Ruminal impaction was studied in buffaloes in and around Jammu region the majority of cases were of animals having ingested fibrous feed material, coarse grain, polythene and jute bags and ropes and nonpenetrating metallic objects. Prominent clinical signs noticed were complete cessation of rumination, impaction and atony of rumen, hardening and pelleted mucous coated dung, and inappetance to anorexia. Haematological alterations revealed reversal of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio. The diseased buffaloes had significantly higher bilirubin, aspartate aminotransferase, glucose, blood urea nitrogen and creatinine, levels and significantly lower calcium, than the control values. The levels of alkaline phosphatase, total protein, albumin, globulin and phosphorus did not differ significantly from the respective control values.


We report on a series of 453 mentally retarded subjects investigated for fragile X syndrome from 1982 to July 1995. The 22% rate of efficiency of FRAX positivity indicated a significant preselection by the clinicians. However, this rate dropped to 11% in the last year. Since 1992, Southern blot analysis was extended to include family members of the 87 positive subjects, for a total of 442 individuals examined with the probe StB12.3. In addition to premutated (118), fully mutated (148), and pre/full mutation mosaic subjects (27), 14 atypical cases were found. Some of these cases are described in more detail. In particular, we report on the hybridization and polymerase chain reaction data of 2 fragile X subjects with full mutation and a 2.8-kb allele and 1 with full mutation and a 2.4-kb allele. An intellectually normal male with 18% of fraXq27.3 and an unmethylated full mutation is also described. Finally, a mentally retarded child with only a lower allele of 2.7 kb is presented.


PNMsoft Sequence is an iBPMS (Intelligent Business Process Management Suite). This demonstration will show how PNMsoft Sequence's HotChange® technology enables BPM customers to change processes which are already being run in the production environment. HotChange® enables modifications to all aspects of a process including: flow, business rules, form fields, new activities, permissions, devices, and integration with external systems. Customers using HotChange® are better able to compete, as they can more quickly adapt their business critical processes to real world conditions and a changing marketplace. This demo will be of major interest to attendees interested in Process Improvement, Change Management and Intelligent Business Operations.


This article presents an econometric analysis of irrigation commodity area and revenue responses to varying commodity prices, water availability and climate conditions for the second half of a decade long drought in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia. We find statistically significant evidence of irrigation area decline with reductions in water allocations and irrigation revenue shrinking with area irrigated. Results also indicate hotter drier weather conditions experienced in the drought effected crops differently: some crop revenues suffered, while higher evapotranspiration and yield potential appeared to ater urray–Darling Basin support higher revenue outcomes for other crops. Comparison revealed that marginal revenue changes in response to water allocations estimated are much less than those implicit in other economic assessments of water scarcity impacts for the same basin that used different methods. We find that triangulation of results between methods provides confidence in consistent results and reveals possible avenues for future research and methodological development. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


BACKGROUND This prospective study was conducted to evaluate the accuracy of sonography in detection of renal injuries caused by blunt abdominal trauma. METHODS One hundred sixty-four patients (131 M, 33 F) with a history of recent blunt abdominal trauma who were stable enough to undergo both sonography and CT scan were included in this study. All of the cases had accepted indications for renal imaging. Ultrasound, as simultaneous gray scale B-mode scan and color-Doppler study, was achieved in all of the patients as the first imaging modality. Considering CT scan as the imaging modality of choice in evaluation of renal injuries caused by trauma, sonography findings were compared with CT scan results. RESULTS Of the 164 patients referred for kidney sonography and CT scan, renal damage was detected in 103 cases by CT scan (63%). In 14 patients (13.5%), bilateral renal injuries were identified. Considering grading classification proposed by the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST), 57%, 24%, 9.5%, 6% and 3.5% of renal injuries were diagnosed as grade I, II, III, IV and V, respectively, by CT scan. Of the 164 patients, ultrasound results were consistent with renal damages in 66 cases (40%). Of these patients, signs of parenchymal hematoma, perinephric hematoma and pelvocaliectasis associated with internal echogenicity were the most prevalent ultrasound findings. Overall sensitivity and specificity of sonography in detection of renal injures were 48% and 96%, respectively, with a 0.8 positive predictive value, a 0.57 negative predictive value and an overall accuracy of 79%. CONCLUSION In spite of the availability and ease of performance of sonography in evaluation of trauma victims, this imaging modality has low sensitivity in detection of renal injuries and overlooks significant damages. CT scan should be considered as the diagnostic modality in victims of kidney trauma who are hemodynamically stable and have clear indications for renal imaging.


Background The population who reaches the extreme age of 100 years is growing. At this age, dementia incidence is high and cognitive functioning is variable and influenced by sensory impairments. Appropriate cognitive testing requires normative data generated specifically for this group. Currently, these are lacking. We set out to generate norms for neuropsychological tests in cognitively healthy centenarians while taking sensory impairments into account. Methods We included 235 centenarians (71.5% female) from the 100-plus Study, who self-reported to be cognitively healthy, which was confirmed by an informant and a trained researcher. Normative data were generated for 15 tests that evaluate global cognition, pre-morbid intelligence, attention, language, memory, executive and visuo-spatial functions by multiple linear regressions and/or percentiles. Centenarians with vision and/or hearing impairments were excluded for tests that required these faculties. Results Subjects scored on average 25.6±3.1 (range 17-30, interquartile-range 24-28) points on the MMSE. Vision problems and fatigue often complicated the ability to complete tests, and these problems explained 41% and 22% of the missing test scores respectively, whereas hearing problems (4%) and task incomprehension (6%) only rarely did. Sex and age showed a limited association with test performance, whereas educational level was associated with performance on the majority of the tests. Conclusions Normative data for the centenarian population is provided, while taking age-related sensory impairments into consideration. Results indicate that, next to vision impairments, fatigue and education level should be taken into account when assessing cognitive functioning in centenarians.


BACKGROUND
Inflammatory responses are important mechanisms that are involved in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion(I/R) injury. Whether toll-like receptor 9(TLR9), which belongs to the innate immune system, takes part in the inflammatory responses following cerebral I/R remains unclear.

METHOD
This study examined the effect of different dosages of the TLR9 antagonist inhibitory oligodeoxynucleotide (iCpG-ODN) on cerebral I/R injury by using a mouse model of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion. Neurological function, infarct size, splenocytes and the expression of TLR9 and the downstream products of the TLR9 pathways were determined after cerebral I/R for up to 72 hours.

RESULTS
The Clark's focal symptom scoring showed iCpG-ODN improved neurological deficits following focal cerebral I/R. The iCpG-ODN administration significantly decreased the infarct size in a dose-dependent manner. RT-PCR showed that iCpG-ODN attenuated the I/R-induced RNA expression of TLR9. Immunoblot showed that iCpG-ODN prevented I/R-induced increases in NFκB and IRF7 levels and that it further downregulated the levels of IL-1β, TNF-α, and INF-β in the brain. iCpG-ODN did not alter the levels of TNF-α or INF-β in the peripheral blood or affect stroke-induced changes in the number of splenocytes.

CONCLUSION
These findings suggest that iCpG-ODN induced protection against cerebral I/R via inhibiting inflammatory responses in a dose-dependent manner and may be useful in therapy for stroke patients.


Introduction: Prescribing by non medical personnel (NMP) has been introduced in the UK. The objectives of this study were to a) describe pharmacist discharge prescription transcription service (PDPTS) provided in UK hospitals prior to NMP, b) investigate the implementation of supplementary prescribing (SP) by pharmacists in England, c) explore patient opinions on development of pharmacists and nurses as independent prescribers (IP). Methods: Two postal questionnaires were undertaken, one of hospital clinical pharmacy managers (Q1) and one of PCTPs and CPs (Q2). Depth interviews with patients were also used. Ethics approval was obtained. Key Findings: For Q1 the response rate was 66% (135/206). PDPTS was offered by 49/135 (36%) of hospitals and was the most common prescribing activity undertaken. The majority of pharmacists wrote


The clinical significance of right ventricular (RV) infarction has been neglected compared with left ventricular infarction. In recent years, however, the clinical importance of RV function in the treatment of myocardial infarction has been well recognized. We performed prospective radionuclide studies to assess the incidence and prognosis of RV infarction in 50 cases of initial acute myocardial infarction (25 cases of anterior and 25 of inferior infarction). Radionuclide ventriculography was performed within the first two days after onset of symptoms, and repeated one-two weeks and one month after the attack, respectively. RV infarction was diagnosed by the presence of severe RV regional wall motion abnormalities and positive signs of at least one of the following diagnostic signs: ST elevation at V4R in the ECG, positive 99m-technetium pyrophosphate myocardial scintigram at the RV free wall, and positive right heart catheterization findings. Results were as follows: 1. RV infarction was documented in 15 of 25 cases with inferior infarction, but there were no cases in anterior infarction. 2. There were no remarkable changes of RV ejection fraction (EF) in anterior myocardial infarction during one month (41% +/- 8% in acute phase and 43 +/- 8% in four weeks later). However, RVEF was markedly improved from 34 +/- 11% during first two days, to 38 +/- 7% during one-two weeks, and 39 +/- 8% four weeks after the attack, in cases of inferior infarction with RV infarction. Without RV infarction, RVEF in cases of inferior infarction did not show improvement. 3. In 11 of 15 cases with RV infarction, RV regional wall motion abnormalities improved to the normal range, which seemed to contribute to the improvement of RVEF. 4. Hemodynamic findings with Swan-Ganz catheters showed typical findings compatible with RV infarction only in seven of 13 cases with RV infarction. Thus this finding implies that RV failure did not always accompany RV infarction. 5. Coronary arteriography revealed that right coronary arterial lesions proximal to the RV branch were documented in all 10 cases with RV infarction who had coronary arteriography. RV infarction, caused by deranged coronary blood flow at the RV branch of the right coronary artery, showed marked improvement of RVEF during four weeks after the attack in prospective radionuclide studies. This finding was not seen in left ventricular infarction. The pathophysiological mechanism of improvement of RVEF in RV infarction would be the difference of its coronary circulation compared with that of the left ventricle.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


The importance of late eighteenth century Rational Dissent has been rightly
recognised by many contemporaries and subsequent historians. Yet the character of
Rational Dissent has been less than fully understood, partly because of the overconcentration
on Richard Price and Joseph Priestley, and on the politics, rather than the
all-important theological ideas which underpinned the political ideas of Rational
Dissenters.
This dissertation adopts a new and prosopographical method of analysis. The
Biographical Register of authors of published and unpublished material, and of
prominent local figures demonstrates the highly varied range of the individuals,
congregations and other groups amongst its adherents and reveals valuable insights into
the wide areas of opinions within Rational Dissent, and key periods and forms of
activity.
This research, through its prosopographical approach, covers new ground in
demonstrating that significant differences between Rational and Orthodox Dissenting
theology led to the emergence of a Rational Dissenting identity which became sharply
and increasingly divergent from that of Orthodox Dissenters. Through extensive
analysis of the identity of Rational Dissent as a whole, it demonstrates considerably
greater nuances in belief than have previously been recognised. It establishes that it was
the specific theological ideas of Rational Dissenters which underpinned and drove their
political concepts and notions as to the nature of society.
Based on investigation of 19 lists of subscribers to Rational Dissenting
published works and organisations, this study identifies a core of 444 multiple
subscribers, the overwhelming majority committed adherents of Rational Dissent.
These are substantial lists totalling 6,047 subscriptions. The 444 individuals as a group
provide an essential basis for analysis of the social, geographical and intellectual appeal
of Rational Dissent amongst its less visible adherents, notably women, laymen and
ministers who sustained it at local level. Analysis of previously largely over-looked
Unitarian Library records allows identification of the social and intellectual span of
their readers and their particular areas of theological interest. This range of sources
enables statistical analysis of the identity and appeal of the broad base of Rational
Dissent in the late eighteenth century.
This dissertation argues that Rational Dissent in England between c. 1770 and c.
1800, characterised by its own distinctive doctrinal identity, merits further
investigation, and constitutes a primary motivation for this study. From this research
emerges a fuller understanding of the place of Rational Dissent within society, its
complex and evolving nature, and finally analysis of the legacy of Rational Dissent in
the early nineteenth century.


The bacterium Staphylococcus aureus is a notorious pathogen that causes dangerous and difficult-to-treat infections. This applies especially to methicillin-resistant S. aureus, better known as MRSA. MRSA infections were originally associated with healthcare settings as a consequence of clinical antibiotic therapy. However, in recent years MRSA infections have become more common among healthy individuals in the community. The community-associated (CA-)MRSA lineages are generally more aggressive than hospital-associated (HA-) lineages. Therefore, it is alarming that such CA-MRSA lineages are now emerging in hospitals. This raises the fundamental question of how CA-MRSA adapts to this new niche. Further, since the originally distinguishing features of CA- and HA-MRSA are losing discriminative value, it is important from a healthcare perspective to identify novel distinctive markers for early recognition and elimination of hospital-adapted CA-MRSA. In the present PhD research, these challenges were tackled with a 'multi-omics' approach focused on the USA300 lineage of MRSA, originally identified as CA, but now also causing hospital outbreaks. The results show that hospital-adapted USA300 isolates produce an altered spectrum of virulence factors, changed their metabolism, and exploit human immune cells as a protective environment against antibiotics. Importantly, hospital-adapted CA-MRSA strains can be recognized through distinctive patterns of gene expression and secreted virulence factors. Altogether, these observations show that the epidemic behaviour of MRSA is a multi-factorial trait, and they provide new insights into the missing links between epidemiology and pathophysiology of S. aureus. Moreover, they highlight the benefits of multi-omics technologies for protecting patients and frail individuals against the aggressive CA-MRSA.


The broad acceptance of mobile technology has undoubtedly created new opportunities in communication. The proposed environment attempts to enhance the information flow among the members of a department and, furthermore, to provide a test-bed mobile Web application for students undertaking Internet technologies courses. The key ideas are to support the educational process to provide auxiliary access to educational information sources, such as announcements, course schedules, grades, and user directory details. As a second system integration step, additional mobile Web services were introduced, such as application forms of the department's administration office, project assignment, and discussion groups. Technological evaluation and students' feedback indicate that the proposed solution is both efficient in communication perspective and effective for student involvement in the mobile Web initiative. Future steps include multimedia messages (MMS) integration and third-generation (3G)-based information delivery


Many research papers in science education focus on addressing particular practice issues and report positively on the effects of a particular intervention or change in practice. Most frequently, the effects of the changes in practice reported, based on past research literature, have positive effects on student learning. However, the question arises as to what happens after the research study has been completed? Are these practice changes maintained and are the benefits for student learning also maintained? This paper address this question of whether changes can be maintained after the initial enthusiasm for the research project has died down. Two of the authors, who were involved in a research project, addressed the development of a first year chemistry laboratory aimed at increasing student engagement and ultimately in making the laboratory a positive learning experience for all students. Many elements were introduced into the laboratory practice including small group tutoring, tutor assessment of students by in- lab questioning, notebook maintenance. Specific activities were focused on skill development, development of central concepts and problem-based activities. Student learning was evaluated when this laboratory was implemented. This laboratory has now been run by different people over the intervening 4 years - so it is interesting to determine how particular aspects has changed and if the central construct of the laboratory has been maintained.


Study Design. A human cadaveric biomechanical proof-of-concept study. Objective. To test whether adding a locking plate to the anterior surface of C2 attaching directly to the interfragmentary screw may reduce potential for anterior screw cutout and improve construct strength. Summary of Background Data. The most common mode of failure for screw fixation of dens fractures is via cutout at the anterior body of C2. Methods. A human, cadaveric model of type II dens fractures was created and fixed using either a headless, fully threaded variable pitch screw (FTVPS) or a screw with an attachable locking plate construct (LPC). Following quasistatic loading to failure, stiffness and load to failure were compared using t tests. Mode of failure was determined from radiographical and gross inspection. Results. Load to failure was greater for the LPC than for the FTVPS alone (498 N vs. 362 N, P = 0.04). The LPC consistently failed via compression of cancellous bone posterior to the lag screw, whereas the FTVPS constructs failed via cutout of the screw from the anterior C2 body. Conclusion. Locking plate supplementation of anterior screw fixation of type II odontoid fractures improves construct strength and changes the failure mechanism from anterior screw cutout to posterior displacement of the screw. An attachable locking plate/interfragmentary screw construct may improve clinical outcomes for these fractures.


Volume 1: "Truth and Corrigibility", 31pp, 1936 edition "Hume's Theory of the External World", 231pp, 1940 edition "Thinking and Representation", 40pp, 1946 edition Harold Arthur Pritchard 1871-1947, obituary notice, 20pp, 1949 essays on the philosophy of religion, based on the Sarum Lectures, vii, 125pp, 1972. Volume 2: "Perception", ix, 332pp, 1950 edition. Volume 3: "Thinking and Experience", 365pp, 1953 "Some Aspects of the Conflict Between Science and Religion", v, 53pp, 1955. Volume 4: "Belief. The Gifford Lectures", 493pp, 1969.


. Biodegradable polymers received considerable attention due to their contribution in the reduction of environmental concerns and the realization that global petroleum resources are finite. The development of double crystalline biobased blends such as poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) are particularly interesting because each component has an influence on the crystallization behaviour of the other component, and thus influences the strength and mechanical properties of a polymer blend. The lack of miscibility between PCL and PBS constitutes a bottleneck, and efforts have been made to improve the miscibility through the inclusion of copolymers. Having realized that incorporating conductive nanofillers such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), (especially when the CNTs are functionalized or used as a masterbatch i.e., polycarbonate/MWCNTs masterbatch), into biopolymer matrices, can enhance the thermal and mechanical properties, as well as electrical and thermal conductivity, a lot of research was aimed at the production of bionanocomposites. This review paper discusses the properties of PCL, PBS, their blends, and their CNTs containing nanocomposites.


The catecholamines norepinephrine (NE) and dopamine (DA), known inhibitors of insulin secretion, have been identified in the pancreatic islets only semiquantitatively by their histochemical fluorescence spectrum. Using collagenase digestion of golden hamster pancreas, we isolated islets and quantitated the NE and DA content with sensitive and specific radioenzymatic assays. We compared the NE and DA concentrations in islets with the median eminence and cerebral cortex of the golden hamster, tissues known to contain catecholamines. Under basal conditions, NE is in higher concentration than DA in all three tissues and is highest in the islets in a much greater concentration than is found in the median eminence. DA is present in measurable quantities in all three tissues and, in the islets, its concentration is comparable with that in the median eminence. Treatment of the hamster with a precursor of the two catecholamines, L-dopa, produced a significant accumulation of DA in the islets and median eminence over the basal values. This L-dopa-induced increase in DA was heightened in the islets and reached significantly higher than control levels in the cortex by a pretreatment of the hamster with tranylcypromine (tran), a monomine oxidase inhibitor. Pretreatment with tran alone, however, produced no change in DA over control values. The NE content of pancreatic islets was not altered by administration of L-dopa, tran, or L-dopa plus tran. The NE content of the median eminence was increased by the administration of tran. L-dopa plus tran did not result in an additional increase in the NE content of the median eminence. The administration of tran plus L-dopa (but not the administration of either agent alone) increased the NE content of the cortex over control levels. The present study suggests that inhibition of insulin secretionafter L-dopa administration is due to an increased concentration of DA rather than NE in the pancreatic islets.


A statistical forecast methodology exploits large-scale patterns in monthly U.S. Climatological Division Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) values over a wide region and several seasons to predict area burned in western U.S. wildfires by ecosystem province a season in advance. The forecast model, which is based on canonical correlations, indicates that a few characteristic patterns determine predicted wildfire season area burned. Strong negative associations between anomalous soil moisture (inferred from PDSI) immediately prior to the fire season and area burned dominate in most higher elevation forested provinces, while strong positive associations between anomalous soil moisture a year prior to the fire season and area burned dominate in desert and shrub and grassland provinces. In much of the western U.S., above- and below-normal fire season forecasts were successful 57% of the time or better, as compared with a 33% skill for a random guess, and with a low probability of being surprised by a fire season at the opposite extreme of that forecast.


Biology is one of the pre-requisite subject for many field of learning including botany, anatomy and physiology, microbiology, medicine, agriculture, pharmacy, biotechnology, and others. Biology and biology education contributes immensely to the technological growth and development of any nation. This paper discussed the meaning and concept of biology and biology education, factors militating against the development of biology education in Nigeria, and the role of biology for sustainable development. The paper recommended that, government at all levels should provide adequate instructional materials and laboratory equipments for effective teaching and learning, qualified teachers should be employed for teaching the subject both in secondary and tertiary schools.


The stringent emission rules set by international maritime organisation and European Directives force ships and harbours to constrain their environmental pollution within certain targets and enable them to employ renewable energy sources. To this end, harbour grids are shifting towards renewable energy sources to cope with the growing demand for an onshore power supply and battery-charging stations for modern ships. However, it is necessary to accurately size and locate battery energy storage systems for any operational harbour grid to compensate the fluctuating power supply from renewable energy sources as well as meet the predicted maximum load demand without expanding the power capacities of transmission lines. In this paper, the equivalent circuit battery model of nickel–cobalt–manganese-oxide chemistry has been utilised for the sizing of a lithium-ion battery energy storage system, considering all the parameters affecting its performance. A battery cell model has been developed in the Matlab/Simulink platform, and subsequently an algorithm has been developed for the design of an appropriate size of lithium-ion battery energy storage systems. The developed algorithm has been applied by considering real data of a harbour grid in the Aland Islands, and the simulation results validate that the sizes and locations of battery energy storage systems are accurate enough for the harbour grid in the Aland Islands to meet the predicted maximum load demand of multiple new electric ferry charging stations for the years 2022 and 2030. Moreover, integrating battery energy storage systems with renewables helps to increase the reliability and defer capital cost investments of upgrading the ratings of transmission lines and other electrical equipment in the Aland Islands grid.


Building reliable software services based on service components supplied by partners and third parties in potentially complex chains of providers, is inherently challenging. In the case of cloud-based services, providers may offer not only software (web services) but also infrastructure (e.g., processing and storage). Making composite services trustworthy and reliable requires all parties to be open about changes that may impact their customers, and they must inevitably deal with a fluctuating threat picture. In this paper, we describe a publish/subscribebased notification infrastructure which allows a Service Runtime Environment (SRE) to receive alerts about changes and threats in service components. Notifications arise from both human and automated monitoring, and are published to a notification broker which handles subscriptions and message distribution. The SRE is enabled to react to these notifications automatically through adaptation of the service composition, based on rules that can syntactically match the contents of received notifications. In addition to describing the technical implementation, we show an example of how a composite service from the Air Traffic Management (ATM) domain can instantly adapt itself when it receives a notification about a threatened service component. We also demonstrate how a mobile client app is used to keep humans aware of the notifications. Keywords–Security notifications; self-adaptability; accountability, composite services.


Background: Marsdenia condurango (condurango) is a tropical woody vine native to South America. Our earlier study was limited to evaluation of anti-cancer potentials of crude condurango extract and its glycoside-rich components in vitro on lung cancer. Objective: This study aims at evaluating the effect of the single isolated active ingredient condurangogenin A (ConA; C32H42O7) on A549, H522 and H460-nonsmall-cell lung cancer cells. Materials and Methods: ConA was isolated by column chromatography and analyzed by mass spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and proton-nuclear magnetic resonance. diphenyltetrazolium bromide assays were conducted on three cell-types using 6%-alcohol as control. Critical studies on cellular morphology, cell-cycle regulation, reactive oxygen species, mitochondrial membrane potential, and DNA-damage were made, and expressions of related signaling markers studied. Results: As IC50 doses of ConA proved to be too high and toxic to both A549 and H522 cells, all experimental studies were carried out on H460 cells with the IC50 dose (32 μg/ml − 24 h). Cellular morphology revealed typical apoptotic features after ConA treatment. At early treatment hours (2 h-12 h), maximum cells were arrested at G0/G1 phase that could be correlated with reduced level of cyclin D1-CDK with p21 up-regulation. At 18 h − 24 h, sub G0/G1 cell population was increased gradually, as revealed from cytochrome-c release and caspase-3 activation, further confirming the apoptosis-inducing ability of ConA at later phases. Gradual increase of TUNEL-positive cells with significant modulation of mitochondria-dependent apoptotic markers at longer time-points would establish apoptosis-induction property of ConA, indicating its potential as a strong candidate for anti-cancer drug formulation. Conclusion: Further studies are warranted against other types of cancer cells and animal models before its possible human use.


Tel is an interpreter for a tool command language. It consists of a library package that is embedded in tools (such as editors, debuggers, etc.) as the basic command interpreter. Tel provides (a) a parser for a simple textual command language, (b) a collection of built-in utility commands, and a C interface that tools use to augment the built-in commands with tool-specific commands. Tel is particularly attractive when integrated with the widget library of a window system; it increases the programmability of the widgets by providing mechanisms for variables, procedures, expressions, etc, it allows users to program both the appearance and the actions of widgets; and it offers a simple but powerful communication mechanism between interactive programs.


A complete alkali basalt through trachyte volcanic suite has been documented from the central part of the Mount Taylor volcanic field, New Mexico (the southeast margin of the Colorado Plateau) showing mineralogic, chemical, and field relations similar to alkalic volcanism of both continental and oceanic settings throughout the world. Thus, the Mount Taylor field is fundamentally distinct from the predominantly calc-alkalic to low-Ti alkali basaltic volcanism of the Basin and Range Provice as a whole. Eruptions of the rocks began in Pliocene-Pleistocene time with alkali basalt (basanatoid) and continued through intermediate (hawaiite, mugearite, benmorite) and trachyte compositions. This progression, together with minor-element and isotopic data, suggests that the suite evolved by fractional crystallization of basaltic magmas. Volcanologic diversity of the field is illustrated by the variety of land forms, including numerous maars, pit craters, silicic flow-domes, and distinct northeasterly oriented fissures. Northeast-southwest oriented faults with as much as 30-m displacements were active concurrently with the volcanism, and several faults are superposed on fissure lines, suggesting that the volcanism was a consequence of deep fracturing of the margin of the Colorado Plateau by late Cenozoic Basin and Range faulting.


System architects are accustomed to developing systems hosted in federated environments that allow for developmental independence. However, the system boundaries are different when systems are hosted in an Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) platform. The boundaries lie within shared resources, and thus lead to greater dependencies between systems. This drives new design considerations for system architects. The natural tendency is to leverage traditional federated design concepts when building systems for IM1A environments, but this can lead to inefficient use of system resources, and a lack of preparedness for the inevitable change that will occur within the integrated set of systems. NMA has become a standard in the civil and military aviation industries, so it is important to understand these new design considerations. The question addressed by this paper is "What unique design considerations are there for systems hosted on an IMA platform ?" All of the considerations can be attributed to three main drivers present in the IMA environment: * 1) optimization of system resources across the integrated set of hosted systems, * 2) change containment when hosted systems change, and * 3) change containment when the NMA platform elements change (technology insertion). These three factors impact the traditional developmental independence between systems since it requires the architect to consider their system's role within the integrated set of systems. They must now consider how they will tolerate changes that are out of their control, such as changes to other hosted systems or the IMA platform that affect the shared resource performance. They must now consider how they contribute to the efficient use of system resources as part of the greater system-wide optimization strategy. If these factors are not addressed, then it can lead to wasted system resources, increased development costs, and high costs-of-change. Therefore the incentive to ensure that these new design considerations are addressed lies with both the system integrator who owns the integrated set of systems and the architect of each hosted system. This is based upon the authors' experience in developing 11%A systems at GE Aviation. GE Aviation has developed open system 11%A architectures for commercial aircraft (Boeing 787 Dreamliner), as well as military aircraft (Boeing C-130) combat aircraft, and Boeing KC-767 Tanker).


The work by Gould, Loh, and Robinson [A filter method with unified step computation for nonlinear optimization, SIAM J. Optim., 24 (2014), pp. 175–209 ] established global convergence of a new filter line search method for finding local first-order solutions to nonlinear and nonconvex constrained optimization problems. A key contribution of that work was that the search direction was computed using the same procedure during every iteration from subproblems that were always feasible and computationally tractable. This contrasts previous filter methods that require a separate restoration phase based on subproblems solely designed to reduce infeasibility. In this paper, we present a nonmonotone variant of our previous algorithm that inherits the previously established global convergence property. In addition, we establish local superlinear convergence of the iterates and provide the results of numerical experiments. The numerical tests validate our method and highlight an interesting numerical trade-off between accepting more (on average lower quality) steps versus fewer (on average higher quality) steps. 1 Scientific Computing Department, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Oxfordshire, OX11 0QX, England, EU. Email: email@example.com . Current reports available from "http://www.numerical.rl.ac.uk/reports/reports.shtml". 2 This work was supported by the EPSRC grant EP/I013067/1. 3 Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Johns Hopkins University, 100 Whitehead Hall, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. Email : email@example.com , email@example.com , firstname.lastname@example.com . 4 This work was supported by the National Science Foundation grant DMS-1217153. Scientific Computing Department Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Oxfordshire OX11 0QX


In order to predict evolutionary responses to environmental changes one needs to identify the evolutionary potential in terms of genetic variation of traits and of the traits' plasticity. We studied genetic variance in life history traits and their reaction norms in response to manipulated photoperiods in central, northern, and northernmost peripheral populations of the damselfly Lestes sponsa (Hansemann). After the central‐marginal hypothesis, it is predicted that central populations will express the highest genetic variance. Northern and northernmost populations showed the highest development and growth rates. All populations expressed shorter development and accelerated growth when raised in a northern compared with a central latitude photoperiod. The slopes of reaction norms differed between regions resulting in a region‐by‐photoperiod interaction. There was genetic variation in development time; however, it did not differ across regions. There was no genetic variation in growth rate or in the plasticity of development time and growth rate to photoperiod. Results did not support the central‐marginal hypothesis. However, evidence was found that the development time has the potential to evolve at similar rates across study regions. In contrast, the growth rate seems to be genetically constrained for further evolution, probably because of a strong past directional selection on this trait. The presence of low genetic variation in the slope of the reaction norms could be a result of stabilising selection imposed by seasonality.


In the context of clustering, we assume a generative model where each cluster is the result of sampling points in the neighborhood of an embedded smooth surface; the sample may be contaminated with outliers, which are modeled as points sampled in space away from the clusters. We consider a prototype for a higher-order spectral clustering method based on the residual from a local linear approximation. We obtain theoretical guarantees for this algorithm and show that, in terms of both separation and robustness to outliers, it outperforms the standard spectral clustering algorithm (based on pairwise distances) of Ng, Jordan and Weiss (NIPS '01). The optimal choice for some of the tuning parameters depends on the dimension and thickness of the clusters. We provide estimators that come close enough for our theoretical purposes. We also discuss the cases of clusters of mixed dimensions and of clusters that are generated from smoother surfaces. In our experiments, this algorithm is shown to outperform pairwise spectral clustering on both simulated and real data.


Understanding the specificities of human serum antibodies that broadly neutralize HIV can inform prevention and treatment strategies. Here we describe a deep mutational scanning system that can measure the effects of combinations of mutations to HIV envelope (Env) on neutralization by antibodies and polyclonal serum. We first show that this system can accurately map how all functionally tolerated mutations to Env affect neutralization by monoclonal antibodies. We then comprehensively map Env mutations that affect neutralization by a set of human polyclonal sera known to target the CD4-binding site that neutralize diverse strains of HIV. The neutralizing activities of these sera target different epitopes, with most sera having specificities reminiscent of individual characterized monoclonal antibodies, but one sera targeting two epitopes within the CD4 binding site. Mapping the specificity of the neutralizing activity in polyclonal human serum will aid in assessing anti-HIV immune responses to inform prevention strategies.


The less than self-evident effect of alterations in cell kinetics on the growth of hemopoietic colonies in the spleens of irradiated mice has important implications for the interpretation of results obtained with this unique multipotential stem cell assay. The effect on colony growth of variation in the principle cell kinetic parameters has been calculated by simulating the growth of spleen colonies so as to provide a guide to the interpretation of experimental results. This data is used to re-interpret two particular experimental observations on the effect of cytotoxic agents in terms of alterations in the response of stem cells to regulatory factors in place of previous interpretations regarding the differing self-renewal capacities for subpopulations of stem cells and their sensitivity to various drugs.


The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of right ventricular involvement on the magnitude of precordial ST segment depression during inferior acute myocardial infarction. For this reason 61 patients (55 M, 6 F; mean age 53 years--range 38-73 years) admitted in our CCU for inferior acute myocardial infarction were studied by coronary angiography within 3-5 days from the onset of symptoms. The angiography showed either occlusion or critical coronary stenosis ranging as follows: on right coronary artery proximal (Group 1) to the first branch for right ventricle in 22 patients, on right coronary artery distal to the first branch for right ventricle in 25 patients (Group 2) and on circumflex artery (Group 3) in 14 patients. No difference in LAD disease were noted between the 3 groups. Using myocardial scintigraphy (Tc-99m- pyrophosphate) we confirmed the presence or the absence of right ventricular involvement in the 3 groups. In the 3 groups the magnitude of ST segment depression in V2, selected as representative left-sided precordial lead, ranged as follows: Group 1: -0.25 +/- 1.34 mm; Group 2: -1.64 +/- 1.80 mm; Group 3: -2.00 +/- 1.97 mm. In patients with right ventricular involvement (Group 1) there was a statistically significant reduction of precordial ST segment depression either in comparison to Group 2 (p less than 0.01) or to Group 3 (p less than 0.005) but none between Group 3 and 2. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Remarkably, there has been only one biography of Ford Madox Brown in the past century and none at all of the four women in his life, his two wives, Elisabeth Bromley and Emma Hill, and his secret passions, the artist Marie Spartali and the author Mathilde Blind. All four were remarkable women, from very different backgrounds, striving for self-expression in an age that sought to suppress them. Madox Brown himself was always an outsider and refused to join any group - even the Pre-Raphaelites with whom he was so closely associated, and the women he loved burst out of received stereotypes, telling us much about women's journey towards modern roles. Elisabeth Bromley was born in 1818, the year Mary Shelley published "Frankenstein"; Marie Spartali died in 1927, a year before all women won the vote. Their lives - full of passion, sexual longing, tragedy and determination - take us from the English countryside and the artist's studio, to a Europe in turmoil and revolution. These are not silent muses hidden in the shadow of the 'Master'. They step out of the shadows and into the picture, speaking with voices we can hear and understand. Romantic and illuminating, richly illustrated throughout, "Into the Frame" is a rare opportunity to explore a fascinating area of Victorian bohemianism, based on new research and written with verve and sympathy.


The progressive application of new biodegradable plastics in agriculture calls for improved testing approaches to assure their environmental safety. Full biodegradation (≥90%) prevents accumulation in soil, which is the first tier of testing. The application of specific ecotoxicity tests is the second tier of testing needed to show safety for the soil ecosystem. Soil microbial nitrification is widely used as a bioindicator for evaluating the impact of chemicals on soil but it is not applied for evaluating the impact of biodegradable plastics. In this work the International Standard test for biodegradation of plastics in soil (ISO 17556, 2012) was applied both to measure biodegradation and to prepare soil samples needed for a subsequent nitrification test based on another International Standard (ISO 14238, 2012). The plastic mulch film tested in this work showed full biodegradability and no inhibition of the nitrification potential of the soil in comparison with the controls. The laboratory approach suggested in this Technology Report enables (i) to follow the course of biodegradation, (ii) a strict control of variables and environmental conditions, (iii) the application of very high concentrations of test material (to maximize the possible effects). This testing approach could be taken into consideration in improved testing schemes aimed at defining the biodegradability of plastics in soil.


This thesis proposes a concept of the trauma aesthetic in order to make sense of the ways in which particular texts have responded to the events of 9/11 as an intensely mediated and vicariously experienced cultural trauma. A central argument within existing studies of 9/11 and its cultural impact is that, in the immediate aftermath at least, the dominant interpretation of the events often relied on crude and simplistic notions of national identity and American exceptionalism. Drawing on a variety of the cultural, political and aesthetic discourses which have emerged in post-9/11 studies, this thesis argues that the trauma aesthetic (re)mediates the cultural narrative of 9/11 in more complex and nuanced ways.
The thesis examines four novels: Falling Man (Don DeLillo, 2007), Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer, 2005), Man in the Dark (Paul Auster, 2008) and The Road (Cormac McCarthy, 2006), and four films: A History of Violence (d. David Cronenberg, 2005), In the Valley of Elah (d. Paul Haggis, 2007), 25th Hour (d. Spike Lee, 2002) and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (d. Michel Gondry, 2004). All of these texts respond to the trauma of 9/11 either directly or indirectly and explore similar themes of masculinity, culpability and the nature of traumatic experience. My analysis identifies a series of metaphors, common to all of these texts, which are used to (re)mediate the sense of absence and emptiness integral to the experience of 9/11 and the sense of vulnerability which it inflicted upon American national identity. These include: falling, timelessness, placelessness and the absent body. By drawing on and adapting existing trauma theories from scholars such as Cathy Caruth and Kali Tal the thesis proposes the trauma aesthetic as a new critical tool for the understanding of post-9/11 film and literature.


Pelvic Floor Muscle Training (PFMT) is an effective, non-invasive, and cost-effective treatment for Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI). However, its success rate varies. We evaluated the factors predicting success in PFMT, such as age, initial urinary leakage, initial pelvic floor muscle contraction strength, urethral hypermobility, and myostatin level. A nested case-control study was conducted at Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital between February and October 2021. We evaluated demographic characteristics, UDI-6 and IIQ-7 questionnaire scores, physical exam, pad weight test, urethral hypermobility ultrasound, perineometry, myostatin level, and we instructed the subjects in PFMT according to a guidebook. After 12 weeks of PFMT, we evaluated therapy success, defined as less than 3g on the pad weight test. The study involved 58 women: 5 subjects dropped out, 47 subjects reached treatment success, and 6 subjects did not reach treatment success. Following bivariate analysis, we found that initial pad weight was the only variable that was significantly associated with treatment success (p=0.001, 95% CI: 1.02 – 2.25). The PFMT success rate was 88.68%, and initial urine leakage lower than 6.5g predicts PMFT success with 80.9% sensitivity and 83.3% specificity (p=0.001, 95% CI1.02–2.25).


This book starts with an extraordinary event and document. The event is the trial and execution for infanticide of a puritan minister, John Barker, along with his wife's niece and their maid, in Northampton in 1637; the document, what appears to be a virtual transcript of Barker's last speech on the gallows. His downfall soon became polemical fodder in scribal publications, with Puritans circulating defences of Barker and anti-Calvinists producing a Laudian condemnation of the minister. Scandal and Religious Identity in Early Stuart England uses Barker's crime and fate as a window on the religious world of early modern England. It is based upon an extraordinary deposit of manuscript and printed sources, all produced between 1637 and 1640 by people living in close proximity to one another and all of whom knew one another, either as friends or more often as enemies. Marshalling evidence from public polemical sources and from almost entirely private ones - a diary, private letters and a spiritual autobiography - the book is able to examine the same events and persons, and beliefs and practices, from multiple perspectives: the micro and the macro, the personal and the political, and the affective and the doctrinal. Throughout, we meet a range of very different people putting various bodies of religious theory into practice, connecting the most local and particular of events and rivalries to the great issues of the day and responding, in certain cases, to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and the temptations of the devil. This approach enables a whole series of generalisations to be explored: about the relation between politics and religion, devotion and polemic, puritans and their enemies, local and national affairs; between rumour, manuscript and print; and, finally, about gender hierarchy and the social roles of men and women. The result is an extraordinarily detailed and intimate portrait of the religio- political scene in an English county on the eve of civil war. PETER LAKE is Distinguished University Professor of early modern English history at Vanderbilt. He is the author of several studies of English religion, culture and politics in the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods. ISAAC STEPHENS is Assistant Professor of History at Saginaw Valley State University and has published on early modern marriage, religion, and life-writing.


Peer-to-peer (P2P) streaming has been widely deployed over the Internet. A streaming system usually has multiple channels, and peers may form multiple groups for content distribution. In this paper, we propose a distributed overlay framework (called SMesh) for dynamic groups where users may frequently hop from one group to another while the total pool of users remain stable. SMesh first builds a relatively stable mesh consisting of all hosts for control messaging. The mesh supports dynamic host joining and leaving, and will guide the construction of delivery trees. Using the Delaunay Triangulation (DT) protocol as an example, we show how to construct an efficient mesh with low maintenance cost. We further study various tree construction mechanisms based on the mesh, including embedded, bypass, and intermediate trees. Through simulations on Internet-like topologies, we show that SMesh achieves low delay and low link stress.


Two experiments were carried out to determine the potential of oral yolk derived specific antibody against aflatoxin B1 in Japanese quails. In the first experiment egg yolk derived antibody against aflatoxin B1 was produced in layer quails. The potential of aflatoxin absorbent of the eggs from immunized and non-immunized layers was assayed in vitro. Egg yolk extracts derived from aflatoxin-BSA conjugate immunized layers absorbed more aflatoxin B1 compared to that of non-immunized birds in concentrations over 24 g/l (P <0.05). In the second experiment 120, one-d-old quails were randomly attributed to four experimental groups with five replications of six chicks. The experimental groups consisting: 1negative controlfed uncontaminated feed. 2Positive controlfed aflatoxin B1 (2 mg/kg) contaminated feed. 3AFB1+SYfed contaminated feed and 4 g/l yolk extract form immunized layers in drinking water. 4AFB1+NYfed contaminated feed and 4 g/l yolk extract form non-immunized layers in drinking water. Feeding aflatoxin without yolk extract lowered serum concentrations of total protein, albumin, HDL, triglyceride, cholesterol and glucose. Oral yolk extracts restored the aflatoxicosis-induced alteration of serum metabolits to the normal levels similar to negative control. The yolk extract derived from immunized layers was more efficient compared to that of non-immunized birds. Aflatoxicosis diminished the studied cellular and humoral immune responses (P < 0.05), while oral yolk extracts boosts the immune responses to a level comparable to negative control.


Aims: The present meta-analysis was undertaken to summarize the data from hitherto available randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the prevention of incident fractures in patients with primary osteoporosis following the use of once-weekly teriparatide. Methods: PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases were systematically searched till May 21, 2021, to identify RCTs with duration ≥72 weeks, evaluating the efficacy of once-weekly teriparatide (at a dose of 56.5 &#s956;g/week or 28.2 μg/week) in the prevention of incident fractures as compared to placebo or active comparator. Results: We identified 3 eligible RCTs, pooling data retrieved from 1643 participants with primary osteoporosis. Pooled data showed that the risk of incident morphometric vertebral fractures was significantly lower with once-weekly teriparatide compared to placebo/active comparator (RR 0.33, 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 0.12,0.90, P = 0.03; I2 = 86%). Sensitivity analysis after exclusion of the study where an active comparator had been used instead of placebo also showed a similar result (RR 0.20, 95% CI: 0.11,0.37, P < 0.00001; I2 = 0%). Data on clinical vertebral fractures or nonvertebral fractures were inadequately reported across the RCTs and hence could not be pooled together. Nevertheless, all the RCTs did not find any significant difference in the risk of incident nonvertebral fractures. Conclusions: The present systematic review and meta-analysis show that once-weekly teriparatide leads to a 67% reduction in the risk of incident morphometric vertebral fractures. Considering the reasonable efficacy, once-weekly dose, and reduced cost, the formulation can be an important antiosteoporotic drug, especially in resource-constraint settings, like India.


Brain–machine interfaces (BMIs) using motor cortical activity to drive an external effector like a screen cursor or a robotic arm have seen enormous success and proven their great rehabilitation potential. An emerging parallel effort is now directed to BMIs controlled by endogenous cognitive activity, also called cognitive BMIs. While more challenging, this approach opens new dimensions to the rehabilitation of cognitive disorders. In the present work, we focus on BMIs driven by visuospatial attention signals and we provide a critical review of these studies in the light of the accumulated knowledge about the psychophysics, anatomy, and neurophysiology of visual spatial attention. Importantly, we provide a unique comparative overview of the several studies, ranging from non-invasive to invasive human and non-human primates studies, that decode attention-related information from ongoing neuronal activity. We discuss these studies in the light of the challenges attention-driven cognitive BMIs have to face. In a second part of the review, we discuss past and current attention-based neurofeedback studies, describing both the covert effects of neurofeedback onto neuronal activity and its overt behavioral effects. Importantly, we compare neurofeedback studies based on the amplitude of cortical activity to studies based on the enhancement of cortical information content. Last, we discuss several lines of future research and applications for attention-driven cognitive brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), including the rehabilitation of cognitive deficits, restored communication in locked-in patients, and open-field applications for enhanced cognition in normal subjects. The core motivation of this work is the key idea that the improvement of current cognitive BMIs for therapeutic and open field applications needs to be grounded in a proper interdisciplinary understanding of the physiology of the cognitive function of interest, be it spatial attention, working memory or any other cognitive signal.


Garnet–pyroxene–wollastonite zoned skarns in the Hirao limestone, Fukuoka, Japan, were formed during metamorphic activity associated with the emplacement of the Hirao granodiorite. In this area, rocks along the contact between a marble unit and a metamorphosed basic dike (MB) were replaced by clinopyroxene, garnet, wollastonite, and vesuvianite during infiltration metasomatism involving H 2 O-rich fluids. Whole-rock analysis of skarn-, marble-, and MB-hosted mineral zone samples indicates that the garnet zone skarn rocks are enriched in rare earth elements (REE). Marble trace element systematics indicate that Ce, alkali elements, Th, Pr, Zr, and Nb were all added during metamorphic activity. The majority of these elements were derived from metamorphic fluids, although some originated from the MB. Micro-scale mineral analysis was performed using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), revealing that vesuvianite preferentially hosts the REE within the garnet zone rocks, even though it is only present in small amounts (3% modal abundance). The vesuvianite commonly co-exists with a Ca-rich garnet and both minerals can contain significant concentrations of REE. The results suggest that the distribution of the REE in garnet and vesuvianite may be a function of fluid composition, with REE-enriched vesuvianite forming during interaction with light rare earth element (LREE)-enriched but heavy rare earth element (HREE)-unenriched fluids. The correlation of REE concentrations and Eu anomalies in vesuvianite indicates that the fluid was REE-enriched but Eu-depleted..


Aim: This study was carried out to determine surgical nurses' knowledge levels about hemodynamic monitoring. Material and Method: The research was carried out in a descriptive design to determine the knowledge levels of surgical nurses related to hemodynamic monitoring. Nurses working in the surgical clinics of three hospitals in the Eastern Black Sea Region. 156 surgery nurses took part in the study. The data were collected through a questionnaire developed by the researchers. Percentage, mean, standard deviation, median, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, t-test in independent groups, and variance analysis in multiple groups were used to evaluate the data in the research. Results: The mean score of the nurses' knowledge about hemodynamic monitoring was 65.3±7.9. There was a significant difference between nurses' receiving education on monitoring, gender, marital status, education level and the mean scores of their knowledge about hemodynamic monitoring (p<0.05). Conclusion: The study revealed that nurses had a lack of knowledge about hemodynamic monitoring, which was reflected in nursing care and practices. It is recommended that surgical nurses are provided detailed and regular training on hemodynamic monitoring methods and follow-up including nursing care.


I describe a price game in which consumers face search costs and base their quantity decision on the expected price. Because of search costs, the choice of the firm they will buy from is described by a random process. I show that the expected equilibrium price is above the monopoly price. This result does not change if demand comes from a small share of perfectly informed consumers with zero search costs. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2003.


Cost-benefit analysis ("CBA") is widely used in agency decisionmaking, summarizing the impacts of an agency's chosen policy. As agency rulemakings have increased in quantity and importance, there has been renewed interest in improving transparency in decisionmaking, especially with respect to the models and data that underlie CBA. Recent proposals have been highly controversial. At least some of the controversy can be attributed to limited information about the usefulness of this type of transparency.

This Article contributes to this debate by evaluating the current level of transparency in CBA and proposing incremental improvements. First, it suggests a new framework for thinking about transparency in CBA that includes two key dimensions: process transparency and policy transparency. A CBA that scores well on these two dimensions would allow interested parties to scrutinize agency action and hold decisionmakers more accountable. Second, it objectively evaluates the process transparency and policy transparency of a comprehensive set of CBAs for significant rules issued between October 2015 and September 2018. It uses a scorecard methodology, which scores whether a particular CBA met a number of different criteria related to transparency.

The Article finds that many agency CBAs lack basic process transparency, meaning that their creation and role in the decisionmaking process is not clear. In addition, most CBAs continue to lack transparency about policy impacts, often failing to quantify and monetize costs and benefits. Among CBAs that do monetize at least some costs and benefits, most do not make their data, models, and underlying sources readily available online. In light of the results, the Article provides low-cost recommendations for improving transparency in CBA that could do more good than harm. In particular, while models used in the CBA and their inputs should be adequately described and made publicly available, it is premature to require that all underlying data from studies used in the CBA be made available. In line with this incremental approach to improving CBA transparency, we argue that the move toward adopting an "open policy framework" in government policy analysis should consider both the costs and the benefits carefully.


A situation in which luck determines what happens in our lives is composed of two elements: (1) the existence of a multiplicity of possible outcomes, and (2) lack of control over the situation, namely that we have no way, or at least no meaningful way, to affect the outcome. Adjudication is a luck situation: law is indeterminate and in a decent society litigants are not supposed to have control over their judges. Can we minimize luck in adjudication? The primary way to do this is to make every decision given in the system resemble as much as possible the decision that would have been reached by the majority of the judges active in the system had they all been given the opportunity to decide the case at hand as a group. Put differently, luck in judicial decisions can be lessened by increasing the number of judges in panels. Even though in a decent society the option of controlling the conduct of judges is out of the question, several means do exist for litigants to employ some control over the identity of the persons who are to resolve their disputes.


A strain of Sporotrichum thermophile (var. 2), grown in submerged culture at 44 "C, decayed crystalline cellulose by the secretion of cellulolytic enzymes into the culture medium. Dialysed culture filtrates, after growth on cellobiose, wese also effective in degrading crystalline cellulose (Avicel). Cellulase, measured viscometrically with carboxymethylcellulose as substrate and therefore referred to as C M-cellulase, was induced by cellulose, glucomannan, cellobiose and, to a limited extent, by laminaribiose and cellobionic acid. Low CM-cellulase activities were also detectable when the organism was grown on other carbon sources. In culture media supplemented with readily metabolized non-inducing substrates, such as glucose, CM-cellulase activity did not increase after their exhaustion indicating that no derepression of constitutive CM-cellulase occurred. CM-cellulase synthesis induced during growth on cellobiose was strongly inhibited, although not completely suppressed, by glucose and other carbon sources. In cultures grown on glucose and cellobiose, glucose was utilized first and CM-cellulase synthesis was repressed ; cellobiose utilization occurred only after glucose exhaustion and triggered CM-cellulase formation. When glucose was added to a culture growing on cellobiose, further utilization of the latter was prevented and CM-cellulase synthesis was inhibited. The use of glucose analogues gave some indications that cellobiose did not compete with glucose for the same transport carrier and that glucose catabolism was a prerequisite for the inhibition of CM-cellulase synthesis.


The weSPOT project aims at propagating scientific inquiry as the approach for science learning and teaching in combination with today's curricula and teaching practices. It lowers the threshold for linking everyday life with science teaching in schools by technology. weSPOT supports the meaningful contextualization of scientific concepts by relating them to personal curiosity, experiences, and reasoning. weSPOT addresses several challenges in the area of science learning and technology support for building personal conceptual knowledge. The project focuses on inquiry-based learning with a theoretically sound and technology supported personal inquiry approach.
The project is focused on three main development aspects: (a) define a reference model for inquiry-based learning skills, (b) create a diagnostic instrument for measuring inquiry skills, and (c) implement a working environment that allows the easy linking of inquiry activities with school curricula and legacy systems. The foreseen weSPOT Toolkit gives smart support for personal scientific inquiry to address a lack of scientific inquiry skills in an age group of 12-25.
The current deliverable, D2.4, outlines the inquiry guidance and assessment tutorial, to support teachers in their quest for scientific inquiry. The inquiry guidance tutorial includes several items that will introduce the weSPOT IBL model to the teachers, provide them with examples of how to use it in practice, describe the available tools and show them how they work.
This diagnostic tutorial is focused on the diagnostic instrument which will look at the entire inquiry life cycle which may start with the formulation of a research question and may end with the valorisation of the results and it will cover the four different complexities of inquiry, from confirmation inquiry to open, self-directed inquiry. The second part of the deliverable focuses on the diagnostic framework describing the adopted approach. The weSPOT diagnostic instrument for inquiry skills and competences aimed at a) to establish a European baseline of the current level of inquiry skills in the target group and b) to demonstrate the potential of the weSPOT-technology for STEM-learning in general.


Nonunion of the radial neck is uncommon after operative treatment of displaced radial head and neck fractures. Treatment of nonunion of the radial neck remains a subject of debate and various treatment options have been introduced. This study presents six patients with nonunion of the radial neck following operative treatment for displaced radial head and neck fractures and the long-term clinical outcomes of conservative treatment for nonunion of the radial neck. Three hundred and twenty-six patients underwent operative treatment for displaced fractures of the radial head and neck from 1996 to 2008; six of these patients (1.8%) developed nonunion of the radial neck. No additional surgical treatment was undertaken after nonunion was confirmed. Time from primary operation to diagnosis of nonunion, clinical presentation, radial head-shaft angle, range of motion and residual angulations on plain radiographs were documented. Functional outcomes were evaluated using the Mayo elbow performance index (MEPI) at final follow-up visit. Average time from primary operation to diagnosis of nonunion was 10.2 months. Five patients reported no functional deficits and no clinical discomfort when nonunions were confirmed. Another patient complained of mild elbow discomfort only when lifting heavy weights. All patients achieved satisfactory clinical outcomes after an average follow-up of 7.6 years. Regardless of radiological findings, no further surgical treatment is recommended for asymptomatic nonunion of the neck of the radius.


In order to enjoy creativity, the creators need to be given environmental restrictions. For example, there are rules such as Japanese Haiku or Chinese Zeku for poetry, or musical grammar for music, and these rules are supposed to enhance the creativity of the creator. However, most existing drawing software focuses only on making the process of completing a work comfortable, and does not provide much support for the goal setting process that requires environmental restrictions. In this study, based on research on creativity, such as the idea method, we were able to show that developing a drawing system that imposes environmental restrictions, such as the appearance of obstacles on the canvas, causes changes in the creativity of the subjects. In conventional drawing software, it is common to start the creative process with a blank canvas so that the painter can paint freely. However, in our experiments, many of the participants said that they were able to come up with more ideas and enjoy painting more when obstacles appeared on the canvas. By creating obstacles, we succeeded in approaching the characteristics of human visual cognition and structuring the creative process. Digital creative activities give us more control than analog creative activities. This advantage can be used to make the first step of the creative process, the idea generation process, more convenient. In analog creation, you could not choose irreversible methods such as creating obstacles on the canvas. The drawing software of the future will emphasize the process of externalizing human images and make the creative process more enjoyable, without the need to stick to a blank canvas.


1) Upon comparing Ceramic products, which have been made into samples by the exactly same construction method as prefabbed wall of apartment, with the existing products, it is revealed that there would beno diminution effect on Pollutants like TVOC and HCHO. On the contrary, from the Ceramic applied prefab-wall, some pollutants, which were not seen from normal wall-panel, had been emitted additionally. 2) When we spreaded seven kinds of catalyst products on the surface of samples of MDF furniture and tested, two of those applied samples showed stronger tendency regarding the TVOC and HCHO emission than unapplied samples. Consequently, it is clarified that there's no effect of eliminating the pollutants like TVOC and HCHO from the application of catalysts as well as ceramic. In this regard, when we consider all the results collectively which were earned from these analysises up to now, using indiscreet after-treatment materials in residential place should be applied only after prudent examination.


Abstract : A comprehensive study of relatively mature geographic information system (GIS) implementations across 38 field-level organizations on tri-service installations was conducted in 1994. The research aimed to capture responses to both the organizational and personal decisions to adopt GIS technology. A comprehensive survey protocol was employed to include quantitative instruments and structured personal interviews. Senior organizational managers, GIS managers, and all available direct and indirect GIS users were personally interviewed in each of the organizations. A number of significant implementation process trends noted highlighted the dire need for tri-service personnel to acquire greater awareness of social and technical actions required for successful adoption of GIS technology. MI direct users of the implemented GIS were administered a survey which captured their backgrounds, facilitating and inhibiting issues influencing their GIS use, their degree of reported satisfaction and system use, and their opinions of remote sensing and Global Positioning System technology issues. Factor analysis revealed a set of 12 common factors influencing GIS use across tri-service installations. Stepwise multivariate regression identified five specific factors explaining the most variance in GIS use and user satisfaction. The results provide unprecedented capability to more aggressively monitor GIS implementations and design more effective prescriptions for enhanced GIS performance. (KAR) P. 89


Human papillomavirus (HPV) is 1 of the possible aetiological factors in the development of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). We aimed to study the role of HPV in ESCC. 140 cases of ESCC were analysed for the HPV DNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using GP5+/GP6+ primers for L1 open reading frame (ORF) to amplify a 150 bp segment of HPV L1 ORF. This region was subsequently sequenced to identify the type of HPV. Of the 140 patients enrolled to our study 50.7% were female and 49.3% were male, aged between 20 and 81 y. 33 tumour specimens (23.6%) and 12 (8.6%) non-involved tumour margins were HPV positive. From HPV positive tumour cases 36% were positive in tumour margins. The HPV positive cases were 21.7% male and 25.3% female. There is no correlation between presence and types of HPV with patients' gender and age. The frequency of HPV subtypes in tumoural regions was as follows: HPV-16, 60.6%; HPV-18, 30.3%; HPV-33, 6.1%; and HPV-31, 3%. We found only HPV-16 in tumour margins. Our results are consistent with HPV studies conducted in other high-risk areas for ESCC and provided further evidence to support a causal association of HPV infection with ESCC.


The cytokine transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) plays an important role in preventing tumor formation by blocking cell cycle progression. Accordingly, many cancers demonstrate mutations in TGF-β signaling components or enhanced expression of inhibitors of the TGF-β pathway such as Smad7. In this report we show that the oncoprotein HER2/Neu is able to collaborate with the ETS transcription factor ER81 to activate Smad7 transcription in breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancer cell lines. ER81 binds to two ETS sites within the Smad7 promoter, and mutation of one of these ETS sites greatly decreases Smad7 induction by HER2/Neu and ER81. Furthermore, we show that Smad7 activation involves the processing of signals from HER2/Neu to ER81 via the ERK mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. Thus, we have uncovered a novel mechanism by which oncogenic HER2/Neu, in collaboration with ER81, can induce carcinogenesis through Smad7 up-regulation. Moreover, we show that TAK1, a TGF-β-activated protein kinase, stimulates ER81 via the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway and thereby induces the Smad7 promoter. This suggests that attenuation of TGF-β signaling by activating Smad7 transcription may proceed not only through TGF-β receptor-regulated Smad proteins but also through an independent pathway involving ER81 and TAK1.


Background: Several methods have been used to prevent post spinal hypotension including preloading, co-loading, use of vasopressors, placement of pelvic wedge, lumbar wedge and tilting of operating table in parturients undergoing cesarean section. We conducted a randomized controlled study to determine the hemodynamic effects of a standard pelvic wedge placed below the right hip immediately after the spinal block till the delivery of baby.
Methods: One hundred consenting women undergoing elective cesarean section under spinal anesthesia were randomly allocated to wedge group (N=50) and control group (N=50). A standard wedge was placed under the right pelvis soon after spinal anesthesia till the delivery of baby in wedge group whereas the control group remained supine. Hemodynamic parameters including blood pressure, heart rate, vasopressor consumption, other side effects like nausea, vomiting and neonatal outcome were also recorded.
Results: The incidence of hypotension and bradycardia was similar between groups (Wedge group 60% vs Control group 75.51%, p=0.125) before the birth of baby. The use of vasopressors (p=0.212), incidence of nausea (p=0.346) and Apgar score at 1 and 5 minutes (p=0.629, p=0.442) were also not statistically significant. None of the patients had vomiting.
Conclusion: In our study, the use of right pelvic wedge immediately after spinal anesthesia was not effective in preventing post spinal hypotension in elective cesarean section.


FOXG1 Syndrome (FS) is a devastating neurodevelopmental disorder that is caused by a heterozygous loss-of-function (LOF) mutation of the FOXG1 gene, which encodes a transcriptional regulator important for telencephalic brain development. People with FS have marked developmental delays, impaired ambulation, movement disorders, seizures, and behavior abnormalities including autistic features. Current therapeutic approaches are entirely symptomatic, however the ability to rescue phenotypes in mouse models of other genetic neurodevelopmental disorders such as Rett syndrome, Angelman syndrome, and Phelan-McDermid syndrome by postnatal expression of gene products has led to hope that similar approaches could help modify the disease course in other neurodevelopmental disorders such as FS. While FoxG1 protein function plays a critical role in embryonic brain development, the ongoing adult expression of FoxG1 and behavioral phenotypes that present when FoxG1 function is removed postnatally provides support for opportunity for improvement with postnatal treatment. Here we generated a new mouse allele of Foxg1 that disrupts protein expression and characterized the behavioral and structural brain phenotypes in heterozygous mutant animals. These mutant animals display changes in locomotor behavior, gait, anxiety, social interaction, aggression, and learning and memory compared to littermate controls. Additionally, they have structural brain abnormalities reminiscent of people with FS. This information provides the framework for future studies to evaluate the potential for post-natal expression of FoxG1 to modify the disease course in this severe neurodevelopmental disorder.


Health care presently is an ever-changing environment for all Americans, including the veteran population. New and innovative approaches to health care must include goals that maximize quality care, improve access and cost effectiveness, facilitate patient satisfaction, and optimize the functional status of patients. Recognizing the opportunities in this challenging environment, advanced practice nurses are stepping forward as competent primary care providers who can meet these goals. This article describes the establishment of primary care clinics run by advanced practice nurses in the US Department of Veterans Affairs Upper Midwest Healthcare Network, in the states of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.


It is suggested that the origin of some of the transient ionic clouds, generally assumed to be responsible for the low level sporadic radio reflexions, may be due to large cosmic ray showers. It is shown that cascade cosmic ray showers of sufficient energy to produce some of these radio reflexions certainly exist, but there is insufficient published evidence to decide whether any of the echoes already observed are actually due to such showers. More conclusive evidence could be obtained from the frequency-size distribution of the radio echoes observed from a horizontal or vertically directed beam.


History at one time drew unproblematically on records produced by human societies about themselves and their doings. Advances in biology and the earth sciences introduced new narrative resources that repositioned the human story in relation to the evolution of all else on the planet, thereby decentering earlier conceptions of time, life, and human agency. This essay reflects on what it means for our understanding of the human that the history of our species has become so intimately entangled with the material processes that make up the biosphere, while concurrently the temporal horizon of our imagination has been stretched forward and back, underscoring the brevity of human existence in relation to earthly time. I suggest that, despite significant changes in the resources with which we can rethink the human condition, drawing upon the sciences, history's fundamental purposes have not been rendered irrelevant. These center, as before, on the normative project of connecting past and future in ways that make sense of human experience and give meaning to it. In particular, the question of how humans should imagine the stewardship of the Earth in the Anthropocene remains an ethical project for history and not primarily the domain of the natural sciences.


Buildings have a significant impact on energy consumption and carbon emissions. Smart buildings are deemed to play a crucial role in improving the energy performance of buildings and cities. Managing a smart building requires the modelling of data concerning smart systems and components. While there is a significant amount of research on optimising building energy using the smart building concept, there is a dearth of studies investigating the modelling and management of smart systems' data, which is the starting point for establishing the necessary digital environment for representing a smart building. This study aimed to develop and test a solution for modelling and managing smart building information using an industry foundation classes (IFCs)-based BIM process. A conceptual model expressed in the SysML language was proposed to define a smart building. Five BIM approaches were identified as potential 'prototypes' for representing and exchanging smart building information. The fidelity of each approach is checked through a BIM-based validation process using an open-source visualisation platform. The different prototypes were also assessed using a multi-criteria comparison method to identify the preferred approach for modelling and managing smart building information. The preferred approach was prototyped and tested in a use case focused on building energy consumption monitoring to evaluate its ability to manage and visualise the smart building data. The use case was applied in a real case study using a full-scale demonstrator, namely, the 'Nanterre 3' (N3) smart building located at the CESI campus in Paris-Nanterre. The findings demonstrated that an open BIM format in the form of IFCs could achieve adequate modelling of smart building data without information loss. Future extensions of the proposed approach were finally outlined.


In the wake of the tragic collapse of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in 2011 and more than twenty five years after the nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl (1986), nuclear safety is again a top policy priority in the US. The United States is the world's largest supplier of commercial nuclear power, with more than sixty nuclear power plants governed by a complex framework of federal and state administrative, health and safety and environmental laws and regulations. Adding to the complexity of the regulatory maze, a large number of American nuclear power plants are privately owned and operated, often by large utility companies headquartered out-of-state from the sites of the power plants. This raises the issue: to what extent can state governments intervene in, or otherwise restrict, the licensure of nuclear power plant operations - a sphere traditionally thought of as preempted by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commmission? Over the past year, this question has assumed more than academic interest. Developments in the State of Vermont over the renewal of the operating license for the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant ("VY") have come to a dramatic head in February 2011, with the Vermont Senate and the Governor of Vermont vowing to block further extensions of the operating permit by all means necessary, including legal challenges. In March 2011, however, the NRC renewed the operating license for VY for an additional twenty year term (until 2032). This Article analyzes a likely federalism showdown in the US courts between the State of Vermont and the NRC, considering the possible outcomes were the case to reach the US Supreme Court. Part one examines the merits of Vermont's opposition to the extension of the operating permit, including an overview of the legislative and regulatory framework governing nuclear power generation in the US. Part two considers likely legal arguments the State of Vermont would raise to challenge the NRC. The Article concludes with an examination of the likely outcome of a legal challenge in light of the present composition of the Court, including judicial and non-judicial remedies available to the State of Vermont to address the safety concerns it has identified in the continued operation of the VY plant. In light of growing public opposition to the expansion of the nuclear industry in the US, the analysis here may illustrate the viability of legal challenges not merely in the context of VY, but in broader applications, such as the continued debate over the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository and subsequent initial licensure applications.


Dimensionality Reduction is usually achieved on the feature space by adopting any one of the prescribed methods that fall under the selected technique. Feature selection and Feature extraction being the two aforesaid techniques of reducing dimensionality, the former discards certain features that may be useful at a later stage whereas the latter re-constructs its features into a simpler dimension thereby preserving all its initial characteristics. The sole purpose of this survey is to provide an adequate comprehension of the different dimensionality reduction techniques that exist currently and also to introduce the applicability of any one of the prescribed methods depending upon the given set of parameters and varying conditions as described, under each algorithm's usage statistics. This paper also presents guidelines where in, selection of the best possible algorithm for a specific instance can be determined with ease when a condition arises where in two or more algorithms may be suitable for executing the aforementioned task.


The article examines aspects of government policy in different parts of colonial south-east Asia, and in nominally independent Siam (Thailand) in the first four decades of the twentieth century. The emphasis is on taxation and expenditure policies, and their implications for the development of infrastructure and also for the welfare of indigenous populations. Attention is also given to the impact of government regulation of both factor and product markets. On the basis of the empirical evidence, the article argues that the traditional view of the colonial state as a 'night watchman' was not applicable to most parts of south-east Asia after 1900. Governments were increasingly involved in implementing policies that today would be considered developmental, including building infrastructure and improving access to secular education and modern health care for the indigenous populations. But given the resources that they had, or had the potential to mobilize, more could have been achieved.


In this paper, we show that minimization of the statistical dependence using broadband independent component analysis (ICA) can be successfully exploited for acoustic source localization. As the ICA signal model inherently accounts for the presence of several sources and multiple sound propagation paths, the ICA criterion offers a theoretically more rigorous framework than conventional techniques based on an idealized single-path and single-source signal model. This leads to algorithms which outperform other localization methods, especially in the presence of multiple simultaneously active sound sources and under adverse conditions, notably in reverberant environments. Three methods are investigated to extract the time difference of arrival (TDOA) information contained in the filters of a two-channel broadband ICA scheme. While for the first, the blind system identification (BSI) approach, the number of sources should be restricted to the number of sensors, the other methods, the averaged directivity pattern (ADP) and composite mapped filter (CMF) approaches can be used even when the number of sources exceeds the number of sensors. To allow fast tracking of moving sources, the ICA algorithm operates in block-wise batch mode, with a proportionate weighting of the natural gradient to speed up the convergence of the algorithm. The TDOA estimation accuracy of the proposed schemes is assessed in highly noisy and reverberant environments for two, three, and four stationary noise sources with speech-weighted spectral envelopes as well as for moving real speech sources.


Arterial hypertension is widely prevalent disease (38.1% in Russia) and increases death rate with coronary heart disease 3-fold, with stroke--6-fold. Multiple prospective studies proved that opportune diagnosis of arterial hypertension and other risk factors, as well as their sufficient correction considerably lower risk of occurrence and unfavorable outcomes of arterial hypertension complications. With this, organization of prophylactic programs on outpatient basis seems extremely important.


A new genetic defect, α2-macroglobulin deficiency, was found in a patient with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). Other members of the family of five exhibiting this abnormality were the mother and one sister. All members, including the patient, had normal serum albumin and α1-antitrypsin levels. The deficiency, reported here for the first time, appears to be inherited by an autosomal co-dominant mode. Statistical evaluation of the dihybrid crosses for independent assortment between EDS and hypo-α2-macro-globulinemia showed a probability of 0.7 to 0.75. However, a possible link between EDS and hypo-a2-macroglobulinemia is suggested since the observed ratios of four siblings are exactly as expected, assuming that double gene defects are linked in the mother's genotype.


Assuming that not all background music in advertising function as effective retrieval cues for the advertised messages, this study proposes that we should be able to distinguish the retrieval cue effect of music from the simple ad exposure effect. This study tries to identify which specific characteristics of music are related to the retrieval cue effect. Our experiment focuses on congruency and familiarity of music as key characteristics of music which affect the effectiveness of the music's role as a retrieval cue for the advertised messages. We used four groups of subjects to test the retrieval cue effect of the background music. Each group was exposed to one of the four different types of background music and was again sub-divided into an experimental and a control group (i.e., a total of eight independent sub-groups were included in the experiment.) The first two sub-groups were exposed to the experimental advertisement with the background music of high congruency and high familiarity. After the ad exposure, the background music was provided as a retrieval cue to only one of the two sub-groups. Comparison of the memory performance between the two sub-groups will reveal the net retrieval cue effect of the music of high congruency and high familiarity. Similarly, another two sub-groups watched the same ad but with the background music of high congruency and low familiarity. Also the same ad but with the music of low congruency/ high familiarity was shown to another two sub-groups and that of low congruency and low familiarity music was to another two. Among the two sub-groups with the same music, only one group had the music cue at the memory tasks. One hundred and seventy four undergraduate students at the college of one of authors in Asia participated in the study. Their ages ranged from 18 to 24 with a median of 20. The sample was composed of 51.7 percent male subjects. They were randomly assigned to each of the eight sub-group. The results show that the music highly congruent with the advertised message facilitates the message retrieval, while the low congruency music cue does not. It was also found that the low familiarity music cue improves memory performance only when the music is perceived as congruent with the advertised message. From a theoretical and practical perspective, this study provides boundary conditions for effective retrieval and suggests that the congruent music specifically created for the ad is a more effective retrieval cue than other types of music cues.


This paper argues that online dispute resolution (ODR) has not been readily accepted in India's rural hinterlands. This field study involved a trip to a "typical rural village" in North India with a population of approximately 3,000 people. Barriers to acceptance include IT literacy and connectivity, English language platforms and learning resources, reliance on and preference for village-based dispute-resolution systems, mistrust of external authority, lack of awareness of the benefits of ODR, and gender and cultural issues. We find that some villagers may be interested in ODR, but its adaption requires not only outlining the advantages of ODR but also creating a sense of ownership and managing resistance to outsiders. This could be done by providing training to groups likely to benefit from ODR, including youth, women, and NGOs. The case study also has theoretical implications for the study of comparative access to legal services, the relationship between concepts of rights and local concepts of morality, and for the persistence of social structure and "traditional" means of dispute resolution despite the possibility of access to "modern" forms of legal services.


In many areas of machine learning and data science, the available data are represented as vectors of feature values. Some of these features are useful for prediction, but others are spurious or redundant. Feature selection is commonly used to determine the utility of a feature. Typically, features are selected in an all-or-none fashion for inclusion in a model. We describe an alternative approach that has received little attention in the literature: determining the relative importance of features via continuous weights, and performing multiple iterations of model training to iteratively reweight features such that the least useful features eventually obtain a weight of zero. We explore feature selection by employing iterative reweighting for two classes of popular machine learning models: L1 penalized linear models and Random Forests.
Recent studies have shown that incorporating importance weights into L1 models leads to improvement in predictive performance in a single iteration of training. In Chapter 3, we advance the state-of-the-art by developing an alternative method for estimating feature importance based on subsampling. Extending the approach to multiple iterations of training, employing the importance weights from iteration n to bias the training on iteration n + 1 seems promising, but past studies yielded no benefit to iterative reweighting. In Chapter 4, we obtain a significant reduction of 7.48% in the error rate over standard L1 penalized algorithms, and nearly as large an improvement over alternative feature selection algorithms such as Adaptive Lasso, Bootstrap Lasso, and MSA-LASSO using our improved estimates of feature importance.
In Chapter 5, we consider iterative reweighting in the context of Random Forests and contrast this with a more standard backward-elimination technique that involves training models with the full complement of features and iteratively removing the least important feature. In parallel with this contrast, we also compare several measures of importance, including our own proposal based on evaluating models constructed with and without each candidate feature. We show that our importance measure yields both higher accuracy and greater sparsity than importance measures obtained without retraining models (including measures proposed by Breiman and Strobl), though at a greater computational cost.


A new Region-based GAC (geodesic active contour) model was presented, which is the improvement of traditional GAC model. A new region-based signed pressure forces function was presented, which takes the place of the edge stopping function, and can efficiently solve the problem of segmentation of objects with weak edges or without edges. The model is implemented by level set method with a binary level set function to reduce the expensive computational cost of re-initialization of the traditional level set function. The proposed algorithm has been applied to images of different modalities with promising results, which are better than that of traditional GAC model and C-V model.