Background: Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is one of the most common occupational injuries in the United States. It would be extremely valuable if a safe, inexpensive compound could be identified which protects worker hearing from noise. In a series of experiments, Kopke has shown that the compound N-acetyl-L-cysteine (L-NAC) can protect the hearing of chinchillas from the effects of a single exposure to noise. L-NAC is used in clinical medicine and is very safe. Although L-NAC was reported to be promising, it has not been successful in other studies (Kramer et al., 2006; Hamernik et al., 2008). The present study was undertaken to determine if L-NAC could protect C57BL/6J (B6) mice from the permanent effects of noise. Method: Two groups of five B6 mice were injected with either 300 or 600 mg/kg L-NAC approximately 1 hr prior to a 104 dB broadband noise exposure and again immediately after the exposure. A control group (N = 7) was exposed to the same noise level but injected with vehicle (sterile saline). Auditory brainstem response measurements were made at 4, 8, 16 and 32 kHz one week prior to and 12 days after exposure. Conclusions: There were no statistically significant differences in ABR threshold shifts between the mice receiving LNAC and the control mice. This indicates that L-NAC was not effective in preventing permanent threshold shift in this mouse model of NIHL.


Background: Difficulty in cervical dilatation is a hard situation during the procedure of diagnostic dilatation and curettage in some cases. This study was performed to evaluate the effect of vaginal misoprostol for cervical priming before diagnostic dilatation and curettage. Methods: In this study 56 women were selected as the candidates for dilatation and curettage. The study was double blind and was performed for two parallel groups. One misoprostol tablet (200 μg) was administered in posterior fornix of vagina 2–4 hr before operation in 28 patients whereas in other 28 patients, placebo (VitB6) was used. Then, the two groups were compared according to the patency of the cervix measured by No. 5 Hegar dilators and the duration of dilatation and curettage procedure as well. Chi-square test, t-test, and Mann-Whitney U test were used for comparing two groups, and a p-value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: Before the procedure of dilatation and curettage, the patency of the cervix was measured by passing Hegar dilator number 5 through the cervical canal in fifteen (53.6%) patients in the misoprostol group and 8 patients (28.6%) in the placebo group (p=0.05) which their difference was statistically significant. The effect of misoprostol was not significant in nulliparous women and postmenopausal period either. Conclusion: Vaginal misoprostol is a useful drug for ripening and dilating the cervix. It also facilitates the procedure of dilatation and curettage in premenopausal and multiparous women. Misoprostol was less effective in nulliparous women and in postmenopausal period.


Culture of sturgeon species is of great economical and ecological importance for those countries whose natural stocks of Acipenseridae spp. have declined or been exterminated. Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baeri) is considered one of the most suitable sturgeon species for aquaculture. This study was carried out in order to introduce the Siberian sturgeon to Turkey as a potential candidate for aquaculture and to investigate the growth and feed conversion performance of this species in concrete raceways (flow- through system) used in rainbow trout farming. A growth trial was conducted using 1300, 75 days old Siberian sturgeon juveniles imported from France. The initial mean body weight of juveniles was 9.20 ∠ 0.34 g and water temperature was 16-22 iC. Juveniles were fed with commercial trout feed throughout the 135-day experiment. The final mean body weight and survival rate were found to be 225.00∠8.00 g and 91% respectively. Specific growth rate ranged from 2.90 to 1.30%day-1. The mean condition factor at the end of the experiment was measured as 0.350∠0.003 and feed conversion ratio was found to be 1.70. The mean population density at the end of the experiment was 16.60 kg/m 2 . The final yield per liter of water flow was found to be 0.90 kg/l/min. The results obtained indicate that the growth performance of the Siberian sturgeon seems to be similar and even better than that of commercially cultured species in Turkey e.g. rainbow trout, sea bass and sea bream and that the Siberian sturgeon could be easily reared in concrete raceways used in rainbow trout farming.


This paper focuses on the experience design approach in respect to automotive design. The literature review indicates that eliciting appropriate positive emotions during interaction is central to experience design.To investigate this, an exploratory study was conducted focusing on the driver's experience during interaction with the vehicle interface in a real driving situation. The study is based on a data triangulation approach including interviews, observations, and think-aloud protocol. Participants were asked to perform specific tasks while driving. During the drive they were video and audio taped. Also, they were interviewed before and after driving. The aim was to identify aspects of the driving experience that affected their emotions in a positive or
negative manner.The outcome of this study provides encouraging findings, identifying aspects of design that enhance and/or detract from the driving experience. Results suggest that context and situation have a dominant impact on the driving experience. It appears that any negative feelings are magnified if usability problems occur in high traffic situations. If this occurs driver perceives the entire experience as negative. However, if negative feelings arise when problems occur in low traffic situations, the overall experience is not affected. If no usability problems occur during the drive the overall experience appears to stay neutral. The paper concludes with implications of the findings to future design of driving interfaces and outlines further
study directions.


The aardwolf Proteles cristatus is the only known hyaenid, living or extinct, to exhibit an extremely reduced dentition related to its termite-specializing diet. The fossil record of extant aardwolves extends to 2 to 4 million years ago, but records that inform its evolutionary origins are essentially nonexistent. Such circumstance renders it difficult to place this unusual hyena in the broader evolutionary context of small-bodied hyaenid species in Eurasian Neogene deposits. Here we describe a new genus and species of a small-bodied hyaenid, Gansuyaena megalotis , representing the closest morphological link to aardwolves to date. This new fossil hyena is based on a skull with associated mandible, a rostrum preserving several teeth, and several referred specimens. The new specimens were discovered in Neogene deposits in Linxia Basin, Gansu Province, China. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that among early hyaenids, G. megalotis is most closely related, but unlikely ancestral, to the living aardwolf. Also recognized in this new species are the fossils previously referred to " Protictitherium " aff. P. gaillardi from Pasalar, Turkey. Additionally, " Plioviverrops " guerini from Los Mansuetos, Spain is interpreted to represent a second Gansuyaena species. In addition to the living aardwolf, Proteles cristatus , our analyses suggest that the proteline lineage includes the extinct genera Gansuyaena , Mesoviverrops , and Plioviverrops . Although the precise timing and geographic location of evolutionary divergence between the aardwolf and Gansuyaena remain elusive, critical new morphological information provided by Gansuyaena specimens reinforce findings from recent genomic analyses that the aardwolf lineage has an ancient origin from small-bodied stem hyaenids prior to the appearance of large and robust bone-cracking hyaenines.


Three trials were conducted to determine if feeding influenced the development of bacterial gill disease (BGD) in fingerling rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss following bath exposure to Flavobacterium branchiophilum (LAB 4a). In each trial (Trial 1. n = 70 X 3; Trial 2, n = 140 X 3 ; Trial 3, n = 250 X 3), the comparison groups (fed, unfed, negative controls) were held in similar conditions and (where applicable) fed prior to exposure to the pathogen. Severe clinical signs and high rates of mortality developed within 24 h in fish which were provided feed following the bath exposure. Cumulative mortalities ranged from 43 to 63% by 12 d post-exposure Unfed fish demonstrated only mild and transient clinical signs of BGD, and cumulative mortalities of 0 to 2 % 12 d post-exposure. In one trial, resumption of feeding 6 d post-exposure resulted in 26% cumulative mortality within 7 d. Estimation of the quantity of F branchiophilum antigen by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) indicated that feeding facilitated colonization of the gill. The evaluation of water quality and direct observations suggest that the influence of feeding on BGD is linked to the consumption of feed by the fish, rather than to environmental changes arising from feeding. Alterations in the unstirred layer on the gill, secondary to feed consumption and waste excretion, may aid bacterial colonization.


Chlamydiae are prokaryotic obligate intracellular parasites that undergo a biphasic life cycle involving an infectious, extracellular form known as elementary bodies and an intracellular, replicating form termed reticulate bodies. We have purified from Chlamydia trachomatis a very basic elementary body-specific protein with an apparent molecular mass of 18 kDa, determined its N-terminal amino acid sequence, and cloned the encoding gene. Sequence analysis of the cloned gene revealed some remarkable properties for its expressed product, including a high lysine content (29%), a correspondingly high pI, and significant homology to the H1 class of eukaryotic histones. Furthermore, a monoclonal antibody to this chlamydial histone analog, termed Hc1, displayed immunoblot and antinuclear specificity suggestive of cross-reactivity to H1 histones. The gene was expressed only during the late stages of the chlamydial life cycle concomitant with the reorganization of chlamydial reticulate bodies into elementary bodies, suggesting that the Hc1 protein plays a role in the condensation of chlamydial chromatin during intracellular differentiation.


Abstract Analcime forms in a wide range of geologic environments from alkaline lakes to primary igneous occurrences in Si-undersaturated lavas and pegmatites and is present in many radioactive waste repository settings. To evaluate its hydration state in these environments, calorimetric-hydration heat measurements, equilibrium observations, and thermodynamic modeling were performed. The enthalpy of hydration of analcime determined by isothermal adsorption calorimetry was found to be independent of degree of hydration and relatively insensitive to temperature. Equilibrium hydration states of analcime as a function of temperature and vapor pressure were assessed by isothermal thermogravimetry. In light of the lack of excess enthalpy of mixing in this solution, an ideal solution model was applied to the equilibrium observations along with previously determined heat capacities hydration to retrieve the standard Gibbs energy of hydration from water vapor (-47.29 ± 0.56 kJ/ mol H2O), standard enthalpy of hydration (-85.10 ± 1.03 kJ/mol H2O), and entropy of hydration (-126.81 ± 1.60 J/mol H2O⋅K) at 298.15 K, 1 bar. The standard enthalpy of hydration at 298.15 K, 1 bar regressed from the calorimetric data are consistent with these results (-86.4 ± 1.9 kJ/mol H2O). Calculations of the hydration state of analcime as a function of temperature and pressure indicate that analcime is essentially fully hydrated at temperature and pressure conditions attending its formation in geologic and experimental systems. Dehydration of analcime under water-undersaturated conditions (as during heating in a radioactive waste repository) may contribute significantly to thermal budgets in systems where this phase is important.


Parallelism is demonstrated between the arcuate structure of the Mackenzie Mountains and certain elements in the deformed pile of sedimentary rocks, namely: (1) unrestored zero edges of the younger Proterozoic (Windermere equivalent) succession and its constituent formations, and (2) isopachs of three widely spaced formations in the older Proterozoic (Belt-Purcell equivalent) succession. The data suggest that the configuration of the northeastern flank of the Proterozoic basin(s), established during the Helikian, preordained the arcuate form of the Mackenzie Mountains.


Recommendations for reform in science education place a premium on students' understanding of scientific concepts and their ability to identify problems, conduct inquiry, and use information flexibly. They call for an appreciation for how ideas evolve and are validated. In this article we discuss changes in ideas about learning that underpin the reforms. We then describe our experiences with project-based science, a pedagogy that addresses the reform recommendations. Project-based science focuses on student-designed inquiry that is organized by investigations to answer driving questions, includes collaboration among learners and others, the use of new technology, and the creation of authentic artifacts that represent student understanding. Finally, we illustrate the challenges this type of innovation poses for teachers' classroom practice, for professional development, and for policy.


BACKGROUND Augmented renal clearance (ARC) is common in trauma patients and associated with subtherapeutic antimicrobial concentrations. This study reported the incidence of ARC, identified ARC risk factors, and described a model to predict ARC (i.e., ARCTIC) that is specific to trauma patients. METHODS Consecutive trauma patients who were admitted to the intensive care unit between March 2015 and January 2016 and had a measured creatinine clearance (CrCl) were considered for inclusion. Patients were excluded if their serum creatinine (SCr) was greater than 1.3 mg/dL. ARC was defined as a measured CrCl of 130 mL/min or greater. Demographic and trauma-specific variables were then compared, and multivariate analysis was performed. Using these results, a weighted scoring system was constructed and evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. ARCTIC score cutoffs were chosen based on sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value. The derived scoring system was then compared to a previously published scoring system for accuracy. RESULTS There were 133 patients with a mean age of 48 ± 19 years and SCr of 0.8 ± 0.2 mg/dL. The mean measured CrCl was 168 ± 65 mL/min, and the incidence of ARC was 67%. Multivariate analysis revealed the following risk factors for ARC (age, <56: odds ratios [OR], 58.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 5.2–658.9; age, 56 to 75: OR, 13.5; 95% CI, 1.2–151.7), SCr less than 0.7 mg/dL (OR, 12.5; 95% CI, 3–52.6), and male sex (OR, 6.9; 95% CI, 1.9–24.9). Using these results, the ARCTIC scoring system was: 4 points if younger than 56 years, 3 points if aged 56 years to 75 years, 3 points if SCr less than 0.7 mg/dL, and 2 points if male sex. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed an area (95% CI) of 0.813 (0.735–0.892) (p < 0.001). An ARCTIC score of 6 or higher had a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of 0.843, 0.682, 0.843, and 0.682, respectively. CONCLUSION The incidence of ARC in trauma patients is high. The ARCTIC score represents a practical, pragmatic system that can be easily applied at the bedside. An ARCTIC score of 6 or higher represents an appropriate cutoff to screen for ARC where antimicrobial adjustments should be considered. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Prognostic/epidemiologic study, level III.


Learning auxiliary tasks, such as multiple predictions about the world, can provide many benefits to reinforcement learning systems. A variety of off-policy learning algorithms have been developed to learn such predictions, but as yet there is little work on how to adapt the behavior to gather useful data for those off-policy predictions. In this work, we investigate a reinforcement learning system designed to learn a collection of auxiliary tasks, with a behavior policy learning to take actions to improve those auxiliary predictions. We highlight the inherent non-stationarity in this continual auxiliary task learning problem, for both prediction learners and the behavior learner. We develop an algorithm based on successor features that facilitates tracking under non-stationary rewards, and prove the separation into learning successor features and rewards provides convergence rate improvements. We conduct an in-depth study into the resulting multi-prediction learning system.


Can one trade sensor quality for quantity? While larger networks with greater sensor density promise to allow us to use noisier sensors yet measure subtler phenomena, aggregating data and designing decision rules is challenging. Motivated by dense, participatory seismic networks, we seek efficient aggregation methods for event detection. We propose to perform aggregation by sparsification: roughly, a sparsifying basis is a linear transformation that aggregates measurements from groups of sensors that tend to co-activate, and each event is observed by only a few groups of sensors. We show how a simple class of sparsifying bases provably improves detection with noisy binary sensors, even when only qualitative information about the network is available. We then describe how detection can be further improved by learning a better sparsifying basis from network observations or simulations. Learning can be done offline, and makes use of powerful off-the-shelf optimization packages. Our approach outperforms state of the art detectors on real measurements from seismic networks with hundreds of sensors, and on simulated epidemics in the Gnutella P2P communication network.


Recent technological advances have led to the growing popularity of traffic-related social media platforms which facilitate drivers to easily share, consume and exchange traffic information instead of the traditional ways using TV or radio. By integrating the information systems success model, social capital theory and dedication-based commitment mechanism, the purpose of this paper is to examine the varying degree of effectiveness in maintaining user's continuance intention between two different social media platforms for traffic information.,The data were collected through online questionnaires from two platforms. One is a multi-channel traffic information community that has been specialized in traffic information for many years and has adopted several kinds of social media to engage with its audience. The other is a community-based traffic application created to help people exchange and contribute traffic information with real-time navigation.,The findings show that the effects of satisfaction and affective commitment on continuance intention are stronger in the community-based traffic application while their antecedents play different roles in shaping satisfaction and affective commitment due to the nature and characteristics of these two groups.,This study will be the first attempt to understand what matters to users and what can retain users to routinely use a specific traffic-related social media platform in their daily lives. This is also one of the first empirical studies that examine both transactional and relational points of view on users' continuance intention.


Nanometer-sized W-dendritic form structure was fabricated with electron-beam-induced deposition (EBID) in a 200 kV transmission electron microscope. The as-prepared nanodendrites are composed of W-nanocrystals and amorphous. The as-prepared nanodendrites were then irradiated with 1 MeV electron beam in a high voltage transmission electron microscope. The effect of the irradiation is investigated. The irradiation transformed effectively almost all the amorphous part to crystalline state. Morphology of the nanodendrite also changes. The irradiation induced crystallization and morphology change are discussed.


Effective flood risk management is critical to protect people and their livelihoods from flooding and to limit future losses. Nature-based measures and their ability to address flood risk are receiving increasing attention. Until recently, most flood risk management involved conventional engineering measures. These measures are sometimes referred to as "hard" engineering or "gray" infrastructure. Examples include building embankments, dams, levees, and channels to control flooding. Recently the concept of "nature-based solutions", "ecosystem-base adaptation", "eco-DRR" or "green infrastructure" has emerged as a good alternative or complement to traditional gray approaches. Nature-based solutions make use of natural processes and ecosystem services for functional purposes, such as decreasing flood risk or improving water quality. The objective of this document is to present five principles and implementation guidance for planning, such as evaluation, design, and implementation of nature-based solutions for flood risk management as an alternative to or complementary to conventional engineering measures. The potential users of these principles and implementation steps are professionals in risk management and climate adaptation, NGOs, donors, and international organizations. This guidance was developed in cooperation with a large and diverse group of international funding agencies, research institutes, NGOs, governmental organizations, and engineering firms


We have analyzed 5.5 years of timing observations of 7 "slowly" rotating radio pulsars, made with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope. We present improved timing solutions and 30, mostly small, new glitches. Particularly interesting are our results on PSR J1814−1744, which is one of the pulsars with similar rotation parameters and magnetic field strength to the Anomalous X-ray Pulsars (AXPs). Although the high-B radio pulsars do not show X-ray emission, and no radio emission is detected for AXPs, the roughly similar glitch parameters provide us with another tool to compare these classes of neutron stars. Furthermore, we were able to detect glitches one to two orders of magnitude smaller than before, for example in our well-sampled observations of PSR B0355+54. We double the total number of known glitches in PSR B1737−30, and improve statistics on glitch sizes for this pulsar individually and pulsars in general. We detect no significant variations in dispersion measure for PSRs B1951+32 and B2224+65, two pulsars located in high-density surroundings. We discuss the effect of small glitches on timing noise, and show it is possible to resolve timing-noise looking structures in the residuals of PSR B1951+32 by using a set of small glitches.


We live in an ongoing dynamic of integrating diverted thoughts, methods, disciplines and activities. Scholars and politicians make their efforts to invent the needed changes in education and social initiatives. Divided between regimes and values, it is inevitable to cope with conflictual dilemmas: preserving conservative identities from the one hand, and encouraging multi-cultural attitudes from the other hand. These contradictory approaches arise critical questions about how to train the future teachers and educators. Does it mean that segregation is 'wrong pedagogy' and integrative subjects with synergetic models is the right direction for the next generation? Training teachers in the state of Israel arise more difficulties, regarding multiculturalism, geo-political conflicts and the divided faculties in most academic institutions. Lately, there are some moves to change these structural policies. This study suggests some theoretical and practical examples, taken from the Kibbutzim College of Education, which prove the advantage of synergetic thoughts and practices, and how they improve the teachers' ecosystems: New academic approaches are being generalized by the idea to bond between faculties, disciplines and professional training with updated activities in any relevant aspect. attitudes; Ecosystem; Segregation; Synergy; Teachers Conservative : Keywords


Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) become activated during the meiotic maturation of oocytes from many species; however, their molecular targets remain unknown. This led us to characterize the activation of the ribosomal subunit S6 kinase of Mr 82 X 10(3) - 92 X 10(3) (p90rsk; a major substrate of MAPK in somatic cells) in maturing mouse oocytes and during the first cell cycle of the mouse embryo. We assessed the phosphorylation state of p90rsk by examining the electrophoretic mobility shifts on immunoblots and measured the kinase activity of immunoprecipitated p90rsk on a S6-derived peptide. Germinal vesicle stage (GV) oocytes contained a doublet of Mr 82 x 10(3) and 84 x 10(3) with a low S6 peptide kinase activity (12% of the maximum level found in metaphase II oocytes). A band of Mr 86 x 10(3) was first observed 30 minutes after GV breakdown (GVBD) and became prominent within 2 to 3 hours. MAPK was not phosphorylated 1 hour after GVBD, when the p90rsk-specific S6 kinase activity reached 37 % of the M II level. 2 hours after GVBD, MAPK became phosphorylated and p90rsk kinase activity reached 86% of the maximum level. The p90rsk band of Mr 88 x 10(3), present in mature M II oocytes when S6 peptide kinase activity is maximum, appeared when MAPK phosphorylation was nearly complete (2.5 hours after GVBD). In activated eggs, the dephosphorylation of p90rsk to Mr 86 X 10(3) starts about 1 hour after the onset of pronuclei formation and continues very slowly until the beginning of mitosis, when the doublet of Mr 82 X 10(3) and 84 X 10(3) reappears. A role for a M-phase activated kinase (like p34cdc2) in p90rsk activation was suggested by the reappearance of the Mr 86 X 10(3) band during first mitosis and in 1-cell embryos arrested in M phase by nocodazole. The requirement of MAPK for the full activation of p90rsk during meiosis was demonstrated by the absence of the fully active Mr 88 X 10(3) band in maturing c-mos -/- oocytes, where MAPK is not activated. The inhibition of kinase activity in activated eggs by 6-DMAP after second polar body extrusion provided evidence that both MAPK- and p90rsk-specific phosphatases are activated at approximately the same time prior to pronuclei formation.


Introduction: Padadari (Cracked heels) is one of the commonly existing podiatric diseases in our society, which is basically caused by the habit of excessive walking that is often associated with excessive dryness leading to the cracking or splitting. Kokum butter oil extracted from the seeds of Vrukshamla (Garcinia indica Choisy.) is used by folklore Vaidyas in Western Ghats of India to treat Padadari, but no study has been documented till date regarding its efficacy in the management of the Padadari. The drug is available easily and used extensively in folk practice. Methods: The Vrukshamla beeja taila (VBT) was prepared by traditional seed-kernel boiling method and then given to 23 patients of Padadari, which were selected from out-patient and in-patient departments of SDM Hospital of Ayurveda, Udupi. It was given for external application on the site of lesion for twice a day that is morning and night before sleeping, for 15 days. Results: Except oozing, all assessment parameters were found to be statistically significant. Conclusion: The study revealed that the VBT a significant effect in the management of Padadari.


Consumer reactions to automated vehicle control technologies were studied. The motivating hypothesis was that current users of cruise control value the relaxation benefits they gain from its use and would therefore be early adopters of more automated controls. Four focus groups were conducted, two with avid users of cruise control and two with infrequent users. The hypothesis was not borne out: avid users valued cruise control as a driving aid more than as a means to relax and thus had little interest in more advanced automated controls. Less frequent users, in contrast, were more attracted to the automated controls because of the increased safety benefits they could provide in emergencies, although the users expressed concern about reliance on those automations in inappropriate circumstances. It is hypothesized that (a) avid cruise control users are not a special early market; (b) safety is the primary feature, both negatively and positively, in defining the early market; and (c) convenience is not likely to be a primary feature attacting early adopters of automated driving controls.


The purpose of this study is to assess preservice teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching statistics (MKT-S) and identify the relationship between the components of this knowledge. For this purpose, MKT-S instrument consisting of two dimensions, 'content knowledge' (CK) and 'pedagogical content knowledge' (PCK) was developed, and applied to 659 preservice middle school mathematics teachers (PTs). Confirmatory factor analysis showed that CK and PCK are two different dimensions of mathematical knowledge of teaching statistics. Third year and fourth year preservice teachers' factor scores were significantly different and fourth year preservice teachers' factor scores were slightly higher. It was found that CK factor scores were highly correlated with PCK factor scores. The reliability levels were 0.65 for CK factor scores and 0.76 for PCK factor scores. MKT-S instrument developed in this study has several implications for teacher education. MKT-S instrument can be used to evaluate efficiency of PTs' mathematical knowledge for teaching statistics. Instrument can be adapted for in-service teachers.


The treatment of adenocarcinoma of the cervix has traditionally followed that of squamous cancer. A 25-year review of 88 radical hysterectomies for Stage IB adenocarcinoma of the cervix at the University of Miami/Jackson Medical Center (UM) is compared to over 1600 cases reported in the literature. Adenocarcinoma represented 10.4% of 978 radical hysterectomies performed at UM from July 1965 to December 1990. In a survey of the literature, patients with Stage IB cervical adenocarcinoma treated by radical surgery alone had a statistically better 5-year survival than those treated by radiation alone (79% vs 67%, respectively; P < or = 0.05). Furthermore, no additional benefit was achieved by combining the two therapeutic modalities. The corrected 5-year survival at UM is 81% for Stage IB adenocarcinoma of the cervix treated with radical hysterectomy, a number consistent with the cumulative data base. Radical surgery is an acceptable primary therapy in Stage IB adenocarcinoma of the cervix.


Recently, the deregulation and liberalization in power market increase the competition in retail and power sector. Therefore power company needs to reduce operational cost and maximizes the profit by operating generator with higher efficiency. On the other hand, energy consumption is increasing rapidly due to the proliferation of all-electric houses. So the controllable load such as electric water heater, heat pump and electric vehicles are introduced to power systems. However conventional system does not operate the thermal unit and controllable load in a coordinated manner. This paper focuses on operating the controllable load, battery and thermal units in a coordinated manner. Furthermore, this paper consider the forecasted error for load demand and renewable energy. The proposed method uses a tabu search for optimization method. Optimizing procedure is divided by two parts. Firstly, actual load is controlled by controllable load and battery. Finally, the schedule of thermal unit commitment problem is decided in the revised load.


Author(s): Braberg, Hannes | Advisor(s): Krogan, Nevan J | Abstract: Genetic interactions describe how the presence of one gene affects the function of a second gene. Negative genetic interactions arise when two mutations together cause a stronger growth defect than expected based on the individual single mutations, while positive genetic interactions correspond to cases where the double mutant is either no sicker (epistatic) or healthier (suppressive) than the sickest single mutant. Our lab has developed a high-throughput technology in budding yeast for quantitative analysis of the entire spectrum of genetic interactions, termed epistatic miniarray profile (E-MAP). The genetic profiles generated by this method provide highly specific readouts that can be used to identify genes that are functionally related. In this dissertation I describe my work related to the employment and extension of the E-MAP technology. With collaborators, I have interrogated several biological processes using E-MAPs, including the phosphorylation network, RNA processing, lipid metabolism, and the plasma membrane. We further extended the technology to facilitate analysis of higher-order genetic interactions by examination of triple mutants, and we developed an adaptation of E-MAP to function in E. coli.My main focus was on the development of an important advance of the E-MAP technology, which allows us to address higher levels of complexity by examining genetic interactions of point mutant alleles of multi-functional genes. The technique, termed point mutant E-MAP (or pE-MAP), greatly increases the achievable resolution as it allows assignment of genetic relationships to individual residues and domains. We applied this system to genetically dissect RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) in budding yeast, and generated a pE-MAP comprising ~60,000 quantitative genetic interactions. Using these data, we assigned functions to RNAPII sub-domains and uncovered connections to protein complexes. The pE-MAP further allowed us to characterize connections related to RNAPII activity. These include an inverse relationship between in vitro transcription rate and in vivo splicing efficiency, classification of fast and slow mutants that shift transcription start upstream and downstream, respectively, and identification of Sub1 as a positive transcription factor that regulates start site selection and influences splicing. The pE-MAP approach provides a powerful strategy to understand other multi-functional machines at amino acid resolution.


Summary form only given. To consolidate a body of knowledge built upon evidence, experimental results have to be extensively verified. Experiments need replication at other times and under other conditions before they can produce an established piece of knowledge. Several replications need to be run to strengthen the evidence. Most SE experiments have not been replicated. If an experiment is not replicated, there is no way to distinguish whether results were produced by chance (the observed event occurred accidentally), results are artifactual (the event occurred because of the experimental configuration but does not exist in reality) or results conform to a pattern existing in reality. The immaturity of experimental SE knowledge has been an obstacle to replication. Context differences usually oblige SE experimenters to adapt experiments for replication. As key experimental conditions are yet unknown, slight changes in replications have led to differences in the results that prevent verification. There are still many uncertainties about how to proceed with replications of SE experiments. Should replicators reuse the baseline experiment materials? How much liaison should there be among the original and replicating experimenters, if any? What elements of the experimental configuration can be changed for the experiment to be considered a replication rather than a new experiment? The aim of replication is to verify results, but different types of replication serve special verification purposes and afford different degrees of change. Each replication type helps to discover particular experimental conditions that might influence the results. We need to learn which types of replications are feasible in SE as well as the acceptable changes for each type and the level of verification provided.


Emotion recognition in conversation (ERC) aims to detect the emotion label for each utterance.
Motivated by recent studies which have proven that feeding training examples in a meaningful order rather than considering them randomly can boost the performance of models, we propose an ERC-oriented hybrid curriculum learning framework. Our framework consists of two curricula: (1) conversation-level curriculum (CC); and (2) utterance-level curriculum (UC). In CC, we construct a difficulty measurer based on ``emotion shift'' frequency within a conversation, then the conversations are scheduled in an ``easy to hard" schema according to the difficulty score returned by the difficulty measurer. For UC, it is implemented from an emotion-similarity perspective, which progressively strengthens the model's ability in identifying the confusing emotions. With the proposed model-agnostic hybrid curriculum learning strategy, we observe significant performance boosts over a wide range of existing ERC models and we are able to achieve new state-of-the-art results on four public ERC datasets.


I see the development of chemical pathology in Great Britain in two phases, the first up to the end of the second world war, and the second since that time. In the earlier phase the emphasis was on the word chemical. The chemical pathologist was above all an analyst and this was the golden age for the development of new methods based on the traditional techniques of the chemist. The medical consequences of the results were not always well known or appreciated and so there was a tendency to regard a medical qualification as much less important than a scientific qualification in this branch of hospital laboratory work. This view is still held in some circles. I do not share it. Since the war, the outlook has been changing and now the emphasis is increasingly on the word 'pathology'. The chemical pathologist must be first and foremost medically qualified, that is to say, he must be a clinical pathologist, as one of his important duties is to help both in diagnosis and in treatment. A number of developments have contributed to this change of outlook. The first of these is the considerable extension of our knowledge of human biochemistry, as this is changing the face of medicine. The physician needs to know not only what is happening, but why, and this often leads to a biochemical explanation so that treatment is becoming daily less empirical. Therefore if pathologists are to have a place as doctors and not as technicians only it must be because they can bring to the problems of medicine a scientific knowledge more extensive than that which clinicians have the time to acquire. In my view the primary examination for membership of our College could well require biochemistry at a level intermediate between that of the undergraduate medical curriculum and that of an honours B.Sc. school, and this without regard to the branches of pathology that the candidate was offering. Another development has been the introduction of techniques which belong to physics rather than to chemistry. An obvious example is flame photometry. Physical methods are creeping in and these are usually quicker and more accurate. A third development I wish to mention is auto-


Objective: Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is marked by 'the sudden death of an infant that is unexpected by history and remains unexplained after a thorough forensic autopsy and a detailed death scene investigation'. The cause is unknown. Excessive subglottic submucosal glandular tissue and excessive sulphated mucus glycoprotein in the larynges of SIDS babies have been previously reported from our institution. We now report on laryngeal immunohistology. Methods: Larynges from 7 children who died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) at under 16 weeks of age were examined immunohistologically and compared to those from 8 age- matched control infants who died from other causes. Results: The SIDS babies had increased inflammatory changes in the laryngeal epithelium and sub- epithelium with raised numbers of cells staining for elastase (p<0.01), EG2(a marker for activated eosinophils) (p<0.01) and CD4(p<0.05) suggesting that some SIDS deaths involve preceding inflammation. Conclusions: Although death may be sudden and unexpected it appears that, at least in some SIDS victims, there is a preceding inflammatory process in the larynx which may allow hyper-reactivity of laryngeal reflexes and consequent apnoea. This observation concurs with others in the SIDS literature and offers a field for further research and possible prevention.


ABSTRACT The intertidal zone in Craig Bay extends 1200 m offshore making it the broadest non-estuarine tidal flat on the east coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Superimposed on the low gradient foreshore (1:360) are up to fourteen low amplitude (<=0.6 m) ridges with an average wavelength of 86.3 m. These are permanent fixtures of the intertidal zone exhibiting considerable stability in both form and position. They are generally symmetrical in cross section and in no instance is a landward slip face evident. The ridges have developed in medium-to-fine sand atop a coarse deltaic platform. The thickness of this surficial sand unit is often equal only to the height of the ridges, and the gravel sustrate is frequently exposed in the depressions. The morphology, sediments, and hydraulic environment of this rhythmic foreshore were examined to provide insight into the factors controlling ridge development and maintenance. Although the maximum tidal range exceeds 5.0 m, tidal currents are of limited importance; only in the major runnels are velocities sufficient to initiate sediment transport. Waves within the Strait of Georgia are locally generated (H1/3 <= 3.0 m, T1/3 <= 7.0 s) and appear to the the prime agent responsible for the formation and maintenance of this variant of ridge and runnel morphology. The dominant bedform across the intertidal zone is the wave-formed ripple, although current ripples may locally predominate. Small-scale cross-stratification, which is associated with these bedforms, is the most common primary physical sedimentary structure in the surficial sand unit. However, a large proportion of the cores were structureless. This is attributed to bioturbation by sand dollars (Dendraster excentricus) and to a lesser extent to air entrapment and water escape.


In this case study we discuss the mechanics of running a complex field research project within one week: 32 field visits, 4 countries, 9 locations, 10+ researchers, 30+ observers. We outline the goals that lead to this project plan, and the tools and processes we developed to succeed under the constraints given. We discuss in particular (1) the role of ongoing in-field analysis and data sharing, (2) the role of basecamp as a centralized mission control center and real-time analysis hub, and (3) the added value of running the study and initial analysis in such a compressed time frame. We close with a reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of this approach, as well as ideas for future improvements.


When quantifying the mixing properties of a quantum dynamical system in terms of dynamical entropy, the following scheme appears natural: observe the state of the system at regular time intervals while it evolves and determine the entropy produced over time. It is clear that this entropy will not only depend on the type of dynamics, but also on the type of observations. Intuitively, one can expect that some measurements are better suited than others to reveal information about the dynamics, whereas many will generate undesirable noise. In this paper, we show for two widely used model systems that the dynamical entropy is rather robust in this respect. More precisely, general local positive operator-valued measurements may be restricted to von Neumann-type measurements for the shift on a quantum spin chain and gauge-invariant ones for the shift on a Fermion chain.


This paper describes a tool that facilitates the linguistic coding of corpus material, through the efficient prompting of the user for relevant categories. Linguistic features are organised in terms of an inheritance network to reduce the amount of coding effort. These codings can then be exported in a form readable by statistical packages.


Background: Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC), is an emergent pathogen that causes sporadic infections and outbreaks of gastroenteritis associated with consumption of contaminated food products. Because detection of EHEC in diarrhea patients is not routinely performed, infection is most probably underestimated. Aim: To compare three techniques to detect EHEC: Colony hybridization with DNA probes, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the detection of stx1 and stx2 genes and immunoenzymatic detection by ELISA (Premier EHEC) of Stx1 and Stx2 toxins. Material and methods: Four outbreaks of food-borne gastroenteritis were studied including 16 patients and 78 strains of E coli. Twenty one (26,9%) strains, hybridized with the stx1 probe, 1 (1,3%) hybridized only with the stx2 probe and 36 (46,1%) with both probes. PCR amplification for cytotoxin genes was observed in 6 strains (7,7%) from the second outbreak studied. The immunoenzimatic assay detected the cytotoxins in 18 (23,0%), of the 78 studied strains. Agreement between probes and ELISA was 44,8%, between PCR and probes 34,7% and 82,4% between ELISA and PCR. Conclusions: These results indicate a variable yield among different EHEC detection techniques. Considering PCR as the gold standard, ELISA technique showed a better sensitivity and specificity than probes (Rev Med Chile 2002; 130: 603-9)


To ensure correctly operating control systems, the measurement and control equipment in WWTPs must be mutually consistent. The dynamic simulation of activated sludge systems could offer a suitable tool for designing and optimising control strategies. Ideal or simplified sensor models represent a limiting factor for comparability with field applications. More realistic sensor models are therefore required. Two groups of sensor models are proposed on the basis of field and laboratory tests: one for specific sensors and another for a classification of sensor types to be used with the COST simulation benchmark environment. This should lead to a more realistic test environment and allow control engineers to define the requirements of the measuring equipment as a function of the selected control strategy.


Community discovery has drawn significant research interests among researchers from many disciplines for its increasing application in multiple, disparate areas, including computer science, biology, social science and so on. This paper describes an LDA(latent Dirichlet Allocation)-based hierarchical Bayesian algorithm, namely SSN-LDA (simple social network LDA). In SSN-LDA, communities are modeled as latent variables in the graphical model and defined as distributions over the social actor space. The advantage of SSN-LDA is that it only requires topological information as input. This model is evaluated on two research collaborative networkst: CtteSeer and NanoSCI. The experimental results demonstrate that this approach is promising for discovering community structures in large-scale networks.


In concentrated polymer brushes (CPBs) prepared by surface-initiated living radical polymerization, graft chains in a good solvent are highly stretched, nearly to their full length, giving properties quite different and unpredictable from those of semi-dilute polymer brushes (SDPBs) previously studied. This paper reviews our recent studies on the microtribology of confronted CPBs in solvents. Atomic force microscopy revealed that the CPBs of poly(methyl methacrylate) and poly(styrene) showed dramatically low frictional coefficients in good solvents compared with those of the corresponding SDPBs. This was reasonably ascribed to confronted CPBs hardly mixing with each other due to their huge osmotic and elastic interactions. The lubrication mechanism of CPBs was discussed according to the sliding-speed dependency of frictional coefficient, and two different mechanisms, boundary and hydrodynamic lubrications, were suggested. Thermo-responsive lubrication was also demonstrated for the CPB of poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide). We believe that these studies will open up a new route to precision surface modification for "super" lubrication.


Because the status of nature is ambiguous in Being and Time, we explore an ecological perspective on Heidegger's early main work in this article. Our hypothesis is that the affordance theory of James Gibson enables us to a) to understand being-in-the-world as being-in-nature, b) reconnect man and nature and c) understand the twofold sense of nature in Being and Time. After exploring Heidegger's concept of being-in-the-world and Gibson's concept of being-in-nature, we confront Heidegger's and Gibson's conception of being-in-the-world and being-in-nature. It will become clear that Gibson's affordance theory enables an ecological reading of Being and Time, in which the relational character of being-in-the-world is stressed and the exceptional position of human being-in-the-world has to be rejected. Moreover, it becomes clear that an ecological reading of Being and Time enables us to reconnect being-in-the world with being-in-nature (unconcealment), which is rooted in "primordial" nature as its infinite origin (concealment).


Extant consumer research literature focuses on the subtleties, multiplicity of meanings, and values consumers attach to acquisition of personal possessions. Researchers have devoted less attention to consumers' disposition behaviors, including factors that influence disposition decisions. This paper explores voluntary disposition using data gathered through participant observations and in-depth interviews with a range of consumers, including those involved in clothing exchange (CE) events. The findings provide support for the a priori themes of values and consumption patterns, extending the life of self and goods, and consumers' self-concept. Additionally, the findings yield emergent themes of role transitions, role models and family patterns, and shared community. Utilizing our findings, and extant literature, we propose a conceptual Framework of Voluntary Disposition that can be utilized to analyze further meanings of consumer disposition patterns in different contexts.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In recent years, the growing attention in the study of the compressive sensing (CS) theory suggested a novel classification algorithm called sparse representation-based classifier (SRC), which obtained promising results by casting classification as a sparse representation problem. Whereas SRC has been applied to different fields of applications and several variations of it have been proposed, less attention has been given to its critical parameters, that is, measurements correlated to its performance. This work underlines the differences between CS and SRC, it gives a mathematical definition of five measurements possible correlated to the performance of SRC and identifies three of them as critical parameters. The knowledge of the critical parameters is necessary to fuse multiple scores of SRC classifiers allowing for classification. The authors addressed the problem of two-dimensional face classification: using the Extended Yale B dataset to monitor the critical parameters and the Extended Cohn-Kanade database to test the robustness of SRC with emotional faces. Finally, the authors increased the initial performance of the holistic SRC with a block-based SRC, which uses one critical parameter for automatic selection of the most successful blocks.


This article takes stock of the growing field of online deliberation research. Our review of the theoretical and empirical findings is guided by a framework encompassing the three relevant components of deliberation: the institutional design that enables and fosters deliberation (institutional input: "design"), the quality of the communication process (communicative throughput: "process"), and the expected results of deliberation (productive outcome: "results"). Our findings show that scholarly attention is unevenly distributed across the different components of the framework. Most research has focused on the quality of the online discussion (process). A fair amount of research has focused on the institutional conditions fostering deliberation (design), while the outcomes of online deliberation processes (results) have mostly been neglected. This picture is repeated in terms of the causal relations between design, process, and results of deliberation: Most studies have dealt with the effects of the platform design on the degree of deliberation (design-process). Much less is known about how the process of deliberation shapes the outcomes of deliberation (process-results). Studies investigating all three aspects of deliberation and their causal links (design-process-results) are particularly rare.


In this study I examine the relationship between syntactic working memory and intermediate gap positions in longdistance filler-gap dependencies. An "intermediate" gap position is a structural position, distinct from verbal argument positions, which is available to the filler at a clause edge between its surface dislocated position and its original canonical position. I will use anterior negativity (AN) as an index of working memory resources as the filler is held by the parser before its integration in the final gap position. Under the hypothesis that such an available intermediate gap position offers a temporary integration of the filler, an attenuation of the anterior negativity is expected at the intermediate gap site. However, this attenuation is not observed, suggesting either that this intermediate gap position is in fact not available to the parser as a site of temporary integration, or that such integration has no mitigating effect on working memory resources.


Shin Eon-jun and Karashima interacted with Lu Xun during a similar period but their relationships with him proceeded in different directions. Shin Eon-jun participated in the independence movements in Korea, introduced Lu Xun from the progressive position, and actively reported the political situation and philosophical trends in China. On the other hand, Karashima put his major focus on Lu Xun and left wing literature, when introducing the new literature of China, but gradually revealed an opportunistic attitude and actively participated in promoting Japan's "National Policy."


The growth and characterization of a nonlinear inorganic crystal, alpha-lithium iodate is reported. The growth of single crystals of alpha-lithium iodate was accomplished by slow evaporation technique. The formation of alpha-lithium iodate compound has been confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction studies. The UV-Vis-NIR absorption spectrum has been recorded in the range 200-1200 nm. The Kurtz Perry SHG test confirms the NLO property of the grown crystal and the relative efficiency is 78 times greater than KDP. The compressive strength of the grown crystals was found using Tinius Olsen compression testing machine. Vickers microhardness study was carried out on the well developed face of the grown crystal


Ephippium pigmentation is a plastic trait which can be related to a trade-off between visual predation pressure and better protection of cladoceran eggs against different types of stress. Experimental studies showed that planktivorous fish exert a greater predation pressure on individuals carrying darker ephippia, but little is known about the variation of ephippium pigmentation along gradients of fish predation pressure in natural conditions. For this study, our experimental design included four small boreal lakes with known fish assemblages. Two of the lakes have viable brook trout ( Salvelinus fontinalis ) populations, whereas the other two lakes experienced brook trout extinctions during the 20 th century. Cladoceran ephippia were extracted from sediment cores at layers corresponding to the documented post- extinction phase (1990's) and from an older layer (1950's) for which the brook trout population status is not known precisely. Our first objective was to determine whether brook trout extinction has a direct effect on both ephippium pigmentation and size. Our second objective was to give a preliminary assessment of the status of brook trout populations in the 1950's by comparing the variation in ephippia traits measured from this layer to those measured in the 1990's, for which the extinction patterns are well known. Cost-effective image analysis was used to assess variation in pigmentation levels in ephippia. This approach provided a proxy for the amount of melanin invested in each ephippium analysed. Our study clearly shows that ephippium pigmentation may represent a better indicator of the presence of fish predators than ephippium size, a trait that showed a less clear pattern of variation between lakes with and without fish. For the 1990's period, ephippia from fishless lakes were darker and showed a slight tendency to be larger than ephippia from lakes with brook trout. However, no clear differences in either ephippium size or pigmentation were observed between the 1990's and 1950's layers within each lake. This suggests that brook trout extinction already occurred before the 1950's, or that brook trout population abundance was already extremely low before and after the 1990's. Our preliminary study shows that ephippium pigmentation can be used as a tool to quickly assess present and past predation levels on zooplankton when only sediment samples are available.


This work reports on the development of microstructural and mechanical properties of mortar cubes under the synergetic action of stray current and various environmental/curing conditions. The study refers to specimens cured for 24h only, followed by a 112 days period of partial or full submersion in water or alkaline medium. Additionally, equally prepared mortar specimens were tested in sealed conditions. The outcomes for submerged and saturated conditions were compared to sealed conditions. Three current density regimes were employed i.e. 1 A/m2, 100 mA/m2, and 10 mA/m2, simulating different levels of stray (DC) current environment. The highest level of 1A/m2 was also comparable to stray current densities, as measured in field conditions. The tests were designed in a way, so that the effects of diffu-sion-controlled transport (ions leaching due to concentration gradients), were distinguished from migration-controlled ones (ion/water transport in stray current conditions). Mechanical, microstructural and electrical properties were moni-tored throughout the test. For water-conditioned specimens, the stray current was found to accelerate degradation pro-cesses. This was reflected by decreased compressive strength, reduced electrical resistivity and increased porosity of the matrix. The results were attributed to leaching-out of alkali ions due to concentration gradients, where except diffusion, migration took place i.e. the leaching-out effect was accelerated by water and ions migration in conditions of stray cur-rent flow. In contrast, stray current flowing through mortar in sealed conditions (as well as through mortar in alkaline medium) resulted in increased compressive strength and electrical resistivity. These were accompanied by densification of the bulk matrix and reduced porosity. It can be concluded that for a cement-based material at early hydration age, both positive and negative effects of stray current flow can be expected. The level and direction of these effects are dependent on the external environment and the current density levels, where stray currents above 100 mA/m2 and in conditions of concentration gradients with the external medium, would lead to more pronounced negative effects on microstructural and micromechanical performance.


In this paper we extend the familiar concept of spatial instability and growth of disturbances in the downstream direction to include spatial instability and growth in the wall-normal direction. The stability theory of boundary layers has generally been concerned with determining the evolution of disturbances inside a boundary layer (this is where disturbances have their largest amplitudes and can cause a laminar boundary layer to become turbulent). Outside a boundary layer, where the basic flow is uniform, normal-mode disturbances decay exponentially with distance from the wall to satisfy homogeneous boundary conditions. In this paper we present a surprising scenario where an impulsive disturbance, made up of a superposition of these normal modes, nonetheless grows exponentially with distance from the wall. While the usual convective instability with exponential growth in the downstream direction can be efficiently characterized by spatial modes with complex wavenumbers, the new convective instability can be efficiently characterized by modes with exponentially diverging 'eigenfunctions' obtained by moving certain branch-cuts in the complex wavenumber plane. The new instability is therefore associated with an interaction between the discrete spectrum and the continuous spectrum. We emphasize, however, that the homogeneous boundary conditions are always satisfied, and that at any finite time exponential growth only occurs over a finite distance from the wall, but this distance increases linearly with time. Interactions between poles and branch-cuts have been found before, but the results presented here provide a physical interpretation for this spectral behaviour. A further curiosity is that some of these divergent modes have been found to violate Howard's semi-circle theorem.


COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection is a public health emergency. COVID-19 typically exhibits respiratory illness. Unexpectedly, emerging clinical reports indicate that neurological symptoms continue to rise, suggesting detrimental effects of SARS-CoV-2 on the central nervous system (CNS). Here, we show that a Düsseldorf isolate of SARS-CoV-2 enters 3D human brain organoids within two days of exposure. Using COVID-19 convalescent serum, we identified that SARS-CoV-2 preferably targets soma of cortical neurons but not neural stem cells, the target cell type of ZIKA virus. Imaging cortical neurons of organoids reveal that SARS-CoV-2 exposure is associated with missorted Tau from axons to soma, hyperphosphorylation, and apparent neuronal death. Surprisingly, SARS-CoV-2 co-localizes specifically with Tau phosphorylated at Threonine-231 in the soma, indicative of early neurodegeneration-like effects. Our studies, therefore, provide initial insights into the impact of SARS-CoV-2 as a neurotropic virus and emphasize that brain organoids could model CNS pathologies of COVID-19. One sentence summary COVID-19 modeling in human brain organoids


This letter presents the despeckling of single-look complex (SLC) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images using nonquadratic regularization. The objective function consists of an image model, a gradient, and a prior model. The Huber-Markov random field (HMRF) models the prior. A numerical solution is achieved through extensions of half-quadratic regularization methods using complex-valued SAR data. The proposed method using the HMRF prior together with nonquadratic regularization shows the superior results on SLC synthetic and actual SAR images.


The effects of pharmacological and pathological manipulations of excitatory amino acid receptor-mediated events in the rat brain were investigated using quantitative in vivo autoradiographic procedures. [14C]-2-Deoxyglucose in vivo autoradiography was used to measure local rates of cerebral glucose utilisation in discrete brain regions, following systemic administration of agents acting at AMPA and NMDA receptor subtypes, to assess physiological changes in cerebral metabolism occurring in response to pharmacological challenge. Secondly, in order to assess in vivo the effects of systemic administration of an agent which putatively modulates NMDA receptor activity, [125I]-MK-801 in vivo autoradiography was used to measure levels of NMDA receptor activation throughout the brain. Thirdly, [14C]-2-deoxyglucose in vivo autoradiography was used to assess the chronic and acute cerebral metabolic effects of manipulating discrete populations of neurones by microinjections of excitatory amino acid agonists into the basal forebrain. AMPA Receptor Blockade Local cerebral glucose utilisation was examined in 50 discrete CNS regions acutely after intravenous administration of the AMPA receptor antagonists NBQX (10, 30 and 100mg/kg) and the novel agent LY-293558 (10, 30 and 100mg/kg) to conscious rats. Both agents markedly depressed glucose use throughout the brain, producing anatomically widespread, dose-dependent reductions in glucose use in the majority of regions examined. No elevations in glucose use were seen in any of the regions examined following administration of either agent. Following NBQX (100mg/kg), statistically significant decreases in glucose use were seen in 48 of the 50 regions investigated, while significant reductions following LY-293558 (100mg/kg) occurred in 43 regions. The magnitudes of the glucose use depression seen following both NBQX (100mg/kg) and LY-293558 (100mg/kg) were as great as any previously reported with any pharmacological intervention. Rates of glucose utilisation were reduced by 50-68% in many auditory, cortical and limbic regions by the highest dose of the AMPA antagonists. For example, NBQX (100mg/kg) and LY-293558 (100mg/kg) reduced glucose use by -64% and -68% respectively in the inferior colliculus; -64% and -64% respectively in the posterior cingulate cortex; and -50% and -55% respectively in sensory motor cortex (layer IV). The anatomical patterns of reduced glucose use following NBQX and LY-293558 were essentially similar. However, in a number of regions subtle anomalies were evident in the nature of the response to the two AMPA antagonists. For example, LY-293558 was more potent than NBQX by a factor of 2-3 in auditory structures, and in a number of limbic and cortical regions. In addition, LY-293558 at any dose failed to significantly affect glucose use in 7 of the regions examined, whereas glucose use was unchanged in 2 regions following NBQX. In one of the CNS regions examined, the superficial layer of the superior colliculus, glucose utilisation was insensitive to both NBQX and LY- 293558 within the dose ranges studied. In this study, the advantages of using the [14C]-2-deoxyglucose autoradiography technique to map dynamic functional events in vivo are highlighted by its ability to discern subtle dissimilarities in the regional effects of the two AMPA antagonists. The glucose use depression produced by AMPA receptor blockade is in marked contrast to the previously reported heterogeneous effects of competitive and non-competitive NMDA antagonists. NMDA Receptor Manipulation Local cerebral glucose utilisation was investigated in conscious rats acutely after intravenous administration of D-cycloserine (0.3, 3 and 30mg/kg), a partial agonist at the glycine regulatory site on the NMDA receptor complex. The concentration range employed was chosen on the basis of reported dose- dependent agonist and antagonist properties of D-cycloserine in vivo. D-Cycloserine failed to significantly alter glucose use in any of the 51 brain regions examined. In a separate study, [125Il-MK-801 in vivo autoradiography was used to assess NMDA receptor potentiation in the brain by a putative agonist dose of D-cycloserine (3mg/kg, i.v.). Results were compared with levels of [125I]-MK- 801 binding in conscious and anaesthetised rats following intravenous administration of vehicle. The studies in this thesis serve to highlight both the strengths and weaknesses of using autoradiographic approaches to map functional events in vivo. In particular, it is evident that the unique opportunity afforded by the [14C]-2-deoxyglucose technique, to assess alterations in cerebral metabolic activity in terms of local cerebral glucose use, is optimally exploited in conditions of acute pharmacological or pathological challenge where dynamic functional changes are likely to occur. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).


In this note, robust H/sub 2/ and H/sub /spl infin// filter design problems are considered. The uncertainties, unstructured or structured, are norm bounded and represented by linear fractional transformation (LFT). The main result is that after upper-bounding the objectives, the problems of minimizing the upper bounds are converted to finite dimensional convex optimization problems involving linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). These are extensions of well-known results for systems with polytopic uncertainty. It is shown that for the unstructured, norm bounded uncertainty case, the upper bounds are directly minimized (without further overbounding), yielding less conservative results than previously available. An elementary numerical example is given to illustrate the results.


The implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) provides support to a large number of processes within government activities. Most countries have e-government solutions, at least for the basic functions, but developed countries rely heavily on modern technology. Public procurement is very sensitive area for each government, mainly because of its impact on economy (impact on public spending through costs of goods and services for public sector, impact on development of SME sector, impact on employment through SMEs and
public work, impact on the entire society through suppression of corruption, etc.).
For that reason European countries started to improve the whole process of public
procurement and all candidate countries have to fulfil requests.
The subject of this paper is implementation of ICT in the area of public
procurement and the technics of measuring the development of this process. During the last four years EU developed indicators for measuring the progress in public e-Procurement. These indicators are divided into two groups and are connected with the certain policy goals. The first group, EU Top level Take-up
indicators are connected with the policy goals of full transition to e-Procurement,
full participation of SMES and enablement of crossborder transactions and the second group, EU Top level Performance indicators are connected with the need
for improvement of effectiveness and efficiency of public spending, and easiness of access and improvement of transparency of public procurement system. These indicators can be calculated based on data from electronic portals for public procurement and EUROSTAT data. Republic of Serbia also have e-Portal for public procurement, but bidders use onlyfew basic functions of it (e-Notification with full documentation and e-Ask), as a consequence of low digital literacy. As a result of that, technically we can calculate
these indicators, but practically it is impossible because lack of data.


Abstract. The input and loss of plant available nitrogen (reactive nitrogen: Nr) from/to the atmosphere can be an important factor for the productivity of ecosystems and thus for its carbon and greenhouse gas exchange. We present a novel converter for reactive nitrogen (TRANC: Total Reactive Atmospheric Nitrogen Converter), which offers the opportunity to quantify the sum of all airborne reactive nitrogen compounds (∑Nr) in high time resolution. The basic concept of the TRANC is the full conversion of all Nr to nitrogen monoxide (NO) within two reaction steps. Initially, reduced Nr compounds are being oxidised, and oxidised Nr compounds are thermally converted to lower oxidation states. Particulate Nr is being sublimated and oxidised or reduced afterwards. In a second step, remaining higher nitrogen oxides or those generated in the first step are catalytically converted to NO with carbon monoxide used as reduction gas. The converter is combined with a fast response chemiluminescence detector (CLD) for NO analysis and its performance was tested for the most relevant gaseous and particulate Nr species under both laboratory and field conditions. Recovery rates during laboratory tests for NH3 and NO2 were found to be 95 and 99%, respectively, and 97% when the two gases were combined. In-field longterm stability over an 11-month period was approved by a value of 91% for NO2. Effective conversion was also found for ammonium and nitrate containing particles. The recovery rate of total ambient Nr was tested against the sum of individual measurements of NH3, HNO3, HONO, NH4+, NO3−, and NOx using a combination of different well-established devices. The results show that the TRANC-CLD system precisely captures fluctuations in ∑Nr concentrations and also matches the sum of all individual Nr compounds measured by the different single techniques. The TRANC features a specific design with very short distance between the sample air inlet and the place where the thermal and catalytic conversions to NO occur. This assures a short residence time of the sample air inside the instrument, and minimises wall sorption problems of water soluble compounds. The fast response time (e-folding times of 0.30 to 0.35 s were found during concentration step changes) and high accuracy in capturing the dominant Nr species enables the converter to be used in an eddy covariance setup. Although a source attribution of specific Nr compounds is not possible, the TRANC is a new reliable tool for permanent measurements of the net ∑Nr flux between ecosystem and atmosphere at a relatively low maintenance and reasonable cost level allowing for diurnal, seasonal and annual investigations.


Clear gel ballistic phantom is used in medical physics to model the interaction of soft biological tissues with radiation. With emergence of new technologies like nanomedicine utilizing nanoparticles injected into the tumor and activated by optical radiation, it is important to study the optical properties of those particles injected into the gel phantom. For this purpose, we present the results of the spectral measurements of the absorption properties of silver nanoparticles, synthesized and embedded in gel phantom, as well as the index of refraction of the gel phantom at the 632.8 nm HeNe line. We also perform size-dependent Mie diffraction simulations for the absorption spectrum of the silver nanoparticle in phantom tissue over the wide range of the optical spectrum. This analysis indicates an absorption peak in the near-UV range which arises due to silver nanoparticle injection into the gel phantom. The study of the biotissue phantom with embedded silver nanoparticles as a contrast agent should be exploitable for effective imaging of tumors.


Grazing forages on small-grain fields can be a profitable "second crop" for grain producers and an opportunity for cow-calf producers to retain ownership of weaned calves. The increasing costs of conventional tillage and movement of soil nutrients into surface water creates a need for more sustainable production practices to be incorporated by producers into wheat pasture production systems. Research at the Livestock and Forestry Research Station near Batesville, AR, and the Southwest Research and Extension Center near Hope, AR, has been conducted over a 9-yr span to characterize the impacts of pasture systems on forage production, animal performance, soil quality, water runoff, and the economics associated with the stocker cattle enterprises. Gains of growing cattle grazing nontoxic endophyte-infected tall fescue and small-grain forages can be increased by 80 and 150%, respectively, compared with grazing Bermuda grass or toxic endophyte-infected tall fescue. Producers grazing spring-calving cowherds can use these improved forages to accelerate stocker performance when retaining calves in the fall and improve net returns by 99% with winter annual or nontoxic tall fescue production systems compared with Bermuda grass or toxic tall fescue. Rainfall simulation of small grain pastures indicates that runoff volume and nutrient load does not differ between conventionally tilled fields and no-till fields in the spring before tillage when soil surface cover is similar. In the fall after tillage, however, conventionally tilled fields had 4 times greater runoff; hence, there was 1.9 times greater N runoff and 3.2 times greater P runoff in conventionally tilled fields compared with no-till. Total natural rainfall runoff from conventionally tilled wheat fields were 2 times greater than from no-till fields with 25 mm rainfall events yet were 4 times greater with 62-mm rainfall events. Soil analysis shows that soil aggregate content was greater in no-till compared with conventional till, indicating greater soil porosity, improved water infiltration rate, and reduced erositivity of soil. Carbon concentration in no-till soils was 50% greater than conventional tillage after 9 yr. These experiments show that production systems can be designed that maintain livestock production, increase soil quality, reduce nutrient discharge, and promote improved economic returns.


Recently discovered reactions allow the green alga Chara corallina (Klien ex. Willd., em. R.D.W.) to grow well without the benefit of xyloglucan or rhamnogalactan II in its cell wall. Growth rates are controlled by polygalacturonic acid (pectate) bound with calcium in the primary wall, and the reactions remove calcium from these bonds when new pectate is supplied. The removal appears to occur preferentially in bonds distorted by wall tension produced by the turgor pressure (P). The loss of calcium accelerates irreversible wall extension if P is above a critical level. The new pectate (now calcium pectate) then binds to the wall and decelerates wall extension, depositing new wall material on and within the old wall. Together, these reactions create a non-enzymatic but stoichiometric link between wall growth and wall deposition. In green plants, pectate is one of the most conserved components of the primary wall, and it is therefore proposed that the acceleration-deceleration-wall deposition reactions are of wide occurrence likely to underlie growth in virtually all green plants. C. corallina is one of the closest relatives of the progenitors of terrestrial plants, and this review focuses on the pectate reactions and how they may fit existing theories of plant growth.


To re-establish global climate balance, it is necessary to remove large amounts of fossil carbon emitted by humans, which is currently located in the atmosphere and the upper ocean. Although great attention is given to technologies of capture, the ability to store immense tonnages of carbon stock for geologically long time periods, isolated from atmosphere and ocean interaction, is equally important. In this chapter, the multiple storage locations for carbon stocking on and below land, also within and below the ocean, are evaluated. The evaluation shows that carbon dioxide reduction (CDR) is useful for mitigation, but cannot balance the rate of new emissions from fossil fuel exploitation. Many CDR methods have large uncertainty in their quantity, life-cycle, global impact and engineered feasibility. Competition for biomass and land usage is inevitable. Pathways and reservoirs of carbon in the ocean are complex and interlocked. Engineered storage of carbon will also be expensive, resource intensive and cannot substitute for a greatly reduced usage of fossil carbon. Human industrial and economic activity must "move beyond hydrocarbons" to be sustainable beyond 2050.


OBJECTIVES
The objective of this study was to calculate sample size and power in an ongoing cohort, Korea radiation effect and epidemiology cohort (KREEC).

METHOD
Sample size calculation was performed using PASS 2002 based on Cox regression and Poisson regression models. Person-year was calculated by using data from '1993-1997 Total cancer incidence by sex and age, Seoul' and Korean statistical informative service.

RESULTS
With the assumption of relative risk=1.3, exposure:non-exposure=1:2 and power=0.8, sample size calculation was 405 events based on a Cox regression model. When the relative risk was assumed to be 1.5 then number of events was 170. Based on a Poisson regression model, relative risk=1.3, exposure:non-exposure=1:2 and power=0.8 rendered 385 events. Relative risk of 1.5 resulted in a total of 157 events. We calculated person-years (PY) with event numbers and cancer incidence rate in the non-exposure group. Based on a Cox regression model, with relative risk=1.3, exposure:non-exposure=1:2 and power=0.8, 136 245PY was needed to secure the power. In a Poisson regression model, with relative risk=1.3, exposure:non-exposure=1:2 and power=0.8, person-year needed was 129517PY. A total of 1939 cases were identified in KREEC until December 2007.

CONCLUSIONS
A retrospective power calculation in an ongoing study might be biased by the data. Prospective power calculation should be carried out based on various assumptions prior to the study.


a journal. Shelley advises painting the axillae at bedtime with a 20%, solution of aluminium chloride hexahydrate in absolute ethyl alcohol. The axilla is then occluded for the night with polyethylene (Saran wrap). I use polyethylene bags with the ends cut off. It is important that the axilla should be dry and the pH of the solution less than 1. In the morning the polyethylene is removed and the axilla washed. I have treated five patients in whom all local treatment had failed, and four can control axillary sweating with monthly applications, having started treatment two to three times a week 10 months ago. Our pharmacist had difficulties because 20% of aluminium chloride hexahydrate will not dissolve in absolute alcohol and he uses a saturated solution, which is nearer 15%. The only drawback to the technique has been slight soreness of the axillary folds until the patient has mastered the method of painting only the sweating area. As Shelley states in his book, Try it, the patients like it.


In September 2011, a total of 511 human cases of anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) infection and 5 deaths were reported in a game management area in the district of Chama, Zambia, near where 85 hippopotamuses (Hippopotamus amphibious) had recently died of suspected anthrax. The human infections generally responded to antibiotics. To clarify transmission, we conducted a cross-sectional, interviewer-administered household survey in villages where human anthrax cases and hippopotamus deaths were reported. Among 284 respondents, 84% ate hippopotamus meat before the outbreak. Eating, carrying, and preparing meat were associated with anthrax infection. Despite the risk, 23% of respondents reported they would eat meat from hippopotamuses found dead again because of food shortage (73%), lack of meat (12%), hunger (7%), and protein shortage (5%). Chronic food insecurity can lead to consumption of unsafe foods, leaving communities susceptible to zoonotic infection. Interagency cooperation is necessary to prevent outbreaks by addressing the root cause of exposure, such as food insecurity.


The evaluation and optimisation of microalgae cultivation process for biomass, lipid and high value chemicals production requires experimental investigation of several interacting variables. This thesis addresses the development of a range of small-scale photobioreactor technologies and shows how they can be applied for rapid, early stage evaluation and scale-up of microalgae cultivation processes. In particular, the work focuses on the engineering evaluation of a novel shaken miniature photobioreactor (mPBr) and a single-use photobioreactor (SUPBr) that can be adapted for both phototrophic and heterotrophic cultivation. A prototype twin-well mPBr was initially designed and fabricated with light provided from cool white light emitting diodes (LED). This was scaled-out to a 24-well mPBr system (4 mL working volume) on a novel shaken platform. High power warm white LEDs provided a maximum light intensity of 2000 µmolm‾²s‾¹. In both systems, surface aeration (via a semipermeable membrane) and mixing were provided by orbital shaking. Real-time control of temperature, relative humidity and CO2 levels was achieved via incubator level control. Amongst the tested geometries of the mPBr, round base and pyramid base gave the best performance. The mass transfer coefficient (kLa) values in the 24-well were measured between 20 – 88 h‾¹ and visual observation of fluid hydrodynamics showed an increase in total surface area with increased shaking frequency. Negligible evaporation was observed at 90% relative humidity for light intensity of < 400 µmolm‾²s‾¹ and at 32 °C, while light intensity variation across the platform is in the range ± 20 µmolm‾²s‾¹. Evaluation of phototrophic culture kinetics of Chlorella sorokiniana in both mPBr designs showed good reproducibility between wells. The best culture performance occurred at 380 µmolm‾²s‾¹, 300 rpm and 5% CO2, where final biomass concentration and total lipid concentration achieved were 9 ± 0.2 gL‾¹ and 55% w/w respectively. The SUPBr comprised a transparent polymeric CultiBagTM operated on the illuminated rotary shaken platform described above. Mixing time values were determined over the range 40 - 220 rpm and were generally less than 40 s. Hydrodynamic studies showed three distinct flow regimes at various shaking frequencies: in-phase, transitional and out-of-phase. Under optimal flow regime, the highest cell concentrations achieved was 6.7 gL‾¹ ± 0.3. Doubling the total working volume resulted in 35 - 40% reduction in biomass concentration due to an increase in the light path length. Phototrophic scale-up criteria from mPBr to SUPBr was successfully achieved based on light–path length and kLa values. Comparison of final biomass concentrations showed similar performance of 6 ± 0.2 gL‾¹ and comparable total lipid production of 25 – 30% by weight at a light intensity of 180 ± 20 µmolm‾²s‾¹. Furthermore, application of the shaken 24-well system for heterotrophic cultivation of microalgae and scale-up to a 7.5 L stirred tank bioreactor was also shown. Cells were cultured in 24 parallel wells, shake flasks and a 7.5 L bioreactor with working volumes of 4 mL, 100 mL and 4000 mL respectively using glucose (10 gL‾¹) as the main carbon source. Constant k(L)a was chosen as scale-up criteria and the values range between 30 – 60 h‾¹. Final biomass concentrations showed good agreement in the range of 4.5 ± 0.5 gL‾¹ and total lipid production of 43 – 50% by weight for the three systems. Overall, the results show the utility of the mPBr and SUPBr technologies for the rapid evaluation and scale-up of both phototrophic and heterotrophic microalgae cultivation conditions.


Background The Genghis Khan Ice Marathon took place in January 2016 in the mountains of the Terelj National Park, Mongolia in a temperature of minus 35 0C. Objective To assess the experience, preparation, race strategy and effect of exercise in a group of ultrarunners undertaking a marathon in extreme cold. Design Prospective observational study. Setting Extreme environment. Participants Multinational group of experienced ultrarunners (n=9, male 5, female 4, age range 25–53 years). Interventions Pre and post race questionnaires. Post-race email surveillance. Main Outcome Measurements Experience, preparation, clothing, equipment, nutritional strategies for race. Adverse effects encountered when competing in the marathon. Perceived effort of race on the Borg Scale. Two weeks post race illness or injury surveillance. Results All nine ultrarunners completed the questionnaires and follow up. Concerns about safety in a remote environment were universal. Consensus was present regarding clothing, equipment, hydration and nutrition. The race was completed in 3:05–5:50. No significant difficulties were encountered. The cold air caused freezing around the nostrils and irritated the airways. No-one experienced cold induced bronchospasm. Clothing froze due to sweat and expired air. There were no cases of hypothermia. There were two cases of frostbite; earlobe (moderate) and nose (mild). Borg scale of perceived exertion values ranged from 13–17 (mean 15). Two week follow up; two cases of viral URTI's reported. No athlete reported DOMS in the post race period. Conclusions All athletes were experienced in ultrarunning. They shared concerns regarding competing in a remote, extreme cold environment. All were adequately prepared pre race in terms of clothing, equipment and race nutrition strategy. This level of experience contributed to the lack of complications during the race and in the post race period. No athletes experienced DOMS presumably related to lack of peripheral muscular perfusion during exercise in extreme cold.


Melatonin possesses the capability of donating electrons, consequently reducing the reactivity of molecules with an unpaired electron in their valence orbital, i.e. free radicals. A plethora of studies support the role of this indoleamine in diminishing molecular damage associated with massive free radical generation both in vitro and in vivo. Melatonin protects against neurodegenerative disorders, ischemia/reperfusion injury, acts as a radio protector, and counteracts herbicide and metal toxicity due to its essential role in antioxidant protection. At the intracellular level, it reduces electron leakage from the mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes as well as scavenging radicals generated in the cytosol (exclusive of its actions in mitochondria) and nucleus. Comparative studies with other well-known naturally occurring antioxidants show that melatonin's efficacy is equal to or better in neutralizing highly toxic oxygen and nitrogen-reactants. However, not only melatonin but a series of its metabolites are also capable of detoxifying free radicals and related species in what is referred to as the antioxidative cascade. Thus, melatonin may be actually seen as a prodrug for a family of other molecules that also have the capability of reducing oxidative/nitrosative stress. Taken together, the results reviewed here indicate that melatonin is a key element in antioxidative medicine in the context of the antioxidative defense system.


Waste management of half-finished products and thermosetting wastes Plastics are the widely used materials and their application increases every year considerably. Therefore, appropriate waste management policy should be used in relation to the utilization or recycling of scrap plastic components. Although most of these materials refer to thermoplastics, a huge widening demand is observed in the field of thermosets. They find a wide range of applications as the dielectric or insulating materials, high-current breaker switches, sensors and other electrical and electronic devices, as well as high-resistant sleeves in mechanical devices. The substantial part of the thermohardening products is used in a car, heavy, light, chemical industry and agriculture as well. The thermohardening wastes contain a large amount of combustible fraction as thermosetting resins, and various materials as a different kind of metals group like ferromagnetic and copper. Therefore, they are potential sources of energy and secondary materials. Application of thermal methods for the utilization of these wastes in the pyrolysis process was investigated. The development of the utilization of these wastes with the possibility of gas and liquid substance recovery as a potential source of energy on a commercial scale is the main aim of this paper.


This survey reviews the two most prominent group-oriented anonymous signature schemes and analyzes the existing approaches for their problem: balancing anonymity against traceability. Group signatures and ring signatures are the two leading competitive signature schemes with a rich body of research. Both group and ring signatures enable user anonymity with group settings. Any group user can produce a signature while hiding his identity in a group. Although group signatures have predefined group settings, ring signatures allow users to form ad-hoc groups. Preserving user identities provided an advantage for group and ring signatures. Thus, presently many applications utilize them. However, standard group signatures enable an authority to freely revoke signers' anonymity. Thus, the authority might weaken the anonymity of innocent users. On the other hand, traditional ring signatures maintain permanent user anonymity, allowing space for malicious user activities; thus achieving the requirements of privacy-preserved traceability in group signatures and controlled anonymity in ring signatures has become desirable. This paper reviews group and ring signatures and explores the existing approaches that address the identification of malicious user activities. We selected many papers that discuss balancing user tracing and anonymity in group and ring signatures. Since this paper scrutinizes both signatures from their basic idea to obstacles including tracing users, it provides readers a broad synthesis of information about two signature schemes with the knowledge of current approaches to balance excessive traceability in group signatures and extreme anonymity in ring signatures. This paper will also shape the future research directions of two critical signature schemes that require more awareness.


Abstract The presence of human activity near freshwater turtle habitat can have a negative impact on a range of turtle behaviors. We assessed whether human use of a recreational trail had an effect on basking behavior of western pond turtles (Actinemys marmorata) by observing individuals basking while we monitored recreational disturbances. Based on our results, we suggest limiting the number or times of operation of motor vehicle traffic adjacent to western pond turtle habitat to restrict impacts on basking behavior.


A variety of deep functional maps have been proposed recently, from fully supervised to totally unsupervised, with a range of loss functions as well as different regularization terms. However, it is still not clear what are minimum ingredients of a deep functional map pipeline and whether such ingredients unify or generalize all recent work on deep functional maps. We show empirically minimum components for obtaining state of the art results with different loss functions, supervised as well as unsupervised. Furthermore, we propose a novel framework designed for both full-to-full as well as partial to full shape matching that achieves state of the art results on several benchmark datasets outperforming even the fully supervised methods by a significant margin. Our code is publicly available at this https URL


In emergency tasks, cross‐agency operations being carried out in disaster‐hit areas require some supporting communication system for command and control. Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) is a very suitable way to meet such communication requirements since it can function without any pre‐installed communication infrastructure. Owing to potential threats in the field environment and the unique features of MANET (e.g. the open nature of wireless links and the absence of security infrastructure), security of communications over MANET is a serious issue that is typically addressed by asymmetric cryptographic mechanisms. In this paper, we tackle issues critical to asymmetric key management in MANET, which almost invariably serves as a basis of security services in a network environment. To address the deficiencies of existing key management schemes, we propose the concept of mission‐specific certificate to manage public keys in our scenario. For issuance and/or revocation of mission‐specific certificate, a Mission‐specific Certificate Authority (MCA), which consists of a collection of server nodes to operate the threshold cryptographic scheme, is proposed. Furthermore, to cater for the occurrence of network partitioning, which is common in highly dynamic MANET, we propose a partition‐tolerant mechanism for MCA by introducing the notion of auxiliary server nodes. We discuss the security and performance of our scheme and show that our approach is a secure and partition‐tolerant mechanism can effectively improve availability of the MCA. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In the era of the War on Terror, female U.S. service members and veterans have successfully advocated for formal recognition of their combat service. These women are able to articulate an anti-misogynistic, anti-racist, anti-homophobic message that is highly critical of the military, while remaining palatable to mainstream media and successfully engaging the support of some military leaders and politicians. Their success is due to organizations like the Service Women's Action Network (SWAN). The use of Female Engagement Teams (FETs) in Afghanistan and The Lionness Program in Iraq give women specific ways of documenting their combat experience, contributing to SWAN's ability to gain visibility and pursue changes in law and policy. A critical discourse analysis of SWAN's use of digital/social media and web presence illustrates how SWAN uses War on Terror militarism to effectively advocate for marginalized groups within the military. Though they invoke the participation of female soldiers in global warfare, however, a discussion of the impact of this militarism on populations of women in Iraq and Afghanistan is almost entirely omitted. The result of this is an advocacy that relies on characterizing female service members as exceptional soldiers, and frames feminist values as in line with the project of boosting military strength, rather than diminishing it.