The analysis of intraperitoneal complication having developed after operations on stomach has been carried out. For these complications 104 patients (9.1%) have undergone relaparotomy. The most frequent causes of relaparotomy appeared to be peritonitis (47.1%), adhesive obstruction (12.5%) and pancreonecrosis (11.5%). For recent 10 years such complications as peritonitis and adhesive obstruction are met rarely that resulted in lowering of relaparotomy cases to 6.2%. Distinct relation between the type of operation carried out and the frequency of development of postoperative intraperitoneal complications has been noted. Diagnostic defects and intraperitoneal complication treatment were revealed in 26% of cases. Lethality in this group of patients was 92.6%. Early diagnostics and adequate treatment of occurring intraperitoneal complications have been found to be one of the best methods of improvement of stomach surgery results.


Soil organic matter (SOM) and total nitrogen (STN) play an important role in terrestrial ecosystems. Knowledge of their regional distribution and dynamical change is an important basis for reasonable utilizing and protecting soil resources. However, very little attention has been paid to this in cultivated land of the southern Loess Plateau. In this study, Heyang County, an agricultural county located in the southern Loess Plateau, was chosen as study area. SOM and STN data were collected in 1983 and 2006. Spatial autocorrelation, geostatistics, and fractal methods were used to analyze their spatio-temporal variability. Results showed that mean contents of SOM and STN had significantly increased in the past 23 years. A relatively more increase was found in the southeast and relatively less increase in the northern half. Compared with those in 1983, SOM and STN contents in 2006 showed a higher nugget/sill ratio, shorter spatial autocorrelation distance, and larger fractal dimension, indicating that the spatial dependence of SOM and STN showed a weakening trend and a stronger spatial variability of the 2006 dataset. The main factors affecting SOM and STN changes were topography, soil type, and farm management practices. But, more and more impacts were derived from anthropogenic activities.


Previous studies have demonstrated that speech recognition in noise is associated with hearing aid compression release settings and cognitive processing speed. This study investigated the effects of Cognitive processing speed and Digital Signal Processing settings (linear amplification without noise reduction, linear amplification with noise reduction and non-linear amplification with (fast-acting compression without noise reduction) on the performance of speech recognition task in noise in elderly hearing aid users. Two hundred elderly (mean age = 61 years) experienced hearing aid users with sensorineural hearing loss participated in the study. Individual measurements of Cognitive processing speed (rapid automatic naming test), Speech recognition in noise (Hagerman test) were obtained and used to predict a successful outcome. The results will be presented and the potential clinical implications in the rehabilitations of elderly hearing aid users discussed.


Court advocacy in England and Wales, and the United States, has, over the last three centuries, been very fluid and remains so. It certainly did not develop according to an overriding logical plan, but has grown piecemeal and at an uneven pace, the result of a complex interplay of many influences. An attempt is made to identify as many of these, chronologically, as possible. A non exhaustive list of principal factors , the relative importance of each has varied over time, includes: the effect on juniors of successful styles and approaches used by senior advocates; judicial tastes for the advocacy of lawyers, especially in the absence of jurors, when it is usually for the practical and the unadorned; changes in court procedure made by judges; reforms in the law of evidence concerning who and what may be put before courts and informing the content of submissions made; alterations in civil and criminal procedure and in the substantive law; the amount of media reporting of court cases; public and press opinion about the acceptable limits of advocates' tactics and oratory; the forming, by advocates, of professional rules of conduct and how much they are followed; levels of respect and civility between the bench and the bar; the standing of the judiciary and its power to control proceedings in court; the extent to which juries are used in trials and the social origins of those serving on them; greater education of jurors and less susceptibility by them to melodramatic appeals to emotion; awareness by advocates that in addressing juries they have to take into account contemporary use of language and, when making allusions, draw on popular culture, itself far from still, formed by newspapers, novels, radio, films, television and increasingly the computer internet; the school educational curriculum, which has substantially evolved, usually received by lawyers and judges; general styles of public speaking and discourse in society; the formal teaching of advocacy, only introduced comparatively recently; and a relationship, although not a simplistic one, between quality of advocacy and the amount parties and the state are prepared to pay for it. New technology will, very probably, exert a strong influence on future forensic oratory. Recent widening of the pool of advocates may also be important.


Abstract During 1980–90, Japan's annual real GDP growth rate was 4.6%, but which declined to 1.2% in the 1990s. While the drop in itself is a problem, at the same time it exacerbated many other problems, namely inequality, budget deficits, and the increasing burden of an aging society. Society is not concerned about income distribution when the economy is growing, but begins to worry about inequality when an economic slump shows no signs of ending. Moreover, prolonged recession magnifies inequality. With the employment situation surrounding young people worsening, there arose an inequality between those finding jobs and those unemployed. And, the prolonged recession led to a huge budget deficit and the accumulation of government debt. Tax revenue shrank, and the government repeatedly increased public investment in the form of economic stimulus measures, but the Japanese economy did not recover in a sustained fashion. Japan's low growth has already continued for 20 years. Incomes of the younger and middle-aged segments of the population have not increased. Additionally, Japan is an aging society. The aged need pensions, and medical treatment and care, costs which must be borne by younger and middle-aged segments of the population, in fact those who have not experienced Japan's prosperous times. This paper discusses issues relating to the Great Recession, inequality, and the budget deficit and burden of an aging population. Japan's Great Recession is basically explained by monetary shocks. Just the bubble and its bursting are not solely responsible for the prolonged slump. There is no empirical evidence for the assertion that certain structural problems lessened the efficiency of the Japanese economy in the 1990s. TFP (total factor productivity) in the 1990s did not decline compared with the early 1980s. Fiscal policy and the diminution of the financial intermediary function can only explain the Great Recession in small part. The absence of any real monetary policy hampered economic growth through the channels of stock prices and improvement in bank balance sheets. Using vector autoregressive models, the exchange rate was not found to be an important channel of monetary policy, but there is some evidence that it significantly affected output. On inequality problems, that among younger generations is important since it will increase inequality in the future. Japan's economy will stagnate for a long time if the young are not employed and cannot garner skills. Another important point is that the way of maintaining social stability and alleviating inequality in Japan is extremely inefficient. To construct useless dams, roads, ports, and airports is extremely costly just to give jobs to the unemployed. It would be much better to give direct assistance to those in need. There is some reason to think that a budget deficit is not so serious a problem as generally believed, and that the important thing is to cut wasteful government expenditure and not raise government revenue. While I admit this argument carries some weight, there is nevertheless good reason to think that it is necessary to reduce the budget deficit. Before the global financial crisis, Japan's budget deficit was controlled, and declining, but subsequently became uncontrollable. Additionally, and more importantly, an aging population demands more social security expenditure, which causes serious budget problems, but Japan does not seem ready to cope with such problems. The selection of these topics is subjective, but I believe that these are reflected in the Japanese concerns now. Japanese academic circles do not necessarily respond to the interests of the society, but I have tried to select papers on these topics to the extent possible.


Typical, but less common, passerine forest species were selected for this study, such as Lullula arborea, Anthus trivialis, Troglodytes troglodytes, Prunella modularis, Turdus philomelos, Turdus viscivorus, Phylloscopus sibilatrix, Regulus regulus, Regulus ignicapillus, Muscicapa striata, Ficedula albicollis, Ficedula hypoleuca, Parus cristatus, Parus palustris, Parus ater, Certhia familiaris, Certhia brachydactyla, Oriolus oriolus, Garrulus glandarius, and Corvus corax. M. striata and T. philomelos were the most numerous among the 20 investigated species, the former one nested in a density of 6.7 pairs per 100 ha of wooded area, while the later one at 5.1 pairs per 100 ha. Density of most other species was below 3 pairs per 100 ha of wooded area. A. trivialis, P. cristatus and P. modularis were unexpectedly rare (< 1 pair per 100 ha). Otherwise, relatively numerous were T. troglodytes (1.8 p./100 ha), R. regulus (1.8 p./100 ha) and P. palustris (1.4 p./100 ha). P. cristatus, L. arborea, and T. viscivorus were the rarest species investigated (below 0.1 p./100 ha). Several bird species nested in wooded areas only in the outer zone of the city. This group included A. trivialis, R. regulus, P. ater, and C. corax. Population density of T. troglodytes, T. philomelos and O. oriolus were significantly higher in outer than in inner zone, while the reverse was true in the case of M. striata and F. hypoleuca.


Research on radio-wave propagation in tunnels has important applications for mobile and personal communications. This paper first briefly reviews radio-wave propagation in empty tunnels and then concentrates on characterizing radio-wave propagation in tunnels loaded with trains. For this purpose, an oversized imperfect periodically loaded rectangular waveguide is proposed, and the surface impedance approximation is adopted to formulate the problem. The theoretical results show that HEM/sub q,mn/ and TSM/sub q,m0/ modes can propagate. Meanwhile, why TSE/sub q,m0/ modes cannot exist is also proved. The closed-form propagation constants for those important TSM/sub q,m0/ modes are obtained. The numerical results for the propagation attenuation of the dominant TSM/sub 1,10/ are presented. The influence of passengers on propagation is discussed.


Objective. The relationship between oral health and cardiovascular disease is an emerging area of research. The objective of the current study is to evaluate the association of cardiovascular disease and the number of missing teeth as a risk indicator. Methods. Cross-sectional study design with data on 275,424 respondents aged 50 or older from the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey was used. The dependent variable was self-reported cardiovascular disease. The association between the number of missing teeth and cardiovascular disease was analyzed with multivariable logistic regression. The regression was adjusted for sex, race/ethnicity, age, education, income, dental visits, smoking status, physical activity, and body mass index. Results. In our study sample, 9.9% reported edentulism. Cardiovascular prevalence rates for those with edentulism were 25.4% and for those without any missing teeth were 7.5%. Respondents who reported edentulism teeth were more likely to report cardiovascular disease (AOR = 1.85, 95% CI = 1.71, 2.01). Conclusion. There was an independent association between the number of missing teeth and cardiovascular disease even after controlling for a comprehensive set of risk factors. These findings highlight the need to explore the potential role the number of missing teeth have in the risk of cardiovascular disease among older adults.


The scattering of s-polarized electromagnetic waves by a two-dimensional scatterer upon a surface is considered. An integral approach previously reported is generalized in order to account for multilayer systems. In order to compare the theory with scattered-light measurements, we have fabricated two ribs upon a germanium substrate by means of a dry-etching technique. The height and width of the ribs are approximately 5 μm. The ribs are separated by 15 μm, whereas the incident wavelength is 10.6 μm. A good agreement is found between theory and experiment.


Memory for object locations and for events (comprising the receipt of an object) was tested in a case of developmental amnesia with focal hippocampal damage. Tests used virtual reality environments and forced-choice recognition with foils chosen to equalize the performance of control participants across conditions. Memory for the objects received was unimpaired, but the context of their receipt was forgotten. Memory for short lists of object locations was unimpaired when tested from the same viewpoint as presentation but impaired when tested from a shifted viewpoint. Same-view performance was disrupted by changing the background scene. These results are consistent with Jon having preserved matching to fixed sensory-bound representations but impaired reconstructed or manipulable representations underlying shifted-viewpoint recognition and episodic recollection.


Considerable evidence suggests that mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress contribute to the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We examined the ability of the novel mitochondria-targeted antioxidant MitoQ (mitoquinone mesylate: [10-(4,5-dimethoxy-2-methyl-3,6-dioxo-1,4-cycloheexadienl-yl) decyl triphenylphosphonium methanesulfonate]) to prevent AD-like pathology in mouse cortical neurons in cell culture and in a triple transgenic mouse model of AD (3xTg-AD). MitoQ attenuated β-amyloid (Aβ)-induced neurotoxicity in cortical neurons and also prevented increased production of reactive species and loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm) in them. To determine whether the mitochondrial protection conferred by MitoQ was sufficient to prevent the emergence of AD-like neuropathology in vivo, we treated young female 3xTg-AD mice with MitoQ for 5 months and analyzed the effect on the progression of AD-like pathologies. Our results show that MitoQ prevented cognitive decline in these mice as well as oxidative stress, Aβ accumulation, astrogliosis, synaptic loss, and caspase activation in their brains. The work presented herein suggests a central role for mitochondria in neurodegeneration and provides evidence supporting the use of mitochondria-targeted therapeutics in diseases involving oxidative stress and metabolic failure, namely AD.


We consider the problem of designing a network which minimizes the total cost of the switching facilities and the fiber links, by choosing the subset of nodes at which to install switching functionality and the subset of the available fiber links to employ for interconnecting nodes. This objective addresses jointly two of the most significant costs in the design of a communications network - the number of switching sites and the total linear distance of the utilized links - and results in substantial cost benefits. Since relative costs vary depending on specific circumstances, we characterize the tradeoff between the number of switching sites and the total link length. Our study is performed for a network supporting full connectivity between all nodes, rather than for a specific traffic matrix, and thus reveals fundamental properties inherent to the given topology. We address both the unprotected and the protected cases, and we present heuristic algorithms to solve the problem.


A new approach to the solution of burnup equations is developed that takes into account the dependence of the reaction constants on time as well as nonlinear and feedback effects. With the help of the transition probabilities for the simplified problem, the burnup differential equation is reduced to the equivalent integral equation, which is solved by iterations. The solution is made easy to understand with the help of diagrams constructed foil0 wing the suggested rules. It is strictly proved that any nuclide transmutation network can be broken into independent depletion chains if the burnup equations are linear in concentrations. The theory is illustrated by examples of the time dependence of reaction constants.


Workplace violence can lead to adverse physical and psychological outcomes and affect work function (1). According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, intentional injury by another person is a leading cause of nonfatal injury requiring missed workdays (2). Most estimates of workplace violence include only crimes reported to employers or police, which are known underestimates (3,4). Using 2007-2015 data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), characteristics of self-reported nonfatal violent workplace crimes, whether reported to authorities or not, and rates by occupation were examined. Estimates of crime prevalence were stratified by crime characteristics and 22 occupational groups. Overall, approximately eight violent workplace crimes were reported per 1,000 workers. During 2007-2010, workers in Protective services reported the highest rates of violent workplace crimes (101 per 1,000 workers), followed by Community and social services (19 per 1,000). Rates were higher among men (nine per 1,000) than among women (six per 1,000). Fifty-eight percent of crimes were not reported to police. More crimes against women than against men involved offenders known from the workplace (34% versus 19%). High-risk occupations appear to be those involving interpersonal contact with persons who might be violent, upset, or vulnerable. Training and controls should emphasize how employers and employees can recognize and manage specific risk factors in prevention programs. In addition, workplace violence-reduction interventions might benefit from curricula developed for men and women in specific occupational groups.


Some studies which have shown that differences in outcome on tests for stimulus equivalence dependent on different training structures, have run the tests as separate blocks without baseline trials interspersed in between test trials. Saunders and co-workers have argued that the differences in test outcome could be related to differences in the retention of trained discriminations during testing (R. R. Saunders, Drake, & Spradlin, 1999; R. R. Saunders & Green, 1999). In the current experiment, 20 adult participants were taught conditional relations by employing a linear series training structure. Following this training, non-reinforced trials of the directly trained relations were randomly interspersed in a mixed test for symmetry, transitivity, and global equivalence. After being exposed to the training procedure once, 17 of the participants did not perform in accord with stimulus equivalence, but 9 of these participants still responded in accord with the directly trained relations. After being exposed to the training procedure again, 10 participants still did not respond in accord with stimulus equivalence, while 7 out of these did respond consistent with the directly trained relations. This indicates that a "destroyed" baseline could not be responsible for these participants' failure to respond in accord with stimulus equivalence. In addition the reaction time between the appearance of comparison stimuli and subsequent responding during the test were recorded. Data show that the average reaction time varies as a function of which type of relation that is presented. There were also distinct differences in reaction time patterns for those participants who responded in accord with stimulus equivalence compared to those not responding in such a manner.


We present representations and algorithms for the implementation of RT , a role-based trust management language, and announce an open-source implementation available to the public. We also design and perform large-scale performance tests on policies closely modeled after possible applications of RT in the real world. These tests aim to determine the viability of RT as an authorization solution for large and potentially complex policies in a decentralized environment; the results of the tests are analyzed to identify what policy characteristics most strongly affect the performance of RT and develop strategies to achieve the rapid response times required in real-world authorization systems.


The subject of this paper are electronic properties of isolated quantum dots as well as transport properties of quantum dots coupled to two electronic reservoirs. Thereby special focus is put on the effects of Coulomb interaction and possible correlations in the quantum dot states. First, the regime of sequential tunneling to the reservoirs is investigated. It is shown that in case degenerate states participate in transport, the resonance positions in the differential conductance generally depend on temperature and the degree of degeneracy. This effect can be used to directly probe degeneracies in a quantum dot spectrum. A further effect, characteristic for sequential tunneling events, is the complete blocking of individual channels for transport. A generalisation of the well known spin blockade is found for correlated dot states transitions through which are not directly spin‐forbidden. In the second part, the electronic structure of spherical quantum dots is calculated. In order to account for correlation effects, the few‐particle Schrödinger equation is solved by an exact diagonalization procedure. The calculated electronic structure compares to experimental findings obtained on colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals by Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy. It is found that the electric field induced by the tunneling tip is gives rise to a Stark effect which can break the spherical symmetry of the electronic ground state density which is in agreement with wave‐function mapping experiments. The symmetry breaking depends on the competition between exchange energy and the Stark energy. Moreover, a systematic dependence on particle number is found for the excitation energies of optical transitions which explains recent experimental findings on self‐organized quantum dots. In the last part, co‐tunneling in the Coulomb blockade regime is studied. For this end the tunneling current is calculated up to the forth order perturbation theory in the tunnel coupling by a real‐time Green's function approach for the non‐equilibrium case. The differential conductance calculated for a quantum dot containing up to two interacting electrons shows complex signatures of the excitation spectrum which are explained by a combination of co‐tunneling and sequential tunneling processes. Thereby the calculations show a peak structure within the Coulomb blockade regime which has also been observed in experiment.


This paper examines the effects of increasing marginal tax rates on labour supply in a setting in which workers may hold two jobs and may be constrained in their weekly hours on their main jobs. A panel data, multi-equation labour supply model is estimated with correction for tax system endogeneity and multi-sample selection in a correlated random effects framework. Data come from the British Household Panel Survey. The effects of counterfactual increases in marginal tax rates are obtained from Gauss-Seidel simulations of labour supply embedded in a tax system with allowances, tax credits, and child benefits. Labour supply to the main job is reduced by increased marginal tax rates while labour supply to the second job is increased. On net total labour supply is reduced. These effects diminish with increased marginal tax rates. In addition there are labour force withdrawal effects as well as transitions from dual job holding to unitary job holding in response to increased marginal tax rates.


We investigate the direct contribution of the magnetic field to the gravitational wave generation. To do so, we study the post-Newtonian energy-momentum tensor of the magnetized fluid and the post-Newtonian expansion of the gravitational potential in the wave zone. We show that the magnetic field appears even in the first post-Newtonian order of the multipole moment tensor. Then, we find an explicit relativistic correction containing the magnetic field contribution to the well-known quadrupole formula. As an application of this derivation, we find that the B-field part of the gravitational waves released in the early stages of a millisecond magnetar's life can be as much as one-hundredth of the signals due to the deformed rotating neutron stars. We show that although the event rate of this system is small, the signal would lie in the sensitivity range of the next generation of detectors.


Based on the premise that private religious schools function sociologically as crucibles for collective memory work, this study examined the image of Jews conveyed through a Holocaust unit as taught at a fundamentalist Christian school. After presenting an analysis of both the enacted and experienced curricular dimensions of the unit, we argue that studies of abstracted othersFothers studied about rather than interacted withFwithin communal religious schools potentially pose problematic implications for students' multicultural sensibilities. Moreover, we claim that, given these implications, religion, as a category, ought to be both more consistently included within multicultural education frameworks and more closely examined within lived, classroom practice.


Organization and person have a theoretical and ontological link; being the first teleological extension of the latter, it is impossible to think of one without the other. In a similar way, the complex of economy itself cannot overlook the needs of the person and seek for the reach of maximization results with unhesitating self-interest. In this paper, it is argued that every organization is born to satisfy people's, or stakeholders' interests, so that a Rational Management must evaluate both the financial-economic results and the social impact of its activity, in order to achieve the maximum level of information in the decision making. Nonetheless, this approach needs a dramatic shift of conceiving the economy and the role of the organization, which must bring back the person (human being) at the center of any theoretical model, lest the creation of unfairness and inequalities. The Rational Management Theory proposed serves this scope, by implementing a rational decision making based on all the aspects of the outcome generated by the organization. This approach is relevant to the current literature, because it shifts the neoclassical economic conception of the activities to one more human-sized and conscious, and applies indifferently to any kind of organization, whether it is public, private or non-profit.

 Key words: Rational management, business, social impact, management theory, evaluation, organization, person.


In this paper we provide an alternative explanation for why illegal immigration can exhibit substantial ‡uctuations despite a constant wage gap. We develop a model economy in which migrants make decisions in the face of uncertain border enforcement and lump-sum transfers from the host country. The uncertainty is extrinsic in nature, a sunspot, and arises as a result of ambiguity regarding the commodity price of money. Migrants are restricted from participating in state-contingent insurance markets in the host country, whereas host country natives are not. We establish the existence of sunspot equilibria that are not mere randomizations over certainty equilibria. Volatility in migration ‡ows stems from two distinct sources: the tension between transfers inducing migration and enforcement discouraging it and secondly the existence of a sunspot. Finally, we examine the impact of a change in tax/transfer policies by the government on migration.


A heterodyne measurement technique has been used to investigate the frequency chirp caused by a pulsed e-beam COz EDL amplifier operating in the unsaturated gain regime. The measurements were made on an EDL at the AVCO Everett Research Laboratory. The device had cavity dimensions (LWH) of 100 X 5 X 6 cm and used a 3:2: 1 mixture of He:Nz:COZ flowing at Mach 0.2 at atmospheric pressure. Typical e-beam operation at 130 keV and 10 mA/cm2 ionized the mixture prior to and during the 25-psec sustainer discharge. The discharge gave energy loadings up to 240 J/liter and estimated E/N values of 1.6 X V/cm2. The measurement system used two low-pressure PZT-tuned Sylvania 941 COP lasers in an LO/MO arrangement that employed a difference-frequency control (DFC) circuit. The DFC locked the MO frequency to a 0.1-1.0-MHz offset from the LO frequency. The stability of the offset frequency was monitored on a spectrum analyzer that indicated a 15kHz spectral spread at the -20-dB level with a IO-msec/kHz scan rate. The LO was operated near the center of the 918) or 920) transitions. The setup was housed in an rf screen room located 6 m (20 ft) from the EDL; f/130 optics were used to focus the I-W MO output at the center of the cavity. Both singleand three-pass configurations were used. The amplifier output was relayed back to the screen room, attenuated, and heterodyned with the LO. The amplifier and DFC heterodyne signals were recorded on a Nicolet Explorer 111 oscilloscope and subsequently analyzed on a computer. The instantaneous frequency-vs-time of the heterodyned amplifier output was calculated to an estimated accuracy of f l kHz, and a Fourier transform gave its spectrum. The amplified signal exhibited a gain which persisted for 40 psec with a peak at 20 psec after sustainer discharge initiation. The peak gain achieved was 1.85 % /cm. The maximum total gain for three passes before onset of parasitic oscillation was 24 dB. At this gain the output flux was estimated to be 10% of its saturation value. Typically, during the first 15 psec no distortion of the amplified signal was observed. Frequency chirps were observed starting near the peak of the pulse which varied with beam position in the gain medium and which increased in magnitude with increasing energy loading. The maximum value of the chirp was, to within an estimated accuracy of f20 %, 450 Hdpsec for the single-pass case and -3 times this value for the three-pass case. These magnitudes agree with those inferred from visible interferometry.' These chirps were found to cause -10% broadening and asymmetry of the amplified signal spectrum. Implications of the measurements on the operation of a pulsed EDL as a coherent laser radar amplifier  will be discussed. (13 min)


In the end of the 1990ths came alarming reports that the vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) could cause autism. The discovery about the connection was told in mass media all over the world and in Europe the vaccination frequency decreased with several percent. In some areas less than 90% of the children were vaccinated, a limit that calls "herd immunity". In interviews with parents, who either have hesitated to vaccinate or have not vaccinated, have several causes for their view been uplifted. One important reason is that you want to keep nature going. Another reason is the meeting with sick children. These meetings might have been through mass media or in real life, and they have had consequences for personal choices. This article discuss why these children have been so important and how medial and real children become integrated in people's handling of risks – for example the choice between the risk of your child getting measles and the risk of the vaccine's side-effects. At another level the article discusses how medial and personal experiences are woven together and together shape a foundation for people's opinions and decisions. Mass media work as a filter for what stories about biotechnology that are told. The filter is built on our cultural norms and values. And as a filter it has influence on people's thoughts since it tells certain stories, but not others. But the media stories are put together with the private life situation and the personal outlook of life. Consumption of media's stories about biotechnology is at the same time a kind of production of private stories about biotechnology. Experiences from media and life merge and create new stories. (Less)


Background The aetiology of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) is complex and is influenced by a spectrum of environmental factors and susceptibility genes. Traditional statistical modelling considers such factors to act independently in an additive manner. The Patient Rule-Induction Method (PRIM) is a multi-model building strategy for evaluating risk attributable to context-dependent gene and environmental effects. Methods PRIM was applied to 9073 participants from the prospective Copenhagen City Heart Study (CCHS). Gender-specific cumulative incidences were estimated for subgroups defined by categories of age, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, body mass index, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides and by 94 single nucleotide variants (SNVs).Cumulative incidences for subgroups were validated using an independently ascertained sample of 58240 participants from the Copenhagen General Population Study (CGPS). Results In the CCHS the overall cumulative incidences were 0.17 in women and 0.21 in men. PRIM identified six and four mutually exclusive subgroups in women and men, respectively, with cumulative incidences of IHD ranging from 0.02 to 0.34. Cumulative incidences of IHD generated by PRIM in the CCHS were validated in four of the six subgroups of women and two of the four subgroups of men in the CGPS. Conclusions PRIM identified high-risk subgroups characterized by specific contexts of selected values of traditional risk factors and genetic variants. These subgroups were validated in an independently ascertained cohort study. Thus, a multi-model strategy may


Carcinoma of the sebaceous glands of the eyelid carries a serious prognosis. Although uncommon, the diagnosis must be frequently considered owing to the similarity of the early signs of adenocarcinoma to those of chalazion. Three cases with proved sebaceous adenocarcinoma of the eyelid are reviewed to relate subtle evidence of clinical and histopathological malignancy to surgical management.


SERVANTS TO ST MUNGO: THE CHURCH IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY GLASGOW Daniel MacLeod Advisors: University of Guelph, 2013 Dr. Elizabeth Ewan Dr. Peter Goddard This thesis investigates religious life in Glasgow, Scotland in the sixteenth century. As the first full length study of the town's Christian community in this period, this thesis makes use of the extant Church documents to examine how Glaswegians experienced Christianity during the century in which religious change was experienced by many communities in Western Europe. This project includes research from both before and after 1560, the year of the Reformation Parliament in Scotland, and therefore eschews traditional divisions used in studies of this kind that tend to view 1560 as a major rupture for Scotland's religious community. Instead, this study reveals the complex relationships between continuity and change in Glasgow, showing a vibrant Christian community in the early part of the century and a changed but similarly vibrant community at the century's end. This project attempts to understand Glasgow's religious community holistically. It investigates the institutional structures of the Church through its priests and bishops as well as the popular devotions of its parishioners. It includes examinations of the sacraments, Church discipline, excommunication and religious ritual, among other Christian phenomena. The dissertation follows many of these elements from their medieval Catholic roots through to their Reformed Protestant derivations in the latter part of the century, showing considerable links between the traditions. This thesis argues that although considerable change occurred through the establishment of a Presbyterian Church polity and the enforcement of new conceptions of Church discipline, many elements of popular devotion remained stable throughout the period. The research in this project challenges many of the traditional narratives of Scottish Reformation historiography. It disputes notions of the decay of the Church in the years previous to the Reformation parliament, and it questions the speed with which the goals of the Reformation were achieved in the town. It also challenges traditional interpretations of the martyrdom of John Ogilvie, a Jesuit executed in the town in 1615. In this way, the dissertation offers an alternative approach to the period that could be applied to research done on other Scottish or European towns.


Policies are authoritative assets that are present in multiple domains to support decision-making. They describe what actions are allowed or recommended when domain entities and their attributes satisfy certain criteria. It is common to find policies that contain geographical rules, including distance and containment relationships among named locations. These locations' polygons can often be found encoded in geospatial datasets. We present an approach to transform data from geospatial datasets into Linked Data using the OWL, PROV-O, and GeoSPARQL standards, and to leverage this representation to support automated ontology-based policy decisions. We applied our approach to location-sensitive radio spectrum policies to identify relationships between radio transmitters coordinates and policy-regulated regions in Census.gov datasets. Using a policy evaluation pipeline that mixes OWL reasoning and GeoSPARQL, our approach implements the relevant geospatial relationships, according to a set of requirements elicited by radio spectrum domain experts.


Graphene normally has weak interface compatibility to organics. In this paper, the surface of graphene is modified in order to improve its compatibility with polymer matrixes. Therefore, a Silane Coupling Agent(SCA) γ-Glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane is used to modify graphene. The results of the TEM, FTIR and sedimentation test show that SCA grafting can improve the graphene's dispersion stability in polar organic solvent. Then modified graphene is added to epoxy resin to obtain an epoxy resin composite. The conductivity of the epoxy resin compostie can reach 8.00E-009 s/m. When additional percentage of SCA is over 0.5%, the dielectric constant (ε) has a remarkable increase.


Purpose. The impact of automatic infectious diseases (ID) consultation for inpatients with fungemia at a large academic medical center was studied. Methods. In this single‐center, retrospective study, the time to appropriate antifungal therapy before and after implementing a policy requiring automatic ID consultation for the management of fungemia for all patients with an inpatient positive blood culture for fungus was examined. The rates of ID consultation; the likelihood of receiving appropriate antifungal therapy; central venous catheter (CVC) removal rates; performance of ophthalmologic examinations; infection‐related length of stay (LOS); rates of all‐cause inhospital mortality, death, or transfer to an intensive care unit within 7 days of first culture; and inpatient cost of antifungals were also evaluated. Results. A total of 173 unique episodes (94 and 79 in the control and intervention groups, respectively) were included. Candida species were the most frequently cultured organisms, isolated from over 90% of patients in both groups. No differences were observed between the control and intervention groups in time to appropriate therapy, infection‐related LOS, or time to CVC removal. However, patients in the intervention group were more likely than those in the control group to receive appropriate antifungal therapy (p = 0.0392), undergo ophthalmologic examination (p = 0.003), have their CVC removed (p = 0.0038), and receive ID consultation (p = 0.0123). Inpatient antifungal costs were significantly higher in the intervention group (p = 0.0177). Conclusion. While automatic ID consultation for inpatients with fungemia did not affect the time to administration of appropriate therapy, improvement was observed for several process indicators, including rates of appropriate antifungal therapy selection, time to removal of CVCs, and performance of ophthalmologic examinations.


A novel method of predicting the worst-case noise of a power distribution system is proposed in this paper. This method takes into account the effect of the transition time of load currents, and thus allows a more realistic worst-case noise prediction. A dynamic programming algorithm is introduced on the time-domain impulse response of the power distribution system, and a modified Knuth-Yao Quadrangle Inequality Speedup is developed which reduces the time complexity of the algorithm to O(nmlog n), where n is the number of discretized current values and m is the number of zeros of the system impulse response. With the algorithm, the worst-case noise behavior of the power distribution system is investigated with respect to the transition time. Experimental results show that assuming a zero current transition time leads to an overly pessimistic worst-case noise prediction.


Abstract:  This article addresses the problem of a traffic network design problem (NDP) under demand uncertainty. The origin–destination trip matrices are taken as random variables with known probability distributions. Instead of finding optimal network design solutions for a given future scenario, we are concerned with solutions that are in some sense "good" for a variety of demand realizations. We introduce a definition of robustness accounting for the planner's required degree of robustness. We propose a formulation of the robust network design problem (RNDP) and develop a methodology based on genetic algorithm (GA) to solve the RNDP. The proposed model generates globally near‐optimal network design solutions, f, based on the planner's input for robustness. The study makes two important contributions to the network design literature. First, robust network design solutions are significantly different from the deterministic NDPs and not accounting for them could potentially underestimate the network‐wide impacts. Second, systematic evaluation of the performance of the model and solution algorithm is conducted on different test networks and budget levels to explore the efficacy of this approach. The results highlight the importance of accounting for robustness in transportation planning and the proposed approach is capable of producing high‐quality solutions.


There is a disparity between the HIV prevalence in the seriously mentally ill (SMI) population (8%) as compared to the general population (0.6%) in the United States. In order to identify interventions for HIV prevention for people with SMI, a literature search was conducted in PubMed and PsychInfo. For PubMed, the following Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms were used: HIV Infections, Prevention and control, and Mental Disorders. For PsychInfo the following terms were used in the search: Mental Disorders and HIV. Sixteen independent studies were found after being subjected to inclusion and exclusion criteria. The most notable finding of this study was that effective gender-specific interventions have been designed and implemented in SMI populations. Also HIV prevention interventions have demonstrated changes in attitudes and HIV related risk behaviors in this population. However analysis by some of the studies revealed that the intervention outcomes can be impacted by individual differences (i.e. race, psychiatric diagnosis, and reported substance use). The issue of exploring subpopulations among people with SMI is the next suggested step in combatting this issue. This essay is of public health significance because it explores the issue of reducing HIV related risk behaviors in people with mental illness in order to reduce their chance of contracting this deadly virus.


Autogenic controls have significant influence on deep-water fans and depositional lobes morphology. In this work, we aim to investigate autogenic controls on the topography and geometry of deep-water fans. The influence of the sediment concentration of turbidity currents on deep-water fans morphology was also investigated. From the repeatability of 3D physical modeling of turbidity currents, two series of ten experiments were made, one of high-density turbidity currents (HDTC) and another of low-density turbidity currents (LDTC). All other input parameters (discharge, sediment volumetric concentration and grain size median) were kept constant. Each deposit was analyzed from qualitative and quantitative approaches and statistical analysis. In each experimental series, the variability of the morphological parameters (length, width, L/W ratio, centroid, area, topography) of the simulated deep-water fans was observed. Depositional evolution of the HDTC fans was more complex, showing four evolutionary steps and characterized by the self-channelizing of the turbidity current, while LDTC fans neither present self-channelizing, nor evolutionary steps. High disparities on the geometrical parameters of the fans, as characterized by the elevated relative standard deviation, suggest that autogenic controls induced a stochastic morphological behaviour on the simulated fans of the two experimental series.


An advanced nitrogen removal pilot study was performed in China's Xia Ping Landfill Leachate Treatment Plant to undertake shortcut nitrification and denitrification with the Membrane Bio-reactor (MBR) process. It was found that the MBR process used 25% less of the oxygen and 40% less of the external carbon sources, compared to the conventional nitrification and denitrification process. The key feature of the MBR process is that it provides an environment more favorable for ammonia oxidation bacterium (AOB) than for nitrite oxidation bacterium (NOB) through controlling loading, pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen concentration (DO), and NH 3 inhibition. Optimum operating condition was examined through continuous running of the pilot MBR, and it was found that a minimum HRT of 4.3 days and maximum ammonia loading of 0.6kg N-NH 4 + m 3 .d with pH 7-8.5, temperature 25-30°C, and DO at 2mg/L is favorable to AOB. Kinetic study was conducted to identify the characteristic of the microorganisms in the system. Measured K s and μA.max of MBR sludge was 19.65 mg NH 4 -N/L (Temperature 25 °C, pH 8.5) and 0.26 d -1 , respectively.


Genetic recombination is commonly used in evolutionary algorithms and yet its benefits are an open question in evolutionary biology. We investigate when recombination is actually beneficial in the evolutionary adaptation of swarm robot behaviour in dynamic environments. In this scenario, artificial evolution has to deal with challenges that are similar to natural evolution: it must run online, distributed and evolve the genome structure. These requirements could diminish the benefit of recombination due to disruptive crossover. Using neural networks as robot controllers, we reduce this disruptiveness with an adaptive mate choice that evolves the probability of recombination and the genetic similarity of mates. In two experiments with a multi-agent simulation, we compare the adaptive performance of this approach with random recombination and pure mutation. Whereas both recombination treatments naturally outperform at low mutation rates, pure mutation achieves its best performance with high rates, where it also outperforms random recombination. The adaptive mate choice, however, achieves the same performance as pure mutation at high rates and outperforms when the network size is increased. We also found that treatments with recombination evolved smaller neural networks with fewer links.


The amount of time and money spent on restoring rivers for declining populations of salmon has grown substantially in recent decades. But despite the infusion of resources, many studies suggest that salmon populations are continuing to decline, leading some to question the effectiveness of restoration efforts. Here we examine whether a particular form of salmon restoration—channel reconfiguration with gravel augmentation—generates physical and biological habitat that is comparable with other streams that support salmon. We compared a suite of habitat features known to influence the various life stages of Chinook salmon in a restoration project in California's Merced River with 19 other streams that also support Chinook that we surveyed in the same geographic region. Our survey showed that riffle habitats in the restored site of the Merced River have flow discharge and depth, substrate and food web characteristics that cannot be distinguished from other streams that support Chinook, suggesting that these factors are unlikely to be bottlenecks to salmon recovery in the Merced. However, compared with other streams in the region, the Merced has minimal riparian cover, fewer undercut banks, less woody debris and higher water temperatures, suggesting that these factors might limit salmon recovery. After identifying aspects in the Merced that differ from other streams, we used principal components analysis to correlate salmon densities to independent axes of environmental variation measured during our survey. These analyses suggested that salmon densities tend to be greatest in streams that have more undercut banks and woody debris and lower water temperatures. These are the same environmental factors that appear to be missing from the Merced River restoration effort. Collectively, our results narrow the set of candidate factors that may limit salmon recovery in channel reconfiguration restoration efforts. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Objective: Thymic epithelial tumor (TET) is a rare mediastinal neoplasm and little is known about its genetic variability and prognostic factors. This study investigated the genetic variability and prognostic factors of TET. Patients and methods: We sequenced 22 cancer-related hotspot genes in TET tissues and matched normal tissues using Ampliseq Ion Torrent next-generation technology. Overall survival was evaluated using Kaplan–Meier methods and compared with log-rank tests. Results: A histological analysis of 52 patients with a median age of 52 years showed 15 patients (28.8%) with thymic carcinoma, five with type A thymoma (9.6%), eight with type AB (15.4%), six with type B1 (11.5%), nine with type B2 (17.3%), and nine with type B3 thymoma (17.3%). Three gene mutations were identified, including two with PIK3CA mutation and one with EGFR mutation. The three patients with mutant genes included two cases of thymoma (one with EGFR and the other with PIK3CA mutation) in addition to a case of thymic carcinoma ( PIK3CA mutation). The 5-year survival rates were 77.7% in all patients. The 5-year survival rates were 93.3%, 90.0%, 76.9%, and 22.9% corresponding to Masaoka stages I, II, III, and IV ( P , 0.001). The 5-year survival rates were 100%, 100%, 83.3%, 88.9%, 65.6%, and 60.9% in the histological subtypes of A, AB, B1, B2, and B3 thymomas, and thymic carcinoma, respectively ( P = 0.012). Conclusion: Hotspot gene mutations are rare in TET. PIK3CA and EGFR mutations represent candidate driver genes and treatment targets in TET. Masaoka stage and histological subtypes predict the survival of TET.


Inferring the genome-scale gene co-expression network is important for understanding genetic architecture underlying the complex and various biological phenotypes. The recent availability of large-scale RNA-seq sequencing-data provides great potential for co-expression network inference. In this study, for the first time, we presented a novel heterogeneous ensemble pipeline integrating three frequently used inference methods, to build a high-quality RNA-seq-based Gene Co-expression Network (GCN) in rice, an important monocot species. The quality of the network obtained by our proposed method was first evaluated and verified with the curated positive and negative gene functional link datasets, which obviously outperformed each single method. Secondly, the powerful capability of this network for associating unknown genes with biological functions and agronomic traits was showed by enrichment analysis and case studies. Particularly, we demonstrated the potential applications of our proposed method to predict the biological roles of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) and circular RNA (circRNA) genes. Our results provided a valuable data source for selecting candidate genes to further experimental validation during rice genetics research and breeding. To enhance identification of novel genes regulating important biological processes and agronomic traits in rice and other crop species, we released the source code of constructing high-quality RNA-seq-based GCN and rice RNA-seq-based GCN, which can be freely downloaded online at https://github.com/czllab/NetMiner.


A method is proposed that provides an approximation of the acoustic energy decay (energy-time curve) in room impulse responses generated using the image-source technique. A geometrical analysis of the image-source principle leads to a closed-form expression describing the energy decay curve, with the resulting formula being valid for a uniform as well as nonuniform definition of the enclosure's six absorption coefficients. The accuracy of the proposed approximation is demonstrated on the basis of impulse-response simulations involving various room sizes and reverberation levels, with uniform and nonuniform sound absorption coefficients. An application example for the proposed method is illustrated by considering the task of predicting an enclosure's reflection coefficients in order to achieve a specific reverberation level. The technique presented in this work enables designers to undertake a preliminary analysis of a simulated reverberant environment without the need for time-consuming image-method simulations.


The U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed and adopted a new set of meal pattern requirements for the National School Lunch Program that will allow schools to claim 6 cents more in lunch reimbursement rates. This study analyzes the food costs of school menus in 2005 that met many of the proposed requirements. Overall, schools that served more, and more diverse, non-starchy vegetables had higher average food costs, and schools that served menus with lower calories had lower food costs. The food costs of school lunch menus that met the combined standards for dark green vegetables, orange vegetables, other vegetables, lowfat/fat-free milk, and fruit averaged 9 cents more per meal in 2005 dollars when other major factors that could affect food choices are taken into account. The main sources of higher costs appear to be related to the provisions for more vegetables.


Novelty detection in the machine learning context refers to identifying unknown/novel data, i.e., data which vary greatly from the ones that the system was trained with. This paper explores this technique as applied to acoustic surveillance of abnormal situations. The ultimate goal of the system is to help an authorized person towards taking the appropriate actions for preventing life/property loss. A wide variety of acoustic parameters is employed towards forming a multidomain feature vector, which captures diverse characteristics of the audio signals. Subsequently the feature coefficients are fed to three probabilistic novelty detection methodologies. Their performance is computed using two measures which take into account misdetections and false alarms. Out dataset was recorded under real-world conditions including three different locations where various types of normal and abnormal sound events were captured. A smart-home environment, an open public space, and an office corridor were used. The results indicate that probabilistic novelty detection can provide an accurate analysis of the audio scene to identify abnormal events.


Background: Patients with deep neck infection (DNI) especially those with Ludwig's angina, may die as a result of airway management mishaps. Skill full airway management is critical but a safe method of airway control in these patients is yet to be established. Awake fiberoptic intubation under topical anesthesia may be ideal method to secure the airway in deep neck infection.

Objective: To study the effect and outcome of awake fiberoptic intubation in patients of deep neck infections.

Materials and Methods: The prospective observational case study of 30 patients with deep neck infection has been done over a period of January 2013 to December 2015 (36 month), who were subjected to awake fiberoptic intubation. Fiberoptic bronchoscopy for intubation under topical anesthesia has been done.

Result: The preintubation scopy gave proper assessment and preparation of airway. With redo scopy, all patients undergone intubation successfully without any complications.

Conclusion: In skilled and experienced hands fiberoptic intubation is a sophisticated and less invasive method of securing airway in patients with deep neck infections.


Objective: We evaluated the incidence of vesicoureteral reflux in fetuses with prenatally detected isolated mild fetal hydronephrosis. Methods: Fetuses with isolated mild fetal hydronephrosis (defined as a fetal renal pelvis anteroposterior diameter of ≥ 4 and < 10 mm before 24 weeks' gestational age) were prospectively evaluated with postnatal renal ultrasound and voiding cystourethrography within the first few weeks after delivery. Infants were evaluated regardless of whether or not renal pelvic dilatation was seen on postnatal ultrasound examination. Results: Forty cases of mild fetal hydronephrosis were identified from the 5432 patients cared for at our institution from February 1996 to December 1998 (overall incidence: 1/136). Cases involving aneuploidy (n = 1) and inadequate follow-up (n = 5) were excluded from the investigation. One fetus with documented mild hydronephrosis early in gestation had spontaneous resolution and did not undergo postnatal evaluation. Of the remaining 33 infants, 32 underwent postnatal renal ultrasound examination and all had voiding cystourethrography. Vesicoureteral reflux was identified in five (15%) of the neonates. Eighty per cent (four out of five) of these infants were male. Resolution of vesicoureteral reflux occurred in 75% (three out of four) of the infants available for follow-up within 2 years of birth. Conclusions: Isolated mild fetal hydronephrosis is associated with vesicoureteral reflux on postnatal voiding cystourethrography.


A porous tissue scaffold depends on its ability to provide functional balance between mechanical strength, pore properties and interconnectivity of pores. High porosity levels, typically greater than 90% and pore sizes above 100µm are required for tissue growth and fixation. Alumina is a stable and very strong bioceramic which, when doped with calcium and phosphate ions, can potentially combine bioactivity with high porosity and high strength. Highly porous alumina foams were synthesized through heat induced chemical breakdown of precursor salt solutions. Pore sizes achieved for foamed alumina with moderate mole fractions are generally larger than 100µm. Foamed alumina with mole fractions on the extreme high and low ends shows lower average pore sizes. Compressive strength of synthesized foams falls in the range of 100kPa to 230kPa, significantly higher than porous biodegradable polymer tissue scaffolds. The significance of this work is that scaffolds can be produced with the unique combination of high porosity, high strength and biocompatibility.


The cogging torque in flux-switching permanent magnet machines (FSPMs) is high due to its unique structure and high air-gap flux density. The cogging torque principle in FSPM is different from that in traditional PM machines, which can not be correctly predicted by analytical consideration. The aim of paper is to present the investigation on cogging torque principle in FSPM by analyzing the flux density distribution and a simple cogging torque reduction technique, i.e., teeth notching. Various kinds of notching schemes and their influence on cogging torque are examined along with instantaneous torque and average output torque at different load conditions. Numerical optimization process combined with finite-element analysis, which gives more preciseness to calculations, is performed to minimize cogging torque. The results show that the cogging torque circle depends on the real flux density distribution in the machine rather than the number of stator/rotor poles and the presented method can greatly reduce the torque ripple at only slight cost of average output torque.


Migrating archival description from paper-based finding aids to structured online data reconfigures the dynamics of archival representation and interactions. This paper considers the knowledge implications of transferring traditional finding aids to Discover Archives, a university-wide implementation of Access to Memory (AtoM) at the University of Toronto. The migration and translation of varied descriptive practices to conform to a single system that is accessible to anyone, anywhere, effectively shifts both where and how users interface with archives and their material. This paper reflects on how different sets of knowledge are reorganized in these shifts. Discover Archives empowers researchers to do independent searches using the full breadth of their domain expertise, seemingly unbound from archival gatekeeping. At the same time, these searches are performed in the absence of archivists' unstructured mediation, where searches benefit from human interaction and the kinds of knowledges that reference staff draw on to handle complex reference questions, especially those from novice archival users. We explore the extent to which that lost knowledge can be drawn back into archival interactions via rich metadata that documents contexts and relationships embedded within Discover Archives and beyond. Internal user experience design (UXD) research on Discover Archives highlights a gap between current online description and habitual user expectations in web search and discovery. To help bridge this gap, we contributed to broader discovery nodes such as linked open "context hubs" like Wikipedia and Wikidata, which can supplement hierarchical description with linked metadata and visualization capabilities. These can reintroduce rhizomatic and serendipitous connections, enabled by archivist, researcher, and larger sets of community knowledges, to the benefit of both the user and the archivist.


Building on the strategic flexibility perspective, this paper examines the influences of organizational diversity, ownership structure and board characteristics on strategic responses to industrial decline in firms from the UK textile industry. Using samples of exiting and surviving companies it shows that, in line with the predictions of the strategic flexibility framework, the surviving companies tended to have a higher level of organizational diversity. They also tended to have larger institutional ownership and more diverse boards. These factors are associated with higher investment, financial performance, and growth. The results are consistent with the resource and service roles of the corporate governance factors. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2003.


Background Road accidents are an important cause of mortality in big cities in Brazil mainly in metropolitan areas like Curitiba. Aims/Objectives/Purpose This study aims to analyse epidemiological characteristics of victims and traffic accidents and identify space distribution of traffic accident's occurrences. Methods The analysis of traffic accident's space distribution (georeferencial) was accomplished to enlarge the knowledge of occurrence standard's and its distribution regularity related to each Regional Administrative Office, neighbourhood and streets of Curitiba. An index of accidents by population and an index of accidents by demographic density were generated to determine criteria risk of accidents in each neighbourhood and allowing comparability. To characterise victims and accidents, a descriptive and analytical epidemiological study was accomplished, based on an institutional secondary data base evaluation supplied by Epidemiology Centre of Curitiba's Municipal Health Office. Results/Outcomes The main findings reaffirm accident's predominance in the male young adult gender, but for each age group and each type of traffic user (pedestrian, cyclist, motorcyclist, driver, passenger) there are specificities which contribute to determine the risk of suffering a traffic accident and they need differentiated specific intervention strategies to become efficient. It's necessary to establish partnership with traffic related parts, registration standards, interaction among institutions which compose the system and to develop analyses and evaluation methodologies of generated data. Significance/Contribution to the Field This work supplies elements to the construction of a reliable information system which gives subsides to elaborate prevention and intervention actions, allowing better orientation of public policies of the sector.


In this review and meta-analysis, we explore the effects of integrated care on health, health service use, health care quality, education, and cost savings for children with ongoing conditions. CONTEXT: Integrated care models may improve health care for children and young people (CYP) with ongoing conditions. OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of integrated care on child health, health service use, health care quality, school absenteeism, and costs for CYP with ongoing conditions. DATA SOURCES: Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and the Cochrane Library databases (1996–2018). STUDY SELECTION: Inclusion criteria consisted of (1) randomized controlled trials, (2) evaluating an integrated care intervention, (3) for CYP (0–18 years) with an ongoing health condition, and (4) including at least 1 health-related outcome. DATA EXTRACTION: Descriptive data were synthesized. Data for quality of life (QoL) and emergency department (ED) visits allowed meta-analyses to explore the effects of integrated care compared to usual care. RESULTS: Twenty-three trials were identified, describing 18 interventions. Compared with usual care, integrated care reported greater cost savings (3/4 studies). Meta-analyses found that integrated care improved QoL over usual care (standard mean difference = 0.24; 95% confidence interval = 0.03–0.44; P = .02), but no significant difference was found between groups for ED visits (odds ratio = 0.88; 95% confidence interval = 0.57–1.37; P = .57). LIMITATIONS: Included studies had variable quality of intervention, trial design, and reporting. Randomized controlled trials only were included, but valuable data from other study designs may exist. CONCLUSIONS: Integrated care for CYP with ongoing conditions may deliver improved QoL and cost savings. The effects of integrated care on outcomes including ED visits is unclear.


Background Policies designed to restrict marketing, access to, and public use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are increasingly under debate in various jurisdictions in the US. Little is known about public perceptions of these policies and factors that predict their support or opposition. Methods Using a sample of US adults from Amazon Mechanical Turk in May 2015, this paper identifies beliefs about the benefits and costs of regulating e-cigarettes and identifies which of these beliefs predict support for e-cigarette restricting policies. Results A higher proportion of respondents agreed with 8 different reasons to regulate e-cigarettes (48.5% to 83.3% agreement) versus 7 reasons not to regulate e-cigarettes (11.5% to 18.9%). The majority of participants agreed with 7 out of 8 reasons for regulation. When all reasons to regulate or not were included in a final multivariable model, beliefs about protecting people from secondhand vapor and protecting youth from trying e-cigarettes significantly predicted stronger support for e-cigarette restricting policies, whereas concern about government intrusion into individual choices was associated with reduced support. Discussion This research identifies key beliefs that may underlie public support or opposition to policies designed to regulate the marketing and use of e-cigarettes. Advocates on both sides of the issue may find this research valuable in developing strategic campaigns related to the issue. Implications Specific beliefs of potential benefits and costs of e-cigarette regulation (protecting youth, preventing exposure to secondhand vapor, and government intrusion into individual choices) may be effectively deployed by policy makers or health advocates in communicating with the public.


. The COVID-19 pandemic occurred globally since the end of 2019. It started in China and later spread to all countries around the world. This pandemic has not only impacted the disruption of the global economic system and social factors but has also impacted the lives of people across the globe. While most of them lost their lives due to the pandemic, millions of them are going through physical and mental health problems. Physical disorders due to COVID-19, received great attention and are often discussed in various scientific forums compared to mental disorders. Mental health disorders were found not only in the former COVID-19 patients and the families left by the family members, but also by people who have been affected socio-economically due to this pandemic. The article discusses the development of legal regulations related to mental health after the pandemic in Indonesia and the challenges faced while implementing these regulations. The method used in writing this normative juridical article is by using secondary data in the form of legislation related to mental health in terms of Health Law and Human Rights law. It was concluded that mental health problems in Indonesia need more attention from the government and related institutions, both government and private institutions. The main challenge is to overcome the lack of education regarding mental health; therefore, prioritizing socialization and education is a mustto reduce the number of mental health disorders within the community and as a means of being respectful of the rights of people with mental health issues.


The SATs have fulfilled Carly's worst fears: her results were disastrous, and her parents are horrified at the possibility that she may not make it into Princeton, as tradition requires. Even to get into the SAT prep class of her parents' choice, she needs to bring her scores up, so she begins tutoring with geeky neighbor Ronald Gross. Her real plan, however, is to sign on with a mysterious figure known only as "The Taker," who promises to take the exams in her place and get her a Princetonserviceable score. Carly's narration effectively conveys the panic of a girl who's largely been coasting and who's now facing the consequences, and the shadowy figure of the Taker adds suspense and a touch of menace. Ultimately, though, the plot can't make its contrivances work effectively: it's one thing to set Ronald up as a hottie-in-the-rough to whom Carly is drawn, but the behaviors the book wants to explain away as acceptable indications of his devotion to Carly in reality range from arrogant to creepy; Carly's stratospheric scores on the test retake are so implausible that some readers may wonder if somebody secretly did take the second test on her behalf. Readers looking for a more serious exploration of the SATs will do better with Fredericks' Crunch Time (BCCB 2/06), but those looking for a diversion may enjoy this soapy version of the nerd-makes-good and girl-triumphsover-temptation plots. DS


Lambda calculus has the equivalent expressive power compared to the Turing model. It is the origin of the functional programming approach. One of the most important concepts is YCombinator. It enables the way to perform recursion by anonymous function. In this study, we proposed the study on Y-Combinator of typed-lambda calculus based on python language. The study shows the way implementing tail-call recursion. It employs the Continuation-Passing Style (CPS) technique to send the context of execution along with the call. As a result, the code written using CPS is guaranteed to be side-effect free. Consequently, it is efficient to be executed on concurrency environment.


The pion-nucleon scattering is investigated by using several three-dimensional reduction schemes of the Bethe-Salpeter equation for a model Lagrangian involving {pi}, N, {Delta}, {rho}, and {sigma} fields. It is found that all of the resulting meson-exchange models can give similar good descriptions of the {pi}N scattering data up to 400 MeV. However they have significant differences in describing the {pi}NN and {pi}N{Delta} form factors and the {pi}N off-shell t-matrix elements. We point out that these differences can be best distinguished by investigating the near threshold pion production from nucleon-nucleon collisions and pion photoproduction on the nucleon. The consequences of using these models to investigate various pion-nucleus reactions are also discussed.


Consider a multiobjective robust optimization problem, where a set of weighted decision makers provides their preferences a priori. The preferences are provided either in the objective space or in the decision variable space using fuzzy numbers. To solve this problem, an indicator to measure consensus, an indicator to measure the robustness of the solutions to their degree of consensus, and a reformulation of the multiobjective robust optimization problem, are required. It is necessary for the reformulated problem to generate robust solutions that also enjoy high degree of consensus. In this paper, we have addressed these three issues. For this purpose, we have proposed two approaches to define consensus. Then, we have extended these approaches to define robust consensus, an indicator to measure the robustness of a given solution to its degree of consensus. Though these approaches can be used to define a countless number of measures, we have proposed 12 definitions of consensus, and hence, robust consensus. Furthermore, we have proposed two ways for the reformulation. Experimental results illustrate that the behavior of the proposed definitions and of the reformulations are consistent with our expectations.


Astrometry as a technique has so far proved of limited utility when employed as either a follow-up tool or to independently search for planetary mass companions orbiting nearby stars. However, this is bound to change during the next decade. In this review, I start by summarizing past and present efforts to detect planets via milli-arcsecond astrometry. Next, I provide an overview of the variety of technical, statistical, and astrophysical challenges that must be met by future ground-based and space-borne efforts in order to achieve the required degree of astrometric measurement precision. Then, I discuss the planet-finding capabilities of future astrometric observatories aiming at micro-arcsecond precision, with a particular focus on their ability to fully describe multiple-component systems. I conclude by putting astrometry in context, illustrating its potential for important contributions to planetary science, as a complement to other indirect and direct methods for the detection and characterization of planetary systems.


In the U.S., college transition grows increasingly difficult, with students experiencing rising levels of stress and anxiety. Such challenges may arise as students face normative but novice stressors while working towards professional goals. Students' ability to engage in successful self-regulation may be especially important in response to these challenges. The goals of the present study were to assess a) the mediating role of  self-regulatory behaviors on the relationship between trait emotion regulation and negative affect (NA) on the day of a first major college exam; and, b) the mediating role of exam-day NA on the relationship between self-regulatory behaviors and exam performance. Results show that trait-level challenges in emotion regulation are associated with increased procrastination behaviors in the days before the exam, which in turn is associated with higher NA on exam day. Implications are discussed for well-being and success of students, particularly for students who struggle with self-regulation.


Objective
We examined the role financial issues played in African Americans' marriages using a strengths-based perspective.

Background
Few studies have examined the importance of finances in African Americans' marriages. Those that have done so have mostly focused on money as a stressful contextual problem. Allowing African American couples to describe their own marital experiences expands our understanding regarding the interface of finances and relationships.

Method
Using qualitative data from 37 African American couples (N = 74 individuals) who felt they had strong marriages, we took a phenomenological approach to identify themes in the data.

Results
Many participants portrayed money as a stressor. Furthermore, participants discussed financial behaviors and attitudes that helped their marriages be strong. Finally, participants described transcending, or rising above, financial issues.

Conclusion
The participants in this study, African Americans who felt they were in strong marriages, talked about the marital role of finances in multiple ways. It was clear that they actively strived to shape the way that financial issues influenced their marriages, whether through making decisions that would help them financially and relationally or by shifting their focus to more important matters like the well-being of family members.

Implications
These findings offer researchers new ideas about the intersection of money, family, and race, and show diversity among African American couples. The findings may also help practitioners recognize both the circumstances by which finances are stressors in some African American marriages, and how some African American couples navigate financial challenges while maintaining strong relationships.


This paper describes a method to enhance the capability of two-wavelength phase-shifting interferometry. By introducing the phase data of a third wavelength, one can measure the phase of a very steep wave front. Experiments have been performed using a linear detector array to measure surface height of an off-axis parabola. For the wave front being measured the optical path difference between adjacent detector pixels was as large as 3.3 waves. After temporal averaging of five sets of data, the repeatability of the measurement is better than 25-A rms (λ = 6328 A).


The Web of Data is an open environment consisting of very large, inter-linked RDF datasets from various domains (e.g., DBpedia, GeoNames, ACM, PubMed, etc.) accessed through SPARQL queries. Establishing interoperability in this environment has become a major research challenge. This paper presents Sparql--Rw (SPARQL--ReWriting), a framework which provides transparent query access over mapped RDF datasets. The Sparql--Rw provides a generic method for SPARQL query rewriting, with respect to a set of predefined mappings between ontology schemas. To this end, it supports a set of rich and flexible mapping types and it is proved to provide semantics preserving queries.


The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship among service quality, university image and student satisfaction and student loyalty in higher education in Nigeria, A structured questionnaire was adopted and modified.The hypotheses were simultaneously tested on a sample of 446 students out of 650 distributed, giving a response rate of 68.62%. Structural Equation Modeling analytical techniques were used to assess the relationships among the variables under investigation. The findings of this study have shown significant relationships among the variables under investigation.The research was limited to the first six generation universities in Nigeria and the study used cross-sectional design. Despite the significant ofservice quality, student satisfaction and student loyalty, this study contributes in adding to the body of knowledge in HEIs in Nigeria. Also, to the best of the authors' knowledge there is no study published that explores the influence of service quality, student satisfaction and its relationship to how students perceive the offered service whether they are satisfied or not and most importantly whether they will retain dealing with the institution or not.


The evaluation of road-kill spatial patterns is an important tool to identify priority locations for mitigation measures aiming to reduce wildlife mortality on roads. Single target or multi-species approaches are usually adopted to implement such measures, although their success must be evaluated. We aim to test if road-kill hotspots are coincident among different vertebrate groups. If this is true, data on accidents from one group could be used to plan measures applicable to other groups. We identified hotspots using five different grouping criteria: vertebrate classes (reptiles, mammals or birds), body size (large or small), species commonness (common or rare), type of locomotion (flying or non-flying), and time of activity (preferably nocturnal/crepuscular or diurnal). We analyzed data from road-kill surveys on four roads in southern Brazil, each one with at least one year of monitoring. Using SIRIEMA software, we performed a modified Ripley's K statistic to recognize scales of road-kill aggregation and we carried out Hotspot analyses to identify the location of road-kill aggregations for each group described above in each road. To test for similarity in hotspot location among different groups we performed an association test using correlation as resemblance measure. Hotspot analyses and association tests were done using different scales to evaluate scale effect on similarities. Correlation results between groups presented low values in small scales although had a tendency to increase with increasing scales. Our results show that road-kill hotspots are different among groups, especially when analyzed in small scales. We suggest that, for a successful biodiversity approach in mitigation, one should first select general hotspots in large scales and then identify specific hotspots in small scales to implement specific measures. These findings are relevant in a context of road networks already implemented, where mitigation measures are being planned to reduce their impact on wildlife.


Although lyophilization reduces the bacterial population in plasma, some species survive for several months. Sensitivity or resistance to lyophilization in plasma is a characteristic of each morphological type, with gram-negative species being more sensitive to destruction than cocci or sporulating gram-positive species. Reconstituted preparations of lyophilized plasma must be incubated for 24 hr to prevent false-negative sterility tests. The killing process in lyophilized plasma continues with time if the preparations are stored at room temperature. Strict asepsis must be realized during processing of plasma because lyophilization alone does not destroy the microorganisms present.


OBJECTIVE
Although patients with cirrhosis have an increased susceptibility for bacterial infections, endocarditis complicating cirrhosis has been reported only infrequently. In this study, our objective was to determine whether, bacterial endocarditis is, in fact, a complicating factor in cirrhosis.

METHODS
We retrospectively studied all cases of bacterial endocarditis that occurred over the last 15 yr in patients with known cirrhosis.

RESULTS
Ten patients (three males, seven females) were identified, whose mean age was 55 yr (range 29-65 yr). Bacterial organisms included Staphylococcus aureus, coagulase-positive (eight patients), Peptostreptococcus (one patient), and Enterococcus (one patient). Underlying liver disease consisted of alcoholism (five patients), autoimmune chronic active hepatitis (two), cryptogenic cirrhosis (two), and primary biliary cirrhosis (one). Distribution of heart valves affected were mitral valve (six), aorta (two), and there were two involving both mitral and aortic valves. Echocardiograms revealed vegetation in 50% of the patients. Laboratory studies were markedly abnormal, with mean values of albumin 2.4 mg/dl, creatinine 2.5 mg/dl, BUN 76.5 mg/dl, and total bilirubin 8.2 mg/dl. Potential associated sources of infection were upper gastrointestinal bleeding (four), pneumonia (two), and one each of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, hip replacement, heart catheterization, and abdominal abscess. The outcome was poor, with death in eight of 10 patients.

CONCLUSIONS
Bacterial endocarditis may complicate cirrhosis, may be more frequent in females, typically involves the mitral valve, and probably is due to Staphylococcus aureus.


The ability to form mental representations of word sounds is central to language comprehension and production, and provides the basis of grammatical development and literacy. However, this process remains poorly understood. The five empirical studies presented in this thesis address open questions related to the formation and use of word sound memories. Chapter four presents a meta-analysis of studies using the auditory lexical decision task to measure the quality of word sound representations in typically developing children and children with DLD (developmental language disorder). This chapter also provides baseline data and recommendations of use to both researchers and clinicians. The study presented in chapter five uses Bayesian multi-level regression to model large-scale parental report data from CDI's (communicative development inventories). This study provides insight into the role that high phonological neighbourhood density plays in early word production, though not comprehension, relative to factors including word length, frequency, concreteness, and relevance to infants. The study in chapter six uses the same methodology to evaluate individual differences in the importance of neighbourhood density as a predictor of word production, and presents results with implications for the development of clinical interventions. The study in chapter seven presents a quantitative corpus analysis examining spoken word accuracy and variability rates in typically developing children recorded over a three-year period. I report the effects of age, frequency, and neighbourhood density on accuracy and variability rates, and argue against the view that such rates may provide a reliable marker of speech sound disorder. Finally, in chapter eight, I present a neural network simulation of the high neighbourhood density learning advantage reported in studies two, three, and four, and present an account of network performance that can also accommodate contradictory behavioural evidence of low-density word learning advantages. All studies are integrated within an exemplar-based framework of auditory-lexical development emphasising the mechanism of analogous generalisation. In the interests of transparency this thesis is accompanied by an online repository containing pre-registration protocols and the data and code required to reproduce each analysis: osf.io/u3qsc.


Purpose: We have previously reported that placenta growth factor (PlGF) plays an important role in the maintenance and remodelling of newly-formed vessel networks. The aim of this study was to determine if PlGF can regulate endothelial cell permeability and if this occurs through modulation of VE-cadherin.
Methods: Retinal microvascular endothelial cells (BRMEC) were obtained from bovine eyes. Cultures were treated with 100ng/ml of either VEGF, PlGF or the VEGF:PlGF heterodimer for 0min, 5min, 1hr, 12hr and 24hr. Endothelial permeability was determined by monitoring transendothelial electrical resistance and FITC-dextran flux. Expression of VE-cadherin at both mRNA and protein level was determined using a combination of QRT-PCR, Western blotting and immunofluorescence staining.
Results: As previously reported VEGF increased BRMEC permeability. A significant increase in permeability was noted as early as 5 min after addition of VEGF. By contrast, PlGF significant reduced permeability demonstrating a decrease in both transepithelial resistance and dextran flux. The VEGF:PlGF heterodimer had no significant effect on permeability. These results were consistent with the QRT-PCR data which showed a rapid (by 5 minutes post exposure) increase in VE-cadherin mRNA expression in cultures exposed to VEGF while mRNA levels were significantly reduced below those of controls in PlGF treated cells. Similarly, immunostaining demonstrated that VEGF causes a rapid decrease in VE-cadherin expression between endothelial cells after 5-minuntes treatment, whereas PlGF greatly increased VE-cadherin expression. The VEGF:PlGF heterodimer did not cause detectable changes in VE-cadherin expression between endothelial cells. Unexpectedly, Western blotting showed that overall expression of VE-cadherin did not change until 12 hours after addition of either VEGF or PlGF. After 12 hours, VEGF inhibited VE-cadherin expression, whereas PlGF increased VE-cadherin expression. This delay is likely to be due to both relocation and the phosphorylation status of VE-cadherin.
Conclusions: PlGF reduces interendothelial permeability by upregulating VE-cadherin expression in microvascular endothelial cells. This is further confirmation that PlGF plays a critical role in pathological angiogenesis.


After arriving Arahat mahinda thera to Sri Lanka with the message ofBuddhism, he himself established the sangha society in Sri Lanka ordaining ministerarittha. After founding sangha society, queen Anula who was the wife of kingdevanampiyatissa, asked to ordain from Arahat Mahinda thera. He rejected it. Becauseof teaching of Buddha, It could not be done by the bikkhus. So Arahat Mahinda askedhis sister named sanghamitta to come and establish the bhikkhuni order in Sri Lanka.She accepted that invitation and came to Sri Lanka with the purpose of foundingbhikkhuni order. Not only arahat mahinda's sister but also 18th groups of castes came toSri Lanka with one of branch of the Bo-tree. This is the brief story, recorded in thehistorical compositions as samantapasadika, mahawansa, Dipawamsa, written in SriLanka. Though arahat mahinda asked Sangamitta to come to Sri Lanka with the purposeof the ordination of women, Bhikkhus could have ordained the women. Because,according to the vinaya pitaka, Buddha has not prohibited bhikkhus not to ordain thewomen. Furthermore chullawaggapali points out that Bhikkhunies should higher ordainunder the Bhikkhus for the second time. As ordain of women have not prohibited byBuddha, in that permission, Arahat Mahinda thera could have ordained queen Anula andothers. But he did not do it and asked his sister to come to Sri Lanka. So it leads us tothink that arriving of Sanghamitta was not only for the founding the Bhikkhuni order.Arriving Sanghamitta to Sri Lanka had other purposes too. That is what I am going topoint out under this research paper with reference to the historical and textual books. Key words: Sanghamitta, Arahat mahinda, Buddha, Vinaya


Video games today are highly complex audiovisual products. Their nature is not
only multisemiotic but also interactive. Their potential audience has certain
expectations and, especially in the case of digital blockbusters, final users
need the advantage of knowledge and the force of numbers. A faux
pas in design, continuity or playability will most likely be
conducive to social media outrage, and will see official apologies be released
presently. Conversely, accessibility shortcomings rarely or never have the same
impact. The present study puts forward the advantages of including Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (SDH) in
popular video games and offers an in-depth analysis of a selection of recent
multimedia titles. Drawing on the work of Bernal Merino (2015) , O'Hagan
and Mangiron (2013) and Trabattoni (2014) on the special characteristics of video games, the
main elements around which they are structured and the aspects that determine
their success or failure, the author will endeavour to advance a convincing
argument in favour of the introduction of SDH subtitling conventions.


ABSTRACT When a count data set has excessive zero counts, nonzero counts are overdispersed, and the effect of a continuous covariate might be nonlinear, for analysis a semiparametric zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) regression model is proposed. The unspecified smooth functional form for the continuous covariate effect is approximated by a cubic spline. The semiparametric ZINB regression model is fitted by maximizing the likelihood function. The likelihood ratio procedure is used to evaluate the adequacy of a postulated parametric functional form for the continuous covariate effect. An extensive simulation study is conducted to assess the finite-sample performance of the proposed test. The practicality of the proposed methodology is demonstrated with data of a motorcycle survey of traffic regulations conducted in 2007 in Taiwan by the Ministry of Transportation and Communication.


Coexistence is among the most significant challenges for IEEE 802.15.4-compliant devices in indoor environments. Previous works have shown that IEEE 802.11-compliant devices are the major sources of interference in the 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical band. In order to overcome the coexistence problem, IEEE 802.15.4-compliant devices should monitor the communication channel and access the channel when it is not in use. In this study, the impact of IEEE 802.11 traffic on IEEE 802.15.4 communication is analyzed and a novel predictive channel access scheme, PRESCIENT (PREdictive channel access SCheme for IEee 802.15.4-compliaNT devices), is proposed. The performance evaluation of the proposed scheme is performed using real-world radio frequency signal strength measurements. The results show that the proposed scheme achieves significant performance improvement in terms of channel access under IEEE 802.11 interference.


Although Canada was a committed member of the western alliance and publically supported Washington, DC's efforts to isolate communist China, Ottawa embarked on large-scale wheat sales to Beijing in the late 1950s in the face of sustained US opposition. Drawing on a broad range of archival records, this paper explores the three main factors that encouraged the Canadian government in this course: growing doubts about the wisdom of isolating communist China; mounting anger at Washington, DC's use of subsidized wheat sales to capture traditional Canadian markets; and a surging sense of Canadian nationalism that sought a distinct role for Canada on the world stage. Clearly, as was so often the case in postwar Canadian foreign economic policy, a narrowly defined national interest easily trumped the ideological pressures of western solidarity.


Detecting method of cavity or air void in shallow underground using ground penetrating radar (GPR) is practically important, however, it is seemed that the technique of this depends on to personal experience. The typical difficulties ontheoretical approach are concidered as followes. At first, medium of soil surrounded cavity is extremely random and dispersive property, so the echo from cavity can not generally understand with conventional rules.Another item is property of GPR antenna This is used as wave transmittor and sensor of reflected radar echo from target, but antenna's properties are depended on distance from ground surface and permittivity of medium, so the interpretation of radar echo is extremely become difficulty. We have studied how to detect the air void existence using pulse type radar for several years. The target is considered such as the cavity in seaside bank, a stone box of ancient ruins and void borned by water leakage in a town area. In this paper, we describe about strength of transient electric field excited 1 ns impulse and about statistical property of radar echo and processing for detecting cavity using statistical property.


In this paper, we propose a new scheme for modelling the diverse behavior of neurons. We introduce the conditional activation, in which a neurons activation function is dynamically modified by a control signal. We apply this method to recreate behavior of special neurons existing in the human auditory and visual system. A heterogeneous multilayered perceptron (MLP) incorporating the developed models demonstrates simultaneous improvement in learning speed and performance across a various number of hidden units and layers, compared to a homogeneous network composed of the conventional neuron model. For similar performance, the proposed model lowers the memory for storing network parameters significantly.