This thesis starts with a synopsis of the literature on the metabolism of mandelate and related compounds by microorganisms. Present knowledge of the control of these pathways is also summarised. The experimental work described in this thesis is primarily concerned with the activity and control of the enzymes converting L-mandelate and benzyl alcohol to cis, cismuconate in bacterium NCIB 8250 which is an Acinetobacter species. Techniques were worked out for mutagenesis with N-methyl-N-nitroso-N-nitroguanidine and ultraviolet irradiation. Using the former treatment, "mandelate mutants'' i.e. strains able to grow .on benzoate or benzyl alcohol but not on L-mandelate, "benzyl alcohol mutants", i.e. strains able to grow on benzoate or L-mandelate but not on benzyl alcohol, and "benzoate mutants", i.e. strains unable to grow on L-mandelate, benzyl alcohol or benzoate, were isolated. Three classes of mandelate mutants were obtained; those which lacked L-mandelate dehydrogenase; those which lacked benzoylforrnate decarboxylase; and those which lacked L-mandelate dehydrogenase, benzoylformate decarboxylase and the stable benzaldehyde dehydrogenase. The three benzyl alcohol mutants examined did not posses a functional benzyl alcohol dehydrogenase or labile benzaldehyde dehydrogenase. All the benzoate mutants studied were able to groxr on catechol but not on benzoate or its precursors. Mutants meso-constitutive for L-mandelate dehydrogenase and benzoylformate decarboxylase and hyperinducible for the stable benzaldehyde dehydrogenase were obtained as a result of spontaneous mutation and incubation with W-raethylilnitroso- / N-nitroguanidine. An examination of the growth patterns of the blocked mutants provided supporting evidence for the postulates of Kennedy and Kennedy & Fewson (1968 a, b) that the enzymes which convert L-mandelate, benzyl alcohol and their substituted analogues to the corresponding benzoates are nonspecific in their activity and indication; that L-mandelate is metabolised to benzoate only through benzoylforraate; and that 2-hydroxybenzoate is oxidised directly to catechol and not through benzoate. Heat denaturation experiments, the properties of the blocked mutants and the pattern of monovalent cation activation provided evidence for the existence of a heat-stable benzaldehyde dehydrogenase with a half-life of about 500min at 37


OBJECTIVE
Depression in parents is a prevalent and impairing illness that is encountered frequently in medical practice. Children of depressed parents are at risk for psychopathology and other difficulties. A series of recent national reports have recommended the development of prevention efforts targeting children of depressed parents. Yet, to date, few controlled prevention studies of depression in children and adolescents have been conducted. In this study, we report the evaluation of 2 preventive intervention strategies that target children living in homes with depressed parents. Both are public health approaches that were designed to be used by a wide range of practitioners from a variety of disciplines, including pediatricians, internists, school counselors, nurses, and mental health practitioners. We adopted a developmental perspective and intervened with families when children were entering the age of highest risk for depression onset (ie, adolescence). We chose a family-based approach to prevention and sought to reduce risk factors and enhance protective factors for early adolescents by increasing positive interactions between parents and children, and by increasing understanding of the illness for everyone in the family. Our prevention approaches were designed to provide information about mood disorders to parents, to equip parents with the skills they need to communicate information to their children, and to open a dialogue with their children about the effects of parental depression. We hypothesized that participation in these prevention programs would result in parental change in child-related behaviors and attitudes about depression and its impact on the family. In addition, we hypothesized that this parental change would produce change in children's self-understanding, and in children's depressive symptomatology.

METHODS
We conducted a large-scale efficacy trial of 2 manual-based preventive intervention programs that were designed to be used widely in public health settings. These interventions target the relatively healthy children (ages 8-15) of parents with mood disorder. Ninety-three families (88.5% of our initial sample), including 121 children, participated in this study through the fourth assessment point. These families were assigned randomly to either a lecture or a clinician-facilitated intervention. Both interventions were specified in manuals. The lecture condition consisted of 2 separate meetings delivered in a group format without children present. The clinician-facilitated condition consisted of 6 to 11 sessions, including separate meetings with parents and children, and a family meeting in which the parents led a discussion of the illness and of positive steps that can be taken to promote healthy functioning in the children. In addition, telephone contacts or refresher meetings were conducted at 6- to 9-month intervals. In both conditions, psychoeducational material about mood disorders, risk, and resilience was presented and efforts were made to decrease feelings of guilt and blame in children. Parents were helped to build resilience in their children through encouraging their friendships, their success outside of the home, and their understanding of parental illness and of themselves. In addition, in the clinician-facilitated condition, efforts were made to link the psychoeducational material presented to the family's own unique illness experience. To address directly how their lives had changed, all family members in both conditions were assessed for psychopathology and for overall functioning at intake, and for psychopathology, functioning, and response to intervention immediately postintervention, approximately 1 year postintervention, and again approximately 2.5 years postintervention.

RESULTS
We examined the outcomes of child understanding and internalizing symptomatology, and a number of predictor variables, using repeated measures analyses with generalized estimating equations. We found that parents in both conditions reported significant change in child-related behaviors and and attitudes, and that the amount of change reported increased over time from time 3 to time 4 (chi2(1) = 18.1). Moreover, relative to parents in the lecture program (mean number of changes = 6.3), parents in the clinician-facilitated program reported more change in child-related behaviors and attitudes (mean number of changes = 9.8). Children in both conditions reported increased understanding of parental illness attributable to participation in our intervention programs. There was a positive association between the amount of change children reported in their understanding of parental illness and the number of changes couples reported in child-related behaviors/attitudes (chi2(1) = 37.3; ie, parents who had changed the most in response to intervention had children who also changed the most). Finally, internalizing scores for all children decreased with increased time since intervention (chi2(1) = 7.3). In addition, females had higher internalizing scores than males (chi2(1) = 5.3). There was no significant effect of group on children's change in internalizing symptomatology (chi2(1) = 0.2).

CONCLUSIONS
We enrolled families with relatively healthy children, administered carefully designed preventive interventions that are manual-based and relatively brief, and found that these programs do have long-standing positive effects in how families problem solve around parental illness. Our results show significant benefits from both interventions. Moreover, changes in parents' perceptions translated directly into changes in children's own understanding of parental illness. Parental behavior and attitude changes and their connection to child changes in understanding identify an important mediating variable: family change. By increasing children's understanding of parental mood disorder, our interventions were found to promote resilience-related qualities in these children at risk. This presentation represents the first and only longitudinal primary prevention study of relatively healthy children at risk for psychopathology attributable to parental mood disorder and demonstrates a significant reduction in risk factors and increase in protective factors in these families over a long time interval--2(1/2) years. Our results provide support for a family-based approach to preventive intervention.


This study explored some of the intricate connections between the cognitions (beliefs, knowledge, perceptions, attitudes) and pedagogical practices of five English language teachers, specifically in relation to pronunciation-oriented techniques. Integral to the study was the use of semistructured interviews, classroom observations, and stimulated recall interviews with the teachers and questionnaires with students. Findings reveal that the teachers' knowledge base of pronunciation techniques consisted mainly of controlled techniques—techniques strongly manipulated by the teachers and typically considered less communicative than other techniques. Of all techniques, guided techniques (semistructured) were the least frequently used, suggesting in part that the teachers' knowledge of how to incorporate guided techniques on a consistent basis with oral communication curricula may be limited. This article also includes discussion of three sets of beliefs held by some of the teachers: (1) listening perception is essential for producing comprehensible speech, (2) kinesthetic/tactile practice is integral to phonological improvement, and (3) pronunciation instruction can be boring.


Epidemiology is a scientific discipline dating back about 150 years. During this period it has contributed enormously to our understanding of the causes of disease and to the identification of strategies for their prevention. Unfortunately, epidemiologists have been less successful in ensuring that the epidemiological information so exquisitely gathered is translated into effective policies and programmes. Epidemiologists have failed to actively contribute to improving the health of populations we serve, especially poor and disadvantaged populations. The case of non-communicable diseases (NCD) is instructive. Two in every 3 of the 57 million deaths worldwide each year are due to NCD, principally cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases; NCD death rates are now higher in poor than in wealthy countries and among poor people in all countries. The UN High-Level Meeting on NCD in September 2011 stems from the global NCD crisis and the need for a coordinated and effective response. If this meeting results in a positive outcome, it will be in part because of the contribution by epidemiologists in mapping the NCD pandemic and identifying its causes. However, a successful outcome will result only if we engage with the political dimensions of disease prevention and treatment. The steps required in translating the epidemiology of NCD into simple, focused and politically acceptable messages have not been easy and have taken epidemiologists into areas for which we are remarkably unskilled, but which provide important lessons for the future of epidemiology.


Surgery for acute type B aortic dissection (ABAD) is complex and has a high risk of morbidity and mortality. Endovascular stent-grafting has recently begun to be used in acute aortic syndrome with promising short-term and mid-term results. In certain cases, severe atherosclerotic degeneration of the iliofemoral and iliac axis may constitute a contraindication for stent-graft implantation. We present a case of endovascular stent-grafting for uncomplicated ABAD performed through the ascending aorta and without extracorporeal circulation in a patient with peripheral vascular disease and a high probability of aortic rupture during follow-up. A 58-year-old man, smoker, with hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia came to the emergency room with a two hour history of central chest pain with sweating and nausea. The chest x-ray showed mediastinal widening, aortic elongation, and absence of pleural effusion. The myocardial necrosis enzymes were normal. CT angiography revealed an aortic dissection from 1 cm below the origin of the left subclavian artery to the iliac bifurcation, with a maximum aortic diameter of 42 mm and severe calcified atherosclerosis of the abdominal aorta and the iliofemoral axis (Figure 2). Catheterization showed significant lesions in the distal circumflex, right iliac, and left common femoral arteries. The intravascular ultrasound with a 9 Fr, 9 MHz Ultra ICE catheter, and Galaxy imaging system (Boston Scientific Corporation, Wayne, New Jersey, United States) confirmed that the primary entry tear was distal to the left subclavian artery origin and the partially patent false lumen. Eleven days after the diagnosis, the patient underwent endovascular stent-grafting by midline sternotomy, but with no extracorporeal circulation. The anterior wall of the ascending aorta was clamped laterally and a 10-mm Hemashield Platinum (Boston Scientific Corporation, Wayne, New Jersey, United States) graft was sutured end-to-side to the aorta (Figure 1A). This was used to implant a Talent stent-graft of diameter 38 mm and length 11.4 cm (Medtronic/AVE, Santa Rosa, California, United States) (Figure 1B). Follow-up aortography revealed residual flow through the entry tear that partially filled the false lumen and, therefore, a thoracic extension of diameter 38 mm and length 4.6 cm was implanted proximally. The postoperative period was uneventful. CT angiography before discharge showed complete occlusion of the entry tear with no filling of the false lumen, whereas the left subclavian artery showed only partial filling (Figure 2). At 7 days from the procedure, the patient was discharged with absence of left radial pulse, but no evidence of ischemia, and 3 months later he remained asymptomatic. Endovascular stent-graft placement has emerged in recent years as an alternative to surgery in complicated ABAD, in which the entry tear is closed in 90% to 100% of cases. The case we describe represents an example of the use of endovascular stent-grafting in ABAD with no evidence of rupture, a strategy we believe is justified in selected cases. The mid-term prognosis of uncomplicated ABAD treated conservatively is poor, with mortality occurring in 27%, false lumen aneurysm in 14% to 20%, need for deferred surgery in 13%, and a 5-year incidence of serious complications of 33%. An aortic diameter larger than 40 mm and the presence of a patent false lumen in the acute stage have been identified by multivariate analysis as predictive factors of chronic aortic dilatation and major events during follow-up. In our case, we considered that the patient's poor progress, combined with the coexistence of risk factors, persistence of a partially patent false lumen, and borderline aortic diameter, justified endovascular stent-grafting to prevent a fatal event. To date, the scientific evidence for this strategy is not consistent. Currently ongoing studies must be completed, including larger series with longer follow-up, before we can identify patients who may benefit from an early interventional strategy. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR


This paper presents research findings from a longitudinal study of students making the transition from colleges to a Scottish university.  Data from interviews with staff and students suggest that although students are offered pre-entry transition support while they study at college, they face challenges, particularly in relation to assessment, when arriving at university.   Findings indicate that lecturers who take time to make their requirements explicit and create opportunities for students to understand what is valued by the university provide the key to successful transition.   Dialogue about the discipline and learning and teaching approaches benefits all students, and not just those coming from college.


Over the last several years, it has become clear that inflammation plays a significant role in the clinical manifestations of sickle cell anemia, whether as a mediator of erythroid suppression or as a facilitator of thrombotic events. Determinations of the concentrations of the cytokine mediators of inflammation in serum or plasma of sickle cell patients have shown disparate results, particularly in patients not experiencing an acute crisis at the time. In studies of anemic patients with either AIDS or rheumatoid arthritis, determinations of bone marrow cytokine concentrations have provided unique correlations with clinical and laboratory parameters. We determined concentrations of IL-1, IL-6, TNF, and placental growth factor (PlGF) in bone marrow aspirates from 6 homozygous sickle cell (SS) patients who were not acutely ill and who were not receiving hydroxyurea, erythropoietin, or chronic transfusion, and compared them to specimens from 7 healthy controls. Concurrent plasma measurements were made when available. We also measured concentrations of soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) and of marrow erythroid colony-forming units (CFU-E) as markers of erythropoietic activity. As expected, sTfR concentration, whether measured in marrow or plasma, was significantly higher in SS patients (p = .024). CFU-E concentration was not significantly different between the two groups. Although plasma IL-6 was significantly higher in SS patients, and plasma IL-1 significantly higher in controls, values measured were in the normal range. Bone marrow concentrations of IL-6 and IL-1 did not differ between the study groups. TNF was undetectable in all specimens, plasma or marrow. Other investigators have reported that elevated serum PlGF distinguishes SS patients from controls and correlates with disease activity. Plasma PlGF did not differ between SS patients and controls, but bone marrow PlGF concentrations were significantly higher in SS patients (p = .004). Since PlGF is a product of erythroid cells, the ratios of marrow PlGF to marrow CFU-E and sTfR were determined and also found to be significantly greater in SS patients (p = .016 and p = .024, respectively). None of the cytokines measured in SS patients correlated with clinical parameters. The bone marrow of stable SS patients exhibits an increased PlGF concentration not seen in circulating blood. This does not represent a phenomenon general to cytokines and does not reflect increased erythroid activity but rather an increase per erythropoietic unit. The role of PlGF in the clinical manifestations of sickle disease remains to be fully determined.


As computers become faster and smaller, there is an increasing demand
for low power computing devices. These devices are used in
a broad spectrum of applications; this includes heart rate monitors,
home automation and environmental monitoring like air quality measurements.
In many cases these devices need to operate for months
or years on a small battery. This requires a new generation of ultra
low power communication chips.
Bluetooth has an update of the standard, Bluetooth Low Energy
Long Range (BLR), which increases the range for the low energy mode
of Bluetooth. Bluetooth Low Energy and the long range successor are
designed specifically for these ultra low power applications.
An embedded system which does wireless communication processing
must combine high processing speed with low power consumption.
The multiprocessor system-on-chip (MPSoC) is increasingly used
in low power embedded systems. By integrating multiple processors
into one system, high computation power can be achieved while keeping
power consumption low.
In the CAES research group at the University of Twente research is
done on the design of heterogeneous multiprocessor embedded platforms
for real-time stream processing applications. One prominent
example of these systems is called Starburst.
This thesis describes an implementation of a BLR receiver on the
Starburst platform. The receiver performs non-coherent differential
detection. The different tasks of the receiver are implemented as separate
accelerators, connected to the communication ring. An equalizer,
convolutional decoder and repetition decoder were added to
the receiver and the bit error rate (BER) performance of different receiver
configurations was measured. The receiver configuration with
the best BER performance is the equalizer with matched filter, which
performs 2.5dB less 1 than the theoretical DQPSK BER curve.
A receiver architecture was designed and implemented where a different
filter can be used for frame detection than for decoding. This
increases the frame detection rate when the receiver is used with the
matched filter and makes the receiver more resilient to frequency offset.
The throughput of the receiver on the Starburst platform was analyzed.
The receiver was initially implemented as software tasks running
on the Microblaze processors, but was running 6 to 34 times
too slow. An implementation of hardware accelerators connected to the communication ring is fast enough and each task required less
hardware than a Microblaze processor.
The fully functional receiver is able to communicate wireless with
a transmitter to play an audio stream. It was used as a demonstrator
at the University Booth at the Design, Automation and Test in Europe
(DATE) 2015 conference[15].
Further research is required on the low BER performance of the
repetition decoder. It would also be interesting to investigate increasing
the coding gain of the convolutional decoder. Both repetition and
convolutional coding are part of the BLR standard, and the gain of the
codes is intended to increase the range. However, the gain of both decoders
is lower than expected in the current receiver implementation.
It would be interesting to investigate to cause of this and research
possible improvements.
Another possible way to improve the sensitivity of the receiver is to
do coherent detection. There is potentially a significant improvement
in sensitivity with coherent detection. It is however not clear how
difficult it is to do the phase synchronization required for coherent
detection, and how much the increase in hardware costs is.


BACKGROUND
Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) promotes angiogenesis and several other biologic processes, including proliferation of mesenchymal cells and tumor progression. We investigated whether bFGF could be detected in the intraluminal secretion of the small intestine, sigmoid colon, and rectum in healthy individuals and in patients with ulcerative colitis.

METHODS
We used endoscopic perfusion techniques to obtain samples from well-defined intestinal segments. The perfusion fluid concentrations of bFGF, biochemical markers of inflammation, myeloperoxidase (MPO), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and permeability (albumin) were determined with immunochemical methods.

RESULTS
In the perfusion fluids the albumin concentration, which reflects passive diffusion, was less than 1% of the plasma concentration, whereas the intestinal concentration of bFGF was similar to that in plasma. Among healthy subjects the concentration of bFGF was eightfold higher in the jejunum and twofold higher in the rectum than in the sigmoid colon. The perfusion fluid from colorectal segments in patients with ulcerative colitis had a significantly higher mean concentration of bFGF than that from healthy individuals; an almost 10-fold difference was found in rectal segments. There were strong correlations between the concentration of bFGF and the concentrations of MPO and IL-6.

CONCLUSIONS
The high concentrations of bFGF in the intestinal perfusion fluid reflect either a local synthesis or an active secretion of bFGF within the mucosa. The bFGF concentration differs in intestinal anatomic location and increases significantly in patients with ulcerative colitis in close relationship with biochemical markers of inflammation and permeability.


The increasing demands for miniaturization and better functionality of electronic components and devices have a significant effect on the requirements facing the printed circuit board (PCB) industry. PCB manufactures are driving for producing high density interconnect (HDI) boards at significantly reduced cost and reduced implementation time. The interconnection complexity of the PCB is still growing and today calls for 50/50 μm or 25/25 μm technology are real. Existing technologies are unable to offer acceptable solution. Recently the Laser Direct Imaging (LDI) technology is considered as an answer for these challenges. LDI is a process of imaging electric circuits directly on PCB without the use of a phototool or mask. Our laboratory system for Laser Direct Imaging is designed for tracks and spaces on PCB with minimum width distance of 50/50 μm. In comparison with conventional photolithography method, this technology is much better for 50/50 μm track and spaces. In our research we used photoresist with resolution 50 μm, but in case of using laser photoresists with better resolution (e.g. 25 μm) it will be possible to image tracks in super-fine-line technology (25/25 μm). The comparison between two technology of creating mosaic pattern tracks on PCB proved that laser imaging is promising technology in high density interconnects patterns, which are widely use in multilayered PCB and similar applications.


The purpose of the study was to examine concept of subculture and style of subculture by each age and to analyze internal meaning of hairstyle in subculture. The study carried out literary review on the basis of books related to subculture and hairstyle focused on the cradle of subculture and preceding researches of subculture style, and strived to find internal meaning of hairstyle by describing in-depth descriptive methods of qualitative research. And the study limited its range in the hairstyle in style of subculture from 1930s to early 1990s commonly described in subculture related books. As a result, there were natural pattern, cutting pattern, exaggerated pattern, set pattern, braid pattern, color pattern and addition pattern in types of hairstyle in subculture. The hairstyle in subculture symbolizes their internal value and ideology and hairstyle is a kind of language to express identity of subculture.


Myocardial infarction (MI) initiates cardiac remodeling, depresses pump function, and predisposes to heart failure. This study was designed to identify early alterations in Ca2+ handling and myofilament proteins, which may contribute to contractile dysfunction and reduced &bgr;-adrenergic responsiveness in postinfarct remodeled myocardium. Protein composition and contractile function of skinned cardiomyocytes were studied in remote, noninfarcted left ventricular (LV) subendocardium from pigs 3 weeks after MI caused by permanent left circumflex artery (LCx) ligation and in sham-operated pigs. LCx ligation induced a 19% increase in LV weight, a 69% increase in LV end-diastolic area, and a decrease in ejection fraction from 54±5% to 35±4% (all P<0.05), whereas cardiac responsiveness to exercise-induced increases in circulating noradrenaline levels was blunted. Endogenous protein kinase A (PKA) was significantly reduced in remote myocardium of MI animals, and a negative correlation (R=0.62; P<0.05) was found between cAMP levels and LV weight-to-body weight ratio. Furthermore, SERCA2a expression was 23% lower after MI compared with sham. Maximal isometric force generated by isolated skinned myocytes was significantly lower after MI than in sham (15.4±1.5 versus 19.2±0.9 kN/m2; P<0.05), which might be attributable to a small degree of troponin I (TnI) degradation observed in remodeled postinfarct myocardium. An increase in Ca2+ sensitivity of force (pCa50) was observed after MI compared with sham (&Dgr;pCa50=0.17), which was abolished by incubating myocytes with exogenous PKA, indicating that the increased Ca2+ sensitivity resulted from reduced TnI phosphorylation. In conclusion, remodeling of noninfarcted pig myocardium is associated with decreased SERCA2a and myofilament function, which may contribute to depressed LV function. The full text of this article is available online at http://circres.ahajournals.org.


In the nervous system, spontaneous Ca2+ transients play important roles in many developmental processes. We previously found that altering the frequency of electrically recorded rhythmic spontaneous bursting episodes in embryonic chick spinal cords differentially perturbed the two main pathfinding decisions made by motoneurons, dorsal–ventral and pool-specific, depending on the sign of the frequency alteration. Here, we characterized the Ca2+ transients associated with these bursts and showed that at early stages while motoneurons are still migrating and extending axons to the base of the limb bud, they display spontaneous, highly rhythmic, and synchronized Ca2+ transients. Some precursor cells in the ependymal layer displayed similar transients. T-type Ca2+ channels and a persistent Na+ current were essential to initiate spontaneous bursts and associated transients. However, subsequent propagation of activity throughout the cord resulted from network-driven chemical transmission mediated presynaptically by Ca2+ entry through N-type Ca2+ channels and postsynaptically by acetylcholine acting on nicotinic receptors. The increased [Ca2+]i during transients depended primarily on L-type and T-type channels with a modest contribution from TRP (transient receptor potential) channels and ryanodine-sensitive internal stores. Significantly, the drugs used previously to produce pathfinding errors altered transient frequency but not duration or amplitude. These observations imply that different transient frequencies may differentially modulate motoneuron pathfinding. However, the duration of the Ca2+ transients differed significantly between pools, potentially enabling additional distinct pool-specific downstream signaling. Many early events in spinal motor circuit formation are thus potentially sensitive to the rhythmic Ca2+ transients we have characterized and to any drugs that perturb them.


Based on the theoretic analysis and experiments on milling the carbon structural 45 steel with the flat rake milling insert and the waved-edge milling insert with complex 3D grooves which is developed by HarBin University of Science and Technology, we have studied on the impact disrepair mathematic model and groove optimization. On the basis of the milling force mathematic model and force density function of the waved-edge milling insert with complex 3D grooves the author built, we have the finite element analysis and blurry synthetical judgement of the 3D stress field, and forecast that the anti-impact disrepair capability of the waved-edge milling insert is choiceness. We find out the difference of the impact disrepair invalidation types between different grooves milling inserts by the experiments. Based on the plentiful and systemic impact disrepair experiments, as the emphasis in this paper, we build the impact disrepair life cumulating distribution function mathematic model by the mathematics statistic method and have contrast analysis of the impact disrepair average lives between the two types of milling inserts, and prove that the anti-impact disrepair capability of the waved-edge milling insert is choiceness. All these studies provide the theoretic and experimental basis for solving the cutter disrepair which is the key problem in the automatization production and groove optimization.


Over the last ten years, Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) have received significant attention from the academic and industrial communities alike. VANETs are a particular type of mobile ad hoc network originally designed for the purpose of facilitating the creation of spontaneous wireless networks between different vehicles, but since their inception the scope of VANETs has been extended to other types of road users such as cyclists and pedestrians. Due to the volatility of the wireless medium, VANETs face several challenges, especially when applications with a diverse set of requirements must be supported. Among the various techniques used to address such challenges, one of the most recent is Software-Defined Networking (SDN), which, by clearly separating the data plane from the control plane, allows the implementation of traditional network control and management tasks on top of a logically centralized controller. In this work, we perform a systematic review of SDN techniques tailored to the VANET domain. More specifically, we first review the literature on VANETs and SDN from an architectural and communications requirement perspective, then we report on the most recent standardization efforts, and finally, we highlight the open research areas and the most important challenges in this domain.


Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites that make use of the host metabolic machineries to meet their biosynthetic needs, identifying the host pathways essential for the virus replication may lead to potential targets for therapeutic intervention. The mechanisms and pathways explored by SARS-CoV-2 to support its replication within host cells are not fully known. Lipid droplets (LD) are organelles with major functions in lipid metabolism and energy homeostasis, and have multiple roles in infections and inflammation. Here we described that monocytes from COVID-19 patients have an increased LD accumulation compared to SARS-CoV-2 negative donors. In vitro, SARS-CoV-2 infection modulates pathways of lipid synthesis and uptake, including CD36, SREBP-1, PPARγ and DGAT-1 in monocytes and triggered LD formation in different human cells. LDs were found in close apposition with SARS-CoV-2 proteins and double-stranded (ds)-RNA in infected cells. Pharmacological modulation of LD formation by inhibition of DGAT-1 with A922500 significantly inhibited SARS-CoV-2 replication as well as reduced production of pro-inflammatory mediators. Taken together, we demonstrate the essential role of lipid metabolic reprograming and LD formation in SARS-CoV-2 replication and pathogenesis, opening new opportunities for therapeutic strategies to COVID-19.


Replicative helicases are essential enzymes in DNA replication that separate duplex DNA into single strands to be used as templates by polymerases. The identity of these helicases in prokaryotes and viruses has been known for some time, but there is controversy in defining the eukaryotic replicative helicase. Fifteen years of in vivo work and comparison to other helicases suggests that the minichromosome maintenance proteins two through seven (Mcm2-7 complex) play this role, but in vitro DNA unwinding has never been demonstrated. In order to address this dilemma, I analyzed the biochemical activities of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Mcm2-7 complex and the contributions of its conserved ATPase motifs to these activities. My findings indicate that Mcm2-7: 1) binds single-stranded DNA with high affinity in an ATP-dependent manner, 2) has six distinct active sites that differentially contribute to its biochemistry, and 3) is sensitive to anionic conditions in vitro. Elucidation of these characteristics led to the discovery that Mcm2-7 helicase activity is stimulated by large anions, and I was able to demonstrate bona fide in vitro DNA unwinding for the first time. The culmination of this work is the view that the Mcm2-7 complex is the true eukaryotic replicative helicase and the emerging view that Mcm2-7 ATPase active sites have evolved specialized functions within the complex.


This paper would like to suggest that Antigone's distance from moral, law and politics – in different ways implicating a necessary reference to the universal – comes from the peculiar stress on Antigone's desire. In its singularity and uniqueness, in its one-sidedness, and therefore in its very conflict with law and politics, Antigone's desire reveals itself as the last source of rights that social order cannot negate without injustice. Because  nomos can emerge only from this conflict, Sophocle's Antigone makes evident the instituted – and therefore contingent – character of symbolic order, giving voice to its always possible alteration and stressing the impossible elimination of conflict in human institutions.


Greenways design and planning has been largely framed as a multi-functional, multi-objective approach to address socio-cultural and ecological concerns (Fabos,2004; Hough 2004, Steiner, 2002; Fabos, 1995, Ahern, 1995; Ndubisi, 1995; Forman,1995). Social well-being, identity and memory have been predominant sociocultural concerns while biodiversity preservation and natural resources conservation have been key ecological concerns. These concerns have now been superseded by the more urgent concerns of sustainable development such as availability of energy resources, both food and fuel. Whether and how the design and practice of greenways meets these sustainable development challenges is the primary question raised through this paper. The greenway design and planning practice is reviewed through academic papers, government proposals and greenway reports generated by relevant agencies. Physical design typology in reference to the given physical, socio-cultural, political and ecological contextual is studied, and a hypothetical compound network design typology explored through academic projects. The inquiry overarches the realms of landscape design, planning, sustainability and urbanism. The paper, (a) outlines three predominant design typologies of greenways: connector design, containment design and composite network design, (b) advocates for composite network design typology of greenways for its scalar versatility enabling neighbourhood to city level applications, (c) illustrates the sustainable development outcomes related to socio-cultural, ecological and economic wellbeing as generated through green network design at neighbourhood scale, and, (d) articulates greenways as synergistic landscapes that create harmony amongst the urban system with broader biophysical system. Essentially, the paper calls for a renewed approach to greenways design and planning practice in order to start meeting sustainable development challenges more effectively and advocates for landscape synergism approach to design for sustainability and harmony.


Research investigated the ability of pilots of differing experience and capability to make vehicle control decisions. Three groups of pilots and three groups of pilot trainees performed the Flight Decsion-making Assessment Task (FDAT). The FDAT is a micro-computer based, discrete-time vehicle control task. Differences in FDAT performance were found as a function of pilot capability. Results are discussed in terms of pilot capability and of decision factors involved in vehicle control.


Abstract This study examined the differing perceptions of diabetic patients and their nurses regarding the completion of self-care activities, barriers to participation in diabetes health education, and diabetic patient's educational needs to promote better health care for patients with diabetes in Taiwan. This study employed a cross-sectional survey. The data were collected during 2009. Questionnaires were developed to collect data on a convenience sample of 312 patients with type 2 diabetes and 202 nurses recruited from diabetes clinics in Taiwan. Perceptions of self-care behavior were statistically significantly different between patients and nurses (t = –5.05, P < 0.000). The patients perceived themselves to be more successful at completing self-care tasks whereas nurses perceived patients to be less successful at completing self-care tasks. Nurses perceived patients to experience greater difficulties in diabetes health education (t = 18.36, P < 0.000). Nurses perceived there to be a greater need for health education as compared with patients (t = 9.03, P < 0.000).


The results of microvascular decompression of accessory nerve in patients with spastic torticollis are reviewed. 40 patients with spastic torticollis were treated. Unilateral microvascular decompression of the XIth cranial nerve were used in 11 cases, lateral in 23 cases. 5 patient had complete recovery, positive results were achieved in 12 patients. Best results were observed after bilateral decompression including retrocollis patients. Surgical treatment of laterocollis patients was less successful. Unilateral microvascular decompression of accessory nerve proved to be effective in homolateral type of torticollis.


The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze social problems, which relate to the land access issue faced by Timorese refugees in Belu Regency since their arrival in 1999. From the government's point of view, one of the solutions is to implement the resettlement program. However, many believe the program means land exclusion. This study uses the qualitative method, the data has been collected through in-depth interviews and direct observation, and includes some secondary sources to complement the main findings. This research has included social institution perspectives, especially family institutions, to analyze the implications for family and ethnic ties of the land access problem within the former refugees' community. The result of this research shows that the family and ethnic ties affect the processes of land access, which is sometimes used by certain figures within the former refugees and local community or institution to achieve social, political, and economic interests, excluding them from land access. To overcome the problem, the former refugees have used social and political networks as well as cultural approaches to derive any support towards coping strategies of land access.


The short-term and long-term effects (for up to 98 days) of the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor enalapril were investigated in male and female BALB/c mice. In control animals, separate antisera to renin and its prosequence produced an identical pattern of staining in granular cells of the juxtaglomerular apparatus (JGA) a short distance from the glomerulus. After 1 day of the enalapril treatment there was a decrease in the number of JGA granular cells immunostained with antisera to both renin and its prosequence. Electron microscopy revealed degranulation of mature granules from JGA granular cells. Fusion of granules with the cell membrane was not observed, but numerous membrane-like structures (myelin figures) were identified in the cytoplasm and extracellular space, indicating possible secretion. In addition, the volume proportion of granulated cells in relation to the glomerular volume was decreased, as was renal renin content. With continuing enalapril treatment, separate antisera to renin and its prosequence stained the same granulated JGA cells with equal intensity. The cells so stained increased in number, extending down the wall of the afferent arteriole to cortical radial arteries (interlobular arteries) upstream from the glomerulus. Ultrastructural studies revealed a progressive development of cytoplasmic granulation in JGA granular cells and in smooth muscle cells extending into cortical radial arteries. Furthermore, the volume proportion of granulated cells in relation to the glomerular volume was significantly increased, as was renal renin content. Thus, short-term enalapril treatment in mice provoked rapid secretion of renin via degranulation of mature granules from JGA granular cells. In contrast, long-term enalapril treatment produced a continuing stimulus for renin synthesis, secretion and storage, resulting in an increased thickness of the afferent arteriolar wall. The mechanism for this change appears to be hypertrophy and hypergranulation of granular JGA cells and neogranulation of smooth muscle cells upstream from the glomerulus. Identification of the intrarenal mediators that induce these phenotypic changes presents an interesting challenge.


Mehrabad bentonite deposit appears to be derived from the volcanosedimentary materials of Oligo-Miocene age by transformation in a lagoon environment. Based on analysis, bentonite samples contain minerals such as montmorillonite, albite, clinoptilolite, quartz, cristobalite, calcite, gypsum, halite, muscovite and nantronite. Conversion of shard glasses to bentonite and zeolite has occurred under diagenetic conditions with acidic to intermediate composition. The bentonite deposit is halmyrolytic clays in type. According to geochemical studies, bentonite's magmatic series is subalkaline (calcalkaline) and their tectonic setting is volcanic arc and syncollision.


Background: Prevalence of musculoskeletal pain among adolescents is high, and pain in adolescence increases the risk of chronic pain in adulthood. Studies have shown conflicting evidence regarding associations between physical activity and musculoskeletal pain, and few have evaluated the potential impact of sport participation on musculoskeletal pain in adolescent population samples. Purpose: To examine the associations between physical activity level, sport participation, and musculoskeletal pain in the neck and shoulders, low back, and lower extremities in a population-based sample of adolescents. Study Design: Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence 4. Methods: Data from the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study (Young-HUNT3) were used. All 10,464 adolescents in the Nord-Trøndelag county of Norway were invited, of whom 74% participated. Participants were asked how often they had experienced pain, unrelated to any known disease or acute injury, in the neck and shoulders, low back, and lower extremities in the past 3 months. The associations between (1) physical activity level (low [reference], medium or high) or (2) sport participation (weekly compared with no/infrequent participation) and pain were evaluated using logistic regression analyses, stratified by sex, and adjusted for age, socioeconomic status, and psychological distress. Results: The analyses included 7596 adolescents (mean age, 15.8 years; SD, 1.7). Neck and shoulder pain was most prevalent (17%). A moderate level of physical activity was associated with reduced odds of neck and shoulder pain (OR = 0.79 [95% CI, 0.66-0.94]) and low back pain (OR = 0.75 [95% CI, 0.62-0.91]), whereas a high level of activity increased the odds of lower extremity pain (OR = 1.60 [95% CI, 1.29-1.99]). Participation in endurance sports was associated with lower odds of neck and shoulder pain (OR = 0.79 [95% CI, 0.68-0.92]) and low back pain (OR = 0.77 [95% CI, 0.65-0.92]), especially among girls. Participation in technical sports was associated with increased odds of low back pain, whereas team sports were associated with increased odds of lower extremity pain. Strength and extreme sports were related to pain in all regions. Conclusion: We found that a moderate physical activity level was associated with less neck and shoulder pain and low back pain, and that participation in endurance sports may be particularly beneficial. Our findings highlight the need for health care professionals to consider the types of sports adolescents participate in when evaluating their musculoskeletal pain.


Gene targeting technology has allowed the generation of mouse mutants which lack specific genes. These mice represent a valuable tool for identifying the in vivo functions of proteins and for dissecting the pathways that control the development and differentiation of the numerous structures of the body. What we know about thyroid morphogenesis is largely due to studies on murine models generated in gene-targeting experiments. Although several points remain to be elucidated, a number of genes involved in thyroid organogenesis have been identified in recent years. In addition, this information has greatly improved our knowledge of the pathogenetic mechanisms of thyroid dysgenesis in humans. This review summarizes the complex processes leading to thyroid development mostly by describing the phenotype of currently available knockout animals.


BACKGROUND Several simulation-based possibilities for training flexible optical intubation have been developed, ranging from non-anatomical phantoms to high-fidelity virtual reality simulators. These teaching devices might also be used to assess the competence of trainees before allowing them to practice on patients. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the validity of airway simulation as an assessment tool for the acquisition of the preclinical basic skills in flexible optical intubation and to investigate anaesthetists' opinion on airway simulation. DESIGN Observational study. SETTING International airway course. PARTICIPANTS Thirty-six consultants and residents in anaesthesiology. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES All participants performed one single procedure on each of the three different simulators. Their video-filmed performances were assessed by two independent, blinded experts and their opinions of simulation were surveyed. RESULTS The mean score increased 0.33 points after each attempt (P = 0.021). The attitude towards simulation-based training was always more than 4 on a scale from 1 to 5. Only 25% of the procedures were performed to satisfaction with a learning-by-testing effect (P = 0.021). Generalisability coefficient was 0.55, and there was no correlation between the number of clinical procedures performed beforehand and test scores (P = 0.93). CONCLUSION The increase in mean score is a learning effect indicating that simulator training allows for entry of the learning curve at a higher level. The anaesthetists in our study agreed completely that simulation-based training was useful regardless of the fidelity of the simulator. Local, practical issues such as cost and portability should decide available simulation modalities in each teaching hospital.


Early onset Parkinson's disease can be caused by variants in the PINK1, PARK2, and PARK7 genes. Since their initial discoveries, hundreds of variants have been found in these genes that are associated with a Parkinsonian phenotype. This review will briefly discuss the functions of the protein products of the three genes, then focus on the effects that disease associated variants have on these functions. We will also discuss how experimental findings can help decide whether individual variants are pathogenic or not.


The murine IgG1 monoclonal antibody B72.3 reacts with human colorectal, breast, lung, pancreatic, gastric, and ovarian tumors. Human biodistribution studies using intact 131I-B72.3 have been reported by Carrasquillo et al. (J. Nucl. Med., 29: 1022-1030, 1988). We have performed similar studies on five patients using i.v. infusion of 20 mg of intact 111In-B72.3 (Cytogen Corp.). Serum clearance is similar with a t1/2 of 64.2 h (range, 44-80) for 111In-B72.3 and 65 h (range, 32-106) for 131I-B72.3 (J. A. Carrasquillo et al., J. Nucl. Med., 29: 1022-1030, 1988). However, organ biodistribution is markedly different. For 131I-B72.3, hepatic and splenic clearance mirrors blood pool clearance (J. A. Carrasquillo et al., J. Nucl, Med., 29: 1022-1030, 1988). For 111In-B72.3, there is rapid uptake in tumor, liver, spleen, kidney, lumbar spine, and testes by 2-6 h with no significant clearance over the next 9 days. For 111In-B72.3, quantitative analysis of liver (from biopsy specimens), spleen, kidney, and lumbar spine (from scintiphoto regions of interest after background subtraction and attenuation correction) shows the following peak organ biodistributions in percentage infused dose: liver, 32%; spleen, 3.9%; kidneys, 3.5%; and lumbar vertebral bodies (marrow sample), 2.7%. For both 111In-B72.3 and 131I-B72.3, the principal route of excretion from the body is urinary with excretion rate of 131I faster than 111In. The marked differences between 111In-B72.3 and 131I-B72.3 biodistribution and clearance strongly influence the dosimetry, immunodetection, and immunotherapeutic potentials of B72.3 MoAb.


Abstract. The paper is devoted to the task of multiple objects tracking and segmentation on monocular video, which was obtained by the camera of unmanned ground vehicle. The authors investigate various architectures of deep neural networks for this task solution. Special attention is paid to deep models providing inference in real time. The authors proposed an approach based on combining the modern SOLOv2 instance segmentation model, a neural network model for embedding generation for each found object, and a modified Hungarian tracking algorithm. The Hungarian algorithm was modified taking into account the geometric constraints on the positions of the found objects on the sequence of images. The investigated solution is a development and improvement of the state-of-the-art PointTrack method. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated quantitatively and qualitatively on the popular KITTI MOTS dataset collected using the cameras of a driverless car. The software implementation of the approach was carried out. The acceleration of the procedure for the formation of a two-dimensional point cloud in the found image segment was done using the NVidia CUDA technology. At the same time, the proposed instance segmentation module provides a mean processing time of one image of 68 ms, the embedding and tracking module of 24 ms using the NVidia Tesla V100 GPU. This indicates that the proposed solution is promising for on-board computer vision systems for both unmanned vehicles and various robotic platforms.


The article explores the concept of cocreation of value, defined as the tourist's interest in mental and physical participation in an activity and its role in tourist experiences. Based on the theoretical perspective of "the new service-dominant logic," customer participation in tourist experiences is explored and tested as a moderating variable on the perceived value – satisfaction relationship. In essence, the customer partakes mentally and physically in an experience, which moderates the role that experience value has on overall satisfaction. The study thus hypothesizes that the higher the level of participation, the stronger the experience value–satisfaction link becomes and vice versa. Using a sample drawn from tourists in Norway, the results confirm that experience value is an effective predictor of tourist satisfaction. The study reveals that the level of cocreation moderates the effect between the experience value of winter tourism activities and satisfaction.


In this paper, a novel method for video content summarization has been proposed by calculating the fractal dimension of frames. Summarization of the video is the first step in automatic video analysis. In this paper, we use the support vector machine (SVM) and the decision - tree to identify the shot boundary and classify them. In order to compute the fractal dimension, the numerical method has been expressed. The results of this implementation were also reported on TRECVID 2006 data collection. The results show that the relative advantage of the method presented in this paper is compared to other articles.


Many modern zoos strive to create connections between guests and animals through animal visitor interaction (AVI) programs. However, there has been relatively little research into the effect of AVI programs on the welfare of program animals. Previous research has revealed three factors that may affect AVI program animal welfare: species differences, handling and transport, and the provision of choice and control. We assessed the effects of an AVI program designed with these factors in mind on the behavior of a flock (N = 16) of zoo-housed domestic chickens (Gallus gallus). Behavioral data were collected on program days and on non-program (control) days, and we considered the time leading up to the program, the program itself, and the time immediately following the program. When comparing flock behavior on program days to control days, we found no differences in behavioral indicators of welfare during the time leading up to the program and during the program. Rates of aggression, however, were significantly greater after the program had concluded compared to the same time period on matched control days, but still occurred infrequently. Additionally, we recorded the spatial location of each animal while the program occurred and found that the chickens did not spend significantly more or less time in the feeding zone as visitor participation increased, although there were individual differences within the flock. We conclude that the relatively small behavioral changes seen were not indicative of a change in welfare and consider those results in the context of the program design.


In the telecommunication process filter is a device that has the function to pass the desired frequency and eliminate / undermine the unwanted frequency. The filter low-pass filter (LPF) is a filter that passes signals with a frequency lower than a certain cutoff frequency and attenuates signals with frequencies higher than the cutoff frequency. The exact frequency response of the filter depends on the filter design. In this paper described the design of low pass filter using the approximation Chebychev with cutoff frequency used is 10.6 GHz because this frequency is the high cutoff frequency in ultra wideband applications. The filter is designed with microstrip technology using step-impedance design method, by combining high impedance microstrip and low impedance microstrip with a certain length. Then design of microstrip filter with step-impedance method and will be done optimization for filter have good characteristic. The filter design uses Roger substrate RT 5880 with dielectric constant (er) = 2,2 with thickness (h) = 0.508. The result obtained in this research is the filter able to pass the lower frequency of cut-off frequency. The results of the filter design simulation have met the expected specification, the return loss value displayed both where the value is smaller than -10 dB and insertion loss value is smaller than -3 dB and has smaller dimensions.


Drawing on primary sources from both sides of the Atlantic, Britain and the Bomb explores how economic, political, and strategic considerations have shaped British nuclear diplomacy. The book concentrates on Prime Minister Harold Wilson's first two terms of office, 1964-1970, which represent a critical period in international nuclear history. Wilson's commitment to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and his support for continued investment in the British nuclear weapons program, despite serious economic and political challenges, established precedents that still influence policymakers today. The continued independence of Britain's nuclear force, and the enduring absence of a German or European deterrent, certainly owes a debt to Wilson's handling of nuclear diplomacy more than four decades ago. Beyond highlighting the importance of this period, the book explains how and why British nuclear diplomacy evolved during Wilson's leadership. Cabinet discussions, financial crises, and international tensions encouraged a degree of flexibility in the pursuit of strategic independence and the creation of a non-proliferation treaty. Gill shows us that British nuclear diplomacy was a series of compromises, an intricate blend of political, economic, and strategic considerations.


The Internet that can easily connect global landscape is a fundamental component for business and communication. In the next decade, wireless network 5G will provide native support for a new kind of network infrastructure deployments, including the ultra-dense networks, multiple Radio Access Technology co-existence, direct Device to Device communication and many others. This article explores the new trends and challenges in the new digital wave. Further, it highlights the research areas in each feature and discusses the new approaches to handle huge populated devices demand.


Online Mirror Descent (OMD) is an important and widely used class of adaptive learning algorithms that enjoys good regret performance guarantees. It is therefore natural to study the evolution of the joint action in a multi-agent decision process (typically modeled as a repeated game) where every agent employs an OMD algorithm. This well-motivated question has received much attention in the literature that lies at the intersection between learning and games. However, much of the existing literature has been focused on the time average of the joint iterates. In this paper, we tackle a harder problem that is of practical utility, particularly in the online decision making setting: the convergence of the last iterate when all the agents make decisions according to OMD. We introduce an equilibrium stability notion called variational stability (VS) and show that in variationally stable games, the last iterate of OMD converges to the set of Nash equilibria. We also extend the OMD learning dynamics to a more general setting where the exact gradient is not available and show that the last iterate (now random) of OMD converges to the set of Nash equilibria almost surely.


The matching hypothesis proposes that interventions for anxiety should be matched to the modality in which anxiety is experienced. This study investigated the relevance of the matching hypothesis for anxiety interventions in tennis. Elite junior tennis players (N=100; Age: M=13.9 yr., SD = 1.8 yr.) completed the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 before and after one of four randomly assigned intervention strategies approximately one hour prior to competition at a National Junior Championship. A two-factor multivariate analysis of variance (group x time) with repeated measures on the time factor gave no significant main effect by group but indicated significant reductions in somatic anxiety and cognitive anxiety and a significant increase in self-confidence following intervention. A significant group by time interaction emerged for self-confidence. The results question the need to match intervention strategy to the mode of anxiety experienced.


The frequency of antibodies to GAD (anti-GAD) in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) varies greatly according to the type of assay employed. We therefore examined the immunoassay characteristics of diabetic sera using GAD purified from porcine brain and shown to contain both isoforms. Sera from 38 patients with IDDM, including 1 patient with both stiff-man syndrome (SMS) and IDDM, were studied for anti-GAD by radioimmunoprecipitation (RIP), Western blotting, and dot-blotting. The sera were selected according to reactivity in the RIP assay. There was a good correlation between potency of the RIP reaction at the screening dilution of 1:2 and the endpoint dilution in the assay which ranged from 1:2 to 1:30,000 for IDDM sera, and 1:300,000 for the SMS serum. Of the 38 sera positive for anti-GAD by RIP, only 6 had antibodies detectable by Western blotting, and all gave an RIP titer of at least 1:250. The low frequency of antibodies by Western blotting was explicable by denaturation of the antigen. Thus, using a dot-blotting assay in which reactivity to untreated "native" GAD was compared with reactivity to GAD after denaturation by reduction with 2-mercaptoethanol and boiling, 20 of the 38 IDDM sera reacted unequivocally with the native GAD compared with only 2 that reacted with denatured GAD after reduction and boiling. The sera were tested for their capacity to inhibit the catalytic activity of GAD, but only the high-titer serum from the patient with SMS did so. Our study further validates the RIP assay for anti-GAD and establishes that anti-GAD exists in IDDM over a wide range of titers that correlate with other assay characteristics, and also indicates that the conformational autoantibody epitope on GAD is susceptible to alteration under denaturing conditions.


Most previous scholarship has asserted that the Qing Empire neglected the sea and underestimated the worldwide rise of Western powers in the long eighteenth century. By the time the British crushed the Chinese navy in the so-called Opium Wars, the country and its government were in a state of shock and incapable of quickly catching-up with Western Europe. In contrast with such a narrative, this dissertation shows that the Great Qing was in fact far more aware of global trends than has been commonly assumed. Against the backdrop of the long eighteenth century, the author explores the fundamental historical notions of the Chinese maritime world as a conceptual divide between an inner and an outer sea, whereby administrators, merchants, and intellectuals paid close and intense attention to coastal seawaters. Drawing on archival sources from China, Japan, Korea, and the West, the author argues that the connection between the Great Qing and the maritime world was complex and sophisticated. The evidence reveals beyond doubt that the Manchu administration indeed never lost sight of the harsh strategic and logistical realities of managing, if not ruling, a vast maritime landscape. In summary, this dissertation provides new insights into the East Asian maritime world, China's regional links on the eve of the modern age, and the area's deepening role in the development of an increasingly global history. It also has an obvious topical relevance, with the People's Republic of China's increasing efforts to extend its control over natural resources and seaways in the Western Pacific. It might be seen as the largely overlooked maritime counterpart to that covered by Peter Perdue's impressive volume: "China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia," which looks at the history of imperial China's western landward expansion in the late seventeenth and the eighteenth century.


Phenotyping for severity of angular leaf spot (ALS) in common bean is important to identify new sources of resistance and select progenies in conventional and molecular marker-assisted breeding. In this study, three phenotyping methods for ALS severity were assessed and its implications in breeding for resistance to Pseudocercospora griseola are discussed. Reaction of 144 common bean lines to P. griseola was evaluated. Three different experiments were conducted in the greenhouse (V2 and V3 stages) and in the field. Common bean lines were inoculated with a mixture of spores of pathogen races 63-63 and 63-23. We observed that 31 %, 7 % and 10 % of lines were resistant in stages V2, V3 and in the field, respectively. Estimates of coincidence index V2-V3, V2-field and V3-field were 68 %, 69 % and 88 %, respectively. Evaluations in V3 stage and in the field were the phenotyping methods more efficient for ALS severity. However, evaluation in V3 stage is impracticable to assess routinely many genotypes in breeding programs. Evaluation in V2 stage may be used to carry out a first screening, especially in the early stages of breeding programs. Moreover, this methodology may be used in association with evaluation of plants in the field to increase genetic gain.


The Treaty of Lisbon entered in force in 2009. This treaty had to make the European Union (EU) stronger as a political and military global actor. It had to tackle its shortcomings as a global actor. The EU had the goal of improve the capacity of the EU institutional framework in order to shape globalization in the interest of all citizens. One of changes in the Treaty of Lisbon was the renewed role of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (High Representative).
The High Representative was altered with more competences and responsibilities. Catherine Ashton was chosen to be the first High Representative after the Treaty of Lisbon. To examine the effect of the renewed High Representative on the EU external action in the world, this research evaluates Ashton as High Representative in her first and only office term in the period of December 2009 till November 2014. The 'Role Theory' is supportive in this research, to examine the correlation between the performances of the High Representative and Ashton role conception. The following research question is examined in this research:
Given the new ambitions of the EU as a global actor and the requirements of consistency in EU external relations, to what extent did the changes in the function of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy contribute to meeting these requirements?
The basic structure of this research is a qualitative program evaluation. It consists of the following steps: Establishing criteria, constructing standards, measuring performance and comparing standards, synthesizing and integrating evidence into a judgement of worth and making recommendations.
The standards of the High Representative consists of the objectives and the competences and responsibilities. The objectives of the High Representative Ashton were after the Lisbon Treaty:
1. Ensuring the consistency of the Union's external action;
2. Giving the EU a clear voice regarding its relations with partners in the world;
3. Had the responsibility for external relations in the Commission;
4. And mandated by the Council in order of conducting the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).
The main responsibilities of High Representative Ashton were as mentioned in article 18 Treaty of the European Union (TEU): Conducting the Union's CFSP and also the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Ashton had the job of doing this by making proposals to the development of the CFSP and implement those proposals as mandated by the Council (article 18 (2) TEU and 2 of the EEAS Decision; Presided over the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC); Vice-President of the Commission: with the tasks of ensuring the consistency of the Union's external action and was responsible for the external relations and other relevant portfolios and representing the EU concerning the CFSP.
The main competences of High Representative Ashton were: An active chair in the Council (article 27 TEU) meaning the power of submitting initiatives / proposals, giving opinions and consultations; The right of initiative of making proposals within the CFSP, it includes the negotiation of new agreements (article 218 TFEU); The right of initiative of making initiatives under CSDP (article 42 paragraph 3 TEU); Power of submitting joint proposals together with the Commission (article 22 paragraph 2 TEU); Power of addressing / submitting questions regarding the CFSP to the Council (article 30 TEU); Right of not proposing Council decisions that are only part of the CFSP (article 42 paragraph 2 TEU); as Chairwoman of the FAC (article 18(3) TEU) she had the right of initiative in the FAC and the power of shaping the EU's agenda in international affairs; and she had the authority over the Union delegations in international organizations and third nations and conduct political dialogue, but cannot carry out negotiations and
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representational functions by herself in non-MS and international organizations (article 27 TEU and 188 TFEU).
The performance of Ashton as High Representative have been received with mixed feelings. Ashton was during her period as High Representative mostly criticized but on occasion she was praised for her appearance. She was mainly praised for her performance as international mediator in the cases of Serbia-Kosovo and Iran. She was criticized about her lack of leadership, bad appearances, bad choices, lack of strategy, her work in the Commission and the EEAS.
Ashton was able to build the EEAS in a year. She had a good relationship with the EP. She made the FAC meetings more proactive and responsive. Was one of the reasons that the EU made name as an international mediator. Made efforts improving crisis management and the institutional coherence of the EU foreign affairs. However, there were no big breakthroughs.
In her office term, Ashton had some bad appearances and – choices, she lacked leadership as High Representative and as leader of the EEAS, lacked in developing an overall strategy supporting the EU foreign policy, there was no single representation and Ashton did not performed well in the Commission due to the difficult relationship with Barroso. However, the performance of High Representative Ashton was negatively influenced by the behaviour of the Member States (MS). They interfered with the representation of Ashton and were not ready to share their legitimacy powers with the High Representative.
The contribution of this research is the confirmation that the renewed role contributed very little in making the EU a stronger global actor by improving the consistency in EU external relations. The High Representative was very dependent on the MS. The decision-making powers remained in the hands of the MS. The High Representative was able to make statements, initiatives and was present in several meetings, but she was not able to make changes in the institutional structure of the EU. The national identity won over the European identity. The Treaty of Lisbon provided too much room for MS action. The MS tried to give the EU institutions, including the High Representative, more competences but they did not wanted to lose their own competences in the process.


Abstract Positive inversion features are a common structural ingredient in broad regions of western and central Argentina. They show up in several geological provinces distributed from Salta at 24°S down to Tierra del Fuego below 54°S. Considerable variety in inversion style and intensity developed due to regional positioning within the Andean orogenic belt, near the mountain edge, or well within the South American foreland. Weakly inverted grabens, doubly plunging buckles and compressional anticlines may site as far as 600 km away from the present day oceanic trench and 300 km east of the Cordilleran front. Most of the studied examples are genetically linked to high-angle or listric normal fault families that developed across southern South America, induced by pervasive Triassic to Cretaceous extensional stress conditions. Old extensional structures involved in the inversion process include: segments of Triassic successor basins linked to extensional collapse of the Late Paleozoic orogenic tract, Jurassic faults belonging to a multicomponent rift system developed after incipient Basin-and-Range style deformation of Patagonia, segments of a network of linear Jurassic-Neocomian troughs and half-troughs related to pre-breakup fragmentation of the South American slab, and roughly linear Cretaceous-Palaeogene fault-bounded troughs of the arc-crest type induced after supracrustal extension driven by easterly subduction along the Pacific edge of the plate. As in other deformed areas around the world the inversion process did not advance as a wave from the orogenic front ('bulldozer' mode), but apparently occurred as a more or less synchronous reactivation of faults distributed across the inverted tract ('accordion' mode). In the Neuquén basin middle Jurassic to Cretaceous reversal from block subsidence to local uplift occurred along an intra-plate megashear aligned with the inboard projection of the South Atlantic oceanic transforms. Protracted strike-slip motion and related syndepositional block-inversion favoured pre-migration structuring and stratal anomalies prone to provide sedimentary and combination traps. Over most of the oil-producing Argentine basins inversion took place late, during the Cenozoic. Thus timing, with respect to the local maturation histories and onset of regional hydrocarbon charge, was a key control on field size and oil richness in each region. Late tectogenesis and late regional migration combined in the non-marine Cuyo basin to provide fields in the 250 MMBO range, out of inverted Triassic half-grabens. Less favourable convergence of inversion and migration is recorded in the western San Jorge basin, where regional contraction occurred 20–40 Ma after regional oil emplacement, and late inversion resulted in dispersive hydrocarbon reaccommodation. Finally, migration in the southern Magallanes basin happened at the time when burial beneath a thick foreland wedge had reduced reservoir properties and thermally degraded the source sections into the gas generation stage.


Automatic post-editors (APEs) enable the re-use of black box machine translation (MT) systems for a variety of tasks where different aspects of translation are important. In this paper, we describe APEs that target adequacy errors, a critical problem for tasks such as cross-lingual question-answering, and compare different approaches for post-editing: a rule-based system and a feedback approach that uses a computer in the loop to suggest improvements to the MT system. We test the APEs on two different MT systems and across two different genres. Human evaluation shows that the APEs significantly improve adequacy, regardless of approach, MT system or genre: 30-56% of the post-edited sentences have improved adequacy compared to the original MT.


The virulence potential of 23 yeasts recovered from intravascular catheters and the hands of workers in a hospital in the northwestern region of Parana were evaluated. Yeasts recovered from catheters presented greater adherence and were more hydrophobic (p<0.05) than yeasts recovered from hands. Candida non-albicans species expressed the virulence factors evaluated more intensely.


3.1 Prisms Producing Polarized Light 3.1.1 Uniaxial double-refracting crystals Certain types of crystals, such as calcite (Iceland spar or calcium carbonate) exhibit the property of double refraction or birefringence , as first observed in calcite by Erasmus Bartholinus in 1669. For the class of crystals called uniaxial , there is only one direction where all light rays travel along the same path at a constant velocity. This direction defines the optic axis or principal axis, and any plane that contains the optic axis is called a principal plane (sometimes called a principal section ). The optic axis is not a specific line, but indicates a direction in the crystal where there is no double refraction. For all rays not traveling along the optic axis, the velocity is determined by a pair of refractive indices called the ordinary refractive index n o and the extraordinary refractive index n e , and the path of an incident ray is split into two rays, the so-called o-rays and e-rays. Birefringence is specified by the number ( n o − n e ). Moreover, these o-rays and e-rays are polarized and vibrate in mutually perpendicular planes. Only rays traveling parallel to the optic axis will not be split, and n o is therefore assigned to this direction. One way to represent this refractive index variation is by use of the indicatrix . 1 Figure 3.1(a) shows a positive uniaxial indicatrix in the shape of an oblate spheroid, where n e > n o , and Fig. 3.1(b) shows a negative uniaxial indicatrix in the shape of a prolate spheroid, where n o > n e . Both have circular symmetry in planes normal to the optic axis, and when the indicatrix has a spherical shape, n e = n o , and the crystal is isotropic. 3.1.2 Nicol polarizing prism One of the first prism polarizers to utilize a birefringent crystal was developed by William Nicol in 1828 and is known as the Nicol prism. The Nicol prism shown in Fig. 3.2 is constructed from negative uniaxial calcite, where n o = 1.6584 and n e = 1.4864 for λ = 589.3 nm. Calcite is a widely used material because of its clarity, stability, high spectral transmission range (200-5000 nm), and high birefringence. Two triangular sections are optically coupled at the hypotenuse by a thin coating of optically clear cement such as Canadian balsam ( n cement ≈ 1.54) with the optic axis direction as shown.


At the end of the Korean War, only one third of the approximately 21,000 Chinese prisoners of war were repatriated to Communist China; the remaining two thirds, or more than 14,300 prisoners, went to Nationalist Taiwan in a propaganda coup. These Chinese POWs were at the center of contention in the second half of the war. Utilizing previously untapped archival sources and oral history interviews in China, Taiwan, and the U.S., this study examines how Chinese prisoners, individually and collectively, made divergent decisions in the process of "voluntary repatriation." This research demonstrates that the Chinese prisoners' decisions and actions in UN prisons were directly related to their divergent pre-Korean War experiences in China under both the Nationalist and Communist regimes. The mini-civil war between the pro- Communist and proNationalist prisoners revealed much of the suppressed social tension within China in 1949 and 1950, which exploded into life-and-death struggles in prison camps in Korea. Second, conflicting U.S. policies and the lack of a coherent and consistent policy on Chinese prisoners created much uncertainty and confusion among the prisoners. Out of fear and anxiety, both pro- and antiCommunist prisoners took increasingly aggressive and violent actions against their opponents, and against the prison authorities in the case of the pro-Communist prisoners. Third, while a small number of Nationalist interpreters and teachers hired by General MacArthur and his successors provided the vital communication channel between anti-Communist prisoners and Taipei, most fundamentally, the large number of prisoners controlled by a core of anti-Communist prisoners was a result of U.S. policy mistakes. By the time prisoner repatriation became an issue in armistice talks, the U.S. found itself riding a tiger that was impossible to dismount. In the end, only Chiang Kai-shek could tame the tiger by taking it to Taiwan in triumph


This study determined how a toxic workplace environment can influence worker productivity, directly and indirectly, using work depression as a mediating variable. A toxic workplace environment with multiple dimensions (harassment, bullying, ostracism, and incivility) was used in this study. We used a questionnaire survey approach to evaluate the data. A total of 53 items were used in the questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale. The data were collected from 23 branches of five Chinese banks in the vicinity of Shanghai. The authors distributed 250 questionnaires among targeted employees (senior managers, middle managers, and administrative staff) and received 186 filled questionnaires, among which six were incomplete. Thus, the completed sample size of the research was 180, and the overall response rate was 72%. To estimate the proposed relationships in the research model, we used partial least-squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM 3.2). The outcomes of this study indicate that for direct and indirect relationships, a toxic workplace environment negatively influences worker productivity. Moreover, the outcomes of this study also show that work depression negatively impacts worker productivity. The study concludes with a discussion, limitations, and future research directions.


An intradermal injection assembly for injecting a medicament into skin could form an intradermal needle with an adapter, an intradermal syringe with an adapter or an adapter for a merger with a syringe with a cannula. The intradermal adapter in these devices has a body having a longitudinal axis, a central portion having a cannula channel and a distal protrusion extending generally parallel to the longitudinal axis. The distal protrusion of the adapter has a first skin contacting surface extending generally parallel to the longitudinal axis. At least a portion of the distal protrusion is generally transparent such that the portion of the cannula that extends distally relative to a demarcation plane can be viewed through the distal protrusion during insertion of the cannula into a patient's skin.


We analyze, with an augmented data base, patterns of covariation of the three primary demographic parameters (age at maturity, fecundity, adult survival, all measured in the same unit of time) in lizards. This also constitutes a first attempt to use all three of these parameters for this group of species. We attempt to place these analyses in the framework of recent theories on life history evolution (Ferrière and Clobert, 1992; Charnov, 1993). Life history data were collected from the literature and from our original work, and a composite phylogeny was assembled, based on a variety of published sources. Using a phylogenetically based statistical method (independent contrasts), the allometric (log‐log) relationship of fecundity (and of clutch size) in relation to snout‐vent length was found to differ significantly between the two major clades of extant lizards, Iguania (43 species in our data set) and Scleroglossa (47 species). We therefore emphasize analyses done separately for the two clades. Without removing correlations with body size, the relationships between fecundity and survival, and between fecundity and age at maturity, were also found to differ between clades, which differs from Charnov's (1993) predictions. When correlations with body size were removed statistically, however, the two clades did not differ significantly in these relationships. In a principal components analysis (PCA) of the three demographic variables plus snout‐vent length, the first axis explained the majority (53–57%) of variation in both clades, while the second axis explained 27–31% of the variation and loaded mainly on fecundity. In a PCA of size‐adjusted demographic variables residuals (from log‐log regressions on snout‐vent length), the first axis explained 66–68% of the variation and was clearly interpretable as the classical "slow‐fast" continuum, which has been described in birds and mammals. The PCA of residuals did not provide clear evidence of additional significant patterns of covariation. However, the rate of evolution of mortality (size‐corrected), but not of fecundity or age at maturity, differed significantly between clades. Furthermore, fecundity and age at maturity, both corrected for variation in adult mortality (in addition to body size), were still significantly related, indicating the existence of other patterns of variation in these life history traits. In other words, the ratios between age at maturity and adult mortality, or between fecundity and adult mortality, were not found to be invariant, because the variation not accounted for by these ratios was significantly associated with variation in another variable. This result contradicts the prediction of Charnov (1993), and suggests the existence of other directions of evolution in these life history traits.


OBJECTIVES
This study examined concurrent validity of the Evaluation Tool of Children's Handwriting-Cursive (ETCH-C) by comparing ETCH-C total legibility percentage scores with handwriting grades from teachers. The study also identified the legibility percentage score discriminating between satisfactory and unsatisfactory handwriting.

METHOD
The participants were 101 fourth graders who completed two handwriting instruments. Three teachers sorted the Cursive Practice and Review work sheets into A, B, C, and unsatisfactory groups to establish handwriting grade. The study compared ETCH-C total legibility percentage scores with teacher grading, using personal judgment of handwriting on the Cursive Practice and Review work sheet.

RESULTS
Mean legibility percentage scores increased significantly as handwriting grade increased. The concurrent validity coefficients were .61 for ETCH-C total words and .65 for ETCH-C total letters and handwriting grade. ETCH-C legibility percentage scores discriminating satisfactory from unsatisfactory handwriting ranged from 73% to 82% on ROC (receiver operating characteristic) curves.

CONCLUSION
Results support the concurrent validity of the ETCH-C with handwriting grades. A 75% word legibility percentage score discriminated satisfactory and unsatisfactory handwriting.


In this paper, a novel architecture for speaker recognition is proposed by cascading speech enhancement and speaker processing. Its aim is to improve speaker recognition performance when speech signals are corrupted by noise. Instead of individually processing speech enhancement and speaker recognition, the two modules are integrated into one framework by a joint optimisation using deep neural networks. Furthermore, to increase robustness against noise, a multi-stage attention mechanism is employed to highlight the speaker related features learned from context information in time and frequency domain. To evaluate speaker identification and verification performance of the proposed approach, we test it on the dataset of VoxCeleb1, one of mostly used benchmark datasets. Moreover, the robustness of our proposed approach is also tested on VoxCeleb1 data when being corrupted by three types of interferences, general noise, music, and babble, at different signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) levels. The obtained results show that the proposed approach using speech enhancement and multi-stage attention models outperforms two strong baselines not using them in most acoustic conditions in our experiments.


In globalization era as now days, there is changes of environment and technology rapidly so that every firm must have competitive advantage to survive. Competitive advantage is an organizational way to survive due to the rapid changes of environment and technology. Competitive advantage is created from dynamic capability, otherwise dynamic capability is resulted from processes, positions and paths. Higher Education is an organization which requires dynamic capability in facing globalization causing the rapid changes. Globalization era obliges higher education in Indonesia toward worls class university. One of indicators as world class university is the ranking of universities in Indonesia when compared to other universties in the world.


Monocytes, recovered by centrifugal elutriation, effectively inhibit functions of human NK cells in vitro. Histamine, acting via monocyte H2-type histamine receptors, abrogates the inhibitory signal. The aim of this study was to define the histamine-reversible mechanism by which monocytes inhibit NK cells with special reference to the respiratory burst activity of monocytes. Monocytes recovered from patients with chronic granulomatous disease did not suppress NK cell function, indicating the requirement of intact nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAPDH) oxidase activity of monocytes to inhibit NK cells. Furthermore, catalase, a scavenger of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), was found to potently reverse the monocyte-induced inhibition of NK cell function; on the other hand, superoxide dismutase (a scavenger of superoxide anion), hydroxyl radical scavengers such as mannitol and deferoxamine, the hypochlorous acid scavenger taurin, or the nitric oxide synthetase inhibitor NG-monomethyl-L-arginine (L-NMMA) did not affect the monocyte-derived, suppressive signal. H2O2, at micromolar concentrations, reconstituted the inhibitory effects of monocytes on NK cell function. Histamine had no scavenger activity but effectively suppressed the generation of H2O2 in isolated monocytes. This effect of histamine was transduced by H2-type histamine receptors. We conclude that the histamine-reversible, inhibitory effect of elutriated monocytes on NK cells is dependent on the formation of reactive oxygen metabolites by monocytes and that H2O2 is a pivotal mediator of the suppressive signal.


An experimental investigation of the character and decay of the asymmetrical swirling flow produced by a double right-angle bend in two perpendicular planes has been carried out. Axial velocities have been measured at a total of 36 points on three parallel chords on each of two measurement stations that were 9 diameters and 35 diameters downstream of the bend. The author describes an algorithm used to obtain a polynomial approximation to the measured axial velocity profiles and presents the results of this. The formulae are then used to carry out a theoretical study of the effects of these flow fields on electromagnetic and ultrasonic flowmeters. Guidelines for the installation of flowmeters are given in the light of this theoretical work and a review of the literature.


Everyone is aware of shortcomings in existing textbooks of medicine, even though some of them are very excellent indeed. With medicine advancing so rapidly, collected monographs like Osler's system, or Allbutt's, are no longer effective ways of trying to keep abreast of the turbulent movements in medical ideas. Monographs are the best method for collecting, collating, and evaluating scholarly medical knowledge, but these too may age very rapidly and sooner or later get out of date. H. J. Roberts was frustrated with the shortcomings of available methods of getting information, and having an interest in obscure disease and difficult diagnosis, set about to make a book of his own to remedy such deficiencies. Though this book too has many shortcomings, it serves a very useful purpose. For about a year I have used it as a reference book. About three-fourths of the time I was able to get a needed


Correlation between rates of oxidative and non-oxidative steps of the pentose phosphate pathway and vitamin C concentration was studied in experimental diffuse impairment of connective tissue. As compared with transketolase, activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase was more closely dependent on concentration of ascorbic acid. Content of vitamin C was considerably altered in tissues thus demonstrating profound deterioration of vitamin C metabolism under these conditions. Simultaneous impairment of the pentose phosphate pathway primary steps and of vitamin C metabolism appear to be responsible for initiation of the diffuse injury of the connective tissue.


During the wake sleep (W-S) cycle in mammals, the alternation of the different states, wake, NREM sleep (NREMS) and REM sleep (REMS), is associated not only with electroencephalographic or behavioural changes, but also with modifications in the physiological regulations of the organism. The most evident change is the existence of a suspension of the somatic and autonomic thermoregulatory responses during REMS. Since thermoregulation is prevalently controlled by the Preoptic Area-Anterior Hypothalamus (PO-AH), its suspension during REM sleep has been taken as a sign of an impairment of the hypothalamic integrative activity that could explain the modifications in physiological regulation observed in this sleep stage.
The recent finding from our laboratory that the secretion of the antidiuretic hormone arginine-vasopressin (AVP) in response to a central osmotic stimulation is quantitatively the same throughout the different stages of the W-S cycle, has shown that hypothalamic osmoregulation is not suspended during REMS.
In order to clarify the extent of the hypothalamic involvement in the regulation of the W-S cycle, we have studied the effects of three days of water deprivation and of two days of recovery during which animals were allowed a free access to water, on the architecture of the W-S cycle. The condition of water deprivation represents a severe challenge involving neuroendocrine and autonomic hypothalamic regulations.
In contradiction with thermoregulatory studies, in which it has been clearly demonstrated that a thermal challenge selectively reduces REMS occurrence, the results of this study show that REMS occurrence is mildly reduced only in the third day of water deprivation. The most striking effects produced by water deprivation appear to concern NREMS, which shows a selective and significant reduction in its slow EEG activity (delta-power) but not in its duration. The recovery period is mainly characterized by a disruption of the normal circadian rhythm of REMS occurrence and by a rebound of the delta power in NREMS.
Thus, an autonomic challenge different from those related to thermoregulation and an endocrine challenge as the continuous secretion of AVP show to exert different effects on the stages of the wake-sleep cycle. Also, this study demonstrates that the impairment of the hypothalamic integrative activity thought to characterize the occurrence of REMS only involves thermoregulatory structures.


In this paper, we present PDP, a distributed polling protocol that enables a set of participants to gather their opinion on a common interest without revealing their point of view. PDP does not rely on any centralized authority or on heavyweight cryptography. PDP is an overlay-based protocol where a subset of participants may use a simple sharing scheme to express their votes. In a system of M participants arranged in groups of size N where at least 2k-1 participants are honest, PDP bounds the probability for a given participant to have its vote recovered with certainty by a coalition of B dishonest participants by π(B/N)(k+1), where π is the proportion of participants splitting their votes, and k a privacy parameter. PDP bounds the impact of dishonest participants on the global outcome by 2(kα + BN), where represents the number of dishonest nodes using the sharing scheme.


In this paper, resource allocation for a multi-carrier uplink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system is studied. Unlike the existing works on multi-carrier uplink NOMA, in which each user is assumed to access only one subcarrier, we consider a more general scenario where the number of subcarriers allocated to a single user is not constrained. We first aim to maximize the system's sum rate, which requires selecting the appropriate subcarriers for each user and distribute the transmission power. The formulated non-convex problem is transformed into a convex one, and further, an optimal and low-complexity iterative water-filling solution is proposed. Nonetheless, it is shown that maximum transmit power is employed by each user to maximize the sum rate. Motivated by the fact that the users are power constrained, the energy efficiency (EE) maximization problem is also studied. Based on fractional programming, the EE maximization problem is transformed into a series of sum rate maximization subproblems, and the proposed iterative water-filling solution is applied to each subproblem. The proposed schemes are compared with other NOMA-based and orthogonal multiple access based algorithms, and its superiority is fully validated.