Peritonitis is the single most limiting factor for patients undergoing continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), a treatment associated with end stage renal failure (ESRD). A device which destroys microorganisms that are recognized to be the most problematic in causing peritonitis has been developed. The microwave heating technique showed efficient intraluminal disinfection of CAPD connector pairs. Moist heat has proven to be the most effective technique for disinfecting the inner lumen of commercially available medical connectors. Moist heat using microwave heating has proven to be the most effective and rapid technique. A 10/sup 6/ population reduction of various organisms which are the most prevalent and problematic in causing peritonitis was accomplished with a very short heating cycle. This process is effective due to the rapid heating of the solution contained within the connectors. Since plastic is transparent to microwave heating, the external surface of the plastic connector remains lukewarm during the process.<<ETX>>


HTTP/2 defines the SETTINGS frame to contain a single 32-bit value per
setting. While this is sufficient to convey everything used in the
core HTTP/2 specification, some protocols will require more complex
values, such as arrays of code-points or strings. For such protocols,
this extension defines a parallel to the SETTINGS frame,
EXTENDED_SETTINGS, where the value of a setting is not a 32-bit value,
but a variable-length opaque data blob whose interpretation is subject
entirely to the definition of the protocol using it.


Sulfate sulfur concentrations and pH of precipitation and streamflow, and sulfur concentrations of biomass and soil components, were determined for a 97.5-ha mixed deciduous forest (Walker Branch Watershed) in eastern Tennessee. Amounts of sulfur (S) added by precipitation and lost by streamflow were compared to fluxes of S between biomass pools. Approximately 18.1 kg/ha per year entered the watershed from the atmosphere, while only 11.5 kg/ha per year were lost in streamflow. Analysis of biomass and soil concentrations of S indicate that, of the 6.6 kg/ha per year apparent accumulation of S for the watershed as a whole, 8.6 kg accrue to mineral soil while 4.3 kg are lost from organic soil horizons, and 2.3 kg accrue to annual increment of vegetation. Seasonal variations in S input and export from the watershed were closely tied to precipitation events. The weighted mean pH of the rainfall samples collected at five sampling sites on the watershed was pH 4.2. Sulfate accounts for 80% of major anions (millequivalent basis) contributed to the watershed. The behavior of S on Walker Branch Watershed appears to differ significantly from locations in the northeastern US, however the data suggest active expansion to the southeastern US of themore » area impacted by atmospheric sulfate pollution commonly associated with the northeastern region of the US.« less


We investigate the generation of quantum interference induced by spontaneous emission from two transitions of a V-type three-level atom embedded between two parallel plates (one or both the plates have infinite permeability, i.e. μ→∞). The result shows that, due to the anisotropy of vacuum, quantum interference still exists although the two dipole matrix elements of the atom are orthogonal to each other. When the atom is located very close to one of the plates, the quantum interference effect is particularly prominent. The strength of quantum interference displays oscillating behaviour with the position of the atom. With the increase of the distance between the plates, the oscillation becomes dense.


Many national parks (NPs) and protected areas (PAs) worldwide are operating under difficult social and political conditions, including poor and often unjust relations with local communities. Multiple initiatives have emerged as a result, including co-management regimes and an increased emphasis on the involvement of indigenous people in management and conservation strategies more broadly. Yet, controversy over what constitutes an appropriate role for local people persists, and little research has been conducted as yet to systematically evaluate the extent to which NPs are socially (and not just ecologically) effective. This paper discusses a first attempt to examine the efficacy with which NPs address social equity, including property and human rights, and the relationship of indigenous people and NP managers. The results from an evaluation of equity in a purposive sample of six NPs in Canada and South Africa are presented. All but one of the case study NPs is found to be achieving or moving towards equity. In particular, NPs with more comprehensive co-management and support from neighbouring indigenous groups demonstrate higher equity scores across a variety of indicators, whereas NPs with lower levels of co-management do less well. NPs with settled land claims have not necessarily been more equitable overall, and a few NPs have been co-managed in name only.


In this paper, we have proposed a fuzzy rule-based classifier for assigning amino acid sequences into different superfamilies of proteins. While the most popular methods for protein classification rely on sequence alignment, our approach is alignment-free and so more human readable. It accounts for the distribution of contiguous patterns of n amino acids ( n-grams) in the sequences as features, alike other alignment-independent methods. Our approach, first extracts a plenty of features from a set of training sequences, then selects only some best of them, using a proposed feature ranking method. Thereafter, using these features, a novel steady-state genetic algorithm for extracting fuzzy classification rules from data is used to generate a compact set of interpretable fuzzy rules. The generated rules are simple and human understandable. So, the biologists can utilize them, for classification purposes, or incorporate their expertise to interpret or even modify them. To evaluate the performance of our fuzzy rule-based classifier, we have compared it with the conventional nonfuzzy C4.5 algorithm, beside some other fuzzy classifiers. This comparative study is conducted through classifying the protein sequences of five superfamily classes, downloaded from a public domain database. The obtained results show that the generated fuzzy rules are more interpretable, with acceptable improvement in the classification accuracy.


Introduction Fertility rapidly returns to women after successful kidney transplantation. The aim of this study was to collect information about pregnancy, delivery and renal outcomes among all kidney transplant recipients in our centre. Methods Pregnant women with a kidney transplant were identified through our prospectively maintained electronic patient record and case-notes between January 1, 1970 and February 28, 2013. We retrospectively analysed 40 years of pregnancy-related outcomes from 138 pregnancies reported from 89 kidney transplant recipients. Results Mean ages at the time of transplantation and pregnancy were 25.2 years and 30.3 years, respectively. Outcomes included 102 (73.9%) live births, 23 (16.7%) miscarriages, 8 (5.8%) terminations, 2 (1.4%) stillbirths, and 3 (2.2%) ectopic pregnancies. There were live births in 73.9% of pregnancies, with a high prevalence of preterm and caesarean deliveries (59.8% and 88.5%, respectively). Preexisting hypertension was present in 56 patients (40.6%) and preeclampsia was observed in 8.7% of pregnancies. Seven patients (5.1%) had an episode of acute rejection during pregnancy (three of which resulted in transplant failure). Mean age at conception, time interval between transplantation and pregnancy, 10-year incidence of live and preterm births (per prevalent pregnancies in kidney transplant recipients) remained unchanged over the last four decades (1970–1980, 1980–1990, 1990–2000, and 2000–2010). Conclusion The majority of pregnancies in renal transplant recipients have a good outcome but with increased risk of miscarriages, preterm and caesarean deliveries. Despite advances in immunosuppression, the incidence of live and preterm births has not changed over the last four decades in our unit.


The aim of this paper is to present a transient one-dimensional (1D) radial immersed coil heat exchanger model that accounts for the effect that geometry and operating conditions have on heat transfer performance. Insights gained through its use in both an analysis of experimental data and an implementation in the simulation environment TRNSYS are shown and discussed. While variation in the external convection coefficient of immersed coil heat exchangers has little effect on the annual solar fraction of a generic solar domestic hot water system, variation in collector side flow can influence the solar fraction as great as ±5%, in particular low collector side flow improves stratification inside the store.


Isolation, characterization and application of humin as adsorbent for naphtol blue black (NBB) and indigosol blue (IB) dyes has been carried out. Humin application in this study aims to obtain the optimum pH conditions and kinetics model for adsorption NBB and IB dyes onto humin. Humin was isolated from peat soils originating from Riau, Sumatra. The isolation method used was the alkaline extraction method and the characterization of humin using FTIR spectrophotometer. The total acidity, carboxylic groups and –OH phenolic groups of humin were determined quantitatively using the acid-base titration method. FTIR characterization indicated the presence of an –OH group which was indicated by the appearance of absorption at a wavelength of 3425.3 cm-1 and a stretching vibration of C=O from the –COOH group at a wavelength of 1705 cm-1. The quantitative calculation of the total acidity value, the content of the carboxylic group and the -OH group phenolics of humin were 508.47 cmol kg-1, 289.42 cmol kg-1 and 219.05 cmol kg-1, respectively. The optimum pH conditions for adsorption NBB and IB onto humin occurred at pH 5 and pH 2, respectively. The adsorption kinetics model of NBB and IB on humin followed the Ho kinetics model.


Tea, Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze, is a perennial crop and grown as a monoculture on large contiguous areas. Tea plant is subjected to the attack of several notorious pests such as insects, mites, nematodes, diseases and weeds. Globally 1034 species of arthropods and 82 species of nematodes are associated with tea plants. Among them 25 species of insects, 4 species of mites and 10 species of nematodes are recorded from Bangladesh. Enormous crop loss was incurred due to the attack of these pests and largely responsible for the declining productivity of tea. Extensive use of chemical pesticides began only a few decades ago with tremendous immediate economic gains but its abuses were not foreseen or ignored. As a consequence there arose the development of resistance to pesticides, pest resurgence and undesirable pesticide residue in the made tea as the major problems. Current trends in eco-friendly insect pest management practices emphasize the host plant resistance, preparation and application methods of new botanicals and microbial pesticide formulations, evaluation of field bio-efficacy and conservation of biological agents, cultural control measures, genetic techniques and sex pheromones technology. In tea husbandry, cultural control measures such as plucking, pruning, shade regulation, field sanitation, fertilizer application, manipulation or destruction of alternate hosts and selection of pest resistant/tolerant varieties and mechanical mechanisms like manual removal, heat treatments, light traps, use of bio-pesticides, bio-control agents and sex pheromone trap need to be given more importance in pest management programme. A tentative IPM strategy for tea cultivation in Bangladesh has been proposed in this paper. Thus the proposed integrated pest management (IPM) strategy should help tea industry for successful long lasting plantations which will ensure consistent crop with much care but lesser cost.


ABSTRACT The experience of art, artistry and narrative in research is a key methodological concern of both the artist and the researcher, whose work together occurs in and beyond an intersection of educational, intercultural and cultural narratives. Arts-based research and educational pedagogy intersect with the multimodal expression of a sophisticated Eastern Arrernte homelands knowledge system, prompting rich learning and teaching outcomes. Considered as one body of work and of Eastern Arrernte homelands knowledge, Wallace uses her paintings and stories to engage intercultural and cultural intersections in research and in education. The proposition for research based on the multimodal work of one artist challenged Lovell's audacity and the academy's conceptualisation of intercultural and arts-based research and data. This paper examines how interrelationships within Wallace's contemporary artworks (2003-2010) intersected with the researcher's developing insight of the Eastern Arrernte homelands, and the relationship of the homelands as a system of knowledge which Wallace seeks to communicate. This process led to a formative research framework that was informed by literature, the researcher's experience of the homelands knowledge system, and the characteristics of Wallace's multimodal expressions of her knowledge and culture.


This study was designed to monitor the development of the hormonal profiles of the Nubian bucks at puberty. Thirty two (32) Nubain male kids between 1 day and 24 weeks having body weights of 2.3 to 13.5 kg were utilized in this study. All kids were injected with human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). Blood samples were collected from the jugular veins of the animals immediately before hCG injection and 1 h after the injection. Plasma was separated from the samples and stored at 20°C until it was assayed for determination of hormonal levels. After hCG injection, the plasma level of testosterone was significantly higher (p< 0.01) than the level of the hormone before hCG treatment. Significant increase was also observed in luteinizing hormone (LH) values after hCG injection (P≤ 0.01). Plasma follicles stimulating  hormone (FSH) had one peak in week 8 in samples taken before hCG injection. This was followed after two weeks by the first elevation of LH. Plasma prolactin (PRL) concentration showed a gradual increase with age, reaching the peak in week 18. Based on the first appearance of spermatozoa in the lumina of the seminiferous tubules, penile separation and attainment of maximal levels of testosterone, LH, FSH and PRL, pubertal age was reached between 18 to 20 weeks.

 Key words: Nubian bucks, hormonal profiles, puberty.


The genesis, configuration and structure of the temporal fascia in humans, during the various stages of fetal development and in the adult were studied in order to contribute to the knowledge of its morphological and topographical characteristics. The most remarkable results are: (1) In the adult, there is a thin connective laminar layer interposed between the "galea capitis" and the temporal fascia, derived from the deep subcutaneous layer; (2) the temporal fascia develops about the third month of intra-uterine life and is well outlined at the fourth month. In this period it seems to be subdivided, in its lower third, into two layers (superficial and deep) reaching the zygomatic arch and circumscribing a triangular space in the frontal sections, originally occupied by loose connective tissue and then, beginning from the fifth month, by fatty tissue; (3) the two uncoupling or unlaminar layers of the temporal fascia in the adult join the lateral surface of the zygomatic arch; (4) from the end of the fifth fetal month, an accumulation of primary fat is interposed between the temporal m. and its fascia: this is to be interpreted as a temporal extension of the Bichat's fat-ball in the cheek.


The purpose of this study was to provide an in-depth sports medicine profile of women college tennis players and determine the relationships among an array of performance and clinical variables. Thirty-eight non-resistance-trained women from NCAA Divisions I and III collegiate tennis teams participated. A comprehensive battery of performance tests was conducted on each subject, including measurements of dynamic, isometric, and isokinetic strength; joint laxity and flexibility; speed; agility; power and power endurance; peak oxygen consumption; body composition; and ball velocities of the serve, forehand, and backhand. It was found that no single variable strongly explains tennis performance. The low amount of shared variance of strength measures with ball velocities suggests that tennis skills play a large role in producing peak ball velocities in this group. Due to the large range observed in profiled variables, individual evaluation is needed for clinical and conditioning recommendations.


This study investigated the gender related Differential Item Functioning (DIF) of the 2005 University Entrance Examination (UEE) in order to decide whether a DIF item is biased. In this study, measurement specialists' opinions were gathered and Mantel-Haenszel (MH) and Logistic Regression (LR) DIF detection methods were used. The analyses were based on the answers of 599.330 high school seniors to the Turkish, social sciences, mathematics and natural science subtests of the 2005 UEE. It was found that no items were flagged for gender DIF in the Turkish subtest. However, seven social sciences items and three mathematics and natural sciences items displayed DIF. Among these items, only one natural sciences item was identified as biased.


Many of the electrical systems throughout the world are experiencing problems with aging insulation. When an insulation system fails, the results are usually catastrophic. Insulation failure can cause sustained interruption which can cause substantial financial loses due to lost production and damage to expensive equipment. These losses can amount to thousands of ringgit (RM) per hour. With the ability to predict when a possible insulation failure will occur, power utility's engineer will be able to reduce customers lost profit opportunities. In this paper a new technique to predict the occurrences of a network failure is proposed. This new technique, which comprise of the S-transform and Support Vector Regression (SVR) will analyze a set of power quality measurement data and predict the potential occurrences of possible insulation failure in the supply systems. Several studies were performed to evaluate the performance of the new technique. Overall, the results of the studies showed that the new technique is able to predict the occurrences of incipient fault with an accuracy of 100%.


Cold injuries and its sequelae has for decades, been a relevant problem and an occupational hazard in the army, and continue to be so. These sequelae may hamper future operational capability of the soldier. Frostbite is also becoming more prevalent among the general population due to the increase in numbers of homeless people, along with an increasing participation in outdoor activities such as mountain hiking and skiing. Despite the advances in the field of medical sciences, frostbite management has remained constant and unchanged until recent years, when newer modalities of management have led to favourable, tissue-saving, outcomes. This chapter gives a background understanding of risk factors of frostbite and its pathophysiology and reviews the current evidence and latest frostbite management strategies. In addition, several adjunctive therapies and recent improvements in radiologic assessment of tissue viability provide new avenues of aggressive medical management and earlier surgical interventions.


Abstract:As numerous scholars have shown, Hurricane Katrina exacerbated the already-ongoing precarity of African American communities in New Orleans. The crisis demanded a reckoning with the afterlives of slavery at the national and global level. This article focuses on the work of Black women popular music artists whose early twenty-first century recordings and stirring performances addressed the traumas, the challenges, and the spectacular subjugation of Black women who fell victim to brutal disenfranchisement in the midst of the disaster. Beyonce's B-Day album and Mary J. Blige's history-making Katrina telethon performance are central to this discussion. The original title of this article was "'All That You Can't Leave Behind': Black Female Soul Singing and the Politics of Surrogation in the Age of Catastrophe."


Modern marine gyro compasses are well proven and give excellent service with a minimum of attention and maintenance by the operator. They have, on most merchant and naval vessels, become the primary directional reference, leaving the magnetic compass very much the reliable stand-by. But as with the magnetic compass the prudent navigator must understand the equipment upon which he relies so much, and appreciate its limitations and the conditions which lead to the errors to which it may be subject. The ship's officer will therefore find the theory of the gyro compass at all levels of his studies for certification. Marine Gyro Compasses for Ships' 0fficers has been written to cover the syllabuses for all grades of Department of Trade certificates of competency for deck officers in the Merchant Navy. The first section of the text discusses the free gyroscope and its properties which enable it to be converted into an instrument which provides a north reference. Methods of control of the gyro and of damping to a settling position are fully discussed. Also the theory of the gyro compass errors and how they may be corrected is introduced. In the subsequent chapters the commercial gyro compasses which are most commonly found in British Merchant ships are described to illustrate how the theory discussed is put into practice. The text is liberally illustrated with line drawings of exceptional clarity. These with the clear and concise explanations make Marine Gyro Compasses for Ship's Officers the ideal reference in this subject.


The effective communication of information is an important concern in the design of an expert consultation system. Several researchers have chosen to adopt a critiquing mode, in which the system evaluates and reacts to a solution proposed by the user rather than presenting its own solution. In this proposal, I present an architecture for a critiquing system that functions in real-time, during the process of developing and executing a management plan in time-critical situations. The architecture is able to take account of and reason about multiple, interacting goals and to identify critical errors in the proposed management plan. This architecture is being implemented as part of the TraumAID system for the management of patients with severe injuries. Comments University of Pennsylvania Department of Computer and Information Science Technical Report No. MSCIS-94-35. This technical report is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/cis_reports/233 Critiquing: Effective Decision Support In TimeCritical Domains (Dissertation Proposal) MS-CIS-94-35 LINC LAB 272


In this study the flammability properties of seven dominant Mediterranean plant species from a wildland/urban interface area near Athens were determined, using thermal analytical techniques (TG, DTG and SDTA) in oxygen atmosphere. The forest materials examined were: Pinus halepensis, Quercus coccifera, Pistacia lentiscus, Arbutus unedo, Cistus incanus, Erica manipuliflora, Phillyrea latifolia and forest litter. In addition, the moisture content and the total ash content were determined, in order to correlate flammability properties with these parameters. According to thermal analysis the ignition delay time, heat content, combustion duration and the mass residue were determined. Based on these data, the forest species were ranked into three categories, the least, the moderate and the most flammable ones. Among the forest species examined, the most flammable is Pinus halepensis and the least flammable one is Pistacia lentiscus.


It is common for a retailer to sell products from competing manufacturers. How then should the firms manage their contract negotiations? The supply chain coordination literature focuses either on a single manufacturer selling to a single retailer or one manufacturer selling to many (possibly competing) retailers. We find that some key conclusions from those market structures do not apply in our setting, where multiple manufacturers sell through a single retailer. We allow the manufacturers to compete for the retailer's business using one of three types of contracts: a wholesale-price contract, a quantity-discount contract, or a two-part tariff. It is well known that the latter two, more sophisticated contracts enable the manufacturer to coordinate the supply chain, thereby maximizing the profits available to the firms. More importantly, they allow the manufacturer to extract rents from the retailer, in theory allowing the manufacturer to leave the retailer with only her reservation profit. However, we show that in our market structure these two sophisticated contracts force the manufacturers to compete more aggressively relative to when they only offer wholesale-price contracts, and this may leave them worse off and the retailer substantially better off. In other words, although in a serial supply chain a retailer may have just cause to fear quantity discounts and two-part tariffs, a retailer may actually prefer those contracts when offered by competing manufacturers. We conclude that the properties a contractual form exhibits in a one-manufacturer supply chain may not carry over to the realistic setting in which multiple manufacturers must compete to sell their goods through the same retailer.


Background Guidelines recommend the administration of intravenous (IV) iron to patients with anaemia due to iron deficiency. Blood transfusions are the last resource, advised only in critical patients, as they quickly raise haemoglobin (Hb) levels. However, they are also associated with deleterious outcomes. Purpose We aimed to characterise the impact of blood transfusions in length of stay (LOS) and in-patient mortality, in a population of hospitalised anaemic patients treated with IV iron. Material and methods This was a retrospective cohort study. Patient records from a Portuguese General Hospital, with at least one inpatient administration of iron sucrose (IS) in 2014–2015 or ferric carboxymaltose (FC) in 2016 (when FC became available), were reviewed. Adult anaemic patients with at least one Hb evaluation before and after the administration of IV iron were included. Endpoints assessed comprised the association of blood transfusions with LOS and in-patient mortality, adjusted for sex, age and baseline Hb level. Statistical analysis included a generalised linear mixed-effects model and logistic regressions, using a 5% significance level. Results Data was collected for 1178 patients, of which 878 were treated with IS and 300 with FC. Mean age was 63.9 and 71.1 for patients treated with IS and FC, respectively. The majority of patients were female: 61.4% and 51.3% for the groups treated with IS and FC, respectively. Average baseline Hb level was 8.4 g/dl for both groups. The majority of patients required blood transfusions in both groups: 58.0% in the IS and 62.9% in the FC. Receiving at least one blood transfusion increased the LOS by 21% (95% CI: 8 to 35) in the IS group and 28% in the FC group (95% CI: 3 to 60). The in-hospital mortality risk increased 2.5-fold (95% CI: 1.4 to 4.3) in patients treated with IS and who received a blood transfusion. As for patients treated with FC, in-hospital mortality was 4.3 times (95% CI: 1.6 to 12.1) higher in patients who received a blood transfusion. Conclusion Blood transfusions impacted adversely on patients' outcomes across different groups. Therefore, blood transfusions should be carefully considered, in accordance with the most recent patient blood management guidelines. References and/or acknowledgements Conflict of interest Corporate-sponsored research or other substantive relationships: this study was developed with financial support from Vifor Pharma. The authors had no restrictions or limitations during the study.


Receiving displacement sensitivities (Rx) of ultrasonic transducers and acoustic emission (AE) sensors are evaluated using sinewave packet excitation method and compared to the corresponding data from pulse excitation method with a particular emphasis on low frequency behavior below 20 kHz, down to 10 Hz. Both methods rely on the determination of transmitter displacement characteristics using a laser interferometric method. Results obtained by two calibration methods are in good agreement, with average spectral differences below 1 dB, indicating that the two calibration methods yield identical receiving sensitivities. At low test frequencies, effects of attenuation increase substantially due to increasing sensor impedance and Rx requires correction in order to evaluate the inherent sensitivity of a sensor, or open-circuit sensitivity. This can differ by more than 20 dB from results that used common preamplifiers with ~10 kΩ input impedance, leading to apparent velocity response below 100 kHz for typical AE sensors. Damped broadband sensors and ultrasonic transducers exhibit inherent velocity response (Type 1) below their main resonance frequency. In sensors with under-damped resonance, a steep sensitivity decrease occurs showing frequency dependence of f2~f5 (Type 2), while mass-loaded sensors exhibit flat displacement response (Type 0). Such behaviors originate from sensor characteristics that can best be described by the damped harmonic oscillator model. This model accounts for the three typical behaviors. At low frequencies, typically below 1 kHz, receiving sensitivity exhibits another Type 0 behavior of frequency independent Rx. Seven of 12 sensors showed this flat region, while three more appear to approach the Type 0 region. This appears to originate from the quasi-static piezoelectric response of a sensing element. In using impulse method, a minimum pulse duration is necessary to obtain spectral fidelity at low frequencies and an approximate rule is given. Various factors for sensitivity improvement are also discussed.


This paper introduces a new language model, Coqa, for deeply embedding concurrent programming into objects. Every program written in Coqa has the desirable built-in behaviors of quantized atomicity, mutual exclusion, and race freedom. Such a design inverts the default mode of e.g. Java, where such properties have to be manually coded using primitive language constructs such as synchronized, resulting in programs that are vulnerable to surprising run time errors. A key property of Coqa is the notion of quantized atomicity: all concurrent program executions can be viewed as being divided into quantum regions of atomic execution, greatly reducing the number of interleavings to consider. So rather than building atomicity locally, with small declared zones of atomicity, we build it globally, down from the top. We justify our approach from a theoretical basis by showing that a formal representation, KernelCoqa, has provable quantized atomicity properties. Then we extend KernelCoqa with two I/O models in which we conduct an in-depth study on how I/O affects the atomicity property and establish atomicity theorems with respect to I/O. We perform a series of benchmarks in CoqaJava, a Java-based prototype implementation incorporating all of the KernelCoqa features, to demonstrate the practicability of the Coqa model. We give concrete CoqaJava examples of various common concurrent programming patterns which showcase the strength and ease of programming of the language.


Private export credit insurance—covering the risk of nonpayment—plays an important role in facilitating international trade, especially within Europe. Due to lack of data, however, little is known about the influence of loss shocks on export credit insurance markets. This article studies the effect of claims on the availability and premium of export credit insurance, using unique bilateral country‐level data covering worldwide insurance underwriting from 1992 to 2006 by a leading trade credit insurance group. Applying fixed effects models at the country subsidiary level, I find that a doubling of the claims ratio on insured exports between a pair of countries results, on average, in a decline in the subsidiary's share of bilateral exports insured by about 11 percent and rise in premium level by about 4 percent. These claims effects increase when the insurer makes a loss and rise with the size of the loss. Importantly, evidence shows that an extreme loss shock in one market also increases the claims sensitivity of insurance coverage on exports to other markets, suggesting a role for capital constraints. Overall, these results help our understanding of potential trade finance constraints in times of crisis, such as during the 2008–2009 global trade collapse.


The reservoir compartment assessment for a case study of the Agur field, Central Sumatra Basin has been successfully carried out by using fault seal analysis (FSA). The objective of this paper is to asses subsurface fault properties in term of the fault sealing that was defining the hydrocarbon reservoir compartment. In this work, the FSA was performed by integrating juxtaposition, shale gouge ratio (SGR) and transmissibility analysis over fault plane that was identified within reservoir layers on the Bangko and Bekasap formation. The juxtaposition seal is intended to assess how the reservoir layer is juxtaposed across the fault plane over either reservoir or non-reservoir layer. The SGR analysis is applied to estimate the shale content in the fault plane, which is caused by the fault movement of sequence stratigraphy. The last analysis of transmissibility is carried out to calculate the capacity of a reservoir to drain the hydrocarbon through a fault plane. Faults architecture (throw, heave, and orientation) and the reservoir layer target were identified based on 3D seismic and well log data interpretation. The FSA is applied to nine faults that formed nine reservoir compartments within three reservoir layers, which are obtained from 3D seismic and well log interpretation. The fault characteristics were classified and the fault seal distribution map was produced to identify the reservoir connectivity among the faults. The FSA results show that nine identified compartments in the first reservoir layer are clustered into five compartments. In addition, the FSA clustered nine identified compartments in the second reservoir layer into four compartments. In contrast, nine compartments in the third reservoir layer were connected each other that are clustered into one compartment. These results are useful not only for evaluating future hydrocarbon traps but also for future field development.


SYNOPSIS: Starting in 1995, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) transformed a bureaucratic healthcare system into a performance-driven, patient-focused integrated healthcare network. The VHA's experience may offer lessons for private and public sector providers as the U.S. explores alternative healthcare delivery systems and payment methods. Similar patient-focused integrated systems are one of the hallmarks of the latest U.S. attempt to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery. The use of performance incentives to promote cooperation and innovation is also central to both the VHA and the U.S. reform. This study reviews the VHA's experience with an eye to identifying issues and potential research avenues for accounting researchers interested in the role of accounting information for control, coordination, and organizational change.


The demand for biomass for the production of energy in the forms of electric power, heat, and liquid fuels is growing fast over the last few years worldwide, mainly due to environmental concerns regarding the use of fossil fuels, such as coal, and oil. Agricultural residues, such as wheat straw, olive residue, and corn stover, as well as energy crops, e.g., Arundo donax, miscanthus, and switchgrass gain more and more interest as feedstocks to supply the vast amounts of biomass needed in order to produce the energy and liquid fuels required to fulfill the Kyoto protocol and reduce the environmental burdens of using fossil fuels in our planet. Biomass feedstocks can be converted to energy vectors in high‐efficiency thermochemical systems, such as pressurized fluidized bed boilers and gasifiers coupled with Fischer–Tropsch or other types of liquid fuel synthesis units, supercritical combustion units, and entrained flow combustors or gasifiers. This use is presently limited by the ash‐related problems associated with high‐temperature/high‐pressure environments. Inorganic bioresource constituents, such as alkali metals, chlorine, sulfur, and phosphorus, are the most troublesome elements responsible for several problems occurring. This paper presents a critical discussion regarding the main factors affecting the use of biomass of both agricultural residues and energy crops in high temperatures and high‐efficiency thermochemical conversion systems for the production of energy and liquid fuels. On the basis of an analysis of the particular problems, we identify solutions that could resolve these problems and assist significantly with a much higher production of energy and fuels from various biomass sources in an economical and sustainable way.


Nowadays, the interest in neutrinos extends to a large variety of fields in Astrophysics, Nuclear Physics and Particle Physics. One of the open questions in theoretical physics is the description of neutrino oscillations for which an accurate interpretation of neutrino- nucleus reactions is crucial. In this context, recent years have witnessed an intense ex- perimental and theoretical activity to determine the properties of neutrinos and their interaction with matter. This PhD Thesis is thus focused on the analysis of charged-current neutrino-nucleus reactions at kinematics of interest for neutrino oscillation experiments, where the neu- trino energy is typically in the GeV region. Additionally, weak interactions in the nuclear medium at intermediate energies are an extraordinary opportunity to study the dynamics of the nuclear many-body system, beyond the information accesible from electron and hadron probes, and to gain a deeper knowledge of the axial structure and the strangeness content of the nucleons. In any accelerator-based neutrino oscillation experiment, neutrinos are produced as the decay products of successive reactions, thus implying a wide-ranged energy beam. Hence, when interacting with the nuclear matter, a large variety of nuclear effects come into play, going from quasielastic scattering to deep inelastic processes, multi-nucleon ex- citations or meson production via nucleon resonances. Accordingly, robust models that properly describe neutrino-nucleus interactions over the whole experimental range (of the order of 10s of MeV up to 10s of GeV) are required for the experimental analyses. Notice also that the kinematics involved demand a relativistic description of the microscopic nu- clear structure. In this thesis, the analysis of these processes are addressed by using realistic models that provide, within a fully relativistic framework, an accurate description of the different reaction mechanisms of relevance for neutrino oscillation measurements. We begin ana- lyzing neutrino scattering off free nucleons and describing the weak hadronic responses together with the inner structure of the nucleons. With the aim of achieveing a consis- tent analysis of charged-current quasielastic (CCQE) neutrino interactions with nuclei, we present the so-called SuSAv2 model, which is based on the superscaling behavior exhib- ited by electron scattering data and makes use of the relativistic mean field (RMF) theory to describe the nuclear effects arising in neutrino-nucleus interactions. This prescription accounts for the final-state interactions (FSI) between the outgoing nucleon and the resid- ual nucleus and allows for a description in terms of the different isovector/isoscalar and axial/vector reaction channels that play a role in weak interactions. At very high kine- matics, where FSI are negligible, we approach our model to the relativistic plane wave impulse approximation (RPWIA) where no FSI affect the outgoing nucleon. Furthermore, a basic feature in this thesis also concerns the evaluation of multi-nucleon excitations, in particular two-body meson exchange currents (2p-2h MEC) contributions, which are proved to be an essential ingredient to interpret neutrino cross section measure- ments at intermediate energies. In this regard, we develop a highly accurate parametriza- tion of the 2p-2h MEC nuclear responses based on a fully relativistic microscopic calcu- lation. In order to test the reliability of this SuSAv2-MEC model, we firstly compare our pre- dictions with the large amount of existing inclusive 12C(e, e ′) data over the whole energy spectrum. In this connection, we also extend our description to the complete inelastic regime performing a detailed analysis of the inelastic structure functions for protons and neutrons. All this provides a solid benchmark to assess the validity of our model for the analysis of charged-current neutrino-nucleus cross sections. Regarding this point, we com- pare our calculations with recent CCQE and inclusive _μ and ¯_μ measurements on 12C from different collaborations: MiniBooNE, T2K, MINER_A, NOMAD and SciBooNE, covering an energy range from a few MeV to tens of GeV. This comparison also allows us for a deeper understanding of the nuclear reaction mechanisms at different kinematics as well as their influence in terms of the energy and momentum transfers to the nucleus. In this regard, the SuSAv2-MEC approach is applied to the analysis of diverse nuclei of relevance for future neutrino oscillation experiments with the aim of shedding light on the experimental uncertainties arising from nuclear effects in both initial and final states. Furthermore, the SuSAv2-MEC can easily make predictions at high kinematics in which other microscopic-based models would require demanding, time-consuming calculations. Moreover, we also focus on the difference between electron and muon neutrino reac- tions, where a detailed knowledge of _μ and _e cross sections is decisive in connection to the _μ ! _e oscillation experiments aiming at the determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy and the search for CP violation in the leptonic sector. In summary, this PhD thesis constitutes an extensive analysis of the different neutrino- nucleus interaction mechanisms of interest for neutrino oscillation experiments and con- forms an open window for further works and collaborations in hadronic and nuclear physics.


In recent years, states have subjected more occupations to burdensome regulatory requirements that are often imposed to fetter competition. There is broad agreement that many such restrictions reduce consumer welfare and impose particular burdens on economically disadvantaged groups. This Note examines why existing tools have failed to constrain this protectionist trend. Drawing upon U.S. and foreign experiences, it proposes a statutory reform that would preserve states' roles as primary regulators of occupations subject only to limited FTC oversight to prevent protectionism and that includes numerous procedural protections to avoid excessive preemption.


Many studies have focused on the impacts of corruption on economic development and poverty alleviation (Kaufman 1997; Svensson 2000), but research on possible links between corruption and success in biodiversity conservation is largely restricted to a few key case studies and reviews (e.g., Gibson 1999; Barrett et al. 2001; McCarthy 2002) and a number of anecdotal reports. To address this evident gap on such a potentially controversial topic, we published the first quantitative analyses relating governance to patterns of biodiversity loss based on transnational data sets. We investigated whether changes in forest cover and population sizes of African elephants and black rhinoceroses were correlated with national governance scores and whether countries identified as funding priorities by international donors tended to experience poor governance (Smith et al. 2003). A recent paper by Barrett et al. (2006) revisited our article and focused on our analyses of forest cover and elephant numbers. In this response to Barrett et al. (2006), we highlight three aspects of their paper: their misinterpretations of our original article; their criticism of our elephant analysis; and the need for further work on this controversial subject.


Machine learning has become one of the most active and exciting areas of computer science research, in large part because of its wide-spread applicability to problems as diverse as natural language processing, speech recognition, spam detection, search, computer vision, gene discovery, medical diagnosis, and robotics. At the same time, the growing popularity of the Internet and social networking sites like Facebook has led to the availability of novel sources of data on the preferences, behavior, and beliefs of massive populations of users. Naturally, both researchers and engineers are eager to apply techniques from machine learning in order to aggregate and make sense of this wealth of collective information. However, traditional theories of learning fail to capture the complex issues that arise in such settings, and as a result, many of the techniques currently employed are ad hoc and not well understood.
The goal of this dissertation is to narrow this gap between theory and practice. To that end, we present a series of new learning models and algorithms designed to address and illuminate problems commonly faced when aggregating local information across large population. We build on the foundations of learning theory to examine the fundamental trade-offs that arise when aggregating preference data across many similar users to learn a model of a single user's tastes. We introduce and analyze a computational theory of learning from collective behavior, in which the goal of the algorithm is to accurately model and predict the future group behavior of a large population. We develop a forecaster that is guaranteed to perform reasonably well compared to best expert in a population but simultaneously never any worse than the average. Finally, we investigate the computational complexity of pricing in prediction markets, betting markets designed to aggregate individuals' opinions about the likelihood of future events, and propose an approximation technique based on the previously unexplored connection between prediction market prices and learning from expert advice.


Objectives Extrapyramidal side effects (EPSEs) are serious potentially reversible side effects of antipsychotic and other medications that can cause distress for patients. A core principle of palliative care involves optimising quality of life. If side effects of medications are burdensome, it is imperative that we address this issue. The aim of the study was to determine and describe the burden of EPSEs in a specialist inpatient unit. Methods Consenting patients who met inclusion criteria were assessed for EPSE with two validated screening tests, the Modified Simpson-Angus Scale (MSAS) and Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale (BARS). Additional demographic data were collected including medications associated with EPSE, previous history of EPSE and known risk factors that may predispose a patient to EPSE. Results 43% inpatients met inclusion criteria. At least 66% of patients were taking regular medications associated with EPSE. Of those, 25% were taking ≥2 medications associated with EPSE. The MSAS revealed 50% scored <3, 44% scored 3–5% and 6% scored 6–11. Seven patients had at least one 'not rateable score'. In the BARS (sitting±standing), 94% scored 0/5 and 6% scored 1/5. 12.5% of participants were able to stand for 2 min to complete the BARS. Conclusions 50% screened positive for EPSE. The complete BARS was unsuitable for most participants. The MSAS, while allowing a not rateable score, may underestimate EPSE. The frailty of an inpatient unit population impacts on applicability of screening tools and may therefore underestimate the burden of the problem in this population. Development of a population-specific screening tool warrants further investigation.


Background Children are more likely to be accompanied by the age 10 after which their independent mobility increases initially as pedestrian and bicyclists, and later as drivers of motorcycles and four-wheelers. The mobility patterns of children were mostly surveyed in high or upper middle income countries. The aim of this study was to understand the mobility in children to and from school in urban dense lower middle income country. Methods This survey of school children was conducted from September to December 2014 in Karachi, Pakistan. Children in grades 6–10 approximately age 10–14 years from a random sample of 58 schools were interviewed face to face and their parents were interviewed on telephones. Mobility pattern was compared across gender. Results There were 1288 children and 732 parents interviewed. On the day of survey, majority of children reported walking (72%) to schools (58.6% girls' vs 41.4% boys). Majority of parents (71%) also reported walking as the travel model of children to and from school. There were 22% boys who came to school on their own compared to 16% girls however more girls (30%) were accompanied with someone compared to boys (5.4%). While according to parents 49% of boy children and 29% of girl children were allowed to go school on their own. Less than half (43%) of children were allowed to cross main roads (same ratio of boys and girls). There were three-fourth girls who thought their parents never trust them when they were in road traffic on their own. Conclusions Although walking is the common travel mode of both boys and girls for their schools but parents' license for mobility varies by sex of the children with more restrictions for girls.


In the context of current development, while the trend is towards an open access to information, unrestricted by space and time, libraries must adapt to new changes existent in the society of information, in order to meet the needs of its users. Thus, with the development of computer systems, distribution of the networks especially in the universities and companies, and the advent of so many personal computers, libraries have begun to lose their customers. And this is due to the broadening of another branch of the electronic paper: the E-book.
E-book or the electronic book has grown rapidly in recent years, especially in areas such as humanities i.e. dictionaries and encyclopaedias.
E-book is an item that does not have to be bought, or sought between dusty shelves, and is not the absent book because it was borrowed by someone else. E-book is the book from the computer, within the computer, the book available for an infinite number of readers, the book that can be read easily and that can offer a superior graphic presentation of a classic pattern. E-book is now the way to preserve the oldest books, the best method by which a rare book can be multiplied and not having to be printed. It can be read by an infinite number of people simultaneously considering that it can exist on the computer for each person. In addition, e-book is similar to writing a book, only this time the writing is reduced; it allows a permanent return to the text, the ability to correct it, making ads, and restoring it without affecting the text or its layout. Thus, compared to the usual manuscripts with additions and doodles in the margins, an e-book will look cleaner and will have an arranged text. Prices for production of an e-book are much lower than the production of a book; including the investment that one author will have to do will be much smaller. And this is due to the diminishing of the waste paper and nerves, in case of returning to the text, being only necessary the pressing a few keys.


The paper reports about different kind of sutures, their suitability and performance. An ideal suture should possess many characteristics such as - easy to handle, bio-compatibility, minimal tissue reaction, resistance to bacterial growth, adequate tensile strength and elasticity, knot security, strength loss versus healing rate of tissues. Selection of suture is often very complex for satisfying host of physical, mechanical and biological properties, and fulfilling contradictory requirements in varied applications. The paper develops an understanding about the selection of suture depending on the varied requirement. Past research work pertaining to the development of suture as reported in this paper, provides insight about the suitability of different surgical sutures and possible direction of future research.


ABSTRACT Agroecology is increasingly promoted as a way to create just and sustainable farm- and food systems. Although there are multiple initiatives to scale up agroecology, current socio-political structures often hinder its potential to transform food systems. This study uses participatory approaches to create paintings that envision agroecological futures in the context of increased farmer-pastoralist collaborations in Tanzania, how they would function, and what political action is needed to support such futures. The visions are based on focus group discussions with agroecological farmers and pastoralists, and a multi-stakeholder workshop with farmer and pastoralist representatives, innovative food system actors, and researchers. We find that the envisioned transformation of the food system would lead to positive effects on farmers' and pastoralists' income, autonomy, long-term planning, and producers' and consumers' health. We conclude that new policies and financial support systems are needed to enable the expansion of agroecological farming and food systems, by increasing the availability of organic markets, supporting domestic botanicals production, and by creating more inclusive and just food value chains.


A hybrid Elman network containing radial basis functions in its hidden layer is suggested for dynamic and chaotic system identification. Both the Elman network and feedforward networks with radial basis functions are being successfully used in system identification. It is shown that a hybrid Elman network with radial basis functions gives better performance than a simple Elman network in chaotic system identification applications.


A high-performance electro-optical cross-bar switch based on a vertical graphene plasmonic directional coupler is proposed. The structure consists of two pattern-free graphene plasmonic waveguides which have major advantages over their previous counterparts. An ultrashort switching length of just 223 nm is obtained at the frequency of 37.5 THz. To the best of our knowledge, this switching length is remarkably shorter than those in the recently reported structures. Our designed structure is simulated using a three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method. According to the illustrated results, extinction ratios of 10.5 and 9.52 dB are obtained at the cross and bar ports, respectively, and a wide spectral width of more than 1 μm is presented. The required switching voltage is also calculated as 6 V and a very high 3 dB bandwidth of more than 60 GHz is obtained. An extremely low switching energy of 3.8 fJ/bit is also estimated.


Terms of Reference The Independent Review of the Intelligence Community (IRIC) in 2011 will review the Australian Intelligence Community (AIC) in accordance with a recommendation of the Inquiry into Australian Intelligence Agencies (the Flood Inquiry) in 2004. The primary focus of this review will be the work of the six AIC agencies – Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), the Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation (DIGO), the Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO), the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) and the Office of National Assessments (ONA). The aim of the review is to address six key issues: How well the intelligence community is positioned to support Australia's national interests, now and into the future; Development of the intelligence community over the last decade, including implementation of intelligencerelated reforms; Working arrangements and relationships between the intelligence agencies and policy and operational areas of government; Working arrangements and relationships between the intelligence agencies and their international partners; Arrangements and practices within the intelligence community for collaborative work, including legislative arrangements; and Level of resourcing dedicated to the intelligence community and apportionment of resources across the community, noting that any future proposals would need to be offset consistent with the Government's overall fiscal strategy. The review will prepare findings and recommendations on the above issues and seek to provide a classified report to the Government around mid-year for its consideration in due course, as well as an accompanying unclassified version of that report. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet will establish a secretariat drawn from across the intelligence community and related agencies, as well as provide all other administrative support required. The review team will have full access to all material, including intelligence information and Cabinet documents, relevant to its examination. The heads of all relevant departments and agencies will ensure they and their staff co-operate fully with the review, and provide any requested assistance. Ministers will also be asked to meet with and assist the review team. The Nature of the Review It is worth making six introductory points about the nature of this Review. It is the first comprehensive review of the Australian Intelligence Community since the 2004 Inquiry conducted by Mr Philip Flood AO1. There have of course been various reviews of individual agencies or aspects of their operation over the last seven years but no detailed consideration of the AIC as a whole. Secondly, this Review is being conducted as a periodic review. It is not, as has usually been the case in the past, in response to a precipitating cause or event. As a result, the broad Terms of Reference require a general analysis and assessment of the intelligence community. Thirdly, the primary focus of this Review is the work of the six agencies that have traditionally formed the Australian Intelligence Community – that is, the Office of National Assessments, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, the Defence Signals Directorate, the Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation and the Defence Intelligence Organisation. However, while they are not directly the subject of this Review, a number of other agencies make significant intelligence contributions in their own areas of operation. Those agencies include military intelligence, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Crime Commission, the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. The operational relationship and cooperation between the six core agencies and this wider group is important now and will become more important over time. Fourthly, some significant policy changes have affected the intelligence community since 2004. A number of these changes were outlined in the National Security Statement delivered in Parliament on 4 December 2008. The changes include: The adoption of an all hazards approach to national security and the consequent increase in the number of agencies that comprise the national security community, and The appointment of a National Security Adviser and an increasing role for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in intelligence and national security matters. Fifthly, the intelligence agencies have evolved substantially in the period covered by the Review. From agencies whose outputs were primarily directed to the development of policy, they now have a substantial operational role as well. The intelligence agencies have been integrally involved in supporting military operations, protecting our maritime borders, stopping weapons proliferation and thwarting terrorist activities in Australia and our region. Sixthly, the Flood Inquiry had its primary focus on issues concerning the intelligence that had been provided to government on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Those issues had already received a great deal of public attention and had been the subject of a parliamentary inquiry. As a consequence of this general awareness, Mr Flood was able to publish a comprehensive unclassified version of his report. This Review is different. It is not directed to a particular and well-known area of concern. The Terms of Reference called for a broad investigation into many highly classified or sensitive areas of the agencies' operations and resulted in detailed recommendations, which cannot be made public. Accordingly, this unclassified version of our Report provides a brief introduction to: The nature of intelligence What the government can reasonably expect from intelligence, and The Australian Intelligence Community. Then we set out a general overview of the matters we considered and the conclusions we reached. However, in relation to topics where there has been public comment about broad policy questions – such as overall structure of the AIC or the balance between security and safeguards – we have set out our reasoning in more detail in appendices.


Design science is slowly but surely establishing itself as a recognized paradigm for conducting research in information systems. Researchers in the IS field have tried to study different aspects of design science. So far, it seems that the design activity, or "design reasoning" has not received much attention from the IS community. In this paper, we propose to use a theory developed in engineering fields in order to solve this issue. The C-K theory, or Concept-Knowledge theory, is considered to be a good candidate to deal with the design reasoning.


The decision of the UK Court of Appeal in Fiona Trust & Holding Corporation v Privalov has cemented the doctrine of separability of the arbitration agreement even more firmly in its place and shown that there is very little that can now be argued as falling outside of the jurisdiction of the arbitrators. Despite the seriousness with which it is regarded, bribery in the formation of a contract was held not to be sufficient grounds to remove the matter from the jurisdiction of the arbitrators. This article discusses the background to the Court's decision and in particular reviews the need for "something more", something that shows that there was fraud, misrepresentation, undue influence, or bribery in the formation of the arbitration agreement itself, before a Court will find that it is invalid.


Abstract. The reconstruction of accurate three-dimensional environment models is one of the most fundamental goals in the field of photogrammetry. Since satellite images provide suitable properties for obtaining large-scale environment reconstructions, there exist a variety of Stereo Matching based methods to reconstruct point clouds for satellite image pairs. Recently, a Structure from Motion (SfM) based approach has been proposed, which allows to reconstruct point clouds from multiple satellite images. In this work, we propose an extension of this SfM based pipeline that allows us to reconstruct not only point clouds but watertight meshes including texture information. We provide a detailed description of several steps that are mandatory to exploit state-of-the-art mesh reconstruction algorithms in the context of satellite imagery. This includes a decomposition of finite projective camera calibration matrices, a skew correction of corresponding depth maps and input images as well as the recovery of real-world depth maps from reparameterized depth values. The paper presents an extensive quantitative evaluation on multi-date satellite images demonstrating that the proposed pipeline combined with current meshing algorithms outperforms state-of-the-art point cloud reconstruction algorithms in terms of completeness and median error. We make the source code of our pipeline publicly available.


Majority of electronic solutions developed to facilitate business enterpriseoperations fail just because of they do not pay considerable attention on high levelmotivational concepts in relation to good governance and idealistic missions ofenterprises. On the other hand enterprise modeling with all these considerations can alsobe seen as a complex and time consuming process involving a variety of participants.One promising approach to tackle this situation should be the separation of concernduring enterprise solution designing. As a result it is important to develop differentmodels during the different phases of the development workflow such as Motivation(Goal) models, Value Models and Business Process Models. However, since all these methods describe each layer discretely, it is often hardto find relationships between different modeling concepts at different enterprisemodeling layers such as the ones listed above. Further, often it is impossible to supportmuch needed bi-directional traceability between higher business motivational leveldesigning decisions and processes that are executed on lower ICT technical platforms.In this work, we have reported intermediate results of an on-going research project thatfinds systematic approaches to Business Motivation Modeling and hence supportBusiness/IT Alignment issues faced by eBusiness Industry today. More specifically, in this paper we have illustrated the capability of theframework that has been proposed to capture and then to represent motivationalconcepts in relation with good governance and idealistic missions of enterprises. Furtherwe have demonstrated how these higher level motivational requirements could berealized on lower layer of enterprise development while ensuring afore said bidirectionaltraceability. We have adopted a research methodology based on Design Science for thedevelopment of proposed framework. In order to be compliant popularrecommendations from global forums and international industry standards, for theBusiness Motivation Modeling Layer, our approach has been based on BusinessMotivation Modeling standards proposed by Objects Management Group and BusinessValue Modeling Layer is based on UN/CEFACT Modeling Methodology and e3Value. Key words: Business motivation modeling, Good governance, Business value modeling,Business/IT Alignment


The Turn to the Native is a timely account of Native American literature and the critical writings that have grown up around it. Arnold Krupat considers racial and cultural "essentialism," the ambiguous position of non-Native critics in the field, cultural "sovereignty" and "property," and the place of Native American culture in a so-called multicultural era. Chapters follow on the relationship of Native American culture to postcolonial writing and postmodernism. Krupat comments on the recent work of numerous Native writers. The final chapter, "A Nice Jewish Boy among the Indians," presents the author's effort to balance his Jewish and working-class heritage, his adherence to Western "critical" ideals, and his ongoing loyalty to the values of Native cultures.


This study was conducted to evaluate the groutability and interfacial bond strength of polymer modified cement grouts (PMCG) for repair and rehabilitation of concrete pavement with different polymer/cement ratio. The groutability of grouts was studied through the cone-shaped gap test and the grouted minimum gap width was determined. The interfacial bond strength, such as flexural and shear bond strength were measured. The experimental results indicate that the groutability of grouts modified by vinyl acetate/ethylene copolymer (EVA) improves obviously and the grouted minimum gap width decreases. The flexural and shear bond strength increase 32.41% and 122.92% when the polymer/cement ratio is 10%, at the ages of 28 days respectively. The microstructure of repair interface was observed and analyzed by using scanning electron microscope, and the modification mechanism of EVA latex was discussed.


(cid:3) Abstract — In this paper a mixed method by combining an evolutionary and a conventional technique is proposed for reduction of Single Input Single Output (SISO) continuous systems into Reduced Order Model (ROM). In the conventional technique, the mixed advantages of Mihailov stability criterion and continued Fraction Expansions (CFE) technique is employed where the reduced denominator polynomial is derived using Mihailov stability criterion and the numerator is obtained by matching the quotients of the Cauer second form of Continued fraction expansions. Then, retaining the numerator polynomial, the denominator polynomial is recalculated by an evolutionary technique. In the evolutionary method, the recently proposed Differential Evolution (DE) optimization technique is employed. DE method is based on the minimization of the Integral Squared Error (ISE) between the transient responses of original higher order model and the reduced order model pertaining to a unit step input. The proposed method is illustrated through a numerical example and compared with ROM where both numerator and denominator polynomials are obtained by conventional method to show its superiority.


Objective: Streptococcus pneumoniae is not an uncommon causative pathogen of acute bacterial meningitis, for which a slight delay in the management may result in death or serious sequelae. The traditional method of bacterial identification by culture requires at least 1-2 days, whereas use of PCR assay may allow much earlier recognition and confirmation of the bacteria. Materials and Methods: We designed a primer set targeting the amylomaltase gene (malM) of S. pneumoniae. Acute and convalescent cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples were collected from two patients of suspected acute bacterial meningitis. The acute CSF specimens were collected within the first hour the admission. The second specimens were collected during the convalescent stage after a 10-days treatment course with ceftriaxone. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays were performed on the same day of sample collection. Results: The specificity and sensitivity of the PCR assay were demonstrated, and the latter shows that the latter could detect as few as 102 copies of molecules. In both patients the PCR assay identified the bacteria in the pre-treatment CSF samples, but not in the post-treatment specimens. All PCR assay results obtained in the first day were consistent with the culture results that were obtained on the fourth day of incubation. Conclusions: The use of PCR assays with the primer set targeting the malM gene would allow early recognition of the pneumococcal meningitis.


This paper focused on the motives for adoption of facial appearance hair styles, facial make up and facial adornments which is now commonly exhibited among elite male soccer players in Nigeria and which tend to complement acceptable dress code in the game of soccer. The paper focused on players' facial appearance in terms of their mindset using indices such as self-distinction and group consciousness. The study sample was one hundred and thirty two male soccer players who are employed to play professional soccer division 1 and 11clubs. The questionnaire was the main instrument used in data collection while descriptive statistics was utilized in data analysis with chi square enabling inferences to be made. Study revealed that the need for self-distinction was a determinant for the adoption of facial appearance among elite soccer players.


Friday Night Lights, the 2006-2011 television series about a Texas high school football team, owes a debt to readers of Victorian fictions of everyday life and provincial fiction. Habituated to the quotidian, readers of Victorian fictions of provincial life are arguably the best equipped for understanding the critically-acclaimed television series, for in it, like the fiction that precedes it, hardly anything of moment happens. Plot and telos are hardly the point; the series locates its energies in the stuff of everyday life rather than in the logic of suspense. Recent work on the provincial novel helps us understand the politics of FNL in a way that goes beyond its own explicit themes of race, class mobility, and education. That both the Democratic and Republican candidates for the U.S. presidency in 2012 used the fictional team's mantra—"Clear Eyes, Full Heart, Can't Lose"—suggests the extent to which the ideas of the show tapped into a politics about nation. Paradoxically, the show's deliberately provincial scope allowed it symbolically to unify the nation.


A Reverse k-Nearest-Neighbor (RkNN) query finds the objects that take the query object as one of their k nearest neighbors. In this paper we propose new solutions for evaluating RkNN queries and its variant bichromatic RkNN queries on 2-dimensional location data. We present an algorithm named INCH that can compute a RkNN query's search region (from which the query result candidates are drawn). In our RkNN evaluation algorithm called FINCH, the search region restricts the search space, and the search region is tightened each time a new result candidate is found. We also propose a method that enables us to apply any RkNN algorithm on bichromatic RkNN queries. With that, our FINCH algorithm is also used to evaluate bichromatic RkNN queries. Experiments show that our solutions are more efficient than existing algorithms.


Analysis how to use Internet influence to the process of political communication, marketing and the management of public relations, what kind of online communication methods are used by political parties, and to assess satisfaction, means of communication and the services they provide to their party's voters (people) and other interest groups and whether social networks can affect the political and economic changes in the state, and the political power of one party.


ABSTRACT Endoreduplication is the phenomenon by which cells increase their ploidy. Endoreduplication is initiated by the transition from the mitotic cell cycle to the endocycle, in which DNA replication occurs without a subsequent chromosome separation and cytokinesis, and is enhanced by endocycle reiteration. This process appears to play an important role in endosperm development, but the characteristics of endoreduplication in the endosperm of rice (Oryza sativa) remain unclear. To elucidate the features and variations of endoreduplication in rice endosperm, endoreduplication progression in the developing endosperm was compared among 10 cultivars based on flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy. The flow cytometric analysis detected significant differences among 10 cultivars in the following three parameters: mean ploidy of all nuclei, the proportion of nuclei ≥6C (%E, an estimate of the initiation of the endocycle), and the mean ploidy of nuclei ≥6C (E6P, an estimate of the reiteration of the endocycle). However, no significant correlation between %E and E6P was observed, suggesting that the initiation and reiteration of the endocycle are independently regulated. Fluorescence microscopy revealed that the ploidy of the nuclei was higher in the intermediate region than in the central and peripheral regions of the endosperm. Cells with a higher ploidy were larger in the developing endosperm. Furthermore, the mean ploidy in the developing endosperm was significantly correlated with the mean cell size in the mature endosperm. These results indicate that endoreduplication progression in the endosperm differed significantly among the 10 rice cultivars and such differences may influence endosperm cell size. Abbreviations Ak: Akitakomachi; DAP: days after pollination; DAPI: 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole; E6P: mean ploidy of nuclei ≥ 6C; Ha: Habataki; Ho: Hokuriku193; IR: IR64; Ka: Kasalath; Ki: Kinuhikari; Ko: Koshihikari; Ni: Nipponbare; PEG: polyethylene glycol; Sa: Sasanishiki; Ta: Takanari; %E: proportion of nuclei ≥ 6C.


Objective. The results of previous studies suggest that statins have a direct anti-inflammatory effect that is not directly related to their cholesterol-lowering activity. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of simvastatin (SIM) and fluvastatin (FLU) on trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced colonic inflammation in rats. Material and methods. The drugs were given for 3 days (0.1 and 1 mg/kg day−1; intraperitoneally) after induction of colitis. The lesions in the distal colon were scored at the macroscopic and microscopic level. Tissue malondialdehyde (MDA) and glutathione (GSH) levels, myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity and collagen content were assessed and formation of reactive oxygen species and peroxynitrite was monitored by chemiluminescence (CL) assay. Trunk blood was collected for the measurement of serum tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α level. Results.Treatment with SIM reduced the lesion score of the colitis group at macroscopic level (p<0.05), but there was no effect of treatment with FLU. The increase in colonic MDA level of the colitis group was reduced by both drugs at all doses (p<0.05–0.001). The decrease in GSH and the an increase in MPO activity in the colitis group were reversed by SIM at all doses (p<0.01), but FLU had no effect. An increase in colonic lucigenin CL value in the colitis group was reduced by SIM and FLU at all doses (p<0.001) and an increase in peroxynitrite ratio in the colitis group showed a significant reduction in SIM-treated groups; FLU reduced this effect at a dose of 1 mg/kg (p<0.01). An increase in tissue collagen content and serum TNF-α level in the colitis group was reversed by both drugs at all doses (p<0.001). Conclusions. SIM and FLU seemed to be beneficial in a TNBS-induced rat colitis model through the prevention of lipid peroxidation, superoxide generation, cytokine production and neutrophil accumulation.


Collaboration between government and non government organisations (NGOs) has been one outcome of the greater emphasis placed on participation, sustainability and democratic processes in India. This paper outlines how the role and space for elected government in development is being redefined. It begins by outlining the diversity among NGOs and the roles they seek to play. It then examines the mutual practical needs which draw NGOs and government towards each other. For NGOs, these include the need to access technical or managerial resources, to gain legitimacy or recognition, to promote greater accountability and transparency and to promote reform in public systems. Government agencies on the other hand work with NGOs to enhance people's participation in their programmes, to extend coverage of programmes to areas and groups that are poorly served by government staff, to test and replicate innovative approaches and to achieve greater cost effectiveness. This paper explores how government and NGOs converge on a number of development objectives that have become social and political imperatives, divide roles along expected lines and prevailing notions of each other's capacities, but still end up with problems in certain areas. It outlines the reasons for this, including overlapping of professional domains, issues relating to NGO capacity, the role of individuals and personalities, inadequate consultation mechanisms, the lack of inclusive networking and weak management structures. It stresses the importance of achieving reform through indirect means, through cross learning by gradual exposure to alternative models and by providing space so that the two systems can be brought together in creative competition. Donor agencies occupy an influential niche in the affairs of governments and NGOs. The final section of the paper analyses the aspects of GO–NGO collaboration that merit the attention of donor agencies and are likely to be positively influenced by a more proactive and considered donor response. Ved Arya is Director of the NGO SRIJAN, 1, Community Shopping Centre Anupam Apartments New Delhi 11068 INDIA Tel: 91 11 656 6997 / 4 Fax: 91 11 686 8411 Email: email@example.com


This paper proposes a new dynamic model of realized covariance (RCOV) matrices based on recent work in time-varying Wishart distributions. The specifications can be linked to returns for a joint multivariate model of returns and covariance dynamics that is both easy to estimate and forecast. Realized covariance matrices are constructed for 5 stocks using high-frequency intraday prices based on positive semi-definite realized kernel estimates. We extend the model to capture the strong persistence properties in RCOV. Out-of-sample performance based on statistical and economic metrics show the importance of this. We discuss which features of the model are necessary to provide improvements over a traditional multivariate GARCH model that only uses daily returns.


Background Phial sharing would lead to great savings in cancer therapy. Although physicochemical data support this practice frequently, microbiological stability is of concern. Purpose To assess microbiological stability of vials in cytostatic compounding when a closed-system drug transfer device (CSTD) is used. Materials and methods Cytostatic compounding process was simulated using 100 ml TSB culture media vials. Three batches (eight vials each) were elaborated by different technicians. Handling was conducted inside a biological safety cabinet and using PhaSeal system (CSTD). Usual garbing for cytostatic compounding was used. At day zero, vials were diluted (5 ml of sterile water). Thereafter, on days 1, 4, and 7, seven millilitres of phial content were removed using a 10 ml syringe and 13 ml were transferred to a 100 ml empty bag. Vials were stored outside the clean room. Work surface and gloves were sampled at the end of each day by applying Tryptic Soy Agar (TSA) contact plates. All samples were incubated for two weeks (20-25°). Contamination was defined as visual turbidity. Contact plates were incubated one week at 37°. Results No microbiological growth was detected in any of the 24 vials after 7 days of storage and 9 manipulations of each phial. 96 syringes and 96 bags were incubated. None were contaminated either. Samples from the work surface remained clean. Only one plate from the gloves was contaminated with two colony-forming units of gram positive cocci. Microorganisms did not reach the solution supporting the fact that PhaSeal® encourages a proper aseptic technique. Absence of contamination after storage and handling has also been reported previously using traditional needle-based methods. However, the use of CSTD as in our study represents best current practice in cytostatic compounding where operator protection is a cornerstone. Conclusions An aseptic technique using PhaSeal® maintains phial's sterility over time and handling, allowing substantial savings. Results will be validated in a larger study that is ongoing.


Purpose Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) has been suggested to be a prognostic marker of mortality in severe sepsis. Currently, there are limited data on biomarkers including PTX3 that can be used to predict mortality in severe sepsis patients who have undergone successful initial resuscitation through early goal-directed therapy (EGDT). Materials and Methods A prospective cohort study was conducted among 83 severe sepsis patients with fulfillment of all EGDT components and the achievement of final goal. Plasma PTX3 levels were measured by sandwich ELISA on hospital day (HD) 0, 3, and 7. The data for procalcitonin, C-reactive protein and delta neutrophil index were collected by electric medical record. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality. Results 28-day all-cause mortality was 19.3% and the median (interquartile range) APHCH II score of total patients was 16 (13–19). The non-survivors (n=16) had significantly higher PTX3 level at HD 0 [201.4 (56.9–268.6) ng/mL vs. 36.5 (13.7–145.3) ng/mL, p=0.008]. PTX3 had largest AUCROC value for the prediction of mortality among PTX3, procalcitonin, delta neutrophil index, CRP and APACHE II/SOFA sore at HD 0 [0.819, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.677–0.961, p=0.008]. The most valid cut-off level of PTX3 at HD 0 was 140.28 ng/mL (sensitivity 66.7%, specificity 73.8%). The PTX3 and procalcitonin at HD 0 showed strong correlation (r=0.675, p<0.001). However, PTX3 at HD 0 was the only independent predictive marker in Cox's proportional hazards model (≥140 ng/mL; hazard rate 7.16, 95% CI 2.46–15.85, p=0.001). Conclusion PTX3 at HD 0 could be a powerful predictive biomarker of 28-day all-cause mortality in severe septic patients who have undergone successful EGDT.


For many Black emerging adult men in the United States, social-structural stressors rooted in racial discrimination are daily experiences that place them at greater risk for poor health. Emerging adulthood is a critical life course period marked by greater experimentation with health risk behaviors. Although Black men's health vulnerabilities during this period are connected to their social-structural environments, investigations of these factors among noncollege sampled Black men remain limited. We conduced thirty semi-structured in-depth interviews to examine associations between social-structural challenges and social-structural resources for resiliency. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded using Dedoose web-based qualitative software. Through open coding, emergent concepts were connected across interviews and major themes were identified. We found three core social-structural stressors: (1) Racial profiling, (2) neighborhood violence, and (3) lack of economic opportunities, and three resilience factors: (1) Positive social networks, (2) community-based resources, and (3) safe environments that foster a sense of community. Collectively, these findings provide insight into developing structural- and community-level interventions tailored to bolster resiliency across multiple levels and counteract the social-structural challenges that young Black men face.


Injury from overuse is an important and increasingly common problem in athletes and health-conscious people. The unaccustomed application of repetitive stress to any tissue may cause sufficient structural disruption to overcome that tissue's adaptive ability and thus cause injury without necessarily causing complete loss of function. The events leading to injury, as well as the level of stress required to incite them, may vary depending on the tissue and the individual. The pathway common to all tissues most likely involves microdamage to tissue collagen, combined with a direct or indirect effect on the microvasculature, with subsequent oxygen deprivation. The inflammation and repair process common to all tissues is well described. An understanding of this process is critical in the optimal treatment of these injuries. The modification of factors, both intrinsic and extrinsic, is important in the prevention of injury and in a rehabilitation program aimed at return to sports.


The objective of these studies was to investigate the comparative physiology and regulation of bile acid metabolism in the male Golden Syrian hamster by measuring the rate of fecal bile acid excretion and bile acid pool size in animals fed a cereal‐based diet either alone, or with added cholesterol or cholestyramine. In group‐housed hamsters fed only the plain diet fecal bile acid excretion in animals at 6, 10, and 15 weeks of age averaged 11.0, 8.0, and 6.9 μmol/d per 100 g body weight (bw), respectively. Pool size, measured by subtracting from the total amount of bile acid washed out over 12 hours of biliary diversion the amount of bile acid excreted in the stools over the same period, equalled 17.8 μmol/100 g bw in 15‐week‐old hamsters fed the plain diet. Hence, under basal conditions, these animals turned over about 38% of their bile acid pool daily. In hamsters fed a diet with 3% cholestyramine for 18 days, fecal bile acid excretion averaged 20.6 μmol/d per 100 g bw, and the pool size contracted to 5.8 μmol/100 g bw. In matching animals fed a diet containing 0.12% cholesterol for 30 days, hepatic cholesterol levels increased from 1.9 ± 0.1 to 12.6 ± 0.7 mg/g, fecal bile acid excretion increased marginally from 5.8 to 8.0 μmol/day per 100 g bw, while pool size was unchanged (16.6 μmol/100 g bw). When the cholesterol content of the diet was raised to 1.0%, hepatic cholesterol levels reached 66.5 ± 2.6 mg/g, but bile acid excretion remained at 8 μmol/d per 100 g bw. These data define some of the basal features of bile acid metabolism in the hamster, and substantiate the view that the marked cholesterolemic response of this species may relate partly to a limited ability to convert dietary cholesterol to bile acid.


Considering the fact that the computing resources and NWP model developers within the framework of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) are distributed widespread across the countries, and that the NWP systems very much depend on datasharing, remote collaborative research, heavy computation, massive data and intensive services, the Meso-scale Model Application Grid (MMAG) has been established based on the grid technology. Ultimately this platform has aggregated the distributed computing resources and NWP software at CAMS, NMIC, STI, GRMC and GXMB. The GRAPES Meso-scale model runs routinely on MMAG and users can access the NWP products at the designated website. It also provides a remote collaborative research environment for the geographical distributed scientists to make contributions to the improvement of the GRAPES.


A molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) that is selective to ketoprofen was synthesized and applied in the adsorption of the target compound from water. The MIP was synthesized using a bulk polymerization method at high temperatures (60–80°C), where ketoprofen, 2-vinylpyridine, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, toluene and 1,1´-azobis(cyclohexanecarbonitrile) were used as template, functional monomer, cross-linker, porogen and initiator, respectively. Non-imprinted polymer (NIP) was synthesized similarly to the MIP but in the absence of ketoprofen. From molecular dynamics simulation, the nature of interactions that occurred between the template and the functional monomer were found to be based on hydrogen bonding. This was confirmed experimentally, where a high extraction efficiency of ≥ 90% was obtained at acidic conditions (pH 5) due to the protonation of ketoprofen. A contact time of 45 min was sufficient for the maximum adsorption of ketoprofen from 10 mL spiked water using 8 mg of the adsorbent. MIP showed greater selectivity than NIP by achieving a relative selectivity coefficient of 7.7 towards ketoprofen in the presence of structurally related pharmaceuticals. Furthermore, the order of sorption onto the MIPs from water was ketoprofen > fenoprofen > gemfibrozil. From a modelling perspective, the Langmuir adsorption isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic model gave the best fit, with maximum adsorption capacity of 8.24 mg·g−1 and sorption rate constant of 0.25 mg·g−1·min−1 for MIP. This was translated to chemisorption of ketoprofen onto the homogeneous MIP binding sites. This work demonstrated the great potential of MIP in selective recognition of ketoprofen from wastewater relative to closely related compounds.


Abstract As the first cases before the ICC proceed to the Appeals Chamber, the judges ought to critically evaluate the merits and demerits of the control-theory of perpetratorship and its related doctrines. The request for a possible recharacterization of the form of responsibility in the case of Katanga and the recent acquittal of Ngudjolo can be taken as indications that the control-theory is problematic as a theory of liability. The authors, in a spirit of constructive criticism, invite the ICC Appeals Chamber to take this unique opportunity to reconsider or improve the control-theory as developed by the Pre-Trial Chambers in the Lubanga and Katanga cases.


In this thesis we focus on Dirichlet's problem for the complex Monge-Ampere equation. That is, for a given non-negative Radon measure µ we are interested in the conditions under which there exists a plurisubharmonic function u such that (ddcu)n=µ, where (ddc)n is the complex Monge-Ampere operator. If this function u exists, then can it be chosen with given boundary values? Is this solution uniquely determined within a given class of functions?


Global methane (CH4) emissions have reached approximately 600 Tg per year, 20%–40% of which are from wetlands. Of the primary factors affecting these emissions, the water table level is among the most uncertain. Here we conduct a global meta-analysis of chamber and flux-tower observations of CH4 emissions and employ a novel mechanistic model to show that wetlands have maximum emissions at a critical level of inundation and discuss its origin. This maximum arises from an interplay between methanogenesis, methanotrophy, and transport, whose rates vary differently with the inundation level. The specific location of the critical water level above the soil surface may differ depending on wetland characteristics, for example temperature or the presence of macrophytes with aerenchyma. However, data suggest that globally a water level of about 50 cm is the most favorable to CH4 emissions. Keeping the water level away from this critical value could reduce methane emissions in human-made wetlands, which comprise at least one fifth of the global wetland area.


The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability of the preliminary Spanish version of the Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ). The SIQ was developed to examine five cognitive and motivational functions of imagery use. Participants were 81 athletes competing in soccer (n = 43) and roller skating (n = 38), ranging in age from 14 to 29 years (M = 18.10, SD = 3.16). Reliability was evaluated through internal consistency analyses of the scale. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were high indicating that the scale is a reliable instrument for the measurement of imagery use in Spanish athletes. Further psychometric research should now examine factor structure and imagery use across competitive level and type of sport in a larger sample of Spanish athletes.


Disorders of the inner parts of blood vessels have been significant triggers of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Different interventional methods have been employed, from complex surgeries to balloon angioplasty techniques to open the narrowed blood vessels. However, CVDs continue to be the lead cause of death in the world. Delivering a therapeutic agent directly to the inner wall of affected blood vessels can be a transformative step toward a better treatment option. To open the door for such an approach, a catheter delivery system is developed based on a conventional balloon catheter where a fluidic channel and microneedles (MNs) are integrated on top of it. This enables precise and localized delivery of therapeutics directly into vessel walls. Customizable MNs are fabricated using a high‐resolution 3D printing technique where MN's height ranges from 100 to 350 µm. The MNs penetration into a synthetic vascular model is investigated with a computerized tomography scan. Ex vivo tests on rabbit aorta confirm the MN‐upgraded balloon catheter's performance on real tissue. Delivery of fluorescent dye is accomplished by injecting it through the fluidic channel and MNs into the aortic tissue. The dye is observed at up to 180 µm of depth, confirming site‐specific endovascular delivery.


In this paper, an adaptive fuzzy sliding-mode control (AFSMC) was proposed for speed control of a hydraulic pressure coupling drive. The AFSMC combined a direct adaptive fuzzy scheme and a fuzzy sliding scheme in a new structure to reduce the tracking error and the chattering of the control effort. The input nonlinearity of the secondary unit, the input dead zone, was taken into account during the speed controller synthesis and analysis of the stability of the closed-loop system. The stability of a system was proven from Lyapunov's sense. Experiments were performed with different controllers, the AFSMC, the traditional sliding-mode control, and the PID controllers, and under different operating conditions. Then, the experimental results were brought into comparison to evaluate the effectiveness of the AFSMC controller from the viewpoints of stability, performance, and robustness of the closed-loop system.


This paper describes a two-dimensional tool-path planning model for minimizing the regularly distributed errors or mid-frequency errors during computer controlled optical surfacing (CCOS) by optimally connecting different tool-path segments. The model was established based on a neuro-fuzzy algorithm, a path neighborhood function which is defined as a victorious output element calculated in a self-organization way, then, the optimum material removal function with a modified weight was derived. The material removal function was studied theoretically and the results of simulation present a Gaussian distribution feature. Discrete removal points and optimized tool-path grid were simulated. Finally, an experiment involving a parabolic mirror was performed for residual error removal and the two-dimensional tool-path planning algorithm was found to be valid.