The Great European Lake Onego provides important resources for Northern Russia. This lake is ice-covered during 5 months in winter. However, very few data are available for winter, as most studies covered the ice-free period. Actually, comprehension of seasonally ice-covered large lakes is limited compared to the knowledge available from small subpolar lakes or perennially ice-covered polar lakes. To tackle this issue, an international consortium of scientists has gathered around the project « life under ice » to investigate physical, chemical and biogeochemical changes during winter in Lake Onego. As part of this multidisciplinary project, our research focused on carbon dioxide (CO2) dynamics and CO2 sources during ice-covered period and during ice break-off. Our main hypothesis is that CO2 accumulates throughout the ice-covered period, mainly due to blocked gas exchange, the degradation of organic matter (OM) in the sediment, and direct inputs from the inflowing River Shuya. CO2 dynamics were measured in Petrozavodsk Bay using a mooring that was equipped with two CO2 sensors at 3 m and 25 m depth from March to May 2015. Vertical profiles of CO2, methane (CH4), dissolved organic and inorganic carbon were collected with water samples at different locations. The main results showed that Lake Onego was slightly over-saturated regarding CO2, while CH4 concentrations were extremely low. At 3 m depth, CO2 increased under the ice at a linear rate of 9.6 ppm/day. During the ice-covered period, CO2 accumulated four times more in the bottom boundary layer than in the mixed convection layer. This bottom boundary layer might indicate a quantifiable flux of CO2 from the sediment due to mineralization of settling organic matter (OM). OM mineralization in the sediment was assessed through sediment cores. According to CH4 sediment pore water profiles, about 70% of CH4 was oxidized at 7 cm below the sediment water interface. The total oxidation rate of methane in the sediment was estimated to -2.26 ± 0.22 mgC m-2d-1. In contrast, OM mineralisation rates in the water were shown to be extremely low in this oligotrophic system. This mineralization in the water originated mostly from autochthonous OM, while only a few percent stemmed from the abundant allochthonous OM. Lastly, River Shuya contributes significantly to the dissolved CO2 of Petrozavodsk Bay, as it represents 93% of the water inputs into the bay and riverine CO2 concentrations were 2.4 higher than in the bay water. In conclusion, this study contributes to better understand how CO2 accumulates under ice in large seasonally ice-covered lakes, and helps to predict how CO2 fluxes might be modified as a result of climate-driven changes.


A non-metastasizing tumor that arises from the adenohypophysial cells of the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland. The tumor can be hormonally functioning or not. The diagnosis can be based on imaging studies and/or radioimmunoassays. Due to its location in the sella turcica, expansion of the tumor mass can impinge on the optic chiasm or involve the temporal lobe, third ventricle and posterior fossa A frequently associated physical finding is bitemporal hemianopsia which may progress to further visual loss.


Breast cancer is the second most common form of cancer amongst females and also the fifth most cause of cancer deaths worldwide. In case of this particular type of malignancy, early detection is the best form of cure and hence timely and accurate diagnosis of the tumor is extremely vital. Extensive research has been carried out on automating the critical diagnosis procedure as various machine learning algorithms have been developed to aid physicians in optimizing the decision task effectively. In this research, we present a benign/malignant breast cancer classification model based on a combination of ontology and case-based reasoning to effectively classify breast cancer tumors as either malignant or benign. This classification system makes use of clinical data. Two CBR object-oriented frameworks based on ontology are used jCOLIBRI and myCBR. A breast cancer diagnostic prototype is built. During prototyping, we examine the use and functionality of the two focused frameworks.


The Italian National Outcome Programme has assessed the performance of Italian hospitals regarding several clinical performance indicators, including 30-daymortality after admission for acute myocardial infarction. Risk adjustment was obtained using demographic and comorbidity data based on the hospital discharge databases in the index admission, as well as in those of the previous two years. Noticeably, the ICD-9-CM 410.7* classification coding for NSTEMI (Non-ST elevation myocardial infarction)myocardial infarction, i.e. the less severe form, was not used, due to known variability in its use. We found that hospital-specific adjusted relative risk of death versus the national mean, as computed by the programme, is negatively associated with the proportion of NSTEMI infarctions at each Tuscan and Florentine hospital, coherently with the hypothesis of a selection by the emergency network, which addresses STEMI (ST elevation myocardial infarction) patients to hospitals offering haemodynamic laboratory with reperfusive services. Individual level clinical data of 3,200 patients in the AMI-Florence study in the period April 2008-March 2010 found that ICD-9-CM410.7* is underused. The analysis based on hospital discharge diagnoses (410.7* vs. other 410* codes) cannot explain differences in mortality among Florentine hospitals, as opposed to the use of a classification of myocardial infarction type (STEMI vs. NSTEMI) based on clinical data collected in AMI-Florence.


Standard Dutch is an official language in the Netherlands, in the northern part of Belgium (Flanders and Brussels) and in very multilingual Surinam. The standardisation process started in the early 16th century; because of the political separation of the Seventeen Provinces after 1585, it came to a halt in the South (roughly present-day Flanders). From then onwards, Standard Dutch developed in its own way in the North and the South – in the South with a delay until the second half of the 19th century. In Surinam, Dutch was imported as a colonial language; in the decades after the abolishment of slavery (1863) and the education laws passed in 1876, the black descendants of the enslaved, the creole population and the various other ethnic groups gradually started acquiring it. This paper sketches the differential development of Standard Dutch in the three parts of the language area and relates the resulting divergence to the question as to whether Dutch should be seen as a pluricentric or rather a pluriareal language. On the basis of recent data (mainly from large-scale online questionnaires) the position of the language and its future are discussed in the main societal domains in the three parts of the language area.


In the scenario of international cooperation, in a perspective of support to the development of health in Portuguese speaking African Countries (PALOP), Portugal (PT) has existing cooperation agreements signed between 1977 and 1992, allowing the evacuation of patients (EVD) from PALOPs to Portuguese public hospitals in search of solutions to health problems not resoluble in their countries of origin. The procedures involved in their application were clarified by Normative Circular 04/ DCI of April 16, 2004, still in force. The EVD is regulated and coordinated by the General Board of Health (DGS), and funded by the Ministry of Health. Patients arrive in PT under the agreements but also out of these. They mainly come from Guinea- Bissau (GB) and Cape Verde (CV). Apparently the evaluation of the efficiency and effectiveness of this service wasn't properly described. Focusing on new approaches to support the development and ambitioning to contribute to the health development in the PALOPs, one will seek to evaluate the scenario of EVD for therapeutic purposes for PT. The research strategy will undergo perform an evaluation research, in particular an analysis of intervention and implementation, converging on a strategic analysis using a multiple case study. Will analyse CV, GB and PT, starting from data collection using three different techniques, which will be i) document analysis, ii) semi-structured interviews focused on the problem addressed to leaders and experts in the field, using a non-probability intentional sampling iii) semi-structured interviews focused on the problem addressed to patients evacuated and to professionals who receive them in PT, using a snowball sampling. Crossing the data obtained from existing documentation, from the life experiences of those who are evacuated and from the vision of those to whom this topic is not indifferent, one dares to expect suggesting recommendations to apply to this field in order to promote support for the development of health in the PALOPs and reinforce health policy of these states.


This work is devoted to the elucidation of the applicability of the jellium model to the description of alkali cluster properties. We compare the jellium model results with those derived within ab initio theoretical approaches and with experiments. On the basis of Hartree–Fock and local-density approximations we have calculated the binding energies per atom, ionization potentials, deformation parameters and optimized values of the Wigner–Seitz radii for neutral and singly charged sodium clusters with the number of atoms N ≤ 20. The characteristics calculated within the framework of the deformed jellium model are compared with the results derived from ab initio simulations of cluster electronic and ionic structure based on density functional theory and systematic post Hartree–Fock many-body perturbation theory accounting for all electrons in the system. The comparison performed demonstrates the great role of the cluster shape deformations in the formation cluster properties and quite reasonable level of applicability of the deformed jellium model. This elucidates the similarities of atomic cluster physics with the physics of atomic nuclei.


Aircraft are operating at increasingly high-altitudes, where decreased air density and engine power settings have led to increasingly low Reynolds numbers in the low-pressure turbine portion of modern-day aeroengines. These operating conditions, in parallel with highly-loaded blade profiles, result in non-reattaching laminar boundary layer separation along the blade suction surface, increasing loss and decreasing engine performance. This work presents an experimental investigation into the potential for integrated leading-edge tubercles to improve blade performance in this operating regime. A turn-table cascade test-section was constructed and commissioned to test a purpose-designed, forward-loaded, low-pressure turbine blade profile at various incidences and Reynolds numbers. Baseline and tubercled blades were tested at axial chord Reynolds numbers at and between 15 000 and 60 000, and angles of incidence ranging from −5° to +10°. Experimental data collection included blade surface pressure measurements, total pressure loss in the blade wakes, hot-wire anemometry, surface hot-film measurements, and surface flow visualization using tufts. Test results showed that the implementation of tubercles did not lead to a performance enhancement. However, useful conclusions were drawn regarding the ability of tubercles to generate stream-wise vortices at ultra-low Reynolds numbers. Additional observations helped to characterize the suction surface boundary layer over the highly-loaded, low-pressure turbine blade profile when at off-design conditions. Recommendations were made for future work.


The calculation of 1D electromagnetic (EM) responses of dipole sources is considered as a fundamental computation kernel in several geophysical applications, ranging from EM sensitivity analysis to high-dimensional EM forward modeling and inversion. To solve the EM responses caused by electric and magnetic dipoles with different orientations, we have developed an open-source MATLAB code for a complete treatment, which allows for an arbitrary transmitter-receiver geometry in the multilayered earth. A complete derivation of the EM field expressions with simplified exponent terms for all traditional dipole sources is accomplished based on the vector potential differential equations. The quadrature-with-extrapolation algorithm is adapted for calculating the integration of Bessel functions to produce EM responses with a desired accuracy. The MATLAB digit functions are used to alleviate the instability problem caused by the exponent terms. The accuracy of our code is verified by comparing the results with the published data and self-checks on an infinite thin sheet. A layered model is designed to test the capability of our code for all traditional dipole sources by placing the receiver at different depths. In the end, we apply our code to marine and airborne controlled-source EM explorations. The results indicate that our code is accurate and can potentially be used to calculate 1D EM responses for general EM problems.


To date, all concurrent search structures that can support predecessor queries have had depth logarithmic in m, the number of elements. This paper introduces the SkipTrie, a new concurrent search structure supporting predecessor queries in amortized expected O(log log u + c) steps, insertions and deletions in O(c log log u), and using O(m) space, where u is the size of the key space and c is the contention during the recent past. The SkipTrie is a probabilistically-balanced version of a y-fast trie consisting of a very shallow skiplist from which randomly chosen elements are inserted into a hash-table based x-fast trie. By inserting keys into the x-fast-trie probabilistically, we eliminate the need for rebalancing, and can provide a lock-free linearizable implementation. To the best of our knowledge, our proof of the amortized expected performance of the SkipTrie is the first such proof for a tree-based data structure.


Objectives Although chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy (CSMT) and prescription benzodiazepines are common treatments for radicular low back pain (rLBP), no research has examined the relationship between these interventions. We hypothesise that utilisation of CSMT for newly diagnosed rLBP is associated with reduced odds of benzodiazepine prescription through 12 months' follow-up. Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting National, multicentre 73-million-patient electronic health records-based network (TriNetX) in the USA, queried on 30 July 2021, yielding data from 2003 to the date of query. Participants Adults aged 18–49 with an index diagnosis of rLBP were included. Serious aetiologies of low back pain, structural deformities, alternative neurological lesions and absolute benzodiazepine contraindications were excluded. Patients were assigned to cohorts according to CSMT receipt or absence. Propensity score matching was used to control for covariates that could influence the likelihood of benzodiazepine utilisation. Outcome measures The number, percentage and OR of patients receiving a benzodiazepine prescription over 3, 6 and 12 months' follow-up prematching and postmatching. Results After matching, there were 9206 patients (mean (SD) age, 37.6 (8.3) years, 54% male) per cohort. Odds of receiving a benzodiazepine prescription were significantly lower in the CSMT cohort over all follow-up windows prematching and postmatching (p<0.0001). After matching, the OR (95% CI) of benzodiazepine prescription at 3 months was 0.56 (0.50 to 0.64), at 6 months 0.61 (0.55 to 0.68) and 12 months 0.67 (0.62 to 0.74). Sensitivity analysis suggested a patient preference to avoid prescription medications did not explain the study findings. Conclusions These findings suggest that receiving CSMT for newly diagnosed rLBP is associated with reduced odds of receiving a benzodiazepine prescription during follow-up. These results provide real-world evidence of practice guideline-concordance among patients entering this care pathway. Benzodiazepine prescription for rLBP should be further examined in a randomised trial including patients receiving chiropractic or usual medical care, to reduce residual confounding.


Ownership, as a basic value of a legal state is the subject to special protection guaranteed by a basic law. However, in certain situations
acting for the benefit of public interest is, according to a legislator, takes priority over private ownership. Thus, in cases when public interest
is at stake limitation of ownership title to property can be permitted by regulations.
Expropriation of private property for the sake of public good is the solution used for many years in Poland and in other countries.
Basic preconditions for expropriation are described in art. 21 section 2 of The Constitution of the Republic of Poland. Private
ownership in art. 21 of Polish Constitution was defined in a very general context without defining the subject. Thus, all the ownership
is the subject to state protection without specifying the principles of this protection, which are regulated by ordinary acts. Guaranteeing right
to private ownership does not mean the right is inviolable. Constitution allows for property expropriation for the benefit of public purposes
after a just compensation. However, it must be emphasized that regulations relating to the rules of property expropriation as a special form
of depriving ownership right by means of authoritarian state act, which is the exception from general civil and legal principles of transferring
ownership title, must be applied literally, excluding admissibility of extensive interpretation.
Provisions of the constitution are defined in the regulations of the Real Estate Management Act from 21st August 1997.


The actin cytoskeleton is essential for the continued function and survival of the cell. A peculiar mechanical characteristic of actin networks is their remodelling ability, providing them with a time-dependent response to mechanical forces. In cross-linked actin networks, this behaviour is typically tuned by the binding affinity of the cross-link. We propose that the debonding of a cross-link between filaments can be modelled using a stochastic approach, in which the activation energy for a bond is modified by a term to account for mechanical strain energy. By use of a finite element model, we perform numerical analyses in which we first compare the model behaviour to experimental results. The computed and experimental results are in good agreement for short time scales, but over longer time scales the stress is overestimated. However, it does provide a possible explanation for experimentally observed strain-rate dependence as well as strain-softening at longer time scales.


Aim: To compare the microhardness and microstructural changes induced in pits and fissure following a fissurotomy procedure using three different light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (LASER) systems. Materials and Methods: Thirty caries free premolars, extracted atraumatically for orthodontic treatment were included in the study. Using a diamond low-speed disc, enamel blocks containing the pits and fissure were cut from the tooth and divided into three groups containing 10 samples in each (G1 - diode, G2 - carbon dioxide [CO 2 ], and G3 - erbium). The enamel blocks were mounted using self-cure acrylic resin and irradiated using the three LASER systems at lower energy densities. Post irradiation, the microhardness of enamel in the pit and fissure region was measured using Vickers microhardness test. Scanning electron microscopy analysis was done to check the microstructural changes of the lased enamel. Data obtained were subjected to Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and ANOVA with statistical significance set at P ≤ 0.05. Results: All three groups showed an increase in microhardness when compared to the value taken as control (control - 209.6, diode - 237.56 ± 19.27, CO 2 -294.92 ± 29.38, erbium - 264.39 ± 11.83). ANOVA test revealed a highly significant (P = 0.001) difference between the means of the three groups. Tukey post-hoc analysis showed that CO 2 LASER showed a higher increase in microhardness followed by erbium and diode LASER. Conclusion: This study revealed that the increase in microhardness and microstructural changes obtained with CO 2 LASER was higher than the other two LASER systems. Furthermore, diode LASER can be used as a viable option for fissurotomy procedure as it improves the hardness of enamel, with a homogenous sealing effect of the pits and fissure.


Captain John Veeder in the Wheelhouse. Veeder first came to the MBL in 1890 when the Laboratory acquired the Sagitta, a steam launch that added greatly to the small fleet of the two old dories that the Annisquam Laboratory bequeathed the MBL. The Supply Department began with the advent of power, making it possible to take students out on field trips, picnics, or other outings. Having grown up at Cuttyhunk Island, Veeder knew the waters of Vineyard Sound and Buzzards Bay, and would never take unnecessary chances with the students. It was said he could "box the compass" faster than anyone else in Woods Hole. He retired in 1933 after 42 years at the Laboratory


Paleontological data suggest that coral populations in the Caribbean were consistently healthy for the past 2–3 k.y. Beginning in the 1980s, however, disease outbreaks, bleaching episodes, hurricanes, and other perturbations caused catastrophic coral mortality and regional turnover. An alternative hypothesis, based on historical sources, posits that coral populations were already declining more than a century ago. These hypotheses can be distinguished only if turnover events are reliably preserved in the Holocene record of coral reefs. Push-cores extracted from uncemented lagoonal reefs in Belize showed that a direct hit by Hurricane Iris in 2001 did not disrupt the signature of the recent turnover event, which entered the subfossil record essentially intact. Cores from lagoonal systems in several areas of the Caribbean do not support the hypothesis that corals declined before the 1980s.


Atomic structure and collision properties of ionised atoms have been studied usingcollision-based spectroscopy and fast ion beam-laser spectroscopy.Collision induced photon emission spectra of Xe VI, Xe VII and Xe VIII andthe potassium like metal ions Mn VII, Fe VIII and Co IX have been recorded with a beam of multiply charged ions from an ECR (electron cyclotron resonance) ion source passing through an atomic target. Previously unknown spectral lines have been identified and thereby new energy levels established. In particular, transitions between highly excited states of multiply charged xenon ions have been observed and ionisation limits, quantum defects and core polarisabilities obtained.Single- and double-electron capture in slow C4+ on Ne collisions have been investigated by combining photon emission and translational energy-gain data. The information in the photon emission spectra made it possible to distinguish processes that gave similar energy-gain data. A substantial configuration selectivity has been observed for the so-called one-step mechanism for double electron capture. Mechanisms for populating doubly excited Ar7+ states with helium as a target have also been studied. The results indicated that the main process of populating doubly excited states of the electron configuration 2p53p2 in sodium like Ar7+ is a one electron capture to 2p53snl in metastable Ar8+ states.Very high resolution studies of hyperfine structure and isotope shifts of Eu II and Sm II have been studied using fast ion beam-laser spectroscopy. Magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole coupling constants have been derived.


Many engineering students enter and exit general chemistry courses with little appreciation of chemistry's relevance to other fields. At WPI many of these students go on to take introductory materials science and arrive with poor attitudes about chemistry and little retention of key concepts, but then become more engaged as they discover connections to engineering applications. Consequently, instructors in chemistry and mechanical engineering collaborated to augment general chemistry laboratories with explicit "bridges" to material properties and applications. Evaluation results showed that while students' attitudes toward chemistry were unaffected by bridging, particular aspects of the students' lab experience were enhanced to a statistically significant degree. Similar cross‐disciplinary collaborations might be considered elsewhere as a means of helping students find meaning and integrate subject matter, in a manner that is more feasible than large‐scale course or curriculum restructuring.


Based on the practical deep foundation pit example in Zhengzhou, with the increasing foundation design burying depth, the foundation pit's is designed to be deepened before foundation ditch support being finished. Comparing the technical risks and controlling the monitoring process, an analytical method which takes the upper supporting structure as gravity retaining wall was proposed. For digging the side slope, we use Miniature pile pre-stressed anchor cable to enhance the lower part of the slope soil, which is a successful completion of the deepen design and construction of the foundation pit. It brings significant economic benefits, and also provides much reference value to the deepen design of the similar foundation pit.


Abstract Because weed eradication programs commonly take 10 or more years to complete, there is a need to evaluate progress toward the eradication objective. We present a simple model, based on information that is readily obtainable, that assesses conformity to the delimitation and extirpation criteria for eradication. It is applied to the program currently targeting the annual parasitic weed, branched broomrape, in South Australia. The model consists of delimitation and extirpation (E) measures plotted against each other to form an 'eradograph.' Deviations from the 'ideal' eradograph plot can inform tactical responses, e.g., increases in survey and/or control effort. Infestations progress from the active phase to the monitoring phase when no plants have been detected for at least 12 mo. They revert to the active phase upon further detection of plants. We summarize this process for the invasion as a whole in a state-and-transition model. Using this model we demonstrate that the invasion is unlikely to be delimited unless the amount of newly detected infested area decreases, on average, by at least 50% per annum. As a result of control activities implemented, on average approximately 70% (range, 44 to 86%) of active infestations progressed to the monitoring phase in the year following their detection. Simulations suggest that increasing this rate of transition will not increase E to a significant extent. The rate of reversion of infestations from the monitoring phase to the active phase decreased logarithmically with time since last detection, but it is likely that lower rates of reversion would accelerate the trend toward extirpation. Program performance with respect to the delimitation criterion has been variable; performance with respect to the extirpation criterion would be improved considerably by the development and application of cost-effective methods for eliminating branched broomrape soil seed populations. Nomenclature: branched broomrape, Orobanche ramosa L. ORARA


We have examined the structure and infectivity of BKV and JCV genomes from prototype strains after cell culture passage and of BKV genomes from primary isolates. Genomic structures were determined by restriction endonuclease analysis of molecularly cloned DNA. Infectivity was determined by transfection of the cloned genomes into urine‐derived epithelial cells and assaying for viral proteins and virus production. Prototype BKV DNA, which was cloned after 14 passages in three different cell lines, contained no alterations in restriction enzyme sites and was infectious. In contrast, prototype JCV acquired changes in the late region of the genome during passage in cell culture and the cloned DNA was not infectious. Urine‐derived cells were used to isolate virus from the urine of two renal transplant patients and one asymptomatic individual. The genome of the virus isolated from the normal individual was indistinguishable from prototype BKV except for a 60‐base pair deletion, which was localized between 0.62 and 0.72 map units. Two isolates from transplant patients differed from each other and from prototype BKV at a number of restriction enzyme cleavage sites located in the early region and were infectious. Genomes containing deletions from 100 to 600 base pairs were also cloned but were not infectious.


This is a critical evaluation of the dramatic art and ideology of the School of Caleron. In the first part ideological preoccupations, artistic attidues and theatrical conditions in the Baroque era are discussed. In the second part selected plays are analyzed. The book explores the range of dramatic genres employed by Calderon and his school, together with the principal causes of decline in quality of plays and playwrights in the final decades of the Golden Age. Among the dramatists covered are Rojas Zorilla and Agustin Moreto.


Content of extra erythrocyte hemoglobin (EEH), total peroxidase activity (TPA), tseruloplasmin oxidase activity (TOA) and chemiluminescence intensity have been investigated in plasma. The dose-dependent changes of EEN, TPA, TOA are shown in experiments on the animals under hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) pressure (0.2, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 MPa from 30 min. to 120 min.) and EEH, TPA--under hyperbaric air (1.1 MPa; 4 hours). All these parameters have been studied in patients treated with HBO for the assessment of HBO efficacy in the clinical investigations. These biochemical parameters may be used as informative tests of the functional state of the organism under HBO and hyperbaric air.


This is a timely, practical and helpful book. Everyone of its nearly five-hundred pages is chockfull of facts pertinent to the highway systems of the United States. The earlier chapters are devoted to a historical development of the early trails, roads, waterways, canals, railroads, and modern wagon roads. The relations between highway and other kinds of transportation are discussed as is the probable development of automotive transportation. The book then turns to the discussion of planning of highway systems, the selection of road types, the effect of ease and cost of transportation on production and marketing of goods. One chapter is devoted to the financing of highways and one to highway accidents and their mitigation. The author does not overlook the value of and need for highway esthetics and he also dis-


Fourteen patients with rheumatoid arthritis were studied during pregnancy and clinical disease activity and serum concentrations of pregnancy associated alpha 2-glycoprotein (PAG) measured at monthly intervals until parturition. Disease activity diminished during pregnancy in 10 patients (group 1) and increased or remained unchanged in four (group 2). The mean PAG concentration produced by group 1 was 1250 +/- 737 mg/1, which was significantly higher than the mean of 470 +/- 304 mg/1 produced by group 2. Furthermore, there was a highly significant negative correlation coefficient (r = -0.41; p less than 0.001) between disease activity and PAG concentrations during gestation. Since there was no significant difference between the two groups of patients in any of the other serum factors measured, and since PAG has immunosuppressive properties in vitro, the results suggest that this protein may play an important part in inducing the remissions of rheumatoid arthritis which frequently occur during pregnancy.


MEASUREMENT OF THE NONLINEAR REFRACTIVE INDEX (n 2) AND STIMULATED RAMAN SCATTERING IN OPTICAL FIBERS AS A FUNCTION OF GERMANIA CONTENT, USING THE PHOTOREFRACTIVE BEAM COUPLING TECHNIQUE By Ferdinand A. Oguama One of the greatest challenges in optical communication is the understanding and control of optical fiber nonlinearities. While these nonlinearites limit the power handling capacity of optical fibers and can cause noise, signal distortion and cross talk in optically amplified transmission systems, they have been equally harnessed for the development of new generations of optical amplifiers and tunable laser sources. The two prominent parameters that characterize the nonlinear properties of an optical fiber are the nonlinear refractive index (n2) and the Raman gain coefficient (g R). These parameters are related to the third order nonlinear susceptibility [x(3)]. In this work, the photorefractive beam coupling technique, also called induced grating autocorrelation (IGA), has been used to measure the nonlinear refractive index (n2) and the Raman gain coefficient (g R) of short lengths ( z 20 m) of optical fibers. In the IGA experiment, a transform limited Gaussian pulse is propagated through a short length of an optical fiber, where it undergoes self-phase modulation (SPM) and other nonlinear distortions, and the output pulse is split into two. The two-excitation pulses are then coupled into a photorefractive crystal, where they interfere and form a photorefractive phase grating. The IGA response is determined by delaying one beam (the probe) and plotting the diffracted intensity of the probe versus the relative delay (t). Analysis of the IGA response yields information about the nonlinear phase distortions and other calibration parameters of the fiber. Using the IGA technique the author has measured the nonlinear refractive index in several types of fibers, including pure silica, Er-Al-Ge doped fibers, DCF (dispersion compensating fiber) and the recently developed TrueWave Rs fiber, and investigated the dependence of n2 on the doping profiles of Er, Al, and Ge in optical fibers. The standard IGA model for n2 measurements was derived from the solution of the nonlinear wave equation for pulse propagation in the limit of pure self-phase modulation. This model assumed that GVD (group velocity dispersion) and other nonlinear processes such as SRS (stimulated Raman scattering) are negligible. This model has been successfully used to fit the experimental data and determine the n2 of the fiber from the time dependent phase shift. However, SRS has been observed to distort the IGA trace, thus leading to a breakdown of the standard IGA model. A new IGA model has been developed in this study from the solution of the coupled-amplitude nonlinear Schrodinger equation, using both analytical and numerical approaches. This new model successfully accounts for the SRS effects on the IGA trace, in the limit of zero GVD, and allows the direct determination of the Raman gain coefficient from the fit of the SRSdistorted IGA trace. The measured nonlinear refractive index and Raman gain coefficients are in good agreement with published results. It was also shown that in the limit of zero GVD and no Raman, the IGA technique reduces to the widely accepted spectral domain SPM technique pioneered by Stolen and Lin, but is readily applicable to shorter lengths of fiber and is sensitive to smaller phase shifts. MEASUREMENT OF THE NONLINEAR REFRACTIVE INDEX (n2) AND STIMULATED RAMAN SCATTERING IN OPTICAL FIBERS AS A FUNCTION OF GERMANIC CONTENT, USING Into fI1PHOTOREFRACT1VE BEAM COUPLING TECHNIQUE by Ferdinand Anayo Oguama A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Physics Federated Physics Department


: In this study, we explore the correlates of the employment gender gap among urban youth in Mozambique. Young people are confronted with simultaneous decisions about education, work and family life influenced by social norms around gender roles. Using data from a panel of individuals in 2017 and 2020, aged between 15–25 years in 2017, that covers information on education, employment, fertility, social life, gender norms and more, we observe an increase of 10 percentage points in the raw employment gender gap over time to the disadvantage of young women. Exploiting the longitudinal nature of our data, we apply two methods to assess the main correlates of this gap, an Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition on first-differenced data and a data-driven individual-level fixed-effects LASSO approach. Both analyses reveal that young women face a significant trade-off between work and time spent with reproductive activities and that the labour market seems to reward better education only for men.


This paper presents a discretization methodology applied to the NBV (Next Best View) problem, which consists of determining the heuristical best position of the next scan. This new methodology is a hybrid process between a homogenous voxelization and an octree structure that preserves the advantages of both methods. An octree structure is not directly applicable to the NBV problem: as the point cloud grows with every successive scanning, the limits and position of the discretization, octree structure must coincide, in order to transfer the information from one scan to the next. This problem is solved by applying a first coarse voxelization, followed by the division of each voxel in an octree structure. In addition, a previous methodology for solving the NBV problem has been adapted to make use of this novel approach. Results show that the new method is three times faster than the homogenous voxelization for a maximum resolution of 0.2m. For this target resolution of 0.2m, the number of voxels/octants in the discretization is reduced approximately by a 400%, from 35.360 to 8.937 for the study case presented.


A set of physiological responses is activated following meal intake, providing neural and endocrine signals regulating the digestion, absorption and assimilation of ingested nutrients, in which incretin plays an important role. It is believed that the incretin effect is mediated mainly by two incretin hormones: gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) and glucagon-like peptides (GLP)-1. Shortly following release from gut L cells, GLP-1 is rapidly degraded by dipeptide peptidase-4 (DPP-4) to GLP-1(9-36) or GLP-1(9-37) amide, which inactivates native GLP-1. Because of the short plasma half-life of native GLP-1, about 2 minutes, long-acting derivatives should be developed to make GLP-1 treatment therapeutically relevant. It has been demonstrated that DPP-4 inhibition can protect GLP-1 and GIP from degradation, resulting in enhanced insulinotropic activity of infused GLP. Currently, DPP-4 inhibitors on the market are mainly sitagliptin and vildagliptin. Both inhibitors have significant antidiabetic effects when given in monotherapy and can result in further improvements in glycaemic control when given in combination with other antidiabetic agents such as metformin, sulfonylurea (SU) and thiazolidinediones (TZDs). Exenatide is the first GLP-1 receptor agonist that has been approved for use as an adjunctive therapy to improve glycaemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes who are not adequately controlled with metformin/ SU mono- or combination therapy. Liraglutide is the first once-daily human GLP-1 analogue. In July 2009, Victoza® (liraglutide) was approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus to achieve glycaemic control. In January 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Association (FDA) approved Victoza ® as an adjunct therapy to diet and exercise to improve glycaemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus. It has been shown in different trials that at suggested therapeutic doses of 1.2 mg and 1.8 mg, liraglutide can lower glycated haemoglobin A1c (HbA 1c ) by 1.0-1.5% points as mono- or combination therapy in approximately two-thirds of subjects. GLP-1 receptor agonist showed a greater effect than the DPP-4 inhibitor in reducing postprandial glucose (PPG) concentrations, a more potent effect in increasing insulin secretion and decreasing postprandial glucagon secretion, a relatively greater effect in reducing caloric intake, and it decreased the rate of gastric emptying. Overall, available evidence supports the use of incretin-based therapies in diabetes patients requiring effective glycaemic and body weight control while minimising the risk of hypoglycaemia.


In the study of differential equations there are two fundamental questions: is there a solution? and what is it? One of the most elegant ways to prove that an equation has a solution is to pose it as a fixed point problem, that is, to find a function f such that x is a solution if and only if f (x) = x. Results from fixed point theory can then be employed to show that f has a fixed point. However, the results of fixed point theory are often nonconstructive: they guarantee that a fixed point exists but do not help in finding the fixed point. Thus these methods tend to answer the first question, but not the second. One such result is Schauder's fixed point theorem. This theorem is broadly applicable in proving the existence of solutions to differential equations, including the Navier-Stokes equations under certain conditions. Recently a semi-constructive proof of Schauder's theorem was developed in Rizzolo and Su (2007). In this thesis we go through the construction in detail and show how it can be used to search for multiple solutions. We then apply the method to a selection of differential equations.


Background Burnout (BO), a critical syndrome particularly for nurses in health care settings, substantially affects their physical and psychological status, the institute's well-being, and indirectly, patient outcomes. However, objectively classifying BO levels has not been defined and noticed in the literature. Objective The aim of this study is to build a model using the convolutional neural network (CNN) to develop an app for automatic detection and classification of nurse BO using the Maslach Burnout Inventory–Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) to help assess nurse BO at an earlier stage. Methods We recruited 1002 nurses working in a medical center in Taiwan to complete the Chinese version of the 20-item MBI-HSS in August 2016. The k-mean and CNN were used as unsupervised and supervised learnings for dividing nurses into two classes (n=531 and n=471 of suspicious BO+ and BO−, respectively) and building a BO predictive model to estimate 38 parameters. Data were separated into training and testing sets in a proportion 70%:30%, and the former was used to predict the latter. We calculated the sensitivity, specificity, and receiver operating characteristic curve (area under the curve) across studies for comparison. An app predicting respondent BO was developed involving the model's 38 estimated parameters for a website assessment. Results We observed that (1) the 20-item model yields a higher accuracy rate (0.95) with an area under the curve of 0.97 (95% CI 0.94-0.95) based on the 1002 cases, (2) the scheme named matching personal response to adapt for the correct classification in model drives the prior model's predictive accuracy at 100%, (3) the 700-case training set with 0.96 accuracy predicts the 302-case testing set reaching an accuracy of 0.91, and (4) an available MBI-HSS app for nurses predicting BO was successfully developed and demonstrated in this study. Conclusions The 20-item model with the 38 parameters estimated by using CNN for improving the accuracy of nurse BO has been particularly demonstrated in Excel (Microsoft Corp). An app developed for helping nurses to self-assess job BO at an early stage is required for application in the future.


Two discrete dynamical systems are discussed and analyzed whose trajectories encode significant explicit information about a number of problems in combinatorial probability, including graphical enumeration on Riemann surfaces and random walks in random environments. The two models are integrable and our analysis uncovers the geometric sources of this integrability and uses this to conceptually explain the rigorous existence and structure of elegant closed form expressions for the associated probability distributions. Connections to asymptotic results are also described. The work here brings together ideas from a variety of fields including dynamical systems theory, probability theory, classical analogues of quantum spin systems, addtion laws on elliptic curves, and links between randomness and symmetry.


Fast-response organizations excel in mounting swift and coordinated responses to unexpected events. There are a multitude of conflicting explanations why these organizations excel. These range from acknowledging the strengths of centralized command and control structures, towards stressing the importance of decentralized, improvised action. Though this dichotomy is derived from studies offering either structure or action-based explanations, we were able to reconcile these insights by looking into the process of how fast-responders organize themselves during an unfolding crisis. We analyzed 15 high-speed police pursuits crossing multiple administrative units and jurisdictions, and interviewed and observed officers at work in multiple operations centers, police cars, and helicopters. Our analysis uncovered that fast-responders regularly transition between designed, frontline, and partitioned modes of organizing, each characterized by practices that shape command, allocation, and information sharing. Success and failure are rooted in the ability of the responders to adapt their mode of organizing by tacking back and forth between these practices. Based on our findings, we constructed a process model that provides a deeper understanding of fast-response organizing that informs future studies on organizing in extreme contexts.


One of the main obstacles to develop an intensive aquaculture is the accumulation of toxic inorganic nitrogen
which should be kept very low by frequent water exchange or recycling of the water through a biofilter.
This study describes another method of removing inorganic nitrogen using heterotrophic bacteria population
of which was augmented by the addition of a carbonaceous substance, molasses, to increase the feed C:N
ratio under laboratory condition. The principal aim of study was to establish correlation C:N ratio level
with levels of ammonia, nitrite, dissolved oxygen, pH and shrimp growth in Penaeus monodon shrimp
culture with Zero Water Exchange Model (ZWEM) using molasses as carbon resource. It was found that
addition of molasses to shrimp farming with ZWEM had a role in removing ammonia and nitrite. Also,
application of molasses to laboratory tanks increased the growth and percentage weight gain of shrimps and
increased the population of heterotrophic bacteria.


This paper introduces a new load balancing and communication minimizing heuristic used in theInverse Remote Procedure Call(IRPC) system. While the paper briefly describes the IRPC system, the focus is on the newIRPCassignment heuristic. The IRPC compiler maps a distributed program to a graph that represents program objects and their dependencies (due to invocations and parameter passing) as nodes and edges, respectively. In the graph, the system preserves conditional and iterative flows, records network transmission and execution costs, and marks nodes that have to reside at specific network sites. The graph is then partitioned by the heuristic to derive a (sub)optimal node assignment to network sites minimizing load balancing and network data transport. The resulting program partition is then reflected in the physical object distribution, and remote and local object communication is transparently implemented. The compiler and run-time system use efficient implementation techniques such as type prediction, inlining, splitting and subprogram passing. The last of these allows remote code to be copied to local data, as an alternative to copying data to the remote site, whenever this will reduce network data transport. The IRPC graph partitioning heuristic operates in timeO(E(logd+l+ logM)), whereMis the number of network sites,Eis the number of communication edges, anddis the maximum degree of a node;lis a parameter of the algorithm, and can vary between 1 andN, whereNis the number of communicating objects. This complexity is more nearly independent ofM, and considerably better in terms ofEandN, than that of previously known related algorithms, such as A*, which employs backtracking and is potentially exponential, or the max-flow/min-cut class of network flow algorithms or heuristics which tend to be at least of ?(MN2E), and it can be made (by choosinglappropriately) as efficient as even such fast heuristics as heaviest-edge-first, minimal communication, and Kernighan?Lin. In an extensive quantitative evaluation, the heuristic has been demonstrated to perform very well, giving on the average 75% traffic cost reductions for over 95% of the programs when compared to random partitioning, and outperforming in cost reduction and actual execution time the three aforementioned fast heuristics, even with a largel. Thus, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a well-performing assignment heuristic that is bothessentially linearin the number of communication edges, andbetterthan existing, established heuristics of no better complexity.


The goal of this paper is to present an implementation of stochastic search variable selection (SSVS) to multilevel model from item response theory (IRT). As experimental settings get more complex and models are required to integrate multiple (and sometimes massive) sources of information, a model that can jointly summarize and select the most relevant characteristics can provide better interpretation and a deeper insight into the problem. A multilevel IRT model recently proposed in the literature for modeling multifactorial diseases is extended to perform variable selection in the presence of thousands of covariates using SSVS. We derive conditional distributions required for such a task as well as an acceptance‐rejection step that allows for the SSVS in high dimensional settings using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm. We validate the variable selection procedure through simulation studies, and illustrate its application on a study with genetic markers associated with the metabolic syndrome.


Machine learning models often pose a threat to the privacy of individuals whose data is part of the training set. Several recent attacks have been able to infer sensitive information from trained models, including model inversion or attribute inference attacks. These attacks are able to reveal the values of certain sensitive features of individuals who participated in training the model. It has also been shown that several factors can contribute to an increased risk of model inversion, including feature influence. We observe that not all features necessarily share the same level of privacy or sensitivity. In many cases, certain features used to train a model are considered especially sensitive and therefore propitious candidates for inversion. We present a solution for countering model inversion attacks in tree-based models, by reducing the influence of sensitive features in these models. This is an avenue that has not yet been thoroughly investigated, with only very nascent previous attempts at using this as a countermeasure against attribute inference. Our work shows that, in many cases, it is possible to train a model in different ways, resulting in different influence levels of the various features, without necessarily harming the model's accuracy. We are able to utilize this fact to train models in a manner that reduces the model's reliance on the most sensitive features, while increasing the importance of less sensitive features. Our evaluation confirms that training models in this manner reduces the risk of inference for those features, as demonstrated through several black-box and white-box attacks.


Future cochlear implants demand a higher density of stimulation sites (electrodes) and enhanced functionality (e.g. feedback information). The current generation of implanted cochlear prostheses is making use of a completely "passive scheme" and cannot meet these requirements. An "all-silicon" concept integrating active components with passive electrodes in silicon has been proposed but does not offer the flexibility/stretchability of current silicone-based devices. This paper introduces a novel concept based on silicon chip embedding in a flexible silicone carrier. The process and experimental results will be presented. The concept is also applicable to other types of implanted electrodes, e.g. retinal implants


research interests include genome assembly and comparative genomics. research interests include comparative genomics, whole genome alignment and sequence assembly. was a member of the Informatics Research group at Celera Genomics that developed the human genome assembly program. Abstract One of the most complex and computationally intensive tasks of genome sequence analysis is genome assembly. Even today, few centres have the resources, in both software and hardware, to assemble a genome from the thousands or millions of individual sequences generated in a whole-genome shotgun sequencing project. With the rapid growth in the number of sequenced genomes has come an increase in the number of organisms for which two or more closely related species have been sequenced. This has created the possibility of building a comparative genome assembly algorithm, which can assemble a newly sequenced genome by mapping it onto a reference genome. We describe here a novel algorithm for comparative genome assembly that can accurately assemble a typical bacterial genome in less than four minutes on a standard desktop computer. The software is available as part of the open-source AMOS project.


Based on the available thermodynamic and phase equilibria data, the thermodynamic criteria for oxidation in tin-based lead-free solders under soldering condition was deduced. The dependence of Gibbs free energy on temperature in Pb-free solder oxidation reaction was calculated by applying MATLAB program. The characteristics of oxidation reaction of a varity of solder alloy systems such as Sn-Ag, Sn-Cu, Sn-Sb, Sn-Zn, Sn-Ag-Cu and Sn-Pb eutectic alloys at elevated temperature were analyzed. The results suggested that zinc preferentially oxidized in Sn-Zn solder alloys in the elevated temperature state, while tin preferentially oxidized in the other alloys. The oxidation potential of the Sn-Zn eutectic alloys was higher than that of the pure tin at elevated temperature, whereas the oxidation potentials of Sn-Ag, Sn-Cu, Sn-Sb and Sn-Ag-Cu eutectic alloys were approxiately equal to that of the pure tin. All tin-based Pb-free solder alloys more easily oxidized than the Sn-Pb solder alloys. Oxidizability of these alloys followed in a decreasing order: Sn-Zn>Sn-Sb>Sn-Cu>Sn-Ag>Sn-Ag-Cu>Sn-Pb.


We present an imaging framework which converts three images from a gated camera into high-resolution depth maps with depth accuracy comparable to pulsed lidar measurements. Existing scanning lidar systems achieve low spatial resolution at large ranges due to mechanically-limited angular sampling rates, restricting scene understanding tasks to close-range clusters with dense sampling. Moreover, today's pulsed lidar scanners suffer from high cost, power consumption, large form-factors, and they fail in the presence of strong backscatter. We depart from point scanning and demonstrate that it is possible to turn a low-cost CMOS gated imager into a dense depth camera with at least 80m range - by learning depth from three gated images. The proposed architecture exploits semantic context across gated slices, and is trained on a synthetic discriminator loss without the need of dense depth labels. The proposed replacement for scanning lidar systems is real-time, handles back-scatter and provides dense depth at long ranges. We validate our approach in simulation and on real-world data acquired over 4,000km driving in northern Europe. Data and code are available at https://github.com/gruberto/Gated2Depth.


In this study natural bentonite (NB) and acid-thermal co-modified bentonite (MB) were utilized as adsorbents for the removal of Thymol Blue (TB) from aqueous solution. The batch adsorption experiments were conducted under different experimental conditions. The artificial neural network (ANN) and adaptive neuro fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS) were applied to estimate removal percentage (%) of TB. Mean squared error (MSE), root mean square error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination (R2) values were used to evaluate the results. In addition, the experimental data were fitted isotherm models (Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin) and kinetic models (pseudo first order (PFO), pseudo second order (PSO) and intra-particle diffusion (IPD)). The adsorption of TB on both the NB and MB followed well the PSO kinetic model, and was best suited Langmuir isotherm model. When the temperature was increased from 298 K to 323 K for 20 mg/L of TB initial concentration, the removal percentage of TB onto the NB and MB increased from 74.91% to 84.07% and 81.19% to 93.12%, respectively. This results were confirmed by the positive ΔH° values indicated that the removal process was endothermic for both the NB and MB. The maximum adsorption capacity was found as 48.7805 mg/g and 117.6471 mg/g for the NB and MB, respectively (at 323 K). As a result, with high surface area and adsorption capacity, the MB is a great candidate for TB dye removal from wastewater, and the ANFIS model is better than the ANN model at estimating the removal percentage of the dye.


We are newly vulnerable now in modern society as we are subjected to so much change in how we live, work and learn. Technology is having a major impact on every aspect of our lives with the rapid pace of change being one of the only constants. Along with the major advantages that technology has brought are new demands for the everyday worker. Knowledge itself is highly valued and constantly changing. It is no longer enough now to leave college and enter the workforce with a job for life. Instead the need for reskilling and upskilling to keep pace with changes in work practices coupled to uncertainty in the job market due to economic downturn are very real challenges. Now reinvention is regularly demanded to keep pace with the constant flux that is participating in modern life. This research proposes a strategy to activate the lifelong learning mode of an individual to capture their prior non formal, informal learning and work based learning over time to meet these new demands. E-Portfolios can be used to protect against the rigors of modern life and articulate the abilities of the individual. e-Portfolios can be used over time to present for new work opportunities; for promotion in the workplace; to set out a learning plan and for Recognition of Prior Learning purposes on return to Higher Education, where this knowledge can be assessed for credits. This research has trialled the use of e-portfolios with the BA in Community Development in Cork Institute of Technology. The group prepared sample prior learning cases for the module EDUC6004 Portfolio Methods for Recognition of Prior Learning. The students were a mature group with diverse backgrounds and cultures. This group found that building the e-portfolios, using Google sites; drawing on their experiential learning and subsequently reflecting on the module to be significant in activating a lifelong learning mentality. It is proposed that this is a valuable step to activate the lifelong learning mindset of any cohort of students; and should be built into the foundation stages of Higher Education programmes. The research* concludes that all Higher Education providers must promote this mindset to better equip today's learner to survive the tide of change that is modern life. This research was supported by the REAP project and the HEA in Ireland.


Teaching is a creative practice that requires the kind of open-minded, whole-hearted, flexible, improvisational (yet knowledgeable), and performative orientation that I refer to as the "creativity mindset." Fostering such a mindset amongst preservice teachers can be challenging, since they often see their future teaching-selves as altruistic yet authoritarian subject matter experts. Underpinning these views are narrow conceptions of teaching, and of how we learn. To what extent can an experience of creative, performative pedagogy transform these views, and foster a creativity mindset for teaching (and learning) amongst preservice teachers?


This paper proposes an adaptive energy efficient task allocation scheme for a multiprocessor system-on-a-chip (SoC) in real-time energy harvesting systems. The proposed scheme generates an energy efficient offline task schedule for a multiprocessor SoC energy harvesting system by balancing application workload among multiple processing elements and pushing real-time application towards their deadlines. The off-line task schedule is dynamically extended to adapt to the energy availability in the runtime to improve the probability of a task to be feasibly scheduled. Simulation experiments show that the proposed scheme achieves energy savings of up to 24%, and reduces task deadline miss ratio of up to 10%.


A straightforward technique for VPR adjustment based on the analysis of accumulated pseudoCAPPI data at two different heights is proposed. The extracted VPR gradient is used to perform a range and azimuth dependent adjustment using a purely analytical expression. The application of the dual-CAPPI technique is illustrated using a case of stratiform precipitation and a strong bright band interference. A preliminary verification indicates that the dual-CAPPI technique performs rather good for cases with stratiform precipitation. The development of the dual-CAPPI technique will be continued by a semi-operational implementation and a more detailed verification.


A survey was undertaken to understand sheep management, breeding practices and selection criteria for Red Maasai sheep in Maasai pastoralist communities in Kajiado District, Kenya. Differences between North and South Kajiado District were investigated to gain knowledge about farmers having different prerequisites and how it can affect the sheep production. The reason for keeping sheep and the specific breeds show the multiple objectives of the Maasai farmers. Adaptive traits, such as resistance to diseases and droughts, and productive traits, such as increased growth and carcass weight, were both ranked highly. In addition to this, the sheep has a social and traditional value in Maasai culture. Although the Red Maasai sheep was ranked highly with regard to traits important for adaptation and social purposes, the population was considered to decline in numbers of pure bred Red Maasai. The breed was common in the whole district, but mostly used in crosses with Dorper in both North Kajiado and South Kajiado, whereas crosses with Blackhead Persian were more common to use in South than in North Kajiado. Most important reason for keeping sheep was food source, followed by source of cash income. When purchasing new sheep for the time being, the most important traits were body size (weight and height) and growth. Large differences in cultivation practices, herd size and herd productivity could be shown between North and South Kajiado. The differences were most likely caused by the different infrastructural and environmental conditions in the two locations. Challenges in the future, with unpredictable climate with recurrent droughts, may lead to larger demand of well adapted sheep. In this case, Red Maasai sheep would be an appropriate breed to better utilize.


Various MIX-based systems offering anonymity for near real-time traffic have been operational. However, they did not deliver many quantitative results about performance, bandwidth overhead, or other issues that arise when implementing or operating such a system. Consequently, the problem of how to design and operate a MIX-based system such that it provides a good balance between usability, protection from attacks, and overhead is not well understood. In this paper, we present the design, implementation, and analysis of a MIX-based anonymity network for Web browsing that offers a high level of anonymity against an attacker and good end-to-end performance at a reasonable bandwidth overhead. We describe a novel way of operating the MIXes that maximizes the protection from traffic analysis attacks while minimizing the bandwidth overhead. We also look at some advanced options we have integrated into our system that either improve its performance and usability or that make it more resistant against sophisticated attacks. We deliver quantitative results about the performance of our system, which should help to give a better understanding of MIX networks.


Three broadband RF LDMOS power amplifier integrated circuits (PA ICs) for cellular base station applications have been developed in Si LDMOS IC technologies. They can be used for all typical modulation formats from 800 MHz to 2300 MHz, and power levels from 30 W to 50 W depending on application. GSM/EDGE PA IC achieved 35 dB gain and 30 W with 200 MHz bandwidth (22% bandwidth) at 900 MHz. CDMA2000 PA IC achieved 30 dB gain and 40 W with 300 MHz bandwidth (15% bandwidth) at 1900 MHz. TD-SCDMA/WCDMA PA IC achieved 27 dB gain and 50 W under TD-SCDMA signal and 40 W under WCDMA signal with 400 MHz bandwidth (20% bandwidth) at 2100 MHz. All three PA ICs have been characterized under all typical modulations formats and showed excellent linear power, efficiency, and bandwidth. The excellent performances of these three PA ICs, simplify power amplifier designs, enable a small footprint and help lower the cost of the modern base-station


OSPF, or Open Shortest Path First, is a commonly used interior gateway protocol. Given a network topology, a set of link types to be deployed, each having a different capacity, and predicted traffic demands, the problem considered in this paper is to find a set of OSPF weights that minimizes network cost subject to single arc failures. We propose a genetic algorithm to find near-optimal or optimal solutions for this problem. At each iteration (or generation) of the algorithm, OSPF weights are assigned to the arcs of each member of the population and an external procedure determines which links are to be deployed and the corresponding cost associated with the deployment. Four heuristics used to implement this external procedure are the main topic of this paper. They are designed to minimize the overall cost of the network, but some have additional constraints imposed by specific applications. We show the results of an experiment with the four heuristics on a real network with 54 routers and 278 arcs.


Over the past decade, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file-sharing and streaming systems have evolved as a cheap and effective technology in distributing content to users. Guaranteeing a level of performance in P2P systems is, therefore, of utmost importance. However, P2P file-sharing and streaming applications suffer from a fundamental problem of unfairness, where many users have a tendency to free-ride by contributing little or no upload bandwidth while consuming much download bandwidth. By taking away an unfair share of resources, free-riders deteriorate the quality of service experienced by other users, by causing slower download times in P2P file-sharing networks and higher stream updates' miss rates in P2P streaming networks. Previous attempts at addressing fair bandwidth allocation in P2P, such as BitTorrent-like systems, suffer from slow peer discovery, inaccurate predictions of neighboring peers' bandwidth allocations, under-utilization of bandwidth, and complex parameter tuning.
We present FairTorrent, a new deficit-based distributed algorithm that accurately rewards peers in accordance with their contribution in a file-sharing P2P system. In a nutshell, a FairTorrent peer uploads the next data block to a peer to whom it owes the most data. FairTorrent is resilient to exploitation by free-riders and strategic peers, is simple to implement, requires no bandwidth over-allocation, no prediction of peers' rates, no centralized control, and no parameter tuning. We implemented FairTorrent in a BitTorrent client without modifications to the BitTorrent protocol, and evaluated its performance against other widely-used BitTorrent clients using various scenarios including live BitTorrent swarms. Our results show that FairTorrent provides up to two orders of magnitude better fairness, up to five times better download performance for contributing peers, and 60–100% better performance on average in live BitTorrent swarms. We show analytically that for a number of upload capacity distributions, in an n-node FairTorrent network, no peer is ever owed more than O(log n) data blocks with high probability.
Achieving fair bandwidth allocation in a P2P streaming scenario is even more difficult, as it comes with an additional constraint: each stream update must be received before its playback deadline P2P live streaming systems require global resource over-provisioning to deliver adequate streaming performance. When there is not enough bandwidth to accommodate all users for a particular stream, such as due to free-riders or low-contributing peers, all users, including high-contributing peers, observe poor performance. We present FairStream, a new P2P streaming system that delivers a good quality stream to peers that upload data at a rate above the stream rate, even in the presence of free-riders or malicious users. FairStream achieves this with three mechanisms. First, it provides a new peer reply policy framework that enables file sharing incentive mechanisms to be adapted for streaming. Second, it uses this framework to incorporate a deficit-based peer reply policy that enables each peer to reply first to the neighbor to whom it owes the most data as measured by a deficit counter. Third, it introduces a collusion-resistant mechanism to ensure effective data distribution of a stream despite a large fraction of free-riders who do not forward received data. We prove that FairStream is resilient to free-riders and rewards peers with streaming performance correlated with their contributions. We have also implemented FairStream as a BitTorrent client and evaluated its performance against other popular streaming systems. Our results on PlanetLab show that FairStream, similar to other systems, provides good quality streaming performance when resources are over-provisioned, but it also provides orders of magnitude better streaming performance for peers uploading above the stream rate when resources are constrained, in the presence of free-riders and low-contributing peers.


Background Accumulating evidence suggests that cardiotoxicity is one of the main manifestations of aconitine (AC) poisoning. However, the molecular mechanism of AC-induced cardiotoxicity remains unclear, there is little direct evidence for therapeutic targets and drugs of AC-induced cardiotoxicity. Material/Methods Zebrafish were exposed to AC to evaluate cardiotoxicity by calculating the heart rates and observing the changes of cardiac and vascular structure. RNA-seq (RNA sequencing) and bioinformatics analysis were used to obtain differentially expressed genes (DEGs). The anti-AC cardiotoxicity compound was identified via connectivity map (CMAP) analysis and molecular docking. Results AC-induced cardiotoxicity in zebrafish predominantly included arrhythmias, extended sinus venous and bulbus arteriosus (SV-BA) distance, and larger pericardial edema aera. A total of 1380 DEGs were identified by RNA-seq and bioinformatics analysis. cyclin-dependent kinase-1 (CDK1) was screened as the hub gene and the most potential therapeutic target due to its significant downregulation in cardiotoxicity based on protein-protein interaction (PPI) and drug-gene interaction (DGIdb) network analysis. Cell cycle signal pathway was the most significant pathways identified in the Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis. Furthermore, the expression of CDK1 was validated in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database GSE71906, GSE65705, and GSE95140. Finally, heptaminol was identified as a novel anti-AC cardiotoxicity compound via CMAP analysis and molecular docking. Conclusions Totally, hub genes and key pathways identified in this study can aid in the understanding of the molecular changes in AC-induced cardiotoxicity. Meanwhile, we provide a systematic method to explore drug toxicity prevention and treatment.


Background: Elderly patients are underrepresented in clinical trials and frequently undertreated with standard therapy. The BRiTE observational cohort study assessed the safety and effectiveness of bevacizumab-based first-line therapy for metastatic colorectal cancer among a large cohort of elderly patients (896 patients ≧65 years, among 1,953 total patients). Methods: Treatment patterns, safety, progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and survival beyond first progression (SBP) were analyzed by age cohorts. OS and SBP were further analyzed using Cox proportional hazards regression. Results: Median PFS (months) was similar across age cohorts (<65 years, 9.8; 65 to <75, 9.6; 75 to <80, 10.0; ≧80, 8.6). Median OS (months) decreased with age (<65 years, 26.0; 65 to <75, 21.1; 75 to <80, 20.3; ≧80, 16.2). SBP declined with age; however, a Cox model adjusting for baseline and postbaseline covariates that were imbalanced among age cohorts showed a reduced independent effect of age on SBP (months) (<65 years, 12.0; 65 to <75, 11.4; 75 to <80, 11.3; ≧80, 10.0) compared with unadjusted analyses. Use of bevacizumab in subsequent postprogression regimens decreased with age. Incidence of targeted adverse events did not increase with age, except for arterial thromboembolic events (ATEs), for which Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, anticoagulation and arterial disease history were stronger prognostic factors than age. Conclusions: Elderly patients receiving bevacizumab with first-line chemotherapy showed treatment benefit, although there was reduced median survival with increasing age. There was no increased toxicity among elderly patients, except for risk of ATEs.


Aim: Arthrosis of the hip joint is a condition that is becoming more and more common-it affects 1% of the population and constitutes a serious problem for their working efficiency and active way of life. The deforming arthrosis limits the functional capacity of the affected patients, worsens their quality of life and leads to incapacitation of the patients. The treatment of patients with coxarthrosis has to be planned and carried out comprehensively, in accordance with the pathological findings, the stage, duration and individual abilities of each patient. In the early stages of the condition, conservative therapy plays an essential role in the prophylaxis of complications and in slowing down the process. Physical and rehabilitation methods, in combination with medicamentous therapy, yield good results. This article focuses on the application of the comprehensive effect of conservative physiotherapeutic methods and complementary drug therapy in the early stage of coxarthrosis. The aim of the study is to investigate the efficiency of the combined application of physiotherapeutic electrical procedures and kinesitherapy methods and means in the treatment of coxarthrosis in the initial stage.
Material and Methods: 18 out-patients with coxarthrosis at an average age of 68, were subjected to a treatment schedule including: interferential current, low-frequency magnetic field, ultra phoresis with non-steroid anti-inflammatory medications, followed by a program of remedial exercise administered in 2 courses of 7 d at 'St. Panteleymon' Hospital in Plovdiv, in the period from September 2017 to May 2018.
Results: The range of motion in terms of degrees exhibits a tendency towards increasing at the end of the course of therapy, as compared to that at the beginning of the course. The results from the initial and final muscle tests of the hip joint showed an improvement of the muscle function (from a degree of 3.50 to a degree of 4.50).
Conclusion: In patients with coxarthrosis in the initial stage, the pain subsides after the physical and rehabilitation therapy administered in combination with medications.


Abstract This paper contributes insights into the role of tenure in modifying the relationship between housing affordability and health, using a cross-national comparison of similar post-industrial nations—Australia and the United Kingdom—with different tenure structures. The paper utilises longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey and British Household Panel Survey to examine change in the mental health of individuals associated with housing becoming unaffordable and considers modification by tenure. We present evidence that the role of tenure in the relationship between housing and health is context dependent and should not be unthinkingly generalised across nations. These findings suggest that the UK housing context offers a greater level of protection to tenants living in unaffordable housing when compared with Australia, and this finds expression in the mental health of the two populations. We conclude that Australian governments could improve the mental health of their economically vulnerable populations through more supportive housing policies.


Renewable generation systems are increasing its presence in electrical power systems. For this reason, it is more important than ever to count with reliable and secure generation systems. In this way, the use of on-line diagnostic techniques in the maintenance schemes can be useful. This paper is about on-line condition monitoring in induction generators for small hydro stations and wind farms. In particular, stator winding fault diagnosis is analyzed. Currently, there are diagnostic techniques that are used in induction motors, but they could be used in generators as well. This paper analyzes the induction generator characteristics and describes the appropriate diagnostic techniques. These techniques depend on the machine voltage. As most of the induction generators are low voltage machines, the diagnosis of stator winding faults will be based on the detection of inter-turn short circuits. Most of the inter-turn short circuit diagnostic techniques are noninvasive as they are based on voltage and line current monitoring.


Inhibition of highly purified rat liver fatty acid synthetase occurs when it is assayed in the presence of the ATP citrate lyase reaction components. Citrate, M&+, ATP, and ATP citrate lyase were all necessary for the inhibition to take place. Inhibition was prevented by hydroxycitrate, a competitive inhibitor for ATP citrate lyase. The length of time for the onset of inhibition to take place was proportional to the ratio of ATP citrate lyase activity to the fatty acid synthetase activity. The inhibition was reversed by the addition of coenzyme A. This indicates a reaction mechanism for fatty acid synthetase which involves free coenzyme A. Two possible roles for CoA are discussed, one as an allosteric activator and the other in the cleavage of palmitoyl enzyme in the last step of the reaction.


Clusters of conventional computers have almost replaced vector-based supercomputers among the world9s 500 biggest computing complexes, thereby tapping a computing resource with lower costs. But as
 Kirkpatrick
 explains in his Perspective, this approach brings new problems. He highlights the report by
 Korniss et al ., who demonstrate that the simulations times of the different processors can diverge very quickly, leading to temporal "roughening." As a result, it can be difficult to synchronize computations performed on many different computers. Intermittent synchronization over random distances can suppress the roughening.


In this paper, a system that converts Turkish signs to words using convolutional neural networks is presented. Skeleton data obtained by Microsoft's Kinect device is used in the proposed system. User located in front of Kinect sensor makes the signs of corresponding word for a limited time. Afterwards, skeleton joints are extracted. Finally, skeleton points on consecutive frames are merged, and Word classification is performed by convulational neural network. In experimental studies, evaluations are carried out with our own dataset and performance of the proposed method is compared with various classification methods. Moreover, the effect of being closer or further to the camera and movements in different speeds are also investigated. In the lights of the experimental results, it is seen that proposed convolutional neural network gives better performances than other classifiers such as Gaussian SVM, Linear SVM, weighted KNN and decision trees.


Following a finding that a defendant is unfit to plead, s.4A(2) Criminal Procedure (Insanity) Act 1964 requires the court to appoint counsel to put the case for the defence. In R v Norman, the Court of Appeal emphasised that the judge should appoint "the right person for this difficult task", such as "counsel experienced in mental health issues", as the responsibility placed on the person appointed is "quite different" to that placed on an advocate who can take instructions from a client.
The Law Commission has stated that the procedure for appointing counsel "works well in terms of assisting an unfit accused", but there is a paucity of evidence to support this contention. This paper will explore some of the procedural difficulties arising out of this process and the ethical and practical dilemmas that may be faced by the advocate, including:
• Best interests and the accused's "identified will and preferences"
• The notion of reliable instructions
• Whether and when to override the accused's personal autonomy
It will be suggested that guidance for advocates in the criminal courts would be helpful given the increasing number of findings of unfitness to plead.


Attention mechanism has been proven effective on natural language processing. This paper proposes an attention boosted natural language inference model named aESIM by adding word attention and adaptive direction-oriented attention mechanisms to the traditional Bi-LSTM layer of natural language inference models, e.g. ESIM. This makes the inference model aESIM has the ability to effectively learn the representation of words and model the local subsentential inference between pairs of premise and hypothesis. The empirical studies on the SNLI, MultiNLI and Quora benchmarks manifest that aESIM is superior to the original ESIM model.


Much of the recent work on the economic and social history of Tokugawa Japan (1600–1867) has been driven by a desire to identify what T.C. Smith has called 'native sources ofJapanese industrialisation'. From the Marxist-influenced historians in the 1920s who sought to explain the pre-industrial roots of the structure of production in interwar Japan, through to contem-poraryJapanese historians' studies of the pattern of Japanese development, a major part of the agenda has been to identify how Japan had got to where it was, in other words, what was the secret of its twentieth century successes and weaknesses. It is not possible to explore the situation of Japan's economy in the century 1750–1850 without benefit of this hindsight, without being aware that while Japan's situation may have been in many ways analogous to that of China and Europe in the mid-eighteenth century, its economic fortunes were by the latter part of the nineteenth century experiencing their own 'great divergence' from those of China, India and the other countries of Asia and the near East. To search for the antecedents of this divergence is for economic historians of Japan a parallel exercise o t any search for the sources of the European 'miracle'. While a focus on the period 1750–1850 as an era of European/Asian divergence means, therefore, that we must highlight the situation inJapan during that century, it must also be accepted that in the case of Japan any comparison with other countries or regions may also suggest the causes of Japan's own divergence some fifty to a hundred years later.


Queering participatory planning by Vanesa Castán Broto. All over the world, people suffer violence and discrimination because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Queer theory has linked the politics of identity and sexuality with radical democracy experiments to decolonize development. Queering participatory planning can improve the wellbeing of vulnerable sectors of the population, while also enhancing their political representation and participation. However, to date, there has been limited engagement with the politics of sexuality and identity in participatory planning. This paper identifies three barriers that prevent the integration of queer concerns. First, queer issues are approached as isolated and distinct, separated from general matters for discussion in participatory processes. Second, heteronormative assumptions have shaped two fields that inform participatory planning practices: development studies and urban planning. Third, concrete, practical problems (from safety concerns to developing shared vocabularies) make it difficult to raise questions of identity and sexuality in public discussions. An engagement with queer thought has potential to renew participatory planning.


Background: In rural settings, distance is a factor when medical assistance is critical. Every minute can make a difference in treatment and recovery of a stroke patient. Early recognition and notification of a possible stroke are key elements in the chain of survival for stroke victims. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) involvement in pre-hospital notification of a stroke patient can improve assessment and diagnostic times and use of alteplase.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare times of specific assessments, diagnostics, and treatments with EMS stroke alert activation prior to arrival compared to stroke alert activation by hospital personnel after patient arrival.

Methods: In the setting of a rural, community hospital, the local fire department/paramedics were trained to use a screening tool and to provide pre-hospital activation of a stroke alert. The trial demonstrated positive results. Subsequently, education was disseminated to EMS providers throughout the five county service area. Data was collected from January to December 2013, with 30 alerts activated by Emergency Department (ED) personnel and 22 activated by EMS pre-hospital (n=52). Data consisted of times from door to: physician, Computer Tomography (CT) scan, CT read, laboratory, stroke team, decision for alteplase, and needle time.

Results: The average time from door to physician yielded a decrease by 13 minutes for an EMS alert compared to ED alert. Average door to CT scan time were decreased by 6 minutes using the EMS alert. Average times from door to laboratory completion decreased by 5 minutes using the EMS alert. Average time for door to stroke team was decreased by 9 minutes using the EMS alert. Door to needle times did not differ between groups, but the percentage of patients receiving alteplase increased in the EMS alert group (18.2% with EMS alert compared to 3.3% with an ED alert).

Conclusion: In conclusion, the findings of this study suggest times for assessment are improved through EMS pre-notification and early initiation of the hospital stroke-alert system. It also shows an increase in the use of alteplase when there is pre-hospital notification of a potential stroke patient.


Human activity analysis is becoming increasingly important to enable preventative, diagnostic and rehabilitative measures in health and wellness applications. Wearable sensors are now taking a leading role in this area. However, daily activity profiling is still challenging due to a number of complications: 1) Method to quantify human activities are not precisely defined, especially in the domain of upper body activities. 2) Body joints have multiple degrees of freedom that are required to establish the flexibility of activity performance. Therefore, even if an agreement is achieved in activity recognition, performance of a specific activity can still present numerous variations for one person in different performance bouts; 3) Performance evaluation is also challenging without a complete set of training data since the difference between pathological movements and special personal behaviors may not be accurately classified by a general activity analysis system.Therefore, a new solution is provided to address the above three challenges. In this dissertation, a wearable sensor based location driven high-level activity classification and 3D human motion tracking system will be presented. This system consists of three sub-systems, location detection, activity classification and motion tracking. The location detection system determines the user's location and gives this information to the activity classification system without reliance on any other localization instrumentation or infrastructure. In addition to being a fundamental advance, this adds an additional critical benefit, the location detection system also provides navigation functionality to the end users. The activity classification system classifies the general activities the end user is performing. Since the activity set is limited by a user's location, the classification performance will be largely improved both in terms of accuracy and efficiency. The activity classification system also indicates the high-level activity classification result. On one hand, it can be used for compliance assessment to examine whether the user is following his prescribed exercise activity according to proper protocols. On the other hand, it enables an activity specific motion tracking protocol to be used in the motion tracking system resulting in reduced analytics computation demand. The motion tracking system supports reconstruction of motions for remote and post-event visualization as well as performance evaluation based on the idea of range of motions. In the dissertation, the algorithms at the foundation of each of the three subsystems will be described as well as complete system integration.


Workplace health and safety (WHS) regulators have been reluctant to investigate professional sports for breaches of WHS law. Using the Essendon Football Club supplements saga as its primary case study, this article explores this reluctance. It concludes that while aspects of the sporting endeavour justify a pragmatic application of WHS laws, professional sport should not be above and beyond WHS laws and regulators. The reasoning behind WHS regulators' decisions not to investigate potential WHS breaches in professional sport should be more transparent.


Abstract In this paper, a copper-based bond emery wheel was prepared by vacuum hot pressing sintering through powder metallurgy. The effects of various bond contents on the grinding performance of the copperbased bond grinding wheel were studied using a self-made experimental device; the friction coefficients between the friction pairs and roughness of the grinded rail surface were also obtained. The results show that the grinding wheel had the best grinding performance when the content of the copper-based bond was at 35 wt.-%, the friction coefficient 0.29, the grinding ratio 81.34, and the surface roughness 7.191 μm, which meet the roughness requirements of rail grinding. The microstructure of the rail surface and debris after grinding were studied by scanning electron microscope and energy spectrum analysis. Adhesive wear, abrasive wear, oxidation wear and delamination wear occurred during the friction and wear process. The grinding behavior of grinding wheels was analyzed in accordance with the experimental results.


The work of studies is helpful in the work of individual and human development, yet the current education system shows that there has been a decline in the field of studies, especially among the youth. We are giving a suggestion to make a suggestion in the field of education. We have explained the system in different parts and have given importance to the books of the field and books that prove useful for the interest of the reader mainly. Today, many books are available on the Internet, due to which the reader has to face many difficulties in finding the right book according to his interest. Our presented mural will present to the student according to his interest and suggestions of a very important book for him. We are presenting here a web application in which the student can enter his presentation and buy the book. After that, our software will look at his interest for the next time and suggest to read his interest like a book read by other students who have been liked more by another student. Our algorithm can be given many awareness. In this paper we are presenting the work in the field of recommendation system that is already available. A study and analysis report about the available recommendation algorithm and their limitation.


Objective:Our goal was to evaluate the clinical reliability of a new software system employing 3-dimensional (3D) virtual anatomic reconstruction and intraluminal virtual exploration for detection of choledocholithiasis and preoperative visualization of the biliary anatomy. Summary Background Data:Virtual reality systems have been proposed for gastroscopy, bronchoscopy, and colonoscopy, as well as for the 3D reconstruction of liver anatomy and hepatic lesions. The impact of these systems in preoperative diagnostics has not been established due to the lack of large clinical series evaluating their reliability. Methods:From November 2000 to July 2002, all patients presenting to our Institute with suspected choledocholithiasis were prospectively included in the study. All patients underwent conventional magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) and either intraoperative cholangiogram (IOC) or endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). The digital data from MRCP were incorporated into an original virtual reality software system to generate a 3D reconstruction. All 3D reconstructions were evaluated by a surgeon and a computer software engineer who were blind to the results of the IOC or ERCP. Sensitivity and specificity were then calculated based on the results of either the IOC or ERCP. Results:Sixty-five patients were enrolled in the study. The average time required to reconstruct the images into navigable virtual reality was 7.5 minutes (range, 4–13.5). The 3D virtual cholangioscopy had sensitivity and specificity rates of 71% and 91%, respectively, compared with 61% and 86% of the standard MRCP. Conclusion:The 3D virtual cholangioscopy provides detailed preoperative reconstruction of biliary anatomy and reliable identification of choledocholithiasis with acceptable sensitivity and specificity in a clinical setting. Newer software developments may further enhance its accuracy, so that virtual cholangioscopy might challenge or replace more invasive diagnostic measures in the near future.


We study probabilistic logic under the viewpoint of the coherence principle of de Finetti. In detail, we explore how probabilistic reasoning under coherence is related to model-theoretic probabilistic reasoning and to default reasoning in System P. In particular, we show that the notions of g-coherence and of g-coherent entailment can be expressed by combining notions in model-theoretic probabilistic logic with concepts from default reasoning. Moreover, we show that probabilistic reasoning under coherence is a generalization of default reasoning in System P. That is, we provide a new probabilistic semantics for System P, which neither uses infinitesimal probabilities nor atomic bound (or big-stepped) probabilities. These results also provide new algorithms for probabilistic reasoning under coherence and for default reasoning in System P, and they give new insight into default reasoning with conditional objects.


Retina vessel segmentation is a challenging task that concerns scientists for many years. Vasculature gives us information for possible diseases like diabetic retinopathy, hypertension etc. Different algorithms have been developed using matched filters, pattern recognition techniques and scale-space techniques, which present reliable results. Currently the most challenging task is the estimation of vessels' width of the whole retina vasculature. At this article, a method for the calculation of vessels' minimum, maximum and mean width of every single vessel that we obtain from the already segmented binary image is proposed. Having this information we can evaluate the cardiovascular functionality, such as volumetric flow, flow velocity, and tension at the vessels' walls during blood circulation. The proposed algorithm tracks the bifurcation points of the whole vasculature using the skeleton of the initial image and uses a decision making technique to decide which vessel to cross each time. Finally the algorithm crosses the vessel pixel-by-pixel and calculates the width until the end of the vessel. The whole procedure is automatic and we can see the remaining skeleton in our screen, after estimating a single vessel's width, since this vessel disappears from the image. Each vessel's width is calculated with pixel accuracy.


Abstract In this study, the consequences of allowing course compensation in a higher education academic dismissal policy are evaluated by examining performance on a second-year follow-up (i.e. sequel) course that builds on material from a first-year precursor course. Up to now, differences in the consequences of compensation on student performance across groups of students who portray different unobserved study processes were not considered. In this study we used a latent class regression model to distinguish latent groups of students. Data from two undergraduate curricula were used and latent classes were formed based on similar patterns in averages, variability in grades, the number of compensated courses, and the number of retakes in the first year. Results show that students can be distinguished by three latent classes. Although the first-year precursor course is compensated in each of these latent classes, low performance on the precursor course results in low performance on the second-year sequel course for psychology students who belong to a class in which the average across first-year courses is low and the average number of compensated courses and retakes are high. For these students, compensation on a precursor course seems more likely to relate to insufficient performance on a sequel course.