a lust for life, and in the last pages in particular, marks a gut-wrenching, intense, and ultimately tragic exit from fiction and life itself for the troubled author.


The relationship between sea water temperature with depth and the maximum cyclone wind speed was analyzed, the temperature was acquired before 24h of the cyclones occurred by using of data of Argo floats and cyclones in 2005, and taking advantage of inverse distance weighted interpolation method. The results showed that: (1) the Tropical Cyclone's intensity had a strong correlation with the sea water temperature in the depth of about 42m or so. (2) Under the conditions of similar latitude, according to the energy conservation law, the maximum intensity of cyclones wind was a linear function of sea water temperature, depth, and continuous change in the overall rate, which was verified through the actual observation data.


The interest in re-implementing agroforestry (AF) in European agriculture due to its environmental benefits has been growing exponentially. We reviewed the historical background and the current state (extent, farmers' perception, legislative support, and barriers) to evaluate the future perspectives of AF in Czechia by identifying the key factors hampering further extension. Our results confirmed that AF almost disappeared after the middle of the 19th century due to agricultural intensification and collectivization. Currently, AF is not defined in the Czech legislation and no modern AF has been encountered by this study. Areas falling into AF definition recently comprise only traditional AF (less than 1% of agricultural area remaining) represented only by silvopastoral AF. The results of a farmers' survey indicated that despite relatively high interest in AF, excessive bureaucratization, high costs of establishment and uncertain profitability are severe concerns among farmers. We therefore conclude that there is a lack of legal recognition and marginalization of AF as the key obstacles of low adoption rates. We suggest that systematic support beyond subsidies should include raising awareness, research, policy, legislation changes, training, and advisory service, as a cornerstone for progressive development of AF and thus conservation and creation of economically and environmentally sound landscapes throughout Czechia.


Reviews linear break-even analysis as typically outlined in textbooks on managerial economics. It is claimed that a major shortcoming of these expositions is their failure to demonstrate in what circumstances linear break-even analysis is relevant for a business and in what circumstances it is inapplicable. This article helps rectify this situation. It points out that such analysis can not be applied to perfectly competitive firms. However, in special circumstances, it might apply to a purely competitive firm. It is highly relevant for businesses operating in oligopolistic conditions where the kinked demand curve applies. Furthermore, it is applicable if imperfectly competitive firms follow fixed price rules. On the other hand, if imperfectly competitive firms, such as monopolists, adopt flexible pricing (for example, prices to clear whatever quantity of product they have supplied to the market) the linearity assumption involved in this type of break-even analysis will, as a rule, be violated. This is so because the firm's total revenue will be a non-linear function of the quantity of the product supplied by the firm to the market. Nevertheless, because fixed price behaviour by businesses may be common, as well as constant average variable costs of production over a considerable range of output, linear break-even analyses has a considerable range of application to business


This study examined investigation of the activity of palladium catalysts with aryl-ferrocenylphosphine ligands in Suzuki-Miyaura reaction. The conversion of halogen aryl compounds were analyzed by 1 H NMR spectroscopy. The advantage of Suzuki reactions in comparison with other cross-coupling reactions is in the usage of water- and oxygen-insensitive thermostable organoboron compounds. Phenylboronic acid was used as boronic acid and potassium carbonate as weak base. All used catalysts showed good activity with aryl bromides and weak activity with aryl chlorides.


Two feline coronavirus isolates were characterized by their disease-causing potential in cats. The 79-1683 feline coronavirus isolate caused an inapparent-to-mild enteritis when given oronasally to specific-pathogen-free kittens and was not a cause of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP). Target tissues for the virus were the mature apical epithelium of the small intestine, mesenteric lymph nodes, tonsils, thymus, and (to a lesser extent) the lungs. Inoculated kittens shed high numbers of virus in their feces for 14 to 17 days, but remained infectious to susceptible kittens for longer periods of time, as evidenced by contact-exposure studies. Because the 79-1683 isolate induced only enteritis, it was designated feline enteric coronavirus (FECV) 79-1683. The 79-1146 feline coronavirus isolate induced effusive abdominal FIP in specific-pathogen-free kittens after oronasal and intraperitoneal inoculation. Clinical signs of disease appeared within 12 to 14 days in almost all inoculated kittens. Because this isolate caused FIP, it was designated FIP virus (FIPV) 79-1146. Cross-protective immunity was not induced by the various coronavirus infections. Kittens preimmunized with the UCD strain of FECV (FECV-UCD) or with FECV-79-1683 were not immune to infection with FIPV-79-1146. Likewise, kittens previously inoculated with FECV-79-1683 were not immune to infection with FIPV-UCD1. In fact, preexisting heterologous FECV-79-1683 immunity often accelerated and enhanced the severity of disease caused by inoculation with FIPV-UCD1.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Background: The impact of maturation on lower extremity strength and function after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) may help guide future studies of age-specific rehabilitation. Hypothesis Pediatric ACLR patients would demonstrate higher thigh strength symmetry and knee-related function at return to sport (RTS) compared with adolescent and young adult participants who underwent traditional ACLR. Study Design: Prospective cohort study. Level of Evidence: Level 2. Methods: A total of 144 young athletes at the time of RTS clearance post-ACLR were classified into 3 maturational groups (pediatric, n = 16 with physeal-sparing ACLR [mean age = 12.3 years; range = 9.2-14.6 years]; adolescent, n = 113 [mean age = 16.5 years; range = 14.1-19.8 years]; young adult, n = 15 [mean age = 22.0 years; range = 20.5-24.9 years]). Quadriceps and hamstring strength were measured using an electromechanical dynamometer. Knee-related function was measured using the International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) subjective form and single-leg hop tests. The Limb symmetry Index (LSI) was used in calculations for hop and strength tests. Group differences were compared with Kruskal-Wallis tests and Mann-Whitney U post hoc tests. Proportions of participants meeting literature-recommended RTS criterion cutoffs were compared among the groups using chi-square tests. Results: The pediatric group demonstrated higher quadriceps LSI (P = 0.01), IKDC scores (P < 0.01), single-hop LSI (P < 0.01), and crossover-hop LSI (P = 0.02) compared with the young adult group. In addition, the pediatric group demonstrated higher IKDC scores (P < 0.01) and single-hop LSI (P = 0.02) compared with the adolescent group. The adolescent group demonstrated higher IKDC scores (P < 0.01), single-hop LSI (P = 0.02), and crossover-hop LSI (P = 0.03) compared with the young adult group. The proportions of participants meeting all RTS criterion cutoffs were highest in the pediatric group and lowest in the young adult group (P = 0.03). Conclusion: Young athletes at RTS clearance after pediatric ACLR demonstrated higher quadriceps strength symmetry and knee-related function than adolescents and young adults after traditional ACLR. Clinical Relevance: These findings demonstrate the need for further study regarding the impact of these group differences on longitudinal outcomes after ACLR, including successful RTS and risk of second ACL injury.


Abstract Permian conodonts were recovered for the first time from the Dingjiazhai Formation, a well-known diamictite-bearing stratigraphic unit in the Gondwana-derived Baoshan Block in West Yunnan, Southwest China. The conodont fauna occurs in limestone units within the upper part of the formation and consists of Sweetognathus bucaramangus (Rabe), S. whitei (Rhodes), Mesogondolella bisselli (Clark and Behnken), and an unidentified ramiform element. Based on the known stratigraphic distribution of S. bucaramangus (Rabe), the fauna is referable to the upper Sweetognathus whitei-Mesogondolella bisselli Zone, and thus is dated as middle Artinskian according to the current definition of the stage. The Dingjiazhai Formation is overlain paraconformably by the Woniusi Formation, which is represented mostly by basalts and basaltic volcaniclastics related to rifting volcanism during the separation of the Baoshan Block from Gondwanaland. The present discovery of conodonts from the upper part of the Dingjiazhai Formation reveals that the glaciogene diamictites in the Dingjiazhai Formation are older than middle Artinskian, and the inception of rifting volcanism of the Baoshan Block is later than middle Artinskian. Occurrence of an essentially warm water element, Sweetognathus bucaramangus (Rabe), in the Dingjiazhai conodont assemblage notwithstanding, the entire fossil faunas including brachiopods and fusulinoideans from the limestone units of the formation can be best interpreted as a middle latitudinal, non-tropical, and still substantially Gondwana-influenced assemblage developed at the northern margin of Gondwanaland just after deglaciation in the southern hemisphere during Early Permian time. This time could be regarded as the beginning of the Cimmerian Region, which had mixed or transitional paleobiogeographic characteristics between the Paleo-equatorial Tethyan and cool/cold Gondwanan realms, and which became well developed during Middle Permian time.


Objectives: STIC is very useful well known tool for the assessment of fetal heart after 15 weeks of gestation. The aim of our study was to present that STIC can be successfully used in evaluation of the fetal heart during 11–13 + 6 scan. Methods: Out of 100 pregnant women between 11 to 13 + 6 weeks STIC and STIC Color volumes were acquired with a GE Voluson 730Pro, then analyzed offline. Only transabdominal approach was used. The fetuses' positions during acquisition varied from left to right transverse and from cephalic to breech. Fetal cardiac application was used to get a perfect 2D base for STIC. Initial parameters for color Doppler were: PRF 2.4kHz; WMF mid2; quality low; frequency low, CD gain (−4.2). The acquisition parameters were: time 10seconds, angle 15 degrees. Acquired volumes were then orientated in multiplanar view and reviewed with the use of TUI. Results: It was possible to obtain 93% and 69% of good quality STIC Color and gray scale STIC volumes, respectively. Mean acquisition time was 9 minutes. The appropriate fetal position to obtain color volumes and examine inflows and outflows was dorsoposterior with the heart apical (axial deviation from −15 to 15 degree). For gray scale STIC acquisition the optimal position was lateral with the heart subcostal, which facilitates the aorta and intraventricular septum imaging. Because of the fact that for 1st trimester fetal echo the 15 degree acquisition angle is currently to big, the original plane of acquisition (OPA) was changed. In the fetal breech or transverse right positions the OPA was placed at the level of fetal clavicles and broken after the whole heart is captured. On the other hand in left transverse or cephalic at the level of fetal stomach. Conclusions: STIC and STIC Color with adequate acquisition technique can be offered during 11–13 + 6 scan. The 2nd trimester rules for STIC does not work at this time. The acquisition angle, time and most importantly OPA placement have to be changed.


Physical literacy is the degree of fitness, behaviors, knowledge, and fundamental movement skills (agility, balance, and coordination) a child has to confidently participate in physical activity. Active video games (AVG), like the Nintendo Wii, have emerged as alternatives to traditional physical activity by providing a non-threatening environment to develop physical literacy. This study examined the impact of AVGs on children's (age 6–12, N = 15) physical literacy. For six weeks children played one of four pre-selected AVGs (minimum 20 min, twice per week). Pre and post measures of motivation, enjoyment, and physical literacy were completed. Results indicated a near significant improvement in aiming and catching (p = 0.06). Manual dexterity significantly improved in males (p = 0.001), and females felt significantly less pressured to engage in PA (p = 0.008). Overall, there appears to be some positive impact of an AVG intervention on components of physical literacy.


In a period of fast-evolving international dynamics over the Central Asian region, it is important to consider the foreign policy choices and exercised agency by the governments of the five states of the region. While the projects and agendas of China, Russia, the United States and other external players over the region have understandably dominated much recent discourse, the 'inside-out' perspective – the Central Asian policies and stances toward international affairs and geopolitics involving them – is necessary to draw a more accurate picture of the region's international affairs. Such a perspective would reveal the evolution and variations of the regional foreign policies of 'multi-vectorism' and challenges such policies face today.


Bilateral acute depigmentation of the iris (BADI) is a recently described entity characterized by acute onset of pigment dispersion in the anterior chamber, depigmentation of the iris, and heavy pigment deposition in the anterior chamber angle. Involvement is always bilateral, simultaneous, and symmetrical. We report the case of a 61-year-old man who presented with bilateral ocular pain, red eyes, and severe photophobia. Examination revealed a dense Krukenberg spindle, heavy pigment dispersion in the anterior chamber, extensive transillumination iris defects, and a heavy pigment deposition in the trabecular meshwork bilaterally. Intraocular pressure increased to 48 mmHg in both eyes. The patient received topical steroids, maximum hypotensive treatment and oral valacyclovir. Intraocular pressure gradually decreased throughout the second and third months, and medications were gradually tapered. The time to complete resolution of pigment dispersion was 18 weeks. Visual acuity and visual fields remained normal, but the photophobia was permanent.


We rely on the Master Beneficiary File to document a number of facts regarding claiming of Social Security benefits and quality of date of birth data in administrative files. We then assess the impact of changes in retirement incentives that have taken place since 2000 on claiming. We find evidence of non-trivial misreporting or clerical errors in the dates of births that give rise to systematic patterns but nevertheless appear to be fairly random. We also confirm significant tendency to claim in January or on birthdays, but we find that these patterns are still sensitive to incentive effects. Relying on the discontinuity in the Early Entitlement Age that occurs for people born on the second day of any month, we find evidence that people do not have singlepeaked preferences over claiming age: relaxing the early retirement constraint leads to acceleration of retirement by some people for whom the constraint would not be otherwise binding. One possible explanation for this pattern is a preference for retiring at one's birthday. We take advantage of a change in the full retirement age and find that there remains unusually large (relative to other birthdays) number of people who claim around their 65th birthday, supporting the idea that Medicare eligibility has an impact on claiming retirement benefits. Finally, we confirm that elimination of the earnings test in 2000 for those above full retirement age accelerated retirements and find that it also led to a significant weakening of the January effect in that group, bolstering the idea that the January effect is sensitive to economic incentives.


Spaceborne persistent multi-angle imaging allows staring at selected targets during an orbit pass. From its vantage point on the International Space Station (ISS) a persistent Earth imaging telescope would provide hundreds of high-resolution images simultaneously. Observations could be in visible and SWIR bands as it stares at a scene of interest. These images provide rich multi-angle stereo views enabling understanding of rapidly changing Earth features with many applications to Earth science and disaster response. Current academic state-of-the-art is driven by single images taken with a near nadir view. Persistent imaging could address NASA's goal of understanding how and why the Earth's environment is changing, and could be used for forecasting and mitigating the effects of natural disasters. Specifically such a mission could be used to answer the questions: 1) How are Earth's vulnerable systems reflecting changes in climate? and 2) What processes and features characterize the magnitude and extent of disasters? A mission would meet geomorphologists' requirements observing changing features such as landslides, earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, and glaciers.


Background Sifon is a sexual intercourse ritual after male circumcision from the Atoin Meto tribe that contributed to HIV/AIDS transmission. Ritual Sifon may put at risk for HIV infection and also the sexual transmisson diseases. Doing ritual Sifon as a culture, without using protection during intercourse becomes one way to get HIV infection from infected men. Few study explore this phenomenon among women who becomes Sifon women. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the experience of Sifon women in the context of HIV/AIDS transmission. Design and Methods The data was collected from March 2020 to July 2020. This study used a phenomenological approach with a purposive sampling technique. Inclusion criteria: the women from Atoin Meto tribe aged above eighteen years old who have been Sifon women for at least six months. The participants were recruited through traditional healers in Nekbaun village of Kupang District and Timor Tengah Selatan District. The data was analysed by Collaizi method. Results Thirteen women were interviewed and we found four themes: lack of knowledge about HIV/AIDS transmission, unaware became Sifon women, women experienced of STDs, using traditional medicine to treat STDs (Timor medicine). Conclusions The interpretation of Sifonwomen's experiences that performed Sifon rituals indicated that Sifon is a risk factor for transmitting HIV/AIDS. Preventive and promotional educational programs with cultural approach are needed to reduce the risk of HIV/AIDS transmission.


BACKGROUND
Primary coronary angioplasty is the best therapeutic approach in acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and more so in the population aged over 75 years, in whom the hemorrhagic risk of thrombolysis becomes almost unacceptable.

AIM
To evaluate age-related influences on clinical evolution and in-hospital mortality in patients with AMI who undergo primary percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI).

METHODS
We studied 245 consecutive patients (aged between 31 and 90, 63+/-13), who underwent primary PCI between January 2000 and December 2001. Forty-six patients (18.8%) aged over 75 years were compared with the rest. The following parameters were analyzed: risk factors for coronary artery disease including hypertension, diabetes, smoking, hypercholesterolemia and family history, previous AMI, PCI or angina, extent of coronary disease, angiographic results and in-hospital mortality.

RESULTS
Female gender was more frequent in older patients (56.5% vs. 23.1%; p<0.001) and smoking was more prevalent in the younger group (54.3% vs. 13.0%; p<0.001), as was previous AMI (p<0.05). PCI success was high in both groups (93.5% in the older population and 96.7% in the rest; p=NS), multivessel coronary disease was significantly more frequent in the elderly group (41.3% vs. 26.2%; p<0.05), and glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors were used less (80.4% vs. 91%; p<0.05). Killip class evolution was more favorable in the younger group (class I in 88.4% vs. 69.8% in older patients; p<0.001). The number of hemorrhagic complications and in-hospital mortality were higher in elderly patients (3.5% vs. 13.0%; p<0.05 and 4.5% vs. 19.6%; p<0.001, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS
Primary PCI has a similarly high success rate in elderly patients, although this age-group still has higher mortality. The increased rate of hemorrhagic complications in this population should lead to greater caution in the use of adjuvant antithrombotic drugs.


Summary Helicopter time-domain electromagnetic (HTEM) systems have dominated the airborne electromagnetic (AEM) industry for mineral exploration and environmental studies over the past decade. This is, in large part, a result of the high spatial resolution, excellent depth of investigation, and operational versatility. For oil exploration and related environmental due diligence near Fort McMurray, Alberta, recent interest in HTEM has been driven by the requirement for a cost-effective method for characterizing surface mineable oil sands and shallow steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) prospects. The primary advantage of HTEM is that high-resolution data can be easily and safely acquired over large areas with zero surface disturbances at a fraction of the cost of seismic reflection. Moreover, HTEM data can now be interpreted with full 3D inversion, obviating prior reliance on various 1D methods. In this paper, we present a case study for the 3D inversion of HTEM data for oil sands exploration near Fort McMurray.


The purpose of this study is to investigate whether open and distance education institutions, which are known as mega universities, utilize information and communication technologies in education and reflect the brand promises online, and to determine which brand values (functional and emotional) they use in communication. This study on online brand communication in open and distance education institutions is a descriptive study to determine the current situation. The research data were collected from the qualitative measurement tools by the content analysis method. The scope of the research consists of the websites open and distance education institutions which are called mega universities, with over 100,000 students. The web site of thirteen universities, which were selected by means of meaningful sampling among these universities, were examined with content analysis method within the scope of the research and the collected data were then evaluated by fuzzy logic and clustering analysis methods. As a result, the universities that are examined reflect the online brand promise through different websites with different scores on the variables that make up the functional and emotional values and there are differences in reflecting the brand promises among the universities, and emotional values are more important than functional values.


English language in Kenya has been given a higher status as compared to other languages. Apart from being the official language, it is the language of instruction from primary four upwards. Stakeholders also regard it as the language of social and economic upward mobility. Recognition of English mastery notwithstanding, there is evidence that the reality in the school system is far below the ideal. Although the shortcomings in the mastery of literacy in English in Kenyan primary schools are associated with a number of factors, studies done in this area have not delved into detailed intervention approaches needed to improve English Literacy in primary schools. It was therefore, important to develop benchmarks as standards to inform policy makers, curriculum developers, teachers, teacher trainers and materials developers. This paper reports the results of a nationwide study aimed at reducing illiteracy in Kenya by developing interventions in form of English Literacy benchmarks for primary grades 3 and 6.This study was done by a team of Research and Development researchers, with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation. This is the first time attainment standards of any kind have been developed in Kenya.


When water inside the concrete member evaporates by high temperature, the evaporation heat which absorbs surrounding temperature occurs. The rate of increment of the internal temperature in concrete is reduced due to the evaporation heat in spite of continuously increasing external temperature. In this paper, the prediction method of internal temperature of concrete members considering the evaporation heat under the high temperature is presented. Finite element method is employed to facilitate thermal analysis for any position of member. And the thermal characteristics models of high strength concrete affected by high temperature are proposed. To demonstrate the validity of this numerical procedure, the prediction by the proposed algorithm is compared with the test results of other researchers. The proposed algorithm shows a good agreement with the experimental results including the phenomenon that temperature is lost by the evaporation heat.


The incidence of uterine cervical cancer has increased slightly in Western countries, with an increase in relatively young women. Overexpression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs)-2 and -9 has turned out as a prognostic factor in many cancers. We compared the expression of the proteins MMP-2 and MMP-9 in cervical primary tumors with clinical outcome and risk factors of cervical cancer. One hundred sixty-one patients with cervical cancer treated in Umeå University Hospital or Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Sweden, between 1991 and 1995 were included in the study. Paraffin-embedded tissue samples obtained prior to treatment were examined immunohistochemically by specific antibodies for MMP-2 and MMP-9. Forty-two percent of the tumors were intensively positive for MMP-2 and 31% for MMP-9. Nineteen percent of the samples were intensively positive for both proteinases and 47% negative or weak for both. Overexpression of MMP-2 seemed to predict unfavorable survival under Kaplan–Meier analysis and in the multivariate analysis. Early sexual activity and low parity seemed to correlate to overexpression of MMP-2. MMP-9 was not associated with survival or sexual behavior. Intensive MMP-9 was noted in grade 1 tumors. We conclude that MMP-2 and MMP-9 have different roles in uterine cervical cancer. MMP-2 could be associated with aggressive behavior, but MMP-9 expression diminishes in high-grade tumors.


In surrogate-based optimisation methods, computationally burden yet precise fine model is utilised alongside less accurate however quick coarse model to decrease the general computational exertion. Surrogate-based optimisation methods are firstly applied to reconfigurable antenna design problems in this work. Space mapping (SM) with inverse difference method enables productive procedure to decrease computational exertion while enhancing the convergence. Inverse difference mapping is constituted by difference knowledge that is obtained by input and output of the problem space. In addition, inverse coarse model that is obtained by feed forward multi-layer perceptron can generate necessary knowledge to form inverse mapping. This mapping is used to eliminate the direct optimisation-based parameter extraction process. The efficiency of SM with inverse difference technique will be demonstrated by reconfigurable antenna design examples in terms of their convergence and accuracy. Moreover, this technique will be compared to aggressive SM with regard to the convergence efficiency.


An indirect passive convectional solar dryer consisting of a solar air heater and dryer chamber is designed, manufactured and tested for its performance. It plays a major role in reducing crop wastage and opens a way to food preservation. The area of the solar collector required to dry a batch of 10 kg of tomato within two days is calculated. The performance of the collector is improved through the use corrugated absorber to create turbulence for air flow and a highly insulating material to minimize heat losses. The thermal performance of the solar dryer is tested under the local weather conditions considering the effect of wind, humidity and cloudiness. The average thermal efficiency of the solar collector is calculated to be 21.5% at air flow rate of 0.0564 kg/s. At the same air flow rate, the maximum daily drying system efficiency is calculated to be 25%. Besides the maximum temperature of the solar dryer attained at the absorber plate is 77°C at 12:00 AM when the solar radiation intensity reached 1021 W/m² during no load test. Regarding the economical feasible it is analyzed using the common economic parameters such as payback period, net present value and benefit to cost ratio analysis methods. Hence the payback period is about eight months that is someone investing in this solar dryer will return his investment with less than a year. Finally the benefit cost ratio is 11.8 since this ratio is much greater than one the solar dryer it is in the acceptable range.


The production of thematic maps depicting land cover is one of the most common applications of remote sensing. To this end, several semantic segmentation approaches, based on deep learning, have been proposed in the literature, but land cover segmentation is still considered an open problem due to some specific problems related to remote sensing imaging. In this paper we propose a novel approach to deal with the problem of modelling multiscale contexts surrounding pixels of different land cover categories. The approach leverages the computation of a heteroscedastic measure of uncertainty when classifying individual pixels in an image. This classification uncertainty measure is used to define a set of memory gates between layers that allow a principled method to select the optimal decision for each pixel


Globalisation of higher education encourages increased student mobility as part of the study experience, leading to gaining skills for world citizenship. Cross-cultural adaptation is a desired effect of mobility and internationalisation. However, decision makers at universities often fail to tap into this rich experience and benefits it offers to students. In an increasingly globalised higher education, with universities aiming to encourage student mobility (both inwards and outwards) through exchange and study abroad programmes (Sweeney, 2012), there is a need to examine the benefits of mobility, especially the complex cross-cultural learning involved. Additionally, it is important that Business Schools prepare to counteract possible negative implications of Brexit on student mobility by raising student awareness of its benefits, including intercultural skills. The development of targeted pre- and post- mobility support is proposed in order to ensure it enhances student experience and benefits all stakeholders involved.


I Zwicky 1 (I Zw 1) is the prototype narrow-line quasar. Its narrow-line profiles minimize blending effects and thus allow a significantly more accurate study of individual quasar emission lines. We report here the results of our study of the 1150-3250 Å emission of I Zw 1 using a high signal-to-noise (50-120) spectrum obtained with the Faint Object Spectrograph of the Hubble Space Telescope. The UV spectrum of I Zw 1 is very rich in emission lines, with essentially no wavelength range free of emission-line features. The following main new results are obtained: 1. The Mg II λ2798 doublet is partially resolved, and the measured doublet ratio is 1.2/1. This ratio verifies theoretical predictions that the Mg II λ2798 line is thermalized in the broad-line region (BLR). 2. The Al III λ1857 doublet is clearly resolved, with a thermalized doublet ratio of 1.25/1. The line optical depth provides an upper limit to the clouds' distance from the ionizing source that is consistent with the "standard" BLR radius. 3. A weak associated UV absorption system is detected in N V (possibly also in C IV and Lyα as well), suggesting an outflow with a velocity of ~1870 km s-1 and velocity dispersion of ≲300 km s-1. 4. Lines from ions of increasing ionization level show increasing excess blue-wing flux and an increasing line peak velocity shift, reaching a maximum blueshift of ~2000 km s-1 for He II λ1640. This may indicate an outflowing component in the BLR, where the ionization level increases with velocity and which is visible only in the approaching direction. The highest velocity part of this outflow may produce the associated UV absorption system. 5. The small C III] λ1909 equivalent width and the small C III] λ1909/Lyα and C III] λ1909/Si III] λ1892 flux ratios indicate a typical BLR density of ne ~ 1011 cm-3, i.e., about an order of magnitude larger than that implied by C III] λ1909 in most quasars. A BLR component with a density ne ≳ 1011 cm-3 is implied by the EW and doublet ratio of the Al III λ1857 doublet. 6. Prominent Fe II UV 191 emission is seen, together with weaker line emission at 1294 Å and 1871 Å. These three features have been proposed by Johansson & Jordan as evidence for significant Lyα pumping of the 8-10 eV levels of Fe II. 7. Significant Fe III emission is present. The Fe III UV 34 and UV 48 multiplets are clearly resolved, and Fe III UV 1, UV 47, UV 50, and UV 68 may also be present. The implications of significant Fe III emission for the conditions in the BLR need to be explored. 8. Very weak [C III] λ1907 and [Si III] λ1883 emission may be present, suggesting a narrow-line-region component with ne ~ 5 × 105 cm-3. The rich UV emission spectrum of I Zw 1 should serve as a useful "template" for the identification of weak features in other active galactic nuclei and as a useful benchmark for photoionization models, in particular, for models of the complex Fe II emission spectrum.


This paper presents an attempt to synthesize a methodology and environment which has features both of traditional software development methodologies and exploratory programming environments. The environment aids the development of conceptual natural language analyzers, a problem area where neither of these approaches alone adequately supports the construction of modifiable and maintainable systems. The paper describes problems with traditional approaches, the new "parallel" development methodology, and its supporting environment, called the PLUMber's Apprentice.


Long-lasting forms of hippocampal plasticity and hippocampus-dependent memory share a requirement for gene expression. Activity-induced neuronal gene expression is regulated by epigenetic mechanisms such as the post-translational modification of histone proteins. Histone acetylation plays a major role in neuronal function, but our understanding of the upstream mechanisms that regulate recruitment of the HDAC enzymes, and of the genes and proteins downstream of histone acetylation that support plasticity, are poorly understood. In my thesis research I investigated the role of the SIN3A/HDAC complex, a repressive histonemodifying complex, and of the Nr4a nuclear receptors, which are acetylation-regulated and memory-related transcription factors, in hippocampal synaptic plasticity. In Chapter 1, I discussed the mechanisms that support memory formation and the stabilization of synaptic potentiation, described the mechanisms of posttranslational histone modification, and reviewed the role of epigenetic histone modification in memory and plasticity as well as in neuronal dysfunction. In Chapter 2, we demonstrated that reducing levels of the corepressor SIN3A enhanced long-term potentiation and long-term memory, increased expression of Cdk5 and Homer1, and altered signaling through the Group I metabotropic glutamate receptors. In the Appendix, I show additional data that demonstrates increased mGluR5-mediated signaling in hippocampal neurons with loss of SIN3A. In Chapter 3, I found that disrupting the function of the Nr4a family of nuclear receptor transcription factors impaired long-lasting forms of synaptic potentiation and blocked the enhancement of plasticity by pharmacological HDAC inhibition. In Chapter 4 I found that C-DIM compounds, activators of NR4A, enhanced hippocampal potentiation in a manner sensitive to Nr4a disruption; we also found that CREB/CBP interaction regulates activity-induced Nr4a2 promoter acetylation and gene expression. These findings improve our understanding of the role of epigenetic histone modification in synaptic plasticity and memory, and indicate that the NR4A nuclear receptors are exceptional downstream targets for the enhancement of cognitive function and the amelioration of neuronal dysfunction. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Neuroscience First Advisor Edwin G. Abel


Histone deacetylases interact with nucleosomes to facilitate the formation of transcriptionally repressed chromatin. In the present study, we show that histone deacetylase 1 (hdac-1) is expressed throughout embryonic development of the zebrafish. The expression of hdac-1 is ubiquitous in early embryos (2–16 hr postfertilization), but at later stages (36 and 48 hr postfertilization), it is primarily restricted to the branchial arches, fin bud mesenchyme, and hindbrain. We report the phenotypes of hdac-1 homozygous mutant embryos and embryos injected with an hdac-1 antisense morpholino. These embryos possess a complex phenotype affecting several embryonic structures. We observed developmental abnormalities in the heart and neural epithelial structures, including the retina and the loss of craniofacial cartilage and pectoral fins. Developmental Dynamics 231:647–654, 2004. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.


Horticulture played an important role in the Indonesian economy. Its share of GDP, which was dominated by vegetables and fruits, tended to increase since 2003 up to 2008. However Indonesian per capita consumption of vegetables was still under FAO recommendation. The study of price integration among regions is important in order to increase the marketing efficiency of vegetables in Indonesia. Government intervention is needed both at the producer and consumer level, especially in determining the efficient prices. The success of this intervention depends heavily on government's understanding of price transmission in the fruits market. This research measured the integration level of regional vegetables markets in Indonesia. Engle-Granger test showed that all vegetable prices at PIKJ integrated with producer's prices, except red chili price. Ravallion model showed that integration did not exist for all commodities . However, there was no significant difference of the market integration performance between the highest and the lowest production area.


This paper introduces WiTrack, a system that tracks the 3D motion of a user from the radio signals reflected off her body. It works even if the person is occluded from the WiTrack device or in a different room. WiTrack does not require the user to carry any wireless device, yet its accuracy exceeds current RF localization systems, which require the user to hold a transceiver. Empirical measurements with a WiTrack prototype show that, on average, it localizes the center of a human body to within a median of 10 to 13 cm in the x and y dimensions, and 21 cm in the z dimension. It also provides coarse tracking of body parts, identifying the direction of a pointing hand with a median of 11.2°. WiTrack bridges a gap between RF-based localization systems which locate a user through walls and occlusions, and human-computer interaction systems like Kinect, which can track a user without instrumenting her body, but require the user to stay within the direct line of sight of the device.


Statistical relationships between the hourly radiation intensity values of both ultraviolet-B (UVB) and ultraviolet-A (UVA), and of the corresponding global radiation at two sites in Israel, the Dead Sea and Beer Sheva, are presented using radiation data measured from January 1995 to January 1999. It was determined, based upon the square of the correlation coefficient (r 2 ), that in the case of the UVB, a quadratic equation provided a better fit of the database, whereas in the case of UVA, a linear equation was sufficient, i.e. no significant improvement in r 2 was obtained using a quadratic equation. Each monthly empirical equation was tested by utilizing measurements from a single month of independent observations. The accuracy of the individual equations was determined by calculating the mean bias error (MBE), the root mean square error (RSME) and the percent coefficient of variation (CV). The results of this statistical analysis showed that, at both sites, the UVA relationships were characterized by a CV of 20% were observed for more than a third of the individual months at both the Dead Sea and Beer Sheva. Monthly and seasonal relationships from one site were then tested by applying them to the second site. In both cases, the relationships between both UVA and UVB and global radiation were found to be site-specific. On the basis of this statistical analysis, the UVA relationships were found to be far superior predictors than the corresponding UVB ones. In fact, the UVB relationships have limited applicability for predicting UVB from the corresponding global solar radiation intensity.


The type system of Objective Caml has many unique features, which make ensuring the correctness of its implementation difficult. One of these features is structurally polymorphic types, such as polymorphic object and variant types, which have the extra specificity of allowing recursion. We implemented in Coq a certified interpreter for Core ML extended with structural polymorphism and recursion. Along with type soundness of evaluation, soundness and principality of type inference, and correctness of a stack-based interpreter, are also proved.†


This paper presents a system, Web-based Multimedia Annotation (WMA) system, for english as foreign language learning in writing skills. The whole correcting process, including the instructor's voice and navigation events (i.e., tele-pointer (cursor), highlight, pen strokes, markings and annotations), can be captured through our system for later access. We address the issues of exploring involved media correlation to benefit adaptable presentation in a synchronization manner from temporal, spatial and content domains. The proposed computed synchronization techniques include speech-event binding process in the temporal domain, tele-pointer movement interpolation and adaptable handwriting presentation in the spatial domain, and visualized annotation erasing in the content domain. The experimental results show that in the speech-event binding process 74% of speech access entries for accessible visualized annotations are found. The acceptable rate of human perception of tele-pointer movement is higher than 85% if time interval is selected carefully. The accuracy of visualized annotation erasing for content removal is about 71%. Our user study shows that students can devote their efforts to writing practice because they can better understand their own mistakes corrected by the instructors using this multimedia presentation.


The study site is located 15 km south west of Robertson and 10 km north west of McGregor. The Klipberg Mountain forms the southern boundary of the site and the Breede River, from which the bulk of irrigation water is currently sourced, makes up the northern border of the study site. Recent drought has necessitated a hydrogeological investigation to determine groundwater potential to augment the current supply, however little is known about the Rietvlei Formation in the area. The investigation comprised of a detailed desktop survey, making use of satellite imagery, geological maps, existing literature and hydrogeological maps. Areas of interest were selected for geophysical survey. This proved challenging due to rugged terrain typical of the Table Mountain Group (TMG), the presence of a high voltage power line over target areas, and the associated low conductivity of the quartzitic sandstone. A successful borehole sited on an electromagnetic survey did however provide the ideal geological setting for further sitings using lineament mapping and geological survey. Drilling followed by Pumping Tests of borehole with blow yields in excess of 15 000 L/hr followed allowing aquifer parameters to be determined. Radial acting flow proved to be the dominant flow regime of the Rietvlei Formation. An average transmissivity of 23.32 m2/day was estimated which matches existing literature, while the average storativity of 4.8 x 10-4 was slightly lower. The groundwater quality varies across the site with exceptional quality found within the only existing borehole, drilled into the Sewefontein Fault with an electrical conductivity (EC) of 13.8 mS/m. This borehole did not show connectivity to other boreholes during the Pumping Tests and comprised Na – HCO3– type water. The boreholes drilled into the Klipberg Mountain have electrical conductivities ranging from 22.9 mS/m to 207 ms/m and are Na – Cl type waters. A number of irrigation classifications deem the groundwater suitable for irrigation, while some boreholes are not suitable according to other classification methods. Regular sampling of both water and soil should be conducted to determine long term affect (if any). Fracture size increased with depth in the direction of the syncline axis. There is also an associated decrease in groundwater quality towards the axis of the syncline and away from the mountains where recharge occurs. Borehole siting in similar conditions where extensive folding and faulting have occurred should take this into consideration to improve probability of intersecting good quality groundwater.


Reliable microfluidic interconnectors are one of the basic building blocks of integrated fluidic and chemical reaction systems-on-chip. Though many ideas have been proposed and implemented in the literature for creating different kinds of macro-to-micro fluidic connections, development of integrated on-chip connectors for high temperature and pressure microfluidic applications has not been properly studied. Such connectors will be indispensable in true on-chip chemical processing applications for reactions which require more severe operating conditions than those possible using currently available interconnection techniques. In this paper we present novel microfluidic interconnects that can be used in applications involving operating temperatures of up to 275 °C and pressures in excess of 315 Psi (21.43 atm). The only wetted surfaces in this design are teflon, silicon and pyrex glass, making the design inert to most chemicals. High-pressure leakage, pull-out and high-temperature durability tests conducted on the interconnect show that the connections obtained are superior to those reported in the literature using other techniques. Structural analysis of the interconnect is carried out to illustrate the effect of interconnect geometry on strength and high-pressure performance.


The higher education environment in Australia has undergone a radical change since the 1980s with the phenomenal increase in the intake of international students, particularly from what are referred to as Confucian Heritage Cultures (CHC): China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore. Students from these countries view the Australian higher education system very favourably. The present increase in the proportion of full-fee paying students at Australian universities is also a result of decreasing government funding to the Australian higher education sector, which has now risen to be one of the most important elements of the Australian economy. These push-pull factors have drawn more Australian tertiary institution providers into the market place, as they seek more international student enrolments for their domestic campuses and also establish campuses overseas. Potential higher education students are becoming more discerning in their choices and are choosing learning environments that offers them both relevant and stimulating educational experiences and good qualifications, along with a range of both IT and academic support services that cater to their individual learning needs. Increasing competition, both within Australia and internationally, calls for a focus on student satisfaction in order to sustain the existence of the providers. This paper addresses the issue of what international students seek in terms of academic support and demonstrates that present levels of cost efficient services by Australian higher education providers, generally characterized by IT and language support services, are inadequate and do not meet the specific needs of the students.


Ceramic water filters (CWFs) are point-of-use drinking water treatment systems that are manufactured and used in under-served communities around the world. The clayey material (CM) used to manufacture CWFs is a locally sourced mixture of clay, sand, slit and amorphous material (usually dug near the CWF factory). CM varies in composition and purity depending on the geographical location and geological setting. In this study, a set of 13 CM samples collected from around the world were analyzed using grain size analysis, as well as liquid and plastic limit tests. Mineralogical composition was determined using X-ray diffraction. A selection of three CM samples (Guatemala, Canada, and Guinea Bissau) with a range of compositions were used to study biofilm growth on CM before and after firing. Biofilm coverage was studied on CM (before firing) and CWF material (after firing) using Pseudomonas fluorescens Migula. The average biofilm coverages for Guatemala, Canada, and Guinea Bissau CM were 20.03 ± 2.80%, 19.28 ± 0.91%, and 9.88 ± 4.02%, respectively. The average biofilm formation coverages for Guatemala, Canada, and Guinea Bissau CWF were 13.08 ± 1.74%, 10.36 ± 3.41%, and 8.66 ± 0.13%, respectively. The results presented here suggest that CM can be manipulated to manufacture better performing CWFs by engineering the soil characteristics, such as grain size, liquid and plastic limits, and mineralogy. This could improve the durability and biofilm resistance of CWFs.


Recent years have seen a surge of interest in meta-learning techniques for tackling the few-shot learning (FSL) problem. However, the meta-learner is prone to overfitting since there are only a few available samples, which can be identified as sampling noise on a clean dataset. Moreover, when handling the data with noisy labels, the meta-learner could be extremely sensitive to label noise on a corrupted dataset. To address these two challenges, we present Eigen-Reptile (ER) that updates the meta-parameters with the main direction of historical task-specific parameters to alleviate sampling and label noise. Specifically, the main direction is computed in a fast way, where the scale of the calculated matrix is related to the number of gradient steps instead of the number of parameters. Furthermore, to obtain a more accurate main direction for Eigen-Reptile in the presence of many noisy labels, we further propose Introspective Self-paced Learning (ISPL). We have theoretically and experimentally demonstrated the soundness and effectiveness of the proposed Eigen-Reptile and ISPL. Particularly, our experiments on different tasks show that the proposed method is able to outperform or achieve highly competitive performance compared with other gradient-based methods with or without noisy labels. The code and data for the proposed method are provided for research purposes https://github.com/Anfeather/Eigen-Reptile.


This is the first book to draw together cutting-edge research on the psychological processes underlying doping use in sport and exercise, thereby filling an important gap in our understanding of this centrally important issue in contemporary sport. Covering diverse areas of psychology such as social cognition, automatic and controlled processes, moral decision-making, and societal and contextual influence on behaviour, the book also explores methodological considerations surrounding doping assessment in psychological research as well as future directions for evidence-based preventive interventions and anti-doping education.

Written by a team of leading international researchers from countries including the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, Greece, Germany, Italy, Denmark and Ireland, the book integrates empirical findings with theoretical guidance for future psychological research on doping, and illuminates the challenges, needs and priorities in contemporary doping prevention. It is important reading for advanced students and researchers in sport and exercise science, sport management and sport policy, and will open up new perspectives for professional coaches, sports administrators, policy makers and sport medicine specialists looking to better understand the doping behaviours of athletes in sport.


The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of aromatic on combustion stratification and particulate emissions for PRF60. Experiments were performed in an optical CI engine at a speed of 1200 rpm for TPRF0 (100% v/v PRF60), TPRF20 (20% v/v toluene + 80% PRF60) and TPRF40 (40% v/v toluene + 60% PRF60). TPRF mixtures were prepared in such a way that the RON of all test blends was same (RON = 60). Single injection strategy with a fuel injection pressure of 800 bar was adopted for all test fuels. Start of injection (SOI) was changed from early to late fuel injection timings, representing various modes of combustion viz HCCI, PPC and CDC. High-speed video of the in-cylinder combustion process was captured and one-dimensional stratification analysis was performed from the intensity of images. Particle size, distribution and concentration were measured and linked with the in-cylinder combustion images. Results showed that combustion advanced from CDC to PPC and then attained a constant value in HCCI mode. In PPC and HCCI region, the soot mass concentration was significantly reduced as premixing was improved due to longer ignition delay. The particle number was lower for the late injection and becomes higher as the injection timing advanced to PPC and HCCI mode. While the soot particles were almost nuclear model with the size range of 5nm~17nm and as combustion transited from CDC via PPC to HCCI, the particle size became larger. For TPRF blends, the increased intake air temperature was required to maintain same combustion phasing as that of PRF60. With the addition of toluene to PRF60, the soot concentration increased, which was in-line with the increased intensity (yellow) of combustion images. The degree of stratification was higher for TPRF20 and TPRF40 when compared to PRF60.